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January
Broad Spectrum Sports’ annual “Holiday Relay at Rizzo” saw Santa sprinting in skates to raise money to go towards finding a cure for cancer. The night, organized by Danny and Chris Riccardi, Frank Fuotto and Rob Giannone, raised $2,000 for cancer research. The occasion honored cancer victims who have passed away, and gave those still struggling with the illness hope for the future. BSS is the obsessive manifestation of the night’s organizers’ passion for Philly sports, and the community advocates put their money where their mouths are by volunteer coaching year-round.
The 7UP bottling plant at 816 Carpenter St. saw zealous soda fans cheering the end of an era before the plant was razed to make room for a slew of townhouse builds. South Philadelphia soda lovers weren’t going to let the building go without saying goodbye, though. We may have to say farewell to soda-bottling plants (cans of the big-name companies are far more viable), but residents were still happy to give the plant a sendoff for old time’s sake.
15-year-old Julia Parmisciano got star treatment in Los Angeles as she attended the 56th annual Grammy Awards. The teen was the 5,000th Make-A-Wish Foundation of Philadelphia and Susquehanna Valley honoree, and the music lover was gifted an opportunity of a lifetime. The extraordinary gift was celebrated at Center City’s Hard Rock Cafe one week before her and her family flew to California, and gave the resident of the 2200 block of South 13th Street a reminder of her healthier days, before her 2011 six-month stay at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Her heart transplant went well, and Julia has even returned to her active sports lifestyle
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was remembered in South Philly, not just through recalling the man and the work he has done, but through the MLK Day of Service. Organizations and communities drew on inspiration from King’s ambition to fuel them to make a difference in their own neighborhoods. Amongst the projects and volunteer work was Point. Breeze’s Solid Rock Baptist Church, 1836 Federal St., whose Belle Myers said that they strive not to let their service be limited to one day, but work to live up to the spirit of the occasion on every day. The Cambodian Association of Greater Philadelphia, 2416-2418 S. Seventh St., was another noteworthy organization making a difference, notably by cleaning up 36 blocks of South Philly. The CAGP led a youth-coordinated program, inspired by their Teens Organizing Proactivity (TOP) program, to instill proactive change for the better within their communities, right in line the legacy of Dr. King.
As Philadelphia endured a January that was one of the snowiest in history, the debate over whether it’s acceptable to save a parking spot you dug out raged, like it does, annually. The lack of legality of “Savesies” for protecting parking spots isn’t very disputed, but residents are still duking it out, sometimes violently, over saved spots. Some folks believe that, especially with laborious snow removal, the work put into shoveling a spot gives one permanent ownership of the public space. Just as many are tired of their neighbors claiming spaces with chairs, cinder blocks and trash cans. 1st District Police Captain Lou Campione confirmed that, lawfully, no one is allowed ownership of public spaces but that catching citizens in the act of saving a spot is tricky and infrequent. But just before press, a police report came through detailing a scuffle on the 2000 block of Manton Street over a spot involving a stun gun and multiple charges pressed, including aggravated assault.
February
Edwin M. Stanton Elementary School, 1700 Christian St., received a visit from former Governor Ed Rendell, and $500 for getting fourth place in an essay contest. The contest asked students ‘Should it be a requirement that the President of the United States be born in America?’ The students discussed their positions as part of an initiative by the team effort of the former Governor and his wife, United States Court of Appeals for the 3rd circuit Judge Marjorie Rendell, whose collaboration with Arcadia University and the National Constitution Center challenged students to know more about their country’s civic processes. When pressed for the important areas where the President should concern themselves with, topics such as bullying, gun control and the war on drugs were suggested.
As if East Passyunk Avenue needed another notch on its list of culinary accomplishments, EPA got one of the biggest ones yet in the form of Bravo’s Top Chef Season 11 winner, Nick Elmi. Things were already pretty great for Elmi and his crew at Laurel, 1617 E. Passyunk Ave., but after impressing judges and winning $125,000 on TV, Laurel’s not struggling to get diners in seats. The Massachusetts native and Collingswood, NJ resident got his start at the Culinary Institute of America and then at George Perrier’s Brasserie Perrier. After defeating Miami’s Nina Compton in the finale in Hawaii, Elmi is aiming to make himself happy at a smaller establishment rather than capitalizing on renown, focusing on the product of his French-inspired BYO (recently named the number one restaurant in the city by Philadelphia Magazine).
