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Sports & Summer Heat
In april, the Philadelphia Eagles scored a few days of positive publicity when quarterback Jalen Hurts donated $200,000 to install more than 300 air conditioning units in 10 Philly public schools. The problem the donation addressed is real; Philly’s ancient school buildings afflict our students with temperatures too hot to learn safely in our warming climate.
In 2023, Hurts signed a five-year contract for $255,000,000 dollars, as well as an endorsement deal with Nike for an undisclosed sum. That makes his donation less than two-fifths of a percent (0.39%) of his annual income.
The fanfare over the donation highlighted how little we expect from an industry like professional football. It also underplayed the scale of our students’ needs in a warming climate. Making our schools cool enough for learning will take more than one-off donations by millionaire celebrity athletes.
The need for air conditioning didn’t just pop up out of the blue. It is a symptom of a deeply underfunded school district that, for decades, has fallen behind on maintenance and has had to put off replacing failing systems. It’s no surprise that old school buildings lack central air conditioning systems, since they were built in a cooler time when these systems were far less prevalent. It’s also no surprise that many of their electrical systems can’t power air conditioning even if they had the equipment.
As of last year, the tab was between $8 and 9 billion to fully repair and renovate the district’s buildings. Meanwhile, politicians in Harrisburg have spent years dodging their obligation to fairly fund our kids’ education.
But what is true in Philadelphia is true everywhere: Poverty equals vulnerability to global warming. Heat preys on society’s weak and disadvantaged — people who work outside, the sick and the elderly, people who
can’t afford to run air conditioners and, as is apparent in Philadelphia, kids whose school district gets shafted by a deeply unjust funding structure. It’s an issue Jeff Goodell, interviewed for this issue, makes clear in his book, “The Heat Will Kill You First.”
What makes this all so infuriating is that solutions exist on the school scale as well as citywide. What’s missing is the will to fund them. As Kyle Bagenstose writes in “Hot as Philly,” protecting our most vulnerable community members won’t be cheap, and the City doesn’t have a clear path to finding the money to make Philadelphia livable in the sweltering summers of today, let alone the even hotter summers of the future. We need more money to plant and maintain trees, to renovate thousands of old brick houses and to provide efficient cooling systems for low-income residents. When it comes to funding a livable future, it doesn’t seem that our leaders outside or inside Philadelphia care enough to act.
But they do care about sports. In 2001, the elected officials of Philadelphia chose to fund new stadiums for the Phillies and the Eagles. We’re still paying for them. Every year over the 30-year span of the deal, the City shells out $35 million (175 times Hurts’ donation). About $25 million goes to make payments on the money the City borrowed in 2001 to build the stadiums. The other $10 million goes to the Eagles for an operations and maintenance grant. Keep in mind that the Eagles franchise generates something like $500 million every year in revenue, and that Jeffrey Lurie, the team’s owner, is worth something like $4.6 billion.
How many air conditioners could that buy?
bernard brown , Managing Editor
Life Blood
University of Pennsylvania researchers comb the forest floor to understand tick life cycles and the diseases they carry by bernard brown
Last week, I plucked a tick off the neck of a teenager I had guided on a canoe outing. (It came off easily, not having latched on yet.) Presumably the tick had climbed on as the teen had walked through some tall grass after the boats were put away. With singleminded determination, the tick had marched up, seeking the right patch of skin in which to sink its mouthparts. Everything was going great until I ruined its meal.
Over the years, I have interrupted the meals of innumerable ticks without appreciating how their life history brings them to
latch onto our skin and drink our blood. But my eyes have recently been opened by a team of researchers at the University of Pennsylvania studying how ticks grow and survive, aiming to better understand the implications of how these arachnids transmit illnesses.
You might have to dig deep to find sympathy for disease vectors, but it’s hard to be a tick. To get to your food, you must wait patiently at the end of a blade of grass or a leaf and hope a host walks past. Then, you have to grab on and slice through the thick skin of your host without it noticing. For several days, you must sip blood (which, without
the anticoagulants in your saliva, would otherwise clot). You must eat as much as you can, swelling many times your size — in human terms, as if you expanded to the size of an elephant. And of course, you must hang on for dear life (literally) as your host tries to pull you off.
If you’re of the black-legged ticks that spread Lyme disease, you only eat three such meals your entire life. They’re spread over a two-year life cycle that produces a confusing overlap of life stages, which Penn biologist Dustin Brisson patiently explained to me. Adult females lay their eggs in the
Changes in any part of the ecosystem, such as fluctuations in animal populations, or even acorn production by trees, can have impacts on pathogen transmission.”
raquel gonçalves, postdoctoral researcher, University of Pennsylvania
fall or spring and die shortly after. The eggs hatch and the new larvae, about the size of a poppyseed, feed in the summer. After that first meal, the wee ticks transform into nymphs and wait out the fall and winter. Nymphs feed in the spring and transform into adults later in the year. Those adults have one more meal in the autumn or early spring before the females lay eggs (and then die), starting the cycle again.
To complicate matters further, in some places the larva, nymph and adult meal times are staggered, while in others they overlap. In any given year, you could be bitten by ticks from two, possibly three, cohorts. A tick can only pick up pathogens from a host that another tick has previously infected, so the timing of how the ticks feed could affect how we get sick. “The big question really is: if they’re overlapping, does that increase the incidence
or decrease it?” asks Brisson.
Brisson’s research team is studying ticks at eight sites in the area, with two other teams of collaborators studying them at sites around St. Louis, Missouri, and eastern Virginia. Other research has found that year-to-year changes in populations of host species like wild mice, which in turn depend on food supplies such as acorns, impact tick populations. The range of sites in the current study should shed light on how different habitat and climate conditions affect the tick life cycle and the diseases they carry.
Raquel Gonçalves, a postdoctoral researcher on Brisson’s team, says she finds the relationships between environment and disease fascinating. She has previously researched leishmaniasis and Chagas disease, tropical illnesses mostly transmitted around houses by biting flies and kissing
Raquel Gonçalves (center) checks a cloth used for tick collection, with Mitchell DeGasperis (left) and Pierce Bruner. They pull ticks off the sheet with masking tape and then bring them back to the lab to test them for pathogens.
bugs, respectively. “I find Lyme disease interesting because it is transmitted in the woods, and all living beings in the forest are interconnected,” she says, “so changes in any part of the ecosystem, such as fluctuations in animal populations, or even acorn production by trees, can have impacts on pathogen transmission.”
To carry out their fieldwork, Brisson and his team spend their time intentionally doing what the rest of us do by accident: pick up ticks by walking around outside.
“What we do is take a one-square-meter cloth and drag it behind us,” Brisson says. They cover a total of 1,000 meters with the cloth, stopping every 15 meters to check it. “Ticks are dumb, but not that dumb. We need to get them before they fall off,” he adds. Any ticks on the cloth go into a vial for analysis back at the lab.
When Brisson described the sampling method to me, I figured the researchers would douse themselves with tick repellent to stay safe. But he explained that the chemicals would mess with their collection method, which depends on attracting ticks, not repelling them. Instead, they stay safe by wearing white jumpsuits with their pant legs tucked into their socks. Everyone gets checked by a buddy at the end of the day. “It is intimate the first day and then it is not,” Brisson says.
Brisson is proud to say that no one working on one of his field crews has come down with Lyme disease on the job. However, he has caught the illness twice. “I got it both times in the field because I was being stupid and not following the rules,” he says.
That tick I picked off the teenager’s neck didn’t get a chance to bite, but I’ve had to work others out of my own skin. Thankfully none of them transmitted anything nasty while they were embedded. For now, it’s impossible to say why they didn’t and why two of the ticks that bit Brisson did, but the work of these scientists slogging back and forth through the underbrush might help answer that question in the future. ◆
Launching Lives and Careers
Youth internship program sets its sights on year-round, paid placements by constance garcia-barrio
Natalie sanchez had no inkling that the summer job she’d heard about through her high school, Philadelphia Virtual Academy, would launch her toward a new life. In 2021, Sanchez, then 17, worked as an intern at PECO Energy Company, a position she landed through the nonprofit Philadelphia Youth Network (PYN).
“We [interns] worked 20 hours a week,” Sanchez says. “My projects included developing a slideshow to explain the power factor, which relates to energy efficiency on your PECO bill. We also learned skills like networking, collaborating and saving money,” says Sanchez, who, like other interns, earned $11 an hour to start.
PECO proved an open-sesame for Sanchez. The company extended her six-week internship and, in time, created a pre-apprenticeship track for her. Sanchez now works there 26 hours a week. “I’m taking a gap year, then I’m going to college to study computer science,” says Sanchez, now 20. “No one in my family attended college before.”
