This was on our Editorials page today, but it's really a note to keep you informed about a meeting, along with those to come, that will be of interest to those who care about the city's parks - hopefully a good portion of Earth to Philly readers...

This is how you build a neighborhood park in an age when Philadelphia no longer bothers funding such urban niceties:

First enter a famous cola-maker's online contest to win micro-financing for good ideas. Next, start a Facebook page. Go to Twitter and blast all your friends. Provide the link to the website of said beverage company (Hint: Starts with P). And, since this is Philly, encourage everyone to vote early and vote often.

It wasn't exactly the Easter Parade.

Instead of bonnets, there were helmets. Instead of bunnies and baby chicks, there were a dragon, a giant caterpillar, and a deer head - that last item on a parade entry with a postapocalyptic techno taxidermy theme. Or, in the words of one of its creators, local adman Tom Carr, "Mad Max meets circus carnival."

Philadelphia spends less on parks than almost any big city in the nation, so it's not surprising that even Center City's jewel, Rittenhouse Square, is increasingly dependent on the kindness of friends. Without those $50 checks from park lovers, not a single impatiens would be planted in the square's borders, the grass would grow to our calves, and the benches would become heaps of broken slats.

With bus, subway, and train ridership starting to recover from the economic slump, SEPTA Thursday moved to reduce slightly some of the fare hikes it wants to impose on July 1.

A year ago, Philadelphia launched a sustainability plan aimed not only at improving environmental stewardship and energy efficiency, but also at converting the old industrial city into a clean-technology hub.

The first anonymous letter arrived in mid-March, postmarked from South Jersey. Titled, "DID YOU KNOW??" it sent out an alarm to residents of Rittenhouse Square warning that their lovely historic park was under siege by commercial interests.