Clean Air Council » Advocacy

“The Hub” is a weekly round-up of transportation related news in the Philadelphia area and beyond. Check back weekly to keep up-to-date on the issues Clean Air Council’s transportation staff finds important.

Losing our state’s public transit infrastructure is a scary future! Join the Transit For All PA campaign for sustainable transit funding to keep our state moving forward. Happy Halloween!

Election day is Tuesday, November 4th. Find your polling place here!

CBS Philadelphia: City Council passes bill that could put Philadelphia’s bike lane safety project back on track – Last week, Philadelphia City Council passed a bill that gave the Streets Department the authority to establish loading zones in parts of Center City, including Spruce and Pine streets. This was part of an earlier initiative to protect cyclists, as loading zones would keep stopped cars out of bike lanes. Neighborhood group Friends of Pine and Spruce won a lawsuit in June, stopping the city from enacting this plan and to reverse work that had been completed. This bill overrides that decision and the Mayor has 10 days to sign the bill, making it effective immediately.

WHYY: More time? SEPTA asks for extension of federal deadline to inspect aging Silverliner railcars – The deadline given to SEPTA for the inspection of the Silverliner rail cars is Friday, October 31st. Now SEPTA has requested an additional 2 weeks in order to inspect the over 220 cars included in the order. Over 100 have been inspected so far with around two-thirds failing and only 35 cars returning to service immediately. According to SEPTA, most that have failed inspection only need minor repairs and then can be returned to service. A decision on the two week extension is expected by the end of this week.

Image Source: Elizabeth Robertson/The Inquirer

The Inquirer: Greyhound bus terminal likely to reopen on Filbert Street after two years of tumult – The Philadelphia Parking Authority reached an agreement with City officials this week, and the former intercity bus terminal on Filbert could be getting a major renovation. The PPA will begin renovations and run the Greyhound bus station on behalf of the City, according to the agreement. Legislation to assess feeds and other items was introduced this week to City Council and the PPA board must agree to the lease. Spring Guard traffic issues have been haunting Philadelphia for over two years. This solution would address the problem, but would require cooperation from other entities such as the Streets Department, to direct traffic pattern changes around the Filbert depot.

Other Stories

6ABC: Sinkhole closes portion of Schuylkill River Trail in Center City Philadelphia

PhillyVoice: At 30th Street Station, deep cleaning is the ‘true artisan work’ of a $550 million renovation

6ABC: ‘South Jersey Girls Who Walk’ brings a social club to local women

WFMZ: SEPTA’s City Hall Station is getting a face lift ahead of America’s 250th birthday celebrations

Momentum Mag: Philly Bike Train is Upping the City of Brotherly Love’s Bicycle Commute Game

Article tags: Advocacy, biking, construction, i95, regional rail, safety, SEPTA, septa fires, septa funding, sustainability, the hub, transportation

The Cobbs Creek Watershed Coalition convenes monthly to collectively move forward the goals of activation, stewardship and accessibility for our watershed neighborhoods. A valuable tenet that we have adopted is the power of working together. Our hope is that this practice is evergreen for us and others working to support greener, well-resourced, and more just communities. In Philadelphia, a city rich with environmental challenges and opportunities, nonprofit organizations are increasingly realizing that the path to lasting impact lies in collaboration. Environmental nonprofits, once operating in silos, are now recognizing that pooling their strengths (be it in data collection, project management, community organizing, or public education) leads to more powerful and sustainable outcomes. As the proverb goes, “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” This ethos is proving true in the environmental sector, where working together often translates to broader reach, deeper impact, and smarter resource use.

Philadelphia’s environmental issues are complex and interconnected, and they include urban heat islands, flooding, waste management, food insecurity, and equitable access to green space. No single organization can tackle these multifaceted challenges alone. However, through collaborative work, nonprofits can bring their specialized expertise to the table and support each other’s missions in complementary ways. A group strong in data collection like Hinge Collective, for instance, can partner with another excelling in community education like the Black Farmers Co-op to ensure that insights gathered from field research are translated into accessible, actionable information for the public.

