Grid Magazine December 2020 [#139]

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Will Biden help cyclists?

Black bookstore owner’s mission of literacy

Deck the trolley with boughs of holly

p. 8

p. 12

p. 16

DECEMBER 2020 / ISSUE 139 / 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

YEAR

IN

PROTEST

Healthcare, police brutality, corruption, climate change…

In 2020, systemic injustice came to the fore.

Philadelphians rose up and demanded more from our government.

“This win is for us … [but] this is not over,” activist Samantha Rise said, celebrating Joe Biden’s presidential victory November 7.

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EDI TO R ’S NOTES

by

alex mulcahy

From Complicity to Consciousness

publisher Alex Mulcahy managing editor Alexandra W. Jones associate editor & distribution Timothy Mulcahy tim@gridphilly.com copy editor Geoff Smith art director Michael Wohlberg writers Bernard Brown Amanda Clark Nichole Currie Constance Garcia-Barrio Randy LoBasso Jason N. Peters Lois Volta photographers Drew Dennis Milton Lindsay illustrators Sean Rynkewicz Lois Volta 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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“That grandchild is not going to be able to imagine a world in which there are elephants and polar bears and giraffes and cheetahs. Those are just the giant mammals that we so easily attached our minds to when in fact there are so many other things that are part of us that are disappearing.”

A point Popkin makes is that, regardless of our personal choices, we are—as individuals in our society and civilization—complicit.

“That’s why I connect the thinking about the eco-crisis to the way we talked about the … individual Germans complicit in the Holocaust ... even though they knew what they were doing was contributing to the murder of a whole group of people. And we know what we’re doing. We know exactly to the very tiniest detail what we’re doing, so we are complicit.”

It might sound bleak—and in some ways, it is—but the book is laced with optimism. The title is taken from a work

by Primo Levi, a prisoner at Auschwitz, about a moment of hope he felt in the face of horrific adversity. “[I]t’s the winter ‘44 and he’s seeing how gray and brown and ugly and dead and desolate everything looks outside,” Popkin says. “And he’s imagining what it would be if it was green. [B]ecause the very slightest bit of hope, … the very slightest signal that life would go on, that beauty could exist, inflamed inside of the people at Auschwitz a possibility. We too must have that sense of possibility, and wonder, and beauty, for the natural world that we still live in, because it is still the most incredible thing to ever be imagined. And it still inspires us.”

ALEX MULCAHY Editor-in-Chief alex@gridphilly.com COV E R P HOTO BY D RE W DENNI S

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

I

was stunned twice when, in 2018, I read an essay in The New York Times entitled “A Forest of Ancient Trees, Poisoned by Rising Seas.” The author writes about the 400 and 500 year-old black gum trees along the Delaware Bay in South Jersey doomed by climate change, then proceeds to catalog reports from the year documenting the diminishment of practically every ecosystem on the planet.

It was heartbreaking to read, but I couldn’t help but admire the writer’s courage to unflinchingly confront something so difficult.

That writer is Philadelphia native Nathaniel Popkin. I knew him as an urbanist; as the cofounder of Hidden City Daily, an online news organization that focuses on historic preservation; and the author of “The Possible City: Exercises in Dreaming Philadelphia.”

So it wasn’t his eloquence that surprised me, but the topic.

This month, Popkin released a book called “To Reach the Spring: From Complicity to Consciousness in the Age of Eco-Crisis,” which shows he has been thinking about environmental issues for a long time. The book presents climate change—an incomplete term for all that is happening—in personal terms. It’s a beautiful and haunting book.

We met on October 6, a 70-degree day, at the Race Street Pier to discuss it. (Watch video of the interview on gridphilly.com.)

“We live in what I call the age of loss,” Popkin begins. “Every possible kind of ecosystem has been buried under asphalt. Unless we look at it and see it and take account for it for ourselves personally, I think we’re burying something inside of us that keeps us from being present, that keeps us from living fully right now.”

Popkin’s personal reckoning, and his book, begins with a letter to an imagined grandchild. He tries to explain how their ancestors knew what would befall them— the floods, the fires, the wars—yet failed to act.

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by

lois volta

DEAR LOIS,

In an age where I’m always looking at myself, how do I accept my reflection?

I

find myself looking in the mirror more these days.

I’m noticing the bags under my eyes. I see the lines on my face, telling me that I’m starting to age. The targeted ads that I saw at the beginning of the pandemic were preparing me for this moment. Now that I see my image so regularly on a screen, I am considering buying the products and gizmos that promise to make me feel better about my reflection.

This, of course, sends me reeling. It feels so self-indulgent. My unemployment stipend is coming to an end, my financial future does not feel secure, and I’m worried about my wrinkles?

With every Zoom meeting, professional video and FaceTime call, I’ve been critiquing my mannerisms, inflection and appearance in new ways. These methods of communication cause me to fixate on how other people see me. Some days I feel cute; other days I don’t want to identify with that goofy-looking Muppet who needs a haircut and more sleep.

The fact that we are programmed to think negatively about ourselves makes my blood boil. Women, in particular, are terrified of cellulite, drooping skin and whatever else our society perceives as a flaw. This “toxic femininity” misdirects our attention from the bigger picture and onto ourselves, as though all that matters is what we look like.

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I’ve been told, implicitly and explicitly, not to like myself, so that I will buy things to make me feel better. I scroll through all the beautiful people, places and things on my phone, and I convince myself that I am not happy with my life.

I know enough about myself to recognize that I am capable, beautiful and exactly who I am supposed to be, as is. Why is the truth taken away from me so someone can sell a

product? Why are we pitted against each other to compare and contrast our looks and achievements?

Even in my anger, I still want to buy the products to tighten and lift. But what I truly want is for someone to tell me that wrinkles are a good thing and I don’t need to hide or minimize my body. I want permission to grow older without the scrutiny of capitalism’s judgment.

So I change what self-perception means to me. I walk throughout the house and I take the focus away from my image and onto my lifestyle. Does it all check out? Do I seem all right? I live in a very dynamic household; as I look around my home I soak that in.

Every item has a history of where it came from, why I have it and what it means to me. I only have things in my house that I want, and I protect myself from indifference by being deliberate about my tangible surroundings. I have strong feelings about my home and how it should be treated. I value intentionality, purpose and commitment to

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

I want permission to grow older without the scrutiny of capitalism’s judgment.”

who I am and where I’ve come from by how I care for myself in my home. These are values I live by and what is truly important to me. I understand that this isn’t everyone’s lot, but I have embraced that it is mine.

