Grid Magazine October 2019 [#125]

BABIES ON

BOARD OCTOBER 2019 / ISSUE 125 / 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

The ups and downs of car-free city families

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(L-R) Jonah Purtle, Jonathan Purtle, Sara Hirschler and Theo Purtle are a family dedicated to biking the streets of Philadelphia.

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Monthly Maker Charlie Andersen Philadelphia, PA agrbt.com @augeanrobotics WHAT ARE YOU CURRENTLY WORKING ON? We build a robot called Burro. Burro is a collaborative robot, designed to help people work more productively in an agricultural setting by carrying cargo around. Burro is highly data-acquisitive, and is laying the ground work for more and more autonomy where it is needed most.

WHAT’S THE HARDEST PART? Robots that work outside have to tackle some of world’s hardest engineering challenges. Things like localization (Where am I?) and perception (Is that plant a weed or is it a crop? Can I drive through it?) are complex challenges that require an incredible team able to work across many interconnected disciplines, and generally in harsh environments.

WHAT ARE YOU GOALS? We are trialing our product with a variety of large growers of crops like table grapes and blueberries, and racing towards the point that we can sell our robots outright. Longer term, we envision a future where collaborative robots work alongside people to make our food system more sustainable.

Discover more stories nextfab.com/grid #nextfabmade

NextFab is a network of collaborative makerspaces.

North Philly

South Philly

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Wilmington

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EDI TOR ’S NOTES

managing editor Alexandra W. Jones associate editor Timothy Mulcahy copy editor David Jack Daniels art director Michael Wohlberg writers Bernard Brown Sonia Galiber Constance Garcia-Barrio Alexandra W. Jones Randy LoBasso Claire Marie Porter Meenal Raval Jon Roesser Lois Volta Helen Walsh photographers Linette Kielinski Natalie Piserchio Albert Yee illustrators Lois Volta Jameela Wahlgren advertising Santino Blanco santino@gridphilly.com 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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alex mulcahy

On the Road, Yield To Everyone

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t takes 5 minutes and 19 seconds for my seven-year-old son and I to bike to his school. At least that’s how long it took the other day when we timed it. I suspect it was a little faster than past rides because we rode on the street.

Last year our bike commute took place exclusively on the sidewalk. It worked, but often they were crowded with people using them for their intended purpose: walking.

So we would slow down or stop, and try to avoid being a nuisance. But even that short ride, populated by understanding parents, felt like an intrusion.

The distance from home to school is about six blocks, and half of them have bike lanes. The streets have steady, if not heavy, traffic. Not everyone drives carefully.

This is where the rubber hits the road on the hierarchy of values. Are you willing to take a risk—even if it’s a small one—with your family’s safety for the sake of the public good? Can you balance the risk with the positives, that biking promotes good health, makes you more independent and does not require fossil fuels to operate?

It shouldn’t be dangerous for anyone to ride a bike in the city, but it is. So I’m trying to teach my son nuances. Bikers have every right to be on the road, but not everyone respects that right. Always follow the rules, except when you feel like you might be in danger.

But I’m going to give a bit of advice by paraphrasing Sara Hirschler, a biker and a mother, featured in our cover story: yield to everyone. In the grand scheme of things, it’s not that important to be right.

It leads to an “us vs.them” mentality, dehumanizing people who have chosen a different form of transportation than we are using (at that moment). Worse yet, it can

lead to a dangerous competition, and the aggression of one bad driver is mirrored by someone trying to assert themselves on the road. When this happens, everyone— drivers, cyclists, skateboarders and pedestrians—is less safe. So friends, yield to everyone. And maybe that wisdom extends beyond the roads, too.

We have a new column in Grid authored by members of Soil Generation, a Black and Brown-led coalition of growers in Philadelphia. At their request, we are now capitalizing, Black, Brown and White when referring to race. We usually rely upon AP style guide for direction, but we’re making an exception because we believe that people should be called what they want to be called, whether it is a name, a pronoun or a label.

Also, this month is the final entry in Constance Garcia-Barrio’s column on the lives of Black women in Philadelphia since the Revolution. We didn’t do a great job within the magazine of explaining that this was a 12-part series, presented chronologically and spanning the time of Oney Judge, a woman held as a slave by George and Martha Washington, and now ending with a feature on young Black women. We will address that oversight when we imminently relaunch our website. You will be able to find them easily, and I highly recommend reading all of them.

ALEX MULCAHY Editor-in-Chief alex@gridphilly.com COV E R P HOTO BY L IN ETTE K I ELI NSKI

P O R T R A I T BY J A M E S B O Y L E

publisher Alex Mulcahy

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by

lois volta

DEAR LOIS,

How can we bring the change we want to see in the world into our domestic lives?

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ith the chilly weather upon us, our homes will reveal the seasonal obligations of closing storm windows, packing school lunches and having a functional hats-and-scarves bin. Every change of season gives us the opportunity to address habits that we’ve carved out over the years and possibly over a lifetime.

Marking the change of seasons with butternut squash soup and apple picking, we understand our place-in-time through ritual. We fall into the natural patterns of the seasonal changes of our beautiful planet.

As Philadelphians, we await the cold winter approaching and know that a pumpkin-spice latte isn’t going to cut it when the days are shorter and the possibility of seasonal depression pokes its head up like a seedling in spring soil.

It doesn’t surprise me that, every couple of months, when we know the weather will change, we ask ourselves to ‘be better’ or ‘start over.’ We protect ourselves from the bad habits of last year by using hope as a crutch.

Carving new grooves in our brain’s wiring isn’t a particularly easy task. Just like when working the muscles of our bodies, we know there will be growing pains and resistance.

We also know that when we set out for the stars, we might land on the moon.

When considering small changes in our domestic choices, we must remember that this is an uphill battle. One person attempting a zero-waste lifestyle can only do so much, like a drop of freshwater in an ocean of corporate waste. The mass-produced 4

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sentiment that ‘one person can make a difference’ is hard to wrap our heads around and comes across as propaganda.

Fundamentally, we need political powers that enforce laws and regulations that curb the escalation of climate change. But in the meantime, can we create solidarity and view ourselves as part of a broader, more robust movement of domestic awareness?

This is why I’m an advocate of refusing to buy senseless plastic products, toxic home-cleaning agents and paper towels.

That’s the ticket: Every small change we make should be identified as part of the movement to connect us to each other and

our dying Earth. Collective acts of rebellion and the refusal to participate in the status quo will make waves. It is how we live and vote that decides the fate of our planet and, as Americans we need to simplify our living habits and vote for leaders who believe that climate change is real. It is our global responsibility to unite in this capacity.

In the grocery store, I resent the number of choices I’m confronted with. Does buying prepackaged plastic-wrapped school lunches seem like a good idea? And does anyone even care? It seems like everyone, including me, is tired and wants things to be as convenient and easy as possible. Who has time to learn how to make homemade granola bars or sew reusable snack bags?

You do.

Our convenience comes at the expense of the Earth. Even in reducing our waste, we still contribute to the trash in our oceans.

We can’t do it all overnight, but we can start by collectively refusing to buy individual pre-packaged snack bags and learning how to buy in bulk. A do-it-yourself attitude has a bigger impact than you might think.