Sanchez’s path from summer internship to year-round work mirrors the transition of the organization that made the opportunity possible. Founded in 1999, PYN managed city-funded summer jobs for youth for more than 20 years — now, they’re shifting focus to offer paid work experiences year round for Philadelphians ages 14 to 24.
“Consistent exposure to the work environment benefits young people most,” says Wendy-Anne Roberts-Johnson, president and CEO of PYN. “We know that youth need more exposure over a longer period to support their career exploration and planning.”
PYN plans to offer nearly 1,000 paid positions at local businesses, nonprofits and government agencies in 2024, which young
people can look through on PYN’s opportunity locator on their website, Roberts-Johnson says. “It’s the best way for young people to test out different areas of employment where they might want to focus their education.” A teen who’s thinking about becoming a veterinarian might sign up for an internship with a veterinary practice, Roberts-Johnson says. The young person sees firsthand what’s involved, the education required and the cost, then decides to pursue or discard that choice. They may end up exploring a related career, Roberts-Johnson says.
Some internships will run for just six weeks, but, in alignment with their new focus, PYN seeks youth employers willing to provide longer internships. For PYN partners like the West Powelton Steppers and Drum Squad, under the aegis of Musicopia, the year-round model jives with their current calendar. “We’ve always met Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. throughout the year,” says Antoine Mapp, head of the award-winning steppers and drum squad, some of whose members perform in the 76ers halftime shows. “[During the school year] if the kids arrive and don’t have their homework done, they have to do that first,” says Mapp, who has guest speakers talk about topics like peer
pressure and craftspeople who discuss carpentry and plumbing. All participants earn $200 a month.
But expanding the 12-month format across many organizations presents challenges, too. “It will require more funding as we transition to a year-round schedule,” Roberts-Johnson says.
PYN’s small specialized 12-month program, Unlock Potential (UP), shows the promise of collaborations to help fund longerterm work experiences. In 2022, PYN joined with Responsible Business Initiatives for Justice (RBIJ) to start the Philadelphia chapter of UP. Funded by the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency (PCCD), major companies like Sam’s Club, Delta Airlines and AutoZone provide employment for youth ages 16 to 24 who’ve had a brush with the criminal legal system. “It’s a powerful way to create an alternative for young people most at risk,” Roberts-Johnson says. UP has a more rigorous interview process and fasttracks participants to full-time positions, she says. PYN has filled all the UP positions for this year, but hopes to offer 300 slots in 2025, Roberts-Johnson says.
There are still slots open for PYN’s other paid internships, run through its WorkReady programs, which has two tracks: WorkReady BOOST (Blueprint for Occupational Opportunities, Success and Training) and WorkReady VIP (Violence Intervention and Prevention). Both include a 120-hour paid work experience and in-class career development. Each intern has a coach who helps them resolve issues like obtaining work permits and proof of Philadelphia residency. Coaches may also communicate with supervisors and help students find other work if their interests change, PYN staff says. WorkReady BOOST, funded by a grant from the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development, provides jobs, fi-
I’m taking a gap year, then I’m going to college to study computer science. No one in my family attended college before.”
— natalie sanchez, Philadelphia Youth Network participant
nancial literacy and on-site training to equip youth for success, according to PYN.
WorkReady VIP serves students ages 14 to 24 from zip codes with the highest rates of gun violence, as reported by the Philadelphia Police Department and other City agencies.
Funded by PCCD, WorkReady VIP includes a paid internship, social emotional learning and conflict-resolution strategies. Both programs serve 66.6% youth of color, according to PYN.
WorkReady does more than slot students into jobs, Roberts-Johnson says. “We look at whether the young person likes the work
and feels valued,” she says. “We want to give students a gold-standard experience.”
Ebony Joyner, unit leader for PYN partner Youth Outreach Adolescent Community Awareness Program (YOACAP), says that sometimes an internship provides an important respite for young people.
“I had just gotten off probation,” says YOACAP intern Tyganea Watson, 17, who lost her mother and a sister early in childhood. Watson began with YOACAP’s WorkReady summer program funded by PYN in 2022. She is now in one of YOACAP’s WorkReady VIP’s year-round co-
hort. “I assisted the teacher, using games like Jeopardy and hangman to help kids learn,” says Watson, who found she could let down her guard at the West Philly site where she interned. “I also got exposure to schools like Drexel and Temple,” says Watson, who’s now set her sights on college. “I want to study psychology.”
Though PYN hasn’t measured attrition and the percentage of students who seek higher education after an internship, one immediate effect seems clear. According to a study done by Sara Heller, an assistant professor of criminology at the University of Pennsylvania School of Arts and Sciences, arrests for “violence committed by disadvantaged urban youth” dropped by up to 43% among young people with summer jobs. Though challenges lie ahead, the rewards far outweigh them, according to Roberts-Johnson. “My greatest joy is when a student tells me, ‘You know, they let me do XYZ?’ with excitement in their voice.”
Meanwhile, PYN interns step into larger lives. “I’m so grateful that I had this opportunity,” Sanchez says. ◆
With the help of Philadelphia Youth Network, Natalie Sanchez has flourished in her internship-turned-preapprenticeship with PECO.
Fake Grass, False Promises
There is no such thing as PFAS-free synthetic turf. The City is installing it anyway by
amber x. chen
South philadelphia dad and Little League coach Alex Kaslowitz remembers watching the Phillies play at Veterans Stadium, one of the first to install artificial turf in 1970. Since then, as reported in the Philadelphia Inquirer, six former Phillies have died from a rare form of brain cancer linked to the turf they played on.
“That really hit me hard because I can literally picture these players. I can picture the stadium and the heat — you would even see it was cloudy on the very hot days,” Kaslowitz said. “And you know, the catcher’s sucking in all this air … and then to hear
Baseball coach and dad Alex Kaslowitz isn’t in favor of his kids playing ball on synthetic turf.
that there was a correlation.”
It’s this history that informs Kaslowitz’s opinion that synthetic turf is not safe for kids to play on.
Since a 2019 report by The Ecology Center and Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility found that PFAS — aka “forever chemicals” — are pervasive in synthetic turf, parks departments, school districts and other land managers that oversee playing fields have faced tough choices about whether to continue to use the low-maintenance surfaces.
PFAS, which stands for perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, are synthetic
chemicals useful for making materials slippery (Teflon is one example) and water resistant. Since the 1950s, thousands of PFAS have been used for a variety of purposes, including lubricating the machinery that produces the plastic blades of synthetic turf.
“Recently, there was discussion about PFAS as a carcinogen, and also a lot of research showing that PFAS could relate to high cholesterol levels and coronary heart disease, and also association with impaired fetal development,” says Dr. Aimin Chen, professor of epidemiology at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine and co-director of the Philadelphia Regional
grease-proof food packaging. In April, the EPA established the first legally-binding national standard for drinking water in order to limit exposure to PFAS.
Some states and cities have enacted bans and regulations on synthetic turf. Last fall, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed into effect a law that allowed cities to ban synthetic turf. San Marino in Los Angeles County, Millbrae in Northern California and others have already begun the process.
In Philadelphia, access to fields — particularly pristine green fields — has long been seen as an issue of class. While there is no shortage of fields in the suburbs, in the under-funded city of Philadelphia, highquality fields are harder to find, which has led the park system to increasingly install synthetic turf fields
We underestimate what an eight-year-old or even a five-year-old understands. This isn’t just a battle with decision-making adults. These kids are fully aware of what’s happening.”
—alex kaslowitz, South Philly Little League Coach
Center for Children’s Environmental Health.
“There are other [studied outcomes] like preeclampsia during pregnancy and potential associations with [chronic] liver disease.”
On artificial turf, kids can be exposed to PFAS via ingestion or inhalation of turf particles, especially if the turf is degraded. (The average lifespan of an artificial field is eight to 10 years). The exposure doesn’t end on the field; kids often track turf particles into homes after sports practice. And since the turf eventually has to be disposed of in landfills, according to Chen, PFAS chemicals can contaminate groundwater and soil.
Regulators have responded by setting restrictions on some PFAS. In February, the FDA announced a ban on PFAS-containing
The question of whether this is a safe choice has come to a head at FDR Park, the largest park in South Philly, that is on track to receive twelve synthetic turf fields as a part of its $250 million renovation overseen by the nonprofit Fairmount Park Conservancy.
The renovation officially started in 2022 and will take decades to fully complete. Currently the park is in the first part of its development process, which is set to be completed by 2026. Most contentiously, this stage includes the replacement of a defunct golf course, which became a cherished natural space known as “The Meadows” during the pandemic, with artificial turf playing fields.
