Grid Magazine April 2025 [#191]

Shari Hersh, Home Studio Lab

Heat waves, flooding, species extinction.

Such big challenges can feel overwhelming. But, together, we can make a difference.

Natural Lands has spent the last 70 years working to save our region’s open space. Open space that absorbs floodwaters, cools temperatures, and provides habitat to wildlife.

Learn more at natlands.org.

land for life. nature for all.

Photo by John McNamara

publisher Alex Mulcahy

managing editor

Bernard Brown

associate editor & distribution

Timothy Mulcahy

tim@gridphilly.com

deputy editor

Sophia D. Merow

art director

Michael Wohlberg

writers

Marilyn Anthony

Tim Bennett

Alex Bomstein

Bernard Brown

Nicole Brunet

Khysir Carter

Mensah M. Dean

Dawn Kane

Emily Kovach

Julia Lowe

Jenny Roberts

Bryan Satalino

photographers

Chris Baker Evens

Matthew Bender

Troy Bynum

Julia Lowe

Somaira Valerio

illustrators

Bryan Satalino

published by Red Flag Media

1032 Arch Street, 3rd Floor Philadelphia, PA 19107

215.625.9850

GRIDPHILLY.COM

Content with the above logo is part of Every Voice, Every Vote, a collaborative project managed by The Lenfest Institute for Journalism. The William Penn Foundation provides lead support for Every Voice, Every Vote in 2024 and 2025 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, Dolfinger-McMahon Foundation, and Philadelphia Health Partnership. 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.

Resisting Resignation

Afew years ago a friend moved to the suburbs after decades in Philadelphia. Last week she came over for dinner, and she joked about a chicken bone she stepped over on the sidewalk on her way to our West Philly door. There’s nothing like chicken bones to let you know you’re back in the city.

It was a small thing, but it hit me as a powerful statement about litter. Did someone toss that bone out of their car window, not caring that they were littering? Did a rat dig it out of a bag of uncontained household waste the night before trash pickup? In sad contrast to expectations in our neighborhood, suburban culture rejects casual littering. In even sadder contrast, suburban waste systems generally provide enclosed trash bins and collection methods that don’t scatter refuse (compared to sanitation workers flinging bags of trash into moving garbage trucks). After a while in Philadelphia, you just turn a blind eye to the litter, but it shouldn’t take moving away to remind us that we don’t have to.

We are used to a lot of miserable situations. Even after decades of advocacy, our city’s transportation infrastructure does a pathetic job at protecting pedestrians and cyclists and offers its public transit riders a system of unpleasant, unreliable and infrequent buses, trolleys and trains. Other cities have chosen not to put up with these shortcomings, using major events like the Olympic Games and FIFA World Cups as the impetus to improve. As Nicole Brunet writes in this issue, Philadelphia has not.

Perhaps most troubling is our acceptance of violence. In Julia Lowe’s piece this month, Julien Suaudeau talks about a number many Philadelphians celebrated: 220 fatal shootings in 2024, down from 375 the year before. “The fact that it was almost hailed as a miracle — like it was an indication that the policies are working — is mind-blow-

ing for me,” Suaudeau says. When you’re used to an absolutely miserable situation, a 40%-less-miserable situation feels like a victory, even though it shouldn’t. To be clear, Philly anti-violence activists have been making the same point for years, but I wager that most Philadelphians who are insulated from the killings (wealthier, white) easily fall into heedless celebration of the drop from one abstract number to another.

Suaudeau has an easier time being shocked than a lifelong Philadelphian might, since he comes from a country (France) that, according to United Nations statistics, in 2023 had a homicide rate of about 1.34 per 100,000 people. In 2024 — the year whose decline we celebrate — Philadelphia’s rate (including 49 homicides with weapons other than guns) was about 17 per 100,000 people, or more than 12 times that of Suaudeau’s home country.

As Mensah M Dean writes, our systems of racism must shoulder some of the blame for both the violence and the wider culture’s acceptance of it, given the concentration of violence in Philadelphia’s Black and Latino communities and the complacency of the white community. Our gun culture and abundance of firearms (88.8 civilian small arms per 100 people versus 31.2 in France) surely has something to do with it as well, enabling any passing beef (like someone cutting the bathroom line at the Eagles parade) to escalate into a shoot-out.

Solutions exist for so many of the problems we’ve gotten used to, including litter, traffic deaths and homicides. But we can’t implement them until we accept that it doesn’t have to be this way.

bernard brown , Managing Editor

Convening with Nature

Area institution brings birding and citizen scientist groups together to strengthen community and build partnerships by bernard brown

The attendees came out for the living birds at the September 22 “Little Sit” held by the In Color Birding Club, the Feminist Bird Club, Philly Queer Birders, Disabillity Pride Pennsylvania and the Pennsylvania Center for Adapted Sports, but John Eskate showed up with dead birds in his bag. Eskate, the volunteer and civic engagement senior manager for The Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University, brought preserved bird specimens from the research collection. He hoped the specimens could provide a link to the ornithological research conducted by the academy’s scientists during the Little Sit (a riff on a Big Sit, which is a birding tradition of observing birds for 24 hours at one location).

Research into microplastics has benefited from such connections between professional and lay science. Bird Safe Philly volunteers collect birds that die in collisions with windows and donate them to the academy, whose scientists study how the tiny plastic fragments work their way through the food web and into the tissues of the birds.

To other outdoors events held by Disability Pride, Eskate has brought along birding backpacks from the Free Library of Philadelphia. The backpacks contain binoculars and guidebooks to help novices get started. “I think for any new birders it’s an opportunity to promote the birding backpacks and try them out,” Eskate says.

Eskate and Andrew Kleiner, the academy’s director of community science, have spent the last two years looking for opportunities to connect local naturalists of all stripes with science and to knit Philadelphia’s many nature lovers, and nature groups, together. They have plenty of groups to work with. “You cannot have a weekend that passes without a group doing something,” says Kleiner, who has resolved to take part in a nature activity every Saturday.

On Saturday, April 19, Kleiner could join the Philadelphia Mycology Club at Mor-

ris Arboretum, he could attend a mindful birding workshop at the Discovery Center, or he could walk through Tacony Creek Park with the Tookany/Tacony-Frankford Watershed Partnership, just to name a few of the options.

Although there are plenty of ways for Philadelphians to connect with the natural world, the various nature groups often operate in silos, making it harder to advocate for biodiversity and nature access in general. Independent operation also complicates outreach to the general public or schools, whose students aren’t learning just about birds, or plants or mushrooms.

“I thought, what if we figure out a way to network and build partnerships and bring, you know, the mushroom person with the bird person with the creepy-crawly person with the moth person. We’re stronger together,” Kleiner says. In February 2024, the academy did just that. rECOnnect: Philly Nature Night at the Academy brought naturalists from across the communities to gath-

er for an evening of networking, an event repeated this February 28 as Community Science Night at the Academy.

The Academy of Natural Sciences has taken on a leadership role in the City Nature Challenge, a weekend at the end of April in which cities around the world strive to have as many people as possible observing nature and recording data on iNaturalist. (I served on the local challenge organizing committee from 2019 until last year.) The challenge, April 25 to 28, serves as an introduction to nature exploration as well as a hook for dozens of events held by partner organizations, which the academy is helping to publicize while sponsoring some of its own.

Through it all, Eskate and Kleiner will keep making connections. “The academy is one of the organizations where we can serve as a convener, because everyone can come to us,” Kleiner says. “And that’s what I wanted to position our community science to do. We want to amplify the work that’s done in the community.” ◆

John Eskate is working to build connections between the work inside the Academy of Natural Sciences and the community of naturalists outside.

IN THE MIX

Trailblazing sustainable soil maker keeps on growing

Have you ever watered a neglected plant only to find the water bouncing off the surface of the soil? If so, your potting soil likely has peat in it, which has been a go-to ingredient in potting soil since it’s been sold.

Not only does peat require regular watering to keep its surface permeable, it also has a significant carbon footprint. It may be hard to believe, but even cultivating a garden can have some bad carbon consequences.

Thankfully, someone has been thinking about this problem for the past couple of decades. Mark Highland, the president and founder of Organic Mechanics has been tinkering with soil composition since he was an environmental horticulture student at the University of Florida in the 1990s. While there, friends gave him the nickname “the organic mechanic,” which he eventually bestowed upon his business. After college, he spent time working as a design build contractor in the Northwest, scouring the University of Oregon library to finetune the soil he was working on.

Peat is partially-decayed plant matter that accumulates in bogs and swamps. When left there, it supports diverse fauna and flora, and serves as a significant carbon sink. As a soil amendment in potting mixes, it improves aeration and helps to retain moisture. However, peat must be mined, and in the process of excavation, habitat is lost and carbon is emitted, and there is often water quality degradation as well.

Then there is the pace at which the world is consuming it. As Highland says, “Peat only accumulates at about a millimeter a year in nature. But if I’m a peat company harvesting peat for sale, I want to harvest at least a foot of material a year.”

The environmentally-minded Highland always knew he wanted to start a business, and he sensed there might be an opportunity to create a more earth-friendly gardening product. He earned a master’s degree at Longwood Gardens — which at the time had a partnership with the University of Delaware — studying peat-free alternatives to potting soil. Highland says, “The results of those trials showed that it absolutely could

Second Sand, made from recycled glass, is Organic Mechanics’ latest product — and it’s most sparkly.

be done and the plants still look beautiful.”

In 2006, he launched Organics Mechan ics, transforming his collegiate nickname into his business’ moniker.

