Grid Magazine August 2023 [#171]

Living sustainably without the latest and greatest

publisher

Alex Mulcahy

managing editor

Bernard Brown

associate editor & distribution

Timothy Mulcahy

tim@gridphilly.com

copy editor

Sophia D. Merow

art director

Michael Wohlberg

writers

Kiersten Adams

Marilyn Anthony

Kyle Bagenstose

Bernard Brown

Constance Garcia-Barrio

Dawn Kane

Sophia D. Merow

Ben Seal

Ashley Lauren Walker

Samantha Wittchen

photographers

Chris Baker Evens

Troy Bynum

Rachael Warriner

illustrator

Madison Ketcham

How Much Can You Actually Change The World?

Much of what we print in Grid is premised on the idea that we are able to alter how we live in important ways to lessen environmental problems. On the face of it, this makes sense. Global problems can be traced to the individual actions of billions of people, and in particular the actions of people in the United States and other wealthy nations who consume more than our fair share of the planet’s resources. The climate is warming due to the miles we drive and fly, the concrete in our houses, the food we waste and the apps we run on our phones. Rainforests in the Democratic Republic of the Congo are cleared to mine the cobalt for the batteries in our electric cars, and in Indonesia and Colombia they are cleared to produce the palm oil in our ramen noodles and shampoo. If we just change how we live, we can solve these problems, right?

Kind of. The reality is that we are constrained by the systems in which we live, and most solutions are beyond our individual reach.

In this issue’s low-tech section we focus on ways to live more sustainably utilizing older technologies such as window fans instead of air conditioning and people-powered transportation instead of motor vehicles.

We hope you are inspired by these ideas, but if you’re throwing the magazine across the room in frustration, we understand.

You might want to ditch air conditioning, but you live in a neighborhood several degrees hotter than it should be thanks to a lack of tree cover on your block. Your row house is like a brick oven because 100 years ago when it was built, summer evening temperatures were low enough to provide meaningful relief from sultry August days. Now you’re lucky if the mercury dips below 75 by sunrise.

Want to ditch your car? The sidewalks in your neighborhood are always blocked

by your neighbor’s SUV or torn up by construction, and there is no way that you can get back from work and pick up the kids on an unreliable and disjointed public transit system in time to get dinner on the table.

Our actions have to be part of the solution, but there’s no way they can solve everything.

When it comes to infrastructure, we are almost entirely at the mercy of those in public office. The vast majority of Philadelphians have no influence over what comes out of our taps beyond paying our water bills, but as this issue’s article on the Delaware River shows, the safety of our water supply depends on coordination with other states and cities. Drinkable water also potentially depends on our leaders saying no to powerful industries that lobby to keep the Delaware dredged deep enough to accommodate huge container ships, even if the 45-foot-deep channel makes it easier for salt water to creep further upstream.

Please don’t take this to say that all hope is lost and that you should completely give up on individual action. Each of us does influence some small piece of every global and local environmental problem, and we can help spur others to change through our examples. We can also remind our elected officials what is important to us and support organizations that amplify our voices.

We need to do our part, but we also need to demand that our leaders do their part, too.

bernard brown , Managing Editor

correction : In the July issue of Grid, we misattributed the article “Return of the Native” to Bernard Brown. It was written by Marilyn Anthony.

CONFESSIONS OF A Cleaning Lady

Lois Volta opens up in a new book about cleaning and life by dawn

We can, of course, approach cleaning tasks with dread, but if you’ve read former Grid columnist Lois Volta, you know that this work can provide more than just a tidy living space: it can double as a time for reflective meditation, a route around inertia or an opportunity for teamwork that opens a path to household harmony.

“In contrast to many new emerging voices that talk about how chores are quick and easy, I put an emphasis on the quality of the relationships within the home,” Volta writes.

As a single mother with three children, she lives this belief. Her three girls — Penny

kane

(14), Jane (16) and Madeline (17) — help keep the house in order.

“They all know what to do,” Volta says. When they were younger, after dinner the girls would take on basic tasks while she would do the “nuanced cleaning.” But now Volta can let them take over while she walks the dog. “I come in, and we all finish together.”

Volta’s recently-released book, “Confessions of a Cleaning Lady,” is based on her previously published Grid columns, her feminist perspectives and practical advice. Volta, also a co-host of “ The Everyday Feminist,” a weekly radio-podcast program, offers cleaning tips attuned to fairness, shar-

ing, efficiency and spirituality. Quakerism informs her views.

“My very first job was cleaning for my neighbor. So I would go over there every other week and that was my candy cash,” Volta says. As an adult, necessity became the driver. “I didn’t want to be a cleaning lady,” she says. As a newly single mother, Volta was looking for “the quickest way to put food on the table, [but] I thought I was more than a cleaning lady.”

Along the way, her views changed. Volta learned how to run a business, to hire people and to value domestic work. “I was becoming proud that I had this business, and I was realizing how impactful it was.” She began to notice “the correlation between a decluttered home and a decluttered mind,” she says.

Her work in other people’s homes has given her a lens into people’s domestic arrangements. “This is where I really started diving into the gender equality stuff.” She began thinking about the value of domestic support and wondering why women seemed more willing to pay for it than men. Before long she began speaking with clients on gender-equality issues and writing a zine, which eventually led to her monthly Grid column, and now her book.

She discovered that the work can be healing. “Even when I’m feeling unmotivated, if I go clean my bedroom, I just feel better. And it’s remembering that those types of things are actual self care … We’ve made it into something negative and bad, but reshaping the narrative is important to me.”

Volta has no plans to let up anytime soon. She has become an activist with the National Domestic Workers Alliance, which in 2019 successfully lobbied Philadelphia City Council for the passage of a bill to protect domestic worker rights. In addition, she has become involved in a project working with Elizabeth Seeley to create a domestic wellness retreat center for mental health professionals at The Hermitage in Wissahickon Valley Park.

She plans to continue preaching what she practices. “When we can cultivate safe, loving atmospheres in our own homes, accordingly we can develop the skills to work outside of our homes in a bigger, more impactful way,” Volta writes. “We give ourselves the opportunity to look out from our windows with hope and purpose.”

Lois Volta’s new book is about more than just the act of cleaning.

Passion Pit

With innovative upcycling, Hidden Gems crafts a healthy and delicious beverage line

Sheetal bahirat was a graduate student studying to become a food researcher at the prestigious Drexel University Food Lab when inspiration struck. On a day Bahirat will never forget, the assignment was simple enough. She was tasked with making guacamole for her class to study the textures and tastes of the classic Mexican dish.

But for Bahirat, it wasn’t what was on her classmates’ plates that caught her attention. It was what was left on the prep table when she was done.

“When I found out that raw avocado seeds can’t be composted, and that many actually ended up in landfills, I did my master’s thesis on the avocado seed to figure out what we can do with them in a more sustainable way,” Bahirat explains. “And that’s really what started this business.”

Bahirat connected with guacamole manufacturers for supplies of avocado seeds. Her team then developed a method to ex-

tract the antioxidants from the seeds and then even set up a system for composting the processed seeds at the end.

The result was Reveal, the first beverage line of Bahirat’s company, Hidden Gems. Bahirat describes it as somewhere between tea and kombucha — not too sweet and not too carbonated. Reveal comes in a variety of flavors, such as the newly created strawberry calamansi and jasmine yuzu, but there are characteristics that all the beverages share. They each have three times more antioxidants than green tea, and there’s just one gram of sugar per bottle. And each is made with just five — all natural — ingredients.

How does the avocado seed brew taste?

“It’s not a flat road, but it is not a roller coaster. It’s like a nice drive,” Bahirat says. That metaphor could also describe the trajectory of her growing business.

Bahirat’s journey landed Reveal in more than 30 stores in the Philadelphia area, as well as the corporate headquarters of major

Philadelphia corporations like Urban Outfitters and PECO. And like many good products with dynamic owners who are either BIPOC, identify as female, or — as in Bahirat’s case — both, Reveal eventually made its way to the Weavers Way Co-op vendor diversity initiative.

So for Bahirat, the most advantageous aspect of being a part of the vendor diversity initiative is the opportunity to sample her products with Weavers Way’s clientele at one of their many locations or at events set up solely for businesses in the initiative.

“I think the sampling is probably the most important part, especially when you’re launching a new product that never existed before,” Bahirat explains. “A lot of times stores don’t let you sample as much so you have to really ask for it. But Weavers Way has been really supportive that way.”

Bahirat envisions many more delectable and healthy creations derived from discarded food. “I feel like people would buy the product because it’s healthy and it tastes good,” Bahirat acknowledges before adding, “and then I think they would stay loyal to the product because it’s upcycled in a way that is good for the environment.” ◆

Sheetal Bahirat upcycles avocado pits for her Reveal beverage line.

The Weavers Way Vendor Diversity Initiative provides assistance, support and shelf space for makers and artisans who are people of color.

Kitty Compromise

Cat owners employ leashes to keep their pets — and wildlife — safe by

Anyone could get bored stuck inside all day, and cats are no exception. A vast industry caters to the idle feline. A quick check at Chewy.com turned up thousands of cat toys, 140 of which are interactive, as well as 695 options for cat furniture such as trees, condos and scratching posts. Some cat owners prefer to get their cats outside for some fresh air and entertainment, but how they do it can be a matter of life and death, for the cat as well as wildlife.