“The new fields will help address the well-documented citywide field shortage, offering kids more places to play during more hours of the day, making it easier for kids to play closer to home, and reducing costs for families to travel,” the Fairmount Park Conservancy said in a statement to Grid. “Playing fields are essential for the youth of our city, providing mental and physical health benefits. Currently, in South Philadelphia, there is only one regulation-size turf field in the Philadelphia Parks & Recreation system for 21,000 kids living below South Street.”
Community members opposing the clearing of the former golf course, some of whom formed an advocacy group called Save the Meadows, have concerns about the fields’ potential health impacts on youth athletes.
“It’s not a [natural] environment so it doesn’t photosynthesize, it doesn’t sequester carbon. It’s not a habitat for birds and worms, et cetera,” Anisa George, organizer with Save the Meadows, says. “It can overheat hot
enough to kill a child … the intersection of climate change with the installation of these synthetic turf fields is like a death sentence for kids.” Studies have shown that synthetic turf can reach temperatures higher than 160 degrees Fahrenheit, which is more than 60 degrees hotter than grass fields.
The Fairmount Park Conservancy maintains that it is but a “popular misconception” that the FDR Park Plan includes “[AstroTurf] products containing PFAS.”
“Modern performance turf products use all-natural infill composed of materials … ensuring a safe playing experience that is also sensitive to the needs for climate resiliency. The Conservancy, the City of Philadelphia and partners are aware of the health concerns associated with turf products of the past and are fully committed to selecting
and installing turf that is safe. The product selected will be independently tested and certified for safety,” the Conservancy’s statement says. The statement includes mention of modern, “all-natural” turf infill, made with materials such as walnut shells, sand, coconut fibers, or cork, but does not address the plastic grass blades, where PFAS is found.
“I’m trusting in the planners that they have done this,” said John Maher, president of the Philadelphia Dragons Sports Association, in reference to the City’s commitment to finding PFAS-free turf. “They have publicly committed to only putting that type of surface down, and they’re going to be held accountable to that. That’s why we as an organization see [PFAS concerns] as a non-issue.”
However, activists have pointed out that
PFAS-free turf simply does not exist. And in a letter to the state of California in light of a proposed PFAS regulation bill, the Synthetic Turf Council — which represents synthetic turf manufacturers — admitted that it would take until at least 2026 to remove PFAS from artificial turf products, writing: “We believe it would be more prudent (in addition to allowing for testing protocols to be developed) to establish the compliance threshold for unintentionally added PFAS at 110 ppm [parts-per-million] beginning in 2026 and 50 ppm in 2028.” The FDR Park Plan stage that includes artificial turf installation is slated to be complete by 2026.
It can overheat hot enough to kill a child … the intersection of climate change with the installation of these synthetic turf fields is like a death sentence for kids.”
—anisa george, Save the Meadows
Maher says that if it were up to him, he’d choose grass and dirt fields, but he recognizes that maintenance can be a problem. “The only way that the existing fields that we have at FDR get maintained is that we pay to do that ourselves,” he says. “When I weigh the considerations of the City making an enormous investment in fields that then potentially would not get maintained, versus putting in fields that are going to be the most feasible to maintain, I think that makes the most sense because it will enable us to have more sports programming available for the use of Philadelphia.”
There’s also the impact of weather. As the Conservancy wrote in their statement: “The performance turf of the new athletic fields will provide a reliable playing surface that is able to accommodate multiple games per day and rebound almost immediately from flooding and rainstorms.”
In addition to the Fairmount Park Conservancy, Grid reached out to betterresourced entities that manage synthetic turf fields. The University of Pennsylvania (which currently hosts two artificial turf fields), Springside Chestnut Hill Academy (a private K-12 school in Philadelphia), and the Haddonfield School District in New Jersey did not respond. The Lower Merion School District declined comment.
Kaslowitz says that even his children — eight-year-old Leo and five-year-old Coen — see the implications of synthetic turf fields for the surrounding environments.
“We underestimate what an eight-yearold or even a five-year-old understands,” Kaslowitz says. “This isn’t just a battle with decision-making adults. These kids are fully aware of what’s happening.”
The synthetic turf football field at Hunting Park can host more games and practices than a natural grass field, but it poses potential health risks to youth athletes.
The Global Warming Issue
It’s right there in the name: global warming. ¶ Step outside and the air is thick, like you’re breathing steam. Walking is almost too much effort. You try to find shade, but the treeless sidewalk offers no refuge from the sun’s rays. At night you open the windows to let in a fresh breeze, but only warm, humid air greets you. The fan just pushes it around, cooling nothing. ¶ It’s one thing to know it’s getting hotter; it’s another to feel it. ¶ In this issue we explore what the heat means for us and what we can do to adapt to it. Can we cool our hot urban island with more trees and reflective roofs? Can we help our neighbors lower the temperatures in their homes? What about keeping outdoor workers safe? Can we change the food we grow and how we grow it? ¶ Of course we can’t forget what we can do to slow the warming itself, whether that’s helping our neighbors get around without cars or coming up with innovative ways to pay for lower-emissions infrastructure. ¶ We hope you finish reading this issue with some new ideas for how you can adapt — and for the drastic changes we as a society urgently need to make. It’s hot, but there’s no time to take it easy.
Hot as Philly For our city to
beat the heat, it’s going to take a
whole lot of green
BY KYLE BAGENSTOSE AND ADAM LITCHKOFSKI
If you’re reading this story when it’s still hot off the press, odds are you’re probably pretty warm yourself. Another July has arrived in Philadelphia, and they ain’t what they used to be.
From 1939 through the end of the 20th century, Philadelphia’s average air temperature in this quintessential summer month was 77.6 degrees Fahrenheit, according to data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). In the 24 Julys since, only four have dipped back below that
20th century average, the last coming in 2009. Since then, the new mean is 80.7 degrees.
If that doesn’t make you sweat, try these statistics from the Philadelphia Office of Sustainability’s (OOS) Climate Action Playbook: In the 20th Century, Philadelphia averaged four days a year when the temperature exceeded 95 degrees. By 2100, it could reach 52.
Abby Sullivan, chief resilience officer for OOS, knows the danger well. She says that each spring, agencies across City government — from the Office of Emergency
Management, to the Department of Public Health, to OOS — gather to prepare for the summer as members of the Excessive Heat Steering Committee.
“[Heat waves] are going to happen. So how can we best prepare to respond?” she says. “Everybody on the steering committee is aware of climate change, and that it’s making these events more intense and frequent.”
Across Philadelphia, there’s also a clear understanding of which residents are most vulnerable to the perils of a warming climate. A Heat Vulnerability Index main-
PHOTO BY CHRIS BAKER EVENS
tained by the Department of Public Health combines ambient temperatures in different neighborhoods — which can range up to 22 degrees on the same day due to variables like tree cover — with statistics regarding asthma rates and elderly populations. It shows that heat risk is heavily concentrated in North, South and West Philadelphia; in communities primarily located away from parks and waterways; and where blocks are far less likely to have shade trees.
As Jasmin Velez, a community organizer for the nonprofit Kensington Corridor Trust, points out, these same areas overlap with historically redlined communities.
“Environmental racism is a thing. These
I think what we found was that the people who are the most vulnerable to heat waves are the people who have the hardest times walking to community centers.”
ALLEN DREW local climate organizer
issues are seriously tied into social inequities and racism as a whole,” Velez says.
“Where was the financial investment after redlining and white flight? I would argue that the lack of street trees is just one example of the negative impacts of these racist practices, which left some communities more disinvested than others.”
Sullivan says the City is working on a long list of measures to try to better prepare for climate change.
Her office is currently working to update the City’s climate science by applying new projections to a bevy of climate and resiliency plans and, for the first time, developing a guidance application that could help of-
ficials across City government make smart adaptation decisions.
“How do you choose the right temperature, or the right projection for precipitation, if you’re planning a road project that has a useful lifespan of 20 years, versus a drinking water facility that is going to be around for 100?” Sullivan says, adding that the guidance is currently slated to be released at the end of the year.
Specifically on heat, Sullivan says that her office plans to update its heat vulnerability assessment and is presently developing a request for proposal to “hone in” on what they want it to look like.
OOS has also received a $600,000 grant from the William Penn Foundation to spend two years engaging with Philadelphians to further identify heat adaptation solutions.
But when attempting to move beyond this data capturing phase and into the implementation of actual programs that could bring down the heat, the looming challenge is the same as it often is in Philadelphia: a lack of money.
The Climate Action Playbook doesn’t provide an estimate of the dollars it will take to protect residents from our warming climate. Sullivan points to Portland, Oregon, where in 2018 residents voted to add a 1% retail tax to pay for a climate fund that invests in clean energy, public transportation and climate adaptation. Despite a shaky launch, The Oregonian reported last year, the fund is set to provide more than half a billion dollars for climate action for that city in the coming years.
