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The holiday season is almost over, and the City and some local organizations are again offering opportunities to get rid of your Christmas tree in an environmentally-friendly way.

The University City District and UC Green will again be accepting Christmas trees for recycling at Clark Park. Bring your tree to the park on Saturday, Jan. 7, from 10 a.m. – 4 p.m., along with a $10-$20 donation, and watch it turned into wood chip mulch (it will be used around neighborhood trees during the upcoming MLK Day of Service). Your donation will go to support UC Green programs.

Residents who will bring their trees are welcome to enjoy free roasted marshmallows and hot chocolate. Note: this year, there will be no electronics recycling at this event. Instead, you can bring your used or unwanted electronics to the nearest sanitation convenience center located at 5100 Grays Avenue, open Monday – Saturday, from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.  Continue Reading

Happy New Year everyone! This is a short reminder that there will be no trash or recycling pick-up on Monday, Jan. 2 . Collections will be one day behind for the rest of the week.

Trash and recycling collections were delayed last week as well due to heavier volume of materials from holiday season, and municipal crews worked through the weekend to catch up.

Stay tuned for more information on how to recycle your Christmas tree.

If you’re not sure what to do for New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day, check out some happenings below. For more events, go here. Happy New Year!

New Year’s Eve Fireworks on the Waterfront

There will be not one but two New Year’s Eve fireworks on the Delaware River waterfront. The first one is scheduled for 6 p.m. (good time for kids), and the other one will be at midnight. This is a free event. Here you can find best spots where you can watch the fireworks.

New Year’s Eve Parties/Concerts

• J.S. Bach’s Christmas Oratorio at Philadelphia Episcopal Cathedral (38th and Chestnut), 4 – 8 p.m.

Choral Arts Philadelphia and the Bach Festival of Philadelphia, led by Artistic Director Matthew Glandorf, will offer a rare performance of J.S. Bach’s complete Christmas Oratorio BWV 248. The concert will include an extended intermission, food and drink concessions. For more information and tickets ($15-$45), click here.  Continue Reading

This is the time of year when many organizations are reaching out to the community with year-end messages and a reminder that there’s still time to donate and claim your charitable tax deduction for 2016. Some of the non-profits will receive a double amount of funding thanks to matching gift challenges from sponsors, so if you wanted to make a contribution hurry up since there are only two days left. Here are the messages that we received (for the list of other West Philly non-profits, check out our Civic Life page):

Raven Society Volunteers on behalf of Free Library of Philadelphia

“Those of us who care about the Free Library have to work together, so we are sending you this quick reminder about the matching gift challenge… The Free Library is such a great part of living in Philadelphia. Our family has a long tradition of support because we are committed to literacy and education for all. And we know how integral the Library is to each community and the city as a whole… With less than 48 hours left, we wanted to make sure you didn’t miss this chance to have your year-end gift make twice the impact. Please don’t wait. Join us and donate today.” – Kara Chickson Verghese and Subhash Verghese, Raven Society Volunteers  Continue Reading

Come April 2017, Acme may replace Fresh Grocer at 40th and Walnut. Fresh Grocer, which is affiliated with ShopRite, “did not renew their lease in a timely fashion,” according to a statement released on Monday by the University of Pennsylvania. The statement also said that Penn identified a new operator for this location, which is reportedly Acme.

Fresh Grocer employees and customers have been distributing flyers asking passersby to support Fresh Grocer.

Employees of ShopRite’s Fresh Grocer at 40th & Walnut Streets are petitioning customers to lobby Penn to not change the store’s ownership: pic.twitter.com/XS1R7CTjFl

— Jonathan Tannenwald (@jtannenwald) December 24, 2016

Signed by The Burns Family (Patrick J. Burns is Fresh Grocer’s president and CEO), the flyer urges customers to contact Penn’s executive vice president Craig Carnaroli by phone and email, join the movement to save the store on Facebook, and use a #SavePennFroGro hashtag on social media.

The Philadelphia Inquirer‘s staff writer Jason Nark spoke to Fresh Grocer customers and asked their opinion about the store’s possible closing. Read his report here.

Here is information on holiday hours and closings for assorted local cafes and stores. We’ll update the post as more information becomes available (let us know about your business at: editor@westphillylocal.com or via Twitter @westphillylocal).

Stores:

Mariposa Food Co-op (49th and Baltimore)

Dec. 24: 8 a.m. – 7 p.m.
Dec. 25: Closed
Jan. 1: 11 a.m. – 10 p.m.  Continue Reading