University City District’s award-winning job training program, The West Philadelphia Skills Initiative, is recruiting a new cohort of trainees for a program that includes a guaranteed job interview with a local landscaping company. From Jan. 3rd through the 26th, the program will be recruiting unemployed West Philadelphia residents for a training program with BrightView Landscapes LLC.

BrightView is a commercial landscaping company that holds over 80 percent of the landscaping contracts in University City.  Continue Reading

All Philadelphia public schools will remain closed on Friday, Jan. 5, due to heavy snowstorm that hit the area on Thursday. All after-school activities, including all athletic programs and professional development sessions scheduled for Friday, Saturday and Sunday are also canceled. All District early childhood centers will also be closed.

School District headquarters will open on a two-hour delay.

All Archdiocesan high schools and parochial elementary schools will also be closed on Friday due to today’s storm.

Snow emergency for Philadelphia will end at 8 p.m. on Thursday.

The City of Philadelphia has issued a snow emergency effective at 12:01 a.m. on Thursday. That means that vehicles should be moved from certain streets in the city, including the entire length of Chestnut and Walnut Streets and Woodland Avenue in West Philly.

The region is under a winter storm warning with three to six inches of snow expected.

Vehicles remaining on the emergency routes will be ticketed and towed. More info on snow emergency routes can be found here. If your car is moved, call 215-686-SNOW to find it. Do not call 911.  Continue Reading

Lawyer and West Philadelphia resident Jeff Curry announced this week that he is running for state representative in Pennsylvania’s 188th district as a Democrat in the May 15 primary. The announcement was made on Jan. 1 at the University City Arts League, where he addressed the crowd of over one hundred and fifty supporters, according to a press release.

The seat has been held by State Rep. James Roebuck since 1985.

Curry has been a resident of this district for the last decade. He and his wife Angela first moved to the district in 2007 to start and raise a family in the community. A father of three young children, Curry is running for office because he feels “Harrisburg does not reflect his family’s values of hard work, respect others, and equality and fairness for all.”  Continue Reading

In the next couple of weeks both the City programs and local organizations are offering Christmas tree recycling opportunities to residents.

The City’s Residential Christmas Tree Recycling Program will run from Tuesday, Jan. 2 through Saturday, Jan. 13. The 29-year old program, developed by the Streets Department’s Sanitation Division, provides citizens with an environmentally beneficial alternative for the disposal of used trees.

Residents who wish to drop off their trees to be recycled may take them to the Streets Department Sanitation Convenience Centers open 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. from Monday through Saturday.  Continue Reading

Police are asking for the public’s assistance to locate an endangered missing person. Edward Sojourner, 66, went missing from VA Medical Center located on the 3900 block of Woodland Avenue on Saturday, Dec. 30, at around 10:40 p.m. Police say Mr. Sojourner, who suffers from dementia, is a patient at the facility and left it without permission.

Mr. Sojourner lives on the 5200 block of N. 6th Street but he was not found at that location, according to police.

He is 5 feet 11 inches and weighs 198 pounds. He was wearing white Converse shoes and a beige, knee-length jacket. Anyone with information about this missing person is urged to call Southwest Detectives at 215-686-3183.