Consider how a collaboration between an environmental education nonprofit and a grassroots community organizer might work. The education nonprofit may have robust curriculum tools, trained educators, and established school partnerships, while the community-based group offers deep relationships within underserved neighborhoods and a trusted voice on local concerns. Working together, they can deliver culturally relevant, impactful programs that neither could have fully achieved on their own.

Organizations that excel in programming and project management are also invaluable partners. These nonprofits often have the logistical capacity to design and execute large-scale initiatives but may lack direct access to target populations or the nuanced understanding of community needs. Pairing with organizations skilled in engaging special populations such as immigrant communities, low-income residents, or individuals with disabilities, can bridge these gaps and create more inclusive and effective environmental initiatives.

Environmental nonprofits in Philadelphia that collaborate can also pool resources, funding, tools, office space, and staff expertise, reducing redundancies and maximizing impact. Instead of competing for limited grants, organizations can pursue joint funding opportunities, often viewed favorably by funders who see value in cross-sector partnerships. Sharing staff or equipment for events and programs also stretches every dollar further, allowing nonprofits to invest more in the communities they serve rather than in administrative overhead.

Another major benefit of collaboration is the ability to amplify advocacy efforts. When multiple organizations with aligned missions speak with a united voice, they wield greater influence over policy decisions at the city and state levels. Coordinated campaigns around climate justice, green infrastructure, or sustainable development have a higher chance of success when supported by a coalition rather than a single group. Decision-makers are more likely to respond when they see broad-based community backing and a clear, collective agenda.

Philadelphia has already seen successful examples of this collaborative approach. Networks such as the Cobbs Creek Watershed Coalition and The Public Interest Law Center’s Land Justice Coalition bring together diverse partners working in conservation, food access, and environmental justice. These coalitions not only share resources and best practices but also foster a culture of mutual support and accountability.

In an age where environmental challenges are growing in scale and urgency, collaboration is no longer optional, it’s essential. By working together, environmental nonprofits in Philadelphia can magnify their impact, strengthen community trust, and drive meaningful, long-term change. Each organization brings a unique strength to the table, and when combined strategically, those strengths form a powerful force for good.

Ultimately, the future of environmental progress in Philadelphia will depend not on how well any one organization performs alone, but on how well they can join forces to go farther, together.

Article tags: Advocacy, cobbs creek, transportation

PHILADELPHIA, PA (August 1, 2025) Feet First Philly (FFP), a pedestrian advocacy project of the Clean Air Council, launched the sixth round of its Public Space Enhancement Mini-Grant program in partnership with Philadelphia’s Department of Public Health’s Division of Chronic Disease and Injury Prevention. The initiative funds projects aimed at improving Philadelphia’s pedestrian environment and public spaces, with mini-grant recipients receiving funding ranging from $500 to $2,000 to create public space enhancements and safety improvements. FFP is hosting an informational webinar on August 20th for those interested in learning more about the program.

“Since 2020, the Mini-Grant program has successfully funded 64 projects led by community groups across the Greater Philadelphia region,” said Titania Markland, Clean Air Council Sustainable Transportation Program Manager. “We have received exciting project proposals over the past 5 years, and we are excited for the new grant proposals that we will receive this round. We look forward to continuing to fund public space improvements in communities throughout Philadelphia.”

“The Health Department continues to support investment in our public spaces as an integral part of a cleaner, greener, safer, more active and more connected Philadelphia. We value our partnership with Clean Air Council – Feet First Philly to provide the Public Space Enhancement Mini-Grants, which bolster inspiring community-led work to improve and activate public spaces throughout our city.,” said Dr. Kinnari Chandriani, Director of the Health Department’s Division of Chronic Disease and Injury Prevention.

In 2020, FFP launched its first Public Space Enhancement Mini-Grant program with seven projects that were led by and benefited local communities. Since then, the program has awarded many mini-grants to local organizations all over Philadelphia and provided funding to:

Extend efforts to clean up the Cobbs Creek Trail
Create a pocket park in Southwest Philadelphia
Replace a severely damaged sidewalk outside of a community garden in Kensington
Paint a mural on a newsstand in Germantown
Paint an artistic crosswalk in North Philadelphia
Help develop community gardens all over the city
Add amenities to a local meadow to make it a walking destination
Install bike racks to prevent illegal sidewalk parking outside of a school

With the mini-grant funding, FFP and its partner organizations have been able to enhance public spaces in Philadelphia in unique ways. For the full list of projects awarded during the 2024-2025 5th round, read more here.