Making modifications, however great or small, to the way we live is the least we can do to participate in the greater narrative. It also requires that we look outside of our-

P O R T R A I T BY J A M E S B O Y L E

TH E VO LTA WAY

IL LUSTRATIO N BY LO I S VOLTA

2019_Grid_Ridership_9.19.19.pdf 1 9/19/2019 11:11:32 AM

selves and our lifestyle choices in order to consider the whole. What and who are we living for? It seems to me that we have all done the mental gymnastics to self-exonerate and convince ourselves that buying our children sugar-filled, plastic-wrapped ‘nutritional fruit bars’ won’t give them Type2 diabetes, as the hallowed trash collector whisks away our mountain of problems.

How do we get ourselves to care, let alone convince others to? I don’t know.

I do know that if a society is a mirror of its people, how we live in our homes is important. Do we operate them autocratically or do we care for them in a socially conscious, ethically minded and holistic

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Making modifications, however great or small, to the way we live is the least we can do to participate in the greater narrative.” way? Gender equality, awareness of environmental concerns, respect for diversity and the value of work—these things must be taught, learned and applied in the home.

Awareness of our tangible, domestic reality can serve as a teacher and guide for deeper states of consciousness and societal healing.

How engaged are we and how willing are we to be the change we want to see?

The change of the season can serve to remind us that our world is changing, too.

Let’s not take that for granted. Let’s take our compulsion to be “better” and use it to make lasting change in ourselves and homes. If we are in it together, we will carry the hope for a better environment for all life. Keep pushing your wheel of love up the hill, you are not alone. lois volta is a home consultant, musician and the founder of Volta Naturals. loisvolta.com

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Riding public transportation frees up a significant amount of time and attention because someone else is doing the driving -- allowing you to spend your commute doing what you want, like catching up on your favorite show. Take back your commute.

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Clean Laundry Clean Planet Clean Slates

EN ERGY

by

meenal raval

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T

he climate crisis. We’ve all been saddened and alarmed by the news—species going extinct, unbreathable air, ice caps melting, extreme flooding and extreme temperatures. That’s why it’s no longer called “global warming,” but a climate crisis affecting us all.

How do we think our way out of this planetary catastrophe? There’s no one person to blame and no one person who can solve it.

Instead of shrugging your shoulders and disappearing into your own virtual reality, read about the Sierra Club’s Ready for 100 campaign (sierraclub.org/ready-for-100).

The Ready For 100 campaign aims to increase the demand for renewable energy by focusing on transitioning each local municipality to 100 percent clean renewable energy. Though the volunteer teams continue advocating at the federal and state levels, the focus has been to convince municipal governments of the urgency of the climate crisis and the power we have at the local level to transition our entire town’s public and private energy needs to clean, renewable energy.

To date, one in four Americans now live in a community with a 100 percent renewable energy commitment.

Of the 135 municipalities across the nation, 21 are in Southeastern Pennsylvania. Chester County paved the way in 2017 and now has eight towns committed and working on an energy transition plan: Phoenixville, West Chester and Downingtown in 2017; Kennett and East Bradford in 2018; and Uwchlan, East Pikeland and Schuylkill in 2019.

Delaware County followed suit, with commitments first from Havertown, then Radnor, and, just last month, Swarthmore.

Sierra Club members in Montgomery County started the effort in late 2017, and now eight townships and boroughs have set goals for transitioning the entire town to be powered by 100 percent clean renewable energy. Which towns? Again, in sequence of commitment date: Springfield, Ambler, Cheltenham, Norristown, Plymouth, Narberth, Conshohocken, and most recently, Upper Merion.

Abington and Bridgeport have made a commitment as well.

Each town crafted a resolution in its own words. Broadly, to transition all electricity needs by 2035 and all heating and transportation needs by 2050—or sooner.

As we tell each of our volunteer leaders, once your town makes this commitment, each decision made going forward will require reviewing it with a climate lens. How will this reduce emissions? Or make our region more resilient to extreme weather?

Or our people healthier?

This fall, with leadership from Philadelphia City Councilmembers Maria Quinones Sanchez and Blondell Reynolds Brown, Philadelphia will be introducing a resolution committing the City of Philadelphia to a goal of powering our entire city with renewable energy.

No, this won’t be easy. But it will ask each of us to replace any fossil fuel–based application with one powered by electricity or a simpler option. An example is replacing a gas dryer with an electric dryer, or a clothesline.

Are you ready for 100? The question is: Are you ready for clean air? And clean water? And a house that’s less likely to flood?

I think we all are.

See readyfor100.org/philly for more.

meenal raval is a catalyst for the Sierra Club’s Ready for 100 campaign and Solarize Southeast PA, to assist people transitioning away from fossil fuels like coal, oil, gas and gasoline.

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P O R T R A I T BY J A M E S B O Y L E

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urban naturalist

Sandi Vincenti and her daughter, Lily, enjoy the Discovery Garden on a Sunday afternoon by catching salamanders (seen above) and other critters.

A Lot of Potential Local environmental educator builds wildlife by bernard brown oasis in Fishtown

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andi vincenti isn’t sure where the toads came from, but they first appeared when she and her family began rehabilitating the vacant lot next to her home in 2010.

The lots at 1846-50 Sepviva Street in Fishtown have now become A Child’s Inspiration: Wildlife Discovery Garden. A sign from the National Wildlife Federation hangs near the entrance, certifying it as “Wildlife Habitat” under the Garden for Wildlife program, which, in its own words, empowers people “to turn their own small pieces of Earth into thriving habitats for birds, bees, butterflies, and other wildlife.”

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As Vincenti did for the toads.

“There are at least half a dozen that I’ve seen,” she says; all are American toads.

During my visit to the garden, we easily found one under a rock bordering a flower bed.

Toad colonization might make sense if these lots were bordered by a park, but they’re surrounded by block after block of row homes, and they’re just one block away from busy Frankford Avenue. Vincenti and her husband, Dan, moved to the area nine years ago from Abington.

“It felt like a natural transition away from the suburban sprawl,” Vincenti says. “This house was much tinier than [what] we were

looking for, but we loved the fact that it had the two lots next to it that, at the time, were overgrown but had so much potential.”

Developing vacant lots into nature-education spaces made sense for Vincenti, who started her career in child and family programming at the Philadelphia Zoo and now is the director of early childhood education at the Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education.

In the lots, Vincenti has planted trees, including a redbud and a hop hornbeam from TreePhilly, and added native plants such as anise-scented hyssop and white aster. In 2016, then-Eagles linebacker Connor Barwin pitched in to plant a sweetbay magnolia.

Vincenti has also added water, including a small tank near the street that houses guppies beneath a layer of duckweed and a small garden pond toward the back with two rescued red-eared sliders (the little green turtles P HOTO G RAP HY BY N ATAL IE P I SERC HI O

that are often illegally sold by street vendors to unwitting parents and then quickly outgrow their tanks).

The vacant lots, which are in the process of being preserved as community garden space, came with an abandoned blue Volkswagen Jetta, now topped by what looks like a white treehouse.

“Rather than drag it out, we decided to leave it in,” says Vincenti, “and eventually we got the idea to build this observatory-playhouse-birdblind fort. Most of what we did in here was with recycled materials.”

Native bees also benefit from new structures in the garden, though on a much smaller scale. Vincenti has obtained native bee nesting boxes from Crown Bees as well as the Honeybee Conservancy.

Housing for mason and leafcutter bees: one looks like a bird house with two wooden blocks drilled with rows of holes. Other bee housing features hinged panels that open to reveal the bee nests in tubes, protected by a pane of glass. One of these tubes is stuffed with little bits of leaves, the work of a leafcutter bee.