Fifth and Bainbridge streets in Queen Village became the target for a big rehabilitation effort with the announcement of a hotel being planned for the location in 2015. The hotel will also contain a restaurant, while adjacent empty buildings are targeted for development into several new retail stores and apartments. Ilan Zaken’s development plans call for a good restaurant on the corner and mixed-usage extending from the corner. The 3,900 square-foot shell that Zaken bought at 632 S. Fifth St. was where Paul & Sons operated a paper company for nearly a decade. The project’s finish date is expected next summer.
The Police Athletic League (PAL) has been opening up Philadelphia schoolkids’ eyes with their PAL Day at City Hall for over 40 years, and 2014 saw another batch of students getting inspired by public servants and City of Philadelphia career success stories. The program encourages kids to do well in school by giving them a glimpse of how an education opens doors to opportunities after high school; not close them. Several locals from South Philly schools participated in the program, including Saphir Green, a South Philly High School junior with an interest in law. Green was given a tour of both sides of the city’s justice system for his day, matched with City of Philadelphia district attorney R. Seth Williams. From arrestees in cells to an arraignment to touring specialized DA offices, Green got a vivid reason to stay out of trouble and in school.
March
The Christian Street YMCA, 1724 Christian St., celebrated 100 years in operation with several NBA Hall of Famers in attendance, celebrating the location where they and generations of young men and women have played. With a history dating back to 1914, several recalled how the building was one of the few that initially allowed people of color to come in and make use of the facility. Moments like that reminded attendees that they were not just celebrating how long the building has been in use, but what it has been used for, and the difference it has made. 76er Ollie Johnson and Sixers Ambassador World B. Free kept the tone celebratory; and State Sen. Anthony Williams, 2nd District Councilman Kenyatta Johnson and 186th District state Rep. Jordan Harris articulated the space’s meaning to them as neighborhood kids.
Chatter around the Bart Blatstein project at Broad Street and Washington Avenue reached a critical mass when a leasing brochure was released to the public. The empty lot was loosely billed as a future home to a mix of spaces, including: a grocery store, a cinema, a fitness center and restaurant and retail spaces. Most civic leaders are thrilled to see something, anything, done with the long-vacant corner, especially if it involves a grocery store (and jobs). The plan for the Hawthorne hub has already undergone some changes in vision, and it doesn’t seem any doors will be open for business until 2016.
Spring cleanups got kicked off with a PhillyRising-assisted day in Dickinson Square near the park at Fourth and Tasker streets. Southeast neighborhood coordinator Amanda Finch helped connect the Streets Dept. to residents’ efforts to collect garbage, clean up alleys and beautify the park. One backyard alone yielded 40 bags of refuse, while 150 recycling bins were distributed with the help of Community Life Improvement Programs (CLIP). The final weigh-in measured a grand total of 2.61 tons of garbage collected.
April
Local singing celebrity Felicia Punzo teamed up with 2nd District Councilman Kenyatta Johnson for an anti-bullying campaign at the Girard Academic Music Program (GAMP), 2136 W. Ritner St. The Ss. Neumann-Goretti High School, 1736 S. 10th St., graduate shared her experiences being bullied and offered a comprehensive tutorial on how to beat a bully. The 20-year-old related to the arts magnet school’s student body over their mutual dedicated to the arts, and pleaded with them to not only rise above targeted aggressions but to not be silent when classmates are victimized.
Philly Spring Cleanup hit its seventh year, and the Bicycle Club of Philadelhpia did its part by picking up loads of debris in the bike lane of Columbus Boulevard south of Oregon Avenue Charles R. Carmalt, from the Mayor’s Office of Transportation & Utilities, helped garbage-collecting volunteers feel safe by lending a patrol car to alert motorists of the Cleanup crews. SEPTA employees at the Southern Depot, 1940 Johnston St., volunteered their time to clean up the west side of Marconi Plaza.
Tariq “Black Thought” Trotter made an appearance, alongside Mural Arts Projects’ Jane Golden, at Universal Audenried Charter High School, 3301 Tasker St., to announce the incoming mural commemorating his late and great friend, Dr. Shawn White (aka Air Smooth). White was later honored with a mural at 2059 Dickinson St. that captures his spirit as a musician/producer and educator, primarily sexual health. The PhD recipient focused his interests on educating African American men on the issues of HIV prevention and sexually-transmitted diseases, leading him to conceive of “SHAPE UP: Barbers Building Better Brothers.” Using the barbershop chair as a safe space to discuss health issues still inspires important conversations, long after his falling victim to heart disease at 41.
