Grid Magazine

12/23/2025

💧 On Saturday, Oct. 26, North Philly-based artist and children’s books author Alyssa Reynoso-Morris hosted a DIY water purification event at North Philly Peace Park. This was the final event of a three-part series called Stories Grow Here, funded by the Barnes Foundation.

The series is a part of Barnes North’s Everyday Places Artists Partnerships, which places a local artist in a community space that is related to the artist’s background and current work. Through reading and craft activities, Stories Grow Here combined art with an exploration of the natural world.

“People think that art can only happen inside of museums,” said Carolina Marin Hernandez, bilingual senior programs coordinator at the Barnes Foundation, who also leads Barnes North, a program designed to support and uplift local artists in North Philly. This new initiative is modeled after Barnes West, which had a similar mission.

Most of the participants were parents and children who volunteer at North Philly Peace Park, a community garden where autonomy and knowledge of the Earth is prioritized.

“I want [the kids] to be introduced to water because it’s from the earth,” said Illz Willz, parent volunteer and poet. “But also because we take water for granted.”

➡️ Read the full story at https://gridphilly.com/blog-home/2025/12/01/local-artist-teaches-garden-volunteers-how-water-gets-clean/

✍️ Deesarine Ballayan
📸 Jose Mazarriegos

12/22/2025

For the first time in the utility’s history, Philadelphia Gas Works (PGW) has agreed to hold community engagement meetings to discuss decarbonization.

In a settlement agreement approved Oct. 9 by the Public Utility Commission (PUC), PGW agreed not only to a significantly lower rate hike than they initially proposed, but also to begin engaging in a modernization process, starting with two community meetings to discuss long-term greenhouse gas emission reductions. But activists who intervened in the ratemaking case say that time will tell whether that commitment will have any teeth.

Peter Furcht of POWER Interfaith says this settlement is a good first step towards transitioning the city-owned utility away from gas, but in terms of holding them accountable to continue that effort, “There’s still a lot to be done.”

➡️ Read the full story at https://gridphilly.com/blog-home/2025/12/01/pgw-takes-a-step-towards-reducing-emissions/

✍️ Julia Lowe
📸 Photo by Jess Benjamin for Earthjustice

12/21/2025

Last year, the Solar for Schools act passed through the State Capitol, promising to provide $25 million dollars for schools across the commonwealth to install solar power arrays. This year, that legislation was renewed, but the demand from schools was more than triple what the program was equipped to pay out — and advocates say that funding is just a small silver lining in the dark clouds of state and federal solar policies.

➡️ Read the full story at gridphilly.com

12/20/2025

In June 2026, Philadelphia’s current solid waste and recycling contracts are set to end. That contract expiration might mean a fundamental shift in the City’s waste management practices toward things like reuse, recycling, repair and composting,... or it could mean a continuation of the status quo: a recycling rate hovering around just 12%, and sending 40% of our waste to be burned at an incinerator down the river in Delaware County.

Councilmember Jamie Gauthier introduced the Stop Trashing Our Air Act in September, which would ban the City from incinerating any of its waste. The Committee on the Environment voted for Gauthier’s bill to pass out of committee at the November hearing, and as of this recording, it awaits a vote by the full City Council.

➡️ Read the full story at gridphilly.com

12/19/2025

Events happening in and around Philadelphia this weekend!

SATURDAY, 12.20
Audubon Christmas Bird Count with Wissahickon Trails: Participate in the 126th Audubon Christmas Bird Count! Join Wissahickon Trails staff and explore Four Mills Nature Reserve to count all the winter species we see and hear.

➡️ Learn More: https://gridphilly.com/event/audubon-christmas-bird-count-with-wissahickon-trails/

SATURDAY, 12.20
Winter Solstice Yoga: Celebrate the winter solstice with a gentle and accessible yoga class. This practice is perfect for all levels and focuses on releasing the physical and mental stress that can accumulate during the busy holiday season. Through intentional, slow-flowing movement, you’ll find balance and prepare your mind and body for the year ahead.

➡️ Learn More: https://gridphilly.com/event/winter-solstice-yoga/

SATURDAY, 12.20
The Original BYOB Holiday Lights Trolley: Get ready to board a festive ride through twinkling lights and holiday cheer — the beloved Original BYOB Holiday Lights Trolley is coming back to Philadelphia for the season! After a successful run since our Philly launch last year, we’re thrilled to once again provide families, friends and holiday‑enthusiasts with a carefree and unforgettable way to experience the city’s holiday display.

➡️ Learn More: https://gridphilly.com/event/the-original-byob-holiday-lights-trolley/2025-12-20/

12/18/2025

🧵 At the turn of the 20th century, Philadelphia was one of the largest textile manufacturing cities in the country. Since the 1950s, the region’s ongoing deindustrialization has led to a sharp decline in textile mills, as well as in the number of farmers and artisans supporting the textile industry. Knowledge of how the industry operates has also faded.

Leslie Davidson and Rachel Higgins, co-founders of Pennsylvania Fibershed, are part of an ongoing effort to re-weave some of those threads.

“We’re losing this generational knowledge as the last generation of people are dying or selling their mills or businesses, and this is the last opportunity to pass along this knowledge to the younger generation,” says Davidson. “We also need a lot of innovation in this industry to make it more of a circular economy.”

Pennsylvania Fibershed was once wrapped into a coalition-based nonprofit, All Together Now PA, which was founded in 2021 by White Dog Cafe founder and locavorism doyenne Judy Wicks. The organization worked to unite Pennsylvania’s rural and urban communities and advocate for local artisan economies, including food, building materials, plant medicine and clothing and textiles. After Wicks’ retirement in 2023, Higgins, the clothing coalition leader, and Davidson, director of operations, rebranded as Pennsylvania Fibershed, part of Fibershed, an international movement with close to 80 affiliates.

