Grid Magazine April 2019 [#119]

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City Council debates bringing dockless electric scooters to Philly

The fight to save urban community gardens

Clean energy agency in Philly making strides

p. 16

p. 32

p. 4 APRIL 2019 / ISSUE 119 / GRIDPHILLY.COM

T O W A R D A S U S TA I N A B L E P H I L A D E L P H I A

PLAY THE POWER OF

When play works, and when it doesn’t

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Monthly Maker Ross Stoops Philadelphia, PA thegoodmeasure.com WHAT DO YOU MAKE? I am a designer, fabricator, and entrepreneur based out of South Philly. For the past several years I have been mainly focusing on residential furniture and home goods.

WHAT ARE YOU CURRENTLY WORKING ON? I recently opened Good Measure, on 9th and Reed st. in the Passyunk Square district of South Philly. Good Measure is a small retail store showcasing handcrafted furniture and home goods from an array of makers throughout the city. As exciting as it is starting a new business, it has always been difficult for me to slow down and enjoy myself along the way.

WHAT ARE YOUR GOALS? My goal as a small business owner is to promote and encourage other makers in the city, while bridging the gap between consumers and designers

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EDI TO R ’S NOTES

by

alex mulcahy

We Need You to Subscribe publisher Alex Mulcahy managing editor Alexandra W. Jones associate editors Vince Bellino Timothy Mulcahy copy editor David Jack Daniels art director Michael Wohlberg writers Bernard Brown Constance Garcia-Barrio Randy LoBasso Claire Marie Porter Kim Post photographers Natalie Piserchio Rachael Warriner Albert Yee advertising Santino Blanco santino@gridphilly.com 215.625.9850 ext. 112 distribution Alex Yarde alex.yarde@redflagmedia.com 215.625.9850 ext. 107 published by Red Flag Media 1032 Arch Street, 3rd Floor Philadelphia, PA 19107 215.625.9850 G R I D P H I L LY. C O M

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riends of grid , I’ve got some good news for you, and a challenge. The good news first: Print advertising works! Last month I sounded the alarm in print that Grid was in jeopardy. A month later, we’ve had 50 people sign up for subscriptions and a dozen more contributing money. Despite what you may have heard, print is still a very effective medium. It’s true that we can’t give you the hard and fast numbers you get from online behemoths, but that’s because we don’t invade your privacy. We give readers a product to enjoy and then we leave them alone.

There are plenty of people who appreciate that. Here’s a sampling of the comments we received from people who contributed money:

“Keep up the good work.”

“Thanks for doing your thing, thanks for asking for help.”

“Consistently good quality, I hope you can keep it going. “ “I hope this helps, it would be a shame to lose Grid.”

“I love your publication.”

help save

A N D R E W A B B OT T C H A R L ES A DZ E M A V I C TO R I A A Q U I LO N E CHARA ARMON ALLAN ASH SUZANNE BAKEWELL BRENT BEERLEY CO L L E E N B OY D

The magazine you love needs your help!

To continue, we need 500 subscribers by June 30th.

Add your name to the list to ensure the next decade of Grid!

Subscribe today! gridphilly.com

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ALEX MULCAHY Editor-in-Chief alex@gridphilly.com

RIBERS OWING LIST OF SUBSC JOIN OUR NEW AND GR

After 10 years of providing Grid free of charge to the Greater Philadelphia area, this model is no longer sustainable.

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What a jolt of good will to have filling my inbox. We don’t do this magazine for applause, but I can’t deny the power of these words of encouragement.

Now it’s time to talk about the challenge.

As I’ve mentioned before, it’s difficult to rely solely on advertising. We are doing our best to make our pitch, and some months go well. However, we need you, the reader, to provide Grid with stability. Our goal is to get 500 subscribers by June 30. Ultimately, we would like to have a few thousand subscribers, but that will take time. Reaching this goal of 500 will be evidence that Grid is viable in the long-term. Falling short will suggest that it is not.

Please go to gridphilly.com and be one of the 500 people who will help save Grid.

We have a lot of stories left to tell.

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B IK E TA LK

by

randy lobasso

Plugging Away The heated debate over electric scooters

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his february philadelphia City Council members held a hearing on whether or not to bring dockless e-scooter sharing into our transportation fold. With two e-scooters sitting in the chambers, citizens, company representatives and city employees filed in to give their arguments and testimonies for and against the new take on an old form of transportation.

The e standing for electric, e-scooters are plug-in, freestanding vehicles with two or three wheels. Similar to Indego bike share, the scooters unlock after a user provides payment. Unlike the bike-sharing service, however, the vehicles don’t need to be returned to designated locations, as riders can geo-locate available scooters’ locations using a mobile app.

In the past few years, cities like Baltimore; Portland, Oregon; and Washington, D.C., have adopted these sharing systems.

Scooter advocates at the meeting said the vehicles are better for the environment than cars (and more fun, too), but skeptics voiced three big concerns: ➤➤ Are e-scooters safe to ride? ➤➤ Can we trust riders not to leave scooters on sidewalks, hindering pedestrians, or in the street, blocking traffic? ➤➤ Could the poorly maintained streets of Philadelphia even be navigated by scooter?

Let’s examine these issues more closely.

Safety Everyone’s goal should be to create a safe city that has zero traffic deaths.

One investigation found that 1,500 e-scooter injuries occurred around the country between late 2017 and early 2019. Because hospitals aren’t really tracking these inju4

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ries, yet, the investigation, conducted by Consumer Reports, got this number by contacting 110 hospitals across 47 cities where e-scooter sharing exists—so this estimate is likely low. This report also didn’t look at the number of rides taken or calculate the rate at which people are being injured.

But Portland, Oregon, did.

Among the 700,369 scooter trips in Portland between July 23 to November 20, 176 resulted in scooter-related emergency and urgent care visits. That’s 2.5 injuries per 10,000 trips.

With these numbers, the local county health department found there was “no evidence of injury rates that would discourage a further scooter pilot in the city of Portland.”

A Hindrance For Pedestrians and Drivers That riders may leave scooters to block sidewalks is a legitimate concern. It’s an inconvenience at best, and at worst, it’s a

civil rights violation that hinders the disabled community.

The Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia, where I work, helped the city release a construction-building-permit map earlier this year that shows the locations of legal construction permits that block sidewalks, streets and bike lanes. Illegal construction and illegal right-of-way blockages have also been reported through the program.

The bike lanes are similarly disrespected.

In 2018 the Philadelphia Parking Authority broke its record for issuing tickets to vehicles parked in bike lanes. Ticketing for this offense has gone up 173 percent since 2014.

As reported by the Philadelphia Inquirer earlier this year, many companies have built the cost of tickets into their budgets.

The worst streets for blocked bike lanes are the most-biked streets in the city—Spruce, Pine, 13th and 22nd streets.

On weekends, people attending religious services (and those who don’t) use the bike

lane for parking, along Spruce and Pine streets, with impunity. The city and state look the other way because of an apparent “handshake agreement” between the religious institutions and the government.

Next, take a stroll through any neighborhood in South Philadelphia—or a peak at the @NotAParkingSpot Twitter feed. Not only will you see dozens of motor vehicles parked in the center turning lane on Broad Street (illegally, and unticketed), but you will find active vehicles parked in crosswalks, on sidewalks, and in bike lanes, often unticketed.