Flossie Whaley and Daryl Jones were surprised and touched when Unity in the Community, Anton Moore’s non-profit, surprised them by giving them the Ultimate Prom Experience. Exemplary students at South Philadelphia High School’s Educational Options Program, where adults are able to return to school and achieve a fully-vetted high school degree, Jones and Whaley learned they’d be treated to everything necessary for a prom they never got to have: clothes, wheels, hair done and memories meticulously documented. 45-year-old Jones, a resident of the 1600 block of Morris Street was inspired by his own 24-year-old daughter’s success at St. Augustine’s College in North Carolina and hoped to enroll at Camden County Community College. 43-year-old Whaley, a North Philly resident and mother to 9-year-old Jaydenn, hoped her degree would facilitate a career in education.
May
On the 2600 block of South Seventh Street, a mysterious South Philadelphian developed one wild idea that would gain him local and then international notoriety. Toynbee tiles, as we’ve come to know them, are often marked by one cryptic phrase: “Toynbee Idea. In Movie 2011. Resurrect Dead. On Planet Jupiter.” Colin Smith and Steve Weinik, with a surprise visit from tile expert Justin Duerr, gave a presentation at the Whitman Library, 200 Snyder Ave., on their lifelong fascination with the mystery tiler and their run-in with the production team of the 2011-released documentary, “Resurrect Dead: The Mystery of the Toynbee Tiles.” The tiles’ meanings still fascinate Philadelphians, with carved-linoleum tiles dropped into hot asphalt at: Ninth and Shunk streets, 11th St. and Oregon Ave., Broad St. and Oregon Ave., and South St. at 13th.
City Councilman-at-Large, Jim Kenney, was honored at the Fleisher Art Memorial, 719 Catharine St., by Victim/Witness Services of South Philadelphia, 1426 S. 12th St., for his advocacy for non-native citizens’ rights with the Edward J. McLaughlin Award for Distinguished Service. The South Philly native was lauded by VWSSP executive director Alison Sprague for deterring a fear of the police by immigrant communities. Sprague’s organization works to guide victims of violence and witnesses through the process of attaining fiscal compensation when they’ve been robbed or forced into the hospital, or guiding folks through the criminal justice system.
The Philadelphia School District collaborated with the Philadelphia Industrial Development Corporation (PIDC) by conducting open houses and producing marketing material to sell 20 vacant school properties, alleviating the District’s annual budget stresses. Three South Philly sites are in the process of being taken over: Edward Bok School, 1901 S. Ninth St., Abigail Vare School, 1619 E. Moyamensing Ave., and Walter Smith School, 1300 S. 19th St. All told, if all the schools sold for asking price, the District could get a $55 million injection of funds. East Passyunk Crossing’s Bok School has already scored a developer, vision and community engagement is under way to reopen and revitalize the sleeping giant.
Eddie Gottlieb was celebrated and immortalized at his alma mater, South Philadelphia High School, with a historical marker outside of the Lower Moyamensing school where he graduated in 1916. The late NBA icon (1898-1979) was celebrated by his biographer, Rich Westcott, Celeste Morello and former 76er Dikembe Mutombo. Gottlieb was one of the key founders of the National Basketball Association in 1946 and earned the nicknames “The Mogul” and “Mr. Basketball” when he became the first coach of the Philadelphia Warriors in the 1940s and ‘50s. He served as schedule-maker for the NBA for 30 years, and Chariman of the Rules Committee for 25 years.
June
The Blue Cross Foundation’s Healthy Futures initiative brought Helen Nadel to Grays Ferry’s St. Gabriel School, 2917 Dickinson St., to address at least one of the three goals of the $3 million-dollar program – “Eat Right.” Nadel pushed fourth grade students to try fruits like raspberries, strawberries and blueberries and describe why they loved (or hated) them. Some had never tried a berry before, and Nadel got these learners excited about using them, at minimum, in a smoothie. “Get Fit” and “Stay Well” are the other two prongs of the program, all three addressing issues of fitness, obesity, nutrition and hygiene.
