Editor’s Note: This is the latest in the series of vignettes of local block captains drawn from Them That Do, a multimedia documentary project and community blog by West Philly-based award-winning photographer Lori Waselchuk. Make sure to go to Them That Do for more photos, videos and other information and updates.

Freda Egnal, block captain for 43 years on the 4800 block of Osage Avenue. (Photo by Lori Waselchuk)

“Stop Bitching, Start A Revolution,” reads the Zendik Farm bumper sticker on the Prius parallel-parked between handicap parking signs. The sign poles are decorated with beads, fabric, earrings and ribbons. This is Freda Egnal’s spot.

Egnal is a funky lady. She dyes flashes of blue, green, yellow and purple into her white hair to match the rainbow rims of her glasses. She covers the walls of her front-porch office with posters and buttons shouting slogans like HOUSES NOT HIGHWAYS (1970’s) or REFORM HEALTHCARE NOW! (2000’s) – most are from community campaigns and projects that she has worked on.

When I met Egnal a year ago, she had been a block captain for over 40 years. A few months ago she passed on that position to a young couple who volunteered. But she hasn’t been able to rewire her captain habits. “I still send out e-mails,” she says. The neighbors can’t break their familiar patterns either, Egnal says. “People still come to me with small problems and I try to help them.”

Egnal speaks proudly about her block. “We became organized in the 1970s and we made a big effort of looking out for each other.” She says never felt unsafe and remembers feeling “offended when Penn told their students that it wasn’t safe west of 40th Street.”

Her fondest memories from her block-captain days are the First Friday Block Club meetings, in which block business was mixed with socials. “We had a lot of neighbors make presentations about their own areas of expertise.” Egnal remembers. “And of course we would always eat.”

After graduating from the UPenn School of Social Work in the late ‘60s, Egnal moved into the home on Osage Street with her partner, Herbert Bickford, and worked for the city of Philadelphia as a community and labor organizer.

As a civil servant, Egnal was ‘hatched’ – the term used to describe the federal Hatch Act that forbids government employees to work in party politics. Now retired, Egnal is free to dedicate her time to a lifelong passion for politics. She represents her neighborhood division on the Democratic Party Committee. Egnal says it’s “the lowest rung on the party apparatus.”

But her humble rank in the Democratic Party doesn’t keep her from still believing in change. “I think capitalism clearly has failed. I still think we need a revolution.”

–Lori Waselchuk

According to latest statistics, 210,000 Philadelphians are without health insurance. This is where the recently introduced Affordable Care Act, or “ObamaCare,” comes in. If you’re considering this health care coverage but don’t know how to sign up or are confused about something along the process, here’s some help. The Free Library of Philadelphia is offering individuals and their families free appointments with Certified Application Counselors who will answer your questions and help you sign up for health care coverage under the Affordable Care Act.

Open enrollment for 2014 coverage ends on March 31, so if you need assistance in the application process please call ahead to one of these Free Library branches in West Philadelphia and schedule an appointment with a Certified Counselor:

Lucien E. Blackwell West Philadelphia Regional Library
125 S. 52nd St. | 215-685-7429

Charles L. Durham Branch
3320 Haverford Ave. | 215-685-7436

Walnut Street West Library (starting Monday, Feb. 3; make an appointment with Certified Application Counselor Tiffany Nardella)
201 S. 40th St. | 215-685-7671

Wynnefield Library
5325 Overbrook Ave. | 215-685-0298

In addition, the Tech Lab at the Parkway Central Library, 1901 Vine Street, will offer regular open hours from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m., during which you can drop in for Affordable Care Act assistance without an appointment. Certified Application Counselors will be available on a first come, first served basis.

For more information, visit this page.

The kindergarten registration line at Penn Alexander School in January, 2012. The school switched to a lottery last year. (Archive photo/West Philly Local)

The worst kept secret at Penn Alexander School (PAS) made the Daily News today. The neighborhood elementary school, which last year switched to a lottery from the first-come first-served kindergarten registration, has students who don’t live in the school’s neighborhood catchment.

