Artist Stacy Levy hopes that while you’re sweating the lack of parking spots or that missed bus, you will sit for a beat to notice the massive natural force that’s as big as the moon, the sun and the sea, unfolding daily in your midst.

Her installations, “Tide Field” and “River Rooms,” aim to help Philadelphians to connect to the tides that push water up and down Schuylkill River every day.

You may have noticed the clusters of buoys near the boardwalk along the river, near the Art Museum or at Bartram’s Garden. Those are part of “Tide Field.” The basic idea is to show you the tide, that mostly invisible rise and fall of the river that brings the forces of the sun and moon on the ocean into the city every day. The Schuylkill’s tide changes up to six feet daily.  Continue Reading

If you haven’t visited The Penn Museum‘s iconic lower level Egypt (Sphinx) Gallery for a while you may want to do it within the next 10 days. On July 9, the gallery will close for extensive artifact conservation which will take several years, according to a museum announcement.

This is the first time the red granite Sphinx surrounded by colossal architectural elements of a Pharaoh’s palace circa 1200 BCE is taking a break, after more than 100 years of educating and entertaining guests. The new Ancient Egypt & Nubia Galleries are expected to open in four to six years.  Continue Reading

A potent mix of cocaine and the synthetic opioid fentynyl led to at least 20 overdoses in West Philly in the past two weeks, including two deaths, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer. There weren’t more deaths in part due to the administration of Narcan, the overdose reverser that is saving lives across the city. If you want to learn how to administer it, here’s a good opportunity.

The Philadelphia Department of Public Health is offering “overdose awareness and reversal training” at the Walnut Street West Library (40^th and Walnut) on Wednesday, June 27 from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. and again on July 11 and 25 and August 8 and 22 at the same time.  Continue Reading

Future 4224 Baltimore Avenue construction site now has a community garden (the gate has been removed by the gardeners).

We finally have an update on 4224 Baltimore Avenue, the site slated for construction of a 132-unit residential building with ground floor commercial space that has been in the works for four years.

Some work is finally scheduled to begin on the site, according to the Spruce Hill Community Association Zoning chair Barry Grossbach. Crews will be entering the property to remove overgrown vegetation and perform a general cleaning, and additional soil testing on the lot will take place in the near future.

“The community has been anxiously waiting for progress on the site and we are now at the point where activity will be more pronounced,” Grossbach recently wrote in an e-mail.  Continue Reading

Police believe this car, a blue Hyundai Sonata, struck and killed 5-year-old Xavier Moy on Friday.

UPDATE (6/25/2018): The vehicle believed to be involved in the fatal hit-and-run on Friday was turned in on Sunday night, according to police, but no arrests were made as of Monday morning. The owner of the vehicle is cooperating with the police, but it’s not clear whether this person was behind the wheel when the accident happened. The investigation is still underway.

Police are searching for the driver of the vehicle involved in a hit-and-run accident that killed a 5-year-old West Philly boy on Friday, June 22. The boy, identified by police as Xavier Moy, was struck on the 5000 block of Irving Street at 4:08 p.m. on Friday and was taken to Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia in critical condition. He died about an hour later, according to reports.  Continue Reading

It looks like the empty lot at 224 S. 44th Street sitting between two row homes just south of Walnut will not be empty much longer. A request has been submitted to the City’s Zoning Board of Adjustment by the owners to obtain a permit for construction of a four-unit residential building. The new building is being proposed as a semi-detached structure.

The plan for the building was presented to the Spruce Hill Community Association’s Zoning Board earlier this week, and will most likely be back before the SCHA Zoning Board at their next meeting in July, according to SCHA Zoning Chair Barry Grossbach. “We are at a preliminary stage on the 44th Street project,” he wrote in an e-mail.

We’ll keep you posted about the next meeting since community feedback is always welcome on new development projects in Spruce Hill.