The company initially launched two products, a premium potting blend and a planting mix, that were the first commer cially available peat-free potting soils. To day you can buy peat-free Miracle Gro mix at Home Depot, but when they launched, there was nothing like it on the marketplace. By creating these peat-free soil alternatives, Highland invented a new product line.

The primary pitch to the public wasn’t — and isn’t — solely that their products are earth-friendly. Highland maintains that their soil holds moisture longer, it doesn’t shrink in the container as much as peatbased mixes, and it lasts longer.

Biochar has received some national support as well. The USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) has a program called the Soil Carbon Amendment (which, like so many other USDA initiatives, is on pause) that helps farmers pay for biochar and compost.

“At our prices.” Highland says, “most of the farms got it covered 100%.”

“We say right on the bag, use it twice. You absolutely can use this potting soil for more than one year.”

Organic Mechanics’ product line has swelled from the original two options to twelve — and an exciting 13th is now hitting the shelves — that should appeal to any gardener, whether they are growing in their yard or in containers. The ingredients they use include coconut coir (husk fiber), earthworm castings (poop), compost, aged pine bark and rice hulls, and each is optimized to fit specific needs, such as seed starting. For more expert gardeners, some of these ingredients are sold individually for home mixing.

Perhaps their most intriguing product, the one that Highland says “dollar for dollar is the best value item and the most unique item we have for sale” is their Biochar

low-oxygen environment, such as a kiln. The result of that process is a stable, carbon-rich material that can be used as a soil amendment. It’s also capable of sequestering carbon, potentially making it a useful tool in combatting emissions.

“Biochar doesn’t break down in a human lifetime,” Highland says. Indeed, testing shows biochar can last hundreds or possibly thousands of years..

The potential benefits to gardeners are significant. “If you’re growing fruits and veggies, you’re going to harvest more and they’re going to taste better. [Biochar] increases terpene content in plants. So basil tastes more basil-y. It increases your yield, and it increases the quality of what you’re growing.”

The advantages aren’t only for food growers; Highland says that even if you’re growing native plants and pollinator plants, biochar will increase the soil’s biomass, which will result in more flowers, and therefore more pollen for the pollinators.

Highland believes that they can frame the issue to appeal to the current administration, and is hopeful the program will be revived.

“Biochar on farms makes American farmers more competitive, makes American farmers produce more yields, which increases their income and viability,” Highland says. “And it also reduces our dependence on inputs and fertilizers from foreign countries.”

On the other end of the spectrum, Organic Mechanics is releasing a first: a decorative product. It’s called Second Sand, and it’s a collaboration among Bottle Underground, OLIN Studio and Organic Mechanics. It’s glass that has been collected by Bottle Underground and then ground back into sand. They are currently offering three colors: Cobalt Blue, Emerald Green and Clear White.

Organic Mechanics showcased Second Sand at the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society Philadelphia Flower Show, and Highland says he saw people getting creative at the Terrarium Make and Take area, making green frames and blue “rivers” with the sand. .

“It looks pretty,” Highland says.” It sparkles.”

Second Sand might not be as utilitarian as other Organic Mechanics products, but it’s made from upcycled glass, which is collected by bicycle and replaces other decorative elements which would likely be made from plastic.

“The reason why we did it was because it fits with our earth-friendly origins,” says Highland. “Environmental sustainability is a core value at Organic Mechanics.”

A wide selection of Organic Mechanic products are available at all locations of Kimberton Whole Foods. “Kimberton Whole Foods has been a great partner with us since the beginning. They’ve expanded through the years, and they’ve taken us with them, which we appreciate.” ◆

The Biochar Blend is a potent soil amendment that increases the yields of gardens and farms. Founder Mark Highland notes its benefits to American agricultural output.

Foot Traffic

Car-free throngs will descend upon Philly in 2026 — will the city be ready?

by nicole brunet, Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia

Millions of visitors will descend on Philadelphia in 2026 to celebrate the United States Semiquincentennial (250th anniversary), to watch the Major League Baseball All-Star Game and to attend FIFA World Cup matches. To take full advantage of the waves of global travelers traversing our city, officials need to take critical steps to improve infrastructure and create a welcoming and integrated experience.

Other cities have leveraged big events to expand active transportation. Paris completed 34 miles of new bike lanes in two years in advance of the 2024 Olympics. Ahead of hosting the 2028 Games, Los Angeles is on track to complete a set of new rail line extensions estimated to move more than 30 million people in its first year. Philadelphia is off to a slow start but still has an opportunity to prioritize moving millions of car-free people while also investing in existing infrastructure.

Missed Opportunities

Our bike lane network is limited and lacks high-quality infrastructure. Harrisburg has still not legalized parking-protected bike lanes, which prevents our most dangerous roads from getting some of the safest and most cost-saving infrastructure. Also, the City has not repealed the bike lane ordinance that adds bureaucratic red tape to city projects, delaying some for over a decade. The City has missed out on the opportunity to build a bike lane network that could better support millions of visitors.

If SEPTA’s current funding crisis doesn’t turn around, 2026 will be a nightmare. Imagine leaving an Eagles game and having to wait 30 minutes or more for a Broad Street Line train. Now imagine 17 Eagles games crammed into a couple of weeks. To provide services for current sporting events, SEPTA runs at maximum frequency with trains arriving every five to 10 minutes, and even then fans “brotherly shove” each other into every inch of the train cars.

Transit agencies all across the commonwealth face what’s being called a death spiral of service and ridership. Without a dedicated funding stream, SEPTA will be forced to cut service by 20% and increase fares by over 20%. Let’s hope elected officials pass a budget that includes increases to the public transit trust fund by June 30.

Scheduled for Completion

On the bright side, Market East is going to see a brand-new streetscape. Thanks to the work of Old City District, Market Street between 2nd and 6th streets will see high-quality bike lanes, a road diet and planters.

Indego Bike Share continues to expand their stations with a goal of 40 new stations in 2025; even more are expected in 2026. They will also be creating a series of pop-up stations in areas with high pedestrian traffic.

FDR Park Welcome Center is scheduled to be completed along with upgraded trails and play spaces.

The “Christian to Crescent” Schuylkill River Trail connector is on pace to be completed by the end of 2025, and maybe we’ll finally see the Swing Bridge connect to Bartram’s Garden.

Still Possible

Targeted and time-limited measures that could tame transportation snarls in 2026 include establishment of Open Streets in Center City (similar to when Pope Francis came in 2015) and creation of temporary protected bike lanes using the plastic and rubber curbs used in construction detours. The City could also ask Kevin Hart and others to sponsor free SEPTA passes like he did for the Eagles parade in February Philadelphia might have missed out on some big active transportation upgrades, but there is still a lot that will be — and could be — accomplished to accommodate all of the car-free visitors coming our way in 2026. ◆

Nicole Brunet (left), of the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia, sees opportunities to improve transportation as the city hosts major events in the near future.

Call It a Greenwash

This Earth Month, beware of power players obscuring harms and deflecting responsibility by alex bomstein, Clean Air Council

Each year, Earth Day brings a flurry of messages about sustainability and the importance of protecting our planet. Subject lines range from “Ten tips to reduce your carbon footprint” to “The fossil fuel industry cures cancer and rescues kittens stuck in trees.” The deluge can leave you dazed and maybe feeling a little guilty, as if it’s your fault that our forests are burning and our coral reefs are bleaching.

While some Earth Day messaging is genuine and useful, it’s important to recognize that many companies may be co-opting this opportunity to falsely promote their own agendas or to greenwash. Greenwashing is the practice of leading people to think that a company’s actions are more sustainable —

more environmentally responsible — than they actually are.

Alongside greenwashing is the more subtle but equally troubling practice of convincing the public that it is individuals who are causing our global environmental woes rather than major industries putting profits over people and the planet. While, yes, there are significant choices you and I can make that matter, the most powerful actions are those we take together to end the fossil fuel industry, to become a powerful green force in politics and to hold those in power accountable for polluting and degrading our environment.

Identifying greenwashing and blame-deflection can be tricky because companies spend millions of dollars honing their mes-

Oil and gas companies pair positive imagery with deceptive claims that gas is “cleaner,” while hiding the fact that the gas industry generates nearly a quarter of all climate pollution worldwide.

saging to make their operations and products appear sustainable to the public. Unsubstantiated claims abound. A company may call its product “all natural,” but such a statement is essentially meaningless. All things are “natural” in some way or another, and there’s no official arbiter of what does and does not warrant the label. Similarly, companies make irrelevant claims and ignore hidden tradeoffs when they practice greenwashing. This means that they tout the sustainable aspects of their product but hide the overall destructive impact. Oil and gas companies are experts at this. They pair positive imagery with deceptive claims that gas is “cleaner,” while hiding the fact that the gas industry generates nearly a quarter of all climate pollution worldwide.

The practices of greenwashing and promoting the narrative that we the people are the problem create a distraction from corporate accountability. They veil companies’ responsibility and divert attention from their pollution of our environment. Imagine if polluting corporations spent their budgets cleaning up their acts instead of placing the responsibility on the backs of everyday people.

Instead of blindly accepting greenwashing at face value, we need to act. To protect our environment, we need to organize. This can look like writing to our elected officials to advocate for strong environmental policy that will hamstring corporate pollution. It can also look like supporting local environmental organizations and building power in our own communities. We must mobilize for change. As the executive director of Clean Air Council, I have had the privilege of seeing what the future holds for us when we organize and fight back against corporate polluters: when we fight, we win.

Partner Up!

