neighborhood innovation : Featured Stories

Expanded locations, vendors and services are among the features driving the growth of farmers markets across Greater Philadelphia, set to re-open en masse in the coming weeks and bring area foodies out of hibernation.

The old vaudeville theater has stood vacant for a half century. The lights come on again April 1 with an established entertainment brand, but the $25 million project would not have been possible if not for a host of collaborators.

A large urban shopping mall has given way to a vast makeover of Lower Market Street, which is now home to a creative class that's organized, branded and ready to change the city.

We lost track of our photographer during our winter visit to Market Street in Wilmington, where a new creative class officially known as LOMA is creating a design district unto itself, and this is what he found.

We asked more than a dozen of the city's opinion leaders, game changers and gracious hosts that very question, and the consensus says that while we're often too hard on ourselves, we're good enough, we're smart enough, and people like us.

Wednesday was not your typical hump day. The U.S. Census reports the city's population grew by 0.6 percent and Philly was among 24 cities worldwide selected for an IBM Smarter Cities grant.

The city's Department of Technology and Code for America are working to make currently private data sets public, giving real time access to citizens and the opportunity for developers to create applications to use the data in new, productive ways.

He has two feature documentaries under his belt and has added the long-proposed Reading Viaduct project to his list of inspirations and passions. He's leading a major push to promote the "park in the sky" at the Philadelphia International Flower Show this week.

A mansion, post office, farm house, and stone bridge were among the projects that were recognized by the Preservation Alliance for Greater Philadelphia as 2011 Preservation Achievement Award winners.

Medusa is more than snakes and horror to Hannah Tsapatoris MacLeod, who is reprising the character to raise funds for her Naked Feet Productions company to produce a world premiere play she co-wrote for 2012.

Face it Philly, we're not as healthy as we'd like to be. Center City native Clint Randall's job is to help make the connection between city planning and public health, putting our region at the forefront of a growing trend.

Go ahead, dream big. The incredible women behind the Philadelphia Mural Arts Program, the United Way of Southeastern PA and Project Home once did, and they'll share their vast wisdom with the rest of us as part of an awesome non-profit development panel on Thursday.

The Barrymore Award-winning production, created from local teens' personal stories of violence they've experienced growing up, culminates with a public performance on Thursday.

The after-school advocates are responsible for making chess matter to city kids and their families and welcome all-comers on Saturday to learn, compete and watch a local politician battle Philly's top students.

The Northern Liberties Neighborhood Association is among those keeping Christmas trees out of landfills by picking up where city programs have left off. It's going on this weekend (Jan. 8-9) across Philly.