This summer also saw attacks proliferate in solidarity with the ongoing campaign to defend the Atlanta Forest. The defense of forests and other places that have so far evaded the reach of urban sprawl is starting to slowly spread elsewhere, with the “Save the Meadows” campaign in Philadelphia and the struggle to defend People’s Park in Berkeley, California. Will this strategy — of finding local ways to defend the forest, which those fighting in Atlanta remind us is everywhere — continue to spread? While it can definitely be simpler to take action in solidarity with a relatively high-profile campaign that has an easily defined objective, what could it look like to spread a combative defense of land, and the relationships we form through meeting there, across a multitude of different places?
Such campaigns often speak to a need to stop environmental destruction as we look ahead to a future of accelerating climate collapse, forgetting that we are already living in the aftermath of an ecological and social apocalypse. Over the past 450 years, colonization has decimated the ecological landscape of this entire continent, robbing and removing people across the globe from their land through a multitude of forced migrations, and the new wave of climate disasters is its logical consequence. This is not to suggest that we should give up the fight against the coming changes, but to put the current climate crisis in a historical context of survivance, specifically that of violently uprooted and colonized peoples as well as of non-human species. [4] Positioning our struggles as either part of or in solidarity with that tradition of survival, rather than thinking of it as a brand-new situation, might further shake the legitimacy of the State and its hold on us all. And maybe one day the struggle to defend the forest will once again be everywhere.
[4] The term “survivance” describes a type of resistance to the United States that is specific to indigenous and other colonized people, one that combines practices of survival and resurgence.
Anti-Gentrification Action/Another Gay Anarchists attack two construction sites. Paint and glass etch were used against the windows of a luxury apartment construction, and the windows of another were smashed out. “We did this to fight gentrification and to contribute to the new wave of anarchist attack in the US. We also did this to have fun!”
Janes Revenge smashes the front windows of a pro-life union that runs two centers and an anti-abortion hotline. “Solidarity with all those attack the state, capital, civilization, and patriarchy.”
A stand of pine trees in the meadows of FDR park, which is in the process of getting developed, are marked with signs warning some of them have been “spiked.” The spiked stand of trees is discovered a week later amid a larger clearcut swath.
Six pieces of construction equipment are ruined overnight in the meadows of South Philadelphia’s FDR Park, which is slated to be clearcut as part of a “revitalization project.”
Four pieces of heavy machinery being used to cut down forest and develop the Cobbs Creek Golf Course are sabotaged. “There doesn’t need to be a bigger campaign going on for us to take matters into our own hands and try to stop some of the destruction that surrounds us.”
SEPTEMBER 28TH 6PM AT THE MEADOWS! Defend Atlanta Forest / Stop Cop City Tour Presentation In the wake of the 2020 George Floyd rebellion, Atlanta-area officials have planned to build the largest police training compound in the country — by bulldozing the largest urban tree canopy in the country! Meanwhile, film-industry executives plan to clear-cut what remains in order to build “the largest soundstage complex on Earth.”
Join us for an in-depth overview and conversation with on-the-ground activists involved in the historic movement to Stop Cop City and Defend The Atlanta Forest.
Accessibility: The picnic grove is a short walk from the parking lot via a paved pathway with some incline/decline. The picnic area is grassy and/or mulched. Picnic tables and restrooms are available; please bring snacks and water. ADA restrooms are available while the clubhouse is open/staffed.
Location: Meadows Picnic Grove at FDR, 1954 Pattison Ave
Enter the Meadows from the 20th street parking lot by walking west through the community gardens and past the clubhouse.
This event will be a part of many for Meadow Fest. A Gathering to stop the destruction of the Meadows. For the full schedule of events go to: http://savethemeadows.com/events
A few months ago Fairmount Park Conservancy put up 3 4-sided plastic strucures along the trail parallel to MLK BLVD. The signs advertise the park with a website, twitter, QR and IG, and feature a list of shows/activities people can get involved with. Prior to this there were no obvious signs along the trail specifying what the space “was”, who it was being maintained by or what it was for.