Sharing the burden of organics collection could help composting programs get off the ground by tim bennett

In last month ’ s issue , I wro te about how Philly could start a Cityrun composting drop-off program. Unfortunately, the City might not have the staffing to mount such an effort. Forty years ago, when the City was launching its recycling program, it had 23 employees in its recycling office. Today, the Department of Sanitation has two. Neither the Office of Sustainability nor the Office of Clean and Green Initiatives has any employees focused solely on waste, and a recent plan to hire an employee to focus on organics was tied to an EPA grant that was put on indefinite hold by the Trump administration. If the City can’t run the program — but could fund it — a public-private partnership might be the answer.

One public-private partnership model is a drop-off program at farmers markets. Since they are places people already go to for food, and they attract people who are familiar with composting, education bar-

riers are low. People would also be able to drop off at no cost. This is an approach that has been adopted in cities such as New York and Washington, D.C. We know Philadelphians are interested in this model. Nearly every time Bennett Compost has tabled at a farmers market, someone asks us if we are collecting food scraps.

A second public-private partnership would be a drop-off program at neighborhood stores. As with farmers markets, people already purchase food at these places, so there is a natural tie to composting. Located throughout the city, these stores also have robust accessibility. Places like Mariposa Food Co - op and Weavers Way Co - op already have composting programs for their own waste, so the consumer drop-off could piggyback on this. Other participants could be recruited from programs like the Healthy Corner Store Initiative to make sure that access was spread equitably across neighborhoods. The stores would be financially

incentivized to participate. This model has not been tested in robust ways in other cities, but there is potential for collecting lots of food scraps, and there is more flexibility to expand.

The third public-private partnership model would be a drop-off program at houses of worship, visited regularly by many. Many faiths have a built-in mission of stewardship, and strong ties within faith communities make education easier. Circle Compost currently runs a pay-what-youcan drop-off program in conjunction with Trinity Memorial Church in Center City. An expansion of this program with a wider network of houses of worship could collect lots of food scraps.

We at Bennett Compost have developed models based on all three of the abovementioned ideas — and shared them with the City. By using data we have gathered from drop-off program pilots we’ve conducted, interviews with operators of farmers market programs in other cities, and our own internal cost and weight metrics, we have calculated that a drop-off program using all three public-private models could collect up to four million pounds of food waste annually from 7,700 households for under $1.5 million. While this would be more expensive than the City-run programs proposed in my March column, it would divert more food from landfills. The collection of the material and the management of these programs could fall to the compost companies, freeing the City of that responsibility. Programs could launch within a year.

Every City employee I have met is hard-working, smart and well-intentioned. But at the current staffing levels, they may not have the bandwidth to roll out a drop-off program for organics. Rather than kicking the can down the road, let’s effect a public-private partnership to start moving food waste management forward in Philly. ◆

Tim Bennett and business partner Jen Mastalerz stand at W.B. Saul High School.

A Brand New Mindset

hold onto a favorite for longer. Our model lets them decide.”

The Problem with Toy Waste

The toy industry is a major contributor to plastic waste, with millions of toys ending up in landfills annually. Unless Kids addresses this issue by effortlessly ensuring that toys continue to bring joy from house to house instead of becoming single-use commodities. McWilliams has embraced the system. “My kids are hard on things. We’ve already broken a few, but that’s part of the beauty of Unless Kids — you don’t have to return them.”

Unless Kids is reinventing toy sharing for a circular future

Julie McWilliams never liked the idea of buying a toy that her three young boys would outgrow in a matter of months.

An environmentally-conscious mom (@ climatephriendlyparent on Instagram), she had long struggled with the tension between providing her kids with enriching play experiences and her desire to reduce waste. That’s why, last December, she decided to do all of her holiday toy shopping through Unless Kids, a Philadelphia-based online platform that promotes circular toy sharing.

“I really try to limit consumption in our house and be thoughtful about what we bring in,” McWilliams explains. “Unless Kids makes it easy to get secondhand toys without the hassle of going to thrift stores or dealing with flaky sellers on Facebook Marketplace.”

A New Approach to Toy Ownership

Unless Kids was cofounded by Nic Esposito, a longtime advocate of the circular economy. Esposito has spent years tackling Philadelphia’s waste problem, serving as the director of the City’s former Zero Waste and Litter Cabinet and cofounding Circular Philadelphia. The inspiration for

Unless Kids struck when he found himself overwhelmed by the sheer volume of toys his own children received.

“The inspiration to start the company came from my own life experience of my wife and I trying to figure out what we were going to do with all of the toys our kids have outgrown, especially as they wanted new ones,” Esposito recalls. “ I thought there has to be a better way.”

Unless Kids offers a simple yet transformative model: parents purchase toys at a discounted rate, giving their children a chance to play with them without committing to permanent ownership. After a child grows tired of the item, families can return the toys or simply pay a small portion of the discount back to keep them.

Unlike traditional toy rental services, Unless Kids doesn’t require a subscription or have fixed monthly payments for items. Just like traditional e-commerce sites, parents can purchase as many toys as they need, keeping them for up to a year before deciding whether to ‘cycle’ them back to Unless Kids. “People want flexibility,” Esposito says. “Some months, they might not need new toys. Other times, they want to

A Platform Built for Parents

Unless Kids allows parents to browse a wide selection of curated toys such as active play, imaginary play, dolls, puzzles, games and more. The platform offers clear pricing: a new toy typically costs 20% less than retail, while a gently-used one could be discounted further. If a child plays with a toy for six months and loses interest, the family can cycle it out for something fresh.

Esposito believes the key to making sustainability work is convenience. “We deliver new toys and pick up the old ones. You don’t have to figure out where to donate them or deal with selling them online. It’s as easy as shopping new, but much better for the planet.”

Looking Ahead

Unless Kids is part of a broader movement that rethinks ownership. Esposito hopes it will not only provide a practical solution for families but also inspire a shift in consumer habits.

“We want to show that sharing isn’t just an alternative, it’s the future,” he says. “If we can change the way people think about toy ownership, who knows what else we can change?”

Take 25% off your first purchase with the code GRID25

Rory, 5, and Patrick, 1 enjoy toys from Unless Kids.

Inset: Founder Nic Esposito.

The Trail of History

West Fairmount Park’s trolley system is reborn as a multi-use path by khysir carter

Beginning by the Chamounix Mansion, The Fairmount Park Trolley Trail passes through acres of lush forest. It curves and slopes past trees that are home to birds and squirrels, trees whose trunks sprout mushrooms closer to the forest floor. After a 15-minute walk, visitors arrive at the Skew Arch Bridge, the trail’s most popular feature. Named after a construction method used to span obstacles at other than a right angle, the bridge once formed a short tunnel under which the trolley passed. Other landmarks include the Chamounix picnic area by the main gateway, “park hubs” with portable restrooms and the restored Woodside Station platform.

For the past seven years, the Fairmount Park Conservancy ( FPC ) has partnered with a handful of organizations to revive parts of a 20th-century trolley system and establish the Trolley Trail, a four-mile multipurpose loop with connections to the long history of West Fairmount Park.

Fairmount Park is a “huge priority,” says Kevin Roche, the FPC chief of staff; renovating the trail will encourage park visitors to explore the “hidden gem.”

“For us, it’s really about trail building,” Roche says, “driving visitors to this part of the park, which is a little bit hidden, and to really kind of get people to come out here and experience it and also learn about the history, which is a super cool history of Philly.”

From 1896 to 1946, the Fairmount Park Trolley transported visitors across the east and west sides of Fairmount Park, with 14 out of 16 stops in West Fairmount Park. The 20-minute ride provided quick access to the park, allowing opportunities for exploration. The trolley line also transported visitors to the Woodside Park amusement park, which operated from 1897 to 1955 at the intersection of West Ford and Monument roads.

Trolley service was discontinued in the mid-20th century, as cars became more affordable and patron revenue could no longer cover the cost of maintaining the trolley system. Over the next 50 years, the trolley system fell into disrepair, and the few assets that weren’t sold off during the shutdown

It’s really about trail building, driving visitors to this part of the park, which is a little bit hidden, and to get people to … also learn about the history.”

kevin roche, Fairmount Park Conservancy

remained for park visitors to discover.

Between the 1990s and the early 2000s, a new system of trails emerged in West Fairmount Park, created by visitors such as mountain bikers. The 2001 Trail Master Plan developed by Fairmount Park’s Natural Lands Restoration and Environmental Education Program never thoroughly analyzed these trails, however.

In 2007, Fairmount Park staff began mapping the trails and partnered with the Belmont Plateau Trails Alliance (BPTA), a park-recognized stewardship group, to adjust or close trails that could harm sensitive park habitats. Most of the original trolley line was

closed off and replaced with a new dirt path.

In 2014, Philadelphia Parks & Recreation (PPR), the FPC and PennPraxis, of the University of Pennsylvania, unveiled the New Fairmount Park Plan, a multiphase initiative to make the park’s amenities and trails more accessible. It included creating maps and apps to help park visitors navigate the large area and recommending the establishment of a “trolley trail” that followed the trolley system’s pathway.

From 2015 to 2016, FPC and PPR staff partnered with Terra Firma Trails owner Steve Thomas to comprehensively map and assess trail networks in West Fair -

mount Park. After receiving the initial assessment results, FPC and PPR consulted BPTA about plans to establish a loop trail that would be equally accessible for walkers, runners and bikers.

In 2017, as the FPC continued to reroute and, in some cases, close rogue trails, the FPC, PPR and BPTA collected limited funding to begin the incremental building process. In 2018, the FPC concluded its fundraising, thanks largely to support from the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources and the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission.

