🌳 Disappearing open spaces | Morning Newsletter

It’s a great start to the week as we’ll hit the 60s today, under partly sunny skies.

Today we’re looking at how commercial development is transforming a small South Jersey town into an “asphalt city.”

And an animal sedative flooding Philly’s drug market is more dangerous than fentanyl.

— Kerith Gabriel (@sprtswtr, morningnewsletter@inquirer.com)

People in Lawnside, in Camden County, fear that the town is losing its green — and its history.

🌳 The latest: A $100 million plan is set to transform much of a long-vacant, 135-acre site along Oak Avenue with a mix of light industrial, residential, office, retail, and recreational development. The plan comes on the heels of a 144-unit apartment complex, which opened last summer.

🌳 The problem: Residents of Lawnside are alarmed that the three additional industrial buildings, totaling more than 650,000 square feet, represent too much transformation. In a community established in the early 19th century as a haven for free and formerly enslaved Black people and where the current population is 77% Black, the history and the landscape are equally important.

🌳 What neighbors are saying: “Lawnside was trees and lawns, and now it’s becoming asphalt city, said Ida Conaway, 96, who is pictured above.👆🏽 “I don’t know of anything being built that is beneficial to the people.”

In addition to the fears of all of this development, there’s also the loss of the history Lawnside residents say they’ve fought hard to preserve.

“This is a historical town, and I’m afraid it’s going to lose that,” said Thelma Tutt, who moved to the borough from Maple Shade 31 years ago. “If I knew they were going to be having warehouses in the neighborhood, I wouldn’t have come to Lawnside.”

Our reporter Kevin Riordan takes a look at what officials are saying and the long-term effect of Lawnside’s transformation.

It’s called xylazine and it’s the latest additive flooding the drug bags of Philly streets. Used primarily as an animal sedative, it depresses the ability to breathe. Because it’s not an opioid, overdoses can’t be reversed with naloxone.

And xylazine — or “tranq,” as it’s known on the street — causes severe withdrawal effects and horrific skin lesions.

Fentanyl, the additive found in most illicit opioid drugs, has driven death rates for years. And although there’s no proof that xylazine is a root cause of more deaths, researchers recently discovered that a fourth of all overdose victims in 2020 had xylazine in their system.

Our reporter Aubrey Whelan has more on the additive that has doctors, public health officials, advocates, and drug users united in fear.

As the love affair with the Eagles’ return to kelly green jerseys next season continues, the writer in this latest piece says the Birds’ move to midnight green is looking a bit “dated.” Today’s question: Do you know the year kelly green jerseys ended and midnight green began? Take a guess and find the answer here.

a. 1994

b. 1995

c. 1996

d. 1997

👏🏾 Applauding: These creative, inspiring and entrepreneurial Philly teens.

🏀 Wondering: Will Sixers star James Harden find his shot in time for the playoffs?

🐘 Exploring: What a Senate endorsement by Donald Trump means for GOP hopeful Mehmet Oz.

One part of a delicious-sounding Philly duo.

ACKNON VIBE

Think you know? Send your guess our way at morningnewsletter@inquirer.com. We’ll give a shoutout to a reader at random who answers correctly. Today’s shoutout goes to Sandra Kerwood of Philadelphia, who correctly guessed EASTERN STATE PENITENTIARY as Sunday’s answer.

Here’s hoping that your week gets off on the right foot. Thanks for reading The Inquirer. 💯