The point is that whatever adverse effects the scooter might cause, they pale in comparison to violations that already routinely occur. A beefed-up right-of-way division could make sure all rules are enforced.

Street Conditions An opinion piece in the Philadelphia Inquirer published in August of 2018 argued against scooters because of current street conditions.

“[T]here is no requirement for the city or [dockless scooter] company to upgrade infrastructure. Good luck dodging those monster craters on a flimsy electric scooter,” freelance journalist Ptah Gabrie wrote.

However, in many cities scooter companies are required to use part of their profits to invest in better city infrastructure, like bike lanes. The Bicycle Coalition is working with other organizations to make sure those same requirements would apply in Philly when and if e-scooter companies are invited into the city.

What’s more, “street defeatism,” the notion that our streets will always be in a state of disrepair, isn’t a good reason to ban new transportation options. It disregards the power of advocacy and activism.

In December 2014, the Bicycle Coalition put out a report showing the city had a 1,000mile backlog on paving streets. Philadelphia invests just a fraction of what other cities do in its streets department, the report found, and only had a single crew to do the work.

The report said the city would need to hire a new paving crew and invest enough in the streets department to bring its approximately 50 miles of repaving per year to 130 miles per year, just to cut into the backlog.

In his most recent budget address, Mayor Jim Kenney proposed to put an additional $200 million toward street resurfacing in the next five years. He noted that by the end of that time, Philadelphia would be repaving...that’s right... 130 miles of streets, per year.

If street defeatism had credence, you wouldn’t see bike lanes, bumped-out sidewalks, protected infrastructure, handicap-access ramps, bike sharing, streetside elevators into train stations and a whole host of other amenities created to allow for better access across transportation modes.

While e-scooters would certainly add some complications to the streets, any transportation alternative that discourages car usage should be welcomed.

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urban naturalist

Flight of the Osprey A bird’s journey from near extinction to your by bernard brown local bookstore

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hat’s your favorite sign of spring? Flowers blooming?

Bees buzzing? Raptors hurtling into the water, talons first, emerging with a wriggling fish to rip apart back at the nest?

Spring has returned to the Delaware Valley, and with it our local ospreys.

Ospreys, sometimes called fish hawks, are large birds of prey with wing spans of about five feet. They have chocolate brown backs, white undersides and a dark eyestripe.

Barbed pads on the bird’s feet help it grip slippery fish. They are “highly specialized to catch fish from the tips of their talons to the tips of their beak,” says Rob Bierregaard, ornithologist and research associate at the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University. They even orient the fish headfirst as they fly to minimize wind resistance.

According to Bierregaard, you can find 6

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ospreys wherever there are fish to catch. In Pennsylvania, that means along our larger rivers and at inland reservoirs, and in New Jersey all along the Delaware Bay and Atlantic shores.

But finding these birds wasn’t always so easy. Their populations were devastated by DDT use in the 20th century. The popular insecticide worked its way up the aquatic food chain, ultimately wreaking havoc on the osprey’s reproductive system. The birds began to lay eggs with shells too thin to keep embryos from drying out. In extreme cases, the eggs would crack under the weight of incubating parents. Osprey clutches failed for decades, and the birds disappeared as the adults grew old and died. Northeastern populations were particularly hard hit. By 1979, Pennsylvania’s osprey populations had been completely wiped out.

The Environmental Protection Agency

banned DDT in 1972, leading to improved hatching rates as the chemical slowly disappeared from the environment. Humans also helped ospreys along through “hacking” programs, relocating nestlings from remaining populations to regions where they had died out. Since ospreys return to nest near where they fledge—males stay within about 10 miles and females within about 100, according to Bierregaard—the hacked birds returned to raise clutches of their own, seeding new populations.

Local osprey are now as abundant as they’ve been since European colonization, with 148 pairs nesting in Pennsylvania as of 2016 and 668 in New Jersey as of 2017.

The offspring from these nests fly south IM AG E COURTESY O F KATE GARC HI NSKY

2019-04_GridTwoThirdPage_Rt49Map_031219.pdf 1 3/12/2019 2:40:16 PM

in the fall for a “gap year,” Bierregaard says.

They land anywhere from the Caribbean coast to Argentina, where they spend 18 months fishing before coming back north to mate and build a nest—though many ospreys take a few years to actually find a partner and settle down. The birds repeat the journey south in the fall and north in the spring.

Thus, while we were shivering in Philadelphia’s freezing rain and leaping over slush ponds at street corners, our region’s ospreys were hanging out in warm, exotic locales like Brazil or Venezuela.

Around Daylight Savings Time, the ospreys started north. They flew through South America and Colombia along the Greater Antilles, then traveled up the Atlantic coast from Florida.

Bierregaard has been tracking these migrations since the year 2000. He harnesses C radio transmitters to ospreys originating M from South Carolina to Newfoundland.

One young female osprey named Belle sur- Y prised Bierregaard when she began her first CM trip to South America with a 1,200-mile leg MY from Martha’s Vineyard across the Atlantic.

“A neighbor asked me what my favorite CY osprey was, and I said ‘Belle,’ ” Bierregaard CMY says. “She had done the longest trip we had K recorded by then and made it back from Brazil—he said I should write a children’s book about it.”

So Bierregaard teamed up with local illustrator and birder Kate Garchinsky to produce “Belle’s Journey.” The book combines Belle’s real-life voyage with exciting events from three other tracked ospreys, such as an encounter with a hurricane and an overnight ride on a cargo ship.

The real Belle continued migrating south and north after the events depicted in the book. As of 2017, when the battery in her transmitter died, she hadn’t yet settled down with a mate.

To make ospreys part of your own spring, Bierregaard recommends starting off at the John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge.

“It’s rare to go there,” he says, “and not see an osprey.”

You can find Belle’s Journey at the Big Blue Marble bookstore in Mount Airy and view maps and accounts of osprey migrations on Bierregaard’s website www.ospreytrax.com.

From higher education to high rises, hospitals, and hotels, Route 49 connects Strawberry Mansion to Grays Ferry via University City.

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black history

In Search of the Colored Girl Germantown museum highlights the overlooked contributions by constance garcia-barrio of black women

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t. rushmore would give a truer portrait of our nation’s makers if the sculptor had hewn kinky hair and a shapely eye into George Washington’s massive left cheek and a second eye, a pug nose, and luscious lips into the right side of Thomas Jefferson’s face.

“Black and brown girls have done so much for so many, but they’re erased,” says Vashti DuBois, 58, founder and executive director of The Colored Girls Museum (TCGM) at 4613 Newhall Street in Germantown. Her museum wrestles that exclusion to the ground.

Established in September 2015, TCGM— the only museum of its kind, says DuBois— displays stunning photography, pottery, dolls and fiber art to give credit where it’s due.

“So much depends on cleaning women, childcare workers and other colored women who remain anonymous,” says DuBois, a Brooklyn native who lives in the 129-year-old Victorian twin that houses the museum. “TCGM shows colored girls from the ordinary to the extraordinary.” Michael Clemmons and Ian Friday, who helped to establish it, serve as curator and associate director, respectively.