Another value that I honor is to practice what I preach. It takes a lot of commitment to do this. It also means we must honor the work right in front of us, as trivial and mundane as it may seem. When I look in the mirror or see myself on a screen, I can begin to see someone with purpose and who is true to herself. It is the woman on the screen and in the mirror who has been consistently there for me. She’s cleaning up, making sure there is food on the table and staying on top of her responsibilities while raising three girls as a single mom.

That beautiful lady in the mirror is putting one foot in front of the other and trusting the process. She’s been through fire and drought. More than ever, I can’t emphasize enough how good it feels to be loved by my friends, family and myself.

I’m proud of the woman in the mirror, no matter what she’s been told by the media and society. I am happy with what I see. lois volta is a home consultant, musician and founder of Volta Naturals. loisvolta.com.

Send questions to thevoltaway@gmail.com.

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Parks for the People

You don’t need to pave paradise to put up a park

T

here had to be a better way to build a park, thought Kimberlee Douglas, director of Landscape Architecture at Thomas Jefferson University.

Through her work at Jefferson, she did a lot of community outreach. She would hear from people in underserved communities that they wanted parks, but they had no easy way of getting them built.

Working with the city was time consuming, expensive and often frustrating. One park, or near-park, still makes Douglas incensed.

“Six years ago, [Mayor Nutter] hosted a ribbon cutting party for a park that was to be built on the corner of Cecil Street and Kingsessing Avenue. They have the money The modular parks of Park in a Truck are highly customizable, don’t require new cement, and avoid common bureaucratic delays.

for it, but the city will not sign off on the five-year lease.”

Douglas doesn’t remember exactly when the concept for Park in A Truck was born, but it’s an idea that Fast Company described as “IKEA, but for building neighborhood parks.” The magazine was so enamored with the idea it was a finalist in the Social Good category in its 2020 Innovation by Design Awards.

Park in a Truck, developed by Douglas and population health professor Drew Hill, was conceived to prove that if parks could be designed modularly, and avoided pouring cement as well as the city’s bureaucracy, they could be executed quickly and with community input.

With the help of her students, Douglas came up with four different types of park: sanctuary, event space, edible and nature.

“But they are all like puzzle pieces, so they’re interchangeable. So you could have a sanctuary edge, an interior edible, and maybe there’s an event space that’s geared towards nature,” says Douglas.

She took her idea to the Mantua Civic Association, where she was greeted with indifference and suspicion.

“They did not know me. They did not trust me, and I don’t blame them,” Douglas says.

But she was persistent. She kept showing up, knocking on doors, trying to make connections. “And I guess they started to believe [me] because I just didn’t go away,” Douglas says.

Not only did they come to accept the idea, the community galvanized and rallied to support it. A location, at 38th and Melon streets, began to take shape.

Douglas says construction of the parks take between 6 and 8 weeks, relying upon volunteer labor for four- or five-hour shifts on Saturday mornings. The 38th and Melon location is, by Douglas’ estimate, two-thirds of the way finished as they await the completion of a building across the street. Like everything else, it has been delayed by the pandemic.

A key lesson that Douglas imparts to her students is that design isn’t solely an academic pursuit. It’s necessary to engage communities.

“It’s not just a design program. In fact, I think ... design is sort of secondary sometimes.

“I really want [students] to learn how to run a community meeting or how to … do an agenda or, you know, how do you talk to communities. They present to the planning commission, or to Curtis Jones’ council people, they meet them. It’s really integrated, and they’re really immersed in the issues of the day.

“So it’s not just learning how to be a designer, it’s learning how to be a designer with a conscience based in good ecology and social understanding.”

Currently, a second park is being built in West Kensington, and Douglas is developing online tools that would allow people to design parks themselves.

“I’d be happy if I never saw a park be built again because [communities] were doing it [themselves]. I mean we’re happy to lend our expertise. But I want it to be initiated by the community. And for it to be their choices, not mine. We see ourselves as facilitators. We’re facilitating this process.”

THE MISSION OF Jefferson’s College of Architecture and the Built Environment is to educate the next generation of design and construction professionals to create an equitable and sustainable future.

Learn more at Jefferson.edu/Grid.

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P H OTO C O U R T E S Y O F T H O M A S J E F F E R S O N U N I V E R S I T Y

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Waldorf Education has just celebrated its 100th anniversary around the world. As we pass that celebratory moment in time, 2020 has brought us a year of unprecedented times full of new and unexpected challenges. A global health pandemic, environmental disasters, and civil and political unrest around the world have impacted our lives in so many ways. Now more than ever, we are being asked to be creative, problem solve, and imagine solutions to global issues and adapt to new ways of living. Providing an education that encourages questions, innovation, problem-solving and creativity has been the goal of Waldorf education for 100 years. At 100 years old, we must honor the wisdom of the past, seek the vision of the future and encourage our children, the leaders of the future, to create change.

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The events of this year around the world and in our own backyards are asking us as a school and a community to look towards the next 100 years. Our students, faculty, staff and families feel an even deeper sense of responsibility for each other and for the world. We have a renewed sense of ownership for our actions which is showing up in our classrooms, on campus and in our commitment to be a part of the change that is needed at this time in history. As part of this work, our Board of Trustees has created a Renewal Committee to vision for the future as Kimberton Waldorf School celebrates its 80th year as leaders in the education of children.

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bike talk

Build, Bike, Better Will the Biden administration bring the transportation progress we need?

E

ager to put the last four years in America’s rear view, President-elect Joe Biden and his transition team have published their first batch of plans for their time in the White House, some of which include exciting news for bicycling, public transit and walking.

Pledging to allot federal funding for alternative transportation modes, the Biden team promises to “Provide every American city with 100,000 or more residents with high-quality, zero-emissions public transportation options.”

They’ll do this “through flexible federal investments with strong labor protections that create good union jobs and meet the 8 GR ID P H I L LY.CO M DEC EM B E R 20 20

needs of these cities—ranging from light rail networks to improving existing transit and bus lines to installing infrastructure for pedestrians and bicyclists,” according to the team’s website.

By comparison, President Trump, and the Republican Party at large, remain totally uncommitted to any transportation issue; Republicans infamously did not set a 2020 transportation platform at their convention.

Biden’s encouraging proposal is part of the new administration’s $2 trillion climate plan, much of which was unveiled this summer. Still, the way things actually go in the next administration will depend largely on the next secretary of transportation, and how the Biden-Harris administration plans

by

randy lobasso

to handle motor vehicle subsidies.

The transportation secretary plays an important role in determining how federal funding gets doled out to states and cities.

Though Trump’s transportation secretary, Elaine Chao, wasn’t actually that bad, she did preside over a huge expansion of highway miles in mostly rural areas and continued the subsidization of driving, including an exemption from fuel economy standards for “light trucks,” i.e. SUVs and pickup trucks, according to a recent paper by Greg Shill, a law professor at the University of Iowa.