Early Friday morning we wrote anti-development, anti-colonization and FDR meadows solidarity graffiti on the structures. We also covered up the QR codes and some of the social media handles. Beyond the message in the graffiti we hope the paint ruins the signs.
These signs, the cutting of trees in Cobbs Creek, the development in FDR Park are all forms of domesticating the land and those who move across it. Domestication runs counter to how we want to relate to spaces, ourselves and each other. We want to live wild lives beyond the control of any authority and for that we need wild spaces.
The development and domestication of wild spaces makes them less hospitable to wildlife, plant life, people wandering and living outside and anyone who wants to enjoy a space in autonomous, unorganized and illegal ways.
We dislike the Fairmount Park Conservancy because we’re not interested in conserving spaces, freezing in time spaces that would otherwise grow and change. Despite their name, the conservancy has a clear objective of designating spaces for certain kinds of activities, for certain kinds of people, in a topdown manner. The clearest example of this is their contribution to the destruction of the FDR meadows.
Development and domestication are inseparable from issues of race, colonization, gentrification and class. Check out https://edgeeffects.net/green-gentrification/ for a way these things interact in spaces outside of residential neighborhoods.
Solidarity with the saboteurs at FDR, Cobbs Creek, the Atlanta Forest and everyone trying to widen the cracks!
South Philadelphia, PA – During the worst days of the COVID pandemic local residents sought refuge and reconnection in an unlikely place – a series of fields, wetlands and woods that swiftly grew into the “South Philly Meadows” in an unplanned, untilled emergence on the grounds of a shuttered and often-flooded golf course on the west side of FDR Park. In recent days, private contractors have destroyed large swaths of the meadows, and Unicorn Riot found indications of intensive herbicide use in large areas of the wetland. Meadows supporters held back tears as they led us through heavily damaged and destroyed wild ecosystems on August 31, voids that once hosted teeming insect, mammal and bird life only hours earlier.
A large swath of reeds and other discolored flora in FDR Park has started sagging and curling in recent days, according to Deena Willow, a volunteer caretaker of the meadows area, as seen on August 31, 2022.
This poisoning of entire areas appears intended to assist “clearing and grubbing” of the area as implementation of a “Master Plan” to introduce artificial turf fields and other amenities has begun in earnest. Organizer, Kat Kendon, told Unicorn Riot multiple dogs have needed veterinary treatment with environmental causes deemed likely in some cases.
UPDATE 9/6: Since September 1, we have not received comment on this possible herbicide use from Fairmount Parks Conservancy. Today the Philadelphia Parks & Recreation Department says that no herbicides or other chemicals have been used in the park during August 2022 – full responses below.
Noise pollution from I-95 has intensified in FDR Park after trees in the southwest corner have been clearcut under the “Master Plan.” The area was not sealed off during the early days of the process, endangering park visitors and their pets as trees fell.
Unicorn Riot also discovered an entire stand of pine trees in the far southwest corner with official Parks and Recreation Department signs warning the trees were discovered to be “spiked” on August 24, a tactic which deters clearcutting by presenting a risk of damage to equipment. None of the groups involved have claimed any affiliation to this tactic or other similar tactics. This spiking seemingly saved the trees from the near-clearcut of old forest all around them, as a crew wrapped up nearby amid dozens of felled trees on the afternoon of August 31.
A stand of pine trees with warnings they have been “Spiked” discovered in FDR Park August 31, 2022, amid a larger clearcut swath.
Messages Call to Preserve Meadows
Messages opposing the bulldozing dot the landscape while opponents say park administrators have been removing their posters from bulletin boards, many made by local children who have grown attached to the meadows.
A “Save the Meadows” message on a bench tucked into an area nicknamed “Narnia” that is believed slated for destruction.
Opponents of the FDR Park plan believe that preserving more of the Meadows as a wild, sometimes submerged wetland, area, is a more resilient adaptation to these impending climate trends, while protecting endangered and threatened wildlife like monarch butterflies and bald eagles. Witnesses spoke of the likely destruction of a bald eagle nest as well as the obliteration of a monarch butterfly refuges in recent days. A disturbing photo of a dismembered small mammal like a mink discovered in the construction area also circulated.