At the annual Italian Street Festival on East Passyunk Avenue, Filitalia International made it extra special by cutting the ribbon to the Italian Immigration Museum, 1834 E. Passyunk Ave. Dr. Pasquale Nestico, founder of Filitalia in 1987, was more than pleased to see the long-awaited opening of the museum. Nearly 15 to 20,000 visitors explored exhibits that celebrate generations of Italian heritage. Nestico and local Filitalia chapter president (there are 20 chapters around the world), Rosetta Miriello, are dedicated to preserving and celebrating Italian culture for future generations with language and cooking classes in their new space.
Furness High School, 1900 S. Third St., the Pennsport neighborhood staple, celebrated 100 years of education with a day of rededication to the schools’ principles of diversity. A history of the facility was presented at an assembly in the auditorium and a diversity fair provided foods from around the world in the gymnasium afterwards, where a healthy breakdance circle ensued. The school’s vibrant English for Speakers of Other Languages programs help students achieve in challenging contexts as evidenced by Stephen Tiang, the soon-to-be valedictorian enrolling at Villanova, and Juana Gil Mercado, of Dominican descent whose bilingual skills were helpful as a main ffice intern.
The Delaware River Waterfront Corp. continues to reclaim wetland spaces along the eastern boundaries of Philadelphia with the creation of the Washington Avenue Green (also known as Pier 53). Nature lovers rejoiced as a nature walk out to the water’s edge, and marked by artist Jody Pinto’s interactive land buoy, has become a leisure destination for much of Pennsport and neighboring communities.
July
Development was the focus of a small handful of projects popping up in Southeast Philadelphia: Adventurer’s Mini-Golf, 38 E. Jackson St., an impeding 27,000-square-foot South Bowl (a sister to Northern Liberties’ North Bowl) at 19 E. Oregon Ave., and a potential Mellody Brewing outpost at 1800 E. Moyamensing Ave. North Bowl’s Oron Daskal and Robert Dudzeick’s mini-golf and arcade birthday destination, along with the 2300 Arena at 2300 S. Swanson St., are revitalizing an otherwise bleak and industrial strip of the Pennsport and Whitman neighborhoods.
The Pennsylvania Horticultural Society opened a pop-up beer garden on the south side of South St. (1438-46 South St.) thanks to Kenny Gamble. Right next to the Jamaican Jerk Hut, 1436 South St., the pop-up aimed at topping last year’s successful run on S. Broad St. across from the Kimmel Center, which tallied nearly 30,000 visitors. Decked out with a South Beach vibe, the spot boasted a summer of food trucks, live music, craft beer and cocktails and high-end relaxing. Though the Horticultural Society’s known for its age-old Flower Show, Philadelphians are starting to see PHS as their go-to pop-up provider.
Girard Park, 2101 Shunk St., was celebrated with the announcement of $250,000 in city funding slated for infrastructure improvements. Parks and Rec commissioner, Michael DiBerardinis, and City Councilman Kenyatta Johnson, teamed up to use their capital funds to contribute towards the park bettering walkways, benches and lighting. 18,000 square feet of walkways will be repaved and 20 benches will be replaced. The Girard Estate Neighbors Association and Girard Estate Area Resident civics couldn’t have been more thrilled.
With a grant of $250,000 from the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission’s Transportation Alternatives Program, the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia will team with the city’s Streets Dept. to implement sharrows up and down 13th and 15th streets. Green chevrons and a ton of signage will encourage cyclists to use 13th and 15th as bike boulevards and stay off of Broad St. In coordination with the city’s paving schedule, the chevrons will go down in 2015 or ’16 and, hopefully, encourage bicycle use and safety, and discourage road-sharing motorist rage.
The Eagles’ Lincoln Financial Field finished up a $125 million revitalization plan and gave a preview to the media days before the season opener against the Jacksonville Jaguars on September 7. The biggest improvements came in the graphics and media department: 22,000 square feet of HD video boards were installed, scoreboard and graphics controls, more cameras, and a state-of-the-art control room were installed. They added 1,626 new seats, setting capacity at just over 69,000, and improved foot traffic flow so that Linc visitors can walk all the way around the stadium including the use of two new pedestrian bridges.
