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More dads need to speak up about climate change — Grid Magazine

When I was as old as my son is now, back in 1986, the warnings of climate change first hit the news. In the following years, climate science became conclusive. We know the impacts will be severe and widespread. Yet, even for me—an environmentalist to the core—our climate crisis did not feel truly personal until 16 months ago, when my wife brought our son into the world. I recognize we do not live in an area prone to hurricanes or forest fires. Still, I worry about the worsening heat waves, the insect-borne diseases spreading to our neighborhoods and the costs to manage the growing number of storms and floods. My environmental anxieties are compounded by the depth of love for my son. Rather than let these anxieties consume me, I chose to take action.

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The 2018 Grid Holiday Gift Guide — Grid Magazine

While we don’t subscribe to mainstream notions of “retail therapy,” we do have some holiday advice: give freely. The gifts of your time, your energy and your funds to causes you believe in all count. To give is, unmistakably, to open yourself up, to allow for an exchange with others, and to take a chance on the joy that’s still pulsing through our city, even on the darkest of days. If you do give gifts for the holidays, do it with p ion. Take the time to shop in neighborhood stores, feeling the texture and weight of things, chatting with the shopkeeper or humming along to familiar seasonal songs. Or, if you prefer to stay in and shop online, seek out things that are local, beautiful and handmade, and then share them with the people you love. Support the artists and makers in your community, and give a gift to Philly’s micro-economy. Even if you only have $5 to spend, make it count. Objects are never a substitute for love or kindness, but they can be tokens of them, a reminder of kinship and closeness. We all have those gifts in our homes that make us feel good when we see or use them. This year, give that gift.

A room-by-room guide to the best gifts you can give

With the opening of the Discovery Center, the East Park Reservoir is once again an oasis in Strawberry Mansion — Grid Magazine

In 1970, the City of Philadelphia closed off the East Park Reservoir at the edge of the Strawberry Mansion neighborhood. A gate blocked the ramp up from Fairmount Park. “I grew up in Strawberry Mansion, and the reservoir was used by the community as a recreational space,” explains Tonnetta Graham, president of the Strawberry Mansion Community Development Corporation. “There was a road around the perimeter, a simple dirt road that was open to the public. People would run around or walk around. There was an incline around the reservoir and kids would walk around there and explore.” Due to drownings and other safety concerns, the city closed off the reservoir, and “several generations of Strawberry Mansion residents grew up with just that fence,” says Graham. Now, 48 years later, the gate has been opened again and the community welcomed back in. Thank the birds.  Birds can fly over fences, of course. From the perspective of waterfowl flying south in the winter, the reservoir stands out, according to Keith  Russell, program manager for Urban Conservation for Audubon PA. “Even though a lot of different types of waterfowl have been recorded there, the most common species you find are birds that dive, because it’s so ,” (currently eight feet, though up to 25 in the past). The list is long, but it includes ducks such as merganser, scaup, and canvasback, not to mention other non-ducks like grebes. Russell pointed out another benefit for waterfowl: the reservoir doesn’t receive polluted stormwater runoff, unlike our rivers, so the water quality remains high even after a major rain. In the mid-1980s, Russell, then at the Academy of Natural Sciences, and volunteers followed up on waterfowl observations from before the reservoir had been closed off. “There were a lot of birds, and we were like, ‘Whoa that is amazing!’ ” In 2005, Audubon included the reservoir in the Fairmount Park and Benjamin Rush Park State Park Important Bird Area designation. 

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How one advocate is pushing for accessibility in the city’s museums — Grid Magazine

On two legs, museums make sense. You’re able to see and be seen over the ticket counter or visitor information desk. Informational panels next to objects are relatively close to eye level. It’s easy to spot signage pointing you upstairs to another collection—and easy to get up those stairs once you do. For a wheelchair user, it’s a different story.  “The world was never made for people who are sitting down full time,” experiential designer Ben Baker says. “The world was made for people who walk. Everywhere you go, there’s going to be challenges.”  At museums, those challenges are varied—whether it’s finding information about accessible parking or avoiding the glare from a gl frame that only a seated patron would see. 

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Bike Talk: The Road Less Traveled — Grid Magazine

Want to go mountain biking? You could travel a few hours to the Poconos or Catskills. You could go to the Delaware Water Gap, maybe, and do some adventure touring.  Or, you could stick around Philadelphia, because we have some of the most sought-after mountain-biking trails in the region.  Yes, here in Philadelphia proper.

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