From there, they focused on education.

➡️ Read the full story at https://gridphilly.com/blog-home/2025/12/01/pa-fibershed-builds-connections-across-the-textiles-supply-chain/

✍️ Emily Kovach
📸 Lexy Pierce

12/17/2025

🐎 One warm October night at Temple University’s Liacouras Center, tall, tan rodeo athlete Au’Vion Horton burst out of a high wooden chute on the back of a one-ton bull. As the bull plunged, spun and kicked to throw off Horton, the hum of the crowd at the East Coast premiere of the 8 Seconds Rodeo surged to shrieks.

Horton’s hard spill had a kind of irony. “Bull riding is dangerous, but it saved my life,” says Horton, 24, of Hope, Arkansas, whose rodeo career began at age 5 or 6 when he first competed in “mutton bustin’” — an event in which children ride sheep for as long as possible. “In high school, I tried to get my mom to sign a paper so that I could compete in bull riding,” he says. “She said no, so I lied to my grandmom and said that I needed the paper signed for my grades.”

Bull riding pulled Horton out of depression after his girlfriend, who was on a date with him, was caught in crossfire and died in his arms. He had stopped attending school and working out at the gym, but resumed both when he began rodeoing again.

“Bull riding has taught me to handle myself,” Horton says. “Win, lose or draw, I get up [off the ground] and bow to the crowd, smiling. And I always have a plan B.”

➡️ Read the full story at https://gridphilly.com/blog-home/2025/12/01/the-8-seconds-rodeo-spotlights-black-rodeo/

✍️ Constance Garcia-Barrio
📸 Photo courtesy of 8 Seconds Rodeo

12/16/2025

🌱 Stephanie Kearney has taught middle school science for 20 years. She uses the outdoors as a classroom, even when what’s outside is a schoolyard and the blocks of rowhouses around Penn Alexander School in West Philadelphia.

Grid talked with Kearney to learn what it takes to bring the natural sciences to life for urban students.

➡️ Read the full story at https://gridphilly.com/blog-home/2025/12/01/a-teacher-talks-about-what-works-in-nature-education/

✍️ Bernard Brown
📸 Chris Baker Evens

12/15/2025

By now the announcement is all over our socials thanks to our friends and .news ... but here it is directly from us: we are beyond excited to merge our business into as of January 1, 2026.

When we launched Circle Compost in 2016, composting in Philadelphia looked a lot different than it does today. We had zero desire for Bennett customers to change over from their service to ours- the idea was and still is to get more people composting. In the 9+ years since those early days, we grew from servicing just 1 household and 1 coffee shop to composting for more than 2,500 homes and 50+ businesses. We are so humbled and proud of what Circle became, and grateful to all of our customers and partners who embraced us and fueled our growth.

Meanwhile, over those same 9+ years, Tim Bennett and Jen Mastalerz led Bennett Compost to become a national model for what urban composting can be. They partnered with city agencies to create and run Philly's first ever permitted composting site, added a 2nd permitted site, and are working on more. They grew to servicing over 6,000 homes and 150+ businesses.

Though technically we've been competing with them since our inception, we never saw things that way- our only true competitors are landfills and incinerators. In fact, we've collaborated with Bennett in multiple ways over the years, and a few months ago, for business and personal reasons, we approached them with the idea to merge our business into theirs. We are honored that they wanted to make it happen, and now that it's official, we are so excited to start working together toward our shared mission starting in just a few weeks.

Thank you thank you thank you to all of our customers and friends of Circle- none of this is possible without you.

-Dave and Michele, Circle Compost co-founders

📷 taken on the roof of in summer 2022, at one of many events over the years where we stood side by side

12/15/2025

12/15/2025

🏫 In June, the School District of Philadelphia’s long-running struggle to protect staff and students from asbestos in its aging buildings came to a head with federal criminal charges and an agreement with the U.S. Justice Department to take care of the problem once and for all.

The Justice Department alleges that the Philadelphia School District violated the Asbestos Hazard Emergency Response Act, a federal law requiring schools to monitor their buildings for asbestos and to quickly remediate them if they find the toxic mineral, long used as insulation. Rather than proceed to a trial, the Justice Department and the school district entered into a deferred prosecution agreement, placing the district under judicial oversight as it inspects schools and either removes or seals up remaining asbestos.

➡️ Read the full story at https://gridphilly.com/blog-home/2025/12/01/philadelphia-schools-could-put-asbestos-behind-them/

✍️ Bernard Brown
📸 Photo courtesy of Office of Minority Leader Kendra Brooks

12/12/2025

♻️ For nearly a decade, Philadelphians looking to begin their composting journeys have looked to one of two options for private compost pick-up services — Bennett and Circle Compost. But now, customers won’t have to choose at all.

Bennett Compost announced its acquisition of Circle Compost in an email to customers on Dec. 12, with the merger officially taking effect in 2026.

Tim Bennett founded Bennett Compost in 2009, and the company now diverts 200 tons of waste from landfills each month, serving 6,500 households and 150 businesses with their compost pickup services. Circle Compost was founded by David Bloovman and his wife Michele in 2016.

“When we launched, we launched at the exact same price that [Bennett] had,” says Bloovman. “At the time, they were $15 a month for a five gallon bucket emptied weekly. And I told him, ‘I didn't do this so that we could go out there and be 14 bucks.’ We just wanted to give another option.”

Nine years later, Circle composts more than 25 tons of food scraps every month from over 2,500 customers, 55 of those commercial.

➡️ Read the full story at https://gridphilly.com/blog-home/2025/12/12/bennett-compost-and-circle-compost-announce-merger/

✍️ Julia Lowe
📸 Chris Baker Evens