“This encouraged carmakers to sell pickup trucks and SUVs, which now make up about 65% of new car sales,” former Streetsblog.org editor Angie Schmitt noted in 2019.

IL LUSTRATIO N BY S EAN RY NKEWI CZ

“As a result, they have wiped out all the efficiency gains made by cars over the last few decades.”

They’re also far more dangerous than your average sedan or coupe.

The next transportation secretary will need to roll back some of the negative environmental impacts of motor vehicle subsidies while providing cities and states with sufficient funding for bike projects.

Two names for the position came up in a November 7 Politico article: Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti and Oregon Congressman Earl Blumenauer.

Of the two, cyclists would probably want to set their hopes on Blumenauer. A cochair of the Congressional Bike Caucus (yes, such a thing exists!), the former Portland city commissioner has made bicycling and alternative transportation a large part of his mission in Washington, going so far as to state that bicycling is the “most efficient form of transportation designed.”

Blumenauer was also considered by

Obama for the role in 2008, before Republican Ray LaHood was chosen.

But there’s another issue besides who is in charge—car culture. No transportation secretary or anyone running for a role in the federal government seems intent on curbing it.

No matter how progressive the politician in charge of infrastructure dollars might be, private motor vehicles have always come first. Even in Philadelphia—which international reporters lauded for its bicycling scene during the ballot counting process— lanes for vehicle traffic and parking always take priority over bike lanes.

So there’s no surprise that Biden’s climate plan puts cars first, promising heavy subsidies for the auto industry. One million new jobs would go toward car infrastructure, charging stations and domestic auto supply chains. As Carlton Reid at Forbes noted, the plan “wraps car dependency in Trump-style ‘America First’ nationalism.”

It will be largely impossible for the

United States to address climate change if we’re giving people money to buy new cars, even electric ones.

The thing is, cars are still cars. You can put an electric engine in an F-350, but it’s still destroying the roads it drives on, taking up much-needed space in cities and towns and having a detrimental effect on the environment.

In cities, especially in recent years, there has been a huge shift to electric bicycles — which, oddly enough, are not subsidized the way that cars are, even though they are just as (if not more) useful in performing basic tasks that you’d need a car for in a city.

The people who elected Biden and Harris will seek to move them away from the center, and that might be successful. It’s going to take cities and states (as well as interest groups) to take charge and work with the new administration to secure the funds needed to ensure we get the “high-quality, zero-emissions public transportation options” we’ve been promised.

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urban naturalist

Sara Lomax-Reese, WURD President and CEO, says the radio station is trying to start more conversations about environmental issues within the Black community.

Radio Activism Philadelphia’s Black-owned radio station takes on by bernard brown environmental racism and injustice

O

n october 12, Indigenous People’s Day, radio station WURD (96.1 FM/900 AM) held an on-air Environmental Justice Summit in partnership with Bartram’s Garden and From the Source Reporting Collaborative.

Part of the station’s EcoWURD initiative, the day-long summit included speakers and panels discussing high-level topics such as leadership in environmental justice as well as grassroots efforts, such as organizing to solve the city’s trash problem.

“The listeners loved it,” says Charles Ellison, executive producer of Reality Check on WURD, and managing editor for EcoWURD. “They understand that they need to be aware of these issues.”

Many listeners have told him they love 10 GR ID P H IL LY.CO M DEC EM B E R 2020

the content, but environmental programming wasn’t always such a natural fit with the WURD listenership. WURD is an African-American owned and operated radio station, one of only three in the country, according to their website.

Ellison began hosting Reality Check, a talk show devoted to current events and public policy, in 2017. From the beginning he made sure to include environmental topics.

“I talk about the environment in one form or another every day, so everyone who listens to Reality Check knows that Charles is the environmental guy. At first the WURD audience was hearing this environmental thing, they were asking, ‘Why are you talking about the environment? That’s a white people issue,’” recalls Ellison. “I

would say, ‘No, it’s not.

We’re on the front lines of this issue.’”

The EcoWURD initiative started in 2018, with a grant from Civil, an organization that attempted to fund local journalism with crypto-currency donations. Civil has since folded, but that initial grant enabled WURD president and CEO Sara Lomax-Reese to launch an environmental initiative.

“I felt like for several reasons this space around environmental justice and climate change as it relates to the Black community in Philadelphia was wide open,” LomaxReese says. “That space had traditionally been carved out for white progressive hipster types. There was a real opening for us to connect the dots for our community in a way to be culturally relevant.”

Issues of environmental injustice are personal for the EcoWURD team. Ellison’s mother, who lived near the Philadelphia Energy Solutions (PES) refinery, died from cancer in 2010.

“I started talking to other people involved with community efforts dealing with the refinery,” Ellison says. “I wondered, ‘What if this was a part of it?’”

Lomax-Reese explains further.

“When we look at the PES refinery, a lot of the toxic plants that are spewing all of this pollution, unfortunately they’re situated next to a lot of Black low-income communities,” Lomax-Reese says. “You have high rates of asthma, cancer, learning difficulties, things like that—that only now are being directly tracked to the environment, the air P HOTO G RAP HY BY M ILTO N LI NDSAY

we’re breathing, the water we’re drinking, the soil. All that is being affected by the pollution that’s in our environment, so all of this stuff has a disparate impact on Black communities.”

Project manager Jeannine Kayembe agrees that talking about this impact is important. “I’m directly affected by some of these issues,” she says.

EcoWURD content appears across multiple platforms. Once a week, Reality Check focuses entirely on environmental issues, which also get coverage in written posts on ecowurd.com. For example, the July 29, 2020 show discussed research showing Black and other people of color were less likely to live in places with access to nature.

The EcoWURD team seeks to expand their audience through live events (in-person prior to the COVID-19 pandemic) including visual and performing arts. In October 2019, for example, they held an environmental justice summit at Bartram’s Garden’s HarvestFest.

“WURD demographics are [usually age] 45-70,” says Kayembe, who previously managed Life Do Grow Farm in North Philadelphia (Grid #64, August 2014). “My goal is to create dynamic programming so that young people in the 18-35 [age] group can get this information as well. ” At the October 12 event, organizers were amazed at the turnout, says Maitreyi Roy, Bartram’s executive director.

“It was clear that WURD’s reach into the African-American community is deep and the dialogue that they presented was really meaningful on many levels,” she says.

She says Bartram’s was happy to collaborate as the venue for the summit.

“We wanted to become part of the neighborhood’s dialogue, part of the neighborhood’s interest in the environment,” says Roy. “All of those conversations have a place at the garden, especially because you’re surrounded by productive land, the tidal Schuylkill, but also a community where the challenges, like air quality [and] community

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health issues, are quite apparent.”