But Philadelphia, Sullivan says, is hamstrung by a state “uniformity tax,” which preempts it from implementing similar taxes, such as progressive property tax that would tax wealthy homeowners at higher rates.
“I wish I controlled the purse strings,” Sullivan says, a hint of exasperation in her voice. “The scale we need to do this work at is really pretty staggering.”
Still, Sullivan says OOS is working with the City’s Office of the Director of Finance and a University of Pennsylvania Fels Institute of Government student to explore potential financial mechanisms that wouldn’t burden the average Philadelphian.
And, she says, the City has found some funding to get started on actual programs. The list starts — where else? — but with trees.
1. Grow, Forest, Grow
in 2023, Philadelphia Parks & Recreation released the Philly Tree Plan, a strategic plan for how to increase and maintain Philadelphia’s existing tree canopy. The topline goal is to increase the tree canopy cover to 30% in each Philadelphia neighborhood within 30 years, which would mark a major improvement over current conditions in broad swaths of North and South Philadelphia, where cover is currently less than 7%. In fact, Philadelphia is currently ranked last in tree canopy among major East Coast cities, according to a 2019 report from Parks & Rec, with less than half the cover of cities like Washington, D.C., and Boston.
With about $25 million per year in funding — currently less than 0.5% of the City’s
annual budget — the plan says the City could plant enough trees by 2050 to prevent 400 premature deaths each year, reap environmental benefits worth $20 million annually and prevent $50 million per year in robbery and theft via an estimated 12% reduction in crime, drawing from a study done by the U.S. Forest Service in Baltimore.
However, current City funding levels are just a fraction of the amount needed to gain such transformations citywide. According to Charlotte Merrick, communications manager for Parks & Rec, the $25 million a year figure is envisioned as a “total of all spending from stakeholders, including the City of Philadelphia, nonprofit partners, private residents, commercial entities and development organizations, among others.”
While Philadelphia received a one-time $12 million boost to the program via a federal grant last year, the City itself only
Jasmin Velez says disparities in tree cover are an effect of systemic racism.
PHOTO BY CHRIS BAKER EVENS
I would argue that the lack of street trees is just one example of the negative impacts of these racist practices, which left some communities more disinvested than others.”
JASMIN VELEZ, Kensington Corridor Trust
onus on nonprofit groups. The Pennsylvania Horticultural Society (PHS) Tree Tenders program supports about 80 volunteer groups citywide, planting more than 3,000 trees per year.
But without a robust, steady funding stream, especially for ongoing maintenance, overall progress feels tenuous. Once a tree is planted on a residential sidewalk, it becomes the financial responsibility of the homeowner. That can become an expensive liability, especially if the tree impacts their water or sewer line.
And recent history is discouraging: from 2008 to 2017, the city lost over 1,000 acres of tree canopy.
Still, advocates such as Asha-Lé Davis, a trees specialist for PHS, says the tree plan was a step in the right direction and opens the door to more robust action.
2.
Beating The Heat, Block By Block
in 2019, the Office of Sustainability released “ Beat the Heat ,” a pilot project to build heat resiliency in Hunting Park, one of the city’s hottest neighborhoods. To date, it’s one of the most significant actions the office has taken to try to help residents deal with rising temperatures.
budgeted $1.5 million in the current fiscal year, which is set to receive a slight bump to $2 million in the first budget under Mayor Cherelle Parker. That puts a lot of the
“Advocating to our lawmakers, writing letters to Council, showing up to Council meetings and getting involved that way is the first piece into making it known that [street trees] are a priority in this city,” Davis says. “As constituents, we have a lot of power.”
With funding from the Knight Foundation and Partners for Places, the initiative brought together City agencies, community groups and other stakeholders. Much of the effort was a fact-finding exercise: a survey of 600 residents revealed that 60% wanted to see more trees in Hunting Park, and 76% said better access to air conditioning units and fans would help them feel more cool in their homes.
It also revealed some serious problems. The survey showed that 77% of respondents said they often or always feel too hot in their homes. Only 40% had heard of programs
Workers install a cool roof, which can help to reduce neighborhood temperatures.
to cut energy costs and help pay energy bills, and only 4% of those who reported not using air conditioning because of cost concerns said they had heard about utility assistance programs.
Sullivan says the information helped inform potential policy interventions. But five years on, it appears the parts of the program with the most potential to protect residents from heat in the short term have underwhelmed. Under a section in the 2019 plan entitled “Next Steps,” OOS first lists “continuing to implement” tree planting and other greening programs. Further down, it notes the planned launch of a “Hunting Park Heat Relief Network” that year, which provided a robust network of neighborhood cooling locations during heat waves.
Allen Drew, a climate organizer involved with Beat the Heat, says such efforts to offer cool spaces in churches and other community centers didn’t really seem to move the needle.
“I think what we found was that the people who are the most vulnerable to heat waves are the people who have the hardest times walking to community centers,” Drew says.
However, Drew says a subsequent successful local initiative was held to collect and give away free air conditioning units to those in need. And while Sullivan agrees that cooling centers appeared to have limited utility, she says the experience helped OOS decide to focus on programs that keep people cool in their own homes. Her office plans to build on the lessons learned in Hunting Park as it moves forward; OOS is utilizing
I wish I controlled the purse strings. The scale we need to do this work at is really pretty staggering.”
ABBY SULLIVAN, Philadelphia Office of Sustainability
part of a $1 million U.S. Environmental Protection Agency environmental justice grant to perform a second neighborhoodlevel initiative in the coming years.
“We’re in the process of getting that project off the ground,” Sullivan says, adding they hope to identify the neighborhood by early 2025.
3. Innovative Ideas
besides tree planting and community resiliency efforts, Sullivan says most of the Office of Sustainability’s heat mitigation efforts are still in the idea stage.
In the policy space, Sullivan says OOS is considering the development of regulations to protect workers from heat stress. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has announced efforts of its own, but Sullivan says her office is interested in local workplace protections to ensure adoption in a timely and effective fashion.
Cool pavement
• Sullivan says OOS is set to kick off a pilot
“cool pavement” project at the Hunting Park Recreation Center. There, a material that reflects solar radiation will be applied to a 2,800-square-foot pathway used by both cars and pedestrians and evaluated for its effectiveness. Such solutions have already been used in cities across the Sun Belt, but Sullivan says City officials have questions about how it will hold up in the more variable weather conditions of the Mid-Atlantic before deciding if it should be more widely adopted.
“The concern is just how that material will perform with ice,” Sullivan says. “Will it be slicker than other surfaces? Will it degrade with ice? Will it degrade with salting?”
Cool roofs
• The City already has a Mayor Michael Nutter-era ordinance — with questionable enforcement — requiring all new construction to have “cool roofs” that reflect sunlight. But Sullivan says OOS is also looking into ways to potentially secure federal funding that would enable existing residences to get cool roofs at a steep discount, or even free.
Weatherizing and electrifying homes
• Harkening to the lessons of the Beat the Heat initiative, Sullivan says it is paramount to find ways to help residents stay cool in their own homes. As such, this summer OOS plans to launch a new “Energy Poverty Alleviation Strategy” to help find ways for residents to weatherize and electrify their homes, which can help them stay cool, reduce energy bills and ultimately lower their carbon emissions. The City already operates a Basic Systems Repair Program for homeowners, but Sullivan says the new program will focus on identifying funding sources like the federal Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 to help scale up such home improvements. ◆
adam litchkofski is a journalism student at Temple University. Segments of this story originally appeared in a special project Litchkofski published on street trees.
The City will try out cool pavement on an access road in Hunting Park.
A Much Cooler City
Like most cities, Philadelphia’s built surface area is a mix of concrete, brick and asphalt — all materials that both absorb and radiate heat at much higher rates than, say, a forest. This urban heat island effect can result in higher temperatures — sometimes 10 to 15 degrees Fahrenheit higher. And the citizens that live in these hotter neighborhoods are more vulnerable to the adverse impacts of heat due to a variety of factors. So what can we do about it? By incorporating the strategies below, Philadelphia can effectively combat the heat island effect, creating a more comfortable and sustainable environment.
WRITTEN AND ILLUSTRATED
BY BRYAN SATALINO
Green roofs and walls: Installing vegetation on rooftops and exterior walls can help insulate buildings from solar radiation, reduce ambient air temperatures and improve air quality.
Water features: Walking by the Swann Memorial Fountain in Logan Square, you can’t help but notice how much cooler the air is. Fountains, pools and spraygrounds can have a cooling effect through evaporation.
