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No Power, No Justice
Ihad never heard of the Philadelhphia Art Commission back in 2022 when I tuned in to a Zoom meeting about plans to build a driving range at the Cobbs Creek Golf Course. When reporting on a public meeting of a City commission, it’s not uncommon to find yourself waiting impatiently through all the other proposals on the agenda ahead of the item you are there to cover. But in this case everything on the docket was absolutely fascinating to an environmental journalist like me. I watched commissioners tell developers and their architects what they needed to change in their designs; the objections ranged from the aesthetic (as I expected from an “art” commission) to the environmental. Commissioners insisted that landscaping include native plant species, that the risk of bird-window collisions be addressed. And the developers were deferential; many were returning with designs altered to comply with the commission’s demands. This was a commission with teeth.
That same year the Kenney administration launched the Environmental Justice Advisory Commission, without any teeth at all. At the time, there was no clear way for the new commission to ensure that City plans advanced environmental justice. It’s hard to imagine a politician, a developer or a business heeding the advice of a commission without any power — especially one speaking for the under-resourced communities of color that come out on the losing end of pollution, flooding, short dumping and so many other environmental ills.
Creating an advisory commission — along with other classic diversions like commissioning plans and studies — is a great way for elected officials to look like they’re taking action without actually ceding any power. Advocates are often grateful in the moment that their issue is getting any attention at all. News outlets generally run positive stories about the plans or stated intentions of public officials, and that makes them look good.
But in the end, nothing actually changes. Developers and City officials might take some abuse at public meetings, but that’s a small price to pay when there is money to be made and political points to be scored.
As Sophia D. Merow’s piece in this issue makes clear, the Environmental Justice Advisory Commission has languished in the years since its launch. But I think it’s worth imagining what a genuinely powerful body entrusted with fighting environmental racism and protecting environmental justice communities could have accomplished in the past year. You might not expect Mayor Parker’s Office of Clean and Green Initiatives to exacerbate environmental injustice, but without scrutiny we don’t know how it could be improved or shaped to better serve the neighborhoods that most need cleaning and greening. Hilco’s redevelopment of the former Philadelphia Energy Solutions site might have been forced to slow down and take community demands seriously.
It’s easy to see why politicians and their powerful backers like developers and building trades unions don’t want environmental justice communities to wield power. Beyond the possibility of not getting exactly what they want, when you launch a headlinegrabbing initiative or build a stadium, time is money and speed is of the essence. Including environmental justice communities in the design and approval process means taking the time to let everyone read and digest plans, going back and forth as you work out the changes. But when the impact of a project can last decades, the right thing to do is to slow it down and get it right.
bernard brown , Managing Editor
Shades of Gray
Why are there so many black squirrels in Philadelphia? by bernard brown
In 2003 former Tuskegee Airman and pioneering Black journalist Chuck Stone wrote “Squizzy the Black Squirrel,” about a Philadelphia boy who bonds with a black squirrel in Fairmount Park. Squizzy was the only black squirrel the boy had ever seen in the park, but visitors today still spot them gathering acorns and running up trees.
As Stone wrote in “Squizzy,” black and gray squirrels are simply color variations of the same species, the eastern gray squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis). The darker squirrels (some are an intermediate chocolate-brown color) have more melanin in their fur, much as humans can have in their hair. Black fur absorbs more heat from the sun than the
usual gray fur, helping the darker squirrels keep warm in the winter, an advantage balanced against dark fur offering worse camouflage against tree bark than gray.
Today in the countryside the darker squirrels are easy to find in the north of the species’ range: around the Great Lakes, New England and southern Canada. Black squirrels are rare in the rest of their range outside of cities, but this might not always have been the case. Samuel N. Rhoads, in his 1903 book “ The Mammals of Pennsylvania and New Jersey,” reviewed the earliest accounts he could find on the proportions of black to gray squirrels. “[I]t is worthy of remark that there seems to be a diminution of the relative number of blacks as the coun-
try becomes deforested and settled upon.” Whether this had to do with more-open terrain being warmer than dense forest or with predators, including human hunters, having an easier time spotting black squirrels, Rhoads couldn’t say.
It is tempting to think that Philadelphia’s black squirrels are relics of a time when they were more common in precolonial forests. But by the mid-1800s urban squirrels were considered rare and special, hard as it might be to believe today, when every garden in the city is besieged by the bushytailed tomato pirates. As historian Etienne Benson wrote in a 2013 paper on the history of urban squirrels, “the gray squirrel was effectively absent from densely settled areas.”
When the scientists transplanted both colors of urban squirrels into the countryside, the black squirrels were more than eight times more likely to die than their gray counterparts.
Those that did wander near humans often didn’t survive the encounter; squirrels were considered fair game and good eating. An 1867 writer documenting what food was for sale in the markets of New York, Boston and Philadelphia wrote: “The gray and black [squirrels] are found sometimes in plenty … in the months of September, October, November and December.” And if squirrels did make it into a city alive, they wouldn’t have found much good habitat in neighborhoods that, at the time, lacked mature street trees.
But squirrels aren’t just good to eat; they’re also fun to watch. When squirrels (usually escaped pets) did show up in city parks, they drew a crowd. City leaders decided to give the people what they wanted. As Benson found, Philadelphia was an early leader in a fad of releasing squirrels in urban parks for entertainment. In 1847 squirrels were released in Franklin Square and provided with food and nest boxes. More releases followed, with black squirrels in-
cluded among the transplants. A release in Washington Square included at least one black squirrel along with the gray ones.
Black squirrels were famously targeted for release in Washington, D.C., where in 1900 the director of the National Zoo asked colleagues in Canada to send him some. They delivered. Similar black squirrel shipments populated cities in southern Michigan, and though I haven’t found documentation, it’s not hard to imagine Philadelphians with northern connections arranging similar introductions in our parks to vary the squirrel palette.
Not all of the releases stuck; as Benson describes, once the novelty wore off, squirrels sometimes annoyed people so much that they trapped and removed the original transplants. But landscape changes in and around cities allowed squirrels to move themselves around. Hunting became regulated to ensure sustainable populations of game species like squirrels. Trees grew up along streets and in parks, and we erected
vast networks of cables strung on poles to transmit electricity and information, giving squirrels the ability to cross pretty much any street they wanted without touching the asphalt.
Plenty of squirrels nonetheless cross the street at ground level, and today cars are the primary killers of urban squirrels, versus predators that are responsible for most squirrel deaths in rural areas. Researchers in Syracuse, New York, suspected that this difference in how they die could help keep black squirrels relatively common in cities.
A black squirrel stands out more than a gray one against tree bark in a forest, making it easier for a predator to pick out. Car tires, however, don’t discriminate based on fur hue. Sure enough, when the scientists transplanted both colors of urban squirrels into the countryside, the black squirrels were more than eight times more likely to die than their gray counterparts.
Today you can find black squirrels all over Philadelphia. I tend to see them most often in parks — one of my go-to black squirrel spots is along Belmont Avenue in Fairmount Park West — but they show up in street trees as well, a reminder of our complicated history with urban wildlife. ◆
The eastern gray squirrel isn’t always gray. The darker-hued rodents thrive in an urban environment.
YEAR ONE
Voice, Every Vote, a collaborative project managed by The Lenfest Institute for Journalism. Lead support for Every Voice, Every Vote in 2024 and 2025 is provided by the William Penn Foundation with additional funding from The Lenfest Institute for Journalism, Comcast NBC Universal, The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, Henry L. Kimelman Family Foundation, Judy and Peter Leone, Arctos Foundation, Wyncote Foundation, 25th Century Foundation, and DolfingerMcMahon Foundation. To learn more about the project and view a full list of supporters, visit www.everyvoiceeveryvote.org. Editorial content is created independently of the project’s donors.
Environmental issues are rarely at the top of the political agenda. If they were, we might not need this special issue looking at Mayor Cherelle Parker’s first year. ¶ Given the long list of environmental problems facing Philadelphia and the long list of solutions beginning to be worked out, it wasn’t entirely clear where to start. But since Parker entered office promising a suite of quality of life initiatives, many of which have environmental dimensions, in this issue Grid examines the City’s marquee Clean and Green Initiatives. ¶ Parker also inherited a host of programs aimed at advancing environmental goals: reducing the city’s greenhouse gas emissions, cleaning up its waterways, improving air quality, increasing the tree canopy and advancing sustainable transportation, among others. We take a look at these as well. Directing the administration of a large city is more like hopping onto a barge mid-river than launching a speedboat from a dock. The City’s problems are decades (and centuries) in the making and will take many years of sustained attention to solve. Though mayors are often loath to cede credit to — or even share it with — predecessors, much of their success depends on maintaining the focus (and budgeting the resources) to continue critical initiatives that predate their time at the helm. ¶ There was no way we could fit everything relevant into this issue — or extract from reticent sources all the information readers deserve — but rest assured that Grid won’t stop. We will keep covering local environmental issues as doggedly as we always have, shining a light on what works, what doesn’t work and what could work better in Philadelphia government.
mayor cherelle parker
Round Table
Mayor Parker and administration officials answer Grid’s questions on sustainability efforts
The soaring rhetoric of campaign trails often meets the hard realities of governance once candidates take office. Competing demands, limited budgets and City Council’s own priorities can make for a challenging first year for any new mayor.
