News

Grid Magazine13d
inner transformation
“The most radical thing any of us can do at this time, is to be fully present to what is happening in the world.” —Joanna Macy Join us for a short documentary about Joanna Macy, a renowned ...
Opinion
Grid Magazine20dOpinion
Washington, D.C.’s compost pick-up pilot is small but promising. Philadelphia should do something similar
My last three columns have focused on ways that Philadelphia could launch or expand food scrap drop-off programs. And drop-off programs are the place to start. They build awareness, provide an option ...
Grid Magazine20d
New book explores the 1950s transformation of Southwest Philadelphia and the social and environmental grassroots efforts that guided and opposed it
Will Caverly was one of the thousands of people who flocked to the John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge at Tinicum during the COVID-19 pandemic. And like most of those people, he didn’t know much about ...
Grid Magazine20d
After a cancer diagnosis, a family meatball recipe brings mother and son closer together
Alphonse Pignataro, recently graduated from Trenton State College (now The College of New Jersey), boarded a plane bound for Barbados. For the Elizabeth, New Jersey, native, this marked a moment of ...
Opinion
Grid Magazine20dOpinion
Editor’s Notes: Parks Need a Hero
Every year the Trust for Public Land releases its ParkScore ratings, and every year Philadelphians have something to be disappointed about: how little the City spends on its parks. ParkScore ranks the ...
Grid Magazine2y
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 Magazine1y
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 Magazine4mon
Urban agriculture continues to suffer from lack of land security
In the summer of 2023, farmers and gardeners in Philadelphia had good reason to be optimistic. The City had just published its first urban agriculture plan, called “Growing from the Root,” which ...
Grid Magazine2y
The city’s illegal dumping problem persists despite decades of efforts to curb it
To the south of 86th Street in Southwest Philadelphia’s Eastwick neighborhood you can’t drive more than a few yards on the cross streets before you run into concrete barriers. “We had them put up the ...
Grid Magazine1mon
Former Mayor Michael Nutter is representing gas industry interests that aim to drive a wedge between environmentalists and marginalized communities
In February, The Philadelphia Inquirer published — in print and online — an op-ed by former Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter. Titled “We should support an affordable, inclusive energy transition,” ...
Grid Magazine1y
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 Magazine2y
Abandoned mines spewing toxic water is the unwanted legacy of coal
Acloudy pool of water marks the spot where, every minute, about 1,200 gallons of toxic mine drainage, contaminated with sulfuric acid and iron, flows out of the ground in the hills above New ...