“Pedestrian advocacy projects bring communities together to create safer and healthier spaces,” said Sally Hecht, a Clean Air Council Transportation Program Coordinator. “They bring people from all walks of life together and make neighborhoods around Philadelphia safer and healthier. Through the Mini-Grants, we can give Philadelphians the ability to build their communities in ways that benefit and directly support their neighbors.”

Safety is a top priority for this program, and applicants are encouraged to identify ways their project can improve safety in their communities.

FFP continues to receive funding from the Department of Public Health for the Mini-Grants. If you are interested in applying or want more information, attend the webinar on August 20th at 12:00 PM (noon) EST. Applicants can email shecht@cleanair.org to schedule a one-on-one meeting with Clean Air Council staff to discuss their project ideas. Applications for the Mini-Grant are open until Wednesday, October 1st at 11:59 PM EST.

Article tags: Advocacy, community, greening, pedestrian, walkability

Join Transit for All PA, Transit Forward Philadelphia, and more, on Wednesday, August 6th, 11:00 AM at City Hall, to rally for transit funding that keeps SEPTA running and hundreds of thousands of Pennsylvanians rely on. Register here.

Mass Transit: PA: As Philly residents and schools brace for SEPTA cuts and late state funds, there’s no rush for a budget in Harrisburg – 52,000 public school students who rely on SEPTA services to commute to school may soon have to figure out alternative transportation, as the start of the school year looms without resolution on the overdue state budget. Without more funding, SEPTA will be forced to enact drastic service reductions beginning August 24th. School district officials, who are scheduled to meet with SEPTA officials next week, are also contending with the possibility of starting the school year without state funding.

Philly Voice: New swing bridge along Schuylkill River Trail in South Philly nears completion – This winter, a long-awaited swing bridge connecting Grays Ferry Crescent Park to Bartram’s Garden will be completed, allowing pedestrians and cyclists to cross the Schuylkill River. Dubbed “Schuylkill Crossing,” the project will extend the River Trail by 1.5 miles farther south. Crucially, the mechanism of a swing bridge allows it to swing open, on its vertical axis, to allow boats to pass.

WHYY: Glassboro-Camden Line closer than ever, but hurdles remain before construction can begin – The proposed 18-mile Glassboro-Camden Line would connect Glassboro to Camden’s Walter Rand Transportation Station, a nexus for Philadelphia rail connections and the River Line. Although the line would connect communities with sites like Rowan University and ultimately Philly, potentially boosting economic prosperity in South Jersey, residents have raised concerns over noise

Other Stories

The Inquirer: Canvassers have a message for Bucks County SEPTA riders: It’s not too late to save your train

Transportation Today: NJ Transit adopts budget advancing infrastructure investments

The Inquirer: Seniors aren’t ‘getting any younger.’ So why do their SEPTA fare cards expire?

WHYY: New Jersey offers grants to tackle the urban heat island effect

Mass Transit: SEPTA customer satisfaction scores reach all-time high

Article tags: Advocacy, public transit, public transportation, schools, SEPTA, the hub, transportation

The budget deadline was missed again by the Pennsylvania legislature, which means it’s time to reach out and put the pressure on. Let your representatives know NO BUDGET WITHOUT TRANSIT!

Legislators across PA need to pass a budget that will prevent the collapse of mass transit, something nearly 4 million Pennsylvanians rely on every day.

The PA House passed HB 1364, which expands the Governor’s transit funding proposal, but it’s not enough. This bill buys us time to fight for a long-term, stable funding solution, so reach out now! We need legislators to implement the funding outlined in the bill at minimum, and expand on it to avoid the gutting of mass transit across the state.

Take action now. Contact your legislators and ask them to ensure NO BUDGET WITHOUT TRANSIT!