Back in March 2023, when Cherelle Parker was a candidate in the Democratic primary, Grid published her responses to our sustainability-focused questionnaire. We did the same in November as she faced off against Republican David Oh in the general election.
Now, a year into her administration, we followed up with another set of questions to see how her policies have taken shape. Mayor Parker took a team approach to responding: she answered two of our questions directly and had key members of her administration address others. Susan Slawson (Philadelphia Parks & Recreation), Elizabeth H. Lankenau (Office of Sustainability), and Carlton Williams (Office of Clean and Green Initiatives) each provided responses related to their respective departments. Here’s what they sent back to Grid
What do you consider to be your administration’s most significant environmental accomplishments in its first year?
Cherelle Parker, Mayor of Philadelphia: By establishing an overall vision for Philadelphia to be the safest, cleanest and greenest big city in the nation with economic opportunity for all, I created a framework that all City departments are now using to develop strategies and action plans.
Creating the Office of Clean and Green Initiatives and our One Philly, United City Citywide Cleaning Program, is another accomplishment. I am so proud of this program that ran from June through August of
2024 and is an ongoing program, which provides district cleanings, including 40,060 blocks and commercial corridors and 5,868 vacant lots; we filled potholes on 7,902 blocks, removed graffiti on 2,858 blocks and towed 3,017 abandoned cars.
Our Energy Poverty Alleviation Strategy will help us reduce emissions in Philadelphia; the intergovernmental initiative Eastwick: From Recovery to Resilience is addressing flooding and other environment-related quality of life issues; our partnership with the Energy Authority and Energix Renewables flipped the switch on Adams Solar, that will allow the City’s energy portfolio to be powered by a mix of nearly 30% renewable energy.
I pledged to plant 15,000 trees and committed nearly $2 million to the Philly Tree Plan in the FY2025 budget for street tree maintenance and tree planting and care along commercial corridors under the PHL Taking Care of Business program.
Several areas of the city (Eastwick, Manayunk, Germantown) face chronic flooding, which is only expected to worsen with global warming. In your interview with Grid ahead of the mayoral primary in 2023, you said, “At a minimum, we need to have better zoning procedures in areas designated as floodplains.” What has your administration done — or is planning to do – to improve zoning procedures?
Elizabeth H. Lankenau, Director, Office of Sustainability: Over the past year, the City’s Flood Risk Management Task Force (FRMTF), coordinated by the Office of Sustainability (OOS), has continued to make progress towards several key initiatives to further flood risk management in Philadelphia under Mayor Parker’s leadership. The FRMTF convenes 15 City departments on
a quarterly basis to foster collaboration in advancing climate adaptation, protecting communities, and promoting smart infrastructure and land use decisions in flood risk management. One of the most notable advancements this year is Mayor Parker expressing interest for Philadelphia’s entry into the Community Rating System (CRS), a voluntary incentive program by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). This program rewards communities that exceed minimum floodplain management standards with flood insurance discounts for residents. Through entering the program, Philadelphia would commit to maintaining and improving our floodplain regulations. This would yield benefits to all residents, but especially those in our most flood-prone neighborhoods such as Manayunk, Germantown and Eastwick.
In Eastwick specifically, this year the City of Philadelphia has secured $2.2 million in funding to design and implement a near-term flood barrier, the first physical infrastructure project to mitigate flooding in Eastwick. This is an interim measure to protect vulnerable residents while a longterm flood resilience strategy is developed, currently underway through the Office of Sustainability, a committee of Eastwick residents and governmental partners.
In addition, the City of Philadelphia has been selected for further review for a Building Code Plus-Up Program, a grant under FEMA’s Building Resilience Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) program. If awarded, this would fund comprehensive assessments of existing and potential local floodplain management policies and programs, resulting in actionable recommendations to reduce risk to life and property and support future grant applications aimed at exceeding floodplain and flood risk management standards.
The Trust for Public Land’s 2024 ParkScore noted that Philadelphia continues to under-spend on parks compared to other cities. What is your plan to provide Philadelphians with a well-maintained, wellstaffed, quality park system?
Susan Slawson, Commissioner, Parks & Recreation: Our plan to provide Philadelphians with a well-maintained, well-staffed,
I pledged T o plan T 15,000 T rees and comm ITT ed nearly $2 m I ll I on T o T he p h I lly Tree p lan.”
CHERELLE PARKER, Mayor of Philadelphia
and high-quality park system will continue to center on collaboration and community engagement. We work strategically with over 140 community-led Park Friends Network groups to steward parks, coordinate cleanups, host events, raise funds and advocate for the city’s public park system.
Clean and Green has focused on cleaning up litter and illegally-dumped debris. What has your administration done — or is planning to do — to deter littering and illegal dumping?
Carlton Williams, Director, Office of Clean and Green Initiatives: The Office of Clean and Green Initiatives is working with Sanitation, CLIP [Community Life Improvement Program] and Commerce to expand 2024 initiatives. In 2025, we will be adding another illegal dumping crew to focus on cleaning our hardest hit littered and illegally-dumped areas of the city. We are also installing 100 new enforcement cameras to fight illegal dumping in 2025 and we look forward to expanding twice-per-week
collections to other areas of the city such as North Philadelphia in the fall of 2025. In addition, we are increasing mechanical street sweeping to other litter-challenged neighborhoods and we are expanding our Taking Care of Business Clean Corridors Program to even more neighborhood business corridors. We have already begun yearround vacant lot cleaning with CLIP and PHS [Pennsylvania Horticultural Society] to maintain our open spaces in neighborhoods throughout.
These initiatives and more will continue to help meet Mayor Cherelle Parker’s vision of making Philadelphia the safest, cleanest, greenest big city in the nation.
At the start of 2023, key City departments with environmental responsibilities faced severe staffing shortages: Parks & Recreation (PPR) had 29% of positions unfilled, the Water Department (PWD) 20%, Streets 18% and Public Health 17%. What actions has your administration taken to improve staffing, and what are the current vacancy rates for these departments?
Mayor Parker: I am proud of the work the City has done to implement a strategic approach to reduce vacancies. After inauguration, I made a public announcement that encouraged anyone interested in working for our new administration to send their résumés! In the past year, our Office of Human Resources launched a recruitment marketing campaign, leading to a 31% increase in job applications from 2023 to 2024. The new careers website, work.phila.gov, provides jobseekers with clear information on the hiring process and City employment, contributing to a 19% rise in new users on phila.gov/jobs.
To fill critical roles, we have also introduced temporary hiring bonuses of up to 20% for hard-to-fill positions and streamlined the hiring process by improving eligibility lists and reducing hiring timelines. As a result, the Department of Public Health now has 19% of positions unfilled, Parks & Recreation has 28% unfilled, PWD has 15% unfilled and Streets has 15% unfilled. Our ongoing marketing efforts — including a new mobile recruitment vehicle targeting neighborhoods — aim to further reduce vacancies across all departments. ◆
gRow I ng pa I ns
With the help of a big federal grant, the City, nonprofits and volunteers are working to reverse the loss of urban tree canopy in Philadelphia story by sj
punderson
Nearly two years after the launch of the Philly Tree Plan, the City’s ambitious effort to reverse decades of urban canopy loss is still in its infancy. A $12 million U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) grant represents a significant step forward, but community advocates and public health leaders worry that progress
isn’t moving quickly enough. With the Philly Tree Coalition beginning to take shape, stakeholders like the Public Health Management Corporation (PHMC) and the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society (PHS) are stepping in to advance the plan’s goals. But as funding gaps persist and public health stakes rise, is the City’s green vision truly taking root?
An Ambitious Start
An ambitious investment in Philadelphians’ well-being, the Philly Tree Plan was released in 2023 by Philadelphia Parks & Recreation (PPR). The plan aims to expand the city’s tree canopy to 30% in every neighborhood within 30 years. The plan promises transformative outcomes: improved public health, equitable access to green spaces and a safer, cleaner city. So, two years in, is the Philly Tree Plan delivering?
“The Philly Tree Plan is an incredible initiative, but aligning stakeholders and funding streams takes time,” says Kristine Gonnella of PHMC. And there’s skepticism among Philly residents like Jacelyn Blank, cofounder of Philly Tree People, who is
Jacelyn Blank, of Philly Tree People, says she and other tree tending volunteers are “fighting against a tide of urban forest loss.”
cautious about placing too much faith in bureaucracy. “The City has a history of removing trees for development projects like Cobbs Creek and the FDR Meadows,” says Blank. “We’re fighting against a tide of urban forest loss.”
Still, there are wins to celebrate. The $12 million dollar USDA grant has fueled not only tree planting and maintenance but also workforce development efforts. In 2024 alone, more than 300 trees were planted through the Taking Care of Business program, which focuses on commercial corridors. Eight of the proposed 24 newly-budgeted positions have been filled, and pruning and removal budgets doubled in fiscal year 2023. “We’re making progress, but trust-building is crucial,” says the City’s first city forester, Erica Smith Fichman, who leads the Urban Forestry Unit at PPR and spearheaded the Philly Tree Plan effort. But despite the idealistic goals of the original plan, bureaucratic gridlock has resulted in a shell game effect of retirements, position reshuffling and an endless list of to-dos for the many well-intentioned partners in the Philly Tree Plan. “Since we’re including tree maintenance crews and inspectors, and lots of retirements, it has not resulted in a net increase since we released the plan. On paper there’s a net increase of staff and a diversification of the roles, but in practice the number of [people] hasn’t increased.” Smith Fichman says.