The Trolley Trail was finally completed in 2021, with a new gateway added at the Chamounix picnic area in 2022 and wayfinding signage installed around the trail and entrances in 2023. In 2024, FPC added two more gateways, near Ford Road and at the Belmont Plateau cross-country course — bringing the total number of official gateways to four — and repaired the Skew Arch Bridge.

As of February 2025, the four-mile loop trail spans Chamounix Drive and covers the western part of the original trolley system. Over the years, trees have been planted along the trail and at the various trailheads. Additionally, wood from fallen park trees has been used to build bridges along the trail.

According to Roche, the goal is to maintain the trail, to increase signage and trailheads throughout and to “encourage people to come out … and experience the trail for themselves.”

While touring with Roche and FPC director of communications Sarah Peterson, we came across an artist painting a scene of the Skew Arch Bridge. According to Roche, this is just one of the many ways people engage.

Throughout the year, FPC will host events like “history hikes” and plant identification and meditation walks. Benches are scheduled to be added this year, allowing visitors to rest and “linger in the park and spend more time together,” says Roche.

And as visitors soak up the scenery and enjoy one of Philadelphia’s premiere parks, Roche says, they’ll also have a chance to support preservation efforts and learn an interesting part of the city’s history.

“It’s an up-and-coming trail,” Roche says, “and I think the more people that use it, the more opportunities that we have to, you know, continue to improve it, to offer additional programs out here, and to connect with people who are interested in Philly parks.” ◆

Kevin Roche of the Fairmount Park Conservancy stands at the Skew Arch Bridge, which visitors can cross under on the Trolley Trail.

The People Left Behind

Bryn Mawr professor’s new podcast features stories from survivors of local gun violence, in their own words story and photo by julia

lowe

In 2024, there were 220 fatal shootings in Philadelphia, a sharp decline from 375 such deaths the previous year. While city leaders celebrated this improvement, professor and writer Julien Suaudeau, 49, wondered how the community could be satisfied with that number.

“The fact that it was almost hailed as a miracle — like it was an indication that the policies are working — is mind-blowing for me,” says Suaudeau.

One in five American adults knows or cares about someone who was killed with a gun. In Suaudeau’s new podcast, “ The People Left Behind,” he features the stories of these survivors and co-victims (surviving loved ones of victims) — the Philadelphians who are coping with long-term grief due to gun violence.

Suaudeau is a professor of French and film at Bryn Mawr College. Originally from Paris, Suaudeau has lived in Philadelphia since 2006. When he moved to his first home in the city, he began to understand the extent to which Philadelphia is plagued by gun violence “right away,” hearing gunshots and seeing crime scene tape in his own neighborhood.

Suaudeau also quickly noticed that while traditional media coverage of shootings tends to focus on the crime scene, the victims, the perpetrators and the police investigation, news narratives typically move on quickly from the people who have lost a loved one and the trauma that they experience for months and years afterwards.

“The People Left Behind” features the stories of parents, siblings, children, neighbors and community members whose lives have been affected by a fatal shooting. In each episode, Suaudeau asks these survivors and co-victims the question: “What are you going through?”

Suaudeau says that this single question goes a long way. “It recognizes that, yes, they are still coping with the trauma, even though the crime scene has become invisi-

It’s devastating that [gun violence] feels like the norm.”

julien suaudeau

ble to the rest of the community. The flowers are gone, the posters are gone, the police tape is gone, but they’re still dealing with it and they’re still reliving that trauma.”

Of the city’s 375 fatal shooting victims in 2023, 161 were under the age of 18. A father of two teenagers himself, Suaudeau hopes that the podcast helps to create empathy for young survivors and co-victims, whose loss has become normalized.

“The idea that it is so common and hap-

pens to so many families in our communities is literally unbearable to me, as someone who cares for Philly,” Suaudeau says. “It’s devastating that it feels like the norm.”

With each episode, Suaudeau aims to share a “micro-history” of a person’s life. By weaving in victims’ voices “at a graduation ceremony or at a birthday party or at a middle school musical,” he hopes that he makes listeners stop and think about — and become less desensitized to — gun violence. In this way, he sees the podcast as a way to hold the community accountable.

“I think that this ecosystem of stories is a way to make Philly a more welcoming, sustainable and, yes, a better place.” ◆

New episodes of “The People Left Behind” will be released by grid in 2025.

Professor Julien Suaudeau hopes that his podcast will make Philadelphians inured to endemic gun violence think about the lifelong loss and trauma it causes.

GUN VIOLENCE DOES NOT END ON THE CRIME SCENE

As many as 200 people can be impacted by a single shooting. It is our responsibility to ask them what they are going through, to listen to what they have to say, and to amplify their voices.

Hope, Somehow

New album aims to spur reflection on human interaction with natural world by jenny roberts

Philadelphia band Darling Damselfly wants their most recent album, “Galapagos,” to get listeners thinking about human’s relationship with the planet — in the hopes of saving it.

“Being able to have a better understanding and appreciation of the wonder of [the environment] can help us be more connected and want to work harder to combat the impact of climate change and live more sustainably,” says Sammy Shuster, 38, the band’s singer-songwriter

Shuster and Lexie Diallo — the duo’s violist — released “Galapagos” in October. The five tracks, available on Bandcamp, explore scientific phenomena from evolution to

photosynthesis while prompting listeners to make connections to their own lives.

“I thought it would be cool to keep in the theme of nature and the environment and how those things relate to our own human experience,” says Shuster, program manager at The Environmental Collaboratory at Drexel University.

“Whale Song” is about the vocalization of the giant underwater mammals and how their ability to communicate with each other is hampered by humans. Shuster connects this experience to the loneliness people feel, singing: “All alone in this noisy sea, my voice gets deeper, deeper, deeper. Can you hear me?”

And in “Secret Decisions,” Shuster highlights plants’ ability to control how much carbon dioxide they absorb, a show of “self-confidence,” a skill that can be elusive to humans, Shuster says, singing: “I am afraid that I can’t be as strong as your DNA. I don’t take what I need. I hide or I run while your leaves or your vines, they reach out to the sun.”

Throughout, it’s the viola that brings the lyrics to life, mimicking the sounds and movements of the songs’ animal subjects.

On the title track, the viola “goes back and forth, up and down from one string to another” like monkeys swinging from tree branches, says Diallo, 42.

On “Tasmanian Tiger” the instrument sounds like the barking and grunting of the now-extinct mammal. And on “Birds and Butterflies” the viola soars into its higher registers like a winged creature.

“You can look toward these things that we study as a source of wonder in the world,” says Shuster.

The album is accompanied by a zine that includes lyrics, illustrations, scientific explanations and reflective prompts.

“I think the zine helps to tie things in,” says Diallo, adding that the prompts invite the audience to think about “the ways that we’ve evolved, the ways that folks are using the environment and how that affects the natural world.”

Shuster cites the lyric book that accompanied The Smashing Pumpkins’ “Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness” as inspiration for the zine. She asked her husband, Corey Bechelli, to create artwork for the zine.

Bechelli, 43, says that he and Shuster regularly have conversations about the environment outside of the creation of “Galapagos.”

Global warming can feel like too large of a problem to address individually, leaving people feeling “hopeless and helpless,” Bechelli adds. But embracing despair isn’t an option for the couple, he says, especially because they have a young son.

“You can lean into the hopeless and helpless, but that’s probably not the right way to go,” Bechelli says.

And that, he says, is part of what “Galapagos” grapples with: “How can we find hope somehow?” ◆

Sammy Shuster (left) and Lexie Diallo of Darling Damselfly hope their new release “Galapagos” inspires listeners to reflect on their relationship with the planet.

Small World

Seafood wholesaler brings fish and fellowship direct to customers by

marilyn anthony

Robert amar had a solid business wholesaling seafood to some of Philly’s finest restaurants — until March 2020. As COVID-19 spread and city restaurants shuttered, Amar wondered what he could do. He had fresh fish on hand. Grocery stores were insane. He figured his Fairmount neighbors might appreciate some free seafood, so he sent a group email to residents of his block and found some takers. They raved about the fish.

Small World Seafood ( SWS ) found its new footing with trusting customers willing to buy fish sight unseen: 11 orders the first week, 20 the second, 40 the third. In those early days, there were typically six to eight items on offer. Five years later, SWS features online recipes, cooking videos and 80-some weekly items for sale. Seafood is the star, but options also include specialty foods from local businesses such as Settantatre Pasta, El Camino Real and Oui.

Small World’s reinvention grew out of Amar’s desire to feed his neighbors “great quality at a very great price.” But then he began to wonder: “Technically, who is a neighbor? Is it just the people on my block?” The business, though built on the savvy use of technology, grew in a startlingly old-fashioned way. Amar’s neighbors told their friends, who told their friends, and demand rippled across the city. This “neighborhood business” now reaches 11,000 email subscribers (with an open rate of 78%) and serves more than 4,000 households monthly from six pickup sites, two farmers markets and a storefront on North 4th Street. “Everybody in Philly is my neighbor,” Amar says.

Selling directly to consumers took some adjustment. “A lot of the intuitive thoughts we had from our way of thinking with restaurants turned upside down,” Amar recalls. Restaurants usually limit their purchases to popular items like salmon, mussels and shrimp. Amar sensed that his customers were willing to experiment, so he promoted less familiar ingredients such as

skate wing, cod cheeks and mackerel — and saw demand soar. “We were testing this out to see if this is a floating ice cube or an iceberg,” he remembers.