Write your Legislators

Other ways to help:

Share this link to contact legislators to fund public transit
- Text 5 friends and ask them to take action
- Share on social media. You can also share a post from Transit Forward Philly here
- Post in your group texts and get your networks involved
Call your State and Senator – ask them to oppose any budget without transit funding

Visit Transit For All PA and learn about other ways to get involved and help us secure funding for transit systems across the state.

Article tags: Advocacy, contact your representatives, mass transit, public transit, public transportation, SEPTA, transportation

July 10, 2025 – Over the past few months, Clean Air Council and the members of the Cobbs Creek Watershed Coalition (CCWC) have worked collaboratively to identify their methods of addressing environmental concerns in their respective communities. CCWC members represent committed organizations from West and Southwest Philadelphia neighborhoods. They are experienced advocates, educators and activists, all united in the care and stewardship of Cobbs Creek and the neighborhoods the creek runs through. This blog identifies the ideas and insights shared by CCWC members for other neighbors who are looking for strategies to effect change.

Identify the Issue — “Start Where the Problem Starts”

The foundation of any successful community organizing effort is identifying the core issue that affects residents’ daily lives. In Philadelphia, environmental concerns like illegal short dumping, extreme heat, flooding, and lack of green infrastructure disproportionately affect low-income and marginalized communities. These aren’t abstract concerns—they manifest as piles of trash in alleys, flooded basements after storms, and asthma exacerbated by urban heat islands.

For example, in the Nicetown-Tioga neighborhood, residents faced persistent illegal dumping in vacant lots. What started as annoyance became a public health concern. By documenting the extent of dumping through photographs, testimonials, and even city service requests, residents were able to build a clear case that something needed to change. Identifying the issue also means framing it in a way that resonates with neighbors—short dumping isn’t just about trash, it’s about dignity, safety, and health.

Build Community Relationships — “Listen, Connect, Collaborate”

Once the issue is clear, organizing means building relationships rooted in trust and shared interest. Community members are more likely to take action when they feel respected and heard. This step involves door-to-door conversations, community meetings, social media engagement, and partnerships with churches, schools, and local businesses.

Take the example of the West Philadelphia Landscape Project. For decades, this initiative brought together residents, educators, and planners to engage in neighborhood-based watershed education and restoration. It didn’t begin with a bulldozer or blueprint; it began with relationships—people talking about flooding in their basements, the lack of trees on their blocks, and the need for spaces where kids could safely play.

Strong community ties are what sustain environmental movements long after the headlines fade. They create the backbone of resilience.

Gather Information and Assess Needs — “Know the Ground You Stand On”

Effective action requires solid knowledge. Community members should gather data to understand the scale, scope, and root causes of the problem. This might mean conducting a neighborhood audit, creating maps of hotspots (like heat islands or dumping zones), or consulting city data portals.

For example, residents in Eastwick, one of the most flood-prone neighborhoods in Philadelphia, began organizing after noticing increasingly frequent and severe flood events. By collecting flood impact stories, working with Penn professors to map elevation levels, and highlighting the lack of stormwater infrastructure, they shaped a powerful narrative rooted in facts and lived experience.

The use of tools like the Environmental Justice Index and local 311 call reports gives legitimacy to grassroots efforts. These insights are critical when seeking funding, city support, or media attention.

Develop a Plan of Action — “Strategize for Change, Not Just Awareness”

With a clear understanding of the problem and its context, it’s time to develop a realistic, step-by-step action plan. Over This includes setting specific goals (e.g., clean up 5 alleys in 6 months), identifying stakeholders (city departments, neighborhood groups), and determining what success looks like.

Let’s look at TreePhilly—a citywide initiative offering free trees to residents. The success of this program didn’t happen overnight. It involved careful planning: engaging community ambassadors, identifying underserved neighborhoods with little tree canopy, and simplifying the tree adoption process. It was structured yet flexible enough to meet communities where they are.

Your plan should also account for challenges—what happens if volunteers don’t show up? What if the city is slow to respond? A good plan includes contingencies and keeps the long-term vision in focus.

Mobilize Resources and Volunteers — “Gather People, Tools, and Momentum”

No community initiative can succeed without people power and basic resources. This step is about tapping into the energy and talents already in your neighborhood and connecting them with the tools needed to make a difference.