Meanwhile, a new initiative, the Philly Tree Coalition, is underway. The coalition will oversee accountability and the progress of the plan and incorporate community input. “Some things are just going to take longer than expected — like hiring staff, developing brand-new programs like the hazardous tree removal program that will remove trees for residents on private property,” says Smith Fichman. “But our partners are making progress possible. They’re truly invested in building trust in our neighborhoods.”
In 2023, PPR collaborated with PHMC to apply for a $50 million USDA grant on behalf of the City. They were successful, at least partially. “In retrospect, it was serendipitous,” says Gonnella. “Getting $12 million was huge right on the heels of the Philly Tree Plan’s release. So much of the plan intersects with public health, so it was a natural fit for PHMC to work on this with Parks & Rec.” Although the USDA grant wasn’t the first funding specifically awarded to advance the Tree Plan, it
was the biggest. “The City budget contained specific funding for the Tree Plan in 2023,” says Smith Fichman. “Our tree maintenance budget was doubled, we received funding for new staff and a natural lands assessment.”
The William Penn Foundation also provided grant money to fund an assessment of the natural lands’ tree canopy and creation of the Philly Tree Coalition.
Trees as a Public Health Imperative
Philly’s shrinking tree canopy — down 6% over the past decade — has exacerbated the urban heat island effect and worsened health disparities, leaving many neighborhoods vulnerable to climate change. The Philly Tree Plan prioritizes areas like NicetownTioga, Southwest Philly and Hunting Park, where high temperatures and poor air quality hit hardest. In Nicetown-Tioga, there’s currently a paid pilot program for PHS Tree Tenders. “Deferred tree maintenance is a
into civic pride. “We’re all volunteers,” Blank says. “We need funding to pay people for the hours of work that go into organizing and doing the work of the tree plantings.” She sees the Philly Tree Plan as a last-ditch effort to educate the public and foster a cultural shift towards valuing trees. “It’s been slow,” she says of the plan’s execution.
Blank’s impatience is warranted. “In areas with the lowest tree canopy, we see the highest rates of asthma, gun violence and other health disparities,” says Gonnella. “Increasing the canopy is a direct intervention to improve health outcomes.” A PHMC community health center in Kingsessing exemplifies this intersection. With funding from the USDA grant, PHMC is transforming a long-closed courtyard into a green community space. “This area has been locked away for 30 years. Reopening it will be monumental for the community.”
Still, many challenges remain in prioritiz-
p ubl I c healT h cr I ses l I ke coVI d haV e shown how I n T e Rconnec T ed ou R sys T ems are. Increas I ng T he T ree canopy I s cr ITI cal T o sus Ta I n I ng healT h I e R commun ITI es.”
KRISTINE GONNELLA, Public Health Management Corporation
priority in 2025,” says Justin Trezza, senior director of healthy neighborhoods at PHS. PHS is also using grant funds to plant and maintain trees at Bartram’s Garden, the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and Middle Years Alternative School.
But not all volunteer groups are being compensated for their time. Philly Tree People is one of the largest and longest-running nonprofit tree tending groups in the city. The group serves Fishtown, Kensington and Port Richmond. Blank’s passion for trees stems from her own experience moving to Philly 20 years ago. “I grew up in Chester County, surrounded by green,” she recalls. “When I moved to Kensington, I became acutely aware of how hot and barren so many blocks were.” But Philly Tree People’s success lies in the ability to mobilize neighbors and tap
ing green infrastructure in a city grappling with poverty and housing instability. But Blank remains hopeful. “There’s growing interest in green industries, and we have incredible young people ready to make a difference.”
Building Infrastructure and Community Engagement
In large part, the Philly Tree Plan’s success hinges on the Philly Tree Coalition, a governance model designed to organize partners, meet the plan’s goals and provide accountability. “The next six months are crucial for standing up the coalition,” says Kate Illes of Tree Philly. Plans include hiring an executive director and launching a six-month action plan to coordinate stakeholders and funding. Funds from the William Penn Foundation and the USDA grant are supplemented
by support from partner organizations like PowerCorpsPHL, the Fairmount Park Conservancy and especially PHS, which provides the Philly Tree Coalition with office space. “After this initial six months, we hope to have a six-month action plan. My hope is that the end product of this work is to build a strong coalition that coordinates people and organizations and facilitates education, communication and fundraising.”
Economic Opportunities and Grassroots Perspective
Workforce development is key to the Philly Tree Plan. Programs like PowerCorpsPHL have laid the groundwork for sustainable, local jobs in urban forestry, but advocates say more investment is needed. “Tree maintenance is often outsourced. We should be building that capacity locally,” says Gonnella. According to Smith Fichman, the city’s budget for pruning and tree removals was doubled in fiscal year 2023.
Volunteer groups like Philly Tree People have planted thousands of trees since 2007 but face challenges like community resistance and limited resources.“People think trees will take their parking spaces,” Blank says. “Very few volunteers want to prune or care for trees long-term. We need funding to compensate folks.” Scaling paid Tree Tender programs citywide could help to do just that.
Urgency Amid Climate and Political Uncertainty
As the climate crisis intensifies, the City faces mounting pressure to act. Gonnella frames the Tree Plan as a long-term investment in the city’s resilience. “Public health crises like COVID have shown how interconnected our systems are. Increasing the tree canopy is critical to sustaining healthier communities,” she says. But political uncertainty could jeopardize future funding. “There’s always the risk of shifting federal priorities. That’s why we need local funders and foundations to step up,” she says.
To fully realize this plan’s potential, the City could address its $250 million funding gap, scale up workforce development — including creating dozens of new jobs and programs — and deliver on promises of equity and accountability. As Trezza notes, “The success of this plan hinges on collab-
o n pape R T here’s a ne T I ncrease of s Taff and a d IV ers I f I caTI on of T he Roles, bu T I n prac TI ce T he numbe R of [people] hasn’ T I ncreased.”
ERICA SMITH FICHMAN,
oration and sustained investment.”
Advocates like Blank are ready to do their part, but they can’t do it alone. The plan is more than just a road map for expanding the tree canopy — it’s a blueprint for a healthier,
more equitable city. “We’re not just greening the city; we’re improving lives,” says Gonnella. “But it’s going to take all of us — government, nonprofits and communities — to make it happen.”
Philadelphia City Forester
As the city forester at Parks & Recreation, Erica Smith Fichman leads efforts to expand the urban tree canopy.
PHOTO BY CHRIS BAKER EVENS
Roo T causes
Urban agriculture continues to suffer from lack of land security
story by ben seal
In the summer of 2023, farmers and gardeners in Philadelphia had good reason to be optimistic.
The City had just published its first urban agriculture plan, called “Growing from the Root,” which offered a 10-year road map for building a thriving local food system and securing land for farmers and gardeners. And in June of that year the City took what appeared to be a major step toward those goals, buying back more than
$1 million in tax liens from a private bank to clear the way for 91 plots to be transferred to community gardens that have bloomed on once-vacant land the gardens’ stewards don’t legally own. With private liens in place, those properties could have been sold to the highest bidder at any time; now, the City could acquire them via the Philadelphia Land Bank and give gardeners the permanent access they sought.
But the first year of Mayor Cherelle
Parker’s administration has demonstrated that despite some recent progress, significant obstacles still stand between urban agriculture advocates and the flourishing community of gardens, farms and green spaces they envision. In that time, none of the parcels involved in the lien buyback has been acquired by the City and handed over to gardeners, meaning they remain susceptible to the development pressure that threatens everyone operating on land they don’t own. And, following City Council’s approval of the 76ers’ proposal to build a $1.3 billion arena at the edge of Chinatown — a move Parker backed — community gardeners were reminded that profitable endeavors often win out in the battle over land use. (In January the 76ers’ management withdrew from the Market East arena agreement.)
To Michael Moran, a board member at Kensington’s Cesar Andreú Iglesias Community Garden, the arena vote sent a clear message in the fight for land security: “With some of these policies, things can change like the wind,” he says. Watching the arena be foisted upon a community that fought hard to oppose it, he couldn’t help but sense a connection to the way urban agriculture has been treated. Iglesias is among the community gardens with parcels included in the lien buyback, and its stewards are left to wonder whether developers eager to build on the valuable land will ultimately carry the day.
“If that happened over there,” Moran says, “what could happen over here?”
As Moran points out, without land, nothing else matters for gardeners invested in expanding Philadelphia’s agricultural footprint and delivering more food to their communities. “It’s what we grow from,” he says. And although there have been some policy changes that suggest a brighter future for land security, urban agriculture advocates express continued frustration with the state of affairs. Their ire is largely directed at the Land Bank, which was created in 2013 to put Philadelphia’s vacant lots to productive use but has been plagued by backlogs and bureaucracy. Although the 59 parcels requested by gardens comprise nearly 10% of approved applications for land disposition, not one of them was transferred into the gardeners’ possession during the 2024 fiscal year
“The Land Bank currently doesn’t function for gardeners or gardens,” says Coun-
Land security is the most important issue for community gardeners such as Michael Moran, a board member of the Cesar Andreú Iglesias Community Garden in Norris Square.
