Green City Journal

Inmates Plant Seeds for Community

The City Harvest Project connects an extensive and diverse network of people and organizations. Inmates in the prison system's jobs training program nurture vegetable seeds to seedlings in the newly refurbished prison greenhouse and the "Roots to Reentry Garden". Gardeners from 21 Philadelphia community gardesn take delivery of the seedlings, transplanting and growing them until harvest. SHARE food bank volunteers then transport the fresh produce to locations in the community for distribution. The program was funded by a grant from the Albert M. Greenfield Foundation.

NABRs for Riverfront Planning

I met Monday, October 2nd, with Sarah Thorp and Shawn Rairigh, two NABR members with formal backgrounds in city planning, who have been active in NABR's planning initiative, and asked them questions about planning for the river.

Most people know about Neighbors Allied for the Best Riverfront from the "CasiNO" campaign to keep casinos from being forced on residents without their consent. But fewer people are aware of NABR's planning initiative. Can you describe it?
SARAH THORP: NABR's been involved since the beginning. Our CasiNO mission was not necessarily anti-casino. What we've been fighting for is good community-based planning for the riverfront. The casino process allowed no planning input from the community.