When Lyric Reynolds got Midnight as a gift from her mother, she thought, “You’re always going outside.” The cat wouldn’t stop looking for a way to slip out the door. Reynolds, who lives in Wilmington, initial-

ly thought she might take Midnight outside in a carrier, but she wanted him to be able to stretch his body and move around on his own. Reynolds didn’t want Midnight to be out unattended but knew it wouldn’t be easy to keep him near her. The solution: a leash.

“It seems better to put them on a leash when you’re outside. They don’t know how to walk with you when you’re out there. They

bernard brown

sort of wander away,” Reynolds says. “He’s a little skittish. It’s the best way to keep him close to you but he can still get his freedom.”

Navin Sasikumar, who takes his cats, Sansa and Tonks, outside into his garden and into the alley behind his house in East Falls, also keeps them on a leash for their safety. “I don’t want them to escape,” he says. He also doesn’t want them munching

Oh my God, he loves it. He’s like a dog.”

—lyric reynolds, cat owner

on plants they shouldn’t eat. But Sasikumar also hopes to keep other animals safe. “I don’t want them catching birds.”

Research by scientists studying outdoor cats has led to estimates that domestic felines kill about 2.4 billion birds in the United States every year, making them the leading way that humans kill birds, well ahead of collisions with buildings (including windows), which kill about 600 million. This is in addition to other wildlife killed by cats, such as reptiles, amphibians and small mammals.

Keeping a cat indoors is one way to make sure it doesn’t kill any wildlife, but for cat owners who want to get their kitties outside, a harness and a leash give them the ability to keep the cat close and supervise its interactions with other animals.

That isn’t to say that a leash is perfect protection for wildlife. “I was with my naughty cat [Tonks] in my backyard,” says Sasikumar. “A sparrow flies by and she jumps from one corner of the backyard to the other corner and catches the sparrow.

They are such good hunters, so even with the leash it isn’t 100%, but it will cut back on what they can catch.”

Taking a cat out on a leash also helps keep it safe. Indoor cats tend to outlive outdoor cats, since they avoid hazards such as getting run over by cars, getting mauled by dogs and catching diseases such as feline leukemia from other outdoor cats.

It can take some training to get cats used to a harness and leash, says Reynolds. She has found that while Midnight tolerates the leash, “the other black cat we have — oh my God, he loves it. He’s like a dog. He’s literally like that; he waits by the door. He’s so eager to go on that walk. He’s got that personality,” she says.

A leash isn’t the solution for every cat. “We like to say, ‘Who rescued who?’” says Victoria Wilson about Lily, who ran into the Sharing Excess warehouse where she and her partner, Evan Ehlers, were working the day before Thanksgiving last year. “Evan said to me, ‘The biggest rat I’ve ever seen ran over my foot.’ We armed ourselves with a broom, looked under the couch and saw the cutest little kitten we had seen hiding.” Wilson grabbed an empty cardboard box, corralled the kitten and took her along with them to Ehlers’s family’s house for Thanksgiving.

Lily turned out to be a social butterfly. “We noticed she really liked [interacting with people],” Wilson says. “She’s a super social cat. She came from the streets, but these indoor environments were welcoming and warm. People were giving her food.”

Wilson and Ehlers started taking Lily outside on a leash to let her interact with more people, but she didn’t seem to enjoy it. “We took her outside and she dropped to the ground. She is not interested in walking outside,” Wilson says. They have found other ways to get Lily out of the house safely. They spend time on the roof of their West Philadelphia house, and the couple takes her on walks inside a backpack cat carrier. “We transitioned to a backpack, which she likes a lot more. … We take her to the farmers market, then to Coco’s Creamery, get her a pup cup, and people enjoy seeing her up there.”

Dogs have been kept on leashes for thousands of years, so no one is surprised when a dog walks by on a leash. But a cat like Midnight draws comments from people who don’t expect a feline to be leashed. “They think it’s so cute, so adorable since it’s nothing they’ve seen before,” Reynolds says. ◆

Tonks takes a walk, safely, with her owner, Navin Sasikumar.

Friends, Fun & Fitness

Philadelphia’s adapted rowing program supports and trains hobbyists and Paralympians

Jim loudon’s face lights up as he recalls reaching his one-millionmeter ergometer (commonly known as a rowing machine) goal earlier this year. Many rowers can achieve that in two months, he says. It took Loudon two years — but he did it as a below-theleft-elbow amputee. An eight-time indoor rowing world record holder, Loudon trains with the Pennsylvania Center for Adapted Sports (PCAS) adapted rowing program. The Philadelphia-based nonprofit, which got its start in 1980, is the oldest adapted rowing program in the country.

On the first day of training, Jeffrey McGinnis, PCAS executive director, put the

by dawn kane

rowing machines out in the parking lot with the help of Richard Park, a first-year coach, and several support volunteers. McGinnis, director for the past 10 years, came on board as a volunteer. This led him to a six-year stint coaching for the World Rowing Championships and for the Paralympics in 2008. “I’ve been involved for 30 years,” says McGinnis.

Rowing is one of 13 sports under the PCAS umbrella, which has helped develop 11 Paralympians, including two rowers. The program also trained four world-champion rowers. With 16 athletes on its roster, the rowing program is down from a peak of 44. Part of the attrition is due to PCAS offering

additional sports, but the rowing program has also come through hard times.

Training sessions went virtual when the pandemic shut down regular practices; Hurricane Ida damaged equipment and the dock in 2021; the channel to the river silted in (it was dredged this summer); and a motor launch was stolen. But just like his athletes, McGinnis is hopeful. “We have a lot of new faces,” he says.

Leo Rodriguez is part of the new wave. With the build of someone who has spent years running and doing martial arts, he now lives with muscular dystrophy. “I can’t do those things anymore,” he says, but after his physical therapist recommended rowing, he came out on the first day and began working on his form. “I’m trying,” he says.

Chris Artur joined in 2007 at the age of 19. His cerebral palsy did not stop him from earning Rookie of the Year in 2008. At the age of 34, he has logged countless meters. The rowing machine bothers his knees, but being out on the water gives him joy, so he trains.

Athletes come for different reasons, McGinnis says. Some are looking for recreational rowing, but others want to compete. To keep competitions fair, McGinnis and his staff screen the competitive athletes and group them based on their functional abilities. Some athletes may need a little help getting into and out of the boats, while others team up with an able-bodied partner. McGinnis keeps an eye out for super-motivated, elite athletes for the Paralympic pipeline. “If somebody gets to our door, they’ve gone

through an awful lot to get here,” he says.

The program volunteers generally commit to one day a week during the season and complete specialized training. For example, if an athlete has a spinal cord injury, they don’t perspire from the level of that injury down, and volunteers must be aware of it, McGinnis explains.

The program has regular barbecues, and at the start of the rowing sessions, the song playlist is the subject of heated debate. “There’s a big social component,” McGinnis

says. “More than a few marriages came out of this program, mine included.”

“I come back for the friends,” says Bethany Davis, who suffered a stroke in 2003 and has rowed with the program for 10 years. In the beginning, she didn’t know how hard it was going to be, but she comes back for the community.

Athletes use program equipment and pay $60 for the season, but the fees do not cover all of the expenses. A specialized rowing shell, which is heavier than a standard hull for the increased stability, can cost $12,000. McGinnis raises additional funds through grants, fundraisers and private donations. He believes it’s worth it.

“I know we’ve changed the heart of someone’s life,” McGinnis says. “We [haven’t] done it through this training — it was them. We just gave them the opportunity.”

Philadelphia will host the 40th annual BAYADA Regatta, the oldest adapted rowing regatta in the country, on August 19. “With the dredging now finished, our athletes are thrilled to get back on the water and resume their training for the upcoming BAYADA Regatta. It’s been a long time coming, and they are more than ready to get back in their boats and give it their all.”

If somebody gets to our door, they’ve gone through an awful lot to get here.”

jeffrey m c ginnis, Pennsylvania Center for Adapted Sports

Opposite page: Jim Loudon, Chris Artur and Bethany Davis practice rowing. Far left: PCAS executive director Jeffrey McGinnis has been helping disabled athletes get on the water for 30 years.

A Cut Above

South Philly bridal shop offers designer diversity, sustainability and demi-couture luxury

by

Mayana carter knew she wanted to create a different kind of bridal salon. Before opening Kinfolk Bride, Carter had worked in the bridal industry for 10 years in various capacities. “I found myself longing to see more designers of color, more women designers and more small makers,” she says, “and I wanted the people in my community to feel comfortable and catered to in a luxe bridal environment.”

When you walk into Kinfolk Bride’s fifthfloor salon in the Bok Building, you’re met with high ceilings, industrial chic design and tastefully arranged racks of gowns and attire in a space overlooking South Philadel-

dawn kane

phia and the Delaware River. On the surface, it feels like an upscale boutique, but owner Mayana Carter’s curated collections also focus on diverse women designers and sustainability.

“I aimed to create a bridal salon experience that highlights independent designers and allows me to offer Kinfolk Bride clients lots of really special, customizable options when it comes to personal style, body size and shape, and gender expression,” Carter writes in an email. She points to Philadelphia designer Megan Lawrence and her studio, The LAW, as an example. “It’s her and one other person, and they create every single piece beautifully by hand,” Carter says.