Planting the Seeds
[The agr I culT ure r esou Rce c en T e R ] I s go I ng T o be a g I f T T o land s T ewards I n p h I ladelph I a who haV e been do I ng so much labo R , Tak I ng care of T he land.”
ASH RICHARDS, Farm Philly
cilmember Kendra Brooks, who has pushed for the growth and protection of urban agriculture since taking office five years ago. With so many changes in city government, including the new administration, says Brooks, “we have to bring people up to speed about this work.” Gardens and their supporters have had their hands full protecting land — including parcels involved in the lien buyback — from private development. In the meantime, the transfer of land has slowed to a crawl. From 2015 to 2019, Neighborhood Gardens Trust acquired 44 parcels at 13 gardens from City agencies, but since 2020 the organization hasn’t acquired a single one, Brooks says.
“To me, if someone has tilled the soil and worked on it for 20-plus years, it should belong to them. That’s what the law says,” she adds. “But we created a system that doesn’t respect the law when it comes to average citizens.”
(State law used to require a garden group to maintain a vacant property for 21 years before seeking legal ownership, but legislation passed in 2024 now requires just 10 years of occupation, including five as a garden.)
Parker ran on a promise to build a “cleaner, greener Philadelphia,” and Brooks says she is hoping the mayor keeps that commitment to “make sure we have access to green spaces in the city for years to come.”
Concerns about land security threaten to overshadow the steps the City has taken toward delivering on the promises set forth in the urban agriculture plan. That document included 89 specific recommendations to be addressed in the coming decade, encompassing not just land security but also the production, distribution and consumption of food; waste reduction and recovery; and support for farmers and gardeners themselves. To date, the City has moved forward on a dozen of those goals, putting it ahead of schedule in carrying out the plan, according to Ash Richards, director of Farm Philly, the City’s urban agriculture program within Parks & Recreation.
Among those initiatives already underway is an effort to expand the city’s selection of farmers markets. Recognizing that community members needed help starting and maintaining markets, the City secured a $500,000 grant to form a farmers market advisory group, which developed an operators’ manual with “down-to-earth” guidance that will soon be published, Richards says. A citywide campaign to promote markets on billboards and beyond is aimed at
Gardens across the city seek protection from developers. As the sign at Igesias Gardens states: “This land is not for sale.”
increasing awareness and building up the local food economy, and one of Richards’ goals for 2025 is to increase the use of SNAP and Philly Food Bucks at farmers markets, expanding equity and access to healthy foods along the way.
Farm Philly also created what Richards calls a “front door” for the program — a web page with guidance and an application translated into six languages — through which it leases parkland to gardeners. In the past year, three new gardens have started on parkland, including one at the Hatfield House in Strawberry Mansion. Although Parks & Recreation has no capacity to convey land ownership, it can make space for new gardens and orchards to spring up — and Richards wants to see four built every year on leased parkland.
In its effort to support gardeners of all stripes, the City is preparing for a summer launch of the Agriculture Resource Center, one of the first capital projects to come out of the urban agriculture plan. Based in
Fairmount Park, it will offer a tool lending library, as well as a site for community events, workshops and programs that can bring more gardeners and farmers into the fold.
“That project is going to be a gift to land stewards in Philadelphia who have been doing so much labor, taking care of the land for generations,” Richards says.
The City has also been laying the foundation for sharing another gift with gardeners to support their growing: compost. It ran a pilot last year to deliver compost and mulch from the organic recycling center to sites that aren’t part of the park system and will expand that program this year, ensuring greater equity — and soil health — for gardeners without vehicles.
Improving the city’s agricultural output has become an even greater priority since the pandemic underscored the risk of relying on a global food system and inflation made it harder for more people to afford the foods they need, Richards says. That message was made clear last May, when Brooks
organized a City Council hearing on urban agriculture — the first since 2016. At that hearing, Brooks and others urged the City to invest more in urban agriculture, including the Philadelphia Food Justice Initiative, a program run by the Department of Public Health and the Reinvestment Fund that aims to support communities in growing, selling and eating healthy food.
In its most recent request for proposals, the initiative received 79 applications worth more than $6 million but could only fund nine projects for a total of about $550,000. Richards points to Pittsburgh’s recent $3 million investment in a food justice fund as a model for Philadelphia to meet demand.
At that May hearing, as well as at an October hearing focused on the Land Bank, the conversation often returned to the issue of land security. Even as Farm Philly works to accomplish the goals of the urban agriculture plan, Richards knows it will only be effective if farmers and gardeners can count on ongoing land access.
City Councilmember Kendra Brooks (in green dress) rallies with community gardeners defending their parcels from developers.
The l and b ank curren T ly doesn’ T func TI on fo R gardeners o R gardens.”
KENDRA BROOKS, Philadelphia City Councilmember
“The seeds, the tools, the compost, the waste reduction — all of that stuff becomes moot if you’re not going to preserve the land,” Richards says. “We’re investing a lot in supporting this community, but if we don’t preserve the land, our work is moot. Farm Philly is completely invested in this. We need more investment from other stakeholders.”
Reckoning with Land Insecurity
In 2022, the Neighborhood Land Power Project learned that the once-vacant land occupied by Memorial Garden, one of the green spaces it stewards in West Philadelphia, had been sold by the Land Bank to developers looking to build new housing. The garden, situated on 54th Street south of Girard Avenue and established to remember those lost to gun violence, was at the center of a fight familiar to many community gardeners. The organization managed to protect six of the 14 lots from development, but the process showed Rebecca Fruehwald, its interim executive director, that it would take a more collective effort to keep the same thing from happening over and over again to gardens across the city.
“How do we reckon with the fact that green space — space for gardening and building climate resilience — is not currently being prioritized through the City’s policies, and how do we build action and voice and power that can have that become a priority?” Fruehwald asks.
The answer, in part, was the formation of the Philadelphia Land Justice Coalition, a new assemblage of more than 30 organizations invested in urban agriculture and community land management. The coalition, which includes the Neighborhood Land Power Project, Neighborhood Gardens Trust, Iglesias Gardens, Kensington Corridor Trust and Urban Creators, came together in response to the Land Bank asking community gardens to agree to a 30-year self-amor-
tizing mortgage, which counts as a liability on balance sheets and opens the door to default, including if land isn’t kept sufficiently tidy. Through the coalition’s efforts, the Land Bank agreed to both modify its loans to eliminate the burden they placed on nonprofits and offer a 30-day notice for gardens to address any appearance issues that might otherwise lead to their land being taken away.
Since the loan issues were resolved in October, Neighborhood Gardens Trust executive director and Land Bank board member Jenny Greenberg says she has seen positive signs that land dispositions are in progress, and she’s optimistic that “a number of gardens” will go to settlement this year.
“There are just so many competing challenges in Philadelphia, and this is never going to be in the top 10 if there isn’t pressure,” says Sari Bernstein, a staff attorney at the Public Interest Law Center, which is helping to facilitate the coalition.
City Council also passed an ordinance in May reaffirming the Land Bank’s ability to act as sole bidder in buying tax-delinquent land at sheriff sales — a key step in delivering the land affected by the lien buyback to the gardens that use it. Coupled with the resolution of the loan dispute, it signals that policy change is possible, offering hope for many gardens that have long operated without certainty about their own future. Still, urban agriculture advocates are wary of placing their trust in city government, given the tension between their work and the profit potential of developing their land. As Moran of Iglesias Gardens says, the arena vote was “a soul-searching type of moment.”
Farm Philly has increased its community presence, Fruehwald says, expanding its offerings of workshops and technical support for growers. And the composting program is an example of the type of initiative that can make a genuine difference in the daily operation of a farm or garden. But, at the end of the day, the conversation around urban agriculture will always return to land security, where the Parker administration still has something to prove.
“They have shown an interest and a willingness to talk to us, which is encouraging, but a lot of it depends on what actions are actually taken,” Fruehwald says. “And that remains to be seen.” ◆
Ze Ro I ng In
Philly’s progress toward its carbon-neutrality goals is difficult to gauge
story by gabriel donahue
Mayor cherelle parker leads Philadelphia at a key point in the fight against climate change. By 2030 — that is, in a mere five years — the City hopes to have slashed municipal emissions in half and power municipal buildings entirely with renewable energy. If things go according to current sustainability plans, a Philadelphia whose buildings, energy, transportation and waste sectors generate net-zero carbon emissions will be realized by 2050.
In 2019, these sectors emitted 20.5 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent, according to that year’s greenhouse gas inventory by the Office of Sustainability (OOS). This statistic includes what are called scope 1 and scope 2 emissions. Scope 1 emissions come from city sources, while scope 2 includes emissions from energy used within Philadelphia but produced regionally. Both types are being targeted in emissionsreduction plans.
Philadelphia’s Climate Action Playbook details actions the City is taking to reduce its carbon emissions and build climate re-
siliency as extreme weather and natural disasters linked to climate change become an increasing threat to the region. According to OOS program director Dom McGraw, the playbook, first released in 2021 under Mayor Jim Kenney’s administration, isn’t an action plan per se because it does not clearly outline methods for meeting the goals set.
But Kenney put forth some bold tar -
gets, and as the first year of Parker’s “safer, cleaner and greener” term wraps up, crucial deadlines are approaching. Has the Parker administration made progress toward meeting them?