What surprises Amar is how the business has continued to thrive post-pandemic. He jokes that SWS has “ruined people” by introducing them to expertly-curated, restaurant-quality ingredients and professional cooking tips. Tired-looking supermarket fish has lost its appeal.

The SWS crew makes pickup a social occasion, greeting customers by name, answering questions, sharing jokes. “There’s nothing that brings people together and makes them pause more than food,” says

Amar. Customers remain willing to order online and trek to the Small World Seafood truck for pickup. They bring visiting friends and family and share travel photos.

Clearly this is more than a simple business transaction. For Amar, “the goal is not bing, bang, boom, move the line along. It’s to be a good citizen … I think we haven’t fully realized our connections to each other. Once you know each other’s name, you’re not the same thing anymore.” ◆

Every month grid profiles a Philadelphian who is passionate about food. If you would like to nominate someone for the Philly Cooks series, contact news@gridphilly com

The seismic shifts brought on by COVID-19 led Robert Amar to alter his business, which now sells seafood and specialty foods direct to consumer.

Life in Poverty, Punctuated by Gun Violence

Philadelphia’s status as the nation’s poorest big city is a major cause of its gunfire by mensah m. dean for The Trace

Walter palmer , 90, vividly recalls how poverty stalked him — first, in Atlantic City, New Jersey, where he was born, and then in Philadelphia, where his family moved to escape the low-wage, seasonal work many Black people were relegated to in the oceanside city. It pushed him into the juvenile delinquency that brought him in contact with a firearm.

Born in North Philly nearly 40 years af-

ter Palmer, Donnell Drinks, 51, grew up in similar circumstances. As a result, he became homeless, the parental figure to his two younger brothers, and a drug dealer. He also became a gunshot victim and a convicted first-degree murderer on death row — all before his 18th birthday.

Like so many other Black Philadelphians across the decades, Palmer and Drinks grew up in grinding poverty, their lives punctuated by gun violence. Their experiences speak to a long-running truth: Across the country, poverty drives people to commit violence — and in no big city is that connection as acute as it is in Philadelphia.

Gun violence and poverty in Philadelphia remain inextricably linked, with Black citizens at the highest risk of experiencing both. This fact has been documented in government, academic and press reports for more than a century — from W.E.B. Du Bois’s groundbreaking work in “The Philadelphia Negro” to Philadelphia Police Department data that recorded unprecedented killings during the COVID-19 pandemic. The twin evils remain deadly even as tens of millions

This story was originally published by the trace , a nonprofit newsroom covering gun violence in America. It is the third story in a three-part series about the roots and realities of gun violence in Black America. You can read the first installments at thetrace org

Donnell Drinks in Philadelphia.

in public and private funding are spent in attempts to address their root causes.

“Racism and poverty have played a major role in helping to perpetuate a lot of the crime that takes place in our society,” Palmer, now an adjunct professor at the University of Pennsylvania, said matter-of-factly.

“How do you account for 250 years of chattel slavery? The burnings, the lynchings, the castrations? How can you just dismiss that and think that some of that stuff doesn’t get carried forward?”

“Being a professor doesn’t protect you” Palmer bristles when he speaks of growing up in West Philadelphia in the 1940s, of

living with his parents and 11 siblings in a two-room apartment near 36th and Market streets. The family, headed by his mother, who left school in the fourth grade, and his father, who dropped out in the eighth, was so poor it received free food and coal from the Catholic Church.

“I had a mother who I loved dearly, who would have given her life for her children,” he said between sips of coffee in a South Broad Street shop.

But by age 12, Palmer was arrested for the first of many times, for burglarizing a building on Penn’s campus. He got shot in the arm at 14 by a rival teen because he was outside his neighborhood, he suspects.

It fell on me to keep the family together. At that age, and with my lack of skills, my options were minimal.”

— donnell drinks

“My response was to go back to the neighborhood and get guys to try to look for him. An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth is embedded in a lot of the culture,” said Palmer, who was also stabbed four times and arrested for attempted murder, rioting and assault and battery in his teens.

His mother, father and later a stepfather were “people who had a moral compass and who were proud,” Palmer said. But he believes he struggled because of the swirl of crime, poverty and despair that characterized the racially segregated Black Bottom, now part of University City.

Still, he managed to graduate from high school in 1953, then moved through a series of jobs at city hospitals. He started to get his life together, earning a teaching degree from Cheyney State University and a law degree from Howard University. Since 1990, Palmer has been a lecturer at Penn, teaching courses on American racism, institutional racism and social change.

Decades after he survived being shot, gun violence found its way back into Palmer’s life. Ten years ago, robbers shot his son, Marcus, multiple times while he worked as a security guard at a 7-Eleven. Though Marcus survived, bullets damaged his stomach, kidney, liver and bladder.

Palmer was so angered by the attack that it triggered him to seek vigilante justice, he recalled. “I went looking for the guys who did it. I took 5,000 flyers and took 20 guys with me and went all through the neighborhood putting flyers in doors and offering a reward. I went on TV and said, ‘Read my lips. I’m coming after you,’” said Palmer, who didn’t get to the two gunmen before they were arrested.

“Being a professor doesn’t protect you.”

People playing basketball at Francisville Recreation Center, a few blocks from where Donnell Drinks grew up.

Walter Palmer in his Philadelphia home.

Philly’s poverty

Today, the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia has found, the disparity between Black and white wealth at the median in the city is as big as it was in the 1960s. Twenty-seven percent of the city’s Black families live below the poverty line, on less than $26,000 a year, while about half as many white families do. Overall, the city’s poverty rate stands at 21.7%, the lowest level in more than 20 years, due in part to some federal assistance programs launched during the pandemic, according to the Pew Charitable Trust’s report “Philadelphia 2024: The State of the City.”

With the COVID-19 pandemic over and fatalities trending down, Philly still remains in the throes of a deep poverty and gun-violence crisis. While the 410 homicides recorded in the city during 2023 represented a 20% decline from 2022, that number was still higher than the 386 slayings in New York and the 327 in Los Angeles, cities with populations five and two-and-a-half times larger, respectively.

As of November 5, homicides were down 48% compared to the same time last year — from 360 to 216, according to the Philadelphia Police Department. Through the first 10 months of 2024, the number of people shot was down 37%, from 1,480 to 931.

A visit to communities like Strawberry Mansion, Allegheny West, Kensington and Kingsessing — where crime rates are high and median incomes are low — shows just how much work remains to be done. A higher number of homes here are in disrepair and abandoned, fallout from the factory jobs that began disappearing from these communities in the 1960s and 1970s.

“Rich enough to eat every night”

The city’s social safety net also missed Donnell Drinks. Even though he was 15 at the time, law enforcement officers, he said, treated him like an adult when they evicted his family in the 1980s. No one asked his age or where he and his brothers would be sleeping that night. So he became a robber and drug dealer to support himself and his two younger brothers in place of their absentee father and drug-addicted mother.

“I wasn’t a bad person, nor was I dumb,” Drinks said. “It fell on me to keep the family

together. At that age, and with my lack of skills, my options were minimal. If everyone on my block was going to work on Wall Street, I would have done that. If everyone on my block were building buildings, I’d be doing that. It was convenient, and there was the opportunity to do negative things.”

“So I sold drugs.”

Amid the dealing and dysfunction, school was not a priority. “School was piein-the-sky down the line,” he said. “It wasn’t immediate. You’re telling me to get this education, and just maybe, in four more years of education, I can have a good life. But I didn’t eat last night. I didn’t finish my homework because the daylight went out and we didn’t have no lights in the house. Do you really think school was important to me?”

It was 1991, the year after Philadelphia first recorded 500 murders, when Drinks, 17, and his 22-year-old police officer girlfriend broke into a home and killed a man during a botched robbery.

The facts of the crime he committed are part of the open book that is his life: The couple targeted a man named Darryl Huntley for a home-invasion robbery. Huntley fought back and shot Drinks, who in turn stabbed him to death. Drinks was arrested while hospitalized, recovering from his

gunshot wound.

During his 27 years behind bars, Drinks’ parents died. He started living anew, earning his GED and college credits, and becoming conscious of the societal currents that derailed him and so many other Black Philadelphians. His then-girlfriend is still in prison, serving a life sentence without parole.

Drinks fears for young people who are growing up in the same places and conditions that harmed him. He recalled a boy in his mentoring program who was so much like himself. “He just kept saying, ‘I want to be rich. I want to be rich.’ So, I asked him, how rich does he want to be? He looked me in the eyes and said he wants to be rich enough to eat every night. This is in Philadelphia! In America! A 15-year-old boy saying he wants to be rich enough to eat,” Drinks said, in disbelief.

“I don’t want to get on a soapbox, but we can’t speak on gun violence when we don’t speak on poverty,” he said.

In 2018, in response to a Supreme Court ruling, Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner offered Drinks a time-served resentencing deal. He’s been free for six years, but state law requires that he remain on parole for life.

Freedom has enabled a whirlwind life: He

Dr. Dorothy Johnson-Speight (second from left) speaks to attendees at a grief meeting hosted by Mothers in Charge.

got married in 2021, cofounded a nonprofit mentoring program for at-risk teens and young adults called G.R.O.W.N. (Gaining Respect Over Our Worst Night) and was hired as a coordinator with the Campaign for the Fair Sentencing of Youth.