Ellison sees the impact of EcoWURD’s programming now echoing in public policy discussions around the fossil fuel industry.

“It’s a really interesting kind of dynamic, a shift we’re seeing,” Ellison says. “WURD is the station that the Black super voters listen to. That’s why the politicians in Philly … fear WURD. So City Council, why are you voting to build natural gas plants in Philadelphia? What’s that all about? Now they’re having this really intense conversation.”

Lomax-Reese agrees the program is pushing the Black community to ask important questions.

“We have an opportunity to really underscore that we are in fact the ones who are most affected, disparately impacted [by environmental issues],” Lomax-Reese says, “So we have to pay attention and demand better, because it’s not going to go away by not talking about it, or [by] letting the conversation be dominated by people who are not invested in our community.”

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A Holly Jolly Trolley Meet the SEPTA operator behind a beloved by constance garcia-barrio holiday-decorated trolley

S

uppose you hopped on a vehicle that not only took you to another neighborhood but to a different place in your spirit. For Philadelphians, a journey with such a touch of magic is as close as SEPTA driver Gary Mason’s trolley. Mason tricks out his trolley for different holidays and revels in riders’ responses.

Mason, who likes working the graveyard shift—12:30 to 9:40 a.m.—drives either Route 10 from Center City to 63rd and Malvern or Route 15 from Richmond and Westmoreland to 63rd and Girard.

The decor starts early on in the year.

“For Valentine’s Day, I have hearts and cupids on the windows, blinking red lights and tinsel, and pink flowers on the ceiling for the ladies,” he says. Passengers have been known to cheer when they board the trolley, convinced that the trip will bring them luck in love. Other riders think fate will favor them if they play the trolley’s number in the lottery.

Mason heightens the romantic ambiance with music.

“I play Marvin Gaye, Tammi Terrell, Barry White, old-school music,” Mason says.

He grew up in Southwest Philly and attended Bartram High School, where he sang in the choir, played the tuba and, at 6’7”, joined the basketball team.

“I’m operating the trolley, DJing and hosting,” he says. “A barber who gets off at 44th and Lancaster calls the trolley the ‘Love Machine.’”

Sometimes the decorations have a deeper effect. “One time in 2009, a girl got on the trolley,” Mason recalls. “She was depressed, but the decorations touched her. She cried and told me she felt better when she was getting off.”

“The best part [of riding the 10 last Valentine’s Day] was watching riders react as they boarded the trolley,” says SEPTA spokeswoman Kelly Greene. “Gary brings joy to a lot of people.”

Decorating a trolley can take up to eight hours, Mason says, but his longtime love affair with these huge vehicles seems to lighten the work.

“I’ve loved trolleys from the time I was a little boy,” he says. “I like that it runs on tracks and has the pole and the [overhead] wire. I always wanted to operate a trolley.

I’ve worked for SEPTA for 34 years and I love my job.”

A fellow employee inspired Mason to start decking out the vehicles. “A [mechanic] at the Elmwood Depot used to do it,” he says.

“When he stopped, I decided to take it up.”

Though the “Love Machine” has plenty of devotees, including retirees eager to savor the past and second-generation fans who

I’m a big kid at heart. Maybe the decorations are the kid in me wanting to play with the kid in the riders.”

— g ary mas on 12 GR ID P H I L LY.CO M DEC EM B E R 20 20

bring their children to take in the lights and tinsel, Halloween has become primetime for some riders.

Smoke pours from under Mason’s seat, paper spiders, pumpkins and scarecrows festoon the car and huge yellow owl eyes in the rear glare at passengers. Mason often sees people do a double take or snap a picture, but once he got more than he’d bargained for.

“A woman got on the 10, and I’d loaded it up with ghosts, tombstones and other trimmings,” Mason says. “She gave me a hard look and started lecturing me about the dangers of encouraging evil. I told her I wasn’t practicing witchcraft, that I was just having some Halloween fun.”

Mason usually puts ornaments on the trolley the week before a holiday and keeps them up through the actual holiday.

“Once, a little boy and his mother had been riding the trolley the week before Halloween,” he recalls, “but one day the decorated trolley needed repairs so I was driving a plain one. When the little boy got on and saw the trolley didn’t have the ghosts and spiders, he burst into tears.”

Soon after Halloween, Mason and his coworkers begin thinking of Christmas. For the past seven years, SEPTA has held a competition judged by representatives from local businesses to see which team comes up with the most creative decorations. Last year, a bus from the Callowhill Depot done up with the theme of “The Nightmare Before Christmas” took top honors. The exterior front of the bus looked like a skeleton face wearing a huge Santa hat, and the destination sign said “Here Comes Sandy Claws.” The Frontier Division garnered second place in 2019 with “The Lion King” theme. “You walked on, and it looked like you were going into a jungle,” Mason says of the bus, whose front looked fringed like a lion’s mane.

This year’s competition has been canceled due to COVID-19, SEPTA’s Kelly Greene says. Still, Philadelphians will see the buses and trolleys around town.

For Mason, the Christmas trolley rekindles memories. “My wife and children used

P H OTO G R A P H Y C O U R T E S Y O F S E P TA

street stories & curbside characters

Gary Mason has worked as a SEPTA driver for 34 years. He operates Route 10 and Route 15 trolleys.

to help me years ago, although [our four] kids spent a lot of time laughing and running up and down the aisle,” he says.

When Mason’s wife, Gloria, died of an aneurysm in 2015 at age 53, he stopped decorating trolleys for a while.

“But my wife came to me in a vision and told me to start back up again,” he says, his voice softer and sadness in his eyes. “My passengers told me they missed the decorations, too.”

Telvin Mason, now 27, the baby of the family, still lends a hand. “He’s always there when I need him to give his thoughts about decorating,” Mason says.

Telvin, who lives in East Oak Lane, likes to talk with his dad and eat snacks while they adorn the big vehicle. His favorite project is Halloween decorating.

Mason’s playing it close to the vest about his plans for this Christmas. “I’ll have to see,” he says.

One suspects that putting up adornments gives Mason a chance to play, and maybe the magic of the decorations comes from that desire.

“I decorate trolleys to refresh people, to see them smile,” he says. “I’m a big kid at heart.

Maybe the decorations are the kid in me wanting to play with the kid in the riders.”

As author Flora Colao once wrote: “Life is playfulness. We need to play so that we can rediscover the magic in the world around us.”

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water

Instructors gathered at the Fairmount Water Works in September for a kayaking trip that allowed them to connect with the river firsthand.

