When was the last time you got lost in Home Depot, or cursed the amount of time it took to walk from one side of Walmart to the other as you checked off the items on your shopping list? The term “big box” captures their shape, but possibly understates their scale. A Walmart Supercenter and
More
On May 8, the City of Philadelphia cleared a homeless encampment that stretched two blocks on Kensington Avenue between East Allegheny Avenue and Orleans Street under the Market-Frankford Line. This clearing marked the first step of Mayor Cherelle Parker’s five-phase plan to dramatically improve Kensington, whose residents contend with extreme poverty, open-air drug markets and
More
What’s the size of a toaster and uses three times the energy of an average Pennsylvania household? That would be a cryptocurrency mining machine — a computer that runs 24/7 and spits out numbers in an attempt to solve complex problems, creating proof-of-work cryptocurrency, like Bitcoin, as a result. “We have companies that have 80,000
More
It was a warm summer morning and shirtless, sweaty runners were just coming off the Wissahickon Trail. As they ascended out of the picturesque valley in Northwest Philadelphia to start the workday, a woman named Mary and two companions were heading the other direction, already getting down to business. Their mission looked a little like
More
Remember Andrew Yang from the 2020 presidential debates? The current election cycle has been so frightening that you could be excused for forgetting the crowded Democratic primary stages of 2020, but Yang gained some headlines for backing a universal basic income (UBI) proposal he called the Freedom Dividend. Under his proposal, every American adult would
More
Is capitalism inherently rotten, or do we just let it go too far? It can be hard for Americans to think critically about capitalism. If you want to know what water is like, don’t ask the fish, the proverb goes. Capitalism is the water we drink, the air we breathe. It is our state religion.
More
By Kyle Bagenstose and Adam Litchkofski If you’re reading this story when it’s still hot off the press, odds are you’re probably pretty warm yourself. Another July has arrived in Philadelphia, and they ain’t what they used to be. From 1939 through the end of the 20th century, Philadelphia’s average air temperature in this quintessential
More
Last week, I plucked a tick off the neck of a teenager I had guided on a canoe outing. (It came off easily, not having latched on yet.) Presumably the tick had climbed on as the teen had walked through some tall grass after the boats were put away. With single-minded determination, the tick had
More
The title of Austin, Texas-based journalist Jeff Goodell’s 2023 book, “The Heat Will Kill You First: Life and Death on a Scorched Planet,” should leave no doubt as to the topic and its urgency. Grid spoke with Goodell at the end of May about the most lethal and least visible natural disaster on the planet.
More
It’s clearer than ever that cities must finance more green projects as the impacts of climate change intensify, but many are struggling to make progress towards their climate goals. Unsurprisingly, funding is among the biggest obstacles. Urban sustainability overhauls — like transitioning to renewable energy sources — can be expensive up front, though they present
More