Whether due to seasonal shutdowns or permanent closures, the city has no shortage of depressingly dim restaurants and bars lately. So it was refreshing to see a welcoming splash of color on the door of one such establishment. While the Valanni Social Club, at 1229 Spruce Street, has been in stasis for months due to
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On February 26, United Nations human rights experts released a statement calling for reform in American policing. Their primary example for the necessity of reform was the Philadelphia Police Department. The statement came from the Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council, which is a group of independent experts with mandates to report and advise
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In October 2020, Grid released an introduction to community fridges, a mutual aid concept where a refrigerator is placed in a public space and stocked by organizers and the community at large for the benefit of those in need. The food is free to all. At that time, there were only 11 fridges citywide, but
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The winter slump had set in for ice cream sales in late January, and Kianu Walker, the force behind Vannah Banana, was dreaming of the summer—picturing himself not on a beach, as many people do, but instead in an ice cream truck. After starting the city’s first Black-owned, vegan ice cream business in 2020, Walker
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You don’t need to be an urban planner to appreciate the inherent good of public space. This is what Dena Driscoll, co-chair of the all-volunteer grassroots organization and urbanist political action committee 5th Square wants Philadelphians to know as they reimagine the city beyond the pandemic. Formed in 2014, 5th Square supports candidates for local
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After nearly 40 years of organizing nature walks, park cleanups, tree plantings and trail maintenance, the volunteer group Friends of Pennypack Park disbanded in March 2020. Its dissolution came about after being named alongside the city as a defendant in a personal injury suit, in 2019, filed by the family of a girl injured inside
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“What do you mean you can’t recycle this?” This is a question I get from my 6-year-old son all too often, especially when we’re bringing new items into our home. I want to tell him that we need to figure out an economy that can thrive without such an outsized focus on consumption. But he’s
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Sometimes referred to as the “voice of the Delaware River,” Maya van Rossum has served as the Delaware Riverkeeper since 1994. To her, protecting the watershed has always been deeply personal. She grew up in the Philadelphia suburbs and returned to the area after law school to protect the Delaware and its tributaries. Van Rossum
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Connecting local dining establishments and grocery stores with eco-minded and bargain-hunting customers, Too Good To Go—an app designed to decrease food waste—will be available to Philadelphians starting February 23. Founded in Copenhagen in 2016 and currently available in 15 countries, Philadelphia marks the app’s third U.S. city expansion, following its rollout in greater New York
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Eggplant and beets are not the kinds of vegetables Tanisha Muse typically buys, but through a program offering free produce from Sanctuary Farm in North Philly, they are now part of her family’s diet. “It’s still not my first thought to get beets at the supermarket,” says Muse, a West Philly resident. “That might never
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