Taking to the Water Program instructors teach students how the city’s waterways by bernard brown shaped our past and affect our present

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ome classrooms keep guinea pigs or guppies as pets, but last year at Cook Wissahickon School in Roxborough, sixth-graders tended young freshwater mussels.

“The students feed them and then, when they reach a larger stage, the Fairmount Water Works will place them in a creek,” says Jose L. Ramos, a middle-years reading and English language arts teacher at Cook Wissahickon.

14 GRID P H IL LY.CO M DEC EM B E R 2020

Raising freshwater mussels helps restore their populations in creeks, but for the students it also serves as a hands-on lesson in water quality and ecology.

Raising mussels fits into a curriculum called “Understanding the Urban Watershed,” developed by the Fairmount Water Works.

“It introduces students to watersheds,” says Janene Hasan, a K–8 science enrichment teacher at Southwark School in South Philadelphia. “It helps students understand

the importance of water and how it influences our lives and survival. And how they can influence their local waterways.”

“Understanding the Urban Watershed” got its start in 2012, according to Ellen Schultz, director of educational partnerships for the Water Works. The Philadelphia Water Department (PWD) had just launched the Green City, Clean Waters initiative, which promotes stormwater landscape absorption rather than letting water run into the sewer system and cause sewage overflows.

The PWD was starting to dig up school grounds for stormwater management projects, and the Fairmount Water Works saw the opportunity to educate the children inside the school buildings.

“You’re doing projects on the grounds, but what about these students and teachers who use these grounds every day?” asks Schultz, who developed an activity book to teach students about the history and conservation of the Delaware River watershed.

Initial success of the activity book led to funding from the William Penn Foundation for the Water Works to develop a more extensive curriculum for Grades 6–8.

From 2014–2017, Water Works staff worked P HOTO G RAP HY BY D RE W DENNI S

with pilot teachers such as Ramos and then incorporated their feedback to improve the lessons and suggested activities.

“Our goal is to create responsible, activist citizens. When we’re no longer in the picture there’s a new generation ready to take over,” Ramos says.

At Cook Wissahickon, students have explored watershed health through gardening projects designed to soak up rainwater as well as trips to the nearby Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education to learn about aquatic habitats.

“I think the thing they got the most out of was seeing the frogs and getting to fish the tadpoles out of the water. When they actually get to hold a critter a light goes off,” Ramos says.

The final version of the curriculum launched in 2019.

“The first year for me was really great,” says Hasan, one of 19 teachers taking part in 2019. “I got the professional development to learn how to teach the curriculum … and then I got to come back and teach it.”

Hasan built her lessons around “Fever 1793,” a young adult novel set during Philadelphia’s yellow fever epidemic. In the late 18th century most Philadelphians lived within a few blocks of the waterfront. The epidemic began along the city’s wharves, spread by mosquitoes—although, at the time, no one knew that the insects were carrying the virus.

It helps students understand the importance of water and how it influences our lives and survival.”

— j anene hasan, science enrichment teacher

“We read that and the intention was we were going to go on a field trip to the river and other sites in the book, but because of our own epidemic we were not able to,” Hasan says.

Last year was the first official year of the program’s implementation with the school district.

“We had a weeklong training in June at the Water Works, then teachers started implementing the units,” Schultz says. “I offered coaching, did classroom visits. We brought them together twice last year for professional development. Then, boom!

We were blown out of the water in March.”

While Philly schools have settled into online classes, and watershed teachers have had to adapt their lessons accordingly, the instructors still came together at the Water Works for additional training on September 26. Teachers shared experiences and best practices about how to connect students with the water. The session culminated in a kayaking trip on the Schuylkill, during which teachers established a firsthand connection to the river.

Students will also receive materials for

independent hands-on watershed activities.

“This fall we’re making 500 kits for students to take home,” Schultz says.

Instead of taking students on field trips to see where events in “Fever 1793” took place, Hasan is streaming lessons on location from her phone.

“They love reading [the book]. It’s very different reading this year, in light of the current pandemic,” Hasan says. Her students are exploring the watershed on their own as well. “Now I tell them to walk around and look and see how the sewers drain to the river. They’re making connections about how the resources come into their lives and how their actions matter when it comes to water.”

Hasan recalls spending time near the water when she was young. She grew up in Port Richmond and would occasionally throw rocks into the Delaware.

“I didn’t have the kind of connection I do now,” says Hasan. “I had to learn as an adult how to connect to nature. For me it’s super important as a science teacher that I help my students make a connection to the river that I didn’t have.”

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local business

Reading as a Right Black-owned, Afrocentric bookstore celebrates the power by amanda clark of literacy and diversity

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ynn Washington has spent most of her life encouraging people to read.

As a graphic designer, she worked for the Free Library of Philadelphia, creating graphics and exhibits that would attract new audiences. As a mother, she read books to her children to instill in them a passion for learning. And now, as the owner of her own bookstore, Books & Stuff, Washington promotes and celebrates the power of reading the stories of all races, cultures and peoples.

Her journey into entrepreneurship began when she was working as the design supervisor at the Free Library. Washington found herself face to face with the literacy crisis outside the library’s doors, and knew it was a huge problem for the community.

“Illiteracy traps people in a cycle of poverty,” Washington says. “It limits your life choices. It’s difficult to achieve social 16 GR ID P H IL LY.CO M DEC EM B E R 20 20

mobility, to move up in your life.”

Washington knew that part of the problem of illiteracy and children reading below grade level was a lack of book ownership.

“Libraries are important but the other important thing is children having their own books, their own reading material,” she says.

She began selling books in her spare time, primarily at local flea markets. In doing so, her goal was to get books into the hands of families who couldn’t afford to buy them from major bookstores. By offering books at cheaper prices, Washington hoped to bring the power of literacy to people of all races and economic backgrounds.

In 2015, Washington opened Books & Stuff in Germantown. The shop celebrates literacy and diversity by selling books of all reading levels at discounted prices. As a multicultural and primarily Afrocentric bookstore, Books

& Stuff gives children and adults characters and stories they can identify with.

“I always felt like it was necessary and important that Black children saw their faces in their reading material,” Washington says. At a major bookstore, however, it can be difficult to find stories depicting non-white people that Black children can see themselves in.

In her store, Black children often express excitement when they see characters who resemble themselves, Washington says.

Washington’s goal to fight low literacy rates is two-pronged—books must tell the stories of all people and must be available to all people. Because she purchases from smaller companies and buys overstock inventory, she is often able to sell her books at lower prices than major bookstores partnering with publishers.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Washington has closed her brick-and-mortar shop and moved online. Though this means that community partnership and interaction are paused, exciting new things have come out of the online store.

One such opportunity is the creation of the “Surprise Packages” that the store now offers, she says. For $15, $25 or $30, Washington will create a personalized gift package for customers, whether child, teen or adult. Gift packages include at least one book and items from the store’s eclectic collection.