Cool and reflective roofing: Cool roofs are painted with lighter or reflective colors, sending sunlight back into the atmosphere, significantly reducing the temperature of the building and surrounding air.
Efficient air conditioning: Modern air conditioning is much more efficient than the window units of old. Newer A/Cs and heat pumps use inverters, which can smoothly increase or decrease its power as needed rather than cycling on and off.
Urban forestry: Street trees cast shade, and, through evapotranspiration, cool the air around them. Establishing adequate tree cover on a city block can provide up to 10 degrees Fahrenheit of cooling, according to the Tree Equity Score.
Cool pavement: Some cool pavement not only reflects solar radiation; it also allows water to flow through its permeable surface. As the water evaporates, the surface cools.
Solar panel installation: Keeping the sun off of your roof while generating electricity is a great way to keep interior temperatures lower.
Building design and orientation: New buildings in Philadelphia are usually relegated to the orientation of the street grid. But architects can help reduce heat gain by incorporating features like overhangs and window shading.
Too Hot to Handle
grid talks with journalist and author Jeff Goddell about the invisible natural disaster: extreme temperatures
➤
INTERVIEW BY BERNARD BROWN
The title of Austin, Texas-based journalist Jeff Goodell’s 2023 book, “The Heat Will Kill You First: Life and Death on a Scorched Planet,” should leave no doubt as to the topic and its urgency. Grid spoke with Goodell at the end of May about the most lethal and least visible natural disaster on the planet. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Why the heat first, not the wildfires or hurricanes? I happened to be in Phoenix on a summer day in the summer of 2018. The temperature was 115 that day. I had a meeting downtown. As usual, I was late. And as usual, my Uber was late. So I decided I was going to run 20 blocks through downtown Phoenix on a hot summer day. Not a good idea. By the time I got through those 20 blocks, my heart was pounding and I realized that if I pushed it any harder, I could be in big trouble.
It was at that moment that I really understood how dangerous heat is. It’s not just some sort of abstract thing in the distance. I wanted the book to have the same effect for the reader that that 20-block run did on me that day in Phoenix.
We’re used to talking about averages when we think of climate change, but they mask the extremes, which are what really kills
you. How should we be talking about heat? Top scientists in the world set these targets of two [degrees] Celsius of warming, 1.5 Celsius of warming. First of all, the Celsius thing means nothing to most Americans. But even if you translate [2 degrees Celsius] into Fahrenheit, which is 3.7 degrees, it still sounds like nothing.
You tell someone, “Oh, instead of being 68 degrees today, it’s going to be 71.7.” Yeah, big deal. I’m not surprised that most people don’t think about it or care about it, because it doesn’t sound very alarming at all.
But we had more than 40 days in Austin, Texas, last summer over 105 degrees. It was brutal. And yes, Texas is always hot, but we’re getting more and more heat earlier and earlier in the year. The heat waves are becoming more intense. There’s less cooling off at night.
There’s an accumulated impact on these long days as buildings heat up, pavement heats up, and it radiates more and more heat back. So a one- or two-degree change doesn’t really capture what’s happening. The perfect example of that was the extreme heat wave in the Pacific Northwest in 2023.
You write about how we are good at ignoring deaths, particularly when they are of “other” people. Could you talk about who dies in heat waves, and how that affects how urgently we treat it as a problem. In
the book, I call heat a “predatory force” in the sense that it goes after the most vulnerable people first. And vulnerability can be defined by age, by health conditions. Pregnant women are more vulnerable; if you’re on certain kinds of drugs that change your metabolism and your reaction to heat, that can make you more vulnerable; outdoor workers and people who don’t have access to air conditioning [are more vulnerable]. There are 760 million people on the planet who don’t have access to electricity, much less air conditioning.
So I think a lot of people who are reading this, they think, “Well, what’s the problem? You turn on the air conditioner and you will be fine.” We’re not going to be fine, because a lot of people don’t have air conditioning. Also, we’re not going to air condition the oceans. We’re not going to air condition the forests. We’re not going to air condition the crops that we depend on to feed ourselves. So the implications of these extreme heat events go far beyond our temporarily cooled little bubbles.
There are a lot of scary facts in this book, but one of the scariest to me was that modern, well-sealed, energy-efficient buildings lose their ventilation systems when the power goes out. Air conditioning has had a big impact on the demographics of America. Florida would not be Florida. Austin, Texas, would not be Austin, Texas, without air conditioning, right? But the problem is, first of all, a lot of people don’t have access to it and for all intents and purposes won’t have access to it.
Second of all, as you just suggested, it’s a kind of delusional bubble that can go away very quickly with a blackout. Here in Texas, we had a five-day blackout in the winter a couple of years ago. Houston just last week had a big windstorm that knocked out power for a million households for three days. Luckily, the temperatures weren’t so high.
A lot of studies show that a major blackout combined with a big heat wave would have enormous casualties. One study that I cited in the book suggests that with a five-day heat wave combined with a two-day blackout and a three-day gradual restoration of power in Phoenix, half the city — 800,000 people — would end up needing emergency care and about 13,000 people would die.
Author Jeff Goodell says that predicted average warming does not alarm people, as it does not capture the extreme and deadly heat events that are becoming more common.
So many of our older cities weren’t built with heat in mind. Aside from the obvious cutting greenhouse gas emissions, what can we do to make cities survivable as the planet warms? It’s really important to underscore that this risk of heat is driven by the consumption of fossil fuels. It’s also really important to make clear that even when we get to the magical net-zero emissions of carbon, which is decades away at best, even that will only stop the increase in temperature. It will not take us back
The obvious thing that many cities are doing — because it’s the easiest and the most politically palatable — is planting more trees. That’s really important. There’s lots of studies that have shown that street trees do a lot to cool off a city. But trees aren’t magical solutions, they require care and maintenance.
Even when we get to the magical net-zero emissions of carbon, which is decades away at best, even that will only stop the increase in temperature. It will not take us back .”
JEFF GOODELL
People lived in Texas before there was air conditioning. And they built in a very different way. They had transoms that opened above the doors. They oriented their houses away from the direct sunlight, they planted big trees for shade. They had what are called ‘dog trot houses,’ where they had a big cen-
tral corridor with main living quarters on either side, so there would be a strong breeze coming through.
Even in Philadelphia, sleeping porches used to be a common feature of houses. Yeah, exactly. And so we’ve given that all up now.
Changing the infrastructure is really important. It’s going to take some time, though. One city that’s leading the way is Paris, and they’re doing it because they have a mayor who is probably one of the most climate - savvy politicians in the world. They’re narrowing the big boulevards, putting in more trees and greenery. They are restricting automobiles and vehicles with internal combustion engines from the downtown, cleaning up the Seine so that you can swim in it on many days. They’ve done a lot to change the heat anatomy of that city.
When it’s a hot day, you need to be paying attention so that you can target your response during heat waves to these particularly vulnerable people. And that’s a big deal, just understanding where the vulnerability is.
The other point that I underscore is that we’re at this turning point with climate and heat and thinking about this, and I think it really is opening up a lot of opportunities for building a better world. The question is, do we do it in an intelligent way? Do we get educated about it and make smart choices or do we just do the “Mad Max” scenario? ◆
PANORAMIC VISION
Expansive mural depicts environmental destruction and the hope of climate justice through the lens of Indigenous culture
➤ BY SIANI COLÓN
For three days last summer, smoke drifted down from forest fires in the Canadian taiga, some of it shrouding 1800 North American Street, where volunteers were working on a climate justice mural.
Mirroring the dramatic depiction of oil spills, deforestation and smog being painted on the 300-foot long wall, the very real smoky orange haze and scorching temperatures caused the group to pause work for the health and safety of volunteers.
It wasn’t the only climate-related roadblock the project faced. “We had many 90plus degree days where we couldn’t pull it off because there is no shade here,” says Eurhi Jones, an independent artist who helped design the mural.
The expansive, colorful depiction of our destructive past, present and hopeful future is the culmination of the years-long Climate Justice Initiative (CJI), spearheaded by Mural Arts Philadelphia.
“Our focus is to create works of art that
are accessible to the public but contribute to social impact in a positive way,” says Chad Eric Smith, senior director of communications and brand management at Mural Arts.
Smith says that while public art can draw attention to an issue and generate discussion, the challenge is moving the needle beyond discussing a beautiful image.
“We took a lot of energy and time to distill what can be viewed for some people as complex ideas, to be viewed as public art,” Smith says. “That’s why we view art as powerful and transformative, but the challenge is to transcend the art and be able to galvanize individuals into collective action for climate justice.”
The project relied heavily on education about climate change and the history of Indigenous peoples such as the Lenni-Lenape. Over 30 collaborators contributed their expertise on environmental justice successes and challenges through a series of teach-ins, community cleanups and the Art + Environmental Justice Symposium.
