Neighborhoods

Sitting on a patch of neatly trimmed grass on Germantown Avenue is a green sign carved with golden letters, which reads “Nicetown: Putting the nice back in ‘The Town.’” Though the motto doesn’t boast much

Karla Mota hectically runs back and forth through the Youth United for Change office carrying stacks of statistics. Hurrying to finish up her day’s work before she heads home, Mota, 17, understands the importance of

Linn Vaughters is in the last place she thought she’d be when she started her career: North Philadelphia. As a private school teacher, she held a negative view toward Philadelphia’s school systems that stemmed from

[local /files/2009/11/fa0905germantown_wwco-op.mov] The Weaver’s Way Co-op is a community-owned market in Mount Airy. Among other things, the co-op has committed itself to addressing the epidemic of childhood obesity throughout northwest Philadelphia and does so through

On a cold and overcast Thursday morning, a group of dedicated students file into a drafty gymnasium on the fourth floor of The Lighthouse, a community organization on Lehigh Avenue. On one side of the gym,

In the concrete jungle of North Philadelphia, amid the broken sidewalks, fading stop signs and aging brownstones, stands a refreshingly out-of-place building. Its small garden peels back from the sidewalks of the quiet block. The

The doors of the Germantown Courier, which began in the historic community in 1936, were slammed shut last February. Unfortunately, there was little the staff could do prevent or deter its folding. In 1998 the

There is one place in West Philadelphia where fighting is acceptable. High-flying kicks and swiftly moving bodies pass back and forth across the room. The sound of sneakers hitting the floor—and sometimes skin—is drowned out