DuBois, a theatre artist and literacy coach, came up with the idea of a museum of black women’s artifacts during her sophomore year at Wesleyan University. When she began to re-knit her life seven years ago after her husband of 18 years, Al Stewart, died in a car crash, she asked her friends to donate objects. The first exhibit, “Open for Business,” was a 2015 Fringe Festival event.

“People have been extremely generous with me,” DuBois says.

This year’s exhibition, “In Search of the Colored Girl,” takes visitors on a journey of discovery.

“On our docent-led tours, patrons become a ‘search party’ that unearths aspects of the colored girl,” DuBois says. Each floor of the house has a unifying theme.

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The first floor presents protection, or the colored girl’s need for it. An altar with three levels, luminous with candlelight, heightens the meaning of searching for the colored girl.

“It acknowledges the 75,000 black and brown women and girls missing in this country today,” says the artist and poet Andrea Walls, 55.

A description of a missing girl is pasted on a lit white candle in a glass container.

“This situation isn’t new,” Walls says.

“After the Civil War, newly freed families sought mothers, daughters,and sisters separated from them during enslavement through newspaper ads.”

Walls has placed a cushion in front of the altar so that visitors can say a prayer for the missing girls.

Another artist confronts the colorism— society’s message that the lighter your skin, the greater your beauty—that dogged her in childhood.

“She often heard people say, ‘You’re pretty for a dark girl,’” DuBois explains. (Col-

orism does other damage. A 2014 study by Villanova University sociology professor Lance Hannon shows that dark-skinned girls receive harsher punishment in school.)

The urge to define beauty on her own terms stands at the heart of the photographic self-portraits. (See the wrenching “Dark Girls” documentary on YouTube.)

The ceramic vessels by museum curator Michael Clemmons, austere in their clean lines, stand as memorials to the little girls killed at the 16th Street Baptist Church in 1963 by a bomb planted by white supremacists.

The photographs of Iris Maldonado help to broaden the awareness of who “the colored girl” includes. Maldonado’s photos of Puerto Rico illuminate her Afro-Latino identity and remind one that Spain and Portugal brought Africans to the Caribbean and South America in the 1500s. Plenty of colored girls live south of the border.

“We try to capture the colored girl in ways they’re seldom seen or regarded,” DuBois says.

TCGM more than succeeds with a huge P HOTO G RAP HY BY AL BERT YEE

This situation isn’t new. After the Civil War, newly freed families sought mothers, daughters,and sisters separated from them during enslavement through newspaper ads.”

—Andrea Walls, artist and poet

Vashti DuBois, founder and executive director of The Colored Girls Museum in Germantown.

photographic portrait of a gorgeous young woman. The more one looks at her in a pose that recalls Renaissance paintings, the more disturbing the picture. Her dress, it turns out, is made of paper. A close look at the draping of what might be jewels reveals an adornment of chains. Her seemingly handsome brooch depicts a horrible act.

The second floor, whose theme is praise, has the museum’s only permanent exhibition: a room devoted to washerwomen,

a familiar figure in black culture in North and South America.

“Sometimes there’s shame that our mothers or grandmothers did this work, but washerwomen kept their families going when the men couldn’t find work,” curator Monna Morton says.

Scholar W.E.B. DuBois, in his 1897 landmark book “The Philadelphia Negro: A Social Study” hits the nail on the head when he notes the financial troubles of young work-

ing-class black couples, often the sons and daughters of freedmen. “...[There]comes a struggle which generally results in the wife’s turning laundress.”

On the other hand, historically black colleges relied, in part, on small donations from washerwomen as seed money. The artifacts, such as antique irons, belonged to the grandmothers of Morton or Denys Davis, curators of the exhibit.

The third floor represents grace. Small collaged cut-paper dresses by Lavett Ballard, known for her female images of the African diaspora, cover one wall. The dresses suggest playfulness and perhaps the possibility that the colored girl, no matter her age, can find ways to nurture the girl who lives inside. It also displays Ballard’s female figure, made of wire and synthetic hair.

An extensive collection of books—think Maya Angelou, Alvin Ailey dancers, children’s books and more—allows visitors to continue to delve into the lives and creativity of the colored girl.

TCGM extends outside to the grounds.

“In summer we grow herbs like sage, valerian, and more that colored girls find healing,” says Ian Friday, 53, TCGM’s associate director and performance curator. “We host concerts, talks by artists, and poetry readings in the backyard.”

The Colored Girls Museum, is open Sundays from noon to 4 p.m. General admission is $15 and for students and seniors 65+ with ID, $10. To learn more call (267) 630-4438 or visit www.coloredgirlsmuseum.com.

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April 20–23 | Media, PA Climate, Consciousness and Community Summit The Climate, Consciousness, and Community Summit is a participatory investigation into how we can steward a resilient future on a radically changed planet Earth. We bring together influential climate thinkers, healers and change-makers for an interspiritual, intimate and inspiring 4-day journey.

Local presenters include:

Judy Wicks

Local Economy Pioneer

Valerie Brown Buddhist/ Quaker Facilitator

Martin Pepper Transition Town Resilience Leader

Workshops – Performances – Panels Limited to 100 Attendees

Clean Laundry Clean Planet Clean Slates

Our intimate Summit will also coincide with Findhorn Community’s CCC19 Conference, and we will receive streamed Keynotes from Findhorn Community in Scotland, including these leading climate thinkers:

Charles Eisenstein

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Activist, physicist, feminist

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Angaangaq Angakkorsuaq

Activist and founder of 350.org

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Eskimo-Kalaalit Elder and Shaman

We will convene in the beautiful, thriving Transition Town of Media, Pennsylvania.

Venues are easily walkable and wheelchair accessible.

Learn More – Program Details – Register Volunteer – Find Accommodation https://www.kosmosjournal.org/cccs

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Vandana Shiva

Philosopher, Author

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267-235-7888

VILLANOVA, PA

inside the garden gates.

For 150 years, Stoneleigh was a private Main Line estate. Today, it is a 42-acre public garden open to everyone, free of charge.

Plan your visit today! stoneleighgarden.org

Photo by Mae Axelrod

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HOLDING SERVE One community garden saved from development, 200 to go

story by claire marie porter • photography courtesy of old tennis court farm

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eborn with the help of blood, sweat and compost, a set of abandoned tennis courts in Germantown have been given a new lease on life.

Owned by Germantown Friends School, the half-acre plot of land at 5407 Wissahickon Avenue containing the Old Tennis Court had sat unused since the 1980s.

That is, until 2006, when community members embarked on a journey to cut up 14

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the court’s playing surface and sift and till the soil underneath. By 2009 they’d turned the overgrown athletic field into a functioning community garden.

“It was ugly work,” says garden member Mary Ellen Krober. There were mountains of debris.

Eventually, they built 48 12-by-12 plots and a solar-powered water-access system in an area where over 20 percent of the residents live under the poverty line. Four of

The Germantown Friends School tennis courts in 1910. The half-acre plot of land sat unused since the 1980s.

P HOTO COURTESY O F ROB SMI TH

those plots grow produce exclusively for the Whosoever Gospel Mission, which serves 80,000 meals a year to food-insecure communities in Philadelphia.

“This is our neighborhood, and wellmaintained, productive green space is a benefit to a neighborhood and a community,” says gardener Mark Kearney. “In addition to growing food, for many, the garden is a means of exercise, being outdoors, accomplishment, productivity, pride, feeling good, meeting new people, socializing, collaborating with others and contributing to the community.”