Jones; former design specialist for Mural Arts’ Environmental Justice Depart-
The climate justice mural spans 300 feet — as well as the past, present and future of global warming impacts.
You can’t go to a different, better future if you don’t envision it first and I think artists help envision that possibility.”
EURHI JONES independent artist
ment Gamar Markarian; and Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape artists Denise Bright Dove Ashton-Dunkley and Dolores Stanford were tasked with translating the findings from these educational discussions into an “epic image.”
Jones says the artists aimed to represent the frontline communities in Philadelphia who were invited into the creation process.
The mural depicts the Great Turtle emerging from a river, a reference to “Turtle Island,” a name used by some Native Americans for Earth or North America. Its shell is damaged by a factory, deforestation and
fracking, while a snake-headed oil pipeline chokes it, referencing the Lakota prophecy that a black snake will destroy the people and the Earth. There are bloodied dresses referencing the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women movement. Plastic bottles and oil pollute the waterways, while on a dock, a selling block and chains represent the commodification of people through chattel slavery.
In the next panel, a vibrant forest grows. Within its canopy are images of efforts to correct the environmental degradation through green jobs in solar energy, urban
Clockwise from top left: Artist Eurhi Jones (left) and Stephanie Van Riet paint the Three Sisters of corn, beans and squash; Iglesias Community Garden and Tree Tenders are two of the organizations that participated in teach-ins and concept creation; Jones with assistant artists on the mural painting team; Sean Bryant paints mural cloth to be installed.
agriculture, the closing of oil refineries, expansion of public and cleaner transit options, and youth climate protests. Indigenous peoples are at the forefront, representing handing off knowledge to the next generation. In the final panel, a full moon shows a calendar based on Indigenous tradition, as well as monarch butterflies, inspiring hope for the future.
“With the climate movement worldwide, we have to look at Indigenous leadership and climate science leadership,” Jones says. “Especially Indigenous leadership about shifting our worldview if we’re to survive, and looking to the knowledge that already exists to care for the Earth that we’re given.”
The mural, installed on the building that houses businesses focused on sustainability such as NextFab and The Resource Exchange, was dedicated October 7, 2023, in celebration of Indigenous People’s Day.
Several workshops and events have been held at the site, including a deep dive on the Indigenous history and imagery depicted in the artwork and how to include Indigenous people in environmental justice work, led by Felicia Teter and Priscilla Bell Lamberty of Natives in Philly and artist Ashton-Dunkley. Jonathan Leibovic, former organizer for Philly Thrive and a community liaison for CJI, hopes that special events can continue.
We view art as powerful and transformative, but the challenge is to transcend the art and be able to galvanize individuals into collective action for climate justice.”
CHAD ERIC SMITH
Mural Arts Philadelphia
“I would love to see people using the site of the mural and associated space as a gathering place and a place to host all kinds of events about environmental justice,” says Leibovic.
Leibovic is writing a unit guide centered around the mural primarily for middle grade students called “Getting to the Roots.” It includes a scavenger hunt where people of any age can engage with the massive mural to identify its many symbols and learn about their meanings, ideally in person.
“In order to appreciate a mural, you have to physically be there. Looking at it online or on your phone doesn’t have the same effect,” Leibovic says. They hope to partner with teachers at schools, museums, environmental education centers and summer camps to use the materials starting this fall.
Jones believes that projects like this compel people to engage in issues they may not
have otherwise.
“I found doing socially-engaged public art, that it is a place where people can come together, have fun, relax and be able to talk about issues that matter like this,” Jones says. “There’s room in the movement for joy, creativity and human connection. There’s not only room, they’re essential.”
Jones points to the presence and contributions of young people and artists in other social movements, and that artists’ inherent outside-the-box thinking is what the future needs.
“Everyone has to start thinking outside the stupid boxes we’re in [because] we’re not going to survive if we don’t start thinking differently,” Jones says. “You can’t go to a different, better future if you don’t envision it first and I think artists help envision that possibility.”
Janice Kim and Tommy McShane paint Chester Residents Concerned for Quality Living (CRCQL). Right: Honour The Earth Dunkley, Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape and youth activist, is the daughter of design collaborator Denise Bright Dove Ashton-Dunkley.
Light bonding
An effective way to fund municipal sustainability projects is taking hold ➤
BY AMBER X. CHEN
It’s clearer than ever that cities must finance more green projects as the impacts of climate change intensify, but many are struggling to make progress towards their climate goals. Unsurprisingly, funding is among the biggest obstacles.
Urban sustainability overhauls — like transitioning to renewable energy sources — can be expensive up front, though they present greater long-term impacts that are more cost-saving than the status quo.
One such project is the $91 million Philadelphia Streetlight Improvement Project (PSIP), which began in August 2023. The project, which is the largest energy conservation project the City has undertaken, is set to replace approximately 130,000 streetlights with remotely-controlled LED lights over the next three years.
The major rollout of PSIP has been made possible by Philadelphia’s first sustainability bond, a financing mechanism for initiatives with a proposed environmental and social impact.
According to Emily Schapira, president and CEO of the Philadelphia Energy Authority, Philadelphia had been interested in converting streetlights to LEDs for more than 10 years before she joined the energy authority in 2016. The quasi-governmental entity is dedicated to creating a robust and equitable clean energy economy in Philadelphia; LED lights are much more energy
efficient than the former sodium-based streetlight system. The City’s 2017 Municipal Energy Master Plan identified street lighting as the category of energy use with the greatest potential for greenhouse gas emissions reductions.
“This is a huge project. It took a lot of collaboration across departments and really required the Streets Department to be thoughtful about how they wanted to implement this work,” Schapira says. “They had already been converting streetlights a little bit each year through their own capital budget, but really, until we had an authority that was
It’s rare that we find the ability to do these types of projects that are this big and this ubiquitous, touching everybody, and sustainability bonds help do it.”
EMILY SCHAPIRA Philadelphia Energy Authority
able to manage this, were we able to do [PSIP as a] a single project, a citywide effort.”
Cities use bonds — specifically, general municipal bonds — to finance projects all the time, such as City Hall improvements, road maintenance and library services. With a sustainability bond, the structure of a bond and its repayment mechanisms remain the same, but the “sustainability” designation introduces extra disclosure of bond financing activities, as well as accountability to specific social and environmental metrics. The higher level of accountability attracts investors interested in the project’s
environmental and social returns.
Specifically with regards to the PSIP, this means that the City must report to bondholders a quantitative measure of energy saved relative to original lighting and estimates of the associated greenhouse gas emissions reductions. The City must also report to bondholders a qualitative discussion of the project’s contribution to public safety measures and the public health implications of lower greenhouse gases.
“Green bonds can only finance things that have an environmental benefit and social bonds can only finance things that have
a social benefit,” says Monica Reid, CEO and founder of Kestrel ESG, a company that provides external reviews on green, social and sustainability bonds. “Sustainability bonds are bonds that are both green and social.”
Kestrel conducted an independent review of Philadelphia’s streetlights sustainability bond.
“There are 56,000 different municipal bond issuers in the United States, and not everyone can be an expert on why this is a green bond and what’s important for investors to know,” Reid says. “So having this independent external review is a way to bring consistency to the market.”
Reid says that a bond can qualify as a green, social or sustainability bond by meeting certain criteria of best practices and principles that are organized and constantly updated by the International Capital Market Association. According to Reid, the first sustainability bonds were issued by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts back in 2013. Since then, the designation has been growing in the bonds market. A report by Kestrel found that close to 60% of all bonds issued in the municipal market could actually qualify as green, social or sustainability bonds.
“[Cities are] doing this to, number one, shine a light on the good work that they’re doing and provide extra transparency and disclosure for investors,” Reid says. “Oftentimes by issuing [sustainability] bonds and talking about the environmental benefits of the bonds, they’re actually explaining how these financed activities are leveraging larger goals the City has.”
Schapira is hopeful that sustainability bonds will continue to enable large-scale projects that advance Philadelphia’s climate goals.
“It allows us to do more of these projects — I think that’s the most exciting part of it,” Schapira says. “It really integrates the priorities of the City with the way we finance things. It’s rare that we find the ability to do these types of projects that are this big and this ubiquitous, touching everybody, and sustainability bonds help do it.” ◆
Emily Schapira (center) and a team from the Philadelphia Energy Authority developed the sustainability bond issue that funded the LED streetlight conversion.