The meadows supporters spoke of a silence that has descended on the area; as we pivoted our camera the microphone ceased to pick up the dense sounds of insect life, amid planes of scraped dirt and piles of crushed turf. Unfortunately, the clearing of a large stretch of giant trees in the south has immediately caused noise pollution from Interstate 95 to spill deep into the park.
“Master Plan” Continues to Shift, Fueled by Airport Infrastructure Money & Army Corps Planning
As a city built on a coastal plain, Philadelphia faces intense climate change pressures and new stormwater retention systems along much of Interstate 95 are aimed at containing stormwater surges, similar to those faced by New York in 2014’s Hurricane Sandy.
The Master Plan and its backers, the private Fairmount Park Conservancy, Friends of FDR Park, the city’s Parks and Recreation Department claim to address this future by building more resiliency into the landscape, and reworking its hydrology while also increasing revenue within the park, after a multi-year process that included community input, starting before the COVID pandemic. (In spring 2022, locals were surprised when city-owned Cobbs Creek Golf Course suffered hundreds of tree cuts, and a similar type of criticism and organizing is happening there as well.) The plan itself has changed in recent weeks as a smaller golf course was canceled.
At the confluence of the Schulykill River, Delaware River, and several creeks, the historic FDR Park was shaped out of a tidal wetland. Swaths of the park are still below sea level at high tide, but an aging tide gate in permits the park to drain at low tide as it absorbs untreated stormwater from the city. The park is also surrounded by sports stadiums, a huge swath of surface parking, the Navy Yard, an enormous fossil fuel complex called the Girard Point Refinery, and the Philadelphia International Airport (PHL).
A proposal to expand cargo facilities and destroy a section of wetland near Eastwick is part of the rationale for altering the wetlands in FDR Park. Source: Philadelphia International Airport.
Planning diagrams show sections of wetlands near the Delaware River to be destroyed during cargo expansion. Source: Philadelphia International Airport/ US Army Corps of Engineers.
To satisfy the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, a very expensive deal has been struck to deem the sub-sea-level southern section of FDR Park as in part a new wetland, as a supposed “no net loss” offset. (The Corps has blessed the cargo project with a “Finding of No Significant Impact/Record of Decision” (FONSI/ROD)).
Then contractors would dredge it to lower its height, then push the dirt underneath a new hill and the artificial turf fields, while “clearing and grubbing” or entirely destroying large swaths of “the Meadows,” a phase which has now begun with “blitzkreig” speed according to opponents.
FEMA designates most of FDR Park as a “100-year flood zone” (teal)
While not all of it is below sea level, virtually the entire FDR Park area lies within a FEMA “100-year flood zone” and routinely floods during rains; stormwater discharges from the city into the park’s waters.
Topographical maps show large swaths of FDR Park are effectively below sea level. Source: TopographicalMap.com
Some opponents suspect that the artificial turf fields are aimed at attracting a FIFA World Cup bid and renting out to affluent suburbanites. Others suspect that real estate owners are pushing the plans to profit from commercialized, non-union concession businesses that would replace the “wild” area.
The Schulykill River flooded into apartment buildings near downtown Philadelphia on 23rd Street on Sept. 2, 2021. Pennsylvania National Guard personnel responded to the disaster in flooding-resistant trucks like this one.
Upstream of FDR Park, about a year ago the Schulykill River flooded throughout central Philadelphia, damaging businesses and apartment buildings. The probability of such events is expected to increase as climate change alters moisture patterns.
Authorities Respond to Habitat & Chemical Use Questions
Unicorn Riot submitted questions to both city and nonprofit leaders regarding the suspected use of chemicals, destruction of habitat used by monarch butterflies, possible destruction of a bald eagle nest, and related issues.
Update 9/6/2022: The Philadelphia Parks & Recreation Department responded to several questions we sent, while they said additional documentation could be obtained via the city “Right to Know” process.
