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Mode Shift: The BCGP presents a bike-tastic report

Thanks to the folks at uwishunu for sharing this exciting news about Philly’s two-wheelin’ stats! According to the Bicycle Coalition’s new “Mode Shift” report, Philadelphia’s cycling community has grown to one of the highest rates in the U.S. Here’s a brief breakdown from the summary on how we measure up: *Per capita, Philadelphia has twice

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May 10, 2011
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Party On: June issue release party on May 16th!

Pie made by recipe maestro Marisa McClellan..just a piece of this delicious issue.If you haven’t already heard it through the grapevine, from one of our almost 200 confirmed party guests, we will be celebrating our June Food Issue in just one week! Perhaps one of our most anticipated issues (I mean, who doesn’t LOVE food?!

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May 9, 2011
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Tool Share: Borrow the perfect tool at West Philly Tool Library

WPTL’s inventory | image via westphillytools.org Welcome newest Gridtern Liz Pacheco to The Griddle. She’s kicking it off right with a post on a community organization perfect for anyone tackling a spring home improvment project! Sometimes the hardest part of starting that home improvement project or planting that backyard garden can be finding the right tools.

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May 9, 2011
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ACT LOCALLY: GRID’S Round-up of local events and newsy bits

Image via delawareriverwaterfrontcorp.comTuesday, May 10, 6:30pm – 8pm
The Greater Philadelphia Round Table will host a panel discussion, Green Country Town, moderated by Drew Becher of the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society. The panel, featuring the Inquirer’s Inga Saffron and Pete Hoskins of the Laurel Hill Cemetery, will discuss the evolution of William Penn’s vision for the foundation

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May 9, 2011
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Walk/Bike/Run: Join in on Sustainable 19125’s campaign

sustainable19125.org/wordpressIf you haven’t already heard, at the start of May, Sustainable 19125, kicked off its 2011 Walk/Bike/Ride campaign, coinciding with National Bike Month. Sustainable 19125's ultimate goal is to urge city-dwellers to ditch our gas guzzling automobiles and opt for greener modes of transportation. 
Earlier this month, we told you about the opportunity to become a

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May 5, 2011
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Sister Sister: Parkway park gets a green facelift

rendering of the proposed park | image via nakedphilly.comFor more than a decade, the Center City District has been hard at work to enhance the Benjamin Franklin Parkway with lighting, new signage and crosswalks, reconstruction of park space and much more. The ultimate goal is to transform the Parkway into a “pedestrian-friendly cultural campus.” One

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May 5, 2011
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Earth-Inspired Art: Art in the Age presents SUSTAINING SPRING

May 6th marks First Friday, along with the opening reception for Sustaining Spring, a group exhibition presented by Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction featuring a wonderfully eclectic mix of work from six environmentally-inspired Philadelphia artists. A brief glimpse at the night: Jibe Design is an award-winning architecture firm that creates profound design with

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May 4, 2011
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The Food Trust Hosts Night Market!

The Food Trust, the organization responsible for bringing us Headhouse Farmers’ Market, is hosting a celebration you surely won’t want to miss. On Thursday, June 9th, come celebrate Philadelphia’s ethnic restaurants and gourmet food trucks at Night Market Philadelphia. The four-hour long night is sponsored by University City District, Science Center, and Philly Beer Week

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May 3, 2011
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Spring at SAVA: Nature Worship Fashion Show

Last year’s show | image via Christopher Gabello PhotographyJoin SA VA at the Nature Worship Spring Fashion Show to support local fashion and the arrival of spring. The annual community fashion show and street fair will shut down the 1700 block of Sansom Street and unveil SA VA’s spring 2011 line. Local vendors (including GRID)

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May 3, 2011
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Power Up: City celebrates PWD solar array

 