Carter searches for wedding designers who use deadstock, or surplus fabrics and recycle scraps. “It’s really important to me that the designers that I choose to work with are not generating massive amounts of waste.” Instead of discarding leftover materials, many of the designers donate to FABSCRAP, which also has a location at BOK and one in Brooklyn.

As a child, Carter had watched her mother, Safiya Carter, run a natural foods business. As an adult, she decided to follow in her mother’s footsteps. “I created the business I wanted to see,” she says. The formula appears to be working. Kinfolk Bride opened in January, and Carter has customers coming from New York, Washington, D.C. and Connecticut.

“Until I discovered Kinfolk, I was dreading the dress search, to be honest,” writes client Annie Brag in an email. “The studio itself has such a calm and beautiful energy, and Mayana was so patient, helpful and kind from start to finish. She has curated an incredible selection of unique and timeless pieces.”

Kinfolk Bride’s attire ranges in cost from $1,500 to $6,000 for the demi-couture gowns such as the handmade pieces from Chicago designer Varca. “A lot of the pieces that are more … modular, like tops and skirts or tops and pants, can definitely be worn again … I encourage my brides, once the wedding is over, to find a way to repurpose or re-gift so it doesn’t have to be this once [worn] item that goes in the box and sits in a closet forever,” Carter says.

Carter credits the South Philadelphia community as another influence. It shows in her collaborations with other BOK creatives, like the salon rugs from Sarah Naji’s Minimal Chaos. She serves beverages in vessels from Remark Glass, and she’s working with her BOK neighbors, Franklin & Whitman, “to create a signature Kinfolk Bride candle scent.”

Education is another part of Carter’s mission. The clients that I’ve had who didn’t come to me for the sustainability aspect of my business, they really are shocked by the level of quality in the fabrics and the difference they see in the products that are created in small batches and made to order as opposed to mass produced,” she says. “So, they really see the value of having a piece that’s handmade when they walk away from this experience.” ◆

Mayana Carter helps make the “big day” more sustainable.

Water Wars

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

Most of the big brother–little brother act between New York City and Philadelphia is all in good fun. Eagles versus Giants, Mets versus Phillies, international metropolis versus city of neighborhoods — regardless of who wins, the sun still rises the next day. But start scratching around about the fact that these two cities share the same source of water in a rapidly warming world, and

bagenstose

folks in the know start to get fidgety. New York City drinks from the top of the Delaware River, where reservoirs constructed in its headwaters in upstate New York funnel hundreds of millions of gallons a day to the city. The water that’s left turns into a proper river and heads south, where New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware take their cuts before the river empties into Delaware Bay.

These states along the river’s path engaged in legal warfare several times in the past century, twice taking their case to the U.S. Supreme Court to decide who gets what. Since then, a mostly stable peace has held as collaborative efforts sprang up to manage the river. Few residents of either New York City or Philadelphia likely think much about the security of their drinking water, if they even realize they share the same source.

But Howard Neukrug, executive director of The Water Center at the University of Pennsylvania and former commissioner of the Philadelphia Water Department (PWD), is one of those people. And he’s keeping one nervous eye on what could happen should an unprecedented drought test the relationship between the two metropolises in the decades ahead.

“What’s really nice right now is there is a [collaborative] process … . But that’s because we’re not in trouble,” Neukrug says. “If you were the water commissioner of New York City, and there was some kind of crazy drought, and you only had enough water

The Delaware River’s water in Philadelphia is fresh, for now.

for New York City, would you still make releases into the Delaware?”

Neukrug isn’t the only one thinking about such scenarios. Current staff at PWD, as well as counterparts with the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC), an interstate agency overseeing the watershed, are racing to model what could happen as sea level rise pushes salty water further up the Delaware River, toward Philadelphia’s main Baxter Drinking Water Treatment Plant in Torresdale.

Exacerbated by drought conditions, the saltiness of the water could theoretically threaten the intake, impacting the quality of water, requiring expensive treatment fixes, or — in the worst-case scenario — making the water unfit to drink.

With memories of the Baxter plant shutdown fresh after this year’s chemical spill in the Delaware set off a chaotic rush for bottled water among Philadelphians, the prospect takes on new weight. In an interview with Grid, PWD staff at first chose their words carefully, emphasizing the collaborative relationship and respect they have for their counterparts in New York City.

But when asked about the fact that New York is angling to ease up requirements for the amount of water it sends south, especially with the risk of a future drought looming, PWD spokesperson Brian Rademaekers didn’t hide the fact that Philly is prepared to once again go to battle if needed.

“We would not accept a less favorable

outcome. It would go to the Supreme Court,” Rademaekers says. “There’s no way that we would accept New York getting drinking water and us not.”

Going with the flow

Water is wet, but the details of how it is managed in the Delaware River are undeniably dry. Understanding how the four adjacent states, federal government and multitude of public and private stakeholders split up the river’s water requires a deep dive into abstruse bureaucracy and policies.

And yet, there is so much riding on it. Not only the threat of a severe future drought, but a multitude of present-day concerns: public recreation on the river, the health of endangered flora and fauna, and impacts to a variety of industries that use the river. Decisions have repercussions near and far, from Philadelphians who pay for water treatment through their utility bills to people in the far corners of the watershed who paddleboard and fish at reservoirs.

The rules of the river have built up through time like a layer cake. In the early 20th century, New York began building vast reservoirs capable of holding more than 200 billion gallons of Delaware River water. That triggered New Jersey v. New York, a legal case in which the U.S. Supreme Court established “flow rates” in the Delaware River at Port Jervis, New York and Trenton to ensure enough water was reaching downstream users.

When New York City began building even more reservoirs to quench the thirst of its growing population in the middle of the century, a second water war between the states ended up back before the court. A 1954 decision allotted New York City and New Jersey 800 million gallons and 100 million gallons a day, respectively, shuffled the flow rates for downstream users and set up a program housed by the U.S. Geological Survey to try to ensure the parties played nice in the future.

Soon after came the DRBC, a novel entity established during the Kennedy administration between the four states and the federal government to decide how to not only manage water resources but also combat rampant pollution and other issues.

Eventually, the agencies moved away from hard-and-fast rules and developed a “flexible flow management program” that allows variability to the management of

Information for information’s sake frankly is not helpful.”

maya van rossum, Delaware Riverkeeper

reservoirs as long as flow rates at Trenton and Montague, New York, remain adequate, particularly in times of drought.

To date, this diplomatic system has held. Conditions have never since deteriorated back to those under the “drought of record” in the 1960s, when New York reservoirs stopped releasing water, downstream river flows fell dangerously below their targets and the salt line threatened Philadelphia.

But there is growing concern that the status quo is becoming obsolete, potentially threatening the peace between the states.

Getting salty

Want to gauge the health of this entire Delaware River apparatus at any given moment? Check the current location of the salt front, where the freshwater of the Delaware River heading south meets Atlantic seawater pushing north in a brackish clash.

Historically, this mixing zone hangs out somewhere near Wilmington. During periods of drought it begins creeping up the river, where it can damage ecosystems, push into aquifers and harm or incapacitate industrial intakes and processes. The further the salt line pushes up, the tighter the tension between water users throughout the basin. New York and other upstream users must release more water to push seawater back down, risking their own supplies and the recreational enjoyment of places like Blue Marsh Lake in Berks County.

In a theoretical worst-case scenario, the entire system just runs out of slack and drinking water supplies go belly up. This has never happened, but there was a close call during the 1960s drought, when the salt line traveled about 30 miles upstream and stopped just south of the Betsy Ross Bridge, threatening the Baxter plant.

But Amy Shallcross, manager of water resource operations at the DRBC, says looking backward is no longer the way to protect the system. It’s the future we need to be worried about.

“What was the worst drought before the worst drought?” Shallcross asks. “You can always have a worse drought.”

Therein lies the key question: how much worse?

Shallcross says there are two new threats. The first is sea level rise, already well under-

way, which pushes seawater further up the Delaware River, eating away at the effectiveness of status quo management. The second is changes to rainfall patterns. Typically, it’s heavy rainstorms and flooding that cause havoc in the watershed. But climate scientists also predict a future world of competing extremes, where drought conditions are also intensified.

Uncertainty is a key challenge in planning for both problems. Just how bad will climate change get? How will that impact conditions on the ground in the Delaware Valley? What measures would be effective in combating them?

The DRBC members and New York City are planning to update the flexible flow management program in 2028, a potentially crucial political moment in protecting the future of the watershed against the chang-

ing climate. Shallcross says her team at the DRBC is working to model future conditions and present actionable data ahead of those decisions.

Kelly Anderson, director of the Office of Watersheds at PWD, says Philly has also beefed up its own scientific staff and modeling programs. It’s a work in progress, and although Anderson says results already indicate current flow management plans would protect Philly water from a severe drought crisis for the next decade, the longer term threats are undetermined.

Still, the department is concerned with current dynamics. Ahead of the 2028 decisions, Anderson says New York City is making noise that it wants to drop the flow target at Montague, decoupling required reservoir releases from a key metric meant to protect Philadelphia from the salt line.

The sun sets on Philly’s water supply.

“We work very well with New York,” Anderson says. “This is the one issue we don’t always see eye to eye with them on.”

The white coats versus the suit coats

If this swirling uncertainty over the future safety of a drinking water source serving 17 million people isn’t anxiety-inducing enough, take a moment to consider something else: whatever the scientists come up with, it’ll be in the hands of politicians to act on the results.