“Unfortunately, the premise of many of your questions is based on false accusations from outside groups opposed to any work to restore the former golf course at FDR Park into high quality recreational and natural lands. Philadelphia Parks & Recreation is committed to maintaining safe and healthy natural lands.
“The Philadelphia International Airport and Philadelphia Parks & Recreation are creating a 33 acre native forested coastal wetland on the Southwest corner of FDR Park. Clean fill excavated from the wetland site will create a 9 acre temporary soil hill on the former golf course. In August 2022 contractors prepared the site for construction. No herbicides, pesticides, or other chemicals were sprayed on the site by PHL, PPR, or its contractors.
“[…] No herbicides, pesticides, or other chemicals were sprayed on the site by PHL, PPR, or its contractors in August 2022.”
-Philadelphia Parks & Recreation Department responses to Unicorn Riot, 9/6/2022
UR: “Were any staff hours in your organization expended on wildlife protection from direct construction? Were the presence of monarch butterfly habitats within the FDR Park area affected by August 2022 construction documented by your organization? Were any staff hours spent to move wildlife like bird nests and mammal nests out of the construction area before construction started?”
Parks & Rec: “No.”
-Philadelphia Parks & Recreation Department responses to Unicorn Riot, 9/6/2022
“The Friends have absolutely no information on the topics in your email. They are issues that have never come before us in the past or currently on this development. I have forwarded your inquiry to Fairmount Park Conservancy and the Parks and Rec Dept for followup. Only they have any answers on these subjects. Thank you for writing.”
Barbara A. Capozzi, Esq., Co-President – Friends of FDR Park
The Parks & Recreation Department has received our inquiry and it will be added here when available. Fairmount Park Conservancy Executive Director, Maura McCarthy, Ph. D., has not responded.
Early last week we sabotaged four pieces of heavy machinery that are being used to develop the Cobbs Creek golf course. The machines were right next to a main road, so we used some quieter methods, using epoxy to glue their locks and putting sand in their fuel tanks. The Cobbs Creek Foundation and A.M. Logging have already destroyed over 100 acres of forest in the area.
We wanted to contribute to the recent wave of attacks against ecological destruction, gentrification, and colonization across the country, and encourage people to help defend green spaces wherever they live. Shoutout to whoever sabotaged the machines that were about to destroy the meadows at FDR to build whatever it is they’re building there. There doesn’t need to be a bigger campaign going on for us to take matters into our own hands and try to stop some of the destruction that surrounds us.
[This post only contains information relevant to Philadelphia and the surrounding area, to read the entire article follow the above link.]
Living and Fighting
Housing
In Philadelphia, the struggle to stop the eviction of the UC Townhomes continues. On Monday:
Over 100 protestors interrupted Penn President minutes into her first-ever Convocation speech, bringing the ceremony to an abrupt end. [During a speech on] incoming class’ diversity, a group of protestors — including members of the Class of 2026 — stood up and began chanting “Save UC Townhomes!” and “Stop Penn-trification!” The Coalition to Save the UC Townhomes, a group of residents protesting the sale of 70 units of affordable housing, organized the demonstration in an effort to bring awareness to the local residents who are scheduled to be evicted on Oct. 8.
Land Struggles
In Philadelphia, anger is growing at a new development project that threatens the South Philly Meadows, a former golf course that has been reclaimed by nature. According to the Philadelphia Inquirer:
Philadelphia Police are investigating the vandalism of construction equipment at FDR Park, where crews broke ground this week on a controversial project to create a 33-acre wetland. Police responded to the incident, which involved damage to a Bobcat and digging excavator, Thursday morning. In addition to graffiti and broken wires, police said sugar was poured into a tank. No arrests have been made and the investigation is ongoing. The incident comes as some park users are mobilizing to oppose the project…The Philadelphia International Airport is funding the project to offset any wetlands and waterways affected by its air cargo facilities expansion.
