On Spring Garden Street between 35th and 36th, 12 garden beds line the perimeter of the Dornsife Center for Neighborhood Partnerships. Heads of cabbage still sway above the planks of wood, but the growing season is over. Soon the last few crops will be harvested, leaving the garden empty until next Spring.

But if a few Drexel University students have their way, the community will pick up the reigns and keep the garden alive for years.

For the most part, the garden was maintained through the growing season by the Drexel Urban Growers (DUG), a small group of students committed to urban farming and sustainability. The group began by building an urban apiary (beehive) on the campus garden at 33rd and Race, but they have since moved their work off the campus and into Mantua.

The Triskeles Foundation had already designated funding to build a garden at the Dornsife Center, but DUG simultaneously expressed interest and ended up helping with the construction and taking over as the garden’s caretaker. The only requirement by Triskeles was that half of all produce be donated to the community.

Christian Brown, president of DUG, noted that the group ended up donating more like 95 percent. “The community loved the produce. They’d often be lined up right when we started harvesting at 11 a.m.,” Brown said. “There was always more demand than supply.” Continue Reading

Editor’s Note: West Philly Local is proud to present the third in a 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. Check Them That Do for more information, updates and additional photos.

Anita Harris’ inspiration to become block captain didn’t seem particularly ambitious when she started. “I needed something to do,” she explained.

Anita was already working fulltime as a secretary and raising her two daughters.  She simply wanted to make her block of 5300 Wyalusing safe and clean.

But I’ve learned to listen closely to Anita, because behind her efficient language is an ocean of commitment.

Early in Anita’s term as block captain, she met Skip Wiener of Urban Tree Connection. Skip’s organization was working with residents in the Haddington neighborhood to plant flower gardens and trees to rehabilitate crime-ridden vacant lots. Anita joined their efforts and was able to help build several gardens on and around her block.

Five years ago, Skip told Anita that he wanted to start growing food.  It was then that Anita devised a monumental plan for the ¾ acre abandoned lot behind her house.  The lot was once a construction company’s storage site, but it had been abandoned for over 30 years and still contained buried drums of oil and other hazardous construction waste.

“Why don’t we build a farm?” Anita asked as she showed Skip the property.

Skip remembers seeing the lot for the first time. “It was a nightmare. You couldn’t see a foot into the property because the weeds were so high. The space was being used as a chop shop, there were fires, nighttime prostitution, and drugs. It was a very dangerous place.”

For five years, Skip and Anita worked with residents, the city, volunteers, and organizations to clear the lot, remove the waste, replace the soil, and build an urban farm.  It has been slow and intense work, but The Farm at North 53^rd and Wyalusing is fully functional with three greenhouses, a packing shed, cold storage and compost stations.

The Farm produces and supplies fresh vegetables and herbs that are sold to Neighborhood Foods farm stands throughout Philadelphia. Anita spends her Saturdays picking, packing and selling the produce at the vegetable stand on the 600 block of North 53^rd Street, right around the corner from her home.

The 53^rd Street farm stand will open once more this year on Saturday, November 23^rd from 10 a.m. – 2 p.m. to help families prepare for Thanksgiving.

If the loop playing of Wham’s “Last Christmas” at CVS hasn’t given it away already, the holiday season is here, with Thanksgiving just around the corner.

For many locals, the holidays mean planning a vacation or taking a trip back home for family quality time. But for others, the season means staying put in West Philly, be it because of circumstance or because loved ones are coming to you.

Your holiday staycation doesn’t have to turn out boring, though. After all, with all the great restaurants in the area you can embark in a week-long foodie tour that will satisfy your hunger and help you taste new flavors. But our little notch of Philadelphia proper has many other great gems to keep you and/or your family entertained during the season—some popular and historic, others hidden and in need of discovery.

In order to help your staycation take flight, West Philly Local put together a short list of places to play and sleep to help you plan your local itinerary—and discover the unique personality of our neighborhood.

Continue Reading

Play On, Philly! (POP), the acclaimed innovative educational music program which began in 2011 at West Philly’s St. Francis de Sales School, is inviting neighbors to their first collaborative concert tonight at 7 p.m. at West Catholic Preparatory High School (45th & Chestnut). Admission is FREE.

This season, POP has been focusing on collaboration, creativity and composition, as part of a new program, POP Creates. All of their concerts this season will be collaborations, including Orchestra 2001 and Anthony McGill, principal clarinet of the Metropolitan Opera, Messiah College, and Ranaan Meyer of Time for Three, to name a few. The impressive guest artist list includes: Trio Cavatina, Joseph Lin, Nokuthula Ngwenyama, the Takacs Quartet and Time for Three.

Tonight’s concert is a collaboration between St. Francis de Sales Firebird String Orchestra and Junior String Philharmonic of Lehigh Valley (JSP). The highlight of the concert will be a joint performance of Edvard Grieg’s Holberg Suite and selections from The Nutracker Suite. Pieces by Bach and Pachelbel will also be featured. The concert will be conducted by Kenneth Bean, Music Director/Conductor of JSP and Naomi Gonzalez, Conductor at POP.