A

different approach

Robert Woodson, 87, also has stories to tell about growing up poor in South Philadelphia, but his are, by and large, fond memories of Black people owning small businesses that catered to the Black community. The son of a Virginia-born World War I veteran and a mother from South Carolina with a fifth-grade education, Woodson dropped out of high school in 1954 to join the Air Force. For the better part of the last 50 years, he’s been pushing the philosophy that low-income Black people can help themselves. He believes that a lack of personal responsibility — not racism — drives crime and poverty in cities like his hometown and his adopted hometown of Washington, D.C. He knows that belief puts him at odds with

How do you account for 250 years of chattel slavery? The burnings, the lynchings, the castrations? How can you just dismiss that and think that some of that stuff doesn’t get carried forward?”

walter palmer

many others. Government has a bad track record of addressing poverty and violence, he says, so community members should be encouraged and assisted to take on the task.

“A lot of what grassroots people do, they do instinctively,” Woodson said. “But scholars never go and ask or study them.” As a result, he believes, success stories — like the work of the House of Umoja in Philadelphia, which was credited with quelling street gang warfare in the early through mid-1970s — are not being replicated.

Woodson embedded with the West Philly organization for two years after earning a math degree from Cheyney University and a master of social work from the University of Pennsylvania. Now, he runs the Woodson Center on K Street in D.C. The center studies “low-income, high-crime, toxic neighborhoods” to learn how leaders and groups succeeded in those environments, then provides assistance, money and promotions. “The answers exist among the people who are suffering the problems,” he said. “The biggest barrier isn’t racism, it’s elitism.”

But Woodson’s life hasn’t been directly touched by gun violence. Palmer, who is still living with its aftershocks, knew and worked with Woodson on various community initiatives in the 1960s, and, while he says he understands Woodson’s embrace of a conservative ideology, he disagrees with his old friend about gun violence’s causes and remedies.

“The whole idea of saying racism is not institutional is absurd,” Palmer said. “Racism, discrimination, colorism, were all used to prevent Blacks from getting jobs, from getting education. These are institutions, and institutions do not exist in a vacuum.”

“But Black people are not monolithic. People have choices. Freedom is the ability to make choices,” Palmer added. “He’s on his trajectory, I’m on mine.” ◆

Movita Johnson-Harrell poses for a portrait at The CHARLES Foundation house, which she founded after her son Charles was killed.

the FASHION issue

MAKE & MEND

Are you tossing those pants because you wore them out, or just because you don’t wear them anymore? ¶ The modern fashion industry treats clothing as disposable, and it is tempting for us to do the same. Big box stores and multinationals make money selling you way more than necessary. Really, how many pairs of pants do you need? ¶ A select few clothiers have stuck with an older, more sustainable plan of a slower churn, selling fewer of items made to last for years. Sure, it costs more each time you buy a pair of these more responsibly-crafted pants, but if they last many times as long as the cheaper fast fashion pair, you come out ahead. ¶ And they can last even longer than you might think. That proverbial “stitch in time” might save the pants for another year, or it might save them for another wearer, perhaps one who wears a size that no longer fits you. Maybe a thrift store can generate a little money for a good cause in the process of making the exchange. ¶ Shopping for quality clothing, mending what you love and finding a new home for unwanted items, can be powerful — even subversive — actions.

Pants, People, Planet

Community-building

art projects stitch together the personal, the political and the ecological —

Shari Hersh trained as a paintaer in the 1970s and ’80s. At that time, classical fine arts emphasized personal practice: picture a solitary artist holed up with an easel in a studio. Through her work with Mural Arts Philadelphia and a years-long participation in workshops, readings and discussions that Hersh undertook with her best friend, Beth Enson, Hersh evolved her art to focus on socially-engaged and cross-disciplinary, collaborative projects. This became the foundation for Home Studio Lab, Hersh and Enson’s joint art project.

“Collaborations and projects can disrupt patterns of hetero-patriarchy capitalism,” Hersh says. “So much of Home Studio Lab is grounded in alternative economies and regenerative practices — a kind of active noncapitalist, non-individualistic relationship with the arts and the globe.”

Over the years, Home Studio Lab’s work has taken many shapes, often centered around relational connections through participatory needlework projects, such as “Home Sweet Home,” a series of workshops in which participants research and share their family homes and histories, investigating how redlining and other government interventions shaped those histories. Participants sew a picture of their family home based on photos and stitch in captions verbalizing three things they learned. Each sewn piece is added to a book that Hersh stewards until the next workshop.

“[Through these workshops] we’re exploring how humble domestic art practices can have relational, political and environmental value,” Hersh says. “Changing the self to change and repair the world: this is at the core.”

STORY BY EMILY KOVACH

Hersh calls William Goldsby, author, activist and founder of grassroots organization Reconstruction Inc., a mentor and an influence in the paradigm shift in art-making that she continues to explore.

“He was a huge factor in my working hard toward shifting how I structured every project moving from codependency to reciprocity, from alienation to building community. This changed my whole public practice, as well as my personal practice,” she says.

Another way that Hersh does this work is through natural dyeing and clothing mending workshops that she teaches and uses as a vehicle to talk about toxic dyes and oppressive labor practices in the garment industry. On a personal level, she has done

countless mends for herself and as trades for friends, and her mending also intersects with her more public work.

One pair of jeans that she has been mending on and off for a decade is part of the “The Ecology of Fashion” exhibit at The Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University. While they may look on the surface like nothing more than elaborately patched pants, there’s a much deeper story behind them.

“They’re my husband’s pants, and he has a degenerative illness. Mending them was an act of healing both for him and for myself,” Hersh says. “And it’s about making them last longer and not sending things to the landfill. It’s the political through the personal.”

Hersh is also fascinated with the relational power of mending and sewing. These practices connect her with some of the values of her Pennsylvania Dutch heritage (“There’s a regard for old things and not disposing of them,” she notes) and also open up connections to other humans.

“I was recently stitching some jeans on the plane and noticed that when you have sewing in your hands, people who would never normally talk to you come talk to you,” she says. “That’s what socially-engaged art is: it places relations above the object.” ◆

Shari Hersh believes in the transformative power of domestic art projects.

On the Forefront

Local designer makes sustainable fashion more size inclusive through alterations, consulting and product development —

STORY BY EMILY KOVACH

After learning to sew in middle and high school and studying fashion design at Thomas Jefferson University, Itohan Asemota learned the ins and outs of apparel product development. Working with regional brands such as Grant Blvd, Asemota identified a growing need in this sector: independent fashion houses had trouble finding manufacturers that would work with them when they wanted a small run of items produced.

“Large manufacturers often require minimums that a lot of small startups can’t reach,” Asemota says. “They might have a minimum of 300 pieces, but I realized I could make 20 or 30 tops for them.”

This was the jumping off point for HNI Collective, Asemota’s fashion service agency, founded in January 2024. Through HNI, she brings her expertise in product development to clothing businesses, helping with small batch production and fabric and material sourcing. In addition to being an extra set

of (very skilled) hands, Asemota also offers plus-sized fit assistance to brands, ensuring that their collections are actually accessible.

“As someone who is plus-sized, I understand how frustrating it is to find a ‘size-inclusive’ brand, then look at their size chart and not see your size,” she says. “HNI Collective was a way for me to help size inclusivity be on the forefront of what

Itohan Asemota is designing, developing, consulting, swapping and mending the fashion industry into true size inclusivity.

HNI Collective was a way for me to help size inclusivity be on the forefront of what sustainable fashion can look like.”

ITOHAN ASEMOTA, HNI Collective

sustainable fashion can look like.”

To help folks into better fitting, longer wearing threads, Asemota offers mending and alteration services in her Germantown studio.

“My ethos is that sustainable clothing should be for all bodies,” she explains. “Sustainability isn’t throwing out your whole wardrobe and replacing it with organic cotton. It’s about keeping the things you love as long as possible. Personal style tells your story through clothes, and the best way to do that is to make your clothes last.”

Last year, Asemota began bringing her sewing machine to events like Green Philly EcoFair and Philly FatCon and doing mending and alteration pop-ups. She loves seeing in real time what a powerful difference her alterations make for people, especially those who wear bigger sizes.

“A lot of my friends who are bigger tell me how influential it is to be able to bring something in [to me] and have it actually fit them,” she says. “The world makes you feel like if something doesn’t fit you right, it’s your problem, when actually it’s the clothing brands’ problem.”

Asemota has emerged as a leader in the burgeoning conscious and fat fashion community in Philly. In January, she co-organized a plus-sized clothing swap at PhilaMOCA that attracted more than 100 attendees. In February, she sat on a virtual “Decoding Plus-Size Fashion” panel organized by Phoria, a plus-size and gender-expansive fashion platform.

Asemota is quick to note that while she is proud of the work she’s doing as both an entrepreneur and activist, she’s one part of a dynamic, growing movement.

“HNI Collective is a small piece of a larger story — I’m part of a huge demographic of people who are also doing the work. ◆

Best Dressed

Old City boutique offers locally-made clothing with European flare — STORY BY

DAWN KANE

The handmade dresses of red lace and black silk displayed in the tall, arched windows of Dafina Co. in Old City (47 N. 3rd Street) prompt passersby to pause and imagine slipping into such elegance. Inside the boutique, restrained electronic music and French artwork set the stage for the runway-ready clothing that designer Gerta Hebeja says not only gives the wearer confidence, but also goes easy on the planet.

Gerta co-owns the boutique with her mother, Anila Hebeja, a dressmaker. Her sister, Megi, models for the Dafina catalog. Together, the Hebeja women are encouraging people to invest in timeless clothing that they will love for years, rather than buying fast fashion by the truckload.