That doesn’t inspire a lot of confidence in some long-time observers of the DRBC, whose policy decisions ultimately lie in the hands of four governors and the president of the United States.

Maya van Rossum, head of the environmental nonprofit Delaware Riverkeeper Network, has frequented the commission’s regular meetings for decades. Following a series of devastating floods in Bucks County in the mid-2000s, she even served on a DRBC flood mitigation task force that created new recommendations, including protections against development in floodplains. The experiences left her with the view that the DRBC is not going to be up to the task.

“Those recommendations really went nowhere, and ended up on a bunch of bookshelves,” van Rossum says. “Information for information’s sake frankly is not helpful.”

Forget the future, van Rossum adds: the river is threatened now. The hazards of climate change are well established; sea level rise is already causing salty havoc in parts of the lower watershed; oxygen levels and habitat loss are a concern for species like the endangered Atlantic sturgeon.

And yet, van Rossum says, decisions are still made out of political expediency, including the allowance of new fossil fuel operations, approval of additional withdrawals from the watershed and the dredging of the river from Philadelphia south to the bay, which is expected to help shipping commerce but exacerbate just about every other problem, including management of the salt line.

“It’s not just thinking about every decision that’s happening today, and how does the climate play into it,” van Rossum says. “It’s also about being proactive in terms of anticipating the harms and being protective.”

Even those with differing views believe the DRBC has a tremendous challenge on its hands, requiring something different from the status quo. Neukrug serves as a volun-

teer chair of the recently created Climate Change Committee at the DRBC, where he says some of the region’s best scientists are starting to think deeply about how global warming will impact the watershed. At the moment, he believes there’s too much uncertainty to justify blanket banning activities such as dredging.

“That’s a serious economic issue that doesn’t need to be challenged at this point in time,” Neukrug says.

But Neukrug sees similar challenges on a longer timeline. How effectively, he wonders, can you make decisions when sea level rise could range from three feet to eight feet or more over the next century? That doesn’t mean he isn’t worried about the health of the watershed, but it does mean he doesn’t want the entire solution hinged on the release of water from New York reservoirs.

Instead, Neukrug envisions options ranging from expanding or creating new reservoirs in control of parties downstream, improving water use efficiency, recycling wastewater, installing desalination treatment at the Baxter plant, or even finding

ways to pipe in water from new sources.

“Eventually if we want to survive as a major metropolitan area — New York City, Philadelphia, Camden, Chester — you have to start thinking about broad solutions,” Neukrug says.

PWD’s Anderson and Rademaekers say they’re also planning for all potential outcomes, including desalination systems at Baxter in a worst-case scenario, although they don’t believe Philadelphians should have to foot the extremely expensive price tag for that power-intensive technology themselves.

Even Shallcross, a scientist who admits she’s sometimes frustrated by the bureaucracy and politics at play — “Policy doesn’t always follow the science,” she says — understands the nature of the difficult decisions ahead.

“Basically everything needs to be weighed, and there are tradeoffs,” Shallcross says, noting the five parties to the DRBC all have their own priorities. “So we provide the science … but you have to stand in each one of their shoes.” ◆

Eventually if we want to survive as a major metropolitan area — New York City, Philadelphia, Camden, Chester — you have to start thinking about broad solutions.”

howard neukrug, Penn Water Center

Howard Neukrug predicts that severe drought could test the collaborative relationship between the states, but offers several potential solutions.

THE LOW-TECH ISSUE ------------------

Too often the answer to a problem posed by technology is a new technology. Electric vehicles promise to save us from auto emissions caused by internal combustion engines, but they carry their own environmental impacts from the lithium, cobalt and other minerals mined for batteries.

We can eliminate paper used for printing by moving information online to the cloud, but the supercomputing centers — the physical machines that house and serve it all — account for about 3% of global greenhouse gas emissions.

In this section we explore how we can solve problems without rushing to the newest technology. For example, ensuring we have safe and accessible sidewalks is critical to reducing transportation emissions. School libraries offer access to information without the cloud, a truth we have forgotten in our rush to put a Chromebook in every backpack. We can extend the lives of older-tech gadgets, whether those are steel bicycles or wooden guitars. Kids can have fun offline using bows and arrows (some of the most primitive tools around).

Not all technological advances are bad, of course. Many of us are alive today thanks to medical technology, and adaptive technologies (like motorized wheelchairs) liberate many of those whose impairments would otherwise limit their mobility. And not all low-tech solutions are free of environmental impacts. We might enjoy roasting marshmallows around the fire, but our lungs pay a steep price.

We hope that when you put down this magazine you’ll find yourself inspired to critically examine how you use technology — and how you might not.

THE LONG GAME

The tradition of environmental board games spans decades

story by sophia d. merow

Adancing penguin. A googly-eyed amoeba. Psychedelic fonts amidst splashes of avocado, harvest gold, mod magenta.

“Playing Dirty,” the Science History Institute’s latest outdoor exhibition, features the “bright colors and groovy graphics” — to borrow senior manager of exhibition projects and programming Christy Schneider’s words — you’d expect from the era of lava lamps and flower power. The imagery gracing the institute’s Chestnut Street façade through October also reflects the increasing awareness of environmental issues in a decade — the 1970s — that saw the first Earth Day and the passage of such legislation as the Clean Water and Endangered Species Acts.

With that increasing awareness, says curatorial fellow and “Playing Dirty” curator Sherri Sheu, came questions, a few of which she rattled off at the institute’s First

Friday event in May. “How are we going to be able to harness this momentum of everybody caring about the environment and put it into actionable change? What exactly do people need to learn about the environment anyway? How are different age groups going to learn about the environment?” One — perhaps unexpected — answer devised by disco-decade creatives? Board games.

“You can do things in board games that you can’t do in books, that you can’t do through videos,” Sheu explained, “because they allow you to play, they allow you to experiment, … to see what really happens if you decide that, hey, I don’t care what happens to anybody else, I just want to win for myself.”

For “Playing Dirty,” Sheu selected from the institute’s collection of environmentally themed board games — the largest in the country — artifacts that, besides being “fabulous material objects,” demonstrate

the broad reach of boxed, board-based edutainment in the 1970s.

Take Litter Bug. Released in 1970, Litter Bug tasks players in the pre- and elementary school demographic with keeping the community — its quaint zoo, beach, campsite and main street haunted by a crazy-eyed, sharptoothed litter bug lurking in the city dump — clean by collecting trash and depositing it in the trash cans that serve as game pieces. The player who picks up the most litter — broken bottles, old shoes, apple cores — wins.

“So it’s teaching kids littering is bad,” Sheu said at her May curator talk, and that “trash goes into a trash can.” Litter Bug can also be viewed, Sheu noted, as an initiation into the personal responsibility approach to environmentalism — which, of course, lets industry actors off the hook. Put the onus of recycling on individuals, and the accountability of bottle manufacturers stops short at the factory door.

Another game included in “Playing Dirty,” Clean Water: The Water Pollution Game (1972), targets a more sophisticated audience than its whimsical visuals — sewage outflows, paper plants and copepods looking straight out of the Beatles’ 1968 “Yellow Submarine” film — or its tagline — “teaches people of all ages about ecology and water pollution” — might suggest. Each player is the “water pollution control official” for a different lake; the lakes, connected by rivers, are surrounded by farms, residential developments and an assortment of industrial pollution sources. Players roll a die to move around the board, trying to populate their lakes with the right organisms in the right ratios to comprise a healthy and stable ecosystem. Opportunities arise to bid for federal funding, buy pollution abatements, exchange an excess of one sort of organism for much-needed individuals of another. The first player with a fully stocked lake wins.

Created (along with such other games — not included in “Playing Dirty” — as Ecology: The Game of Man and Nature and Smog: The Air Pollution Game) by a group of

An exhibit at the Science History Institute explores environmental learning through board games.

Harvard-affiliated academics, Clean Water is better suited to impressing upon urban planning graduate students the complexities of ecosystem maintenance in the face of pollutant influx than whiling away a rainy afternoon with your pals. For her part, Sheu derived a lesson from Clean Water that she wouldn’t necessarily have foreseen pre-play. “It’s meant to teach you that not everything is within your control,” she observed. One player might fork over the money to abate, say, steel industry acid pollution for one particular lake, but other players’ lakes can still suffer the consequences. “You can be an awesome manager,” Sheu said, “but you’re also downstream of somebody.”

Sheu hopes viewers of “Playing Dirty” will come away from the exhibition not only appreciating board games as historical objects that reflect a moment in time but also pondering similarities between the 1970s and the present.

“A lot of people feel the urgency of climate change,” she says. “Again we find ourselves in this position where, man, we’re facing this problem. How are we going to combat it? How do we teach people about the complexities of climate change? I think this is similar to the ecological crisis in the 1970s where people

really felt that they needed to do something.”