August
South Philly Review checked in with the Italian Market and the South Ninth Street Business Association for a state-of-affairs report on the market’s health and key players. Michele Gambino, the association’s business manager and vendor coordinator, was aggressively tracking down and vetting street vendors to prevent empty stands. Domenick Crimi, the newly-elected president of the board of directors and owner of Cappucio’s Meats, 1019 S. Ninth St., took charge of bringing market visitors young and old alike to Bella Vista for their produce, meats, cheeses, seafood and poultry. And true to the market’s 21st century multicultural identity, the partial-owner of Blue Corn, 940 S. Ninth St., said his new Mexican restaurant and bar is going well.
A very controversial decision to change the route of the Mummers Parade was reached by Mummer leadership with eyes on the 2015 proceedings being more effective and less time- and resource-heavy. The 115th parade will reverse the direction of the parade with performances in front of City Hall for judging before brigades march south on Broad Street and ending at Washington Avenue. Tom Loomis (president of the String Band Association), Rusty Martz (president of the Mummers Museum, 1100 S. Second St.), and Richie Porko (president of the Comic Division), and Jim Julia (president of the Fancy Brigade Association) all spoke about the need to bring the Mummers into a new era and protect the beloved South Philly tradition.
Mayor Michael A. Nutter and former Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell hosted the site selection committee for the Democratic National Convention in a two-day tour of Philadelphia. The convention set to take place in 2016, with the destination set to be announced this year, could still come to Phialdelphia with New York City and Columbus, Ohio as co-finalists. It would be a huge affair and would require nearly $100 million in fundraising, but the Wells Fargo Center, 3601 S. Broad St., was presented as a compelling convention locale. A stop at Pat’s King of Steaks, 1237 E. Passyunk Ave., was in order, of course, to give site selection committee members the full Philadelphia story.
The Philadelphia Podcast Festival saw a successful second weekend-long bill of programming in and around South St. Featured podcasters included South Philadelphians Timaree Schmit, an East Passyunk professor/sex educator/fitness instructor and resident of the 1800 block of South Camac Street. Her “Sex with Timaree” has logged nearly 175 episodes. Jason Richardson, a resident of the 600 block of S. Sixth St., dreamed up and coordinates the Festival as the official Philadelphia Geek of the Year, an award he received in the spring. A founding member of the Black Tribbles, an African-American-helmed sci-fi podcast, Richardson loves all things superheroes and anime.
September
South Philly is a hotbed for activism and young politically-minded Millennials. And no one captures that spirit more than Christie Eastburn, an East Passyunk Crossing resident, and Preeti Pathak, a recent Point Breeze-turned-University City resident, who appeared on the cover of the Review in anticipation of the March to End Rape Culture that took place on Sept. 27. A re-imagined version of the SlutWalk, Eastburn was the lead organizer and pulled in countless victim advocacy and trauma counseling organizations to participate. The march began at Thomas Payne Park at 16th Street and JFK Boulevard and traversed through the gayborhood and then back up Broad St. to City Hall with chanters and sign-holders, all with the main goal of stopping sexual assault and violence for all genders and sexualities.
Southwark School, 1835 S. Ninth St., was the lucky recipient of the kindness of Digitas Health LifeBrands’ charitable giving with an ambitious overhaul of the school’s interiors. A fresh coat of paint, brand new murals, a cleaned-up gymnasium and some outdoor flourishes of paint got the school community’s year started out with smiles and hope. The 100-year-old East Passyunk Crossing institution needed a touch-up and Andrew Lukov, the school’s dynamic principal, was thrilled to hear of Digitas’ intentions to work with Southwark. Countless staff and students cheered on the 300-strong volunteer-executed transformation.
The Columbus Square Advisory Council officially started fundraising atop the Wharton Lofts, 1148 Wharton St., with hundreds of Philadelphians coming out to support the revitalization and renovation of Columbus Square Park, 12th and Wharton streets. The estimated $3-million project was greenlit when 1st District Councilman Mark Squilla gifted the project $300,000 for design and permit needs. The Passyunk Avenue Revitalization Corp. was represented by Passyunk Square Civic president Pam Zenzola, who reported that PARC planned to pledge financial support. With copious donations from area restraints and ACME Markets, 1400 E. Passyunk Ave. guests ate and drank through dusk and got the fundraising campaign kicked off with lots of positive energy.
