Baltimore Avenue Dollar Stroll (Photo courtesy UCD)

Here’s some great news to drive your cold spring weather blues away. The University City District has announced the return of their signature events, including the Baltimore Avenue Dollar Stroll, University City Dining Days and 40th Street Summer Concert Series!

The Baltimore Avenue Dollar Stroll, where dozens of neighborhood businesses present a variety of $1 items and deals, including food, beer, event tickets and vouchers, will return on Thursday, June 25. The second Dollar Stroll is scheduled for September 24. Dollar Strolls take place along Baltimore Avenue, between 43rd and 51st streets, from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m.

In addition to the Dollar Stroll, another popular event is coming back this summer – the 40th Street Summer Series will be held the last Saturday of the month, from May to September, in the campus green space near 40th and Locust. We’ll post more information on the performances when it becomes available.

More than 30 of University City’s best restaurants will participate in the 11th annual University City Dining Days, which runs July 16 through the 28th. As usual, the deal includes three courses for three prices.

There is also a rumor that UCD will bring back its summer film series, which was a big hit back in the summer of ’13. We are still trying to nail down the details on that though. We’ll keep you posted.

The local non-profit Media Mobilizing Project, which uses media to organize poor and working people to tell their stories, has recently moved to a new location from their old location at the church on 43rd and Chestnut Streets. Their new office is at 4534 Baltimore Avenue; the space is owned and until recently was occupied by O’Donnell Real Estate. Taxi Workers Alliance of Pennsylvania has also moved to this location from 43rd and Chestnut.

As was reported earlier, the former Christ Memorial Reformed Episcopal Church building on the corner of 43rd and Chestnut is undergoing renovation, including extensive roof repairs.

By the way, O’Donnell Real Estate, a locally-owned company specializing in West Philly property sales and rentals, no longer acts as agents for sellers and buyers, according to their website, but they buy homes, apartment buildings and vacant land.

Cafe Renata owners, Yasser Aiq and Kate Steenstra, at the cafe (archive photo, West Philly Local).

As many of you know, an overnight fire destroyed Café Renata at 43rd and Locust and injured a neighbor last Thursday. Café Renata co-owners, Kate Steenstra and Yasser Aiq, are safe, but heartbroken over the fire and are still assessing the damage. A lot of support has poured in to them from the community members, which Katie and Yasser are very grateful for.

“Our neighbors and friends have been so supportive of us during all of this and we are so grateful for their encouragement and hugs. We are lucky to be part of such a loving community,” Katie wrote in an email.

While it is still unknown when the popular Spruce Hill coffee and brunch shop will reopen here’s some encouraging news from Katie:

“After taking a few days of reflection Yasser and I would like to tell our friends and customers that we are so encouraged by their support and love the past few days. Without them, Renata would never have been the vibrant café it was. We are looking forward to your continued support during our rebuilding efforts. We will be back!”

If you would like to support Katie and Yasser, visit Cafe Renata’s Facebook page and leave a message. We’re also sharing information about a fundraiser for Café Renata this Thursday, March 19, at The Bar(n) (49th and Catharine) in Cedar Park. The Barn and Wyndridge Farms are teaming up for the Café Renata Tap Takeover Fundraiser where Wyndridge Farms brew will be hooked up to all four of The Barn’s taps. Admission fee is $10 at the door, but guests will get their first brew for free. All drafts will be $3. All of the door and draft proceeds will go to the owners of Café Renata. The event will take place from 6 p.m. – 2 a.m. Check The Barn’s Facebook page for updates.

As was announced last month, Radio Shack is closing as many as 24,000 stores nationwide due to bankruptcy, and Sprint stores will replace most of them. Both West Philly ‘Shack stores, at 212 S. 40th St and 309 S. 48th St, are on the closing list, too. Both stores are currently trying to empty their shelves by holding huge sales. This is bad news for Radio Shack but potentially good news for you.

The 40th St ‘Shack has already been reportedly “picked clean.” We guess, due to its proximity to Penn’s campus.