Washington hopes that these gift packages will give customers the feeling of walking into her store and excitedly exploring the words of diverse races, cultures and peoples.

To shop at Books & Stuff, visit BooksAndStuff.info.

P H OTO C O U R T E S Y L I N E T T E & K Y L E K I L E N S K I

Lynn Washington outside her now-closed Germantown storefront. Books & Stuff has transitioned to selling exclusively online.

number of nature preserves: 43 acres of open space to explore: 20,000 miles of trails: 120 days open per year: 365 cost of admission: $0

land for life. nature for all.

Bryn Coed Preserve, Chester Springs, PA | 520 acres Photo by Bob Schafer D ECE M B E R 20 20 G R I DP HILLY.COM 17

• From left: Cindy M. Ngo and Cheyanne L. Elam celebrate the results of the 2020 presidential election in front of City Hall.

2020 VISION A Year in Review

story by

nichole currie photography by

drew dennis

Imagination ran wild this year as activists and protesters envisioned a city much different than the one we live in.

Philadelphians marched down Broad Street, climbed the Philadelphia Museum of Art steps and gathered at Malcolm X Park in West Philadelphia, demanding change with chants, signs and determination. Temple University communication professor Jason Del Gandio notes that the same unrest swept cities large and small, across the United States.

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“The patterns we’ve seen are the same ones we’ve seen across the country,” Del Gandio, the author of "Rhetoric for Radicals: A Handbook for 21st Century Activists," says. “An attempt at trying to reimagine the nature of American society.”

The year began with the Republican-controlled Senate’s acquittal of President Trump in his impeachment trial, a move that sparked unrest in Philadelphia’s deep blue streets.

From there, the political tension only grew thicker.

The pandemic-induced state lockdown in March plunged citizens and businesses into economic distress. The country was rocked on May 25, when a white Minneapolis police officer knelt on the neck of George Floyd, a Black man, for allegedly using a counterfeit $20 bill—resulting in the 47-year-old man’s death. Activists demanded better from the new owners of the Philadelphia Energy Solutions refinery after an explosion had forced the plant to shutter last year, giving nearby residents fresh air again. Homeless Philadelphians demanded adequate housing from the city. And when the presidential election came in November, Philadelphians took to the streets to demand that every vote be counted in the face of baseless voter fraud allegations lobbed by the sitting president and his supporters.

Failed systemic structures were the theme of 2020, Del Gandio says, and though there were many different movements, they all represented the same thing: an overall indictment of the system.

“The best way to put it is: ‘If the system doesn’t benefit you, why should you support the system?’” Del Gandio says.

Though the election’s outcome marked a victory to many Philadelphians, Del Gandio predicts that activists will need to continue pushing for reform to move the needle next year.

“Activism will be needed in 2021,” he says.

“Just like it was in 2020.”

Activist and program director of Girls Rock Philly, Samantha Rise, indicated as much at City Hall on November 7, the day the election was called.

“This win is for us and we will not stop until our voices are represented in the policies and practices of any administration that takes office,” Rise says. “This is not over.”

Read the full story online at gridphilly.com.

Jason N. Peters contributed to this article.

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• 1. Police officers stand behind a vandalized Frank Rizzo statue in the midst of George Floyd protests May 30.

2. Protesters take to Center City to celebrate Biden’s win November 7.

3. Black Lives Matter protesters march through Center City June 3.

4. Protesters assemble outside of the Convention Center to advocate that all mail-in ballots be counted, as the Trump campaign links baseless voter fraud allegations to mail-in ballots in Philadelphia.

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• 1, 2, & 3. Protesters marched through Old City after President Trump held a town hall to discuss the pandemic in Philadelphia. Several Trump supporters showed up to support the president.

4 & 5. Protestors assembled to cheer on ballot counters outside the Convention Center in what became the Count Every Vote block party. Philly Elmo and the drumline "Positive Movement" were in attendence.

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BEYOND THE CLASSROOM RESTORE STUDENTS’ CONNECTION TO SCHOOL AND NATURE

WILDERNESS EXPEDITIONS

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Invite your students to discover the Delaware River Watershed on a 5-14 day Peer Leadership expedition with the Philadelphia Outward Bound School.

Students will start and end their journey at The Discovery Center - a 57-acre public green space created in partnership by the Philadelphia Outward Bound School, the National Audubon Society, and the Strawberry Mansion community. Before students return to base they will have explored the best natural resources the Mid-Atlantic has to offer.

rdship

r & Se

Paddle the S-shaped chasms of the Delaware Water Gap, hike the picturesque mountains of the Appalachian Trail and rock climb to new heights on stunning backcountry cliffs.

CIRCUIT EXPEDITIONS

Backpack throughout Greater Philadelphia on the 250-mile network of Circuit trails, while completing service projects and learning how to be stewards of the City and the Delaware River Watershed.

PHILADELPHIA 24

OUTWARD DEC E M BE R 2020BOUND SCHOOL

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Learn more at POBS.org

MICHENER VIRTUAL PROGRAMS

Where Art and Science Meet Choose Your Own Adventure Lecture December 3, 6-7 pm with Environmental Artist Stacy Levy

Climate and Art Talks December 8, 1-2 pm Dr. Alicia Shenko

December 15, 1-2 pm Dr. Melissa Langston

Stacy Levy, Flood River (The Slower Tide), 2020. Stoppered glass bottles with Delaware River water.

Dimensions variable. Loan courtesy of the artist and Larry Becker Contemporary Art.

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Protesters gather along the Benjamin Franklin Parkway in August to demand housing.

A FIGHT FOR DIGNITY story by

jason n. peters

photography by

drew dennis

The homeless of Philadelphia acted collectively, and got results

T

hey needed somewhere to go. ¶ In March 2020, the City of Philadelphia began to disperse the homeless population that had settled around the Pennsylvania Convention Center, citing fears of a COVID-19 outbreak. Then in May, the city cleared the Philadelphia International Airport of its homeless population as well. ¶ In total, 51 people were cleared from the airport, only half of whom accepted assistance from city officials.

Another 16 people were cleared from the convention center. ¶ “A lot of these people have had trauma and bad experiences at shelters and don’t want to go to a shelter,” James Talib-Dean Campbell, cofounder of the Revolutionary Workers Collective, explained. ¶ In June, protests erupted across the city in reaction to George Floyd’s killing at the hands of Minneapolis police officers. The homeless sat in the streets as

thousands marched, night after night.

For them, the circumstances had become untenable. The parks where they’d slept became meeting grounds for protests, the storefronts whose doorways they’d hunkered down in were looted and the National Guard began patrolling the streets.