It was all going well until 2015 when Germantown Friends announced its intention to sell the parcel to developers. The garden shuttered in October of that year, and the land was put on the market for $250,000—a sum far out of the community’s reach.

Urban Pioneers The Old Tennis Court Farm is a microcosm of land trends in Philadelphia—a neat package of land insecurity, neighborhood

disinvestment, and community effort and resourcefulness.

Vacant lots are a chronic part of our local landscape. As has been well-documented by the city, more than 40,000 plots of land, mostly in disinvested areas, sit unused and long neglected by remote landowners or the city. Sometimes the land has no owner at all.

Left alone, these lots often become garbage heaps. But many neighborhoods have

“This is our neighborhood, and well-maintained, productive green space is a benefit to a neighborhood and a community.”

—mark kearney,

garden member

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15

transformed them into treasured community resources by removing trash and planting flowers and gardens.

Rooted in black and brown communities’ resistance to neglect and injustice, the produce grown on these lots often serves as an antidote to food deserts and food insecurity.

The gardens vary in size and character.

Where some span several square feet, others span several acres. Some are considered historical land and others tax-delinquent dumping grounds between row homes. Few gardens are permanent, and although some have managed a year-by-year lease, many have no security in the face of rapid gentrification and development.

Jenny Greenberg, executive director of Neighborhood Garden Trust (NGT), estimates that of the 300 working community gardens in Philadelphia, 200 are at risk of loss to development or being auctioned off in a Sheriff’s sale.

“Despite the environmental, social, health, and economic benefits these gardens provide,” Greenberg says, “many are at-risk because they are owned by the city or private property owners who abandoned them.”

Developers now see dollar signs in these long abject spaces, putting these thriving community gardens under threat. Because 16

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“The gardeners themselves have been remarkably sophisticated about what they needed to do to make this happen.”

—peter williamson, Vice President of Conservation Services, Natural Lands

growers and neighbors can’t afford to outbid developers, the gardens they have painstakingly cultivated are at risk of being paved over.

A Whole Lot of Luck The Old Tennis Courts community found the key to their secret garden this winter.

Joining forces with the Friends of Cloverly Park, an all-volunteer committee dedicated to caring for Fairmount Conservancy’s two-acre thumbprint, which runs adjacent to the garden, the Germantown residents hoped to procure the land for themselves.

Ellen Wert, co-president of the committee, contacted a regional land conservancy called Natural Lands and the NGT. Soon, a partnership began.

“The gardeners themselves have been remarkably sophisticated about what they

needed to do to make this happen,” says the vice president of conservation services at Natural Lands, Peter Williamson, who also sits on the board of directors at NGT. NGT handled the logistics of the sale, and Natural Lands signed on to protect the land in perpetuity through a conservation easement.

The groups facilitated a three-way transaction, wherein Natural Lands purchased the land from Germantown Friends and transferred ownership to NGT. The city, community leaders, city council members, and state representatives and senators got behind the application, says Greenberg.

A $225,000 grant from the state’s Greenways, Trails and Recreation program covered 85 percent of the market price, but the gardeners needed to gather the remaining funds.

“They agreed and raised money locally to

Germantown neighbors cut up the tennis court themselves and turn the land into a thriving community garden.

do it,” says Williamson.

The gardeners went to every conceivable organization to request donations.

While the issue of land insecurity of long standing community space is common, Greenberg says, what’s unique about this garden is the size and expense of the parcel, and the zealous, grassroots organizing of the community.

As the plans slowly unfurled in the community’s favor, neighbors watched the trees and fields across the street from the garden turn into a high-rise complex.

“That could’ve been us,” says Hap Haven, a gardener whose home backs up against the lot.

Next to the garden plots, a fire pit made of the tennis courts’ macadam is all that remains of the space’s previous life—a nod to years of toil and the communal lift.

Growing Community Trusts As the city’s largest land trust, the NGT works with land-holding agencies and private landowners to keep land in the hands of Philadelphians. To date the organization has protected 45 open spaces, and it aims to bring that number up to 70 by 2022, according to Greenberg.

But securing land in Philadelphia is rarely

this straightforward. While the Old Tennis Court Farm was saved due to assertive and resourceful neighbors, it was also a matter of good fortune. Given the limited number of available land grants, the willingness of the land owner not to sell to the highest bidder and the savviness of the community at large, this is not a blueprint for most of the 200 vulnerable gardens in the city.

In 2015 Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences conducted an urban gardening study.

“Leasing or buying public or private land has proven to be a complex issue, even in a city like Philadelphia with a wealth of vacant land at its disposal,” the report concluded, citing obstacles like inadequate lease contracts, gentrification, bureaucracy and a slew of legal barriers.

“Most growers don’t even know they have rights to the land they’ve cared for,” says Ebony Griffin of Public Interest Law Center.

For most communities, raising the money to buy a parcel of land is unrealistic. The center’s major role is providing pro bono legal representation for growers and gardeners in the city.

“The inaccessibility of knowledge is part of the problem,” says Sonia Galiber of Ur-

ban Creators, a North Philadelphia nonprofit that founded Life Do Grow urban farm. Trying to understand how money and power flow through the city is difficult, she says.

Thinking of urban gardening as a trend or newly invented “hipster hobby” is inaccurate and counterproductive to the urgency of the narrative, Galiber continues. It overlooks the rich history of black farming in the city as a response to perpetual under-investment.

“As if poverty just happens,” she says.

Organized under the name “Take Back Vacant Land,” a campaign of about 50 faith and labor groups passed a law in January 2014 that gives communities control over the vacant lots in their neighborhoods. The campaign is dedicated to holding the city accountable to that legislation.

One of the best resources available, says Griffin, is Vacant Land 215, a regularly occurring community education event, next happening April 11. Land Bank, NGT, Philadelphia Horticultural Society and Soil Generation, a black-and-brown-led coalition that advocates for urban growers, are jointly hosting the meeting and will be sharing resources for urban farmers.

“We encourage people to be proactive,” says Griffin, adding that it’s much harder to make a case for ownership in a reactionary situation.

She cites La Finquita “little farm” garden, as an example.

A thriving farm in North Philadelphia since the ’80s, it was padlocked without notice, and eventually sold for townhouse development in 2018. By the time the sale went through, it was too late to respond, says Griffin. She references adverse possession, or “squatter’s rights,” the legal principle that if you’ve been possessing vacant land for a certain amount of time, you can gain control over it.

Trying to retroactively prove that possession is difficult, so she urges growers to know their rights ahead of time, so claims can be filed and gardens can be saved.

“Gardening,” says Galiber, “is the direct result of people figuring out how to deal with injustice themselves.”

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SEWING SEEDS

Sustainably-minded owner of textile company has not lost the thread story by claire marie porter • photography by albert yee

A

bove a desk in an airy second-floor studio in Roxborough hangs a yellowing square photograph of a small girl with a curly pixie cut working a child-sized blue sewing machine.

“I’ve been sewing since I was a baby,” says Heidi Barr, smiling at the shot.

Her hair, still curly, is now shoulder-length and silver. Surrounded by light, linens and a large gray-and-white cat called Ollie, she tells the story of her latest sewing endeavor: a textile business she runs out of her house called The Kitchen Garden Series.