The 48th St ‘Shack is currently holding a 50-70 percent off sale, according to an employee we talked to. The person we spoke to was not sure though about when the store is closing.

Maybe you could get yourself one of these:

The bankruptcy sale at Radio Shack is out of control, I just bought this for $50. pic.twitter.com/DEicjxFRFv

— Bobby Digital (@a_butler) March 8, 2015

The 48th St Radio Shack is open Mon – Fri 10:00 a.m. – 8:00 p.m., Sat 9:30 a.m. – 8:00 p.m., Sun 11:00 a.m. – 7:00 p.m.

Body-art fans will be happy to learn about a new business coming to Cedar Park. Spirited Tattooing Coalition (Facebook page) will be opening at 49th and Baltimore Ave next week. Shop owner and tattoo artist Jasmine Morrell said she set out to open the shop as the first openly queer and a person of color to open a business like this in the city of Philadelphia.

“I wanted to be able to create a healthy and safe environment around tattooing people’s bodies and dismantle the abrasive and sometimes harsh environment that comes with the industry standard,” said Morrell.

The mission is to create a safe space where the staff will be trained in tolerance and inclusiveness to battle sexism, racism and homophobia that has been present in the tattooing industry. She completed her apprenticeship in 2004 and has been tattooing ever since. With a little over 10 years of experience, she felt ready to have her own space.

Jasmine Morrell (photo by Sarah Mackenzie).

“The industry is dominated by one type of person, it tends to be very male-white-centric. When there are women in the industry or the shop, it’s almost like they’re being commodified and not being valued as a person. I mean that’s a lot of industries. But I think American tattooed culture is bred as this American tough guy attitude. The reality is that it’s an art form, it stems from a different culture that does not relate to that,” said Morrell.

Spirited Tattooing Coalition began a month-long IndieGoGo crowdfunding campaign in November, but only hit a little over one-third of the fundraising goal. “I’m a first time business owner and it’s definitely scary but I’ve had so much support though, it doesn’t feel like I’m doing it completely alone,” Morrell said.

Spirited Tattooing Coalition is located at 4918 Baltimore Ave. The space was previously occupied by the A.M.S. International Market, which closed in June, but has since been transformed into a different type of retail space. The space above will remain a residential apartment space. The current space will not only run as a tattoo shop but also a fine arts gallery, with portion of the floor dedicated to being consignment goods.

Friday, March 13th will mark the official Grand Opening – the shop will be open from noon-9 p.m. Regular business hours will resume the following day: Monday-Saturday noon-9 p.m. The shop will be closed Sunday.

– Rana Fayez

The numbers are in for “parklets,” those little curbside, pop-up platforms with tables and chairs found outside a few local businesses, and it turns out that people, and businesses, seem to like them.

The University City District studied parklet use in 2013 – observing and counting who used them and how – and released a report this week detailing what they found. The study included six parklets outside the Green Line Cafe on Baltimore Avenue, Honest Tom’s/Lil’ Pop Shop, Fu-Wah Market, Manakeesh Cafe, Little Baby’s Ice Cream in Cedar Park and Ramen Bar at 4040 Locust.

To get the data, the UCD parked an intern at each spot during the operating hours of the host businesses on Tuesdays and Wednesdays in the spring and summer of 2013.

It shows that most of the people who use the parklets are patrons of the “host” businesses (you don’t have to be, but most were). In terms of daily unique users, the Honest Tom’s/Lil’ Pop Shop parklet (which both offer very portable products) saw the most traffic (just over 140 per day) with the Green Line spot second at about 60 visitors. The parklet outside of Manakeesh, which sits curbside along a busy section of Walnut Street got only a few visitors per day.

Use at the Honest Tom’s/Lil’ Pop Shop location spiked at about 2 p.m. and then again at about 6:30 p.m. Green Line’s parklet was busiest at about 2 p.m. and 6 p.m. and Little Baby’s parklet saw most of its daily use between 8:30 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. The others spiked during lunch and dinner times.  Continue Reading