“There’s so much love for the honey bees that we often neglect the native bees that tend to do way more for pollination,” says Vincenti, who also points out a patch of bare soil used by mason bees to build their nests.

“We’re happy to keep the garden a natural space for people to come in and learn about the environment,” says Vincenti, but starting in 2015 she began offering programming in other places.

“Nature Heroes is our outreach program,” says Vincenti. “It started out with just me doing it, and then more and more other artists and educators caught on and wanted to get involved.”

The Discovery Garden is open to the public, says Vincenti, but she recommends that anyone interested in visiting or attending a Nature Heroes event start by visiting their Facebook pages. They offer programming at Penn Treaty Park as well as in gardens and green spaces in East Kensington.

“We want to activate kids to be excited about nature, to provide for nature in their own little spaces, whether that’s a window box or if they have some space to call their own,” she says.

Perhaps toads will show up there, too.

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the blacker the berry

An Introduction to Soil Generation

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n 2018, soil generation launched our first ever policy campaign in response to a rapid wave of land lost

by Black and Brown farmers in Philadelphia. We did extensive research throughout our network to understand how power, money and land decisions flow through the city. We identified the agents that hold the decision-making power and opportunities for accountability, made demands we felt were most urgent and tangible and very publicly claimed the urban agriculture narrative to restore truth to its history.

Urban agriculture goes far beyond the stereotypical hipster organic hobby. The history of urban ag in Philadelphia goes back generations. It is a response to uprooted traditions and an act of self-determination.

When Black folks from the South moved to northern cities during the Great Migration (1916-1970) seeking employment and opportunity, many came from agricultural lineages, with histories spanning from slavery to sharecropping to Black land ownership. When immigrant communities moved to Philadelphia for the same kind of economic opportunity, they brought their

A Soil Generation member holds a protest sign condemning Black and Brown land loss.

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foods and traditions with them. Historically, and currently, urban agriculture in Philadelphia stems from Black and immigrant groups growing roots in their new home, looking for work and escaping brutal circumstances.

This practice became even more crucial to the survival of these communities as

by

sonia galiber

racist policies and practices exacerbated the political and economic injustices surrounding land. When deindustrialization hit Philadelphia in the 1970s, many factories were shut down or relocated, erasing the very work many people migrated to do. It’s not hard to spot a neglected or shut down industrial landscape in the city today. These

Sonia Galiber, the author, tends to a patch of leafy greens.

P H OTO G R A P H Y C O U R T E S Y O F G E N R O L L I N S A N D S O N I A GA L I B E R

Land history, insecurity, and why we fight for threatened gardens

are the same landscapes where you’ll find spaces that have been nurtured to not only grow food, but also build community, carry tradition, heal the land and generate equity for the neighborhood.

The rapid and displacing development in Philadelphia has destabilized most of our communities’ ability to stay in our homes, provide for our families and pursue the homegrown, self-determined opportunities we’ve created. Land that had often been neglected by the city or the deed holder, but beautified, cared for and utilized and claimed by the people is now back on the market to be sold to the highest bidder.

There are now bulldozers and apartment buildings where people of color tended to the land and fed our communities for well over a decade. Some locations have been in operation for much longer.

Champions of development with no regard for community impact often cite the legality of land ownership and entitlement. That perspective does not stand on just grounds when it neglects the impact of land grabbing on human lives. These are the same legal grounds that have institutionalized countless barriers to opportunity for Black and Brown people.

Policy is not the litmus test for what is just. Policy reflects those who write it, enforce it and interpret it. It’s only meant to be accessible to these groups.

Our ecology is changing rapidly. As the people most impacted by environmental and economic injustices, Black and Brown people have already been doing the work of learning to live with the land in ways that policy does not reflect, nor can the status quo address.

Policy, while left to its process, fails to rectify the relationships that will ultimately carry us into a way of life that is as abundant as nature herself. Realizing that policy is one of the apparatuses that stands between us and our vision of culturally rich, healthy, agroecological communities, we fight for threatened gardens, for community control of land, for the land we steward and all the history, labor and love it holds for racial and economic justice. We organize.

The Blacker the Berry is a column done in collaboration with Soil Generation, a Black and Brown-led coalition, to bring you stories about food and racial and economic justice in the Philadelphia area.

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cooperatives

Co-Ops Mean Community Cooperative businesses foster human connection in by jon roesser an increasingly isolated world

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n 1989, sociologist Ray Oldenburg introduced the social concept of third place, the place where you connect with your community. As the concept goes, first place is where you live, second place is where you work or go to school, and third place is what brings us all together, places like barbershops, coffee houses, libraries and parks.

A community without such third places is, actually, not really a community at all.

Food co-ops are the ne plus ultra of Oldenburg’s concept. There’s no third place like a grocery store owned by the neighborhood.

You can see this easily in Philadelphia.

Weavers Way itself has locations in three neighborhoods: Mt. Airy, Chestnut Hill and Ambler. There’s also venerable Mariposa Food Co-op in West Philadelphia, the brand new Kensington Community Food Co-op near Lehigh Avenue and the 82-year-old Swarthmore Co-op, one of the oldest food co-ops in the country. We’ll soon be joined by the South Philly Food Co-op, 12 GR ID P H I L LY.CO M O C TO B E R 20 1 9

under construction at Juniper Street and Snyder Avenue.

Unlike corporate-owned-and-operated grocery stores, each co-op store has a different personality and layout, truly reflecting the communities they serve.

This month, local food co-ops like Weavers Way, where I’m the general manager, will have a day dedicated to their positive impact on the city.

On Friday, October 18, Mayor Jim Kenney will declare October 19 the first Philadelphia Grocery Co-op Day, inviting all food co-ops in the Philadelphia area to City Hall to shed light on what we do. The hope is that such recognition will push consumers toward coops and away from online vendors like Amazon, which make grocery shopping convenient and often cheap for consumers but fail to source food from local vendors and offer no sense of community for neighbors.

To celebrate Philadelphia Grocery Co-op Day, all co-ops in and around the city will celebrate with specials and product demos, and will offer some fun incentives to get folks to become members and learn more about co-ops in general.

A food co-op—put simply, a grocery store owned by its members—is an exercise in community collaboration. It works like this: A group of neighbors, wary of the fickle whims of grocery chains, take ownership of the situation and open their own store.

The public is most welcome to shop, but this store, in the most tangible, fundamental sense, belongs to those who live locally and shop there frequently: its members.

Since it’s the community that gives birth to a food co-op, the co-op becomes a reflection of its community’s unique values and priorities. Want to get a feel for a neighborhood?

Visit its co-op. Co-ops are built of community DNA. As an alternative economic model, we also tend to attract a wide array of misfits, oddballs, iconoclasts and nonconformists, and we wouldn’t want it any other way.

Co-ops are controlled locally, so they focus on supporting the local economy by serving as a critical link between the Philadelphia foodshed and values-driven consumers, for whom grocery shopping is not just about price and convenience.

It is these values-driven consumers who tend to be most supportive of their neighborhood co-op. We offer them an alternative path from the corporate grocery mainstream, one committed to shared prosperity. It’s a fairer path and, ultimately, a more sustainable one.

Co-ops shape our communities, and not just because they are great neighborhood amenities. Because we serve as a community third place, co-ops are where neighbors connect with one another, and the spirit of cooperation on which our business model is based fosters community engagement.

Engaged communities are increasingly important in a world where people feel ever more disconnected from society, in an era where technology allows people to cocoon in their homes, and when too many people foster fear and distrust of others.

