Martin Luther King Jr. Day is this Monday (Jan. 16). Here’s a list of events and Day of Service opportunities for local residents. Some events are being held starting this weekend and will go on until Feb. 2. More MLK Day of Service community projects can be found here.

Friday, Jan. 13

• MLK Weekend of Service at Repair the World: Philadelphia  – Jan. 13-16

Repair the World: Philadelphia will honor the legacy of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. all weekend long through offering a variety of volunteer opportunities and chances to engage with other community members. Click here to register.

Sunday, Jan. 15

• Annual Symposium on Social Change Honoring Martin Luther King Jr. at the University of Pennsylvania – Jan. 15-Feb. 2, 2017

The University of Pennsylvania will honor the life of Martin Luther King, Jr. with film screenings, lectures, workshops, panel discussions and musical performances. All events are free and open to the public. Click here for more information.  Continue Reading

The University of Pennsylvania has confirmed that the Fresh Grocer that has been operating at the corner of 40th and Walnut for 15 years will soon be replaced by another operator.

In an e-mail to West Philly Local, Jennifer Rizzi, Director of Communications at Penn, confirmed that the university, which owns the building where the Fresh Grocer is currently located, “began lease discussions with a new operator and will soon announce plans with this operator for an exciting, upgraded state of the art urban supermarket at the 40th and Walnut location.” The decision to seek proposals from a variety of grocery stores for this location was made after the Fresh Grocer “failed to renew the lease for almost 4 months after the deadline [November 2015],” according to the email.  Continue Reading

The two sisters behind LuLu Bang, who recently appeared on ABC’s reality TV show “Shark Tank,” have just opened a new pop-up restaurant in West Philly. Jorrae and Kelly Beard, the owners of LuLu Bang Sauces and Marinades, opened Lulu Bang Burgers & Wangs on Jan. 2 at The Common Table at 310 S. 48th St.. The restaurant is part of the Dorrance H. Hamilton Center for Culinary Enterprises (CCE) incubator program.

The pop-up restaurant will operate at this location until March 31; LuLu Bang is an active member of the CCE and will have the organization’s support during their launch phase. While temporarily using space at The Common Table, the program will continue to seek a permanent location for LuLu Bang’s future restaurant and will launch a kick starter campaign for 60 days.  Continue Reading

The Woodlands Grave Gardener program is returning this spring for the second year and volunteers are needed. Here’s how it works:

Each volunteer (75 are needed) will be assigned to adopt a “cradle” grave at The Woodlands during the 2017 growing season. These graves were originally designed to be planters, so the volunteers are expected to plant and tend to their assigned “cradle” grave throughout the growing season (March-October). All gardens will be designed with the Victorian Garden aesthetic in mind. An approved planting list has been created by The Woodlands to help guide the gardeners.

A series of gardening workshops will also be offered to the program participants. The first workshop, on Gardening for Beginners with Sally McCabe of the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society (PHS), will be held on February 1.

Those interested to participate in the program are asked to submit an application. The deadline is January 20.

For more information and to apply, click here.

(Photos courtesy of The Woodlands).

The City of Philadelphia will pay $4.4 million to Philippe Holland, the pizza delivery driver who was shot several times in April 2014 in the Cedar Park neighborhood by two police officers who thought he was involved in a shooting.

         Philippe Holland

The settlement is the largest in the city’s history for a victim of a police shooting, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer.

“We will strive to ensure that tragedies such as this do not happen again in our City. The Philadelphia Police Department has agreed under the settlement to implement a new training protocol for all current and new plainclothes police officers,” City Solicitor Sozi Pedro Tulante said in a statement released today by the Mayor’s Office.

Holland had just delivered a pizza to a home near 51st and Willows at about 10 p.m. on April 22, 2014 when two plain-clothes officers, Mitchell Farrell and Kevin Hanvey, approached him with their guns drawn. Farrell and Hanvey were investigating a shooting in the area. Fearing a robbery, Holland ran to his car and tried to drive away. The officers opened fire, hitting Holland in the neck, head and leg while he was behind the wheel. Police regulations prohibit shooting at a moving vehicle.  Continue Reading

New Hamilton Court streetscape rendering.

In August 2016, the Post Brothers, the real estate company that has acquired a number of residential properties in University City in the past year, revealed their plans and renderings for the renovation of the historic Hamilton Court apartment complex at 39th and Chestnut Streets. Currently, the company is in the process of making upgrades to Hamilton Court, which was one of Philadelphia’s first apartment buildings when it was built in 1901. The renovations include the conversion of vacant ground-floor space into modern commercial retail spaces, which will be occupied by five dining establishments.

On Wednesday, the developers revealed the restaurants that signed leases for those spaces. Here they are:

• Steve’s Prince of Steaks, one of Philadelphia’s most famous cheesesteak restaurant chains, has signed a lease for 2,277 square feet.  Continue Reading