The streetlights lining Baltimore Avenue have been aglow for nearly two hours when Books Through Bars begins to bustle. Volunteers, stepping in from the stony November cold, come to support an often overlooked cause: providing reading material to people in prison. Incarcerated individuals often have little to read, and the range of books provided to
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Welcome to issue #200! I spent a lot of time over the past few weeks flipping through the pages of our debut issue. It may sound somewhat self-aggrandizing, but the first Grid was released as a prototype — not an actual issue — because the concept for a sustainable city magazine had no precedent. (Come
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The entrance to Stuart Leon’s office is adorned with a rack of luchador masks and rolls of “Loading Zone” stickers. Life-size cardboard cutouts of Leon and his legal team welcome guests into the office’s nerve center, where Stuart Leon Bicycle Crash Law T-shirts spill from the shelves. From under a pile of brightly patterned neckties,
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This story was originally published by The New Lede. When Philadelphia filed a lawsuit in September 2025 alleging two prominent companies were engaged in a “coordinated campaign of deception” regarding the recyclability of their plastic film products, the City joined a growing group of state and local governments hoping litigation can help stem a rising
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I am a 15-year-old resident of Chestnut Hill, and I live near Wissahickon Valley Park. In 2022, I started the group Monarch Defenders, which aims to plant native pocket meadows in Philadelphia and beyond to support endangered monarch butterflies and other pollinators. One of our local meadow restoration projects was done in partnership with Friends
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For nearly a decade, Philadelphians looking to begin their composting journeys have looked to one of two options for private compost pick-up services — Bennett and Circle Compost. But now, customers won’t have to choose at all. Bennett Compost announced its acquisition of Circle Compost in an email to customers on Dec. 12, with the
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In 2022, the Pennsylvania State Board of Education adopted new environmental literacy and sustainability standards. This is surely important — that all students in Pennsylvania learn about how to protect the environment and live sustainably — but how do we get them to take that education to heart? All the nature lovers out there know
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Even the most talented chefs began their food careers as eaters. Well before they were able to cook, they witnessed the magic of combining ingredients into delicious dishes, made for them by family, friends and other cooks. For some, need, desire — or even nostalgia — converts us from eaters to makers of the foods
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On my way out of the Cobbs Creek Environmental Education Center in October, I stopped to pick through the leaves around the American persimmon trees at the top of the driveway. It was a little early in the season, with plenty of fruit still on the tree, but I found a few little blobs of
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Stephanie Kearney has taught middle school science for 20 years. She uses the outdoors as a classroom, even when what’s outside is a schoolyard and the blocks of rowhouses around Penn Alexander School in West Philadelphia. Grid talked with Kearney to learn what it takes to bring the natural sciences to life for urban students.
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