Have you, or someone you know, ever gotten into a traffic accident as a cyclist or pedestrian? Perhaps, you or someone you know was on the other side, behind the driver’s wheel? Either way, you’re certainly not alone. A driver hits a pedestrian every five hours in Philadelphia, according to the website of Vision Zero, an initiative of The City of Philadelphia’s Managing Director’s Office of Transportation & Infrastructure System (oTIS). In 2016, there were 369 deaths and serious injuries as a result of automotive crashes.

oTIS wants to drastically reduce and ultimately eliminate traffic-related deaths (of including but not limited to bikers and pedestrians) throughout the city. Their initiative, Vision Zero, hopes to accomplish this ambitious goal by 2030.

Using municipal data of traffic crashes by neighborhood, the oTIS produces some alarming and urgent statistics. In our previous post, we wrote about Vision Zero’s report that deemed 52nd Street and Baltimore Avenue and 40th and Market streets as the most dangerous intersections in the entire city.  Continue Reading

UC Green will honor the memory of community greening activist Winnie Harris on Saturday by planting a mighty swamp oak in Clark Park.

Winnie Harris (center) was murdered in West Philadelphia on Feb. 3.

Tragically, Harris was murdered in her home earlier this year. She was a longtime advocate of community green space and served as volunteer coordinator and executive director of UC Green. Community members are invited to a light breakfast at 9:15 a.m. at City School at 41st and Baltimore on Saturday (April 22). Everyone will then walk together to Clark Park to plant the tree and then spend the rest of Earth Day doing what Winnie loved – planting trees in West Philadelphia.

UC Green volunteers will help McMichael School students and staff plant four trees near 35th St. and Fairmount Ave. Other volunteers will help homeowners and residents in Spruce Hill plant about 28 trees.

The event is open to the public and anyone who plans to attend should call or 215-476-0124 or e-mail eleatherbarrow@ucgreen.org.

Dock Street Cannery & Tasting Room will open on April 27 at 4 p.m. (Photos by Rana Fayez).

Starting Thursday, April 27, you’ll be able to buy some Dock Street Brewery beer, such as No Exit double IPA, Jip the Blood Berliner weisse and Golden IPA, in cans. Customers will be able to see the canning line in action at the new tasting room, which will be located right around the corner from the restaurant on 50th street.

Dock Street head brewer Mark Russell (right).

Why is this recent shift in product packaging? Head brewer Mark Russell says that’s where the beer industry is headed.

“Craft beer, in general, is heading towards cans. Lots of other breweries are also looking at cans, it’s something you can take outdoors. When you look at shipping costs, cans are a lot cheaper, too,” said Russell.

Russell went on to further advocate for beer in cans as a preferred format due to their ability to contain less air and allow less light in, two aspects that affect beer. Dock Street hopes to offer Summer in Berlin and Man Full of Trouble in cans soon as well.

The tasting room will be offering a curated selection of cocktails in addition to the beer. On the shelves, there will be a rotating selection of Pennsylvania liquors like Faber. However, if you’re trying to order one of the restaurant’s famous pizzas in the new space, you won’t be able to. The tasting room will stick to providing a seasonal snack menu from different vendors throughout the area.  Continue Reading

Saturday, April 22 will be a big day at the historic Bartram’s Garden as it’s celebrating Spring and opening of the Bartram’s Mile section of the Schuylkill River Trail.

Community members are invited to a Spring Open House and plant sale from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. This year, guests will get an opportunity to visit the 1731 Bartram House as its doors will be open all day. The plant sale will feature a unique selection of heritage roses, pond plants, historic boxwoods, vegetable and herbs starts, native perennials, shrubs, and trees. Here’s the full array of plants available for sale this year. Gardening experts will be on hand to answer questions.  Continue Reading

Chestnut Street is one of the busiest streets in West Philadelphia with three lanes of eastbound traffic with cars often zooming by at high speeds. This Wednesday evening (Apr. 19), the City is hosting an open house on a proposed Chestnut Street transportation project that will help protect bicyclists and pedestrians between 34th and 45th Streets.

The following safety-enhancing features are being proposed:

• Adding a parking protected bicycle lane to the north side of the street with flexible delineator posts
• Shortening the pedestrian crossing distance with painted pedestrian islands
• Calming vehicle speeds by reducing the number of through traffic lanes
• Adding right-turn lanes at appropriate locations

The open house will be held from 6:30 to 8 p.m. at the Enterprise Center (4548 Market St.).

The city’s Redevelopment Authority selected a local developer to rebuild the residential blocks destroyed in the 1985 MOVE bombing.

If approved by the authority’s board, Philadelphia-based builders AJR Endeavors LLC will rebuild the 36 homes hastily constructed after the bombing on the 6200 blocks of Osage Avenue and Pine Street in the Cobbs Creek section of West Philadelphia. The project will cost an estimated $3.2 million and AJR Endeavors’ bid was one of two received by the authority. The agreement will require construction to be completed within two years of its start.

The fire that destroyed more than 50 neighboring homes began after police dropped a small bomb from a helicopter on a home at 6221 Osage Ave. following a long standoff with members of the black liberation group MOVE who had barricaded themselves inside. Eleven people, including five children, were killed.  Continue Reading