Sheu credits concern about climate change with driving a current board game boom, which she sees as a continuation of the rich tradition showcased in “Playing Dirty.” After pandemic-induced isolation, she says, folks are hungry for the connection possible over in-person game play. “It’s really hard when you’re separated by thousands of miles to have people know how angry you are by flipping the board over,” Sheu joked at her curator’s talk before attendees circled up to try such (non-vintage) games as Cascadia and Photosynthesis

Many modern board games are more focused on cooperation than Litter Bug or

Clean Water were, Sheu says. Perhaps, then, they can lead players to a realization the makers of Gomston: A Polluted City (1973), a classroom simulation featured in “Playing Dirty,” hoped to encourage. As players representing municipal interest groups try to address the problems plaguing Gomston, they have to figure out that everybody, in the end, is in the same boat. “Everybody needs to work together on this,” Sheu says. “You will either all swim together or you will all drown together.” ◆

The Science History Institute is located at 315 Chestnut Street. The “Playing Dirty” website is sciencehistory org /playing-dirty

How do we teach people about the complexities of climate change? I think this is similar to the ecological crisis in the 1970s where people really felt that they needed to do something.”

SHERRI SHEU, Science History Institute curator

CHILL OUT

There are better ways to stay cool than running the AC all day

story by samantha wittchen

Summer in the city is tough, and those drippy boxes protruding from windows all over Philly are the most ubiquitous solution to beat the heat. According to the U S Department of Energy (DOE), air conditioners use about 6% of the total electricity produced in the United States and cost homeowners and renters a cool $29 billion per year. While it’s true that the most stifling summer days might still require a boost of cold salvation from the ol’ window rattler, there are ways to keep cool for a good portion of the summer that require far less energy — and cost a lot less, too.

To help you understand how to cool more effectively, here’s a quick primer on how heat enters your house in the first place. Heat is transferred to your home through three processes:

1. conduction (i.e., transferred through solid matter like walls, roofs and floors)

2. radiation (i.e., transferred via light, as through windows)

3. convection (i.e., via fluid matter like air)

The amount of heat your house takes on through conduction varies with the amount of insulation, the reflectivity of your roof and how energy-efficient your windows are.

Heating due to radiation is mostly influenced by your windows’ ability to block infrared radiation from the sun.

Convection heating has to do with how air moves through your house, carrying heat with it.

Combining methods to avoid heat buildup with smart ventilation techniques is the cheapest, most energy-efficient way to cool it down.

Let’s start with avoiding heat gain. If you’re not a homeowner (and sometimes even if you are), you may have no control over the insulation in your walls and attic, or the construction of your roof, but you can still control the heat gain through your windows. Although it may seem counterintuitive, on days when the outside temperature is going to exceed the temperature inside your house, close all windows and exterior doors to keep the cooler air in and the hotter air out. Adding window shades helps block the radiation heating from the sun, and if you go with insulated window shades, you can even reduce some of the conduction heat gain. Avoiding daytime household activities such as using your oven or dishwasher can help reduce heat buildup.

The next piece is ventilation. The goal is to control the way that hot air moves through, and ultimately leaves, your house. Window fans are an extremely effective way to do this. Once outside temperatures drop, place a fan in a window so that it exhausts trapped hot air to the outside, and tightly close all windows near the fan. Open windows in rooms

far from the exhaust fan (preferably on a shaded or north side of the house), and place another fan in one of the windows to draw in cooler air. If you live in a multistory building, the exhaust fan should be on the upper level and the intake fan on the lower level to compound the natural process of hot air rising, creating a chimney effect.

Now that you’re a natural cooling expert, it’s time for some bad news. Ventilation isn’t nearly as effective when the temperature difference between the day and night is small, like those 95-degree days when the thermometer never falls below 85 at night. For the days when you do need the AC, taking the time to right-size your window unit, performing routine maintenance on it — like cleaning the filter and coils — and forking over a little extra dough for an energy-efficient model can net you savings between 20 and 50%. Purchasing an oversized air conditioner will not only cost you more up front and in ongoing electric usage; it may not even cool the space effectively. An air conditioner that’s too large for a space will cool the room quickly while only removing some of the humidity, leaving you with a clammy feeling.

Consumer Reports has an excellent online tool to help you determine the proper window unit size based on a number of factors: the size of the room, the amount of insulation in your home, the number of interior and exterior walls, the cardinal direction the room faces and the number and size of windows it has. You can then plug in your electric rate and see how the annual operating cost will vary based on the efficiency of the unit you purchase.

So, forget the shore — summer in the city just got a little cooler. ◆

UP IN SMOKE

story by dawn kane

From cooking food to staying warm, humanity’s ability to control fire has been a critical factor in our evolution. As large wildfires become increasingly common, however, more and more health experts are issuing warnings about the hazards related to their emissions. As it turns out, even fireplaces, woodstoves and campfires — long beloved by a certain kind of warmth seeker — endanger our health.

“Wood stoves are prodigious emitters of particulate pollution [including] fine particles as well as carbon monoxide and a set of toxic pollutants, which include benzene and formaldehyde,” says Katherine Pruitt, national senior director for policy at the American Lung Association

“We know a lot about the health effects — including cardiovascular effects, heart attacks and strokes — and respiratory effects, including worsening and causing asthma

and COPD [chronic obstructive pulmonary disease],” Pruitt says. “And particles also affect multiple other systems of the body. It’s been linked to neurological effects, reproductive effects and impacts [the] immune system…. Fine particle pollution also is known to cause premature death.”

Pruitt is not alone in this analysis. In 2019, Integrated Science Assessments by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) evaluated multiple studies on particle pollution and found a “causal relationship” between short- and long-term exposure to fine particles (aka PM2.5) and cardiovascular and respiratory effects. Long-term exposure is also linked to neurological effects and cancer.

And according to the 2017 EPA National Emissions Inventory: “Residential wood smoke emits more PM2.5 pollution than both on-road and non-road vehicles combined,

and five times more PM2.5 pollution than petroleum refineries, cement manufacturers and pulp and paper plants combined.”

“We recognize that some people, especially people living in rural areas, have limited options when it comes to heating,” Pruitt says. In that case, we want to make sure people take all the precautions they can. But if you [don’t] burn wood, that’s best … especially for high-risk individuals: children, the elderly, people living with chronic conditions and pregnant women.”

Penn State Extension recommends that those who must use wood create covered storage areas and make sure wood is dried “at about 20 percent moisture by weight,” choose hardwoods over softwoods, burn hot fires (1,100 Fahrenheit) to minimize emissions and reduce creosote residue, and maintain airflow for “complete combustion.”

Even if one takes the recommended precautions, wood stoves still present greater health risks than other heating methods. The peer-reviewed science journal Atmosphere reports that real-world usage of wood stoves has very high particle emissions during “flooding” events, which occur when users open the stove to refuel.

“I used to enjoy a fire in the stone fireplace,” says Barbara Brandom, a retired physician. “Now I reserve this only for special occasions once or twice a year,” she says. “And I sit as far away as possible from the fire.” She adds that, despite the popularity of wood burning and fire pits, it all boils down to carbon emissions. “It’s the energy fix we must learn to live without,” she says.

Pruitt agrees. “The Lung Association really doesn’t support any wood burning as an organization, and in particular wood burning for pleasure,” she says. “Everybody who’s lived in an area where people are burning wood inside knows [that if] you can smell it, it means you’re breathing that pollution.” ◆

Wood burning poses serious health risks, but mitigation is possible

It’s the energy fix we must learn to live without.”

BARBARA BRANDOM, retired physician

SHUT AND OPEN

Philly school libraries are severely understaffed and underfunded. These organizations are working to change that

story by constance garcia-barrio

The big library — the size of several classrooms — in the Cook-Wissahickon School in Roxborough stands as a monument to activism. Closed for several years in the late 1990s and early 2000s, the library now serves pre-kindergarteners through middle schoolers with story hours and a robust lending program that enrich the lives of students. Sadly, the library is an exception.

Philadelphia’s lack of school libraries is one of its best-kept, and most devastating, secrets.

“When I talked with people about it at the May Fair in Clark Park, they were shocked,” says Katelin Beck, program manager of the West Philadelphia Alliance for Children (WePAC), an organization that mobilizes volunteers to staff and reopen libraries in public schools. “They assume there’s a library be-

cause they grew up with them,” she says.

The Philadelphia Alliance to Restore School Librarians (PARSL), a grassroots group pushing to restore school librarians, notes a startling statistic in its just-published report, “Ensuring Equity and Access to School Librarians and School Library Services in the School District of Philadelphia .” “Two out of three children in Philadelphia cannot read on grade level by fourth grade,” the report says, adding that such youngsters are “six times more likely to drop out of high school.”

That damage can snowball.

There’s a correlation between low literacy and the possibility of future incarceration, notes Jennifer Leith, WePAC’s executive director. In addition, low-literate adults also have more health problems and earn less money than their well-read counterparts,

says Reading Partners, a national nonprofit that helps students read on grade level by fourth grade.

Strong school libraries could help address these issues, library science researchers Keith Curry Lance and Debra E. Kachel conclude in their 2018 study, “Why School Librarians Matter.” Good school libraries can boost academic achievement “for … the most vulnerable and at-risk learners, including students of color, low-income students and students with disabilities.”

Many Philly schools once had a library, but they fell victim to budget cuts. In 1991, the School District of Philadelphia employed 176 librarians for 259 schools, PARSL says, but the district slashed funding for them in the late 1990s. As of 2021–22, the school district had the equivalent of one full-time librarian for its 217 schools, according to PARSL.

WePAC stepped into the breach to reopen libraries in elementary schools.

Some groups, including the Main Line Reform Temple, the Bryn Mawr Presbyterian Church and civic organizations, found the funding cuts inequitable and unacceptable, and joined forces to reestablish a library at Rudolph Blankenburg School, Leith says.

