Andy is a white, red-nosed male pitbull with brown spots like a cow. He is lean, medium-sized (about 60 lbs), a year old, and has light brown eyes. He was last seen at 50th and Hazel running north down 50th, near Malcom X Park. He is wearing a red collar, responds to his name and is sweet as pie. I am offering $150 reward to anyone who finds him. If you have any information at all my number is (267) 496-5090.
ABC6 has a story about a parishioner at the Philadelphia Episcopal Cathedral (3723 Chestnut St.) who has leveraged the savings from clipping coupons to help fund the church’s community outreach efforts.
If you have been following the saga of Rocco, a cat stranded in the Windermere Court Apartments, you will be happy to know that City Kitties is reporting that he has made it out. The orange tabby was rescued this morning.
Meanwhile, City Paper is reporting today that Windermere residents who have been waiting outside the building for access to some of their belongings are worried that the ice, which may have helped keep the floors and ceilings stable, is beginning to melt in the warm weather. The melting may affect the ability of demolition crews to salvage more belongings.
The demolition of the building has been put on hold indefinitely. The Department of Licenses and Inspection has said that the decision to demolish the building rests with the owners, who have not been available for comment.
2:46 p.m.: Police say no arrests were made at the fire last night, but that some people were resistant to leave their apartments.
Fire officials are still investigating the cause of the two-alarm fire that destroyed the top two floors of the four-story building at 4500 Walnut St. last night. Two people were hospitalized. The fire began in the apartments above Saad’s Halal Restaurant, which is on the ground floor.
Fire department spokesman Chief Richard Davison said the fire appeared to start on the third floor, trapping residents on the fourth floor inside the building. Firefighters rescued several residents from the fourth floor.
Fire crews received the call at 6:46 p.m. and the fire was under control by 7:36 p.m.
A heavy police presence was also on the scene and a man was pulled from the building, handcuffed and led away from the scene. Police would not comment on why the man was placed into custody. We posted video of that incident last night here.
Saad’s suffered water damage and as of this morning had not reopened. Plates and food were still on tables inside the restaurant at about 8 a.m. this morning, evidence of people fleeing.
Milton Street announces his candidacy for mayor under the El at 52nd and Market Streets. (Photo by Lindsay Lazarski for NewsWorks).
Two stories caught our eye this morning.
• One wasMilton Street’s announcement for mayor from aboard a rented pick-up truck at the El station at 52nd and Market. WHYY‘s Dave Davies went to the announcement and noted that Street’s announcement in the heart of West Philadelphia drew little attention from passersby. One woman, upon hearing that Street was announcing his candidacy, told Davies: “Milton Street? He is? Oh my god,” said one woman. “Oh my god — that’s my opinion.” Street, the brother of former Mayor John Street, has an interesting history in Philadelphia politics and business. A 2006Philadephia Magazine article helps fill in some background.
• A second story from the Philadelphia Inquirer‘s Tirdad Derakhshani tells the story of Benjamin Neiditz, who came to the rescue of the Penn Museum earlier this month to create two mummies who stood in for the mummies that were supposed to be part of the museum much celebrated exhibit “Secrets of the Silk Road.” The real mummies had been ordered to remain in their crates by the Chinese government, sending museum curators scrambling to find replacements. Neiditz, the exhibit carpenter, has experience making mummies. “I had a blast making these mummies,” he says of the two papier-mâché dummies he created using photos of the originals.
Windermere Court residents lined up into the night last night to try to get some of their stuff back. Most of them didn’t get much.
Residents were asked to make a list of things they wanted from their apartments. In some cases they drew maps of where things like documents were. The catch was that all of the stuff had to fit into two large garbage bags. The building’s management assigned a handful of demolition workers to search the nearly 100 apartments for items. Residents were escorted a couple at a time through a locked fence into the building courtyard to retrieve what the crews could find.
As we reported yesterday, residents have filed a class action lawsuit against the buildings owners and management.
The demolition of the Windermere is scheduled to begin today.
We wanted to share some video we shot late yesterday of people’s stories of getting their belongings back and the fairly humiliating process they had to go through. Here it is:
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