It starts with quality fabric, Hebeja says. She looks for materials with a luxurious feel. “There must be a fullness to the fabric.” While much of it comes from Philadelphia and New York, Hebeja also acquires materials during her regular visits to her Albanian grandparents. Limited-edition fabrics come from Turkey and Italy. To minimize waste, she buys only what’s needed, and any scraps of leftover material are repurposed as detailing or used for accessories.

As a young girl, Hebeja was inspired by the beautiful clothing she saw when visiting Albania, where people traditionally design their own wedding outfits and have them made locally. Hebeja started designing her own clothes at the age of nine. Over time she came to believe that clothing should be comfortable. “If it makes you feel constrained, that’s taking a step backwards,” she says.

Hebeja earned a business degree from Temple University, but watching her mother work made her decide on a career as a design-

er. She noticed how the clientele stayed loyal over her mother’s 25 years as a Roxborough dressmaker — despite several moves. At Anila’s, her mother’s shop (6502 Ridge Avenue), she came to realize that “people prefer clothing they feel connected to.”

Priyanka Purohit, a local software engineer and part-time actor, first encountered Dafina at the Rittenhouse Row Spring Festival, where she purchased a dress detailed with embroidered lace, she said in an email. She returns to the shop because she always finds unique items that she knows will last. “I’m so glad I found them!” she says.

Customers often tell Hebeja they need clothing that transitions beyond the workday. In response, she developed the Elevated

Basics Collection, epitomized by pieces like the Jane dress, where luxe fabrics and body contouring lines give a simple design added versatility.

Collection launches, like the recent Spring/ Summer debut, give customers a chance to update their wardrobes. Prices range from $89 to more than $1,000 for special occasion dresses. Simple alterations are complimentary, but for more extensive work customers receive a 20% discount at Anila’s. While the family would like to expand, they have no plans to do so until they can hire sufficient staff to maintain ethical working conditions and product quality. Even at its current size, Dafina takes on interns — some from Philadelphia colleges, others from as far away as Florida — who gain experience in marketing, fashion merchandising and design.

Hebeja says Dafina is spreading the word that “when you put something on that you really love, you attract better things in your day.”

Designer Gerta Hebeja (right) and her sister Megi want customers to feel comfortable in the handmade dresses, jackets and accessories at Dafina Co.

PHOTO

Prep in Your Step

DAWN KANE

For the Ardmore-based fashion company American Trench , it’s all about looking sharp and staying stateside.

“We make some pieces of classic menswear that guys can identify with as super useful investment pieces,” says cofounder Jacob Hurwitz.

When the brand launched its first product in 2013, Hurwitz says he and cofounder David Neill were driven by their desire “to support the making of something beautiful” in the United States.

At the time, they used the crowdfunding platform Kickstarter to garner customers

for their trench coat — a quality piece with real staying power. “You’re going to have it for 20 years,” Hurwitz says.

Today, American Trench sells hundreds of products, including retro socks, linen trousers and alpaca wool sweaters. Prices range from $14 to $849.

In 2024, American Trench did just under $4 million in sales.

Dheen Weening, the brand’s creative director, says American Trench has elements of “Americana military heritage” and draws inspiration from “traditions of tailoring, Ivy League and prep.”

American Trench also has a sub-brand,

Orig. Equip., focused on “workwear- and sportswear- adjacent” clothing, Weening says.

Weening describes American Trench’s target audience as people who share its values — “people who are interested in making things with a lot of soul, ethically made, responsibly made, as local as possible and with a certain elevated kind of expertise.”

American Trench products are available online or at the brand’s Ardmore storefront at 15 East Lancaster Avenue, which opened in 2023. The clothing brand can also be found at major retailers, such as Nordstrom, Free People and Anthropologie, and at local Philadelphia shops, such as Franklin and Poe in Fishtown and P ’s & Q’s on South Street.

While clothing materials are sourced globally, American Trench does all endstate manufacturing in the U.S., working with at least 30 manufacturing partners nationwide, including in the Greater Philadelphia region.

Hurwitz says he initially wanted to support American manufacturing because of the Great Recession of 2008, when the housing bubble burst. That crisis, he says, was exacerbated by the deceleration of U.S. manufacturing.

“The events that led up to the housing market crash, and thus, the stock market crash in ’08, to me, were caused by the closing of manufacturing facilities and then the redistribution of workers toward building houses,” he says.

In response, Hurwirtz made sure American Trench bolsters U.S. labor and craft.

Doing so, Hurwitz adds, is also more environmentally friendly than manufacturing products abroad. “We have laws in this country with standards for pollution, and all of our factories have to comply [with] them,” he says.

But U.S. manufacturing comes at an extra cost to consumers — one that Hurwitz says is worth it.

American Trench offers higher quality materials and garment construction, Hurwitz says, instead of competing with Costco or Walmart on price.

“We’re making stuff in the United States, which has a high labor cost, so what we make has to be really nice,” he says. ◆

STORY BY

In his shop and online, Jacob Hurwitz sells clothing and accessories manufactured in the U.S.A.

Don’t Get Fleeced

WRITTEN + ILLUSTRATED

BY BRYAN SATALINO

Polyester fleece burst onto the catalog pages and clothing racks of outdoors brands such as Patagonia (a key developer) in the 1980s, offering wool’s benefits without its drawbacks. It was durable, warm, moisture-wicking and quick-drying. By the late aughts, however, concerns grew over microplastic pollution. While industrial and fishing waste were primary culprits, our clothes also played a role. Polyester fibers — just 10 microns thick — shed in the wash and enter marine ecosystems, harming wildlife. Worse, microplastics are now found in human organs, breast milk and even brains. ¶ Throwing out your wardrobe probably isn’t the greatest solution; we can still use what we have, but we should try to cut off the steady flow of these fibers into our wastewater. Here are some ways we can collectively reduce microplastic pollution from our clothing.

Detergent matters.

Do laundry less often.

Washing a full load instead of a partial load reduces microfiber release because garments are exposed to less friction during the wash cycle.

Use the gentle cycle.

According to an Ocean Wise study, using the gentle cycle can cause a 70% reduction in the shedding of microfibers.

Choose a front loader.

The main actor in shedding is physical agitation, and a front loading washer is more gentle with clothing than a top loader.

While there is little data to support which type of detergent is better — powder, liquid, or pods — the general consensus is that using less is better and that avoiding pods — typically wrapped in PVA, a dissolvable plastic not easily removed from wastewater — is prudent.

Use cold water. Warm to hot wash cycles will break down fabrics faster than cold water washes.

Install an inline microfiber filter. This device prevents plastics from entering your wastewater by filtering everything that comes out of your washing machine.

Use mesh laundry bags.

Using a mesh bag, like the ones made by Guppyfriend, will help catch up to 1/3 of shed microfibers before they end up in the outgoing wastewater.

Use a line or rack to dry your clothes. The heat and friction of a dryer can really wear out your clothing much faster, causing fibers to break down and eventually shed.

Come Together

Philly AIDS Thrift grants provide vital funding to LGBTQ and HIV-prevention organizations in the region — BY

JENNY ROBERTS

Philly AIDS Thrift was born out of a love for junk and an activist spirit, says Christina Kallas-Saritsoglou, cofounder and executive director of the nonprofit thrift store.

“I think we’ve done a pretty good job creating this safe space for people,” KallasSaritsoglou says. “It’s a little bit more than a thrift store; it’s a real communal space.”

Located at 710 South 5th Street, Philly AIDS Thrift is an eclectic, artsy retailer that doubles as a local haven for LGBTQ folks and HIV-positive people. Over the last 20 years, Philly AIDS Thrift’s activism and philanthropy have resulted in more than $5 million in donations to HIV/AIDS nonprofit service organizations in the Delaware Valley.

“That’s from selling toasters and T-shirts and used books,” explains Michael Byrne, board president of Philly AIDS Thrift. The donations come from the proceeds of both the thrift store and Philly AIDS Thrift @ Giovanni’s Roomi, the oldest LGBTQ and feminist bookstore in the country, which sits at 345 South 12th Street.

Previously, Philly AIDS Thrift donated exclusively to AIDS Fund Philly. But in 2014, it created its own grants program for local organizations providing HIV prevention, education and support services. The program has awarded more than 200 grants to more than 50 organizations.

In February, Philly AIDS Thrift announced this year’s grant winners: 34 nonprofits received $358,085 to continue their work. The next grant application cycle opens in October.

Both Byrne and Kallas-Saritsoglou say these grants are more important than ever in today’s political climate. Funding uncertainty abounds under President Donald Trump’s administration and that marginalized groups are facing backlash.

“We have to come together and actually be a community,” Kallas-Saritsoglou says. “We have to rely on each other.”

Here’s some of this year’s grant awardees, the work they do and how they plan to spend their grand funding.

PREVENTION MEETS FASHION

Prevention Meets Fashion is a sexual health education nonprofit founded in 2020 by Nhakia Outland, a community social worker. Outland, who is also the executive direc-

Philly AIDS Thrift executive director Christina KallasSaritsoglou prides the shop as a “real communal space.”

PHOTO

tor, says her organization uses fashion advocacy to increase sexual health knowledge among Black people and other communities of color, as well as among LGBTQIA+ and nonbinary communities.

“We recognize that there’s a barrier in our city, that a lot of folks are not understanding what comprehensive sex education is,” Outland says. “Everyone’s teaching it differently, if at all.”

In addition to sex education, Prevention Meets Fashion also offers social work internships and support groups, such as one about fashion and trauma.

The organization used its Philly AIDS Thrift grant money to put on its third annual Women’s History Month and HIV/AIDS Awareness Panel & Brunch in March.

