At the turn of the 20th century, Philadelphia was one of the largest textile manufacturing cities in the country. Since the 1950s, the region’s ongoing deindustrialization has led to a sharp decline in textile mills, as well as in the number of farmers and artisans supporting the textile industry. Knowledge of how the industry operates
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For the Elmwood Park Zoo, conservation doesn’t just mean protecting wild animals, like the giraffes, jaguars and monkeys that live at the Norristown facility, but also the planet they inhabit. “We are not just species survival-based, we are also environmental survival-based, so we want to make sure we’re taking care of the planet as best
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When local productions need a feather boa to add to a costume or a vintage phone to serve as a prop, they know just where to look: to their fellow theater colleagues. The aptly named Resource Sharing Committee brings the Greater Philadelphia theater community together to share their materials for productions. The committee’s website has
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Bon Appétit! Pour yourself a glass and enjoy. Natural wineries in the Delaware Valley are producing reds and whites (and some oranges) from grapes grown nearby, rooting their wines — and their drinkers — in the Pennsylvania and New Jersey terroir. Cocoa doesn’t grow here quite yet, but it does in West Africa. Join a
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When visitors step into the Pray Tell Wines tasting room in a warehouse on a treeless street in Kensington, the first question they often ask is, “Where are the grapes?” It’s a fair question. In Oregon’s Willamette Valley, where owner Tom Caruso ran Pray Tell for seven years before relocating to Philly in 2024, vineyards
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On Oct. 2, 2025, a swamp sparrow smacked into a glass door at the Independence Visitor Center and fell dead onto the entryway’s pavement. A volunteer window collision monitor with Bird Safe Philly found the bird and documented its demise. Volunteers found four dead or stunned birds that morning, with an additional 13 logged by
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As the holiday season approaches, college campus cafés are preparing for the influx of students ordering coffee and pastries to power them through final exams. But once the semester officially ends, what happens to the product that isn’t sold? That’s what Saxbys cafés across nine states tackled last academic year as they participated in the
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This article was originally published by the Conversation and has been updated to reflect recent legislative developments. As Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker’s $2 billion housing plan moves forward, heated debates continue about another set of municipal housing proposals that could transform Philadelphia tenants’ rights. In June 2025, Philadelphia’s City Council considered three housing bills, collectively
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Given the sweeping cuts to the tax credits that were part of the federal budget bill, and all the clean energy funding cancellations and rescissions by the Trump administration, you might assume that the solar industry would be down in the dumps and busily preparing to shut down. Indeed, some solar developers are preparing for
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Move over, Pat’s and Geno’s. Philadelphia’s sliced-and-diced meat-and-cheese concoction faces a more sustainable, animal-friendly competitor — the vegan cheesesteak. So, where’s the “beef”? Typically, it’s thinly sliced seitan. Made from wheat, seitan was developed in China about 1,500 years ago and enjoyed by vegetarian Buddhist monks. Today, seitan has gained popularity among vegans, who do
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