A public discussion on race and racism at the University of Pennsylvania has emerged in recent days following an opinion piece in the Daily Pennsylvanian last week from a black student who was the victim of racial slurs by drunk white students.

The first line of student Christopher Abreu’s piece is perhaps the most damning for the university. He writes:

I’m no stranger to racism. Being a minority, it comes with the territory. However, because of a recent experience, I cannot in good faith recommend that minorities come to Penn.

City Paper expanded the story today and raised the issue of how Penn students deal with their surroundings in majority black West Philadelphia. The article doesn’t really dig too deeply into relations between students and the community. Any thoughts? Leave a comment below.

OK, so you’ve built a farm on a vacant lot near the 46th Street El station. How do you get water to it? If you’re the ingenious folks at the Walnut Hill Community Farm, you build a solar powered irrigation system.

You can get a close-up look at the system on Sunday, May 1 from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. and even help lay out the irrigation lines. No experience is necessary and all the tools you need will be provided.

The system collects stormwater from the roof of the El station and employs solar power to run a pump to get the water to the crops. A STAKE grant paid for the system.

Walnut Hill Community Farm started last spring. The land is leased from SEPTA and the organization Philly Rooted manages the farm in cooperation with the The Enterprise Center Community Development Center. A youth group, the Walnut Hill Growers’ Cooperative, runs the urban farm portion of the operation.

Update from Tag’s owner (May 31):

After countless prayers, hundreds of fliers, 34 days/nights of searching and trapping, dozens of false alarms and two OTHER little black kitties who now live here… TAG IS HOME!

If you’re around 44th and Baltimore keep an eye out for Tag, a lost black cat. Here’s a description from reader Linda Lee:

Taggart (“Tag”) escaped from his mom’s apartment yesterday (4/27) when movers left the doors open. Location 44th & Baltimore. He is a fixed and microchipped semi-feral (no ear tip), and is only friendly towards his mom. Call Sammi if you think you have seen him – 267-253-9973. Her email is paynekiller1969 — at — yahoo.com.

Local 44, the friendly neighborhood craft beer pub, confirmed reports today that it will be opening a retail operation next to its location at 44th and Spruce Streets that will sell hundreds of craft beers for carryout.

Local 44 is reportedly in negotiations to lease space connected to the bar. Co-owner Leigh Maida told the City Paper’s Meal Ticket blog that she hopes the bottle shop will have a “record store vibe” that will be “heavy on the education/enthusiasm part of craft beer … no snobbery. [Customers will be able to] chat with the resident beer geek about what’s new, etc.”

An opening date has not yet been announced. Stick around for more details.

Residents are invited to attend a meeting tonight to provide input on a proposal that would legalize outdoor cafe-style seating at restaurants along Baltimore Avenue.

Several businesses currently have outdoor seating, including the Gold Standard Cafe and Dock Street Brewing Co., but there has been no formal approval of the seating. The current city ordinance requires each business to apply for seating separately. The Baltimore Avenue Business Association, which represents a variety of establishments, is seeking an ordinance that would allow several businesses to apply together. These businesses include Elena’s Soul, Aksum, Gojjo, Gold Standard Cafe, Dock Street Brewing Co. and others.

Tonight’s meeting is a chance for residents who live near Baltimore Avenue to voice concerns about the approval of outdoor seating. The meeting is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. on the second floor of Elena’s Soul (4912 Baltimore Ave.)

When a handful of West Philly residents sat down for a chat with a local police officer at the Calvary Center recently, little did they know that their tip would lead to an undercover operation that caught an alleged neighborhood package thief red handed.

A resident who lives near 45th and Regent told Lt. Brian McBride during a routine monthly meeting last Thursday that he found a package addressed to his wife that they had never received at a local thrift store. The next day McBride deployed plainclothes officers to the area. They arrested a man near 43rd and Larchwood after observing him remove packages from two doorsteps.

McBride, who works out of the 18th Police District’s University City Division, would not comment on the details of the operation.

McBride meets with residents every third Thursday of the month at the Calvary Center.

The resident who originally reported finding a package at a thrift store stressed that it was not The Second Mile.