Delaila Aryee (left) and Lyndsay Brown (right) with former Philadelphia mayor Michael Nutter.

A new fitness and physical therapy private practice with a focus on affordable physical therapy and rehab, fitness classes and open gym options, has recently opened at 5008 Baltimore Avenue. Vital Step Physical Therapy and Fitness co-owners Delaila Aryee and Lyndsay Brown, both Doctors of Physical Therapy, are young entrepreneurs who were featured on A Woman’s Nation in September 2015. Their dream then was to open their own, compassionate practice that would serve their community.

“We are very passionate about making an impact in our local community because we have spent many years here as clinicians, residents and graduates from the University of the Sciences in Philadelphia (also located in West Philly),” Aryee and Brown told A Woman’s Nation.

Thanks to the women’s passion and a little help from KIVA Zip, which provided a microloan allowing to renovate the space and to purchase necessary equipment and supplies, Vital Step opened its doors in November.

At Vital Step, you can get physical therapy services for various neurological conditions, including stroke, brain/spinal injury, Parkinson’s disorder, Multiple Sclerosis and more; orthopedic conditions, including joint replacement therapy, arthritis/joint pain, lower back/neck pain, sports injuries and more. The facility also offers balance and fall prevention programs, CHF and COPD management, postpartum therapy, diabetes and high blood pressure management, and other services.

Rehabbing an ankle injury at Vital Step.

As concerns fitness and health education, Vital Step offers general and specialized fitness programs, including yoga, low impact aerobics and Zumba/dance, and nutrition education.

Vital Step Physical Therapy & Fitness is located at 5008 Baltimore Ave., on the 2nd floor of the Mercy wellness center (it is not affiliated with Mercy).

For more information, visit: http://www.vitalsteppt.com/. You can also follow them on Facebook and Twitter.

(Photos from Vital Step’s Facebook page).

CityLife Neighborhood Clinics, which focuses on providing comprehensive care to seniors, opened the doors of its University City clinic (37 S. 40th St., 2nd Fl) last week, the third CityLife clinic in the city to begin welcoming members in recent weeks. Another West Philly-based CityLife clinic recently opened in the Spruce Hill neighborhood – at 4237 Walnut Street. The timing of the clinic openings coincided with Open Enrollment for Medicare Advantage, which kicked off on October 15.

CityLife recently announced the addition of Philadelphia native Dr. Marisa Gefen, a primary care physician, as its Practice Team Leader. In addition to seeing patients and leading an integrated primary care team at CityLife’s University City location, in her new role, Dr. Gefen is responsible for setting clinical standards and protocols for CityLife’s three Philadelphia clinics in University City, Spruce Hill, and The Avenue in North Philadelphia.

“CityLife’s model represents a new type of care – one that is designed for the member and built on teamwork, relationships, and service,” Dr. Gefen said in a statement.

CityLife’s three Philadelphia clinics care for members through a holistic model of team-based primary care. Primary care teams are comprised of CityLife members, their families, a doctor or nurse practitioner, nurse, clinical and administrative assistants, and medication and health guides. Clinics offer convenient hours, access to staff 24/7, walk-in and same-day care, and transportation.  Continue Reading

As you may have heard, today is the drop-dead deadline to sign up for health insurance under the Affordable Care Act (aka “Obamacare”).

The easiest way to do that is to go to the website here. As we have mentioned before, if you need some help navigating this thing, call a Free Library of Philadelphia branch, set up an appointment for today and get in there. There is a Certified Application Counselor Designated Organization at many library branches. They can help you.

Here are some pertinents:

• Charles L. Durham Library | 3320 Haverford Ave. | 215-685-7436
• Lucien E. Blackwell West Philadelphia Regional Library | 125 S. 52nd St. | 215-685-7429
• Walnut Street West Library | 201 S. 40th St. | 215-685-7671

Here is what you will need when you sign up (via the Free Library):

• Social Security Numbers (or document numbers for legal immigrants).
• If employed, your employer and income information for every member of your household who needs coverage (for example, from pay stubs or W-2 forms—Wage and Tax Statements).
• Policy numbers for any current health insurance plans covering members of your household.
• A completed Employer Coverage Tool form: For every job-based plan you or someone in your household is eligible for, you’ll need this form.

To speak directly with a customer service representative from the Health Insurance Marketplace please call 1-800-318-2596. Assistance is available in multiple languages.

The Obama administration has been really going after “The Young Invincibles,” you all between 18-29 who think it’s a wise financial move not to pay for insurance. Obama has a message for you.

When West Philly Local last reported on the Center for Culinary Enterprises in May, two new restaurants options were slated to open late that summer—48th Street Grille and Planet Vegan. But the summer has come and gone, and neither restaurant has opened its doors in their respective spaces at 48th and Spruce Streets.

Photo by Annamarya Scaccia / West Philly Local.

This week, West Philly Local caught up with Bryan Fenstermaker, senior director of programming at The Enterprise Center Community Development Corporation (TEC-CDC), to find out the reason for the radio silence. Turns out, financing delays pushed back the grand opening of 48th Street Grille, Fenstermaker told us. According to the TEC-CDC executive, Chef Carl Lewis has signed a 10-year lease for the Culinary Center’s retail space, where he will open his American-Caribbean restaurant this spring.

As for Planet Vegan, it’s no longer opening in the second space. Owner Dorinda Hampton told West Philly Local she wants to instead focus on further expanding her health food line, Really Fresh Vegan, which operates out of the Culinary Center, and grow the list of places that carry her products. “Once things get more stable, I will start looking for another location for Planet Vegan I’m really passionate about opening it up in the near future,” Hampton said.

Real Food Works To Go will, instead, open in Planet Vegan’s place, Fenstermaker said—although there is no word yet on its launch date. Real Food Works To Go is a pilot program developed through a partnership between TEC-CDC and Real Food Works­—a Philadelphia start-up providing subscription-based, home-delivered healthy meal plans—that will function as a health food store, as well as offer on-site food preparation, cooking demos, and nutritional education.

In addition to 48th Street Grille, TEC-CDC will open the Philly Restaurant Residency Incubator in the middle retail space at the Culinary Center. The new program, said Fenstermaker, will serve as a sort of pop-up shop for the food world—aspiring restaurateurs and chefs can test out their sit-down restaurant concepts in the 1,445 sq-ft fully-functioning space without “cashing in their life savings to do so.”

The restaurant incubator model received an economic boost recently from the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services through its Economic Development Healthy Food Finance Initiative Award distributed by HHS’ Office of Community Services. The award, according to Fenstermaker, will be put towards construction and operation of incubator. In February, TEC-CDC will also release a business plan competition for the incubator.

“The restaurant incubator will allow new entrepreneurs to hone their craft while we work with them to line up financing,” Fenstermaker told West Philly Local. “The end result would be to place them on corridors in West Philly and other parts of the city with financing ready to go. It is a proof of concept model to assist small entrepreneurs.”

–Annamarya Scaccia

The problems are continuing for the Watusi II at 45th and Locust and its owner Noel Karasanyi. The bar’s commercial activities license has been revoked for “serious tax violations,” according to a sign affixed to the building dated Sept. 11.

The business owes about $37,000 in back taxes, according to the Revenue Department website. The closing of Watusi II follows The closing of the Watusi Lounge at 46th and Walnut earlier this month due to an expired food license. Both bars are owned by Karasanyi, who has a Yeadon address listed on tax and real estate documents. Karasanyi also owns the Third World Lounge at 49th and Baltimore.

All three establishments have received complaints about late night noise and fights. Three people were shot near the Watusi Lounge on Aug. 30 and the Third World Lounge got some brief citywide publicity for its second-floor “pee pipe” that drained onto the sidewalk along 49th Street.

The Watusi II was briefly closed and put up for sale in 2012, but later taken off the market and reopened. The cease operations sign at the Watusi II lists its name as “Spider Kelly’s,” which is the name of the establishment before it was sold in 1988. It still retains that business name in city records.

The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia has recently opened a new, state-of-the-art pediatric care center (Karabots Primary Care Center) at the corner of 48th and Market. The center held its grand opening with a ribbon-cutting ceremony yesterday. The 52,000-square-foot center will offer pediatric care and community programs to West Philly children and families (the centers at 39th and Chestnut Sts. and 3550 Market St. are moving to the Karabots Center).

The Karabots Center was established with a $7.5 million gift from Nicholas and Athena Karabots and the Karabots Foundation of Fort Washington, Pa. The two-story building contains 56 child-friendly examination rooms, rooms for radiology, hearing and vision testing, and a lab. The facility also houses community programs offered by Children’s Hospital, such as Early Head Start, Community Asthma Prevention Program, domestic violence education, and the Homeless Health Initiative. The Center plans to accommodate over 64,000 outpatient visits annually.