Energy efficiency
There are two notable OOS programs required by city charter to track the energy efficiency of commercial buildings in Philadelphia: Building Energy Benchmarking and Building Energy Performance.
McGraw says that the programs are crucial because buildings and industry account for the largest portion of carbon emissions. Buildings of certain sizes must report energy and water use data and comply with inspections and subsequent corrections — or “tuneups” — to maximize efficiency. Fixes can be as simple as ensuring that lights are off at night or dampers are shut within an HVAC system.
The benchmarking program had a 68.8% compliance rate as of 2022, though McGraw says that that figure counts exempt buildings as noncompliant. (Industrial buildings, and those that are more than half occupied for more than half the year are exempt, according to the exemption guidelines. An exemption may be granted if benchmarking or disclosure of benchmark data would “cause exceptional hardship” or “not be in the public interest.”) McGraw explains that noncompliance in benchmarking probably results from changes in building ownership and staffing leading to a lack of awareness of the program. Additionally, less than 40% of eligible properties complied with performance inspections, but that program is only a few years old.
Noncompliance can result in fines of $2,000 or more, but McGraw told Grid that no fines have been issued yet. McGraw says that to increase compliance rates for both programs the City will conduct more educational seminars and webinars for building owners on how to file reports.
Interestingly, energy use by City buildings is trending up despite the energy use targets decreasing annually, according to Philly Stat 360, an online tool tracking progress on Parker’s campaign promises. McGraw explains that this is due to multiple factors, including increased use of air conditioning and the City “holding on to older assets longer than anticipated.”
Another contributor to the increase is the charging of electric vehicles as the City works to electrify its fleet. McGraw says that energy-efficiency metrics will be updated to account for that uptick in electricity demand.
Electricity
McGraw emphasizes that transitioning to electricity isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution for Philadelphia’s energy issues. At the current, growing level of energy use, complete electrification won’t even be possible, since the power grid is unable to generate the energy necessary to match consumers’ demands, resulting in outages.
Pennsylvania’s energy grid is a network of power lines and generators across 12 other states and Washington, D.C. The bulk of the power coming into the grid is generated by coal, gas, nuclear and hydropower. Through a purchase OOS completed in April 2024, Philadelphia contracted the Adams Solar Farm near Gettysburg, Adams County, to bring more renewables into the grid.
The groundwork for the purchase was laid in 2018, and solar now accounts for nearly 30% of the City’s energy use. And, since Adams Solar has come online, Philly has requested additional renewable energy contracts to provide some of the remaining 70% of municipal energy needs. Contract negotiations will begin in the fall, according to the Philadelphia Energy Authority McGraw says multiple deals may need to be struck to close the energy gap and that a mix of renewables may ultimately be involved.
Devin McDougall, an attorney for the public interest organization Earthjustice’s Clean Energy Program, called the purchase
u nfo RT unaT ely, oV e R T he las T se V eral years, pgw has repeaT edly fough T T o exclude commun IT y g Roups f Rom pa RTI c I paTI ng I n p h I ladelph I a gas c omm I ss I on p Roceed I ngs T o re VI ew pgw ’s budge T s.”
DEVIN MCDOUGALL, Earthjustice
an example of the “really important steps forward on cleaning up the City’s electricity supply” made since Parker took office.
The solar purchase advances the goal of powering municipal buildings solely with renewables by 2030, which McGraw notes is integral to the overarching push for carbon neutrality.
“[The municipality is] the largest consumer of energy within the city, and buildings are our largest — by far — emitters. So if the 600 buildings that the City of Philadelphia owns end up being on all renewable electricity, that’s a huge piece.”
Gas
One of the largest pieces of Philly’s decarbonization puzzle is the City-owned Philadelphia Gas Works (PGW). It’s the largest municipally-owned gas utility in America and boasts 500,000 customers. McGraw says there is an open line of communication between the City and PGW and that the company has been attentive to the City’s sustainability goals and its role in them.
“We can’t just abandon all users who can’t afford to fuel switch,” McGraw says. It is crucial, therefore, to maintain an open dialogue with PGW, find ways to leverage its already existing infrastructure and explore other kinds of “renewable natural gas” — “nothing’s off the table at this point.” Meanwhile, PGW has at least 50 ongoing infrastructure improvement projects to stop leakages that emit the greenhouse gas methane.
McDougall does, however, find PGW’s recent exclusion of community stakeholders a significant impediment to equitable decarbonization planning.
“Unfortunately, over the last several years, PGW has repeatedly fought to exclude community groups from participating in Philadelphia Gas Commission proceedings to review PGW’s budgets,” McDougall said in
an email to Grid. “I think the Parker administration should speak out on this and should direct PGW, which the City owns, to stop fighting to exclude community groups. There are many challenging problems to solve to decarbonize PGW, but all of those problems will be solved more effectively with an inclusive, rather than exclusive, process.”
PGW details multiple pathways to decarbonization in its 2021 Business Diversification Study. One option would replace the natural gas it currently uses with various forms of decarbonized gas, namely biomethane, synthetic natural gas or hydrogen.
Russell Zerbo, an advocate for the Clean Air Council, which brings visibility to environmental causes through community outreach, told Grid that he believes PGW is the greatest barrier standing between Philly and carbon neutrality.
He calls out PGW’s interest in hydrogen in particular. Producing hydrogen is an energy-intensive process, and if that process is powered by fossil fuels, it will emit a lot of greenhouse gases — “the opposite of decarbonization,” Zerbo says.
PGW specifically mentions hydrogen produced through the “electrolysis of water powered by renewable energy,” which is currently very expensive. Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware could pick up federal funds for the Mid-Atlantic Clean Hydrogen Hub (MACH2) for renewablespowered hydrogen production, but this begs a question about energy-use priorities.
“If we had that much renewable energy [to power MACH2], why would we use it to make hydrogen?” Zerbo asks, conceding that such hydrogen production could make sense in a world with excess renewable energy. “If Pennsylvania was 100% powered on renewable energy — and right now, it’s closer to zero — then we would have extra to make hydrogen with.”
The jury’s still out
The City’s Climate Action Playbook will be updated in the near future, McGraw says. He characterizes the update, which will detail the work done during Parker’s first year, as a positive sign that the City is keeping tabs on its sustainability progress, promises and goals to keep them in view.
“How many climate action plans that have existed haven’t had multiple versions?” he asks.
Since the playbook’s release four years ago, McGraw says climate action requirements “have become more stringent.”
“Bringing something that’s going to be more aligned with what other cities are doing is the goal,” he says of the update.
The data analysis that will tell whether timeline-based goals are on track lags a few years — the latest numbers being crunched are for 2022, McGraw says. It will be only after 2025 ends, then, that analysts will be able to definitively determine whether, say, this year saw a 25% cut in citywide CO2 pollution from the 2006 baseline. But McGraw told Grid that the data he has seen has shown improvement and that pollution is trending down, a positive development reflected in the latest edition of the Municipal Energy Master Plan.
McGraw is not alone in his optimism, even with the information available being incomplete. In a March 2024 testimony responding to City Council’s resolution to investigate Philadelphia’s progress on carbon neutrality goals, OOS interim director Elizabeth Lankenau, said that, through many combined efforts, municipal emissions have been reduced “by 44% since 2016, well ahead of schedule to meet the 2030 goal of a 50% reduction.”
And in related good news, in August 2024 the City received a $1.3 million energy efficiency grant through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. Part of that money will fund clean jobs training, bolstering what McGraw says is another critical component of the energy transition: a workforce trained to do the labor.
OOS is “looking at how the clean energy transition can support everyone and make the city of Philadelphia safer, cleaner [and] greener with economic opportunity for all,” McGraw says. “I feel we’re on a really good target.” ◆
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The mayo R’s
bumpy r I de
One year into the Parker administration, cycling advocates are celebrating some victories for street safety — and pushing for more story by jordan
teicher
Philadelphia is often ranked among the best cities in the country for cycling. And yet, leading up to the 2023 mayoral election, cyclists had reason to fear for their safety on city streets. That year, 10 cyclists were killed in vehicular crashes, one third the number of cyclist deaths reported in New York City — a city with five times the population — that same year.
As a candidate for mayor, Cherelle Parker
didn’t have much to say about cycling safety. She didn’t respond to the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia’s candidate questionnaire, and she skipped the organization’s candidate forum.
What little she did say about the issue made advocates anxious. Responding to a questionnaire from Grid (March 2023, #166), Parker said that “ideally, everyone should only be a few blocks away from a protected lane,” but in a questionnaire from Billy
ac TIVI s T s haV e con TI nued T o pu T on T he pressure, and we haV e f I nally go TT en resulT s because of IT. b u T IT ’s jus T k I nd of I ncred I ble how T hey’ V e had T o work fo R IT.”
KATRINA JOHNSTON-ZIMMERMAN, 5th Square PAC
Penn, she said that “there are enough protected bike lanes already.”
“Having a mayor that was not responsive to our issues during the campaign made me really nervous,” says Nicole Brunet, the Bicycle Coalition’s policy director. According to Jessie Amadio, a cofounder of Philly Bike Action, the sense among advocates was that “traffic violence and alternative transportation were just not on her radar of priorities at all.”
One year in, that has changed. But only after a string of tragedies and a flurry of activism. (The Parker administration did not return a request for comment for this story.)
