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When Greg Jenkins was growing up on 35th Street in West Philadelphia’s Mantua neighborhood in the late 1960s, he remembers playing on the playground at Morton McMichael School, beneath the only tree that cast shade on the block. Nearby, a manufacturing facility often released a mysterious smell, and trains rumbled along the tracks beside Mantua Avenue, he said.
“We never thought, ‘Oh, those trains are actually producing emissions, and those emissions might be impacting this neighborhood,’” said Jenkins, a professor of meteorology and atmospheric science at Penn State University and founder of the nonprofit Community Innovation for Climate Justice. “It was an unknown issue.”
Now, the house where Jenkins grew up is gone. In its place sits an empty lot with a solar-powered air monitor standing among zucchini, sunflowers, tomatoes and hot peppers in Jenkins’ garden. The air monitor measures levels of unhealthy air pollutants that come from cars, trucks, trains and nearby industrial facilities.