“WePAC promotes childhood literacy by reopening and staffing libraries,” Leith says. WePAC first offered its services in West Philadelphia during the 2003–2004 school year by placing six volunteers in Rudolph Blankenburg School on West Girard Avenue. “In our vision, every Philadelphia student will have the literacy skills vital to their success,” Leith says.

Today, WePAC, now an independent 501(c)(3) nonprofit, focuses on literacy in kindergarten through fourth grade. “We’re a lean, scrappy organization,” says Leith. “The vast majority of our funding comes from private donors and foundations. We do fundraising and write grant proposals. We provide all of our services at no cost to schools or to the school district, although we have received some support in the past from the Philadelphia Activities Fund.”

WePAC also relies on volunteers.

“We had a base of up to 200 volunteers before the pandemic,” says Beck. “Now we have 60 to 70. They’re really our backbone.” Retired teachers and students from the University of Pennsylvania and Saint Joseph’s University volunteer with WePAC.

WePAC volunteer Erica Preaga, the

WePAC school team lead Gwen Hayes, executive director Jennifer Leith and program manager Katelin Beck get the Longstreth Elementary School library in order.

PHOTOGRAPHY BY RACHAEL WARRINER

mother of a second grader and a fourth grader at Cook-Wissahickon, estimates that she spends 10 to 20 hours a week in the school library.

“Some days I’m here from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.,” Preaga says. “We’ve added 3,000 books since January. There are lots of volunteer opportunities. Books need to be cataloged and shelved. We need weekly volunteers. We also have one-time service opportunities for your workplace or organization.”

Despite the drop in volunteers due to the pandemic, WePAC is regaining ground. It has reopened nine libraries post-pandemic, served 1,750 students, circulated 47,000 books and trained 75 volunteers, Leith says.

“We’re currently on track to re-open 13 libraries by the beginning of the 2023–24 school year,” says Beck. “They’re really important. Surveys show that for many students, the school library is the only library they visit.”

School libraries seem to win over even kids who are reluctant at first.

“One of the evaluations mentioned a boy in second grade who wanted nothing to do with the library at first,” Leith says. “Over the course of the year, he changed his mind and began borrowing books regularly.”

Other youngsters seem to need no encouragement. Nicholas, 9, who lives near the Hardy Williams Mastery Charter School in Southwest Philly, stuffed two bags with free children’s books at the community fair held at A. W. Christy Recreation Center, on South 55th Street, on June 24.

“I’m picking up books to read to my sister,” he said. “She’s three years old. My own favorite book is ‘Pete the Cat.’”

Peggy G. Carr, commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics in Washington, D.C., part of the U.S. Department of Education, would cheer Nicolas’s enthusiasm. Students who’ve developed an appreciation of reading for pleasure outside of school scored higher than peers who reportedly seldom read for enjoyment, according to results from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) Long-Term Trend Assessment. An article in the June 21, 2023, Philadelphia Inquirer, “Basic skills scores sink significantly for 13-year-olds, showing pandemic learning losses,” cited that finding.

In the immediate future, WePAC will concentrate on updating collections in 13 school libraries opened before the pandemic.

“In these 13 schools, the staff already has an understanding of what a library does, of the benefits it can mean,” says Beck. “We have the support of the administration and families at those schools. The administration understands that we’re striving to fill a need. How we’ll prioritize schools requesting our help later, we haven’t decided.”

Wherever it reopens libraries, WePAC will emphasize community engagement.

“We encourage community involvement,” Leith says. “We’re strategizing about how to put the word out: Should we have a parent/caregiver day?”

WePAC has found good grassroots support among Reading Captains. Modeled on the lines of the block captains, volunteers who lead efforts to make their blocks safe and beautiful, Reading Captains help their neighbors raise strong readers.

“We give out free children’s books and literacy tip sheets at churches, the Philadelphia Zoo and rec centers,” says Diane Mills, a Reading Captain in Southwest Philly. “We’ve even given out children’s books at Wendy’s. We go to Father’s Day events. We’re strictly volunteers. We do this because we love it,” says Mills, who says that

a brush with death also motivates her. “My purpose is to help these children.”

Mills stresses the role of Reading Captains in helping parents. She advises them about issues like enrolling their children in pre-kindergarten and preventing “summer slide,” losing academic ground over summer vacation, by reading together with children.

Reading Captain Patricia Erwin-Blue, a retired social worker and Reading Captain for her block on Buist Avenue, sometimes sees, and helps address, other circumstances that may impact a child’s learning.

“You ask yourself what else may be happening at home,” Erwin-Blue says.

WePAC, administrators, Reading Captains and other volunteers have come together to spotlight and help remedy the critical need for libraries in Philly’s public schools.

“We’re trying to build a love of reading, a love of books and learning,” says Phil DeLuca, principal of Samuel Gompers Elementary School in Wynnefield, which is spiffing up its library post-pandemic. “We need a space to do that.”

To learn more, visit wepac.org.

We’re trying to build a love of reading, a love of books and learning.”

PHIL DELUCA, principal of Samuel Gompers Elementary School

When kids get back in the fall, the books will be ready for them.

BULL’S EYE

John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge teaches the next generation of archery — and nature — enthusiasts

story by kiersten adams

Archers celebrated summer solstice with bows and arrows on the John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge at Tinicum archery range this year. Instructors like Kelly Kemmerle, who leads the youth archery program, welcomed Philly residents onto the archery range for safety lessons and target practice. Many attendees were new to the sport, holding a bow and releasing arrows for the first time. Some, as Kemmerle shares, are returning archers who’ve taken a liking to the program and come back every chance they can get.

“The most fulfilling aspect is seeing people come back time and time again and have fun, connect with the sport [and] build their skills, and being able to build that rapport with people,” Kemmerle says.

The youth archery program has become a pillar for neighbors in the Southwest Philadelphia community interested in a free and

accessible way to get outside. “[Archery is] a really approachable activity. Sometimes people feel intimidated by nature-based activities or feel like they don’t have the background knowledge, but archery can attract people that didn’t necessarily feel welcome,” Kemmerle says.

The refuge staff work throughout the year to help neighbors from Black and Brown communities in Southwest Phila-

delphia overcome the racial prejudice that comes with being outside as well as the economic barriers that prevent many lower-income communities from participating in expensive sports like archery.

Attendees learn about the sport and practice shooting on the refuge’s range under the tutelage of USA Archery–certified instructors at two-hour pop-up events that take place on weekday evenings. The youth archery staff are able to bring the fun off the refuge and into the streets through partnerships with local schools and summer camps, further opening that window of opportunity for people who have never participated in the sport.

Learning archery is one thing, but putting those skills to use is a whole other sport, according to deputy refuge manager Mariana Bergerson. “We realize a lot of people in this area aren’t exposed to hunting growing up. And archery is a great way to have that stepping stone into learning a little bit more about it,” says Bergerson.

John Heinz ’s hunting program helps bridge the gap between archery and conservation. The hands-on initiative addresses deer tracking, prepping for a hunt, using a crossbow and choosing a location. Haley Phillips of the Pennsylvania Game Commission shares the joy in teaching a skill rarely offered to people living in a city, where the meat roams only on the Acme shelves.

“A lot of people eat meat, but [they’re] nervous about hunting and don’t know where [their food] comes from. But once you explain it, it’s such a unique process to actually get your own food for yourself,” Phillips explains. Hopeful that hunting provides an appealing way of discovering archery, all efforts are made with the hope of getting more people into and interested in the refuge.

As the summer solstice session comes to a close, participants are reluctant to lower their bows, especially the kids who have found a new appreciation for archery. It has become a common cycle for former students to return as certified volunteers, ready to instruct the next cohort of archers.

Bergerson sees archery as a stepping stone for engagement. Along with Kemmerle and Phillips, the John Heinz team hopes to continue introducing both kids and adults to activities that establish a positive perception of nature and our relationship to it. In some cases, all it takes is a bow and a few arrows. ◆

The most fulfilling aspect is seeing people come back time and time again and have fun.”

KELLY KEMMERLE, archery instructor

A new archer learns how to hit the target.

PHOTOGRAPH BY RACHAEL WARRINER

TOP OF MIND

local businesses ready to serve

BOOK STORE

Books & Stuff

ENCOURAGING … Literacy, Knowledge, Creativity and Inquisitivity!

at booksandstuff.info

CAFE

The Random Tea Room

A woman owned co-working cafe that seeks sustainability in every cup. Our tea and herbal products are available prepared hot or iced, loose leaf & wholesale for cafes and markets. therandomtearoom.com

COMPOSTING

Back to Earth Compost Crew

Residential curbside compost pick-up, commercial pickup, five collection sites & compost education workshops. Montgomery County & parts of Chester County. First month free trial. backtoearthcompost.com

DEATH DOULA

The Death Designer

Compassionate end of life planning, including paperwork, funeral and memorial planning, legacy projects, and collecting passwords in a password manager. Find out more at thedeathdesigner.com

GROCERY

Kimberton Whole Foods

A family-owned and operated natural grocery store with seven locations in Southeastern PA, selling local, organic and sustainablygrown food for over thirty years. kimbertonwholefoods.com

AS GOOD AS NEW

Commuters share the joys (and pains) of vintage bicycles

story by ashley lauren walker

Bicycles continue to evolve — with carbon fiber frames and electric motors, among other newfangled components — but the machine’s design hasn’t fundamentally changed for generations: two wheels, handlebars and a diamond-shaped frame.