Cutler, Neukrug, Gajewski, Muller, Sullivan, and Kenney listen on as Mayor Nutter discusses solar array.
On April 25th Mayor Nutter, the Mayor’s Office of Sustainability and PWD held the “powering up” ceremony (we first mentioned it here) to celebrate the solar photovoltaic installation at PWD’s S.E. Water Pollution Control Plant. This is an especially notable event

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May 3, 2011
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A flock of passenger pigeons rests frozen in time A flock of passenger pigeons rests frozen in time on the third floor of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University. The birds feed on the ground, rest on twigs and raise their wings to take to the air in a beech forest whose colonnade of gray trunks recedes into the diorama’s painted background. The mounted skeletons in Dinosaur Hall help visitors picture a T. rex treading the earth, a predator with no contemporary counterpart. The same is true of this display for the extinct passenger pigeons that once flew in the billions.

“The Pidgeons in such numbers we see fly, that like a cloud they do make dark the sky; and in such multitudes are sometimes found, as that they cover both trees and ground,” says Keith Russell, program manager for urban conservation at Audubon Mid-Atlantic, quoting early Pennsylvania settler and poet John Holme. Russell says that thanks to centuries of written accounts, as well as Philadelphia’s role as a hub for natural history exploration, “there is a longer timeline of records for Philadelphia than there is for any other place.”

Hannah Michelle Brower and Aspen Simone of Philly Pigeon Tours highlighted that connection in a special program they offered for the nation’s 250th. The tours usually focus on urban pigeons (aka rock doves), free-flying members of a domesticated Eurasian species. “We talked about the rock pigeon and the history with them, but focused more on passenger pigeons because they were native to America,” Brower says. “We talked about the whole history of early colonist records of their abundance and how people caused their decline and extinction.”

➡️ Read the full story at gridphilly.com

✍️ Bernard Brown
📸 Tasso Hartzog

#philadelphia #ornithology #pigeons #passengerpigeon #academyofnaturalsciences
With the closing of the Academy of Natural Science With the closing of the Academy of Natural Sciences, Drexel University has blundered into a spectacular public relations disaster. I could almost feel sorry for them, had their actions not been so cruel and heartless.

When the news first broke, the reaction was a stunned grief. According to Drexel, this beloved museum, the public-facing side of an irreplaceable scientific institution, just didn’t make financial sense anymore. They listed some facts. Attendance was down, and had never recovered from COVID-19. The building at 19th Street and the Parkway required major work. It just couldn’t go on.

Two of the three divisions of the Academy would be spared. Drexel would maintain the Academy’s collection of 19 million(!) specimens and scientific research would continue. To make it financially stable, they would sell the building.

It was a tidy narrative, a problem and a solution presented simultaneously.

After the initial shock and sadness of hearing the news, people started asking questions: How much work does the building need? Why does it need to close so quickly? Has every effort been made to save the museum?

Supporters began to organize, politicians expressed dismay. And then the William Penn Foundation, usually a behind-the-scenes player, made a public offer to fund the museum for a year. It was a bold intervention, effectively calling Drexel’s bluff.

The closest Drexel has come to acknowledging that offer was when they told NBC 10 they hadn’t received a “formal proposal.” Their response speaks volumes.

The museum has closed quickly because Drexel has no interest in keeping it open.

Drexel did not just fail to make every effort to save the museum — they made no effort.

➡️ Read the full note from our publisher at gridphilly.com

✍️ Alex Mulcahy

#philadelphia #savetheacademy #saveacadnatsci #savetheacademyofnaturalsciences #academyofnaturalsciences
One in 10 Philadelphia public schools had high lea One in 10 Philadelphia public schools had high lead levels in water sources used for food preparation, according to tests conducted by the School District of Philadelphia (SDP) over the past three years.

The dangerously high levels of lead, a potent neurotoxin linked to stunted development and learning difficulties, were found by the district during routine water testing, the results of which were posted to its website. Grid then analyzed the results and the potential exposures to district students, which has not been previously performed by other media.