Early on in the administration, advocates saw a few hopeful signs that Mayor Parker was heeding their concerns.
In February 2024, th e City updated its traffic calming request process to be more user-friendly, an initiative that had begun in the Kenney administration. That same month, Parker both requested a charter change to separate the Department of Streets into Streets and Sanitation and appointed Kristin Del Rossi as the Streets commissioner. It wasn’t the Department of Transportation that advocates had been pushing for, but Brunet says it was encouraging nonetheless.
Things went south in the spring. In March, Parker signed an executive order that recommitted Philadelphia to Vision Zero but quietly shifted the goal of achieving zero traffic deaths in the city from 2030 to 2050. The order also failed to include a goal for new high-quality bike lanes, something the Kenney administration had included in its 2016 Vision Zero commitment. “To see her not recommit to a goal like that was very troublesome, especially coming after her comments during the election that she thinks we have enough bike lanes,” says Brunet.
Then Parker released her first proposed budget. While the paving budget included a $1.75 million line for speed cushions — something advocates had been asking for — the Vision Zero budget faced a steep cut from $2.5 million to $1 million. Organizations aligned with the Bicycle Coalition had been hoping to see an increase in that budget line, with a goal of ultimately reaching $5 million. (The Parker administration maintains that Vision Zero funding wasn’t cut, just redirected to the Streets Department.) “It had people feeling pretty negatively about her position,” says Amadio.
Over the summer, long-simmering anger about the budget exploded. On July 17, Barbara Friedes, a doctor at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, was killed by a drunk driver who sped through a Spruce Street bike lane. That same day, Christopher Cabrera was standing on the sidewalk when he was hit by a car and killed. A week after their deaths, hundreds of cyclists gathered at City Hall to call for street safety improvements in what may have been among the largest bicyclerelated protests in the city’s history.
“The general public was outraged. They saw a connection to the lack of funds for Vision Zero and Complete Streets projects in the budget,” says Amadio. “The direct result of that is more traffic fatalities.”
In August, advocates collected more than 5,200 signatures on a petition calling for Mayor Parker and City Council to address the traffic safety crisis by reforming parking laws that allow cars to park and stop in bike lanes, installing concrete-protected bike lanes and increasing Vision Zero funding. When they attempted to deliver the petitions to City Hall, however, they were met with a wall of silent staffers and security guards.
For advocates, it was a deeply frustrat-
Advocates deliver petitions calling for safety measures including concrete barriers to protect bike lanes, August 2024.
ing encounter. But looking back on it now, they see it as a pivotal turning point for the administration. “I think they realized that street safety is an urgent crisis in Philadelphia and a deeply popular political initiative,” says Amadio.
Two weeks after the flubbed petition delivery, the mayor held a press conference at which she officially responded to the petition. “She basically said, ‘We’re looking into all of this.’ And then she got on a bike and rode around the block, which showcased that she is not a very good bike rider,” says Brunet. “But there was a symbolism to it.”
Some real action did follow the symbolic gesture. In October, City Council passed the “Get Out the Bike Lane” bill, which raises the penalties for parking or temporarily stopping in bike lanes. In December, Parker, flanked by cycling advocates, signed it into law.
Some of the mayor’s other promised initiatives, however, are still in limbo. In October, City officials recommended $4.8 million in safety upgrades to the Pine and Spruce Street bike lanes, including concrete barriers. But the lanes remain unprotected for now, and the City says it will “work toward” separating the lanes this year. As for Vision Zero, advocates will have to wait until Parker releases her fiscal year 2026 budget later this year to see whether the mayor will restore or increase funding.
Meanwhile, advocates say, the city remains a dangerous place for cyclists. Philadelphia saw three cyclists killed in vehicular crashes in 2024. And on January 6, Michael Buie was hit by a driver while cycling on Broad Street. He was the first person in Philadelphia to be killed riding a bicycle in 2025.
Looking back on 2024, advocates say they’ve noticed a considerable shift in how the Parker administration talks about the issue of cyclist and pedestrian safety.
“Activists have continued to put on the pressure, and we have finally gotten results because of it. But it’s just kind of incredible how they’ve had to work for it,” says Katrina Johnston-Zimmerman, a steering committee member of 5th Square Political Action Committee and adjunct professor at Temple University.
In 2025, Johnston-Zimmerman says she’d like the Parker administration to advance its own “forward-thinking, world-class city kind
Th I s doesn’ T haV e T o Take decades.”
JESSIE AMADIO, Philly Bike Action
of ideas” rather than simply responding to activist pressure. Brunet agrees. “From an advocate’s perspective, it’s frustrating that we need to have someone be killed on our streets for someone to wake up and do something,” says Brunet. “We want to be able to work proactively on safety, but in the last year we have only been able to be reactionary.”
According to Brunet, that could mean something as simple as publicly supporting the bill in the Pennsylvania legislature that would legalize parking-protected bike lanes or setting a goal for new protected bike lanes during her term. Amadio, meanwhile, would like to see the mayor back an initiative like Measure HLA, a ballot mea-
sure that voters in Los Angeles passed last year that requires the city to make safety improvements such as bus and bike lanes every time a street is repaved. Or focus on something as simple as daylighting intersections — preventing parked cars from blocking the view of traffic — which has helped the city of Hoboken, New Jersey, avoid traffic fatalities for the last seven years.
“This doesn’t have to take decades. There are cities like Paris that are doing rapid rollout of bike- and pedestrian-friendly infrastructure in a matter of a year or two,” says Amadio. “There’s no reason that Philly can’t do the same if we have the political will to get it done.”
A protester demands that the Parker administration restore funding to eliminate traffic deaths.
Th I s l ane I s you R l ane
WRITTEN + ILLUSTRATED BY BRYAN SATALINO
Staying safe on your ride can depend on the bike lane design beneath your wheels. Bicycle infrastructure can be categorized based on goals and level of protection provided. At the most basic level, infrastructure like painted sharrows aims to raise driver awareness of cyclists on the road. From there, improvements vary depending on the intervention employed. Here is a list of existing upgrades to our city’s streetscapes that make cycling safer and more accessible for everyone.
s har R ows
Sharrows are primarily an awareness tool, reminding drivers that cyclists are permitted to share the road. On narrow, one-way streets, they are often the only viable option.
Example: Tulip Street in Kensington
s hared b us l ane
On streets where buses make frequent stops, the right lane is often prioritized for buses. Cyclists may share these lanes but still face some vehicular traffic, albeit less than in standard lanes.
Example: Chestnut Street in Center City
pa
I
n T ed bI ke l ane
Painted bike lanes are added when road width allows, providing a designated space for cyclists. Cars and trucks often misuse these lanes for parking, however, creating hazards.
Example: 30th Street in University City
b uffered bI ke l ane
Buffered bike lanes include extra space between cyclists and car lanes, sometimes marked with flex posts. Unfortunately, drivers often treat these barriers as optional.
Example: North 2nd Street in Northern Liberties
park I ng- pR o T ec T ed
bI ke l ane
These lanes position cyclists between the curb and parked cars, shielding them from moving traffic. Cyclists must remain vigilant, however, for car doors or improperly parked vehicles.
Example: North 13th Street in Yorktown
c oncre T e- s eparaT ed
bI ke l ane
Concrete curbs provide a stronger deterrent against cars. While they prevent casual misuse, cyclists are still vulnerable to out-of-control vehicles. Future plans for some streets include additional protection, such as planters and barriers.
Example: Spruce and Pine Streets in Center City (planned)
r a I sed c ycle Track
Raised cycle tracks are the gold standard in bike infrastructure. By elevating the bike lane and adding a protective barrier between cyclists and traffic, they provide greater safety and appeal to riders of all ages and abilities.
Example: Delaware River Trail
s c Rubb I ng u p
What have Mayor Parker’s signature “clean” initiatives achieved thus far?
story by bernard brown
At her inauguration on January 2, 2024, Cherelle Parker said, “We will make Philadelphia the safest, cleanest and greenest big city in the nation.” Philadelphia has long been plagued by litter, poorly-contained household trash and illegal dumping (“short dumping”) of waste that should be taken directly to a commercial dump: old tires, debris from construction, demolition and apartment cleanouts. “We will launch a new approach to addressing quality of life issues, like illegal short dumping, cleaning up litter and graffiti, fixing potholes and removing abandoned cars — starting by fo-
cusing on the hardest-hit neighborhoods,” the new mayor said.
Over the following year Parker’s administration rolled out or expanded a collection of programs overseen by the Office of Clean and Green Initiatives, headed by former Department of Streets commissioner Carlton Williams. Here, Grid takes a look at what the “clean” programs under Clean and Green have accomplished.
In early February 2024 the Parker administration split the Streets Department, which had handled trash and recycling in Philadelphia in addition to the design, maintenance and repair of roads implied by its name.
Trash and recycling now fall under a Department of Sanitation, itself overseen by the Office of Clean and Green Initiatives. The Office of Clean and Green promised to use a “data driven approach” to respond to complaints of graffiti, unkempt vacant lots, short dumping and abandoned cars.
The City’s fiscal year 2025 budget (which took effect in July 2024) increased funding to the Taking Care of Business Clean Corridors Program, which channels money through City Council member offices to private organizations tasked with cleaning 129 corridors, up from 49 previously. The budget also funded an additional 1,500 Bigbelly trash cans on sidewalks around the city.