In neighborhoods like Kensington and Hunting Park, volunteer-led alley cleanups have become monthly traditions. These aren’t massive city-led operations; they’re block captains coordinating with neighbors, local teens volunteering for school credit, and food donated by corner stores to keep folks energized.

Funding can come from local mini-grants (like those from the Philadelphia Community Resilience & Environmental Justice Fund), local businesses, or crowd-funding platforms. Mobilizing also means celebrating small wins: every cleaned alley, every newly planted tree deserves recognition—it builds morale and keeps people coming back.

Advocate and Sustain Efforts — “Turn Action Into Policy and Legacy”

The final and often most challenging step is sustaining momentum and turning grassroots efforts into lasting change. This might mean forming a registered neighborhood group, lobbying elected officials, applying for long-term grants, or pushing for policy reform.

One of Philadelphia’s most inspiring examples is the creation of the John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge at Tinicum. Local residents—organized under the group CARP (Concerned Area Residents for the Protection of Tinicum Marsh)—successfully blocked airport expansion that threatened wetlands, turning community outrage into permanent environmental protection.

Sustained organizing also means leadership development—training the next generation of block leaders, ensuring that elders pass on their wisdom, and that systems (like recycling bins, maintenance routines, or tree watering schedules) are institutionalized.

Ultimately, advocacy is about making sure your community’s voice is not only heard—but amplified, respected, and acted upon.

Article tags: Advocacy, cobbs creek, community organizing, take action

PHILADELPHIA, PA (June 16, 2025) Today, local officials and health and environmental groups joined in Love Park to express their “love” for EPA and how its protections for Pennsylvanians must be saved. The EPA’s core mission is to protect the American people and their communities from dangerous and deadly pollution – instead, through rolling back and attacking pollution protections, Trump and EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin are putting polluters over people, and putting Pennsylvanians at more risk. Speakers addressed the importance of a strong EPA for healthy kids, clean air, safe drinking water, and a more stable climate. They also rallied Congress to protect Americans from dangerous pollution by ensuring we have scientists and public health experts working at a strong EPA and by providing appropriate funding for EPA’s critical work to protect our health and environment.

“When the EPA was first envisioned, the air in many of our cities and industrial hubs here in Pennsylvania was thick with dangerous and often deadly particles, a smog emitted by corporations that reaped astronomical profits as they poisoned our neighbors and toxified our lands,” said Senator Nikil Saval, Pennsylvania’s First Senatorial District. “The dedicated workers at the EPA—the scientists and public health experts whose labor has saved millions of lives and trillions of dollars since the EPA was created—changed this. These workers hold the line against powerful corporations that prioritize the wealth of their CEOs over our lives. They stand on behalf of people and planet, and we stand on behalf of them.”

“Simply put: weakening the EPA will make Philadelphia’s air, water, and soil dirtier, and everyday Philadelphians will foot the bill,” said Liz Lankenau, Director of Philadelphia’s Office of Sustainability. “We need to let our representatives hear, loud and clear, that we do not support the weakening of these vital supports and protections.”

“For decades, the EPA has been a critical line of defense against pollution, leveraging the expertise of scientists and public health experts to protect human health and the environment for all Americans,” said Alice Lu, Clean Air Council Policy Analyst. “Unfortunately, we have watched over the last few months as the current administration continues to indiscriminately gut the agency, coming after programs and standards that would both directly and indirectly benefit Pennsylvania residents.”

“Prevention is cheaper than treatment, and it’s more successful, which means we need research and regulation from the EPA,” said Linnea Bond, Director of Education for Physicians for Social Responsibility Pennsylvania. “When we have seen pollution, contamination, and extreme weather wreak havoc on communities, the EPA coordinates a response to protect communities from further harm. In a world where industrial interests often trump those of the public, investing in the EPA protects our health and saves us money — both the medical systems we depend on and as individuals facing rising costs. Now more than ever, we need a robust EPA.”