The high lead results were predominantly taken from water taps found in kitchens or food prep areas, affecting 21 schools out of the 219 tested. In an additional seven schools, high lead results were discovered in several nurses’ offices, a pre-K room and a special needs room. In some cases, the lead levels were more than 10 times higher than the district’s safety level of 10 parts per billion (ppb).

In one high school kitchen, lead was found at 6,200 ppb.

School district officials and documents indicate that contaminated water sources were immediately taken offline until filters could be installed and the water retested. But health and environmental advocates say the data reveals the latest vulnerability in an ongoing districtwide plan to address lead-in-water risks that dates to 2017.

➡️ Read the full story at gridphilly.com

✍️ Kyle Bagenstose

#philadelphia #phillypublicschools #cleandrinkingwater #safedrinkingwater #leadcontamination
Grid is transitioning to an all-digital publicatio Grid is transitioning to an all-digital publication. We need 500 new subscribers to make it possible.

Grid’s December issue, 211, will be its last in print. Our business model is no longer working, and we’re making a change to keep our journalism going.

Our mission isn’t changing: sustainability news and stories that inspire, educate and hold the powerful to account. What is changing is the pace: We’re moving from monthly to weekly publishing online so we can respond to breaking news stories faster and reach more people – including online audiences. One of our recent videos was viewed almost 40,000 times, four times our print run.

To make it work, we need 500 new monthly supporters. If we get there, Grid continues.

→ Give to Grid at store.gridphilly.com

→ Read the full letter from publisher Alex Mulcahy at gridphilly.com

#philadelphia #phillynews #sustainability #environmentalnews #independentjournalism
Just before 10 a.m. on Sunday, Sept. 27, dozens of Just before 10 a.m. on Sunday, Sept. 27, dozens of people stood in line outside the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University, waiting in the spitting rain for the museum to open its doors to the public for the final time.

Artie Cohen, 6, who’d been going to the Academy since he was 2 years old, looked forward to seeing the dinosaurs. And how did he feel about the museum’s closure?

“Sad.”

“There’s a lot of other great natural history museums that we can visit,” said Lauren Zalut, Artie’s mother. “But to not have this one, the first one in the country, is pretty disappointing.”

“We’d have to go to New York to see something like this,” she said.

On Sept. 1, Drexel University and the Academy announced that the museum would close permanently at the end of the month, citing declining attendance that never rebounded after the pandemic. But, in 2025 at least, the Academy’s revenue outpaced its expenses. The greatest obstacle to the museum’s continued operation seems to have been a staggering $150 million in deferred maintenance costs for its 150-year-old building on the Ben Franklin Parkway, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer editorial board.

Though there had been indications, earlier than September, that the Academy was not in good fiscal health — a significant reduction in hours last fall, an accompanying round of layoffs — there were no public statements about a potential closure until the Sept. 1 announcement.

➡️ Read the full story at gridphilly.com

✍️ + 📸 Tasso Hartzog

#philadelphia #savetheacademy #saveacadnatsci #savetheacademyofnaturalsciences #academyofnaturalsciences
Sometimes Linde Lauff sees a pile of construction Sometimes Linde Lauff sees a pile of construction waste in Pennypack Park and thinks, that shouldn’t be there.

Not just in a general way in which, ideally, no litter should ever pollute a natural space, much less the enraging detritus left behind by short dumping. For her, the frustration is much more specific. A little over six years ago, Lauff was the president of the Friends of Pennypack Park, a nonprofit that regularly organized cleanups and otherwise cared for the 1,600-acre park that winds through Northeast Philadelphia. But after the families of two park users who suffered accidents sued the organization, the Friends group was left uninsurable in 2020 and dissolved.

Overnight, gone were the monthly cleanups during which volunteers spent nearly 1,000 hours a year hauling 4,000 bags of trash out of the park. Gone was the Tree and Trails committee, which planted over 2,000 trees in the park. And gone was a community of like-minded individuals who cared deeply for their local natural space and formed close bonds in the process.