Barr, born in Philadelphia and raised in the Pacific Northwest, was a dancer in Arizona before returning to her home city to design and stitch costumes at Freedom Theater. But 15 years into her costume-designing career, she began to feel disillusioned by the amount of waste produced in the business.

That’s when she came up with the idea to put her skills to sustainable use and begin sewing kitchen wares to support local farms.

Her ethos has always been centered around sustainability, she says. Coming of age in Eugene, Oregon, Barr was taught: “Thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, and this is how the watershed works.”

She comes from a family of architects and 20

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farmers, and she thinks of her business as a merging of the two.

“Aside from fabric and fiber, my connection to the food movement is where my success lies,” she says. Barr consistently supports Weavers Way and the East Park Revitalization Alliance—two community-driven food projects—through her work.

Piles of men’s dress shirts in patterned grays, whites and blacks line the wall in her basement workspace, which she calls her “white-out space.”

Anyone familiar with thrifting is aware of the seemingly endless supply of unwanted men’s dress shirts. When they don’t get sold in the secondary clothing market, they often get dumped into developing countries, says Barr, putting the countries’ local textilers out of business.

“Our garbage is destroying industries,” Barr says. “I wanted to step in the path of that.”

Currently, Barr’s products are made up of approximately 20 percent reclaimed materials.

She started buying upcycled men’s shirts to make reusable napkins. They proved to be a good aesthetic choice, too. As one of her clients, Philadelphia chef Ari Miller says: “When you’re eating, you really just have an urge to wipe your mouth on your shirt.”

In 2016 her business grew significantly,

and Barr started to use linen materials as well, buying from a Lithuanian mill that offers her remnants and offcuts. Linen is an eco-friendly fiber because the crop requires little pesticides and water to thrive, she says. The fiber is soaked in water to rot away the outer portion of the stalk. It’s never bleached or dyed, she says, and it’s also compostable.

“Worms will eat it,” Barr says, “so it’s zero waste by definition.”

She also reclaims a portion of her materials from film and theater productions and salvage stores, and she determinedly uses every part—yards of reclaimed set draping may become grocery bags; leftover shirt sleeves offer a quaint tea towel border.

When Barr sews, she takes off her shoes, placing both feet on the pedal of her industrial sewing machine.

“Are you ready for the noise?” she says.

“It’s like a jet!”

She begins to sew. The room quakes.

“Our garbage is destroying industries,” Barr says. “I wanted to step in the path of that.”

“The roar of the Juki!” she says.

Her textile designs draw from nature.

She looks for movement in her patterns.

The trumpet flower inspired her trademark “box pleat,” a technique she used to make

dance costumes, she says. It gives dancers a straight silhouette with the ability to move.

She’s transferred the design to her market bags, giving them a secret “tomato pocket” for fragile produce.

Another remnant of her costuming days can be glimpsed in her seams, always French or flat felled. They give her products a couture finish. Every piece has an affectionate, singular detail—a dainty orange thread on a black-and-white napkin, a seed sack’s vintage logo stamp on her chef ’s aprons, overlapping seams on a market bag.

In 2017 Barr hired a business partner and a director of sales and opened a factory shop in Allentown with 15 employees. She provides napkins, made entirely of upcycled shirts, for Miller’s new restaurant in South Philadelphia, Musi. She’s participated in the Muhibbah dinner series, a celebration of diverse chefs that centers on and supports immigrant and refugee communities in Philadelphia.

Barr is hustling. She needs a real studio, she says, because she wants her house back.

To her, it’s no mystery what made her business flower so suddenly.

“Tenacity,” she says, without missing a beat.

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S S E C E R story by

ie e mar c l a i r o rt e r p aphy by photogr y e e

a

l b e rt

S E L U R lay?

p ildren h c e h t

I

hould s w o h untry, o c t n e ci Education Policy at George Washington Univery-defi a l p a n

sity reported that 20 percent of school districts across the country had cut recess time, and in a 2016 Shape of the Nation report, only 16 percent n half a city block of pavement in the of states require daily recess for elementary Strawberry Mansion neighborhood, the kindergar- students. teners of Richard Wright Elementary school play.

Americans like to compartmentalize.

One group hula-hoops, another plays kickball, while There is work time, gym time, family time, another waits in line to scooter-board from cone to television time. The idea of work being cone. The playground is peaceful, there is nothing re- playful, or weaving physical exertion into everyday activities, is foreign. markable—which is perhaps what’s most remarkable.

For years U.S. school systems have viewed play and learning as And yet, research has shown that opposing forces in a school day, and the emphasis on standard- learning through play and playing ized testing has led to an overall decrease of playtime in schools through learning produces the best acover the last two decades. A 2006 survey from the Center on ademic results.

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Children who play, and play well, are more empathetic, better leaders and more successful in the workplace and adult relationships. Integrative play is powerful.

Playworks Playworks, founded in Oakland, California, in 1996, is a nonprofit that partners with low-income schools to provide resources for better play. With 22 regional offices across the country, the program uses diagnostic tools and direct support to evaluate the quality of each school’s play, designing their curricula to meet each individual school needs. And it’s getting results.

Playworks opened a regional Pennsylvania office in 2011 (Playworks Pennsylvania) and has since partnered with 20 schools in the Philadelphia School District to help them improve recess and playtime activities. Each partner school is assigned a coach who works in the school year round to mobilize and coordinate positive play and exercise throughout the day and after school. This system has led to a decrease in bullying and an increase in learning and productivity.

“Our work is all about changing school climate, and making sure kids have the opportunity for safe, fun and inclusive play,” says Ivy Olesh, the executive director of Playworks Pennsylvania.

Olesh has seen the benefits of Playworks from various perspectives. Before becoming the executive director, she watched the work of the program in her local school, Chester A. Arthur. When her own child started kindergarten, she was able to see the impact on her child, and now, as a director, she witnesses its success at a systemic level throughout the city.

Through onsite consultation and professional development training, they help schools to develop the skills and tools they need to meet their goals. The focus is on public and charter schools that qualify for Title 1, that receive supplemental funds for high concentrations of low-income students.

Playworks’ biggest challenge is the demand from schools and principals who want to implement the program, says Olesh.

“Our inboxes and phones can ring off the hook,” she says.

That demand is encouraging though, she adds.

“We’ve been thrilled to see the school and district believe in the power of play and un26

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On Playworks playgrounds, kids practice cooperation, teamwork and adaptability.

“Our work is all ab out changing school climate , and making sure kids have the opp ortunity for safe , fun and inclusive play.”—Ivy Ole sh,

Executive Director, Playworks Pennsylvania

derstand the consequences when play and recess aren’t properly programed,” she says.

seeing play as beneficial for the child.

“This is really exciting.”

How it works

Conscious positivity

Playworks doesn’t have the resources to be on every Philly school site all year round, but every public school has “climate staff,” people who are tasked with overseeing lunch and recess. They are hired by the school district, so each might approach these breaks with a different mindset.

“Inconsistency in approach leads to inconsistency in recess,” says Olesh, so Playworks is working on implementing a pilot program to train climate staff at a district level before school starts. They’ve partnered with 150 elementary schools, equipping them with positive-play models.

“The goal is that we meet the training needs so we can learn to train climate staff in every school and increase equity across the district.” The idea being that even if they don’t have an active Playworks staff person, there is a set baseline for quality play, says Olesh.

