Philadelphia’s park system is many things. It is big, but much of it is difficult to access. Some sections are practically ancient, home to historic buildings hundreds of years old; one even dates back to New Sweden. At the same time, the system is constantly being renovated. If you’re lucky, you might have a new
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Will Caverly was one of the thousands of people who flocked to the John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge at Tinicum during the COVID-19 pandemic. And like most of those people, he didn’t know much about Eastwick, the neighborhood next door. He wasn’t aware how, during the mid-20th century, it was the site of the largest
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In 1965, Alphonse Pignataro, recently graduated from Trenton State College (now The College of New Jersey), boarded a plane bound for Barbados. For the Elizabeth, New Jersey, native, this marked a moment of multiple firsts: his first jet flight, his first time leaving the United States and the first year of a two-year Peace Corps
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Every year the Trust for Public Land releases its ParkScore ratings, and every year Philadelphians have something to be disappointed about: how little the City spends on its parks. ParkScore ranks the 100 most populous cities in the country using a list of measures gauging the size of the park system (acreage), what the parks
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On April 16, halfway through the City of Philadelphia’s annual budget hearings, Philadelphia Parks & Recreation answered City Councilmembers’ questions centering safety and the future of the department’s more than 500 facilities. The department is requesting nearly $7.4 million less than last year largely because, as commissioner Susan Slawson testified, the FY2025 budget included one-time
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In the spring of 2024 the board of trustees of Parks & Rec Heroes, previously known as the Philadelphia Parks Alliance, voted to wind down the organization’s operations. Originally called Friends of Philadelphia Parks, the group was founded in 1983. It lobbied for increased funding as well as a more inclusive and transparent Fairmount Park
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First raped at age 12 and then throughout her teens, Reverend Dr. Michelle Simmons began using drugs. In her early 20s, thirsting for a new life, the Germantown native moved to Los Angeles. “I took my old behaviors with me,” Rev. Simmons says. Convicted of prostitution and a felony, she spent six years incarcerated in
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When Robert Thomas, 78, was 11 years old, he envisioned a hiking trail in Northwest Philadelphia that would follow the corridor of the Pennsylvania Railroad’s abandoned Fort Washington branch. He even gave a presentation about the idea to his sixth-grade class. “It was my first feasibility study for a trail: ‘Why we should connect the
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We all have a routine that prepares us to conquer the day. We need our morning coffee, maybe, or to find the right playlist for our commute. If you take public transportation, getting the bus can be half the battle. For most, anxiety eases when you make it to the bus stop in time, but
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The offers come with a knock on the front door, a white envelope in the mail or a greeting from a fresh-faced salesperson at the farmers market. “Make the switch to clean energy.” But the rates promised and the actual sources of the energy can be difficult for a consumer to understand. Enter PA Power
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