Grid Magazine

Wissahickon Environmental Center

Meeting at Wissahickon Environmental Center (see map here) The center is a short hike down from the Andorra Upper Parking Lot. Please note that there will be a bathroom available at WEC. Winter ...
Grid Magazine

How recycling lost its way in Philadelphia and what can be done to get it back on track

In July 2020, after spending several months of the pandemic wondering whether her trash and recycling would be picked up, Sarah Ausprich was frustrated. When it was collected, Ausprich, a resident of ...
Grid Magazine

At former PES refinery, pollution concerns persist under the surface

In the 340 years since Philadelphia’s founding, the city’s landscape has constantly shifted, as waves of development and redevelopment shipped out with the old and in with the new. Unfortunately, on ...
Grid Magazine

Mariposa Food Co-op in West Philadelphia was founded in the 1970s as a democratic alternative to top-down corporate grocery stores. Today, some workers and member-owners say it ...

Myriam Siftar cried tears of joy. It was March 2012, and she was at the grand opening of Mariposa Food Co-op’s new home, a Greek-revival style former bank building on Baltimore Avenue in West ...
Grid Magazine

Fishtown Pickle Project highlights local seasonal produce and bold flavors with collaborations for a cause

On a typical Monday at Fishtown Pickle Project, cucumbers are everywhere: being rinsed, flying through the spear cutter—affectionately named Britney Spears—and getting stuffed into jars with garlic ...
Grid Magazine

In the last century, Pennsylvania and New Jersey battled New York City to control water from the Delaware River. With sea levels rising and droughts looming, another fateful ...

Most of the big brother–little brother act between New York City and Philadelphia is all in good fun. Eagles versus Giants, Mets versus Phillies, international metropolis versus city of neighborhoods ...
Grid Magazine

Home buyout programs adapt to worsening flood risks

When Tropical Storm Isaias hit the East Coast in early August 2020, the waters of Perkiomen Creek surged higher than 19 feet, a record for the waterway and eight feet beyond its flood stage. Homes ...
Grid Magazine

Ladybugs are very beneficial to gardens and farms, but the most prevalent species is invasive and has crowded out its cousins

Who doesn’t love lady beetles (aka ladybugs)? They are bright and cheery with that cute, round shape, plus they help gardeners by gobbling up plant-sucking aphids. There appear to be plenty of them; ...
Grid Magazine

In 2018, the City passed an ordinance designed to stem the tide of illegal tire dumping. Five years on, the problem has only gotten worse

Slavet is exaggerating — but only slightly. As the executive director of the Tookany/Tacony-Frankford Watershed Partnership, part of her job is to help improve Tacony Creek Park, a 300-acre preserve ...
Grid Magazine

A class action lawsuit seeks to ensure that people with disabilities can fairly use sidewalks

Domonique Howell doesn’t like to roll through the street in her wheelchair, but sometimes it’s better than the sidewalk, like when a tree heaves up the concrete so much that her wheelchair could tip ...
Grid Magazine

Grid talks with professor and author Dorceta Taylor about how communities of color became ground zero for toxic industries

Why is it that low-income and communities of color bear the brunt of industrial pollution? And when environmentally hazardous facilities move into their neighborhoods, why don’t people leave? These ...
Grid Magazine

Meet the Candidates: James DeLeon

DeLeon served as a municipal court judge for 34 years before resigning to run for mayor. He worked as an attorney before becoming a judge. On protecting trees and natural spaces My plan to protect ...