Art & Design At Pier 68, New Ways To Connect To The “Working” River With construction on the South Philadelphia pier park set to start this fall, Nathaniel Popkin talks to landscape architect Bryan Hanes and his design team about their inspiration
History It Started With Bananas Over a century since its founding on Dock Street, this legacy Philadelphia fruit importer is still expanding. Nic Esposito goes behind the facade for the story of banana king M. Levin and Company
Urbanism Rethinking The Hazardous Waterfront What’s the most unhealthy part of Philadelphia? A new study says anywhere along the Delaware River. In a Soapbox column today, Chris Mizes argues that while planners are taking into account public health by promoting mixed uses and walkability, when it comes to the waterfront especially, we’re missing the bigger issue
Development Port Richmond’s Sidewalks May Be Clean, But The Air Is Dirty Faced with major sources of mostly unmonitored air pollution, Port Richmond residents, empowered by the Clean Air Council, have taken to “citizen science,” monitoring for serious pollutants themselves. The aim, says new contributor Alex Vuocolo, is to create a more localized system for understanding hidden threats to public health
History Why Fever 1793 Resonates It’s a story of global interconnections, 18th century style, says the film’s writer Nathaniel Popkin
History Rat Island! Just off the shipping channel in the tidal Delaware River, opposite the mouth of the Schuylkill, lies a half-acre island of scrubby trees, windswept pebbly beach, and upwards of ten thousand discarded plastic bottles
History Southwark Meets the World The 1915 “Southwark Group” finger piers at Christian Street were the city’s busiest