“PennFuture calls for an adequately funded EPA that will ensure our communities are protected and have the opportunity to thrive,” said Annie Regan, Campaigns Director at PennFuture. “Recent polling shows that there is overwhelming public support for the EPA across all demographics as Pennsylvanians have seen what happens to their communities when industry is not regulated. The focus on making profits for fossil fuel power plants is taking priority over people’s health, their savings, and protecting the natural environment. Better air quality not only protects our health, but it means fewer missed work days, fewer trips to the doctor, and higher earnings for Pennsylvanian workers.”

Article tags: Advocacy, air quality, EPA, methane, public health

July 29, 2024 – When climate policy was on the chopping block with the new presidential administration in 2017, Clean Air Council sued the federal government to defend it. At the time, the decision felt bold, but not unsafe. Since then, the landscape has changed. A leading presidential candidate has declared, in allcaps, “IF YOU GO AFTER ME, I’M COMING AFTER YOU!” and has threatened to jail his opponents time and again. Criminal laws against things such as murder have put some modest bounds around what one could imagine the federal government doing to an advocate for a stable climate. Or, they used to.

In June, in what future historians may pinpoint as the moment American democracy went from being in a state of decline to one of sheer freefall, the U.S. Supreme Court decided that there are actually two classes of people in America: the king, on the one hand, and his subjects, on the other. How else to explain it? For the king’s subjects, all criminal laws apply at all times. For the king, however, as long as he is acting “officially,” the criminal laws simply do not apply. Of course, the majority of the Supreme Court used the term “president” rather than “king,” but that is a misnomer; in democracies, no one is above the law.

The talk of murder may strike you as overblown. Three Supreme Court justices did not think so. Justice Sotomayor’s dissent makes the scope of the president’s new powers clear: “Orders the Navy’s Seal Team 6 to assassinate a political rival? Immune. Organizes a military coup to hold onto power? Immune. Takes a bribe in exchange for a pardon. Immune. Immune, immune, immune. … In every use of official power, the President is now a king above the law.”

We know what it looks like in countries where the leaders are not held accountable. It’s very dangerous to defend the land, the people, the climate. Over the last decade, killings of environmental advocates have risen year after year.

In 2013, indigenous land defender Berta Cáceres had been fending off the construction of a hydroelectric dam that threatened the land of the Lenca people. The Honduran military and the dam developers wanted her dead. She told the international press that “I want to live, there are many things I still want to do in this world but I have never once considered giving up fighting for our territory, for a life with dignity, because our fight is legitimate. I take lots of care but in the end, in this country where there is total impunity I am vulnerable… When they want to kill me, they will do it.” And, in 2016, they did.

It’s already a risky landscape for environmental advocates in Pennsylvania. I personally know of people here who have had their cars shot at, their houses vandalized, whom others have tried to run off the road, just for speaking up for their communities. This does not amount to murder. But it’s hard to see the Supreme Court’s decision in Trump v. United States as anything less than an invitation for the next president to go wild. Why, otherwise, would the Court find that the laws criminalizing rape, treason, theft, and—yes—murder no longer need constrain the president?

I am not singling out environmentalists as the sole potential target of a looming revenge agenda. We are all at risk when we all suddenly become part of this new underclass, the subjects of the king.

Berta Cáceres won her campaign in the end. A year after her murder, the backers of the project pulled out, preserving the Lenca’s land. Here in Pennsylvania, we will keep fighting for the clean air, pure water, and healthy climate enshrined in our state constitution, no matter what the federal government does and no matter what the new year brings. But the Supreme Court on Monday was loud and clear: we can’t rely on the law to protect us from an oppressive government. No one can protect us but ourselves. We need to do whatever it takes to keep our society from becoming one that allows presidents to get away with murder. That work starts now.

Alex Bomstein is an attorney and the Executive Director of Clean Air Council, an environmental advocacy nonprofit based in Philadelphia and working across Pennsylvania and beyond.

Article tags: Advocacy, democracy, legal, scotus

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Identify the Issue — “Start Where the Problem Starts”

Build Community Relationships — “Listen, Connect, Collaborate”

Gather Information and Assess Needs — “Know the Ground You Stand On”

Develop a Plan of Action — “Strategize for Change, Not Just Awareness”

Mobilize Resources and Volunteers — “Gather People, Tools, and Momentum”

Advocate and Sustain Efforts — “Turn Action Into Policy and Legacy”

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