Here is some potentially good news for victims of the fire at Windermere Court Apartments.
Governor Tom Corbett has called upon the Small Business Administration to declare Philadelphia a disaster area so that low-interest loans can be made available to victims.
“The apartment building was home to students, families and retirees who now have nothing left. In order to help these victims recover from this disaster, I have asked the federal Small Business Administration to make low-interest disaster loans available to help replace lost and damaged property,” Corbett said in a statement issued yesterday. “I urge the SBA to take prompt action on this request.”
If Corbett’s request is granted, the SBA would make low interest, long-term loans available of up to $40,000 to replace personal property. The loans are based on each applicant’s financial qualifications.
The question that will likely arise for many made homeless by the fire is their status on the lease. We had heard that some residents were not listed on leases and we are still trying to figure out how that would affect their eligibility for a loan or other aid.
Journalists Anjali Kamat and Petra Bartosiewicz tell the stories of Muslim communities in New York and New Jersey grappling with increased law enforcement scrutiny chalked up to the “War on Terror.” Specifically, they detail three cases, including the “Newburgh Four,” four men accused of bombing a community center in Newburgh, New York. The cases question the FBI’s use of paid informants in conducting the investigations of “homegrown terror.”
We’re not sure whether to laugh or cry after this ABC6 story about parents braving frigid temps to get their kids into Penn Alexander’s kindergarten, which is capped at 50 students. We’re happy that such a school exists (full disclosure: we have a child there) and that parents care so much about their child’s education, but we’re sad that they are so scared of the alternatives that they feel they have to sleep outside on the coldest night of the year to get in.
This kind of stand-in-line, first-come-first-serve enrollment system obviously isn’t sustainable. Penn Alexander, which prides itself on small classes, is filling up quick in the lower grades as parents move to the neighborhood (some before they even have children) looking for the Holy Grail of a nice urban neighborhood and a good public school.
Philadelphia schools Superintendent Arlene Ackerman will meet with concerned West Philadelphia parents and others on Monday, January 24 at the Philadelphia Business and Technology Center (5070 Parkside Ave., first floor) at 1 p.m. West Philadelphia Coalition for Neighborhoods and Businesses is organizing the talk and Ackerman is expected to discuss, among other things, the district’s strategic plan – Imagine 2014 – and community involvement in schools.
The meeting organizers want to remind those interested in attending that the entrance is on Columbia, not on Parkside.
We found this breezy little piece on the Philadelphia Magazine website earlier this week that continues to chronicle the growing legend of Fiume, the perfectly quirky little beer and whiskey bar at 45th and Locust. Writer Robert Huber uses the lack of televisions at Fiume to underscore what happens every night at this place – impromptu, elbow-to-elbow conversations with a wide swath of folks. In Huber’s case on this night, it’s a couple of Greek Ph.D. students and a social worker.
Huber writes:
There are no TVs. I am sorry to harp on a simple point but it is also so dark in here that reading would be a challenge, so there are three possibilities:
Drink.
Listen to Billie Holliday, now singing. It could be Tammy Wynette. Or Tiny Tim.
Or talk.
Not bad choices these days. You can read the entire piece here.
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