These are the circumstances that gave birth to Philadelphia’s homeless encampments, which became the saga of the summer—and the fall. What began as five tents has turned into the promise of 50 houses. After taking collective action, Philadelphia’s homeless population, with the help of volunteers and activists, reached a D ECE M B E R 20 20

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deal to transfer properties from a shuttered federal housing program into a land trust operated by encampment residents.

From mid-June through mid-October, three homeless encampments organized in response to officials’ attempts to evict them on three separate occasions. Over the months, a growing community evolved to meet new challenges like threats of eviction, rain, summer heat and political unrest.

Protesters marched at several public demonstrations in September.

The Beginning: Camp Maroon Talib-Dean Campbell and Alex Stewart, the founders of the Revolutionary Workers Collective, were instrumental in creating the encampment on 22nd Street and the Benjamin Franklin Parkway alongside the unhoused. They made up two of the first five tents planted on Von Colln Memorial Field, which they dubbed Camp Maroon.

The original name of the encampment was an homage to “when large groups of Africans escaped to geographically secluded regions to form runaway slave communities” in the 1700s, Campbell explained. “We’ve been doing outreach for a lot of unhoused people. We spoke to a lot of people at the airport and the convention center. Homeless outreach does not give people permanent places to stay … so we set up this protest camp.”

The camp broke ground on June 11 and saw immediate growth and expansion. By June 17, the camp had handwashing stations, a library, a food tent, a garden and consistent donations. On that day, activists held their first press conference with allied community organizers where they announced tragic news: Talib-Dean Campbell had died. His cousin told The Philadelphia Inquirer the death was the result of an overdose.

As a tribute, the encampment on the parkway was renamed Camp James Talib-Dean, or Camp JTD for short.

In Memoriam: Camp JTD At the same Camp JTD press conference, Jennifer Bennetch, the founder of Occupy PHA (Philadelphia Housing Authority) explained that negotiations for closing the camp had already begun within the first week of opening. Eva Gladstein, the city’s deputy managing director of Health and Human Services, had reached out. According to Bennetch, “[Gladstein] talked about tiny houses and sanctioned encampments, 28

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Unless they have somewhere to take us, they can try to shut us down, but it's not going to shut down the movement.”

—jonnell fl owers

but said nothing about physical properties.”

Bennetch founded Occupy PHA as a means to protest the PHA Police Department and fight for independent oversight of PHA. She accuses the agency of “operating like a private developer” rather than providing housing. PHA closed the public housing wait list on April 15, 2013. PHA representative Nichole Tillman confirmed on October 21: “The wait list remains closed due to its length and wait time. There is an affordable housing crisis and there is not enough supply for the need.”

“Any meeting with city officials, we’d prefer to have here [at the camp] with the residents so they hear the needs of the residents … they feel like they are too good to come out here,” Bennetch said.

The original list of demands put forth by Camp JTD included things like “account-

ability for police officers who mistreat the homeless” and the city placing a funding “moratorium against the PHA until all PHA waitlist applicants have been housed.”

Kelvin Jeremiah, CEO of PHA, objected to their demands, and in a WHYY editorial, accused the encampment members of trying to “skip the line.” “Shifting the order of names on a wait list is not a solution but rather an unjust, unethical and illegal act,” he wrote.

Negotiations staggered slowly as the summer months continued.

By mid-July, Camp JTD had grown from five tents to more than 200.

Volunteers created a plumbing system that allowed for better hygiene. A blue hose was strung atop wires and trees, carrying water to a sink placed along the parkway. A generator was donated to provide electricity so residents could charge their phones. The

food tent transformed into a full-fledged kitchen, equipped with grills and a microwave. Medics taught Narcan administration for opioid overdoses, and the medical tent was fully stocked with hand sanitizer, masks and condoms.

Camps Teddy and Prosperity In June, Camp Teddy took root in North Philly outside of the PHA headquarters, drawing attention to PHA’s $45 million building.

Teddy, the 60-year-old man at the eponymous camp at 21st Street and Ridge Avenue, was displaced from the airport on May 26. He was at the homeless encampment by June 13.

Camp Teddy had a modest setup with far less infrastructure than Camp JTD. At its height, Camp Teddy had 40 to 50 tents, making it a smaller community for residents who preferred not to be in Center City around hundreds of people.

“I like it here because it’s quieter,” said Ronald Story, one of the original five to break ground at Camp JTD. For a brief period of time there was a third encampment named Camp Prosperity, along Kelly Drive in the Azalea Garden behind the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Camp Prosperity was created by Leonard Flowers, who,

along with his wife, Jonnell, occupied one of the first five tents at Von Colln Field in June.

Camp Prosperity never grew beyond a dozen tents or caused much commotion.

The city began threatening to evict the encampments in early July, but the existence of multiple camps meant that if one camp was displaced, they could retreat to another.

Eviction Notices On a rainy July 10 morning, encampment residents woke up to find their first eviction notice. It gave them until July 17 to evacuate the park.

“Unless they have somewhere to take us, they can try to shut it down, but it’s not going to shut down the movement,” Jonnell Flowers said of the notice.

Some activists and residents believed that the police were going to sweep the camps overnight, and that the eviction notice gave the city full authority to conduct a raid whenever they wanted. But 9 a.m. on July 17 came and went without any action on the eviction threat.

“I feel like the city only has intimidation and militarization,” Stewart said. “They were gonna come if they were gonna come, but it’s a bad move for the city to come beat us up. It’s a

tactic they’ve used in other encampment evictions throughout the year. Most unhoused people are used to having their rights violated, so they get scared and disperse.”

Through July, negotiations stalled and harsh weather tested the durability of tarps and tents, as well as the spirits of those inside them.

Each eviction notice escalated the severity and tension of the situations. The first was zip-tied to a pole in the middle of the night and gave one week for evacuation; however, the second eviction notice only gave 24 hours to leave.

“EVICTION NOTICE: Date posted: 8/17/2020 … If you do not leave this location and remove your property by AUGUST 18, 2020 AT 9:00am,” it read.

The morning of the second eviction attempt, it was about 70 degrees as the sun came up. Hundreds of protesters, activists, medics and volunteers who sympathized with the encampment’s goal of permanent housing mobilized to protect its residents.

The atmosphere on eviction day was warlike. Barricades taken from the neighboring Rodin Museum blocked off 22nd Street, the Whole Foods Market parallel to the encampment was boarded up with plywood and dozens of protesters, many of D ECE M B E R 20 20

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them dressed entirely in black, were gearing up to stand toe to toe with riot police.