Co-ops can be a powerful antidote to this isolation. It’s why every community should own its own grocery store. And why this day set aside to appreciate Philadelphia’s grocery co-ops is so exciting.

jon roesser is the General Manager of the Weavers Way Cooperative Association located in Mt. Airy at 559 Carpenter Lane.

IL LUSTRATIO N BY JAM E E L A WA HLGREN

THIS AUGUST, Philly Foodworks and its members made a $17,000 loan to local farmer John Glick.

John will use this money to purchase a greenhouse and produce greens for Philly Foodworks members during the winter.

Greenhouses are smart investments for farms because they increase the duration of the growing season as well as increase the yield during the traditional growing season. Greenhouses are smart investments for customers, because they increase the availability of local

product during the winter and spring as well as help local farmers become more financially sustainable.

The concept behind the original C.S.A. (Community Supported Agriculture) programs was to share the financial risk of small scale farming with the whole community. By lending our community capital to John, we are sharing the risk together. Building a local food system is only possible if we as a community decide to invest in our land, our people, and our selves. Thank you Philadelphia for everything you do.

Philly Foodworks is a distribution network and online market in which eaters, distributors, and producers are all in it together. By investing in the mutual success and satisfaction of all parties along the way from the farm to your plate, we are determined to create a truly sustainable food system for our region.

When you shop Philly Foodworks, you too are helping change our food system! phillyfoodworks.com | 215-221-6245 | info@phillyfoodworks.com

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black history

Black Girl Magic 21st Century youth share their passions, dreams and insights by

constance garcia-barrio

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hiladelphia recently lifted the cloak of invisibility from its Black girls, capturing their smarts and spirit, with a new statue in West Passyunk—and it’s high time.

“MVP,” unveiled in July at Smith Playground and Recreation Center is the first statue of an individual Black girl among Philadelphia’s 1,500 public sculptures, but Black girls have been contributing their labor to the city’s growth since the early 1700s.

In the 1800s, young Black women added luster to Philly’s cultural standing through their friendship albums, which contained exquisite calligraphy and paintings, and essays by the likes of Frederick Douglass.

Black writers pointed to the albums as indicators of racial progress, according to Nazera Sadiq Wright, Ph.D., associate professor of English at the University of Kentucky and author of Black Girlhood in the Nineteenth Century.

The sculpture’s face has a look of determination, a quality much needed by African-heritage girls nationwide. Several studies, including Girlhood Interrupted: The Erasure of Black Girls’ Childhood, released in 2017 by Georgetown Law School’s Center on Poverty and Inequality, on the adultification of Black girls, show that teachers and school administrators often swallow the stereotype that African American girls need less nurturing and protection than White girls. This misperception leads the school staff to dish out harsher punishments, such as suspension and expulsion, to Black girls than White girls for the same infractions.

This may cause the girls to be excluded from academic opportunities and labeled in ways that follow them and stunt their lives.

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Taylor Snowden, 17, plans to become a lawyer someday.

Food insecurity and domestic duties that sometimes mean caring for younger siblings often increase their stress.

Despite these challenges, Philadelphia has the blessing of some Black girls who’ve found the support to develop their talents and give their best to the city in the future.

Many of them already have ideas about how to solve problems in their community and throughout the city. According to Jordan Dease-Medley, 12, a student at Wissahickon Charter School, a more comprehensive curriculum could help instill pride in

African-heritage students.

“I like social science because we get to talk about Africa,” she says. “We have history, too, but it doesn’t cover slavery. History classes need to include it.”

She also has an idea for how to defuse conflicts citywide.

“At school, we use peer mediators to help solve problems,” Dease-Medley says. “Maybe [trained] neighbors could be peer mediators and help with conflicts in the community.”

When it comes to cutting violence, Journey Jones, 17, who attends AIM Academy, P HOTO G RAP HY BY AL BERT YEE

A few years ago, Snowden helped to create Stay Woke Day at her school.

We must find ways to dismantle the school-to-prison pipeline.”

— t ayl or snowden an independent co-ed, college prep school in Conshohocken for students with language-based learning differences, stresses the importance of expressing emotions constructively.

“It can be difficult to learn how to show emotions,” says Jones, who has a diagnosis of ADHD and dyslexia. “Therapy can help.

Black people have experienced trauma, and we need therapy. I’m privileged to have access to therapy, but it needs to be available to everyone.”

She also believes education can have an impact.

“Schools can play a critical role by presenting the full range of career possibilities—including work in psychotherapy—to students of color,” she says.

Jones, a veteran of Young Playwrights, which puts on public performances of student-written plays, also finds theater essential for self-expression. The arts help heal both artist and audience, she explains, noting she also performs with Danse4Nia

Repertory Ensemble, a Philadelphia-based multi-cultural dance company. She plans to do songwriting and theater in the future.

Like Jones, Jaida Copeland, 16, finds dance self-affirming. Copeland attends the Franklin Learning Center and also studies at Danse4Nia, which promotes “positive personal, social, and cultural change.”

“I’m shy, and dance allows me to speak without words,” says Copeland, who envisions creating and leading a business devoted to affordable organic cosmetics.

Taylor Snowden, 17, has already tasted leadership. A few years ago, Snowden and some of her friends started Stay Woke Day at Greene Street Friends School, where they were students.

“We wanted more diversity, so we planned the program and lined up a speaker,” says Snowden, now a student at Philadelphia High School for Girls. Greene Street still holds the event, though the title has morphed into Diversity Day, Snowden says.

At Girls’ High, Snowden lives and

breathes math and Spanish, and also runs track. She aims to become a lawyer.

“We must find ways to dismantle the school-to-prison pipeline,” says Snowden, who’s already working toward that goal through a program at the American Friends Service Committee. She also took part in a workshop on criminal justice reform at the University of Pennsylvania this summer.

“We must find alternatives to incarceration for young people of color,” she says.

Sade Black, 18, a student at Murrell Dobbins Vocational High, and Sybria Deveaux, 17, who attends Bartram High, both interns in the Sankofa Community Farm at Bartram’s Garden for several summers, take an earth-centered approach to growing their talents and strengthening the community.

Black, in her third year at Sankofa, feels called to leadership.

“I help newcomers learn the basics, like weeding and caring for vegetables,” she says. “I’m giving tours of the site now, too.”

In addition, she shares her knowledge through a cookbook.

“It has recipes based on produce we grow here,” says Black, who writes poetry and short stories as well. “The book includes oils, seasonings, everything.”

Black plans to become a nurse and include nutrition in her practice.

While she nurtures the land, the land nurtures her.

“I know all the trees, and I like to climb them,” Black says. “There’s a special tree I sit under to meditate. People of color need time in green spaces.”

Sybria Deveaux has not only grown food here but a new outlook. “I was stubborn,” she says. “Someone would say, ‘Can I help you with that?’ and I’d say, ‘No thanks. I’m okay.’ Now I see the value of cooperation.”

Deveaux has also picked up skills by helping to manage Sankofa’s farmstand.

“We have a market at 51st and Lindbergh and at Clark Park,” she says. “Last year we sold 15,000 pounds of organic produce, including vegetables used in West African and African American cooking.”

She says the farmstand gives them a chance to talk with people about nutrition and how to grow good food.

“We want to share what we’ve learned with our families and friends and the whole community,” Deveaux says. “We want to have a ripple effect.”