Those people haven’t actually gone anywhere, Lauff says. She talks to many of them regularly, and some still perform smaller, informal cleanups. But what has disappeared is their sense of agency and ability to effect positive change in a substantial way.

“It’s hard to believe it’s been six years,” Lauff says. “People are still very much concerned about what happens in the park. And what will happen to the park in the future.”

➡️ Read the full story at gridphilly.com

✍️ Kyle Bagenstose
📸 Tracie Van Auken

#philadelphia #phillyparks #phillyparksandrec #urbannature #urbangreenspace
On September 27th, 2026, @acadnatsci closed its do On September 27th, 2026, @acadnatsci closed its doors after 214 years of natural science education and research. Hear from organizers, visitors, and staff about the impact the closure will have on the community.

#philadelphia #savetheacademy #saveacadnatsci #savetheacademyofnaturalsciences #academyofnaturalsciences
From outside of @acadnatsci earlier today. #phila From outside of @acadnatsci earlier today.

#philadelphia #savetheacademy #saveacadnatsci #savetheacademyofnaturalsciences #academyofnaturalsciences
On a June Monday evening, the loudest sound in the On a June Monday evening, the loudest sound in the South Philadelphia Library was the clicking of computer keyboards. Behind the busy island of computers, another group of people filtered into a classroom filled with green plastic chairs and soft ambient music: a space of quiet resistance.

“I’m tired of AI being shoved down my throat,” one woman said, puncturing the stillness.

She’d come to the right place: a workshop called “How to Not Use AI” led by librarian Charlie Bailey.

The Free Library of Philadelphia hosts hundreds of free workshops each year, many of which focus on digital literacy. Until now, those workshops have taught participants how to use programs such as Microsoft Excel and Quickbooks. Bailey’s workshops are the first to teach people how not to use technology. This may sound counterintuitive, but Bailey believes that showing people how to disable artificial intelligence features from common apps and websites aligns with the library’s mission of advancing digital literacy.

“We’re constantly helping people navigate technology,” he says, “I see this as part of that in that it’s helping people reclaim their autonomy over the technology they use and decide if they want to use certain tools.”

➡️ Read the full story at gridphilly.com

✍️ + 📸 Kathryn Rice

#philadelphia #antiai #libraryresources #digitalliteracy #freeworkshop
Anou Vongbandith, 51, the chef at Germantown’s Das Anou Vongbandith, 51, the chef at Germantown’s Das Good Café, was driving to work on the sweltering morning of July 26, 2025, when masked men from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) boxed in his car, then abducted him. They soon sent Vongbandith to the Moshannon Valley Processing Center in Philipsburg, Pennsylvania, a facility equipped with the barbed wire and other features of the federal prison it once was.

Detainees have sickened and died at Moshannon, and the clock was ticking for Vongbandith. Due to a bout with COVID-19, “[his] heart pumps only 27 percent of the normal volume of blood, and he didn’t have his medications,” says Anh Vongbandith, his wife of 25 years and owner of Das Good. “Also, ICE aims to deport people within 30 days of detaining them.” There was talk of returning Anou to Laos, his birthplace, though he has lived in the U.S. since the age of 5.

Anou’s arrest incensed many Northwest Philly residents. The Vongbandiths have become beloved members of that community, first through Tipsy Café and Catering, a takeout spot at 5227 Germantown Ave., then with Das Good, a spacious café on the West Chelten Avenue corridor that offers breakfast and brunch classics, often with an Asian twist.

“Anh never says no,” says Michael Lazrus, a longtime Germantown peace activist. “She provides food and a meeting place, even after ICE detained Anou,” he says, adding that the Vongbandiths give their food overages to nearby pantries. The family also serves up hundreds of free Thanksgiving dinners each year, Lazrus says.

Anh’s community involvement extends even further. “I can’t see animals put to sleep,” she says. “Right now we’re fostering four kittens and one puppy at home.”