The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia joined forces with the City in a unique private-and-public partnership to break ground on the construction of a 96,000-squre-foot facility at the corner of Broad and Tasker streets. The facility will inhabit an entire block and house a brand new state-of-the-art playground and recreation center, South Philadelphia branch of the Free Library of Philadelphia, the City’s Health Cneter 2 and a CHOP primary care center. The 1.59 acres of land will be a new hub for the Newbold, Point. Breeze, East Passyunk Crossing, and Passyunk Square neighborhoods especially. But perhaps the most exciting aspect for neighbors is the expectation of a nearly 300,000 square-foot 21st Century free library, one that will attempt to capitalize on the unique opportunities of connecting health, literacy and physical fitness.
October
Lindsey Scannapieco, managing partner and principal of Scout Ltd LLC, is the lead developer and community-wrangler who is attempting to bring the Edward W. Bok School, 1901 S. Ninth St., back to life. She and her development company have creative ambitions for the 350,000 square-foot building, which sold for nearly $2.1 million. Her vision calls for maker spaces, public living rooms, studio and retail spaces and perhaps even restaurants, all mixed together with the future anticipation of apartments above it all. Scannapieco will call on her experiences in London, where she worked famously on the 2012 Summer Olympic games spaces, to immediately bring the school back to life, which will start with creating parking underneath the beast.
The World Meeting of Families are coming to Philadelphia and the Archdiocese of Philadelphia’s poised to not only put Catholic Philly on spotlight but welcome the 266th pope, Pope Francis, to the 2015 international celebration of familial faith. Pope John Paul II visited Philadelphia on a U.S. tour in 1979 and 36 years later, the City will expect well over 1 million visitors to the Parkway for a papal mass. Faithful and curious parishioners gathered at the St. Monica School, 16th and Ritner streets, to hear from Jack O’Brien, archdiocesan director of events, who updated neighbors on WMOF details and the much-anticipated papal visit.
An iconic strip of Queen Village is being readied for greening – Bainbride Green, Bainbridge Street between South Third and Fifth streets, could look completely different in a couple years. Jonathan Rubin, a longterm resident and chair of the Friends of Bainbridge Green, has been rallying public and private support of an overhaul of the space and kicked off a fundraising season with “Dining & Dancing Under the Stars.” Though the project is in its earliest stages, Rubin is coordinating with South Street Headhouse District and the Queen Village Neighbors Association to obtain grants and state money with a three-or-four-year buildout goal.
On the heels of a Daily News special feature package exploring gentrification around the city, an October cover story looked at the gentrification of South Philly. A growing city, Philly’s population went spiked with nearly 60,000 residents moving in between 2006 and ’12. 1,097 vacant lots and buildings are scattered throughout Pt. Breeze, making for rapidly-changing block-to-block dynamics. Beth McConnell, the Policy Director for the Philadelphia Association of Community Development Corporations discussed thoughtful zoning and land-allocation, especially through the concept of something she advocates for, a City-run Land Bank that would streamline the resurrection of dead spaces and properties. Of course, the definition of gentrification itself was addressed by the Daily News’ Assistant City Editor Yvette Ousley, who said the editorial package aimed “to move away from the idea that gentrifying neighborhoods, whatever color they are, are victims. The people currently in these neighborhoods have choices – they can sell for lots of money or they can sell.”
November
A new governor was elected on Nov. 4 when Tom Wolf beat out incumbent Tom Corbett with 55 to 44 percent (1.9 million to 1.6 million votes) of the popular vote. Wolf was one of the only Democratic gubernatorial races to report success with GOP victories in the mid-term cycle in from Kansas to Maine. The 65-year-old York resident and graduate of Dartmouth College, the University of London and MIT, Wolf resigned as CEO of The Wolf Industry, Inc., a building-project company, to run for office. Wolf supporters from IBEW Local 98 held signs in front of Queen Village’s Famous Fourth Street Delicatessen, 700 S. Fourth St., of support. Young Involved Philadelphia’s Advocacy vice-chair, Stephen St. Vincent, also broke down the significance of the three proposed and passed ballot measures.