Again, 9 a.m. came and went with no enforcement of the eviction. “Where do we go? Give us housing!” protesters chanted as they walked around the encampment. The presence of hundreds of protesters, along with a strong media presence, kept police at a distance. Police helicopters flew over the encampment but no engagement took place.

The city’s failed second eviction helped strengthen the encampment’s relationship with city leadership and generated more meaningful negotiations. City Council members Kendra Brooks and Jamie Gauthier came out in support of Camp JTD and were present at the second eviction protest.

This was also the birth of a lawsuit that briefly stalled another eviction attempt.

Encampment resident Jeremy Williams was vital in protecting the encampment from eviction. He worked with a group of unhoused residents and law students in the dugout of Von Colln’s baseball field, making call after call to city leadership and preparing a lawsuit.

However, in late August, a federal judge gave Philadelphia the green light to “dissolve and terminate” the camps with the caveat that residents would be given 72 hours’ notice.

On August 31, a third and final eviction notice for Camp JTD was posted. Encampment residents were given until September 9 at 9 a.m. to evacuate.

By the start of September, a number of encampment residents had decided to move on from the camps and get more secure shelter. Teddy, who helped create Camp Teddy, was granted shelter in a hotel from the city after suffering a heart attack. A devastating mid-August rainstorm flooded and damaged most of Camp Teddy, and a number of residents moved into vacant houses.

Bennetch, of Occupy PHA, became instrumental in organizing as summer turned to fall. Her ongoing battles with PHA over the course of many years prepared her to negotiate with the city.

“They have a $400 million annual operating budget to provide housing and rental subsidies to people in need. It’s their job to house people,” Bennetch says about PHA. Bennetch camped outside of the PHA Building in 2019 to protest the PHA police and PHA policies that displace people.

[Editor’s note: the annual budget for PHA 30

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Activist Samantha Rise speaks at a Housing Now protest in August.

Most unhoused people are scared of having their rights violated, so they get scared and disperse.”

—alex stewart, Revolutionary Workers Collective cofounder

in 2020 is reportedly $371 million.]

Despite the unrest, PHA representative Tillman maintains that the agency is fulfilling its mission.

“PHA serves over 80,000 of the most vulnerable Philadelphians with an average income of $15,000,” she said. “Although, due to the housing crisis, PHA cannot solve the affordable housing crisis alone.”

The third eviction attempt was more tense than the first two. Numerous employees from SEPTA, License and Inspections and Homeless Outreach, as well as 15 to 20 police cars,

surrounded the camp. They were blocked by barricades from the previous eviction attempt, along with new obstructions.

Once again, volunteers and supporters stood guard with the homeless residents.

Volunteers ordered U-Haul trucks to protect personal belongings, and residents of Camp Teddy were on walkie-talkies coordinating with Camp JTD. The Philadelphia police attempted to use members of the clergy as a Trojan horse to precipitate the encampment sweep. When members of the clergy approached the camp,

protesters chanted back “Let’s kill Jesus!” and mocked them until they went away.

The mood at Camp JTD remained anxious, and residents were certain that police would raid them overnight.

On the night of September 10, dozens of activists and volunteers slept at the encampment, unsure whether the police and trash trucks would arrive. People sat in tents and played cards, drew murals, drank and smoked weed, waiting for a fight with police that never came.

Following the third eviction attempt, residents of the encampment decided to invite Mayor Kenney to the encampment for brunch on September 14. A press release was issued and a banner was erected reading, “Dear Mayor Kenney: You’re cordially invited to brunch & conversation @ Camp JTD … No violence, no barricades, all solution.” Kenney did not attend.

When asked why, the mayor’s Senior Communications Director Mike Dunn told Grid that over the course of the summer, Kenney had personally devoted many hours toward a resolution.

“He met face to face twice with protest camp organizers and leaders over the summer to hear from them and learn more about their agenda,” Dunn explained. “He then directed top-level staff from the managing director to the deputy managing director for Health and Human Services and director of Homeless Services to develop proposals to address the camp’s agenda and to continue to work with them with the goal of an amicable resolution. Senior city leadership has carried out the mayor’s directive, keeping him informed throughout, and they themselves had many more meetings, calls and emails with camp organizers.”

After a week and a half, the blockade on

22nd Street was lifted for the first time in nearly 40 days.

“We’re willing to compromise. Fifty houses and the street stays open,” said Dave, a younger resident of the encampment. On September 26, rumors of a tentative deal with the city for 50 houses became public knowledge, per a press release signed by Bennetch and the group Philadelphia Housing Action.

As confusion over the 50-house agreement lingered, negotiations to clear Camp Teddy made strides. On October 5, an agreement was made to clear the encampment outside of the PHA Building; the deal put nine houses in the land trust to be repaired and occupied by the residents of Camp Teddy.

The deal ensured that residents of Camp Teddy could opt in to social services from Project HOME or the city, and created a pilot program titled the Working for Home Repair Training Program that’s intended to create housing and job opportunities for those experiencing homelessness through the renovation of long-term vacant structures. Every resident of Camp Teddy opted to take the deal.

One week later, on October 12, PHA and Camp JTD came to an agreement to close down the encampment permanently. The deal included 50 houses placed in a land trust, the development of two tiny house villages, nine bedrooms for individuals in shelters and one five-bedroom house for a family under the existing Shared Housing Initiative program, as well as 32 new Rapid Re-Housing opportunities. Rapid Re-Housing is a program that provides first and last month’s rent and a security deposit, along with two years’ rent for eligible participants.

News of this deal was received with mixed emotions. Some activists say it’s not

enough. Residents of the encampment were confused and agitated about the specifics of the deal when they first heard about it, but the camps have been cleared.

What Comes Next?

On the date of the last eviction attempt, activist Tara Taylor made a speech to protesters, the media and their allies.

“The media likes to talk about who the socalled leaders are, they like to talk about what organizations are taking up time on the mic, they like to talk about what the city says they are doing,” Taylor said. “But I’m here to tell you that the foundation of this movement, and of every movement, is the people on the bottom, who are most affected.”

As evictions came and went, the homeless stayed. As activists came and went, the homeless stayed. Through rain and shine, hot and cold, through crises and personal disagreements, a percentage of Philadelphia’s homeless population banded together and kept each other safe during a pandemic.

There were fights and attacks, and residents and organizers of the encampments died without learning the fate of their project.

Despite a deal being announced, many encampment residents are skeptical that the city will actually follow through on its promise. Dunn, speaking for the city, told Grid, “The city remains committed to an amicable resolution to the encampment as evidenced by the agreement announced.”

As of November, a fence surrounds Von Colln Field and no tents remain. Several former residents of Camp JTD have moved into houses and some remain in hotels at the expense of the city. Time will tell the state of the homes delivered and the effectiveness of the encampments of 2020.

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