Many of our readers expressed concern about Cafe Renata at 43rd and Locust being closed last week. So here’s what happened – Renata owners, Katie and Yasser, were doing a little facelift and also installed a new counter. Katie said that they moved the bar out of the center of the room and Yasser, actually, built the new bar and a bunch of tables himself with recycled pieces of wood. After the remodeling the cafe space for seating has increased by about 30%. The new counter and long table were made from salvaged trees and Yasser did the finishing work.

“We couldn’t have done it without the West Philly Tool Library. I think we borrowed a zillion different thingamajigs from them for this project,” said Katie in an email.

Editor’s Note: This week we received a classified ad from neighbor Jena Laske, who was looking for a musician to take ownership of her father’s prized 12-string. We asked Jena to tell us more. She sent the note below.

Hi West Philly Folks,

I’m giving away my father’s 12 string Yamaha guitar. Just to let you know a little bit about my dad, his name was Thomas. He had a mass of curly red hair. When he was a teenager, he was quite a heartthrob and played and sang at small town bars around the Adirondack mountains where my grandparents had a cabin on Seventh Lake. He was only 22 when I was born and I have memories sitting on the floor as a youngster listening to him sing Jim Croce’s “I Got a Name” and an old folk song, “Froggy Went a ‘Courtin’.”

I remember going with my Dad to pick out this guitar. It came with a case that was bright red and furry inside. Unfortunately, the stitches rotted a few years back and I left the case on 49th and Cedar for someone else to refurbish – so the guitar does not have a case.

My father died from cancer at 30 around 1979 or ’80. Although I have wanted to play his Yamaha for a long time, I just never learned to do it well.  I would like to offer this guitar to someone who really loves to play. It still resonates well, although there are slight issues with the neck which make the strings tight and hard to hold down.

If you are interested, please write me a short essay about why you want this guitar. You agree never to sell it, but to pass it on to a musician should you decide to part with it someday.

As my father would say, Sat Nam

Jena

A jury convicted  the woman standing trial for the death of her 3-year-old godson in June 2011 at an apartment building near 49th and Chestnut Streets.

Prosecutors have said they will seek a lengthy prison sentence for Nadera Watson, 25. Watson was convicted of third degree murder, conspiracy to commit murder, child endangerment and the possession of instrument of crime, according to court documents. The instrument was a small blowtorch that Watson used to burn Jaquinn Brewton’s buttocks during potty training.

Watson earlier turned down a plea deal that would have resulted in a prison sentence of 30 to 60 years. Her boyfriend, Marcus King, pleaded guilty earlier to third degree murder charges.

King testified that Batson repeatedly abused the child, who had speech and developmental delays. He is scheduled to be sentenced on Sept. 25.

More details on the Jaquinn Brewton case are available here.

UPDATE (8/14/13): Police said that they are still in the early stages of the investigation and couldn’t provide more details on the shootings. We also learned that a 19-year-old male was shot and killed on the same block just last week, on Saturday, Aug 10.

Four men were shot near Kingsessing Park Tuesday night, around 10 p.m.

NBC10 is reporting that the men were shot along the 1100 block of Divinity Street, which connects the 5000 blocks of Springfield and Chester Avenues. All four men were hospitalized. One is in critical condition.

Neighbors reported that police helicopters were in the area searching for the suspect or suspects.

As the end of the summer is approaching fast, the city has announced that it would start closing outdoor public pools beginning this week. Some pools may have closed even earlier as we noticed that the Shepard pool at 57th and Haverford was already drained out Monday morning. Other pools will stay open until the end of next week. By the way, the sprayground at 48th and Woodland will stay open until September 1.

Here’s the schedule for closings of the pools located in West Philly and vicinity:

Tuesday, Aug 13 – Baker (5431-43 Lansdowne Ave.), Tustin (5901-29 W. Columbia Avenue)
Friday, Aug 16 – Mill Creek (743-81 N. 48th Street)
Monday, Aug 19 – Lee (4328 Haverford Avenue), Myers (5800 Chester Avenue)
Wednesday, Aug 21 – O’Connor (2601 South Street)
Friday, Aug 23 – Kelly (4231 North Concourse Drive), Sayre (5835 Spruce Street)

Housing prices are bouncing back all over Philadelphia, except in West Philly, according to a recent report.

Second quarter home prices fell 7.8 percent in University City compared to the first quarter and an average of 5.9 percent in other parts of West Philly, the Fels Institute of Government analysis shows.

Photo by Katrine Lvovskaya.

Prices around the city bottomed out about 18 months ago and prices in many neighborhoods have begun to bounce back (as much as 8 percent in parts of North Philly), while prices in this side of the Schuylkill have lagged. Not to worry, said Kevin Gillen, a senior research consultant at Fels and the report author. He believes the down tick in house value is just a short-term phenomenon and can be regarded as more of a “correction” in pricing, particularly for University City, which saw double-digit home price rises for the last 10 to 15 years.

“The prices are still way above where they were 10 years ago. It’s like 100 steps forward and 15 steps back. Think of it as a mean reversion,” said Gillen, who believes the long-term trend for the area is still optimistic. “It’s positive going forward but a more modest positive than you had in the past.”

Average home prices across the city have increased 3.1 percent compared to the second quarter last year.

This over-inflation during the decade’s housing boom, said Gillen, can be attributed to University of Pennsylvania renewed, three-fold investment in the neighborhood: the creation of the University City Business District, which led to better public services; a mortgage program aimed at UPenn faculty and staff to encourage them to invest in the neighborhood; and the opening of the Penn Alexander School at 43^rd and Locust Streets 10 years ago.
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