Two initiatives aimed to make it easier for Philadelphians to dispose of excess solid waste. In September the City began collecting large items such as household appliances and tires by appointment. In early December the Department of Sanitation rolled out twice-a-week trash collection in
BY TROY BYNUM
This page: Warning signs at illegal dumping hotspots, such as at this dead end of Lyons Place in Eastwick, can only do so much to reduce the problem. Opposite page: Dallas Herbert Sr. has been fighting illegal dumping for five years and thinks the Office of Clean and Green Initiatives is off to a great start.
PHOTO
The mayo R’s c lean and g reen In ITI aTIV e, I T h I nk IT ’s a greaT T h I ng. you’ V e go T T o s Ta RT somewhere.”
DALLAS HERBERT SR., 215 People’s Alliance
Center City and part of South Philadelphia. In May the City embarked on a wave of street cleaning that covered the entire city over 13 weeks, an expansion of the street cleaning program piloted under the Kenney administration. In November the City launched a second citywide cleanup effort that ran through January 27, 2025.
How clean?
The City offers some statistics on cleaning initiatives on its Philly Stat 360 website — how many vacant properties have been cleaned and sealed; how comprehensive trash and recycling pickup has been; and its response time for complaints about dumping, abandoned cars and graffiti — grounding them with a three-year span. These show that the
response time to illegal dumping complaints has dropped by about five months between 2023 and 2024, though the decline was not as steep as between 2022 and 2023.
A spokesperson for the Office of Clean and Green Initiatives responded to Grid’s request for numbers with a table of statistics from the second citywide cleanup, and a press release from September included statistics from the first. The Sanitation Department cleaned 18,318 blocks in the first cleanup and, as of mid-January, had cleaned 11,504 in the second. The Philadelphia Parking Authority removed 1,003 unregistered vehicles — and then 1,097 more. In the two cleanups, the Philadelphia Water Department conducted 86 and 40 instances of “Stormwater Infrastructure Cleanup,” respectively.
Last summer Nic Esposito, who served as the director for the City’s Zero Waste and Litter Cabinet under the Kenney administration from 2016 to 2020, visited litter and dumping hotspots after the first citywide cleanup, which he described in a commentary for Grid. He found that many of the cleanups missed a lot of waste and that littering and dumping largely continued after the cleanups.
Maurice M. Sampson II, the Eastern Pennsylvania director of Clean Water Action, has 40 years of experience with Philadelphia solid waste issues, starting as the City’s first recycling director in 1985. He says that while fighting blight by cleaning up litter and dumped waste is important, it is bound to be expensive and futile if the City doesn’t attack the sources of the waste. “Prevention, abatement, enforcement and education — you need a balance of those to eliminate dumping and reduce litter. We’re spending 95% of the budget on abatement. Prevention and enforcement has not been part of it.” Sampson points to the City’s plastic bag ban, which he helped draft, as an example of the kind of enforcement and education needed.
In response to questions emailed by Grid, Clean and Green’s spokesperson writes that the City has been stepping up enforcement actions against illegal dumpers. “There is a new process for capturing illegal dumpers using cameras and the issuing of notices of violation by the Illegal Dumping Task Force. The intergovernmental collaboration between the Law Department, Police Department, Office of Clean and Green Initiatives and Sanitation Department has successfully prosecuted 40 new cases. As of November 30, 2024, [they] have obtained judgments totaling $3,075,513.39.”
Sampson argues that the City could be doing more to enforce anti-dumping laws, such as by seizing vehicles used to illegally dump debris.
Grid reached out to people who deal with short-dumping hotspots around the City to hear about the results of the City’s cleanup efforts.
The Cobbs Creek Ambassadors is a volunteer group that conducts cleanups in the park along the western edge of the city. Richard Guffanti, a volunteer with the group, responded to an email saying that,
PHOTO BY JORDAN TEICHER
based on their statistics of how much trash they removed from the park, “it looks like Cobbs Creek Park is getting cleaner.” In 2023 106 cleanup events yielded 10.3 tons of trash, and in 2024 100 cleanup events removed 8.2 tons.
In West Philadelphia, Derek Rigby routinely files Philly311 requests for dumping along the 53rd Street bridge near Whitby Avenue. Grid spoke with h im for a 2023 article about dumping and again this January to see if anything has changed. “Since we last spoke I periodically continue to see dumping,” Rigby says. He keeps logging complaints with 311. “It doesn’t stay out as long, it seems, but I don’t know if that’s just since Mayor Parker took office.”
The Enterprise Center is one of the groups stewarding commercial corridors under Taking Care of Business, contracting with a private company to clean 52nd Street. According to a media representative, they have seen a littering index improvement of two points (on a four-point scale) since they began picking up trash. About the amount of illegal dumping, however, the represen-
tative says, “There has not been a particular uptick or downtick.”
Tacony Creek Park has long served as a dumping ground In December 2022 Grid reported on the efforts of the Tookany/TaconyFrankford Watershed Partnership to keep up with dumped debris and the slow response of the City in responding when, for example, heaps of tires were dumped off of the Whitaker Avenue bridge in the fall of 2022.
The partnership’s executive director, Justin DiBerardinis, says they have seen a dramatic improvement in the City’s response to dumping in the past year. A major dumping before the holidays drew a swift reaction, with police showing up right away, followed by personnel from other departments. “There were multiple departments saying, ‘How do we resolve this problem going forward?’ I’m experiencing departments that feel like they’re being held accountable for this,” DiBerardinis says. “As someone who has been in and out of city government and nonprofit partners for 20 years, I haven’t seen the departmental commitment as real to dumping as it has been in the past year.”
Near Tacony Creek Park, th e 215 People’s Alliance has been fighting dumping along a winding stretch of Newtown Avenue nicknamed Snake Road. “Early in the pandemic I would come up Snake Road going home, and there was so much stuff dumped that it worked its way out from the side into the middle of the street, and I had to go up the side into the hill to get by,” says Dallas Herbert Sr., who serves on the steering committee of the 215 People’s Alliance. The alliance has worked with their district councilmember (Cherelle Parker up until her mayoral run) to have debris removed, to post warning signs and to set up cameras to monitor the road.
“I’ll tell you, I’ve been fighting this thing for five years now,” Herbert says. “The mayor’s Clean and Green Initiative, I think it’s a great thing. You’ve got to start somewhere.” Herbert says he has seen an improvement over the past year, to the point that the alliance is starting to shift from fighting dumping to safety and beautification efforts along Snake Road.
Anti-litter and anti-dumping advocates
Justin DiBerardinis is impressed with the Parker administration’s commitment to fighting illegal dumping.
I haV en’ T seen T he depa RT men Tal comm IT men T as real T o dump I ng as IT has been I n T he pas T yea R .”
such as Herbert emphasize the need to get to the source of litter and dumping to truly solve the problem. “In order to accomplish all that needs to be done we need to get some preventive measures, not just cleaning,” Herbert says. He points to the need to make it easier to legally dispose of loads of debris. Currently local private dumps charge the same for all loads up to one ton, even if a hauler has only a small pickup truck full.
Grid asked the City ab out a proposal backed by the Clean Philadelphia Now campaign and Circular Philadelphia to accept construction and demolition debris at the Sanitation Convenience Centers, where residential households can currently drop off trash such as old appliances and bags of yard waste. According to the Clean and Green spokesperson, “The City’s Sanitation Convenience Centers are designed to accommodate residential, household trash dropped off intermittently. The facilities are not designed and do not have the capacity to capture large volumes of commercial waste. Additionally, the Sanitation Department has been told by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection that a permit is required to collect materials from commercial businesses.”
As Esposito wrote in a commentary on
this policy proposal, it would take less than two years to secure the necessary permit, meaning that, with some redesign of the convenience centers, the system could be up and running before the end of Parker’s term.
Tire dumping, in particular, continues in force. A heap of tires off of Torresdale Avenue that Esposito documented during the summer was still there when Grid returned in January. Also in January the Cobbs Creek Ambassadors cleaned up a pile of 180 tires that had been dumped off of Cobbs Creek Parkway. Grid asked the City about the enforcement of laws requiring tire shops to document their waste haulers. In January 2024, Grid found that the Department of Licenses and Inspections was not able to say how many tire dealers it had inspected or how many had been penalized for violations. Grid asked again in December but did not receive a response in time to include in this article.
The future of litter and dumping
Grid asked the Office of Clean and Green Initiatives when twice-weekly trash pickup and weekly street cleaning would go citywide. “Expansion of twice-per-week collections to other areas of the city will take place in the fall of 2025,” the spokes-
person responded. Funding to hire 50 additional mechanical street cleaning staff, the statement explains, will allow the City “to expand mechanical sweeping operations into additional geographic areas in 2025.”
“You’ll need to sustain this through the entire Parker administration and probably the mayor who comes next for the citizens of Philadelphia to see a difference, to inspire people to see a difference and believe,” DiBerardinis says. “We’re going to succeed if we pair this with enforcement, outreach and education — the next phase of the work — but you can’t get to that phase if you don’t have solid, reliable remediation.”
As for casual littering, such as chucking fast food waste out of a car window, it could take longer to change a culture that takes litter for granted. “We accept that that happens, and we don’t try to educate people that you shouldn’t do it,” Sampson says. The solution would be “a 16-year program in the schools, so people are taught you don’t do that.”