In the Zone
The Philadelphia Orchard Project is cultivating fruit that could thrive in a hotter city
➤ BY BEN SEAL
When the U.S. Department of Agriculture released an updated map of hardiness zones last November, gardeners and farmers in the Philadelphia region — and across much of the United States — found affirmation of the warmer weather they’ve been experiencing since the map’s last refresh in 2012. In just over 10 years, nearly half the country shifted into a new zone, meaning new plants can survive through increasingly mild winters while others are now a better fit farther north.
In 1990, Philadelphia was split between zones 6b and 7a, but now nearly all of it is entrenched in zone 7b, indicating a 10-degree rise in the coldest winter temperatures over the last four decades. As the effects of climate change accelerate in the coming years, the zones will continue to shift. The Philadelphia Orchard Project (POP) isn’t waiting to see what that could mean for our diet of local produce.
In two unheated high tunnel greenhouses that opened this spring in The Woodlands in West Philadelphia, POP plans to experiment with the foods of our future. Under shelter from winter’s harshest conditions, the nonprofit hopes to learn about which trees might bear fruit a decade or two from now that might once have been reserved for warmer locales, including Chilean and pineapple guava, pomegranate, Orinoco bananas and hardy citrus like kumquats and yuzu.
“The primary service we provide the city of Philadelphia is knowledge about fruit growing,” POP co-executive director Phil
This is a way to expand that knowledge, share it with partners and eventually expand their food production.”
PHIL FORSYTH
Philadelphia Orchard Project
Forsyth says. “This is a way to expand that knowledge, share it with partners and eventually expand their food production — with more culturally relevant plants, in many cases, because we’re able to push into parts of subtropics where many Philadelphia immigrants and other communities come from.”
In early May, the high tunnels were full of early spring’s anticipation, rather than the fruit Forsyth hopes to see emerge in time. A
banana tree had been put in the ground just a week earlier; he’s confident it will survive this winter and hopeful it will fruit next year. One of the 48-by-22 foot greenhouses is intended as a nursery and workshop space and the other will house POP’s subtropical experiments. In addition to fruits foreign to the Philadelphia region, POP is planting more familiar fruits, including raspberries, strawberries, blueberries and a fig tree, to learn whether the high
PHOTO
tunnels can help extend the harvest season. “It’s a process of experimentation and seeing what works,” Forsyth says. “We’re not relying on our orchard to provide our living. We’re doing this for a variety of purposes — educational value being one of the highest, as well as ecological value and engagement. So if every experiment isn’t a success, it’s still worth doing.”
The two structures cost more than $100,000 to build, Forsyth says, a significant portion of which went toward permitting because of the Woodlands’ status as a historic site. It would cost much less to build elsewhere and POP wants to show other growers what a high tunnel can accomplish. Dozens of high tunnels already exist in the city, Forsyth says, but they’re used primarily for growing vegetables. “Nobody’s been
thinking about fruit production,” he says.
Forsyth is already thinking ahead to POP’s next big investment, a climate battery greenhouse that would occupy more space than the two high tunnels combined. The greenhouse would utilize the earth beneath the structure as a thermal battery of sorts to stabilize its temperature and humidity, using buried tubing to transfer heat between the ground and air. His inspiration for that project comes from Threefold Farm in Mechanicsburg, Cumberland County, where Tim Clymer has been using the setup since 2017 to graduate from zone 6b to 8a so he can grow fruits native to the Texas climate where he and his wife used to live.
After using a citrus tree as a “canary in the coal mine” during his first winter with the climate battery, Clymer has watched
Phil Forsyth and the Philadelphia Orchard Project are testing out subtropical crops to see what will be viable in the future.
figs flourish without any dieback ever since. He’s grown satsuma mandarin, Meyer lemon and avocado, and last winter he pushed the envelope even further with star fruit, lychee, longan and mango. He’s not sure whether it will all prosper — the jackfruit didn’t survive — but he’s found a market for fruits uncommon in this region. He sees great value in growing in-demand fruits that don’t need to be trucked or flown in from thousands of miles away.
“Sometimes it takes someone like the Philadelphia Orchard Project to showcase something like this and say, ‘It actually can be done,’” Clymer says of the nonprofit’s plan to expand from high tunnels to a climate battery in the coming years. “It’s different to see it versus just hearing about somebody somewhere who has a magical greenhouse that can grow South Florida plants. If we can get more and more of them, it raises awareness that there are alternatives to strapping a propane heater on and burning a lot of fossil fuels [to grow plants].”
Whether in a high tunnel or a climate battery greenhouse, adapting to the hardiness zones as they creep northward will require research and forethought, according to Kathy Demchak, senior extension associate at Penn State University’s College of Agricultural Sciences, whose work focuses on berries. Penn State has been experimenting with high tunnels since the early 2000s, she says, doubling the harvest season for some fruits and offering a way to grow crops like sweet potato and luffa (aka loofah) that wouldn’t typically be found in Central Pennsylvania.
“I always looked at the high tunnels as a way of predicting what the future climate could look like,” Demchak says.
Any experiment is bound to encounter failure somewhere along the way, but POP’s foray into far-flung fruits is bound to reveal something meaningful about what growers will face in Philadelphia’s future. “Something’s going to work,” Demchak says. “It may not be what you think it will be, but something will work, so I think there’s a lot of potential in what they’re trying out.”
Progress Report
Approaching its ten-year mark, Indego Bike Share shows improvement in equity ➤ BY
KYLE BAGENSTOSE
It was a warm, late spring morning and traffic was light in West Philadelphia. Not the vehicular kind: the lurching, beeping and swerving on thoroughfares such as Market and Chestnut were as hectic as ever.
But things were slow around several Indego Bike Share stations that now pepper the corridor from 50th to 60th streets. For the better part of an hour, a station at 56th and Chestnut streets went unutilized until Gregory Isaac approached.
The middle-aged professional explained that he used to live outside of the city and would drive in, park in a free area and use Indego — Philadelphia’s joint public-private bike share service — to complete the last leg of his journey, rather than pay the high parking fees downtown. Since moving to West Philadelphia six months ago, he simply walks to the Indego station and bikes to work.
But it isn’t all smooth riding.
“I could use a couple more stations,” Isaac said, especially on the Cobbs Creek Parkway, where he likes to ride. “But the biggest thing is, I wish there were fewer e-bikes and more human-powered bikes,” he added, as he checked out the only traditional bike in a rack with nine electrics, which cost an extra 20 cents a minute to ride.
Isaac’s experiences highlight some of the challenges around Indego’s expansion into neighborhoods outside the city’s core in recent years. When the service launched in 2015, the demographics of the neighborhoods where it placed its stations looked nothing like the city it was purportedly serving.
In the U.S. Census tracts where its stations were originally located, 52% of residents were white while 23% were Black, according to Indego’s own data. That proportion was dramatically different from the city’s overall population, where four in ten people are Black.
But, representatives of Indego say the ser-
vice is endeavoring to improve the equity of the city’s only bike share program, which is owned by the City of Philadelphia and operated by vendor Bicycle Transit Systems. Those efforts come in various forms, from the placement of stations in more diverse communities to outreach programs meant to win the trust of residents, says Waffiyyah Murray, Indego program manager with the City.
“When we were first rolling out … there were communities that were like, ‘No, we don’t want that here,’” Murray says. “But then as they started to see how we built that trust in other communities … now we get folks asking us for stations. We’ve seen firsthand how the narrative has moved.”
According to Indego’s data, the demographic diversity of the neighborhoods where it is placing bike stations is indeed improving. Year-over-year figures published in an fiveyear equity plan Indego released last year show that, as of 2022, the Black populations
of Census tracts where stations were placed had reached about 33%, a ten-point improvement from the service’s launch.
Still, such metrics can hide the inequities of distribution. A map of Indego’s current 250 stations shows an obvious clustering in whiter parts of Philadelphia like Center City and Old City, leaving far sparser service in neighborhoods like West Philadelphia. But, general manager for Indego at Bicycle Transit Systems Nate Bowman-Johnston says the service’s strategy all along has been to first secure its financial wellbeing in more affluent parts of the city, then add stations to lower income neighborhoods, which he says Indego remains committed to as it plans the installation of 125 more stations in the years ahead.
And they’ve already started laying the groundwork by making the service more affordable for low-income riders. Bowman-Johnston points to 2018, when Indego began offering reduced rates to Penn-
Indego Bike Share program manager Waffiyyah Murray says it takes more than just building a station to gain the acceptance and trust of low-income riders.
sylvania ACCESS card holders, which are issued to residents who receive state cash assistance, supplemental nutrition assistance (SNAP) and medical benefits. For Indego’s rates as of June 2024, the discount cuts the cost of a standard 30-day Indego pass from $20 to $5 for ACCESS card holders, and the cost of its most premium annual e-bike offering from $19 to $8 a month.