The Daily News article focuses on a particular family who lives in Overbrook but has kids enrolled in PAS (you can read it here) thanks to connections with former Superintendent Arlene Ackerman. The family’s name came up in comments on West Philly Local last year when the district implemented the kindergarten lottery.

Here are some other details from the Daily News piece:

• 34 students out of PAS’s 550-student enrollment are living outside the catchment, according to the school district.
• Not PAS administration, but former Philadelphia School District superintendents, including the most recent one, now deceased Arlene Ackerman, could and did use admission exceptions for out-of-catchment students for “an extenuating circumstance … that’s for the well-being and safety of the child,” according to Fernando Gallard, the school district’s spokesperson.
• Current superintendent William R. Hite Jr. has not used this privilege, Gallard told Daily News.
• The district won’t pull any children who live outside the catchment from the school to avoid disruption of their education. In the future, however, the district will allow only families living inside the school boundaries to attend the school, according to Gallard.

To read more about PAS and its recent enrollment issues, click here.

In recent months, the 5000 block of Baltimore Avenue has become a politically-charged center of controversy that has West Philly residents both frustrated and perplexed. Should the block, flanked by some boarded-up buildings, evolve with the help of local businesses into a commercial strip? Or should the city step in, reclaim the land and enlarge an existing health center and include parking?

A public meeting scheduled for next Thursday (see details below) will provide an opportunity for business owners and residents to discuss these two possibilities.

As Naked Philly reported earlier this month, community members learned in November about possible tentative plans to redevelop mostly privately-owned properties between 50th and 51st Streets. The redevelopment, which would happen through eminent domain, could make way for an expansion of the Mercy Wellness Center at 5008 Baltimore Avenue as per a proposal currently being considered by the Philadelphia Redevelopment Authority (PRA).

Baltimore Avenue near 51st Street.

For many residents, the tentative expansion proposal, submitted to the PRA by the Baltimore Avenue Redevelopment Corporation (BARC) — the non-profit that owns the Wellness Center—runs contrary to the needs of the community. In business owner Saba Tedla’s view, what the neighborhood needs along the slowly developing stretch are more restaurants and retail spaces that can solidify the Baltimore Avenue Corridor as a destination point—and without the use of eminent domain. (According to a recent City Paper article, the BARC proposal is “in flux” and may have already lost steam as inferred by statements made by BARC’s current president, Dr. Benjamin Smallwood.)

After all, more foot traffic on that block can only help Tedla, who owns Seeds Gallery at 5011 Baltimore Avenue and the restaurant Aksum further east on Baltimore and  plans to open a second restaurant across from the center this spring. She wants the competition.

“People like myself feel that the needs of the community are more for commercial retail than it is to have an expansion of a parking lot and a healthcare center,” Telda told West Philly Local. “If I know I’m opening a restaurant, why am I asking for restaurants? Because I am a member of the community. It’s productive and economical for more people to have more jobs [and] to attract more young professionals.”  Continue Reading

UPDATE (3:00 p.m.): Residents near 50th and Hazel, who lost their power last night, reported another power outage this morning, around 11:30 a.m. Power was restored by 12:30 p.m., according to a West Philly Local reader report.

11:09 a.m.: A blown transformer near 50th and Cedar caused power outage that left over 100 residents, PECO customers, without heat on one of the coldest nights of the year. The power outage happened on Wednesday night between 9:30 and 10 p.m. PECO crews responded, but power didn’t come back until 6 a.m. this morning, CBS Philly reports. Houses on and around 50th Street between Hazel and Cedar Avenues were affected by the outage.

The temperatures fell below 10 degrees last night. A shelter was set up at the Samuel B. Huey Elementary School at 52nd and Pine for those who needed relief from the cold.

If you or someone you know were affected by this power outage please leave a comment.

The snow emergency declared by the city of Philadelphia on Tuesday afternoon will remain in effect until 6 p.m. on Wednesday. Please avoid parking on snow emergency routes until that time. If you did park on one of the emergency routes and your car has been towed please call 215-686-SNOW to find out where it is. More information on snow emergency routes can be found here.

And here are a couple of beautiful photos of The Woodlands Cemetery during yesterday’s snowstorm taken by West Philly Local reader Katy. You can check out more photos here.