Sampson says he is pleased that Philadelphia has a mayor dedicated to cleaning up the city but that environmentalists need to demand more. “Clean and Green is about quality of life. It’s getting rid of the blight you are looking at, but it’s not about sustainability, not about closing the loop.”
Sampson points out that Mayor Parker has not emphasized recycling, avoiding the topic during her campaign and not foregrounding it or environmental issues since taking office. “This mayor is not committed to the environment. She is committed to quality of life,” he says. “We have lost a lot of ground since Nutter. If we’re not careful we’re going to lose all that momentum.”
h eaTI ng
pI lo T on Ice
In 2022, PGW budgeted for a geothermal feasibility study. Three years later, they have nothing to show for it
story by jordan teicher
What’s a fossil fuel utility to do in a rapidly warming world? That was the question posed by a study the City released jointly with Philadelphia Gas Works (PGW), the country’s largest municipally-owned gas utility, in 2021.
The answer? Diversify and decarbonize. The study recommended that PGW pilot three strategies: expanding its weatherization services, converting methane harvested from sewers or landfills into “renewable natural gas” and providing networked geothermal energy.
Experts with the Natural Resources
Defense Council who analyzed the study weren’t too impressed with the first two strategies. They found that weatherization is “important” but that its “decarbonization potential is limited.” Renewable natural gas, they claimed, has “no promise as a scalable and affordable decarbonization solution.” Geothermal energy, however, could “hold the most promise, both for the city and Pennsylvania.”
Specifically, the City’s study highlights the potential of networked geothermal district heating systems, which connect ground-source heat pumps from multiple homes to a central infrastructure of pipes
that pull heat from deep underground. In the summer, the system can provide cooling by pulling heat from inside homes and pumping it into the ground. According to the study’s authors, the infrastructure required for networked geothermal systems is similar to natural gas infrastructure, which means that PGW’s existing workforce could be retrained to build and maintain them.
“ With all of the talent and expertise in Philadelphia, the City is well positioned to take on a leadership role in developing a playbook for equitably decarbonizing a gas utility,” says Devin McDougall, a lawyer with Earthjustice who represents POWER Interfaith, an advocacy organization that has been calling for PGW to decarbonize. “There’s a real role for good union jobs in building out geothermal networks at scale. With the expertise of its union workforce, PGW has the opportunity to lead in that space — if they act.”
Philadelphia already has at least 40 geothermal installations, which provide heating and cooling at institutions including Bartram’s Garden, the Enterprise Center and the Ronald McDonald House. According to Geodelphia, an advocacy group that promotes the technology in Philadelphia, more than 1,000 schools across the country — including Kensington Creative and Performing Arts High School and the Community College of Philadelphia — have geothermal systems in place.
Some gas utilities are starting to experiment with geothermal systems, thanks in part to regulatory changes. Since 2021, at least seven states have passed legislation that either allows or requires utilities to undertake thermal energy network pilot projects. Pilots are in various stages of development in several states, including New York, Massachusetts and Minnesota. In Framingham, Massachusetts, the utility company Eversource launched the country’s first gas utility-led networked geothermal system this summer, which now cools and heats 36 buildings without fossil fuels.
In 2022, PGW took the first step toward a geothermal pilot of its own. That summer, the Philadelphia Gas Commission approved a fiscal year 2023 operating budget for PGW that included $500,000 for a geothermal feasibility study — a historic milestone that activists celebrated. “This is just one step in a long journey,” said Rabbi Julie Greenberg of POWER Interfaith at the time. “This was
Jamir Hubbard, with POWER Interfaith, calls on PGW to take steps to decarbonize at a 2023 protest.
a building block towards the energy future we need.”
The journey, it turns out, has been longer than advocates had expected. More than two and a half years since the gas commission approved the geothermal feasibility study allocation, no geothermal study has been released. Progress on the study, meanwhile, appears to be stalled, while the utility is tight-lipped about its timeline and findings. (Neither the five members of the commission nor the mayor’s office returned a request to comment for this story.)
In its first quarterly report about the study from December 2022, PGW reported having completed its “Due Diligence Phase 1,” which included conducting a market survey of current “best practice” geothermal technologies, identifying potential pilot sites and developing an initial scope and work plan. The report also enumerated tasks still on the to-do list: identifying a final targeted project site, completing a technical evaluation and performing a final legal and regulatory analysis, among others. An undefined “decision point” about the project, the report noted, was planned for July 2023.
That deadline came and went. PGW’s most recent quarterly report, from the fourth quarter of 2024, shows no further progress on the study, and the “decision point” has been deferred to the first quarter of fiscal year 2025. When asked for information about the delay and the current status of the project, PGW spokesperson Dan Gross declined to comment. “As PGW’s efforts move forward to explore options like geothermal and other alternative energy sources to help expand our current greenhouse gas emissions reductions portfolio and promote a more sustainable future, we will be sure to keep you apprised,” he says.
Patrick Houston, a climate justice organizer with POWER Interfaith, says he’s disappointed but not surprised that PGW hasn’t made much progress in exploring potential clean energy solutions. “PGW has been slow-walking this geothermal feasibility study ever since the public pushed for it to be funded three years ago,” he says. “I don’t think it matters the intensity of climatefueled L.A. fires and Philly drought, or how much Philadelphians pay for gas — PGW won’t get serious about clean and affordable alternatives until the Philadelphia Gas Commission that oversees them truly holds them accountable to the public interest.” ◆
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Books & Stuff
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Kimberton Waldorf School
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Hope Hill Lavender Farm
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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
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Laurel Hill
With our commitment to sustainability, Laurel Hill Cemeteries & Funeral Home specializes in green burials and funerals, has a variety of ecofriendly products to choose from, and offers pet aquamation. laurelhillphl.com
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Holistic Home LLC
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Kimberton Whole Foods
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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 the region. 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
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Philadelphia Recycling Company
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s low pRogress
With an expansive and amorphous mandate, the Philadelphia Environmental Justice Advisory Commission is off to a sluggish start
d. merow
Three years after its launch, the Philadelphia Environmental Justice Advisory Commission (PEJAC) has yet to assert itself as an impactful player in efforts to ensure that all Philadelphians live free from environmental toxins and hazards. One year into Cherelle Parker’s mayorship, the commission has been absent from the administration’s Office of Clean and Green Initiatives.
Hailed in a February 2022 press release as a “historic step in the City’s commitment to supporting the leadership of frontline communities in addressing environmental harms,” PEJAC was mandated by 2019 legislation and built on foundational work by — to quote then-Mayor Jim Kenney’s Executive Order 2-23 — “community stakeholders and environmental justice experts” convened as the Office of Sustainability’s Environmental Justice Working Group. (Initially called EJAC, the P was added to the body’s official
acronym because, as commissioner Kermit O explains, “Have you ever googled EJAC? It’s unfortunate.”)
PEJAC was given a sweeping charge. Acknowledging that environmental burdens disproportionately impact low-income communities and communities of color, that racially-biased and discriminatory practices have contributed to environmental inequities, and that the meaningful involvement of historically-marginalized residents is critical to effectively developing and enforcing environmental regulations, Kenney’s executive order declared the commission’s purpose “to study, report on and address environmental justice issues in Philadelphia.”
Details of PEJAC’s theory of change — how its activities would lead to material mitigation of environmental injustices — were scant from the start. In Grid’s February 2022 issue (#153) Bernard Brown asked Saleem Chapman, then-deputy director of the Office of
Sustainability (OOS), how the commission’s recommendations would influence government action. “We haven’t yet necessarily identified particular pathways that the commission will have in terms of effectuating change,” Chapman replied. “We’re going to leave that to the commissioners to decide.”
Easier said than done, apparently. PE JAC’s 2023 annual report alluded to commissioners wrestling with the question of “how to function as an entity created by the Government but accountable to the citizens,” and a statement provided to Grid in January 2024 explains that much of the commission’s time during Parker’s first year as mayor was “spent navigating organizational challenges, strategic planning and building … shared analysis.”
“We recognize that our profile and impact remains relatively small,” the statement acknowledges, “and that we have yet to distinguish ourselves as a commission independent from city government.”
Genevieve LaMarr LeMee, deputy director of environmental justice at OOS, identifies “one of [PEJAC’s] main projects” as steering the City’s Community Resilience and Environmental Justice (CREJ) grant fund, launched in 2023 and dedicated to providing frontline communities the resources needed to advance their vision of an equitable and resilient future. PEJAC commissioners report that the review process for the latest round of CREJ funding was informed by presentations and site visits with OOS, through which they “witnessed the value of currently funded work on greening, local food production, pollution monitoring and other projects.” Announced in midJanuary 2025, grantees include Cobbs Creek Community Environmental Education Center, Fair Amount Food Forest , Germantown Residents for Economic Alternatives Together, Klean Kensington, Ollin Yoliztli Calmecac and Philly Tree People.
In the coming year, PEJAC will be adding new members and, according to the statement provided to Grid, “building relationships with the individuals and organizations who have been putting in the work for years.” The commissioners add: “We also look forward to aligning our work with the efforts of the new administration, such as the Clean and Green Initiative[s].”
story by sophia
The Trash Academy held a birthday party for a legacy dump site to highlight the problem’s persistence in environmental justice communities.
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