“We’re feeling really encouraged by Philadelphia,” says Olesh, that schools are beginning to place emphasis on play and

Not all play is good play. If it’s dangerous, exclusionary or kids are bored, those behaviors will be directly reflected in the classroom.

“Recess can be the best or the worst time for kids, ” says Olesh. Time and space alone to play aren’t enough, she says, and it’s critical that that time is positive.

“What we need to ensure is structure, so you’re not seeing exclusion or bullying,” says Olesh.

When play is going well, children have the freedom to learn to collaborate, to develop conflict-resolution skills. But if there are unresolved disciplinary issues, those can have negative long-term consequences, she says.

What Playworks tries to do is help to equip school with a system to overcome those challenges and ensure that kids have the opportunity to play together. And that manifests differently in different schools.

“We love games—we are big believers in

work,” says Johnson.

Johnson says he also uses positive reinforcement, and if there’s a conflict in the classroom or playground, he’ll use Playworks version of “rock, paper, scissors.”

“Ro Sham Bo, let it go!,” he says, still using the traditional symbols.

The junior coaches model positive and inclusive behavior and empower other students to become leaders and reflect those behaviors.

All you need is space

Climate Manager Kahlef Webb says before Playworks, lunch and play time were chaotic.

allowing kids to approach play in a way that makes sense for them,” she says.

Some kids will already be inclined toward creativity, they’ll develop their own games.

But some children do better with structured games, like tag, or a ball game, says Olesh.

“What we try to do is to ensure that there’s intentionality behind the games.”

Playworks will evaluate those games to make sure there are learning skills embedded in them: communication, teamwork, leadership. While physical activity is a priority, so are these other skills.

“Students should come back to class ready to learn,” says Olesh, because they got their energy out, but also because they spent time problem solving and practicing inclusive play. If they’ve been harboring feelings throughout the school day, recess is a time when they can work through those feelings, she says.

Junior coach, Nafis Johnson, 11, has been helping to implement Playworks principles

at Chester A. Arthur since fourth grade.

“I usually run games, stop bullying and fights, and work with kids to help them play games and handle equipment,” he says.

When he was in first and second grades, he was influenced and inspired by a friend who was a junior coach at his school, so he decided to get involved with Playworks the earliest he could. He helps out with different shifts, sometimes kindergarteners, sometimes fifth graders and sometimes seventh graders.

As a junior coach, one of his jobs is to analyze the recess times of different classes to see how they’re doing, he says. Then they take each individual grade outside to participate in a “classroom game,” tailored to fit the life skill the classroom is currently working on. “Blind ball,” is an example, wherein a person is blindfolded and they have to get to a ball following the verbal instructions of classmates.

“It helps with coordination and team-

A good play environment doesn’t necessarily mean a state-of-the-art playground. In fact, they don’t even need a playground.

That’s good news for Philadelphia because according to a recent report, twothirds of the city’s schools don’t have an official play yard.

“There are so many schools that don’t have access to a playground, but it doesn’t mean they can’t play,” says Olesh. “Building a playground is a huge expense, so we want to meet [the schools] where they are.”

Negative behavior at recess doesn’t change when a child transitions from an asphalt lot to a nice playground, says Olesh.

“If kids are outside playing and they are fighting or pushing, people think it’s because they don’t have a nice playground … that’s not true,” she says.

“We are much more about the programming of play than we are about the space in which it occurs,” says Olesh. “Play can happen and should happen anywhere.”

Wright Elementary in action In a diverse city like Philadelphia, kids have different access to play. In many communities, it’s not always safe to play outside.

“Not all children know how to play,” says principal of Richard Wright Elementary school, Jeannine Payne. “I’m talking about understanding rules, boundaries. When you allow children to just go out and play with no structure, they’re going to do what they know … they’re going to engage in things they do at home or in their neighborhood,” and that’s different for each child, she adds.

When Payne came to Wright Elementary four years ago, she proposed that the school bring in Playworks and increase the ratio of adults to students during lunch and recess.

“No one would question that those are two of the less-structured times of days,” she says.

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Before Playworks, she says, a lot of the students would just congregate next to the fence, sitting on the ground, chasing each other around. Now the students are engaged.

Payne says that organized, healthy play makes the transition from the playground to the classroom much smoother.

“We probably gain instructional minutes,” she says. The character of playtime not only gives the kids physical activity and a break from sitting, but the structure of their play means that the teachers don’t need to spend 15 to 20 minutes just mitigating the conflicts that arise with unstructured free time.

Lunchtime at Wright is a great accomplishment, too, says Kahlef Webb, climate manager of four years. “This is nothing like it used to be,” he says, gesturing toward the 60 kindergarteners peacefully sitting and eating. Kids would be throwing food, fighting, running around, getting hurt and needing to go to the nurse’s office. Now they easily transition in and out, he says.

There are various approaches and levels of involvement based on the school’s specific needs. In all cases, the ultimate goal is to get the school functioning on their own with minimal to no support.

Wright Elementary has recently moved from a direct-coach model to a Team Up Model, the next tier of progress in the Playworks approach, which requires only monthly check-ins from Playworks coaches.

Being able to sustain the Team Up Model without direct support has been Wright’s greatest accomplishment with Playworks, says Payne. They are on their way to being self-sustaining.

Peaceful Play Tips 2 Playworks designed an online toolkit, Recess Labs, for educators to use to improve their classroom and playground climate.

Here are a few Recess Labs tips for better play:

1

Positive Language Simple positive phrases like “you’re a natural,” and “nice try,” build an environment of acceptance and respect that can translate to the classroom. ** Model positive language, and encourage children who have stepped out of their comfort zones ** Acknowledge good behavior and affirm students who follow direction ** Give lots of high fives

Get adults in the game Oftentimes adults see recess as a time for them to check out. But research shows that adult participation can strengthen rapport with the students and model behavior the students may not get to see at home.

3

** Actively play games with the students, don’t just yell from the sidelines ** Let kids see you make mistakes, it builds trust ** Check in with kids on the sidelines who may be feeling excluded ** Plan ahead to have a variety of games for kids with different skills and interests ** Introduce games with a line, like foursquare, so other kids can feel they can jump in ** Help the children to choose teams by using shoe colors or counting off, never with a “team captain”

** Rock, Paper, Scissors, for intervening before small conflicts escalate ** I-Messages, or I-statements, like “I feel __ when you __,” allow children to name their feelings instead of pointing fingers ** Make a “Peace Path,” a visible path on a playground, or wall that allow children to walk through their feelings step by step. ** Appoint student “Conflict Managers,” equipping the student’s peers to be classroom leaders so students can resolve issues without “tattling” to a teacher.

There’s a certain amount of equity that’s linked to children’s ability to engage with productive play, she says. When schools are marked as under achieving or having

Conflict Resolution Giving students the resources to solve conflicts on their own gives teaches them important skills, and gives them a sense of responsibility. Recess labs offers 4 different tools for conflict resolution.

academic deficits, often times the proposed strategies feel like punishments.

This year Richard Wright Elementary is no longer considered a “high needs” school, says Payne. Wright was previously listed as a priority school with Title 1 designations, now that designation is gone, and according to Great Philly Schools, it’s a “High Academic Growth” school.