People took Anou’s arrest personally, Anh believes. “It was as if they said, ‘No way are you going to keep our chef!’”

➡️ Read the full story at gridphilly.com

✍️ Constance Garcia-Barrio
📸 Taylor Ecker

#philadelphia #ice #deportation #immigration #immigrantjustice
In retrospect, it’s possible to reconstruct a reci In retrospect, it’s possible to reconstruct a recipe that enabled Catie Gainor to create her South Philly cookbook store, Binding Agents. Start with a family connection to the food business and a mother who loved cooking for friends and family. Add a high school summer spent working at a bookstore, early exposure to classic TV cooking shows hosted by Julia Child and Lidia Bastianich and nostalgia for the camaraderie of restaurant work. Fold in a desire to honor her mother’s legacy, a growing realization that Gainor wanted more from her career in public relations and a 2018 move to the Italian Market neighborhood. An idea that formed in 2022 became, by the fall of 2024, Binding Agents: a welcoming shop Gainor describes as “the size of a sardine can.”

With millions of recipes and cooking videos available online, opening a brick-and-mortar store selling cookbooks and fiction and nonfiction books about food and eating might seem foolhardy. But Gainor found reassurance in the fact that similar stores were thriving in cities across the U.S. She sees Philly as a great food city where interest in cooking and eating runs strong. Since the Cook Book Stall in the Reading Terminal Market closed in 2017, she says the city has lacked a hub for food authors, cooks and eaters to gather.

➡️ Read the full story at gridphilly.com

✍️ Marilyn Anthony
📸 Taylor Ecker

#philadelphia #phillybookstore #cookbooks #phillyfoodie #shopphilly
Throughout July 18 and 19, visitors arrived at Sou Throughout July 18 and 19, visitors arrived at South Philadelphia’s Franklin Delano Roosevelt Park with a unique task — to perform for a tree.

The production, “Arborlogues,” is a touring piece developed by Other Forms Of (OFO) Theater, a company led by set designer Dan Daly that emphasizes theatrical experimentation through unorthodox sets. Billed as a “botanical recital,” “Arborlogues” was born during the COVID-19 lockdown, when companies like OFO were forced to reimagine the definitions of theater under quarantine.

“I came with this idea of a play you perform for yourself ... and it developed into the idea of performing for a tree, using the tree as a mirror for the self,” Daly says.

The result is a 15-minute monologue performed from the confines of a thick velvet curtain that encircles a tree’s trunk. Within the intimate space, theatergoers address their arboreal audience through a personalized script composed by playwright Lee LeBreton.

➡️ Read the full story at gridphilly.com

✍️ Sophie Aanerud
📸 Tracie Van Auken

#philadelphia #phillyparks #urbannature #fdrpark #urbangreenspace
On May 4, following the unanimous passing of the “ On May 4, following the unanimous passing of the “ICE Out” legislative package by Philadelphia City Council, a series of letters were sent by the federal government to City officials demanding they turn over years worth of materials concerning “far-left” immigrant activist groups. Among the groups singled out was Asian Americans United (AAU), a community outreach group supporting people of Asian ancestry in the Philadelphia area with leadership development and immigrant justice action.

Vivian Chang, AAU’s executive director, spoke with Grid about the aftermath of the “ICE Out” ruling and the coalition of more than 60 organizations that it recently joined, urging Mayor Cherelle Parker’s administration to implement the legislation.

➡️ Read the full interview at gridphilly.com

✍️ Elijah Fischer
📸 Photo courtesy of Vivian Chang

#philadelphia #immigration #immigrantsupport #immigrantjustice #immigrantactivism
How much do you love your park? Maybe enough to o How much do you love your park?

Maybe enough to organize or participate in a cleanup, raise or donate money to make an improvement, or lead an educational walk. Or maybe you don’t have the time or money to donate, but simply find your local park to be a refuge — and appreciate the work other people are doing to keep it that way.

