Strawberry Mansion: Property Developers Strive To Improve Neighborhood
When walking through Strawberry Mansion, you may notice an overabundance of vacant properties and abandoned houses. It was not always like this. Due to redlining, a racist collusion between banks and city government, where people of certain races were prevented from buying homes in certain sections of the city, the historic neighborhood on the edge […]
Parkside: A New Fence and Growing Gardens at the Pump Track.
The Philly Pump Track on Parkside Avenue offers a different bicycle riding experience. It’s called pumping. The idea is to use your body and momentum to propel your way through the track without pedaling. But there is more than just a clay track to ride a bike on at the pump track. Over the past […]
Fairmount Park: Protecting the Water Supply
One of the largest urban green spaces in the nation sits right here in the City of Brotherly Love. With more than 10,000 acres of parks, trails and trees, Fairmount Park wasn’t originally created to build recreation centers with playgrounds and pools. It was created to protect the city’s water supply. To begin to understand […]
South Philadelphia: The City Unites over Soccer
The city will host the second annual Philadelphia International Unity Cup , a 48-team regional, World Cup soccer-style tournament, this fall with the final match set to take place at Lincoln Financial Field on Nov. 11. In addition to a highly competitive soccer match taking place that day, there will also be a parade of nations, where each team […]
Fairmount Park: Historic Homes Have Stories to Tell
The Charms of Fairmount Park are six historic houses with six different stories to tell. Cedar Grove, Laurel Hill, Lemon Hill, Mount Pleasant, Historic Strawberry Mansion and Woodford are maintained as historic house museums. Some people have visited all of them while others have never heard of them. In recent years, fewer people are visiting the […]
Fishtown: Get Up’s Gettin’ it in the Park
Anyone who has been to the Electric Factory in the Callowhill neighborhood has seen local artist Get Up’s creations on the walls inside. The 31-year-old Kensington native has been creating street art in the city since 2012, after living and working in Oakland for six years. Get Up is not only a street artist, he is a musician and […]
West Philadelphia: A Slice of Japan in Fairmount Park
Shofuso Japanese House and Garden is getting ready for a partial roof replacement later this summer. While most might find this subject to be of no interest, there is actually a unique story behind it. The roof on the home is made out of hinoki bark. “Hinoki roofs are a pretty rare thing to find […]
West Philadelphia: A Place to Learn About Japanese Culture
Derek Finn is the associate director of Shofuso Japanese House and Garden. He started at Shofuso in 2010 after earning his bachelor’s degree in East Asian studies from the University of Pennsylvania. His passion for Japanese culture kept him at Shofuso, where he started as a visitor service assistant and worked his way up to […]