🌱 The quest to save community lots | Morning Newsletter
And Josh Shapiro’s targeted effort to secure Black voters.
The Morning Newsletter
Start your day with the Philly news you need and the stories you want all in one easy-to-read newsletter
It’ll be sunny with a high of 82. It’ll be a good idea to grab sunglasses today.
Important acknowledgment: Congratulations to Abbott Elementary stars Sheryl Lee Ralph and Quinta Brunson for their Emmy wins.
I start most mornings with a daily walk. It doesn’t matter where but I have to go on one. It’s my non-negotiable (most days) and generally, it’s toward somewhere green. It could be a park, my neighbor’s small garden (yes, with permission), or a street just a few blocks over that generally has more tree cover than mine.
Most of us want to be around some kind of green space. There’s research to suggest it should be a required public service and it can reduce crime.
But for many parts of a city, not only is it a struggle to get, but also to keep. Our lead story showcases how advocates are pushing to make sure all parts of the city can achieve some reprieve from just concrete.
— Taylor Allen (@TayImanAllen, morningnewsletter@inquirer.com)
Advocates of a West Kensington community garden want to give all Philly neighborhoods similar spaces
James Temple cleared the debris from a lot next door, tilled the soil, and started growing tomatoes and potatoes. It wasn’t long before he was hosting barbecues and cook outs. He created a lush green space in the middle of miles of concrete.
But then the city sent a letter six months ago, stating it was going to sell the lot at a sheriff’s sale, leaving the lot empty once again.
Temple’s lot is one of the 2,100 remaining across the city that have U.S. Bank liens on them.
Necessary context: Because private banks own the lots rather than the city, the lots are at-risk to be sold and turned over to developers.
Community members say it’s detrimental to their quality of life by limiting green space and accelerating gentrification. Members of West Kensington’s César Andreu Iglesias Garden sent a letter demanding the end of selling lots at sheriff’s sales.
Reporter Massarah Mikati details the push to save the lots and what the community wants from the city.
What you should know today
Take some time to look over evidence-based programs that may be able to reduce gun violence, including what the city has and has not tried.
More than 6,000 buildings in New Jersey will be under water at high tide by 2050.
Philadelphia rapper PnB Rock was shot and killed Monday in Los Angeles.
Planned Parenthood’s national and Pennsylvania executives gathered in Philly to talk about the challenges of accommodating an influx of out-of-state patients and preserving access in the state.
After realizing the benefits of at-home testing for COVID-19, three Philadelphia groups joined forced to expand access to HIV testing.
Viking Mill artist studios is set to become a 178-mixed use development and current residents, who must move out at the end of the month, resist.
Local coronavirus numbers: Here’s your daily look at the latest COVID-19 data.
Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro is on a mission: energize his base with just two months left in the general election campaign for governor.
The crux: Black voters in Philadelphia are a crucial group for Democrats. It’s a demographic considered to be among the most reliable constituencies for Democrats trying to win statewide.
The city has upward of a million registered voters, and more than 4 in 10 are Black.
But, it’s in Shapiro’s best interest to not get too comfortable. Turnout is typically lower for midterm years and Democrats often struggle to energize voters compared to presidential election years.
Reporter Anna Orso details Shapiro’s targeted effort to secure Black voters.
🧩 Unscramble the Anagram 🧩
Hint: powdered condiments
AMUSES CAW
Think you know? Send your guess our way at morningnewsletter@inquirer.com. We’ll give a shout-out to a reader at random who answers correctly.
Mother Nature won’t allow to you to doomscroll — shootings, wildfires, fascism … repeat. It quiets the never-ending noise of everyday life with every lost bar on your cell phone.
Forests can make you happy. There’s no shortage of scientific studies that reveal the physiological and psychological benefits of time spent among the trees.
Columnist Helen Ubiñas shares how a trip into the mountains can be a much-needed reprieve...but it still can’t shelter you from the world’s problems. There’s no such thing as an apolitical utopia.
Notable quote: “Breaks are necessary — for our happiness, our sanity, and for the kind of perseverance we will need for what lies ahead. But escape is an illusion and a luxury that those of us who care about the future of this world just don’t have.”
Continue reading to discover how spending days among natural beauty energized her to keep fighting.
What we’re...
đź“– Reading: An American Marriage by Tayari Jones.
🎉 Anticipating: The Mid-Autumn Festival returning in-person in Chinatown Saturday.
📺 Watching: Mad Men (I know I’m over a decade late. Let me live).
Photo of the day
And that’s your Tuesday. I’ll be back here at the same time tomorrow morning 👋🏾