Banners went up in solidarity with the fight against Cop City in the Atlanta forest. From Scenes from the Atlanta Forest:
Banners went up in the trees in South Philly’s FDR Meadows, where nearly 200 acres of wetlands and meadows, which serve as habitat for endangered migrating monarch butterflies and many other species of wildlife, are threatened by the city’s plans to bury the earth in astroturf for more sports fields and other capitalist ventures. Public outcry in Philadelphia has already forced the city to compromise on their original plans, but we will accept no compromise in defense of the meadows and monarchs. Solidarity from Philadelphia to Atlanta. We live here.
Banners went up in the trees in South Philly’s FDR Meadows, where nearly 200 acres of wetlands and meadows, which serve as habitat for endangered migrating monarch butterflies and many other species of wildlife, are threatened by the city’s plans to bury the earth in astroturf for more sports fields and other capitalist ventures. Public outcry in Philadelphia has already forced the city to compromise on their original plans, but we will accept no compromise in defense of the meadows and monarchs. Solidarity from Philadelphia to Atlanta. We live here.
“DEFEND THE MEADOWS! A. P. Construction INC. has been given a permit by the City of Philadelphia to Destroy and Gentrify over 100+ Acres of Lenni-Lenape Land at so called “FDR” Park in South Philly.
The Lenni-Lenape name for the unceded area is “Pahsayunk” and “Chingsessing” Pahsayunk translates to ” A place between the hills.” Chingsessing translates to “A place where there is a Meadow”.
The Proposed $20+ million dollar development would devastate and privatize the unceded Autonomous land with plastic “Astro-Turf” sports fields and over-priced shops.
This would ruin the habitat and life of thousands of sacred animals, trees, mushrooms, plants, and insects such as the endangered Monarch Butterfly!
For all life we must stop this and all Ecocidal development by any means necessary!
Please take Direct Action and contact A. P. Construction Inc. to demand that owners and the management drop the contract and cancel the “1954 Pattison Ave.” development.
A. P. Contruction Inc. – Philadelphia Office – Phone Number: *67 (215) 922-2323 – Address: Navy Yard Corporate Center, 1 Crescent Drive, Suite 104, Philadelphia, PA 19122
Main Office in New Jersey – Phone Number: *67 (856)227-2030 – Address: 915 S Black Horse Pike, Blackwood, NJ08012
Send an anonymous email to: Mailbox@APConstruction.com
Submission
Graffiti in Solidarity with Welaunee Forest Defenders from the Meadows of Lenapehoking ( South Philly ) for the Week of Action that reads “From Welaunee Forest to the Meadows Defend Mother Earth Without Compromise!”
As our Friends and Comrades are fighting against the “Cop City” that is proposed to destroy the Welaunee Forest in Atlanta, We are connected in struggle here in the Lenni-Lenape meadows of so called “FDR” Park in South Philly. Over 100+ Acres of Meadows that that has rewilded is under threat of development by “astro-turf” sports fields and yuppie tourist shops. A large coalition of over 20+ groups and many autonomous people are resisting and will fight to defend the Meadows without compromise. The whole planet is under attack by colonial capitalist developers and the state and we are on the verge of runaway climate change! We need a global eco-revolution for our collective survival before it’s too late! So Destroy capitalism and the state! WHEREVER YOU ARE REVOLT FOR MOTHER EARTH!
Join us for a conversation with Jimmy Dunson, editor of the new anthology on disaster relief mutual aid, at 7pm 7/23 in person and live-dreamed on our Instagram. “Disaster capitalism, although still currently dominant, is no longer the only powerful force when disasters occur. There is a growing movement of movements engaged in decentralized, liberatory disaster relief, rooted in the values of mutual aid and solidarity. These efforts, grounded in radical social movement organizing, offer a direct action alternative: meeting the survival needs of the people and building power from below, while challenging the forces of Money and Power. This mutual aid disaster relief movement is a broad ecosystem, with diverse organizations, positions, and practices. As hurricanes, fires, pandemics, and other disasters increase in intensity and frequency, the insights, visions, and experiences the authors in this book share offer a valuable road map to meet the climate crisis head on, struggle for a just recovery when disasters do hit, reimagine our relationships to each other and the planet, and as the Zapatistas taught civil society, “Don’t seize power, exercise it.””
