More year-in-review goodness from PlanPhilly. They’ve put together a video compilation of the year in local development. The site had a big year; here are just a few of the things they covered: There was the interactive, multi-media, five-part project chronicling blight in Philadelphia and development by the APM community development corporation in Eastern North

Grist has a crowd-sourced list of the year’s best food books. The big winners? Paul Greenberg’s Four Fish: The Future of the Last Wild Food and Jan Poppendick’s Free for All: Fixing School Food in America.  The list also mentions one of my personal favorites, The Town That Food Saved. Here’s what I had to say in

As we mentioned before, on January 9, the Mt. Airy Business Association and GRINCH (that’s Green in Chestnut Hill, not that green guy who hates holiday cheer) are hosting a TreeCycling event. Bring your browning, bare trees to Mt. Airy and Chew Avenues and have them mulched for just five bucks. You’ll keep that holiday glow knowing your tree

Yup, global warming leads to more snow. The New York Times explains on their Op-Ed page: As global temperatures have warmed and as Arctic sea ice has melted over the past two and a half decades, more moisture has become available to fall as snow over the continents. So the snow cover across Siberia in

M. EdlowHappy Holidays from Grid—whether that means Christmas or just a couple days off work. We’ll be back Tuesday.

OK, so you could get your loved ones beer soap. Or you could get them beer. (Or both.) My current local, seasonal obsession is Dogfish Head’s Chicory Stout. (Maybe you could do a mixed six with some other stouts?) I first sampled these suds at Standard Tap, and I’ve been on the bandwagon ever since.

Apparently we run in the same circles as Philebrity—right around the time they were posting this endorsement for Duross and Langel‘s beer soaps, we were perusing the 13th Street shop for some standout suds. Ever since my visit to Spotted Hill Farm, I’ve been hooked on all-natural soaps. Donna Howard sent me off with a

It’s always nice to read something that makes you feel genuinely hopeful: This New York Times online column on homelessness did just that. Writer David Bornstein discusses the 100,000 Homes Campaign, a program that aims to place 100,000 chronically homeless people into permanent supportive housing by July 2013: It’s the human welfare equivalent of NASA’s race to put

Grid‘s own Marisa McClellan is deep into the annual Dark Days Challenge over at Foodinjars.com. Here’s how she describes it: Participants from all over the country (and world) prepare at least one intentionally local meal per week during the winter and blog about it. The goal is to prove that it’s possible to eat locally,

People all over the world join hands, start a love train, love train… Remember that adorable video of the Canadian couple getting engaged on one of Mural Arts’ Love Letter Tours? Inspired by that event, Mural Arts and SEPTA are now offering one lucky couple the chance to be married on the Love Train by Mayor