“Women and girls are still being diagnosed with HIV, but also HIV prevention is still geared toward gay men,” Outland explains.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), heterosexual women accounted for 15% of the 31,800 new HIV infections reported in 2022 , the most recent year for which data is available.

Outlands says cisgender, heterosexual women often don’t take advantage of HIV-prevention tools, such as PrEP, a medication used to protect people from the spread of HIV.

“We just want to make sure that that population is getting the right information,” Outland says.

THE ATTIC YOUTH CENTER

The Attic Youth Center, founded in 1993, provides support for Philadelphia’s LGBTQ youth, ages 14 to 23.

We have to come together and actually be a community. We have to rely on each other.”

CHRISTINA KALLAS-SARITSOGLOU , Philly AIDS Thrift

Located at 255 South 16th Street, the center offers individual, couples and family counseling for youth. It also offers dinner for youth Monday through Friday.

Jasper Liem, executive director of the center, says the organization provides a nonjudgmental place for youth to talk with staff about their sexual choices and get connected with other community partners if needed.

“We know that marginalized communities are more likely to make safer choices when they have the resources they need,” Liem says.

The center also provides support groups and training. It works with gender-sexuality alliances in schools, too.

Additionally, The Attic Youth Center offers free HIV testing for youth at the center every other Friday through a partnership with the Mazzoni Center

“Everything that we do at The Attic also ties back to HIV care and prevention,” Liem says, adding that both sex education and community spaces help youth make safer choices for their health.

The Attic Youth Center will use the funding from its grant award for program supplies, food costs, staff salaries and stipends for youth on its leadership council.

GALAEI

Galaei, located at 118 Fontain Street in Norris Square, helps people navigate an HIV diagnosis by connecting them with doctors and counseling. Galaei also offers free OraQuick self-tests for HIV.

Tyrell Brown, Galaei’s executive director, says shame still associated with HIV can deter people from seeking medical care, making Galaei’s work all the more important.

“HIV has a stigma that’s against it that has really crippled [the] care mechanisms that we want to exercise,” Brown says. “Somebody who’s HIV positive is looked at as, ‘What did you do wrong in order to contract HIV,’ right? And that stigmatization often creates that barrier.”

Founded in 1989, Galaei focuses primarily on Latinx, Black and Indigenous folks, as well as other people of color. The organization also prioritizes trans, nonbinary and queer people, as well as men who have sex with men, Brown says.

Galaei also has affinity discussion groups and outreach events, as well as a clothing closet and food pantry on-site. Additionally, Galaei organizes Philly Pride and National Coming Out Day festivities.

As for the Philly AIDS Thrift grant, Galaei will use those funds for rapid housing

and transportation for people who come to Galaei seeking help — many of whom are unhoused or housing insecure.

“Your care oftentimes is directly tied to your housing situation,” Brown says.

Galaei will help people find short-term places to stay so they can keep medical appointments and get connected with other wraparound services.

BEBASHI –TRANSITION TO HOPE

Bebashi – Transition to Hope, founded in 1985, is a community health organization that offers health care services, sexually transmitted infection prevention and other resources.

The organization moved its main campus to 4101 Woodland Avenue on April 1. Bebashi also has a satellite location at 1237 Spring Garden Street.

Both sites have wellness centers that offer primary care, health screenings, breast exams and STI testing. Both sites have a food pantry, too. There’s also a boutique with free clothing and toiletries at the Spring Garden site.

Additionally, Bebashi offers a housing program and a prevention navigation program with resources for people at high risk of contracting STIs.

Bebashi also provides free HIV, hepatitis C and syphilis testing at Philly AIDS Thrift every other Friday from noon to 4 p.m.

Nafisah Houston, Bebashi chief operating officer, says the nonprofit is using its Philly AIDS Thrift grant to support programs that aren’t typically covered by other funding.

It will use the grant money to stock its boutique with underwear, socks, period products and other toiletries. The funds will also be used to cover lab costs if additional testing is necessary after an HIV test result.

Additionally, funding will go towards Bebashi’s HYPE program, which educates youth on sexual wellness, STIs and testing.

“It’s just creating that conversation, getting it going,” Houston says.

Philly AIDS Thrift’s support is essential to make sure Bebashi and other HIV services organizations can facilitate these conversations, Houston adds.

“It’s very important,” she says. “Philly AIDS Thrift is al ways there supporting organizations like ours.” ◆

GREEN PAGES

BEAUTY

Hair Vyce Studio

Multicultural hair salon located in University City servicing West Philly & South Jersey since 2013. We specialize in premier hair cuts, color & natural hair for all ages. (215) 921-9770 hairvyce.com

BIKE SHOP

Trophy Bikes

We specialize in the ingenious Brompton Bicycle, made & designed in London to save you time — and space — with its fast, compact fold. Open Wed-Sat, 12-6 pm at 133 S. 23rd St. On the Web @trophybikes

BOOK STORE

Books & Stuff

They can ban books in our libraries and schools, but they can’t ban the books in your home library. Grow your home library! Black woman-owned online shop for children, teens & adults. booksandstuff.info

COMPOSTING

Back to Earth Compost Crew

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

Bennett Compost

The area’s longest running organics collection service (est 2009) serving all of Philadelphia with residential and commercial pickups and locally-made soil products. 215.520.2406 bennettcompost.com

Circle Compost

We’re a woman-owned hyper-local business. We offer 2 or 5 gallon buckets & haul with e-bikes & motor vehicles. We offer finished compost, lawn waste pickups & commercial services. 30 day free trial! circlecompost.com

EATS

The Franklin Fountain

The Franklin Fountain now offers returnable reusable pints of ice cream in Vanilla Bean, Chocolate & Caramelized Banana! Our ice cream is made with PA dairy & all natural ingredients. franklinfountain.com

EDUCATION

Kimberton Waldorf School

A holistic education for students in preschool12th grade. Emphasizes creativity, critical thinking, nature, the arts & experiential learning. Register for an Open House! (610) 933-3635 kimberton.org

ELECTRICIAN

Echo House Electric

Local electrician who works to provide high-quality results on private & public sector projects including old buildings, new construction, residential, commercial & institutional. Minority business. echohouseelectric.com

FARM

Hope Hill Lavender Farm

Established in 2011, our farm offers shopping for made-on-premise lavender products in a scenic environment. Honey, bath & body, teas, candles, lavender essential oil and more. hopehilllavenderfarm.com

FASHION

Philly AIDS Thrift

As a nonprofit thrift store, our goal is to sell the lovely, useful items that people donate & distribute the proceeds to local organizations involved in the fight against HIV/AIDS. phillyaidsthrift.com

Stitch And Destroy

STITCH AND DESTROY creates upcycled alternative fashions & accessories from pre-loved clothing & textile waste. Shop vintage, books, recycled wares & original fashions. 523 S 4th St. stitchanddestroy.com

GREEN BURIAL

Laurel Hill

With our commitment to sustainability, Laurel Hill Cemeteries & Funeral Home specializes in green burials and funerals, has a variety of ecofriendly products to choose from, and offers pet aquamation. laurelhillphl.com

GREEN CLEANING

Holistic Home LLC

Philly’s original green cleaning service, est 2010. Handmade & hypoallergenic products w/ natural ingredients & essential oils. Safe for kids, pets & our cleaners. 215-421-4050 HolisticHomeLLC@gmail.com

GROCERY

Kimberton Whole Foods

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

MAKERS

Mount Airy Candle Co.

Makers of uniquely scented candles, handcrafted perfumery and body care products. Follow us on Instagram @mountairycandleco and find us at retailers throughout 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

RECYCLING

Philadelphia Recycling Company

Full service recycling company for office buildings, manufacturing & industrial. Offering demo & removal + paper, plastics, metals, furniture, electronics, oils, wood & batteries philadelphiarecycling.co

WELLNESS Center

Philadelphia. Are you ready to breathe? centercitybreathe.com

We’re ALL IN on Living Green!

We promote bulk shopping, sustainable and reusable packaging, and more. Discover a better way to grocery shop at the Co-op!

Ambler • Chestnut Hill • Germantown • Mt. Airy

Sustaining environmental connections across campus

Unger Baillie

,

MES ‘22 Director, Environmental Innovations Initiative, University of Pennsylvania

“At the beginning, it wasn’t designed to be a stepping stone for a career change,” says Katie Unger Baillie (MES ’22) about enrolling in the Master of Environmental Studies program. As someone with a lifelong passion for nature, she seized the opportunity to reconnect with environmental topics in the classroom. And, as a science news writer in Penn’s communications office, a professional bonus was the added exposure to newsworthy projects and research on campus that MES courses would offer.

“I took as many field classes as I could,” she recalls, listing topics from ornithology to botany to wetlands. “I also took some really interesting courses on environmental justice and the water industry, just following my curiosity.” Her courses both brought her into the natural environment and taught her about policy, administration, community engagement, and cross-disciplinary collaboration.

By the end of her degree program, Katie realized she wanted to pivot professionally and work fully in the sustainability space. She took an associate director position at Penn’s Environmental Innovations Initiative and has since been promoted to director.

The Initiative’s mission is connecting people, research, programming, and educational opportunities across campus to amplify Penn’s work around environmental challenges and solutions. “A lot of my work now is about building relationships between faculty and students in the complex landscape that is Penn,” Katie says. She credits her time in the MES program with giving her the insights and skills to build those connections. “The message really got hammered home that you need expertise from STEM fields, health professions, the humanities, and community partners to solve problems,” she says, “and that is very much part of what I do here.”

To learn more about Katie’s story, visit:

Katie

Photo by John Donges