Aaron Zucker, Leslie Lodwick and Alex Bomstein remind us that we can ride bikes made decades ago, that we needn’t buy the latest and greatest, that there’s still a place for durable, simple transportation in a fastpaced, urban environment.

The following interview has been edited for length and clarity.

What’s the model of your bike? How do you maintain it? Zucker: A 1972 Raleigh Super Course. Maintaining it has been easy, just some oil on the chain. I’ll usually attempt any repairs before taking it to the shop. Lodwick: A brown Ross Eurosport from the early 1980s — it was originally sold at Sears. I take it to Bell’s Bike Shop on Passyunk for maintenance once a year, since they’ve always made cost-effective but

quality recommendations. Bomstein: Mine is a Giant Boulder. I take care of the routine maintenance like pumping the tires, cleaning the chains and touching up nicks at home. The rest I leave to the professionals.

How long have you been commuting via bike? Zucker: I’m in Center City and have been commuting on it for about a year, usually between 10 to 20 minutes. Lodwick: Since 2008. I currently take my bike up to University City a few times a week to write my Ph.D. dissertation at the libraries up there. That commute is about 30 minutes. Bomstein: Work is hybrid these days, but I’ve been commuting on Rosy since 2007. When traffic is light and my limbs are limber, my commute [from South Philadelphia] can be 15 minutes or less.

What are the benefits and challenges of using an older bike? Zucker: Being a steel

frame, it’s comfortable, repairable and the parts are cheaper. I don’t worry about scratches and think it’s less likely to be stolen than a newer bike. The biggest challenge is that sometimes the components don’t work perfectly. If a part is broken, it might not be available. I also worry about corrosion from water and road salt. Lodwick: When I lock my bike up, I don’t have to worry about it being stolen. I’m okay if it gets a little dinged up during city riding and commuting. It doesn’t always shift gears in a reliable way, and the frame is heavy. However, I like it because it means I can go really fast down hills. Bomstein: Between its worn

looks and massive chain, it’s not a target for thieves. I don’t need to stress about it getting dirty or banged up because, well, it already is, but I don’t mind any of that.

Why haven’t you upgraded to a newer model? Zucker: I love the look, value and feel of old bikes. It’s way easier to get or build the bike you want than with a newer bike. If I wanted something more performance-oriented, I’d look at something newer.Lodwick: The price! I have my eye on a new gravel bike, but I’m still saving for it. My bike is great for the city, but I’d like to get something that’s better for longer rides

and different pavements. I also worry about a new bike potentially being stolen. Bomstein: I love my bike, and you can’t buy love. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it! We’re lucky that there are repair shops all over the place. I’d rather give my money to pay for a technician’s time than to buy a material good that needs to be mined.

Are there any tips you’d give to commuters who are considering using an old bike? Zucker: Learn how to replace a tube and carry everything you need to do so. Invest in a good lock and learn how to lock it securely. Use good lights, and take them off the bike when you get off. Bikes haven’t changed too much in the last 100 years. Everything on a new bike works the same way as on an old bike. Lodwick: Do regular maintenance, keep it dry and learn how to fix a flat. I have had some bike shops turn up their noses at my bike because it’s old; some have even said “just buy a better bike” when I want to get something fixed. But, if you find a bike you like, that’s the most important thing. Bomstein: Do it! There are so many good bikes out there. The basic form of a bike is timeless. It can be older than you are but ride like a charm with a little TLC.

What would you like to see done to make it easier for people to commute via bike in Philly? Zucker: I would love to see protected bike lanes and more automated enforcement. Paint is not protection, and bike lanes in door zones are dangerous for many reasons. Greater enforcement of cars parked in bike lanes, more bike racks and tax incentives should exist as well. The safer we make biking, the more people will do it! Lodwick: There needs to be a bigger citywide conversation about transportation and how everyone has the right to take the kind of transportation they need. We should respect one another’s choices. On my bike, I feel like folks driving cars get really frustrated with cyclists on the road. I understand the limitations, but there are humans on these bikes who are much less protected than those in automobiles, which creates a very vulnerable feeling. Bomstein: The more we all normalize biking as transportation, the safer and easier it becomes for everyone and the more everyone can see themselves joining us. So encourage your friends, family and neighbors to get an old bike and start riding! ◆

Aaron Zucker rides in timeless style on his 1972 Raleigh Super Course.

IF IT’S BROKE, FIX IT

Old-school repair shops keep stuff working longer

The more stuff you own, the more likely you are to encounter something that suddenly no longer does what it’s supposed to do. After venting your frustration, you’ve got a choice: repair it, throw it out and buy a new one, or decide you’re better off without it. Some Philly people whot fix things for a living want you to choose repair, though not in all circumstances or for all products.

Anh Mach owns Anh Custom Tailors , where for over 25 years she has been altering and designing clothing for women

story by marilyn anthony

and men. Mach first learned to sew in her home country of Vietnam. After moving to Philadelphia, she worked in a clothing factory and a tailor shop to refine her skills. Although the pandemic nearly crushed her business, Mach says customers are returning, often with requests to update an item they already own. Her younger customers are asking for style alterations, like modifying a dress from short sleeves to sleeveless. Although she feels the quality of material has declined over time, Mach is happy to help her customers refresh their wardrobe

rather than replacing it. But what gives her the most satisfaction is designing and sewing unique pieces made from high-quality fabric created to last.

Joe Robinson’s fledgling Roxborough business, Joe’s Guitar Repair, is a passion project. “As soon as I picked up the guitar I was interested in how it worked,” he recalls. A graduate of the Eastern School of Fretted Instrument Repair in Freehold, NJ, Robinson loves to repair “guitars, basses, banjos, ukuleles, whatever has strings and a fretboard. This is all I want to do.” Even so, he

sometimes advises people that the cost of repair isn’t justified for the flea market acoustic guitar that cost $30 but will need $200 worth of repairs. It’s not about the age of an instrument; it’s about the original quality of craftsmanship and materials. He’ll make an exception, though, when an instrument has sentimental value for a customer. As for a DIY approach, Robinson knows there are lots of tutorials online, but if you don’t have an understanding of basic tools he doesn’t advise working on your own stuff, cautioning that “you can do a lot more damage.”

Philadelphia Bikesmith co-owner Max Hamalainen became a bicycle technician because as a kid he fell in love with the freedom and enjoyment of cycling. At age 14 he got his first job in a bike shop, and though he earned a college degree in mathematics, after graduation he “went straight back to bikes.” At Philadelphia Bikesmith, most of the repair work is fixing flats and replacing tires. While these might seem like simple repairs, increasingly sophisticated bike design has led even experienced cyclists to rely

on professional mechanics. “We are seeing fewer people who want to tinker with their bikes. Their free time is more valuable than the time they’d spend fixing it,” Hamalainen explains. Another big change is the electric bike market. Hamalainen cautions against buying “the cheap e-bikes” that have flooded the market for as little as $800. With inferior batteries and poor safety features, he says, “these are throwaway products” and the repairs costs would not be worth it.

Fairmount Hardware store manager Jesus Bautista was happy to talk about the repair services they provide. People bring in broken lamps, windows and screen doors that

need fixing, “usually because a neighbor told them we can help,” he says. Bautista sees the DIYers who tried to fix something after watching a YouTube video, only to make things worse. “We try to encourage people to fix their broken stuff, but we warn them: there’s a lot of information on the internet, but it’s not always the best advice. We love it when people take initiative. Buying replacement parts and figuring out how to repair something can save you lots of money. But if you don’t know what you’re doing, taking it to a repair shop ultimately saves you money and hassle.”

Besides saving time and money and keeping non-biodegradable items out of landfills, there’s another reason to choose repairs. Typically repair shops are small businesses with local owners; they employ local workers, provide everyday services to their communities and enliven neighborhoods. A 2020 Pew report revealed that among the 12 cities studied, Philadelphia had the fewest small and midsize business establishments per capita. Fewer than 6% of Philadelphia adults identified as self-employed business owners. The study notes: “This relatively low figure — not uncommon for a city with a high poverty rate — translated into less small-scale business activity and thinner ranks of individuals and families starting businesses, building wealth and planting the seeds of entrepreneurship.”

As a way to help Philadelphia prosper, maybe it’s time we add another “R” to the sustainability mantra: “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Repair.” ◆

REPAIR DIRECTORY

Anh Custom Tailors ➽ 267-255-0593, 771 S. 4th St., instagram.com/anh_tailor

Joe’s Guitar Repair ➽ 267-994-0663, text to contact

Philadelphia Bikesmith ➽ 267-324-5910, 1822 Spring Garden, philadelphiabikesmith.com

Fairmount Hardware ➽ 215-765-5829, 2011 Fairmount Ave.

We try to encourage people to fix their broken stuff, but we warn them: there’s a lot of information on the internet, but it’s not always the best advice.”

JESUS BAUTISTA, Fairmount Hardware

Anh Mach can repair what you wear.

‘A RARE GEM’

story by ben seal

For cassidy boulan, the pandemic was a time to walk. Stuck inside for so long, she stepped outside each day to find some fresh air and make her way through Philadelphia on foot.