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bike talk

The Silent Majority Threats fly at South Philadelphia meeting to discuss bike lane changes

18

shouldn’t be at a public meeting.

“Not one person there opposing the change was there in good faith,” said Amy Cherowitz, a Center City bike courier, after the meeting. “No matter how clear and reasonable the answers were, they didn’t listen.”

Many of the arguments made by those opposed to the ongoing construction were about the loss of parking, but they often devolved into anti-bike speech: Bicyclists run red lights and stop signs, they “don’t pay taxes,” and so on.

One man actually ranted about a cyclist who was killed in 2017, publicly saying she was killed because she was wearing headphones and watching a movie on her phone while cycling, but actually the driver who hit her has been charged with reckless driving for wearing earbuds and not looking at the road.

Though cyclists in the audience stayed quiet most of the time, one man, toward the end of the meeting, said he liked the new bike lanes. As explained by Bill West on his blog, West Words Philly: The bicyclist then did something unusual.

He asked for a round of applause for the city and the Passyunk Square Civic. And

2019 P H ILLY BIK E EXP O • N OV. 2-3 • PA CO N V E N TI O N CE N TE R

randy lobasso

there was a tremendous amount of clapping. Many, possibly most, of the people in the room were actually in favor of the redesign. They’d been sitting quietly through all the histrionics of the opposition; now it was their turn, and they used it well.

While it’s understandable why some South Philly residents don’t want to lose any parking spaces, the change to 11th Street’s infrastructure is actually pretty tame, and it will improve safety for everyone, including pedestrians and motorists.

The city went above and beyond to keep as much parking as possible, opting to move the bike lane to another part of the street and “daylight” the intersections, which means improving visibility. Much more has been done for far fewer cyclists and, according to the U.S. Census report, in Southeast Philly, 8.1% of people use biking as their means of transportation to work.

Was this project worth all the outrage that spilled out at this meeting? Probably not.

But Philadelphia’s cycling community is ready for change: We will attend these meetings, we will voice our concerns and we will earn our right to ride safely throughout the city.

South Philadelphia residents have a heated discussion about the new bike lane project for 11th Street.

P H OTO C O U R T E S Y O F A A R O N B O W M A N

W

hen south philadelphia resident Kate Mundie left a Passyunk Square Civic Association public meeting last month, her 9-year-old son was crying.

He thought the people were going to try to kill him because earlier in the night, a woman said at the meeting she had considered killing a cyclist with her car.

Here’s the scene: The Passyunk Square Civic Association invited the Philadelphia Office of Infrastructure, Transportation and Sustainability to announce the creation of a new project designed to increase visibility of bikers at intersections and create a bike lane on 11th Street, which would require the sacrifice of about 20 parking spaces.

Within a few minutes of the presentation, some residents, who were informed of the project months ago, became enraged about the parking spaces the city had sacrificed.

And though they represented a small minority of residents at the meeting, they were the loudest.

One man, who arrived at the meeting about 15 minutes late, cut through the crowd to get to the center of the room. Once there, he screamed at the city Bicycle and Pedestrian Coordinator Jeannette Brugger and Deputy Managing Director of Transportation Michael Carroll about parking and his problems with bicyclists in general.

He was escorted out of the room by Councilperson Mark Squilla.

The goal of naysayers seemed to be to prevent the opposing view from getting a word in.

“I saw kids covering ears and crying,” said Eugene Desyatnik, a South Philadelphia resident in favor of the bike lane. “It was horrible. I tried to point that out to the folks yelling and cursing.”

Several people with children left the meeting when adults began screaming threats.

“I’m not going to subject him to that,” a man with his young son said to me as they left the meeting. One member of the loose coalition of opposition said if adults didn’t want their children to hear the threats, they

by

O CTO B E R 20 19 G R I DP HI LLY.COM 1 9

Aaron Bauman, Leigh Goldenberg and their daughter Tilde Bea have learned through practice how to be a happily car-free family.

BIKING WITH KIDS Bright clothing, big signs and a sense of what’s safe guide these car-free families story by claire marie porter • photography by linette kielinski

O

n a friday afternoon this past summer Leigh Goldenberg, executive director of Theatre Philadelphia and a cyclist and car-free South Philly resident, was biking home from an event at the Oval with her 4-year-old, Tilde Bea, on the back of her commuter cargo bike. At a stoplight on the corner of Rittenhouse Square, a woman in a car rolled down her window and berated Goldenberg for putting her child in danger.

“The old rules were so much safer,” said the stranger, adding that she would never bike in the street with her child.

“Oh, the rules before there were cars?” was Goldenberg’s retort.

The stranger shook her head dismissively, says Goldenberg, while continuing to tell her how unsafe she was.

Tilde had a lot of questions for her mother after this encounter. What wasn’t safe about biking when “this is what we do all the time?” asked Tilde, who has commuted on a bike with her parents her entire life.

Goldenberg is accustomed to angry and bewildered drivers. During her pregnancy with Tilde, she continued biking, and even got a more upright bike to accommodate her belly in her third trimester. Verbal harassment from drivers, targeted particularly at her pre-motherhood choices, was persistent.

But she never let that stop her.

The two most frequent questions she got while pregnant were: When are you due?

And: When are you going to stop biking?

“Never,” said Goldenberg.

At 41 weeks, she was still riding her tandem bike with her husband, Aaron Bauman. She biked up until the day their daughter was born.

When many Americans think of biking with their kids, they probably conjure up an image of a suburban cul-de-sac, and the moment when they push their child off without training wheels for the first time, says Goldenberg.

“When you get a kid in the city,” she says, “it’s this extreme alternative that borders on

2 0 1 9 PHI L LY BI KE EX PO • NOV. 2-3 • PA CO N V E N TIO N C ENTER

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negligence in many people’s minds.”

Goldenberg herself has never owned a car. She relies solely on her bicycle in a world where “staying out of an SUV seems radical,” she says, and biking is viewed as a leisure activity that’s part of “wholesome American living.”

While car-free households have declined nationally over the past few years, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, Philadelphia boasts the highest rate of households that commute to work via bicycle in the country, at 2.3%.

But, as Goldenberg can attest, relying solely on a bicycle for transportation is much easier said than done when you start having kids.

With a toddler on the back, zig-zagging through traffic, dodging trash cans strewn across bike lanes and dealing with the emotional stress of uninformed rebukes by drivers isn’t very carefree.

“What I wish I’d told this driver, or any others if they would listen, is that riding a bicycle is dangerous because of cars. Car crashes make up the number one cause of death for kids—more than gun violence,” says Goldenberg, “and, that by keeping another car off the road we’re reducing pollution to create a safer environment for my kid’s generation.”

F

or goldenberg, living without a car became more complicated when Tilde was born, requiring specialized equipment that needed to be updated every couple of years.

When Tilde was around 6 months old, the couple bought a combination of a stroller and a bike called a Zigo. It looks like a large tricycle with a jogging stroller in the front.

Because Tilde was still too small for a helmet, they installed her car seat inside the Zigo’s carrying compartment. Pulling her around was very slow and exhausting, says Goldenberg, and they had no choice but to take up a car lane.

But, finally, they were able to bike places as a family.

When Tilde was a year and a half, and old enough to fit into a helmet, they outfitted their bike with an iBert, a front-mounted child bike seat that sits between the between the handlebars.

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Goldenberg says her “may use full lane” sign on the back of her bicycle has made drivers more patient and courteous.