Data-driven play

Playworks assesses playground spaces, helping to map out safe and engaging “zones” to meet the school’s needs.

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MARC YU

“One of the things I love about Playworks is that they are an evidence-based program,” says Olesh. “We think a lot about the data and the impact we’re having.”

Playworks conducted a randomized control trial with Stanford University and

found that Playworks students were safer, more socially active and there were less bullying behaviors.

Playworks also developed the Great Recess Framework, a recently validated observational tool that helps them to evaluate levels of safety, empowerment and engagement.

With a consistent diagnostic tool, Playworks can enter a school, talk to the principal, their climate staff, observe recess, and then use the tool to try to determine and match that school’s needs.

According to Playworks data, 93 percent of educators report an increase in students’ ability to focus, 98 percent increased physical activity and 94 percent report an increase in ability to resolve conflicts on their own.

Olesh also mentions Recess Lab, an online diagnostic tool that can be used by anyone—school system, educators, parental figure—to assess their child’s play.

It provides tools for mapping a playground and creating zones for different games and simple rules for safe and equal play.

Recess Labs also allows schools to take their own “recess checkup,” an online anonymous quiz for assessing the culture of recess. Questions include, “How often do games break down during recess due to confusion about game rules?” and “Considering your student population, how inclusive are the games being played at recess?”

Most importantly, these diagnostic tools emphasize that these models are not onesize-fits-all. Every school has different needs, and those include their recess needs, says Olesh.

Olesh says the importance of play is very recently at the forefront of school priorities, and educators are recognizing the variety of learning opportunities that play affords.

“Schools are starting to place some serious value in educating the whole child--the kids are constantly encountering opportunities through play to become great readers and learn math,” she says.

Approaching the whole child is essential.

It can influence the playground climate, the classroom climate and the home climate.

“Why I believe strongly in the importance of our work,” says Olesh, “is because, at the end of the day, we are talking about a continuum of development.”

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STARTUP ENERGY

The Philadelphia Energy Authority aims for a green-energy tomorrow story by kim post • photography by rachael warriner

P

rogram manager Alon Abramson calls his workplace “basically a startup.” In many respects it looks like a typical government office, but the youthful employees, generous space and handsome street view adds a certain vitality.

The Philadelphia Energy Authority promotes clean energy in the city, helping city departments, businesses and homeowners through a variety of energy generation and efficiency projects.

Its Philadelphia Energy Campaign aims to create 10,000 jobs over the course of 10 years by cutting the energy use of each building it works on by 20 percent, removing 790,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide from the air along the way.

It’s looking to invest $1 billion in clean energy investments.

With just six staff members and several interns, the PEA partners on projects that aim to grow the private sector around clean energy and energy efficiency. The small team is full of diverse skill sets: Abramson is an engineer by training, but the team also boasts experience in business and planning.

“We’re the government, yes, but we try to be really nimble,” Abramson says.

In 2010 the PEA was created as a legal entity independent of the city, similar to the city’s Housing and Parking authorities. Re32

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gardless, a look at the PEA offices’ location in City Hall, off a broad hallway lined with judges’ chambers, suggests the division between city and the PEA is not so strong as the legal structure implies.

The reason for their structure is a provision in the Philadelphia Home Rule charter that prevents the city from making deals with private contractors that would last more than four years. More time is a must in the world of private energy projects.

The PEA makes investments in energy projects free from that restriction and then sells the energy to the city. Along these lines, in December it purchased the 70-megawatt output of Adams Solar, a new solar farm in Adams County developed by Community Energy, for the next 20 years. Philadelphia will use that electricity to power 22 percent of its government buildings, working toward one of Mayor Kenney’s campaign promises to commit to 100 percent renewable electricity by 2035.

Six years after its inception, the PEA began developing its energy initiatives, trying to carve out a niche distinct from the city’s own Office of Sustainability. One of its most established is “Solarize Philly,” which Grid reported on this past July, a program that helps to grow the market for solar panels by offering discounted installations through approved installers: Kiss Electrical of Lev-

Alon Abramson, program manager at Philadelphia Energy Authority, and the view from City Hall

ittown, Moore Energy of Southampton and Solar States of Kensington.

The U.S. Department of Education awarded the PEA a $1.25 million grant in October to develop a curriculum with the School District of Philadelphia that will prepare students to get jobs in clean energy.

“We’re in the solar game to phase ourselves out,” Abramson says, meaning PEA is not looking to permanently subsidize solar power in Philly—it wants to stimulate the private solar sector until it can stand on its own.

“We’re looking to create a market that’s self-sustaining,” he says.

Small-scale pilot projects lie in PEA’s future as it tries out different approaches before exclusively focusing on what is most effective. It is re-evaluating how it ran its

small-business energy efficiency program in 2017 and 2018, hoping that a revised version will get more participation. It is also a partner on a project with the Museum of Art, which has the highest energy costs of any city-owned building.

PEA has also become involved with the Water and Sewer Service Line Protection Program. Many homeowners are unexpectedly stuck with an expensive bill when there is a disruption in the lines between the main water and sewer lines—owned by the Philadelphia Water Department—and the pipes in their homes, which are covered by standard homeowners’ insurance. PEA and PWD’s Protection Program promotes awareness and private insurance (from American Water Resources) to cover this gap.

“We know that there is a connection between that housing-preservation need, energy inefficiency, the high cost of utilities … and then on top of that, as the home deteriorates, it actually makes the house less healthy to be in.” —A LO N A B R A M S O N PEA justifies its participation by preventing water loss from poorly maintained pipes, which it expects will save the city $1 million in energy costs every year.

The agency is also looking for projects that will benefit low-income residents and thus deliver broader social benefits.

“We know that there is a connection between that housing-preservation need, energy inefficiency, the high cost of utilities

… and then on top of that, as the home deteriorates, it actually makes the house less healthy to be in,” Abramson says.

Though focused on energy, PEA is most concerned with where it can do the most good for the community. “[Energy conservation] is not something happening in isolation, but it’s often treated in isolation,” Abramson says. “This is, I think, the benefit of being an authority.”

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PENNSYLVANIA-RAISED HERITAGE-BREED

PORK AND CHARCUTERIE READING TERMINAL MARKET LADIVISAMEATS.COM

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MEATLESS MARKET The Lucci family brings ingenuity and zeal to vegan meats and cheeses

story by alexandra w. jones • photograph by natalie piserchio

W

hen facundo lucci walks into the Reading Terminal Market, he smiles and waves at his fellow vendors. Like a few people there, he runs a deli. But unlike the others, he’s managing an entirely plant-based stall.

He runs Luhv Vegan.

Lucci and his parents, Daniel and Silvia, started the Luhv Vegan brand in 2015. The deli, like their bistro based in Hatboro, is a spin-off of the family’s manufacturing company, which sells black bean burgers 36

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in grocery stores across Pennsylvania and five other states. They opened the deli in September 2018.

Now Lucci works every day at the terminal, spending his days slicing vegan meat and cheese offerings and working the register, greeting most customers by name.

Among the stall’s items are corned seitan (a corned-beef substitute) and more traditional veganized sandwich fillers like ham, turkey and capicola substitutes. They also sell a selection of vegan cheeses to pair, including American, provolone and cheddar.

The deli’s most popular item is the Reuben (complete with sauerkraut, thousand island dressing, corned seitan and rye bread), but Lucci’s favorite is the sausage, egg and cheese sandwich.