But no matter how deep your affection goes for your favorite park, it’s unlikely you’d want to get sued for it.

That, unfortunately, is the fork in the road that the people behind the Friends of Pennypack Park confronted in 2020. In early 2021, Bernard Brown reported on how their organization — which conducted park cleanups and educational walks — was forced to disband because, despite having no connection to two tragic deaths that occurred at Pennypack, the group was named in lawsuits.

Kyle Bagenstose returns to that topic this month, but only to say that nothing has been done yet to protect groups like this. And they are afraid.

➡️ Read the full note from our publisher at gridphilly.com

✍️ Alex Mulcahy

#philadelphia #phillyparks #phillyparksandrec #urbannature #urbangreenspace
There is a surprising truth about the affordabilit There is a surprising truth about the affordability of solar panels that few people understand: despite all the headlines, solar has never been more affordable.

It’s easy to see why people might think otherwise. If you’ve been following the news about cuts to solar incentives — and to just about anything perceived as “green” — you might reasonably assume that the marketplace has turned against solar. You might also think it’s best to wait a few years on your solar plans and see what the next administration brings.

But from where I sit, the reality is almost exactly the opposite. Despite the political climate, there has never been a better time to go solar.

➡️ Read the full story at gridphilly.com

✍️ Micah Gold-Markel

#philadelphia #solarenergy #solarpower #solarpowered #solarstates
Will Ryan faces a half-dead (yet half-alive) ash t Will Ryan faces a half-dead (yet half-alive) ash tree deep in the woods of Tyler Arboretum and ties a plastic pill bottle around its trunk. Inside is a folded white paper dotted with tiny black specks that look like poppy seeds. He ties the bottle to the tree and takes off the cap. Those tiny specks are emerald ash borer (EAB) eggs containing parasitoid wasp pupae.

The invasive bright green beetles have devastated the region’s ash trees. Scientists have pinned their hopes on what they’ve dubbed “Oobinators,” pill bottles containing miniscule, stingless wasps (Oobius agrili). Once the wasps emerge from the Oobinators and find their beetle hosts, they could kill enough of them to save this ash tree and the next generation sprouting from seeds left behind.

“They have to be placed near where emerald ash borers likely will be, which means they’re no good after all the trees are dead,” says Ryan, the arboretum’s director of horticulture and land stewardship. The arboretum has cut down about 1,600 dead and dying ash trees in Tyler’s 550 acres of natural areas. Ryan’s team flagged about 25 of the dying trees to serve as release sites for the tiny, stingless wasps.

➡️ Read the full story at gridphilly.com

✍️ Bernard Brown
📸 Tracie Van Auken

#philadelphia #tylerarboretum #ashtree #parasitoidwasp #invasivespecies
Events happening in and around Philadelphia this w Events happening in and around Philadelphia this weekend!

➡️ Parks on Tap at Borski Park: Philly’s traveling beer garden returns to Borski Park! Enjoy food, drink, live music, good company, and more along the beautiful Delaware Riverfront.

When:
Friday, September 11 (4:00 PM - 10:00 PM)

Where:
Robert A. Borski Jr. Park
3150 Orthodox Street
Philadelphia, PA 19137

➡️ All Abilities “RAMble” Farm Visit: Join us for a FREE nature-based therapy program. The All Abilities Ramble is a gentle, joyful space created especially for children, teens, and adults with special needs — along with the people who love them. This is your time to explore, connect, move at your own pace, and enjoy our goats in a calm and supportive environment.

When:
Saturday, September 12 (12:00 PM - 2:00 PM)

Where:
The Farm at Awbury
6336 Ardleigh Street
Philadelphia, PA 19138

➡️ Trees for a Changing Climate: As trees face increasing threats from climate change and novel pests and diseases, it is essential to adapt our practices to protect and sustain our landscapes. Join the Mt. Cuba Center’s director of horticulture for an insightful discussion on strategies to safeguard their garden’s tree canopy. George Coombs will explain their strategic approach to choosing resilient species, including the models and thought processes behind it, their list of recommendations, and the methods that will be used to track tree resilience over the coming decades.

