On a Sunday afternoon in early June, Jorge Oliveras and Jackie Colon packed up their beach chairs, filled a cooler with snacks and brought their children out to Devil’s Pool. They sat amid a loose constellation of rocks at the confluence of Wissahickon and Cresheim creeks, watching their kids swim and splash around, basking in
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The table was set, powerful people already gathered round and talking about the future, when Carol Kazeem walked in about 15 minutes late and popped the balloon. Kazeem, a first-term Pennsylvania state representative from Chester’s 159th district, has had a whirlwind of a year. When the former trauma outreach specialist and 31-year-old mother of three
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What do you think the Philadelphia Art Commission does? You might correctly guess that it approves works of art purchased by the City or placed on public land, along with some street signs. But anyone who has tuned into a public meeting of the commission will have noticed that the nine-member body does more than
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Across the street from one of the last remaining Catholic girls’ schools in the city, the Hunting Park Community Garden sits unattended behind a padlocked fence. Where nettle and knotweed grow in abundance and raised beds sit empty, the garden waits for the return of its loyal stewards. Michael Wilcox has been involved with the
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At Spiral Q’s West Philadelphia headquarters, puppet artists cut out cardboard, shape it into bulldozers and paint it to prepare for a protest march against the 76ers’ plans for a Chinatown arena. “There’s something childlike about them,” says Jacque (who did not provide a last name), while taking a break from painting cardboard miniatures of
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On a brisk and sunny March day, the dry grass of the south Whitby Meadow stood tall as a few dozen volunteers gathered with hand tools, potted shrubs waiting to be planted and bundles of live stakes — thin branches cut from black willow and silky dogwood trees intended to take root and sprout along
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Are you searching for places in the area that allow you to enjoy what the outdoors has to offer? As summer heats up, many of us are looking for an urban (or rural) oasis that will let us briefly escape the hustle and bustle of city life to enjoy the natural environment. While popular locations
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After the protests sparked by the murder of George Floyd in 2020 and the racial reckoning that followed, enterprises from major corporations to independent businesses around the globe released statements of support for the protests and commitments to do better. But Weavers Way, a cooperative grocery store founded in the historically diverse neighborhood of Mount
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On light posts around the city flyers proclaim “No Arena in the Heart of Our City,” protesting the proposal to build a new stadium for the 76ers in Chinatown. The billionaires pushing the scheme make vague promises about jobs and economic activity. The economic benefits of sports stadiums have long been debunked, but, more importantly,
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