For more than a decade, Philadelphia-based artist and educator Shira Walinsky has taken an interest in the lives of immigrants in the city. In 2016, she and fellow artist Laura Deutch teamed up to chronicle “47 Stories” from SEPTA’s Route 47 bus, which shuttles between immigrant communities in South Philadelphia and Olney. Riders talked to
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Have you ever made an appointment with a physician, only to wait weeks or months to speak with your doctor for less than ten minutes? Ashvin Vijayakumar, M.D., founder and physician at Fishtown Medicine, aims to eliminate obstacles to primary care visits by offering his patients unlimited access to his care. “Whether it’s a text
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In my previous two columns, I discussed a number of ways that the City could launch composting drop-off programs, either on its own or in partnership with private composting companies. A third way forward would be an expansion of Philadelphia Parks & Recreation’s Farm Philly Community Compost Network. Based on a program in Washington, D.C.,
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It has been five years since the pandemic disrupted Philadelphia’s recycling program, leading to service delays that stretched on for weeks and consigning the contents of so many blue bins into trash trucks headed for the landfill. “That was the first huge blow for an already beleaguered system,” says Nic Esposito, former director of the
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On March 14, a seven-year-old tree, which had arrived grafted with 15 varieties of stone fruits, was planted alongside a natural dye garden before a crowd of about 50 community members at Temple University’s Tyler School of Art and Architecture. Sam Van Aken grafted 15 additional varieties onto the tree the next day and will
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On a windy March afternoon, Mark Berman poured a pile of sugar onto a piece of newspaper to feed one of his 13 bee colonies. Berman was providing the sugar supplement because the night temperatures were still dipping into the 30s, but there were signs that spring — and honey production — had begun. One
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Imagine the dirtiest engine legal in the United States. It’s an engine responsible for an annual 30 million tons of carbon dioxide, 21,000 tons of fine particulates and 68,000 tons of nitrogen oxides, which are harmful to human health and the environment, PennEnvironment reports. A heavy-duty truck or SUV may spring to mind, but this
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As many people discovered during the COVID-19 boom in home baking, if you want a challenge, try baking with a sourdough starter. Iryna Teslia embraced this challenge, and sourdough became the basis for everything she produces in her micro-bakery, The Bread Anatomy — from traditional Ukrainian holiday breads like paska and kolach to all-American chocolate
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In February, The Philadelphia Inquirer published — in print and online — an op-ed by former Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter. Titled “We should support an affordable, inclusive energy transition,” the article made the case that “we must act fast on the seriousness of climate change and do so responsibly, without losing sight of the affordability
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Back in February, The Philadelphia Inquirer published an op-ed by former Mayor Michael Nutter that left me feeling confused. The piece argues for the role of fossil gas in the home energy mix for Philadelphians, because, Nutter claims, renewables are simply too expensive for low-income households. Yes, this is the same Michael Nutter who, in
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