Shortly thereafter, the family updated to an Xtracycle cargo bike, or a “long tail,” a lightweight cargo bike with an area behind the seat where children’s bike seats can easily be installed. They’ve been using that for the past few years.

Now, 5 years old and riding alone, Tilde bikes beside her parents for short distances.

For longer journeys, like the one to school, she still hops in a child seat on the back of her parent’s Yuba Mundo cargo bike. On a typical day, the couple uses this bike to drop off Tilde at school and then returns home to switch to their solo bikes and commute to work—all while navigating angry drivers, perilous sidewalks, inconsistent bike lanes with worn paint and any number of street-strewn obstacles.

The car-free commitment requires thinking about how to live your life more locally, she says. Sometimes that means they’ve had to miss out on some opportunities.

“When you’re a parent, convenience tends to be paramount,” says Goldenberg.

Goldenberg says they constantly need

to educate their child, who sometimes has questions after overhearing angry drivers’ shouting at them, about their commitments and choices.

Recently, the family ordered a full-sized street sign that says “may use full lane” and installed it on the back of their cargo bike, hoping it would help to remind drivers that cyclists have a right to the road.

“People have actually honked at me a lot less,” she says.

C

hristine knapp, a car-free resident living in South Philly and working as director of the Office of Sustainability in Center City, says biking is not just about the value of reducing her carbon footprint.

“When you walk, bike or take public transportation, you’re engaging with your fellow residents,” says Knapp. “It’s being an active citizen.”

She believes everyone should be able to bike.

“If people live in a neighborhood and

“[Riding] a bicycle is dangerous because of cars. Car crashes make up the number one cause of death for kids …”

—LEIGH GOLDENBERG

don’t feel like they have the tools or infrastructure, that’s a political position. They should vote … and make their voices heard,” says Knapp.

Knapp uses a cargo bike with a large wooden bucket on the front to bike with her child. When transporting her daughter, she feels cars are much more likely to respect her as a cyclist.

“When they see my daughter’s pink helmet, they’re much nicer,” she says.

Knapp says it’s important for drivers to change the way they see cyclists.

“We’re real people,” she says. “People in cars don’t see cyclists as people. We have families and jobs. We’re not the enemy.”

S

ara hirschler, of Northern Liberties, began rethinking her commute when she got pregnant. She started wearing a neon vest and has never stopped.

Her biking setup has transformed as her family has expanded. When she installed a windshield in front of her cargo bike a few

years ago, her friends joked that her bike is slowly turning into a car. They jokingly suggested a roof. “Not a bad idea,” was Hirschler’s reply.

“Part of going car-free is to be mindful that you’re probably going to have to evolve,” she says, comparing it to buying a car seat that can grow with the child. On a bicycle, as the child grows, their weight needs to be accommodated in different ways, from front- or back-mounted child seats when they’re smaller, to trailers, traila-bikes and tandems when they’re bigger.

On a typical day Hirschler loads up her Yuba Mundo, work items, her two kids’ backpacks and gear for school. Her children, ages one-and-a-half and 4, go to different schools: one near Fairmount and Ridge and one near Logan Square. Each day Hirschler and her husband take one kid each to school and back. More rarely, one of them will take both, she says.

Hirschler, who works for Fairmount Park Conservancy, found biking routes that make her feel safe. There are also routes that she completely avoids.

“It’s an everyday experiment of what feels safe and what doesn’t.” she says. “Block by block.”

“There absolutely are moments where it’s kind of unbelievable how unsafe it can feel,” she admits.

Before having kids, Hirschler says she wouldn’t have dreamed of using the sidewalk. But now, she does whatever it takes.

“I yield to whatever, whoever,” she says. “I want to be safe. That’s really the bottom line.”

If that means pulling over or getting on the sidewalk so an aggressive driver can pass her, she will.

“I feel like I sort of developed this extra sense of who’s behind me or what level of sound their car is emitting, or what energy is coming from them,” she adds.

She’s more careful now than she’s ever been. Both Hirschler and her husband wear neon vests, neon helmets and ride bright-orange longtail cargo bikes.

“You really can’t miss us,” she says. “It’s, like, kind of comical.”

Hirschler says she’s a stickler about cooking most meals at home, which makes carfree life challenging. They sometimes need to rely on grocery-delivery services, which she feels is unfortunate.

“I wish it were a little bit, or a lot, easier to feel supported in not owning a car,” she says.

She says she feels like the bike-friendly momentum that was happening years ago has died down, and the last few years have felt stagnant.

“It doesn’t feel like there’s big energy from the city,” she says. “It’s slow-going and piecemeal—like a stretch of protected lane that spans five blocks.”

But she and her family are committed to never owning a car. Every time they re-evaluate, it seems so obvious, she says.

Commuting by bike or transit, especially in Philly, is often faster. The car-free lifestyle eliminates the mental and financial burden of insurance, car payments and inspections, as well as the pain of city parking.

“In general we’re environmentally conscious people,” she says. “But at the same time, from a cost perspective it doesn’t make any sense [to own a car].”

Hirschler thinks there is a great amount of potential for Philly to be a bike- and family-bike-friendly city, and to get many more

2 0 1 9 PHI L LY BI KE EX PO • NOV. 2-3 • PA CO N V E N TIO N C ENTER

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people commuting on bike, but installing more protective infrastructure is the only way it could happen.

“Making safer infrastructure is the only way biking will be possible for more people,” she says. “That would be such an important thing for the city to do in the face of climate change.”

Goldenberg echoes hirschler’s sentiment. “If we’re going to be talking about climate change, and a green new deal—the lack of investment for pedestrians, cyclists and [public] transit is a problem,” she says.

She thinks the city needs to do more than just repaint its existing bike lanes.

“Paint is not infrastructure,” says Goldenberg. She feels that the city treats both pedestrians and cyclists as an afterthought.

“I feel very let down by our elected officials,” she says. “We are also taxpayers and residents.”

Her husband made a bot on Twitter, @ev-

“I yield to whatever, whoever.

I want to be safe.

That’s really the bottom line.”

—SARA HIRSCHLER

erylanephilly, in which he posts every lane in the city that’s considered a bike lane according to Google Maps’ street view. Some of the photos show views of lanes obstructed by parked vehicles, piles of leaves and paint that has worn away.

“Imagine taking your 5-year-old on some of these lanes,” says Goldenberg. “It’s shameful.”

And they don’t travel as far as some other families might. Both she and her husband only live two miles away from work, and they have good schools nearby.

Jonah Purtle and Sara Hirschler make themselves more visible to drivers with orange bicycles and yellow reflective gear.

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2019 P H ILLY BIK E EXP O • N OV. 2-3 • PA CO N V E N TI O N CE N TE R

“We recognize we’re able to make this choice because we can afford to live near where we work,” she says, acknowledging her privilege. “There are certainly families who wouldn’t be able to do this.”

In an ideal world, city officials might see that biking around the city fosters a sense of community that driving cannot.

“Living in a city is sharing space,” Goldenberg says. “We’re on our bike, waving at friends, observing things.”

“We’re a part of the city,” she says, “in a way you can’t be in a car.”

P E N N SYLVA N I A CO N V E N T I O N CE NTE R

Painting by Jeff C Williams

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•

Fair Play Elite women’s cycling team excels in spite by alexandra w. jones of a gender pay gap

C

ompeting for higher wages might be the biggest challenge facing female athletes.

“Women in cycling are under-resourced, under-recognized, underpaid and just provided less opportunity compared to men, even with the same skill and ability level,” says Taylor Kuyk-White, who works as a youth program manager for the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia.