“The patty isn’t your typical patty,” he says. “It’s made out of steel-cut oats [and] white and brown rice. The egg is made out of garbanzo flour and tofu puree. With a little bit of vegan American cheese? It’s just amazing.”

While the cheeses are currently being sourced from outside venders, Lucci’s father, a professional chef of 35 years, makes the seitan and veggie burgers sold at the stall, as well as all the ready-to-eat foods like tuna salad, pasta salad and soups.

A majority of deli customers, Lucci says, aren’t vegan, but they recognize the health benefits that come with the diet.

“It doesn’t matter where you’re coming from, how rich you are, how poor you are, what color your skin is—everybody has one common thing: They want to be healthy,” Lucci says. “More and more, and people are realizing that veganism is the easiest way to do it—especially now that it can taste so good.”

Lucci understands this on a personal level. He says his parents switched to veganism in hopes of becoming healthier. After the financial crash of 2008, they dealt with the stress of filing for bankruptcy in order to keep their restaurant afloat. They both switched to veganism because they were doing so poorly mentally and physically.

The family’s idea to go into the manufacturing business came when customers began asking if they could take home the vegan burger patties Daniel was making at his restaurant.

“After going through days without electricity or heat, when we had the idea to start a new business,” Lucci says, “we decided if we were going into business, it had to be for good.”

Adding a touch of irony, there’s a historic sign above Luhv Vegan’s stall left by Spataro’s Cheesesteaks that reads: “Drink Buttermilk and live FOREVER.” When the market manager originally showed Lucci the space, the sign made him laugh out loud.

But it’s also inspired him.

His goal, within the next year, is to create a vegan buttermilk he can sell. That way, the sign will be true—at least for the most part.

“Maybe you’ll live forever,” he says. “No guarantees.”

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EV EN TS

april 2019

A pril 5-7

A pril 13-14

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Philadelphia Environmental Film Festival

Decibel Magazine Metal & Beer Fest

Philadelphia City Nature Challenge

This annual film festival is designed to inspire environmental action throughout the year, as well as to entertain and to inform. It features multiple film screenings and juried awards. philaenvirofilmfest.org

Decibel Magazine is hosting a heavy metal and craft beer festival, featuring rare appearances from Triptykon, Baroness, Obituary, Enslaved and Exhorder. Beer vendors include Broken Goblet, Stoudt’s, 2SP, 3 Floyds and others. decibelmagazine.com

Philadelphia will compete against 130 other cities using the iNaturalist app to log as many different wildlife observations as possible. Though the City Nature Challenge has existed since 2016, this is the first year that Philadelphia is involved. VIsit the below website for specific events and locations.

WHEN: Times vary by film COST: Varies by showings WHERE: The Prince Theater, 1412 Chestnut St.

WHEN: 5 p.m. to 11 p.m. COST: $35-160 WHERE: The Fillmore, 29 E. Allen St.

cncphilly.org COST: Free

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A pril 14

Toad Nights Learn about the lives and science of American toads as well as conservation efforts happening at the Schuylkill Center. After the presentation, visit the center’s ponds to listen and look for toads. schuylkillcenter.org WHEN: 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. COST: $10-15 WHERE: Schuylkill Center, 8480 Hagys Mill Rd.

Manayunk StrEAT Food Festival More than50 food trucks and vendors line Main Street, selling everything from BBQ and desserts to fresh fruits and vegetables.

Participating vendors will be highlighting strawberries as this year’s highlighted spring ingredient. manayunk.com WHEN: 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. COST: Free WHERE: Main Street, Manayunk

Cherry Blossom Festival of Greater Philadelphia Celebrate the blooming of the cherry blossom trees planted around the city with a week of Japanese dance, martial arts performances, music, food and art events that culminate on April 14, “Sakura Sunday.” japanphilly.org WHEN: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

WHERE: Most days are free, Sakura Sunday is $15

A pril 20-21 African American History and Culture Showcase You’ll have the chance to view never-before-seen artifacts and exhibits from private collections. The showcase also features historical reenactments, documentaries and poetry readings that celebrate the diverse cultural contributions ofAfrican American individuals.blackhistoryshowcase.org WHEN: 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. COST: Free WHERE: Pennsylvania Convention Center, 1101 Arch St.

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Center City Jazz Festival Celebrate the jazz scene in Philadelphia at five different venues—Frankie Bradley’s, Chris’ Jazz Cafe, Fergie’s Pub, Maison 208 and TIME Restaurant—with more than a dozen different performers, including the Marc Cary Trio, Threezus and Sumi Tonooka. ccjazzfest.com WHEN: 1 to 7 p.m. COST: $20 WHERE: Various venues

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West Craft Fest Located in a 19th-century cemetery, West Craft Fest features more than 100 local makers as well as food vendors, live music and activities to keep kids busy while parents browse. Previous years have showcased vendors selling jewelry, books, soaps, paintings and other fine arts. westcraftfest.wixsite.com WHEN: 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. COST: Free WHERE: The Woodlands, 4000 Woodland Ave.

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Choose Friends Center for Your Eco-Friendly Office!

Friends Center is seeking a select few nonprofits to join our community of nearly 40 nonprofits working for good.

Since 1856, Friends Center has been a gathering place for the community. With our LEED Platinum green renovation, modern open or closed-door offices, updated wired and wifi networks, and other amenities, we are historic as well as up to date—and ready for your nonprofit to move in.

Shared meeting and event rooms available to tenants • One- to three-year leases only Centrally located and easily accessible • Bike, transit and pedestrian friendly Member of the Sustainable Business Network For more information: Chris Mohr 215-241-7191 • cmohr@friendscentercorp.org friendscentercorp.org • 1501 Cherry Street, Philadelphia, PA 19102 AP RIL 20 19

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M A R S H A L L WA R F I E L D LAURA WEBB H A N N A H W E I N ST E I N K I RST E N W E R N E R

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Getting into the weeds An urban park supervisor enhances his landscaping experience with environmental science VIRTUAL CAFÉ Join the MES program director from 12-1 p.m. on the first Tuesday of every month for an online chat about your interests and goals.

For his Master of Environmental Studies capstone project, Sam Royer (MES ’19) is evaluating the sustainability of the University of Pennsylvania’s highly trafficked Penn Park. Tracking invasive weeds, taking inventory of the changing treescape and assessing the underground water management system, Sam’s research reveals a detailed portrait of the riverside athletic park’s environmental health seven years after it was built.

“An open space of this size in an urban environment receives tremendous pressure on a daily basis,” he writes. “The findings from this research may contribute to Penn’s future ecological success.”

Log in with us.

www.facebook.com/UPennEES @Penn_MES_MSAG

Few people know Penn Park as well as Sam: as a park supervisor at Penn, he oversees the landscape maintenance of Penn Park and Shoemaker Green. Working full-time while completing the program has its challenges, he says, but access to Penn’s cutting-edge research has been eye-opening.

“I’m learning the science behind ecology,” explains Sam, whose coursework includes aqueous geochemistry and field biogeochemistry. “The biggest thing I’ve learned is that I’ve got a lot more to learn.”

To learn more about the steps Sam takes toward sustainable land management at the University of Pennsylvania, visit:

WWW.UPENN.EDU/GRID