northern liberties: Philadelphia Metropolis

Reading the City

By Samantha Kirk» My father, a Navy veteran and contented suburban Maryland home-dweller, has trouble understanding why I love the city. When I talk about the row house I'm moving into in North Philadelphia, with its bathroom window offering an unobstructed view of the neighbor's bedroom, its crumbling drywall, its nightly chorus of stray cats, he waxes poetic about the Jeffersonian virtues of the countryside and the joys of homesteading. He knows I love the wilderness and the country; so why, he asks, have I spent most of my adult life seeking out the experience of the city? It's true that I am quite the nature lover. I hike, I climb rocks, I garden; plant identification is one of my hobbies. Being able to read a forest or meadow by the leaf shapes hidden within it is a wonderful thing. Much, in fact, like walking down a city (Comments)

Election 2011: The Curious Case of Karen Brown

There was a point during my interview with Karen Brown, the Republican candidate for mayor, when the conversation turned from the mundane to the strange so quickly I had to stop -- to make sure I heard what I just heard. "Wait a minute," I asked her, as she munched on a sandwich and fries at Darling's Diner. "Are you telling me your car has been vandalized eight times? She nodded. (Comments)

The New Flophouses: Part Two

By Ryan W. Briggs» We're standing near the fenced-off grass lot in Kensington that adjoins the clubhouse, used for barbecues and lectures by The Last Stop's mercurial owner "Eddie Z", short for Edward Zampitella. A Kensington native who never learned to read or write, Eddie is a 20-year recovering addict who styles himself as champion of men struggling free from the grip of addiction. His brand of recovery uses tough talk and violent imagery to remind addicts what they stand to lose with their habit. The side yard features a handmade plywood coffin, spray-painted black, with a mannequin inside. A crude, grim idol, the mannequin represents the fate of everyone at the clubhouse, if they start using again. (Comments)

Making It Local: The New Food Economy

By Elise Vider» Philadelphia is becoming home to a new industry. Despite the recession, a crop of artisan food makers are setting up shop in the city, making everything from sauerkraut to premium chocolates. Philadelphia once known for making big things, such as ships and locomotives, is becoming known as the place where food entrepreneurs are making small, delicious things. Elise Vider writes about the emerging new food economy. (Comments)

Creating the New City: Part Two

By Ada Kulesza» Our series on young Philadelphians continues with profiles of Zoe Selzer of the business incubator Green Village; the videographers and multi-media artists who comprise Media Giraffes and a Texas transplant named Lloyd Emelle, also known as 'The Computer Genius." (Comments)