When:
Sunday, September 13 (3:00 PM - 4:00 PM)

Where:
Haverford College Arboretum
370 Lancaster Avenue
Haverford, PA 19041

#philadelphia #philly #phillysupportphilly #eventsinphilly #phillyevents
Since May, the 13th Street bike lane has sported s Since May, the 13th Street bike lane has sported some new protective infrastructure: a series of plastic modular curbs. Between Locust and Chestnut streets, 18 of these curbs have been installed along the bike lane, stationed between existing flex posts, which have lined many of the city’s bike lanes for years.

The new protectors were inspired by a trip to Mexico City. When Prema Katari Gupta, president and CEO of Center City District (CCD), vacationed in Mexico’s capital, she noticed bike lanes protected by small, sturdy plastic modular curbs.

“Seeing this really simple curb product they installed, it seemed like something that Philadelphia could do and scale quickly and maybe save some lives,” Gupta says.

CCD bought and donated the curbs to the City, and after working with the Office of Transportation and Infrastructure Systems and the Department of Streets, they began a pilot phase ahead of potential wider use throughout the city. With just anchor bolts required to secure them to the pavement, the curbs are easy to install, says Andrew Jacobs, the vice president of planning and public realm at CCD.

➡️ Read the full story at gridphilly.com

✍️ Rusty Gorelick
📸 Julia Lowe

#philadelphia #bikelane #bikesafety #bikephilly #bikephl
The front door of Chris Hytha’s 1857 Fishtown-area The front door of Chris Hytha’s 1857 Fishtown-area rowhome opens to face a spotlit shelf cabinet — a “house museum” of artifacts: the house’s old lead water main, a hunk of its original stone foundation and a block of termite-hollowed wood. The artifacts catalogue the house’s history — and the hurdles of Hytha’s now two-year renovation project.

“There were so many surprises when I bought the house. I thought it was all made of brick, and I thought it was built in 1930,” Hytha says. When he started opening up walls, he learned that the house was 70 years older than he had thought, and that about half of its timber frame had been eaten by termites.

Despite being advised to tear the entire home down and start from scratch, Hytha kept as much of it intact as possible. He’s salvaged all kinds of materials over the course of the rehab, from old growth lumber ceiling joists he exposed in his living room, to a basement door he saved from his neighbor’s trash, to a collection of vintage ornate door locks. They are a testament to Hytha’s effort to save old stuff, not only to build sustainably, but also to give his rowhome its history back.

➡️ Read the full story at gridphilly.com

✍️ + 📸 Julia Lowe

#philadelphia #houserenovations #historichome #sustainablehome #sustainablerenovation
Imagine if developers quietly acquired and develop Imagine if developers quietly acquired and developed a few acres of Fairmount Park every year, carving them off into luxury housing. Philadelphians would rightly be outraged.

And yet: One building at a time, spaces that were designed for public assembly — churches, cultural centers, former schools — are being converted into private apartments or condominiums. And because each sale is treated as an isolated real estate transaction, it’s easy to miss what’s happening to the city as a whole.

These places are mostly privately owned, and because we’ve never recognized them as part of the same civic ecosystem, their disappearance barely registers.

During the Nutter administration, when our libraries and recreation centers faced closure after years of deferred maintenance, public outcry pushed the City not to accept their slow decline. It ultimately chose another path through the Rebuild initiative in 2017, investing in the places where neighborhood life happens.

Perhaps what we need now isn’t another Rebuild, but a broader conversation about how we revitalize and steward the places that make community possible — regardless of who currently owns them.

➡️ Read the full story at gridphilly.com

✍️ + 📸 Jacques-Jean “JJ” Tiziou 

#philadelphia #civicspaces #communitycenter #communityspace #recreationcenter
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