In the gray light of early morning, four activists snuck onto a bridge overlooking U.S. Route 202 in Pennsylvania. There on the chain-link fence, they clipped their banner and unfurled it in view of the sleepy commuters just starting to pass below. Spelled out in 90 feet of white paint on fluttering black canvas was
More
Flanked by cardboard signs reading “Free 5-Minute Tuneups” and “We Come to Your Bike!” Lauren “Mittens” Mitten lifted another bike — one of about 25 that day — onto a stand under the bright sun and got to work. Mitten, owner of The Mittens Pop Up Bike Shop, spent the afternoon of May 16 outside
More
An empty shopfront on South Street is in the midst of transformation. Ennis Carter, the founder of Social Impact Studios, a Philadelphia-based “creative hub,” affixes bolts of colorful paper to a wall and unfurls a vibrant, refrigerator-sized hand-painted canvas beneath a banner proclaiming “Made with Artistry & Activism.” For the month of July, the space
More
Patrick Berkery didn’t always love pizza. His first memory as a youngster in Willingboro Township, New Jersey, was of a “typical neighborhood flavorless garbage pizza with rubbery cheese.” It wasn’t until his parents discovered Marra’s, the legendary Passyunk Avenue brick-oven Neapolitan-style pizzeria, that the then-8-year-old Berkery had a pizza epiphany. In December 2025, Berkery, a
More
If you’ve been following energy news across the region, or even just looking at your electric bill each month, you know that rates are up. Again. Last year, PECO asked regulators for permission to charge you more while it reported $814 million in profit. Not revenue. Profit. Here’s what that means in practical terms for
More
One of the most common questions I get is, “Why should I pay for a composting service when I can compost on my own?” And my answer is, “If you can compost on your own, you should!” Many people don’t have the time, space or inclination to compost — that’s why our business exists —
More
Here’s a recipe for a lovely summer day: Pack a little picnic, grab your best floppy hat or Phillies cap, slather on some sunscreen and take a mini road trip to a nearby farm to go fruit picking. This fun outdoor activity is a life-affirming blend of frolicking in a field and getting access to
More
Every human produces a little more than 4.5 ounces of excrement per day. Multiplied by the 2.2 million customers of the Philadelphia Water Department’s wastewater system, the cumulative daily dump equals about 620,811 pounds, or about 310 tons. The story of biosolids (treated sewage sludge) starts with clean water in the toilet bowls of the
More
On Sept. 27, 2025, a wood thrush flew past the David Rittenhouse Laboratory at the University of Pennsylvania on its way to Central America. We know this because a tiny solar-powered radio transmitter on the bird’s back sent out a signal that was picked up by a receiver on the roof of the building. That
More
On June 5, 1926, a family of five from Iowa, the McHenrys, arrived in Philadelphia to visit the recently opened Sesquicentennial International Exhibition. John Wanamaker, who had proposed the idea 10 years earlier, envisioned the greatest world’s fair in history — an “astounding presentation of the capacity and productive power of the United States,” he
More