Bowman-Johnston speaks plainly about the service’s financial realities. The vendor, which is responsible for all of the day-today operations and decisions on pricing and
station placement, receives no financial subsidy from the City and thus incurs financial risk if the system were to become insolvent, Bowman-Johnston says.
But, his company remains committed to slowly increasing the equity of its offerings, even if that means smaller margins — at least at first, he added.
“One of the goals is that, as we expand Indego, the demographics of our service area more closely reflect the actual demographics of the city,” Bowman-Johnston says.
Expert recommended
Indego’s commitment to equity isn’t just lip service, say academic experts who have studied bike share programs across the country.
Josh Davidson, an assistant professor at Oberlin College who pursued his master’s and doctoral degrees at the University of Pennsylvania and wrote his doctoral thesis on COVID-19’s impact on Indego, “commends” the service for its early and consistent focus on equity. He acknowledges that historically, stations have been concentrated in Center City and University City. The latter, he says, may have even helped Indego goose its equity numbers, as stations clustered around Penn and Drexel were technically located in low-income Census tracts.
However, Davidson says he was impressed as Indego first rolled out a station at 45th Street, and then 50th Street (Indego’s deepest West Philly station is now located at 58th and Spruce streets), and deeper into neighborhoods like Mantua.
“To give credit where credit is due, over the years they have continually expanded service farther and farther into low-income areas,” Davidson said.
Nathan McNeil, a researcher at the Nohad A. Toulan School of Urban Studies and Planning at Portland State University, says the makeup of the entities that back Indego add to its legitimacy. The program has its roots in City Council, which successfully prompted Michael Nutter’s administration to complete a feasibility study for a bike share program in 2010, setting the table for the launch of Indego five years later.
Also influential is the Better Bike Share Partnership, a collaboration between the City, the National Association of City Transportation Officials (NACTO) and the advocacy group PeopleForBikes, whose partnership is funded by the New York City-based JPB Foundation. Involved with Indego from the outset, Better Bike Share’s website says it was able to leverage philanthropic funding to assist with Indego’s equity efforts, including the creation of the discount fare program and early installation of 20 stations in underserved neighborhoods.
“When Philadelphia launched Indego, they sort of made equity a central component of the system,” McNeil says, calling that an improvement on earlier models in other cities. “This was a pretty new idea … that we’re going to have this foundation of outreach and programming to make sure it works.”
The path to equity
Bike sharing advocates say the challenge of ensuring equity is not to be taken lightly. Or Caspi, a former bike share researcher at Rutgers University, studied Indego data in 2017 and 2018 and concluded that stations located in low-income areas receive less usage, even after controlling for variables like the presence of nearby public transit and bike lanes.
Murray says the City has experienced this firsthand.
“That theory of, you build it and they’ll come, does not work. You can’t just put a station out in a neighborhood and expect folks to use it,” Murray says. “There’s a lot of communities that have a lot of distrust. There’s a lot of nervousness around new things. Gentrification and displacement are real.”
Murray ticks off a list of programs she says Indego, the City and other partners like the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia are offering to try to ensure all Philadelphians utilize the service, and thus ensure its long-term viability. Many fall under the banner of outreach, including introductory group rides for trepid first-timers, bicycle education classes and work commuting programs.
West Philly resident Morgan Mahdavi, who helps lead programs at Better Bike Share, says the sessions are well attended. “They’re so great. The demographics are such a mixture … folks of color, immigrant folks, low-income folks,” Mahdavi says. “We block traffic, and block intersections, we lead. And it’s so fun to see people who are really nervous and by the end they feel very excited and empowered.”
Mahdavi themself uses Indego for all manner of local errands and trips, and says they find it to be the most convenient form of transportation. But, they say, they rarely encounter other users at area stations.
Until Indego is successful in getting significantly more Philadelphians riding — and paying — for bikes, Bowman-Johnston says the vendor will continue to rely heavily on advertising and corporate sponsorships (including title sponsor Independence Blue Cross) to help keep the entire system afloat, as service fees only account for about 50% of revenue.
Eventually, experts like McNeil and Davidson would like to see bike share systems folded more directly into public transportation networks like SEPTA, removing some of the financial precarity and elevating its importance as a mode of transportation.
“I think we need to think outside of the scrounging-for-grant-funding-streams [approach],” McNeil says. “What are the sustainable streams that fund the operating costs? Because that’s where it can become sustainable.” ◆
The Green Pages
Shop your values at these local businesses
BIKE SHOP
Trophy Bikes
We specialize in the ingenious BROMPTON BICYCLE, made & designed in LONDON to save you time — and space — with its fast, compact fold. OPEN Wed-Sat, 12-6 pm at 133 S. 23rd St. On the Web @trophybikes
BOOK STORE
Books & Stuff
They can ban books in our libraries and schools, but they can’t ban the books in your home library. Grow your home library! Black woman-owned online shop for children, teens & adults. booksandstuff.info
COMPOSTING
Back to Earth Compost Crew
Residential curbside compost pick-up, commercial pick-up, five collection sites & compost education workshops. Montgomery County & parts of Chester County. First month free trial. backtoearthcompost.com
Bennett Compost
The area’s longest running organics collection service (est 2009) serving all of Philadelphia with residential and commercial pickups and locally-made soil products. 215.520.2406 bennettcompost.com
Circle Compost
We’re a woman-owned hyper-local business. We offer 2 or 5 gallon buckets & haul with e-bikes & motor vehicles. We offer finished compost, lawn waste pickups & commercial services. 30 day free trial! circlecompost.com
EATS
The Franklin Fountain
The Franklin Fountain now offers returnable reusable pints of ice cream in Vanilla Bean, Chocolate & Caramelized Banana! Our ice cream is made with PA dairy & all natural ingredients. franklinfountain.com
ATTENTION:
Makers, small businesses and green entrepreneurs: Place your ad here! email alex@gridphilly.com
FARM
Hope Hill Lavender Farm
Established in 2011, our farm offers shopping for made-on-premise lavender products in a scenic environment. Honey, bath & body, teas, candles, lavender essential oil and more. hopehilllavenderfarm.com
FASHION
Philly AIDS Thrift
As a nonprofit thrift store, our goal is to sell the lovely, useful items that people donate & distribute the proceeds to local organizations involved in the fight against HIV/AIDS. phillyaidsthrift.com
Stitch And Destroy
STITCH AND DESTROY creates upcycled alternative fashions and accessories from pre-loved clothing and textile waste. The STITCH AND DESTROY storefront opens May 4th at 523 S 4th St. stitchanddestroy.com
GREEN BURIAL
Laurel Hill
With our commitment to sustainability, Laurel Hill Cemeteries & Funeral Home specializes in green burials and funerals, has a variety of eco-friendly products to choose from, and offers pet aquamation. laurelhillphl.com
GROCERY
Kimberton Whole Foods
A family-owned and operated natural grocery store with seven locations in Southeastern PA, selling local, organic and sustainably-grown food for over thirty years. kimbertonwholefoods.com
MAKERS
Mount Airy Candle Co.
Makers of uniquely scented candles, handcrafted perfumery and body care products. Follow us on Instagram @mountairycandleco and find us at retailers throughout Greater Philadelphia. mountairycandle.com
Tombino.shop
Manhole Covers from the world over permanently etched into Functional Art. Cork Coasters, Trivets. Wood Magnets & Wall Art. Hand-drawn & Handmade in Philadelphia. From Aalborg to Zurich get your city! tombino.shop
Donato Grimaldi MES ‘23
“I wanted to work in corporate sustainability,” says Donato Grimaldi (MES ’23). “I knew the Master of Environmental Studies program could get me to where I want to be.”
Growing up, Donato, a Philadelphia native, spent summers on his family’s dairy farm in Italy. “They’re very tied to the environment there,” he says. “I learned from the farm to always think about the future and adopt new practices to help sustain the farm.” Donato carried those lessons forward to his college and career plans. “I knew I wanted to solve problems pertaining to the environment; that’s where I could benefit society the most.”
While studying environmental engineering as an undergraduate, Donato’s professional path became clear: He would reduce environmental pollution by helping corporations become sustainability leaders. The Penn MES program’s Environmental Sustainability concentration offered Donato interdisciplinary coursework covering corporate sustainability strategies, the environmental impacts of energy, risk management, and more. During his studies, Donato also completed two internships in different industries, gaining first-hand experience in corporate sustainability.
Not long after graduating, Donato launched his career as a corporate social responsibility project engineer for an international label and packaging company. His successes so far include projects diverting materials from landfills for new uses—reducing waste while creating revenue streams.
“I went through the Penn program and here I am working in corporate sustainability,” he smiles. “I’m grateful to wake up every day and work in an industry I love. And I’m excited to see where the industry goes in the future.”
