Over the last decade I have searched abandoned riverfront properties for skinks and black rat snakes, spooking deer and watching warblers, as I climbed over riprap shorelines and picked my way across the rotting timbers of overgrown piers. A city in decay offers the naturalist unlimited opportunities, while a city on the rise takes them
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The challenges of climate change can seem overwhelming, but the city can take clear steps to protect the most vulnerable renters and homeowners while enforcing existing development standards. To do this, we need to look inside and outside of the home. When construction or demolition is taking place, dangerous substances like asbestos and lead can
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Before restoring anything, it’s important to examine what can stay as-is and what needs to be repaired, replaced or given a good scrubbing. It’s also important to have a strong end-vision. It takes belief to bring something back to life. To build it up, to improve and strengthen it. If you can’t envision it, how
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When Scott Kelly co-founded the Manayunk-based design firm, Re:Vision Architecture, twenty years ago, he was a pioneer in green building design. The world has changed since then. Previously Kelly felt he had to be “stealthy” about including sustainable elements in his architectural designs. These days he revels in the freedom to go deeper, exploring with
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On January 3, 2022, the Philadelphia Department of Licenses and Inspections (L&I) told the Union League of Philadelphia that it had to wait to cut down 43 large, native trees at its golf club at Torresdale. The private member’s only club had sought to clear the trees in order to expand their golf course and
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The sun shone bright on a landscape cross-hatched with felled trees on a walking tour of the Cobbs Creek Golf Course on April 4. The Cobbs Creek Restoration and Community Foundation, the organization overseeing the revamping of the golf course, had the trees cut down, said Dana Henry, the tour guide and a spokesperson with
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Parks advocates led by the Philadelphia Parks Alliance gathered on the afternoon of April 21 for a “Rec It Philly” rally at City Hall. Mayor Jim Kenney’s 2023 budget proposal asks for a $2.5 million increase over 2022 funding for Philadelphia Parks & Recreation, less than the $8 million increase that the Parks Alliance says
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Chester Residents Concerned for Quality Living is holding an Environmental Justice Day caravan and march on Saturday April 23 at 1 PM to protest the Covanta trash incinerator, the Delaware County city’s largest polluter. The group will convene at Chester City Hall parking lot, 1 E 4th St, Chester, PA 19013. Chester has a population
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Pennsylvania’s Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) is taking comments through April 27 about a proposed rule to regulate per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), sometimes called “forever chemicals,” in drinking water. The chemicals have been linked to a variety of human health problems, including reduced fertility, developmental problems in children, and some cancers. PFAS are a
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Looking to spruce up your garden while creating habitat for local wildlife? Skip the hostas and begonias and try some native plants instead! Lots of flowers can feed area pollinators, and birds will eat exotic berries, but many of our local bugs are finely adapted to the plants they evolved eating. Choosing native plants benefits
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