Her walks began near Washington Square, one of the five public squares designed as cornerstones of the city. She would then wend her way north to dip into some of the green spaces behind Independence Hall, admiring the architecture and the relative quiet she found there. By the time she looped back home, she had expe-

rienced several of Philadelphia’s most cherished parks and gardens, along with key parts of its history, all in a matter of blocks.

A few years later, she has maintained the routine. It reminds her that walkability is one of Philadelphia’s most charming traits.

“I often think, where could I move where I would have the same level of convenience or ability to be carless — the ability to access so much,” says Boulan, associate manager of the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission’s Office of Transit, Bicycle and Pedestrian Planning. The city’s walkability,

she says, is “a rare gem, and I think there are lots of reasons to invest in it.”

With its reliable grid, short blocks, narrow street crossings, dense development and flat topography, Philadelphia — or, at least, a significant portion of it — is in many ways an ideal city for walking. It regularly ranks in the top 10 American cities for Walk Score, as well as for the share of its residents who walk to work. As Boulan points out, a sprawling concrete purgatory like Phoenix couldn’t dream of accomplishing with its best efforts what Philadelphia takes for granted.

But that doesn’t mean there’s no room for improvement.

Construction regularly interrupts footpaths across the city. Illegally parked cars block intersections and wheelchair ramps. Insufficient sight lines and reckless drivers can make crossing the street feel hazardous. Aging infrastructure leads to cracked and crumbling sidewalks that create impositions, especially for those in wheelchairs.

If Philadelphia wants to retain its reputa-

Philadelphia has good walkability, but there’s plenty of room for improvement

tion as a place where a walk can carry anyone anywhere, the city must find answers to a series of questions without simple solutions.

“We’re a very lucky city to have this kind of built environment, to have this history, to be a legacy city that enables us to be so walkable,” Jen Dougherty, the chair of pedestrian advocacy group Feet First Philly, says. “We need to preserve that and be really mindful about new development and what it does to the walking environment, and also maintain the built environment we already have.”

Room for Repair

For Kelley Yemen, Philadelphia’s tightly knit grid is what makes it special. A pedestrian can take any number of routes to their destination, passing along a variety of streets along the way, “from larger grand boulevards like the [Benjamin Franklin] Parkway to itty-bitty baby streets that are so charming and give you a little hug in between neighborhoods,” she says.

Yemen is the director of Philadelphia’s Complete Streets initiative, which aims to make the city’s streets safe, sustainable and pedestrian-friendly. For a long time in the mid-20th century, she says, streets were considered a place for cars only. Her work is part of a broader effort to reclaim streets and sidewalks as the domain of not just

cars, but also pedestrians, bicyclists and transit users. In that effort, Philadelphia faces a foe that is somewhat unique in the United States.

“One of Philadelphia’s challenges is also what makes it charming: It’s an old city,” Yemen says. “And with that comes a lot of aging infrastructure in need of upgrades.”

With that in mind, Boulan and her colleagues at the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission designed a pedestrian portal that serves as a data-based view of the city’s sidewalk inventory, offering a view of where gaps exist and a vision for how they might be fixed. The long-term goal is to get 25% of sidewalk gaps filled, she says. But in many cases the culprit that cuts short a pleasant walk is a broken sidewalk that falls at the feet of private property owners to repair. And in America’s poorest large city, that presents issues for both equity and walkability.

“We would never say to a property owner, ‘The pothole in the middle of the street is your responsibility,’ but somehow the sidewalk is,” Dougherty says. “Walking is the responsibility of private property owners but biking and driving are not. It’s a little confounding.”

Dougherty and others suggest a dedicated city fund for sidewalk repairs as a step in the right direction. Even repaired sidewalks, though, don’t do much for pedestrians when construction forces them to find a new path or — as happens too often in Philadelphia — steers them into the street as a bypass.

Feet First Philly has worked on legislation to improve the pedestrian environment during construction projects that overtake the sidewalk, but it hasn’t had the intended impact, Dougherty says. And thanks to an unbalanced incentive system and an understaffed Department of Licenses and Inspections, she says, smaller projects often obstruct sidewalks without permits while larger projects accept any fines they receive as the cost of doing business. Advocates want sidewalk disruption legislation that encourages developers to do the right thing and gives the city’s enforcers teeth.

“If you have full mobility it’s more of an annoyance, but if you’re in a wheelchair or have some sort of mobility device it can be dangerous,” Boulan says. “Other cities have found ways around this. It does not seem insurmountable.”

Nicole Brunet, policy director for the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia, thinks of those pedestrians waylaid by construction or broken sidewalks as “vulnerable users” — people moving through the city without the built-in protection of a car. In the interest of improving their safety, the coalition recently released its Better Mobility Platform, whose primary goal is the creation of a Department of Transportation that would cleave issues like these from their cohabitation with the city’s sanitation concerns within the Department of Streets.

“We’re one of the largest cities in the

You don’t feel safe. You have to weave your way in and out of cars and stare down the car coming at you or apologize for being there.”

JEN DOUGHERTY, Feet First Philly

Cassidy Boulan walks to work.

country and [the Office of Transportation, Infrastructure and Sustainability] has to fight for having on-time trash pickup or meeting the bare minimum of paving each year,” Brunet says. “By creating our own Department of Transportation, we could raise the priority of basic city services.”

The Question of Cars

Philadelphia is full of beautiful blocks to walk down, and daily amenities are just a short trip away for many of the city’s residents. But even the shortest walks require crossing through an intersection — and street corners can get stressful quickly.

“You don’t feel safe. You have to weave your way in and out of cars and stare down the car coming at you or apologize for being there,” Dougherty says, noting that freewheeling right-hand turns seem to have increased significantly since the pandemic loosened the way people drive.

Among the ways that Philadelphia’s next mayor could make the city more pedestrian-friendly, removing parked cars from crosswalks is one of the simplest, Boulan says. Pennsylvania law requires cars to park 20 feet away from intersections, but in much of the city even five feet would be an improvement. Washington, D.C., is among a group of cities that have begun to use “daylighting” to remove cars from corners using paint, bollards or other delineators to protect pedestrian sight lines, Brunet says.

Feet First Philly, meanwhile, has used its Not a Parking Spot initiative to highlight the severity of Philadelphia’s illegal

NICOLE BRUNET, Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia

parking issues and the danger they create for pedestrians.

“We’ve really degraded the ability to walk around a neighborhood or community that otherwise would be very walkable because we’ve prioritized private property car storage over walkability of a community,” Dougherty says.

The city won’t be able to build its way out of parking demand, she says. Instead, it must find ways to reduce the number of cars on its streets and encourage more people to use other modes of transportation. The benefits for walkability would be immense.

‘Fine-Grained’ Philadelphia

In a city with constant budget woes, new funding will be necessary to find fixes for the issues that keep Philadelphia from being its walkable best. To that end, two recent grants show the potential for progress.

A $25-million federal RAISE (Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity) grant will fund a traffic safety project that will make improvements around six North Philadelphia schools in high-injury traffic corridors. And a $30-million grant from the U.S. Depar tment of Transportation will bring raised medians, pedestrian refuge islands, traffic signal

improvements and more traffic calming methods to sections of North Broad Street and Cecil B. Moore Avenue around Temple University’s campus.

Similar projects throughout the city — and perhaps a few wholesale changes at City Hall — could help protect pedestrians and preserve the sanctity of a stroll around town.

“To be a pedestrian anywhere is to experience a city at its most fine-grained, in its most detailed form, and Philadelphia has the best fine-grained network, whether it’s the intricacy and architecture of the buildings or our street network and the choices you have in it,” Yemen says. “We have work to do to improve parking, the quality of our sidewalks and our crossings, but we’re so lucky that unlike many other cities we have such an amazing base to build off of.”

With climate change altering the course of our daily lives, building a more walkable city would also reduce emissions and begin the work of undoing the damage, Brunet says. It may not be the most exciting idea for those in power, but it’s no less meaningful because of that.

“The things that are going to be the best for our planet at the end of the day are the simplest,” Brunet says. “Walking, biking and being close to each other.” ◆

The things that are going to be the best for our planet at the end of the day are the simplest: walking, biking and being close to each other.”

Help protect birds along the Delaware River and across the country

Balancing work, life, and a passion for the environment

“I attribute my interest in the environment to growing up on an island and being mindful of the resource constraints of island living,” says Reshmi Nair (MES ’08), who is originally from Andaman and Nicobar Islands in the northeastern Indian Ocean. “The water, the land, everything is limited there,” she says. During her summers, she worked with a local NGO, advocating for environmental protection and the rights of the indigenous people of the islands. Her passion led her to study botany and environmental management before enrolling in the Penn Master of Environmental Studies.

The flexibility of Penn’s MES curriculum allowed Reshmi to blend her interests in the environment and anthropology, as well as take classes in disciplines like city planning. She also gained experience on campus as a part-time environmental consultant for small businesses. While she initially planned to pursue a PhD and return to the islands after graduation, “life took over,” she confesses, and she started her career, and her family, here in the States.

After 12 valuable years in environmental consulting with Fortune 500 clients, she switched to an industry position to improve her work-life balance. Today Reshmi manages the environmental program for a leading pharmaceutical company while raising her two kids. She described her career helping corporations mitigate and reduce their impact on the environment as rewarding and gratifying.

To learn more about how time, maturity, and experience have helped Reshmi find balance, visit:

www.upenn.edu/grid