June 5: Planning Eastwick | Philly’s newest skyline | Urban forestry

Jared Brey explores the planning process underway in Eastwick, which is seeking a community-driven vision for development that also balances the realities of climate change, and seeks to heal some of the scars left by urban renewal. (For more, read PlanPhilly’s ongoing coverage by Catalina Jaramillo.)

Philly’s newest skyline, the “powerfully transformative” FMC, Evo, and Cira towers in University City, are the “clearest evidence yet that the city has cast its future with the new research-driven economy of meds, eds, and tech,” writes Inga Saffron.

On Hidden City Daily, GroJLart unpeels the histories of 4054 Lancaster Avenue, birthplace of Gartside’s Iron Rust Soap. It’s a striking Victorian survivor that’s sold everything from refrigerators to adult videos.

At 10th and Ellsworth streets in South Philly, St. Maron’s Maronite Catholic Church has long been a haven for Middle Eastern immigrants, writes Dan Geringer. Though it’s long been a predominantly Lebanese congregation, families from Syria, Jordan, Palestine, Egypt, and Iraq also find community through the church, including several seeking asylum.

Grid talks to author Jill Jonnes about the history of urban trees, and why the world needs urban forests as part of its solutions to climate change.

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