To read more about Play On, Philly! and to check the schedule of their upcoming events, visit: http://www.playonphilly.org/

(Photo courtesy of Play On, Philly!)

Sometimes the best thing to do on a Saturday morning is to spend time around tools. If you need a tool or two or would like to pass along ones you don’t need, this Saturday’s Fall Tool Sale and Drive at the West Philly Tool Library might be the nut to your bolt so to speak.

The sale runs from 9 a.m. to noon on Nov. 16 at the library’s headquarters at 1314 S. 47th St. They’ll have everything from wrenches, pliers and hammers to gas-powered lawn equipment and circular saws. Donations are tax deductible and they even will have some coffee and refreshments on hand.

Photo by Jim McWilliams, Philadelphia Marathon.

The Philadelphia Marathon is this Sunday and that means you need to be on your toes if you’re trying to get around the city that morning (an additional 150,000 or so people are expected to come into the city beginning at about 5 a.m.). The main race starts at 7 a.m. at 22nd and Ben Franklin Parkway and we have compiled some information below on street closures, changes in SEPTA routes and places to watch the race.

The race route enters West Philly along Chestnut Street before hooking a right on 34th Street and proceeding to Fairmount Park. The race winds through the park near the Please Touch Museum before connecting with Martin Luther King Drive and following the river before turning back toward the Art Museum. The 6-mile West Philly section are miles 7 through 13 on the 26-mile course. See below for the exact route, “cheer zone” spots and approximate times runners will be blowing through.

Public transit routes will be impacted and some some streets will be closed. Bus routes that cross the marathon route will be rerouted from about 4:30 a.m. until, in some cases, early evening, according to SEPTA. Here is a list of bus routes that will be changed, including buses 21 and 42. If you need to get to Center City or thereabouts on Sunday your best bet in most cases will be the Market-Frankford line.

The city also says it will enforce “no parking” regulations along the race route and will begin towing violators early Sunday morning. Look for signs.

Some of the major areas impacted include:

– The inner lanes of the Benjamin Franklin Parkway on Friday, November 15 through Sunday, November 17.
– Citywide along the 26.2-mile route of the Philadelphia Marathon on Sunday, November 17.

The following streets will be closed at 6:45 a.m. on Sunday, Nov. 17, and will reopen, as runners pass through the race course. All race routes will remain closed until 4 p.m. (Taken from the marathon website.)

• 21st Street, from Spring Garden to Arch streets
• 22nd Street, from Spring Garden to Arch streets
• Benjamin Franklin Parkway, from 22nd to 16th streets
• Arch Street between 16th to 4th streets
• 4th Street Arch to Vine streets
• Race Street, from 4th Street to Columbus Boulevard
• Columbus Boulevard (Southbound lanes), Vine Street to Washington Avenue
• Southbound off-ramp, from I-95 at Washington Avenue
• Washington Avenue, from Columbus Boulevard to Front Street
• Front Street, from Washington Avenue to South Street
• South Street, Front to 6th streets
• 6th Street, Bainbridge to Market streets
• Chestnut Street, 6th to 34th streets
• 34th Street, Chestnut Street to Girard Avenue
• Lansdowne Drive, Girard Avenue to South Concourse Drive
• South Concourse Drive, Lansdowne Drive to West Memorial Hall Drive
• West Memorial Hall Drive, South Concourse to Avenue of the Republic
• Avenue of the Republic, West Memorial Hall Drive to Centennial Circle
• Old Lansdowne Drive to the Sweetbriar Loop
• East on Black Road to Martin Luther King Drive
• Martin Luther King Drive
• North on Kelly Drive to the Falls Bridge
• The Falls Bridge
• Ridge Avenue, Schoolhouse Lane to Manayunk Avenue
• Main Street, Ridge Avenue to Green Lane.

Here are a list of the “cheer zones” (places to watch the race that include some sponsored zaniness) on this side of the Schuylkill:

• Wawa Cheer Zone, 34th & Chestnut Streets—Mile 7.5 (7:10 a.m.-9:15 a.m.)

• 34th Street & Fairmount Avenue—Mile 8.3 (7:15 a.m.-9:30 a.m.)

• Kids Cheer Zone, 34th Street & Girard Avenue @ the Philadelphia Zoo—Mile 8.5 (7:15 a.m.-9:30 a.m.) J

• West Memorial Hall Drive near Please Touch Museum—Mile 9.8 (7:15 a.m.-9:45 a.m.)

Course Turnaround at Martin Luther King, Jr. Drive & Black Road—Mile 11.1 (7:20 a.m.-10:00 a.m.) A runner’s favorite, the Vaudevillians NYB return again for a wild and quirky time to keep runners going as half marathoners are almost to the finish line and the full marathoners are getting into the groove.

The Philadelphia Marathon route (from the official website). Click to enlarge: