We are very sad to report that Miki Takamori, the woman who was injured in the house fire on the 4600 block of Larchwood Avenue on Jan. 23, has passed away. Miki sustained serious injuries in the fire, including burns on 20-25 percent of her body, and a broken back and ribs from jumping out of the second floor window trying to escape the blaze, but was doing better in the last several weeks. She had made tremendous progress since the accident and was getting close to the time when she could be transferred to a rehabilitation center from the hospital, when on Monday, Apr. 3, she suddenly went into cardiac arrest, according to her friends.

Miki’s funeral will take place on Saturday, Apr 13 at the Unitarian Society of Germantown:

April 13 (Saturday) at 2:00 p.m.
Unitarian Society of Germantown
6511 Lincoln Drive
Philadelphia, PA 19119

The deadline to appeal property assessments under the new Actual Value Initiative (AVI) is fast approaching. First-Level Review Request forms are due in the Office of Property Assessment (OPA) by Sunday, March 31 (or 30 days after you received your assessment notice).

The OPA recommends submitting other documents that may help the office consider your case. These could include photos or recent third-party appraisals. The First-Level Review Request form should have been included with the new assessment notifications. If you need a new form, they are available to download here. The forms should be mailed here:

Office of Property Assessment
P.O. Box 51498
Philadelphia, PA 19115

They also can be dropped off at:

311 Walk-In Center in Room 167 at City Hall
Municipal Services Building Concourse-level, 1401 JFK Blvd.

If you are not satisfied with the outcome of your appeal, you can file another appeal with the Board of Revision of Taxes. That appeal is due by Oct. 7, 2013.

Below is a video produced by the City as a guide to the appeal process.

The Zoning Board of Adjustment (ZBA) yesterday cleared the way for local ice cream producer and retailer Little Baby’s Ice Cream to open shop on the 4900 block of Catharine Street, across the street from Cedar Park. If all goes as planned, the shop should be open by April 1.

Little Baby’s has been wooing Cedar Park residents for a while now and even sent them an “open love letter” on Valentine’s Day. The Cedar Park Neighbors civic association loved them back with a letter of support to the ZBA, which late yesterday provided Little Baby’s with the necessary permit to convert the storefront at 4903 Catharine into the company’s first retail shop west of the Schuylkill.

The company got a massive boost in the form of a 5-year, $50,000 loan from The Enterprise Center to expand into Cedar Park.

Little Baby’s Ice Cream is handmade in their production facility in East Kensington. Their dairy comes from Trickling Springs Creamery in Chambersburg, Penna. Here is a great profile on the three musicians who turned their passion for ice cream into a successful business.

Trash collectors have a tough job and usually they are professional and thorough, but not always. Here’s what happened to a neighbor, Kelly, this morning:

“It appears our trash [collector] can get away with tossing your can all of the place including through your windshield. Today on the 5000 block of Catharine Street, we received an early morning [visit] from our neighbors to inform us the trash workers had thrown a trash can into our windshield. Now I have to wait for Waste Management who only lets you leave a recording to mail us a claim form. I have little hope they will reimburse us… I also doubt my report to 311 will do anything. And thanks to this a day of work was lost and my eldest missed school.”

Kelly adds that neighbors on both sides of her house saw it happen and came to her door to let her know. She says that everything was tossed about and it was not the wind.

UPDATE (3/7): Here’s a response from Philly311 we received this morning:

@blulotuspr @westphillylocal This was forwarded to us and the Streets Dept yesterday. We escalated and it is under investigation. Thanks!

— Philly311 (@philly311) March 7, 2013

Some of you may have noticed a new pharmacy next to recently opened Café Renata and just across the street from CVS near 43rd and Locust. So here’s the scoop – Aspire Rx, a smal independent pharmacy, has relocated to Locust from 45th Street.

OK, at first this seems like a really bad idea – small, independent pharmacy moves across the street from giant pharmacy/store. Folks on some local West Philly list-servs thought the idea seemed so bad that it must be some kind of front for something else.

It’s not. Aspire’s owner, Hetal Chudasama, said Aspire offers things that CVS doesn’t, such as compounding services, lower prices and serious customer care. They also offer free delivery, pet medications and some adult vaccines. She moved Aspire from 45th Street to Locust to the former location of a small Asian grocery to take advantage of the ample foot traffic.

By the way, Chudasama, a resident of West Philadelphia for eight years, knows what she’s talking about when it comes to her big box neighbor. After graduating from the University of the Science’s Philadelphia College of Pharmacy, she worked at – where else – CVS.

Aspire is open Monday through Thursday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., Friday 9-3 and Saturday 10-3. It’s closed Sundays.

Earlier this week we posted an announcement from a reader, Nati, who was looking for the owners of a dog that had bitten him while he was riding his bike. Nati was trying to prevent a painful series of rabies shots and, fortunately, the dog owner stepped forward after the publication.

Here’s another, disturbing account of a dog attack that happened yesterday at The Woodlands Cemetery. Reader Krissy Kim reported that while on a walk with her dog at the cemetery another, off-leash dog approached them, attacked and bit her dog. Here’s what Krissy wrote in an email:

“Yesterday, Thursday 2/28, my husband and I were walking our dog on leash at Woodlands Cemetery. Another dog off leash approached her, they greeted each other appropriately (the owner was still about 50 yards away) when all of the sudden the dog attacked our dog, my husband had to pull him off and body block him during his second lunge for our dog. The dog bit her on the back of the neck and didn’t let go until my husband again pulled him off. At this point the owner was there and did nothing but say, “relax there is no blood”. He then proceeded to get in his car with his dog and drive away. After they left and we checked our dog, he indeed took a small chunk out of her neck (see photo). The vet visit with her antibiotics cost $75.”

According to the cemetery rules, dog walking is allowed, but all dogs have to be on a leash.

Krissy is urging the dog owner to come forward and take responsibility for what his dog did. Krissy says that she has information on this person’s car and license plate number. She described the attacking dog as a medium (40 pound) brindle mixed breed.

She adds, “On  the heels of the “biker being bitten” story hopefully this will continue to be an example of how we all need to step up and be responsible pet owners for the sake of our community.”

Krissy can be reached by email: krissykp@gmail.com

Editor’s Note: We would appreciate any comments except for those blaming certain dog breeds instead of irresponsible owners.