In 2016, she became the first member of the Philly Bike Expo’s elite women’s team when Stephen and Bina Bilenky, the father-daughter founders of the Expo, recruited her.

According to Kuyk-White, Philadelphia 26

has an incredible scene for recreational women’s cycling teams.

“But there’s a void in what riders can aspire to once they reach the elite field,” she explains, noting there are a small number of elite women’s riding teams based in the area.

As the only female owner of a bike expo in the country, creating a women’s team was an intentional move on Bina’s part, KuykWhite says.

The Expo has made gender equity and inclusion a top priority since its inception, says Bina, who operates as the team’s manager.

“Promoting and increasing women’s participation in cycling and the industry is very important to me,” she explains. “Devel-

2 019 P H ILLY BIK E EXP O • N OV. 2-3 • PA CO N V E N TI O N CE N TE R

oping a women’s race team seemed like the right step to show my commitment.”

From 2016 to 2018, KuykWhite was the team’s only member, pedaling away in road, mountain bike and cycle-cross events. Toward the end of 2018, however, thanks to additional revenue from sponsors, the Expo was able to add Samantha Fox to its repertoire.

A biomechanist by day who researches healthy human movement for Thomas Jefferson University, Fox had befriended Kuyk-White at previous races.

“Taylor and I had both showed up with no teammates and ended up working together,” Fox explains.

The duo, complemented by seven guest riders, had a very successful 2019. After competing in 31 races across eight different states and four biking disciplines, the expo’s team members had placed 17 times on the podium, seven of which were race wins.

One of Fox’s favorite moments racing with the team was in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

“I didn’t get to finish because I got in an accident that broke my bike, but I got to watch Taylor from the sidelines just destroy and exceed her goals,” she says. Kuyk-White adds that as a team, they’ve developed a sense of unity.

Both are also advocating for more equality in the sport.

“It costs women the same amount to get bikes, to get service, to register for races, gas ... costs just as much,” Kuyk-White says.

“But then when I get to the race and I place, I will get paid less than a male colleague.”

Kuyk-White says the Philly Bike Expo elite team’s goal is to grow to five full-time riders for the 2020 season.

P H OTO C O U R T E S Y O F R O N S H O R T

From left to right: Samantha Fox, Jacqueline McClure and Elspeth Huyett round the track for the Philly Bike Expo elite women’s team.

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Participants in the 2019 Broad Street Run warm up beside discarded ponchos and other clothing items.

A RUNNER’S I FOOTPRINT What happens to the clothing that runners discard after they warm up? A behind-the-scenes look at this year’s Broad Street Run cleanup. by helen walsh P H OTO G R A P H Y C O U R T E S Y O F I N D E P E N D E N C E B LU E C R O S S

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n a steady rain on a 58 degree day in early May, runners line up for the Broad Street Run. A sea of 42,000 participants—many in disposable yellow-and-blue ponchos, modified trash bags and duct-taped shoes—eagerly await the starting gun.

Once it’s fired, runners quickly shed their protective gear; the ponchos and trash bags cover the ground as racers pound through Philadelphia.

Along with the disposable (though not recyclable) plastics go old sweatshirts, half- and quarter-zip outer layers, light jackets and all sorts of other gear. Instagram abounds with pictures of happy runners, the carnage of clothes dumped haphazardly in the background.

“People were taking off their clothes and ponchos and stuff … you really had to watch where you put your feet.”

—AUDREY FLEMING

Cast-off culture This was my first year running the race, and seeing the extreme amount of clothing waste lining the racecourse, I called my uncle, who’s participated in the Runner’s World Half and the Charlottesville Marathon, to find out if what I was seeing was unusual.

He confirmed that for many runners, wearing extra clothing at the start that will later be cast aside is a no-brainer if they want to keep warm or dry.

He hypothesized that the phenomenon is especially pronounced at large races, where there’s less room for runners to move around at the start and a smaller chance that someone at the start line will be able to hold onto unwanted clothing once the starting gun goes off.

The Broad Street Run, which operates on a lottery system for race entrants, attracts many firsttime runners who aren’t always familiar with this idiosyncratic element of road race culture.

Audrey Fleming, who ran the race with her boyfriend, Matt, and his father (a Broad Street veteran), says if Matt’s dad hadn’t suggested wearing old sweatshirts to throw off at the start, she would’ve thought the practice was a bit strange.

“People were taking off their clothes and ponchos and stuff … you really had to watch where you put your feet,” Fleming recalls.

But what happens to all those ponchos, bags and discarded clothes?

Challenging Recyclables Even if many runners weren’t bothered by the waste, the huge amount of debris generated by both the Broad Street Run and the Philadelphia Marathon series has caught

the attention of city organizers.

In fact, Nic Esposito, director of the city’s Zero Waste and Litter Commission, recalls that the whole concept of Zero Waste events “kind of started around runs.”

According to Esposito, back in 2007, current recycling director Kyle Lewis noticed the incredible amount of waste generated at the Philadelphia Marathon. Since then, the city has undertaken efforts to properly dispose of as much as possible from major race events like Broad Street—including paper water cups, uneaten post-race bananas and wooden pallets.

Clothing isn’t necessarily as easy to handle. Clearly not waste, it’s also not recyclable in the familiar sense. Compostable? Rarely.

Long gone are the days of the cotton sweatsuit à la Rocky. Instead, hi-tech race fabrics like UnderArmour’s HeatGear and Nike’s Dri-FIT consist primarily of synthetics like polyester and nylon. As a result of the ever-churning fast-fashion market, runners can often find good deals on these comfortable and sleek-looking fabrics in thrift stores and secondhand shops.

The Broad Street Run leaves us with mountains of variegated castoffs—either too worn for further use or too cheap to carry for 10 miles. This is where the city’s Zero Waste events program and waste-diversion initiatives come in.

An indirect result of Mayor Kenney’s 2016 mandate, the Zero Waste Events program is led by CleanPHL and the Zero Waste and Litter Cabinet, which defines itself as an “interdepartmental effort to continually reduce the waste entering landfills or conventional incinerators, combat litter and enhance the cleanliness of streets and public spaces.”

For the Broad Street Run, the efforts center around waste diversion—that is, redirecting an event’s waste away from “landfills and conventional incineration.”

In the case of the Broad Street Run, this means one big clothing donation.

Is it trash or is it laundry?

Donating the cast-off clothing from the run is a logistical feat.

During a typical year, the clothes discarded by runners are picked up near the starting line. Daniel Lawson, a sustainability and quality control manager for Philadelphia Parks and Recreation and organizer of the zero-waste efforts, notes that as runners start to move, the bulk of the items are left near the corrals (zones where runners are divided by pace). Theoretically, this makes it easier for a truck to follow the runners and for volunteers to quickly bag up and load the clothing before Broad Street is reopened.

Once in the truck, the hundreds of garbage bags full of clothing might be warehoused for up to two days until the designated recipients unload, sort and process the clothing. This year, however, the truck of dirty laundry was bound first for the Curran-Fromhold correctional facility in Northeast Philly.

There, the mass of runners’ discards was laundered through the PhilaCor program, which, according to its mission statement, has operated since 1988 “to train inmates within the Philadelphia Department of Prisons by providing real-life work experiences, to equip them with transferable job skills and a work ethic … while operating in a business-like manner at minimal cost to the taxpayers.”

At least for the Broad Street Run, this was fortunate—there are few other facilities in Philadelphia with the industrial capacity to process such an immense load of laundry.