The Philadelphia Water Department’s ongoing Green City, Clean Waters program turned its aim at the Guerin Rec Center, 16th and Wolf streets, in order to better manage some of the asphalt-heavy space’s rainwater runoff. After a series of meetings at the Center, Maggie Wood, a community planner and outreach specialist with the Water Dept., presented design options and fielded questions from curious neighbors. The anticipated design would eliminate some parking from the Center and install a rain garden and green space, potentially even a community garden, and build an underground water-holding cell underneath the playground. Levana Layendecker, the president of the Newbold Civic Assocation and a resident of the 2200 block of S. Hicks St., said there was a vocal minority of naysayers who wanted to minimize parking reduction and green spaces, but that the majority of voters are greatly in favor of green space in the area.
The awarding of a fifth and final Category 2 gaming license (up to 5,000 slot machines and 250 table games) to Stadium Casino, LLP had the Stella Maris and Packer Park neighborhoods, for the most part, livid. The bid process saw three losers: a Bart Blatstein proposal at 400 N. Broad St., Market8 Casino at Eighth and Market streets, and PHL Local Gaming LLC at 3333 S. Front St. Nearly 700 area residents gathered in the basement of Stella Maris, Ninth and Bigler streets, to voice concern at a meeting helmed by the Sports Complex Special Services District Director of District II, Barbara Capozzi. Union laborers were summarily booed at every opportunity, especially when the inevitability of the casino’s arrival was suggested, and concerns for the nearby Mastery elementary and middle schools campus were cheered.
Alissa McLaughlin, a resident of the 2000 block of Pemberton Street, spearheaded a philanthropic Thanksgiving effort the weekend before Thanksgiving through her Small Fry program for 5- to 13-year-olds that focuses on nutrition and kitchen skills. 110 kids and their families stopped into the Marian Anderson Rec. Center, 740 S. 17th St., and walked away with all of the ingredients necessary for cooking a healthy and complete Thanksgiving dinner themselves, at home. The Monday before Thanksgiving, nearly 2,000 seniors were fed at Universal Audenried Charter High School, 3301 Tasker St., through a combined effort of Tasker Elite and Wyde Bodi. The Grays Ferry charter school was the brick-and-mortar hub of their combined efforts to feed the elderly and hungry, but hundreds of meals were delivered to homes, as well.
December
The heartwarming story of Rosey Poulshock’s devotion to her Philadelphia Eagles was captured when her son Marc teamed up with the franchise to promote a #GivingTuesday project in his late mom’s honor. When his mom was diagnosed with a rare peritoneal cancer, he initiated contact with Eagles’ front office leadership. They gave his mom the moment of a lifetime at the first public training day in August and he was so moved, especially when Rose passed and the Eagles sent a massive bouquet of green and white roses, that he and Youth Eagles Partnership are raise up to $108,000 to go towards YEP’s efforts to “level the playing field, to use football terms, especially for kids facing long odds.”
A private entity called Project 250 put together a nearly bulletproof pitch to Mayor Nutter and Parks & Recreation for the creation of a $150-million velodrome on the edge of FDR Park. A banked bicycle-racing track, the world-class facility would be another unique partnership between the City and a privately-funded LLC that would lease and manage public land. CEO Phil Senechal detailed his environmental background and plans to raise enough money to improve the park’s walking and bike trails and bodies of water, as well as create a replacement park across the street from FDR Park.
In response to the racial unrest that spread through the United States as a result of the deaths of Eric Garner and Michael Brown, students at the Academy at Palumbo, 1100 Catherine St., staged a die-in and speak-out to express their outrage, fear, frustration and confusion. After the final bell on Dec. 12, almost 100 students lay down to mimic death in their main hallway for 4.5 minutes to reflect the 4.5 hours that Brown lay dead in the street in Ferguson, MO. Students and staff used the upstairs library to recite poetry and communicate outrage afterwards.
The Ralph Brooks Tot Lot at 20th and Tasker streets got an official groundbreaking after Connor Barwin’s Make the World Better Foundation, teamed with Councilman Kenyatta Johnson, coughed up $180,000 toward a new basketball court and park. Brooks himself was six years old when he was shot and paralyzed in 1988, but I.AM. South Philly founder Jahmall Crandall teamed with Jeff Tubbs’ Urban Roots to conceive of and find funding for a new revitalized corner park in Pt. Breeze. Now the Water Department, the Mural Arts Program and PhillyRising and Parks & Recreation are behind the project and it’s grown in scope to a nearly $500,000 project set to transform the corner by this time next year.
Staff Writer Bill Chenevert at bchenevert@southphillyreview.com or ext. 117.
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