Lawson confirms that Parks and Recreation paid 50 cents per pound, coming to a rough total of $2,073 for what, after being washed, dried, and folded, turned out to be 2.23 tons of clothing.

After the load of now-clean castoffs left Curran-Fromhold, it was on to the next stage of its journey—a donation to Chosen 300, a faith-based organization that provides meals, clothes and other services to Philadelphia’s homeless. The organization has three sites (in Callowhill, Mantua, and Pottstown) where the post-race influx of clothes is distributed to guests for two to three weeks.

According to Brian Jenkins, the center’s director, around 15–20 percent of the original donation typically remains, meaning 80–85 percent is utilized by the homeless.

In the past, surplus clothing had gone to O CTO B E R 20 19

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Impact Thrift, a religious nonprofit organization with stores in Feasterville, Montgomeryville and Norristown. The chain is now closed, Jenkins says.

“We are now using a recycling company that also supports our mission … for clothing that is not taken or usable,” Jenkins said in an email. He declined to release the company’s name.

However, a representative at Circle Thrift, which has received donations from the Broad Street Run in prior years, confirmed that the nonprofit typically resells unwanted clothing in bulk to third-party purchasers. According to the World Trade Organization data, in 2017, among the top three importers of bulk secondhand items were Pakistan, Malaysia and Ukraine, followed by Tunisia, India and Uganda.

Prepping for next year In terms of the immediate cleanup, the city’s Zero Waste Commission has developed a program that addresses both the excess clothing and the needs of the city to reopen the streets as soon as possible after the race—no mean feat, considering that this year’s 2.23-ton clothing donation was a mere fraction of the 5.63 tons donated from the Broad Street Run in 2018.

But for some, this year’s numbers were disappointing—leaving room for improvement.

Lawson says that clothing discarded miles from the start line was swept up by street cleaners. This was likely in part due to the low temperatures and fine rain, which left many runners still warming up at the end of mile one.

But both Lawson and Esposito identify one of the department’s biggest challenges as a lack of awareness.

“I think it’s an issue of educating people

Broad Street runners race among discarded paper cups.

and raising awareness. I think maybe if we made an announcement at the beginning of the race, that would really make a difference,” Lawson says.

Although Claire Harte, who ran in the last race corral, says she couldn’t really hear the announcer at the starting line.

“I just kind of followed the crowd,” she says. Both she and Fleming, like many other runners I saw, ran with earbuds in; they were in favor of increasing awareness about

where the discarded clothing should go.

Lawson and Esposito dismiss worries that better publicity of the recycling program would lead to more waste, and neither are particularly concerned with where the donations might end up—as long as it isn’t in a Philadelphia landfill. Fleming, however, muses that, if anything, runners would probably be more likely to cast off clothes, turning it “almost into a sort of large-scale clothing drive.”

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EV EN TS

october 2019

O ctober 11

O ctober 12

O ctober 18-20

Wissahickon Bicycling Adventure

Kokedama Workshop

Vegan Foody Tour of Philadelphia

Bicycle through this natural area with Director of Urban Forestry Jason Lubar, who has spent years getting to know the plant life and history of the park. To register, visit the website, click Education, then Classes, then Trips. morrisarboretum.org

Kokedama, sometimes referred to as the “poor man’s bonsai,” is a Japanese method of planting in versatile, self-contained moss planters that can be hung anywhere plants flourish. Learn how to make them at this workshop this fall. greensgrow.org/events

WHEN: 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. COST: $55-$60 WHERE: Bloomfield Farm Horticulture Center

WHEN: 12 p.m. to 2 p.m. COST: $40 WHERE: 2501 E. Cumberland St.

Learn all about Philadelphia’s veg history on a walking tour from Vance Lehmkuhl.

Dine at one of the top vegan restaurants in the country, plus enjoy a cooking demo and brunch from vegan pastry chef Fran Costigan. Price includes hotel, activities, two breakfasts, lunch and brunch. Dinners are pay your own. kim@vegjauntsandjourneys.com

O ctober 11-13

O ctober 18

Students for Zero Waste Conference 2019

Tree Canopy Conference

The conference will bring together 600 students, staff, industry innovators, activists and community members from across the country. The three-day event includes student-led workshops, professional trainings, hands-on activity sessions, affinity group meet-ups and panels covering topics related to waste and environmental justice. postlandfill.org/szw WHEN: 5 p.m. (Oct. 11) to 1 p.m. (Oct. 13) COST: $30$200 WHERE: Houston Hall, University of Pennsylvania

O ctober 12-13 Bucks County Book Fest Join us for the 2019 Bucks County Book Festival featuring professionally published authors, panel discussions, book readings and signings, Books ‘N Brew, writer and illustrator workshops, and a Kids Book Fest and Fire Prevention Open House. bucksbookfest.org WHEN: 8:30 a.m. to 4:50pm both days COST: Free WHERE: 63 E. State St., Doylestown

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In our urban forest, large trees make the greatest impact in mitigating climate change effects. See what Philadelphia is doing to encourage people to plant trees and how tree-friendly land uses, such as parks, gardens and cemeteries contribute to build canopy cover. online.morrisarboretum.org/canopy WHEN: 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. COST: $150, $80 for students WHERE: Stokes Hall Auditorium, Haverford College

O ctober 18-19 Orchestral Gardeners Join Tempesta di Mare in an exploration of music by two baroque masters: Handel and Telemann. These composers exchanged letters, music and plants for their gardens while creating some of the finest works in the high baroque orchestral repertoire. tempestadimare.org WHEN: 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. COST: $30-$40, Free for students with ID WHERE: Presbyterian Church of Chestnut Hill (Oct. 18), Philadelphia Episcopal Cathedral (Oct. 19)

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O ctober 20 33rd Annual AIDS Walk Philly Individuals can take action in the fight against AIDS by getting sponsors, making donations and joining thousands of others for the walk. aidswalkphilly.org WHEN: 7 a.m. to 11 a.m. COST: Free WHERE: Philadelphia Museum of Art

O ctober 26 CultureFest! Día de Los Muertos (Day of the Dead) Now in its eighth year, CultureFest! Día de los Muertos celebration welcomes you to experience Mexican culture and its rich traditions. This family-friendly afternoon is filled with musical and dance performances, puppetry and storytelling, face painting, sugar skulls and arts & crafts. penn.museum/calendar WHEN: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. COST: Free with museum admission WHERE: 3260 South St.

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Kristen King (MES/MEng/MS ’17) set her sights on a global education when she came to Penn. “I was attracted to a program that encouraged active learning on a macro scale. The curriculum was sustainability policy and regulation, but the classroom was spread across the globe.” In the multi-master’s degree offered through the Master of Environmental Studies program, Kristen pursued environmental studies in China and France as well as Philadelphia, and completed the program with three master’s degrees from the University of Pennsylvania, Tsinghua University, and Mines ParisTech.

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Now the Corporate Social Responsibility Data Manager at Walgreens—a newly created position—Kristen draws on every element of her interdisciplinary education. “Penn’s multi-master’s degree program expanded the way I talk about sustainability and helped make me a competitive candidate for this position,” she says. “As a global corporation, we have an opportunity to make a big impact outside of the political environment. I take a holistic view, looking not just at the business, environmental and social components but the sustainability practices within and connecting those components.”

To learn more about how the multi-master’s degree program prepared Kristen for her environmental career, visit:

WWW.UPENN.EDU/GRID