Two years ago people participating in State Farm’s Neighborhood Assist campaign helped two West Philly non-profits, Neighborhood Bike Works and West Philly Tool Library, win $25,000 grants each for community improvement projects. This year, the youth-led philanthropic program has returned and anyone with a Facebook account can nominate and vote for their favorite local cause. The program’s goal is to improve neighborhoods in three important ways: education, community development and safety.

Here’s how it works:

• Identify and submit a cause using the Facebook app from March 3 through March 23, 2014.
• The first 4,000 Neighborhood Assist submissions will be reviewed by the State Farm Youth Advisory Board (YAB).
• Two hundred finalists will be chosen.
• The finalists will be announced on Facebook.
• Public voting to select the winners takes place April 28-May 16.
• Winners will be announced on May 27 on Facebook.

Forty causes with the highest numbers of votes will be selected to receive the grants. In 2013, over 3.4 million votes were cast and the difference between the 40th and 41st cause was only 62 votes! For more information about the program, click here.

UPDATE (1:00 p.m.) The snow emergency was lifted at 11 a.m. this morning and it is now safe to park on all snow emergency routes.

(9:00 a.m.): A snow emergency was declared in the city at 10 p.m. on Sunday. If you parked your car on any of the snow emergency routes and haven’t moved it yet, please do so as soon as possible. Here are snow emergency routes in West Philadelphia:

• Chestnut Street from Cobbs Creek Parkway to 20th Street
• Walnut Street from Broad Street to Cobbs Creek Parkway
• Woodland Avenue from Cobbs Creek Parkway to University Avenue
• 34th Street from University Avenue to Grays Ferry Avenue
• 38th Street from Walnut to University Avenue
• 63rd Street from City Avenue to Walnut Street
• University Avenue from 38th Street to 34th Street
• Island Avenue from Woodland Avenue to Enterprise Avenue
• Cobbs Creek Parkway from Walnut Street to Woodland Avenue
• Schuylkill Avenue from Market Street to Walnut Street

Monday’s trash and recycling collections are suspended until next Monday. Also, there will be no rear driveway collections this week so please leave all trash and recycling at the curb. For more information, visit the Streets Department website.

All Philadelphia public schools, after-school and early childhood programs will be closed for students on Monday, March 3, due to another round of severe weather expected in the area, the Philadelphia School District announced this evening. Parochial schools will also be closed, according to an earlier announcement by Philadelphia Archdiocese.

A winter storm warning remains in effect until 1 p.m. on Monday, March 3, with some sleet and freezing rain expected at the start and snow accumulation between three and seven inches, according to Accuweather.com. Stay tuned to other weather-related announcements.

The first zoning approval meeting for the proposed apartment complex at 4224 Baltimore Avenue, which was scheduled for Monday, March 3, has been cancelled due to severe weather forecast, Spruce Hill Zoning Chair Barry Grossbach announced via e-mail. A winter storm watch is in effect for Philadelphia from Sunday evening through Monday afternoon, according to Accuweather.com.

“We do not want to hold a meeting that people might have difficulty traveling to and incurring unnecessary risks in the process. This project is sufficiently important to our neighborhood that it should be scheduled free of nature’s complications,” Grossbach writes.

The meeting should be rescheduled within the next couple of weeks. We’ll post details as soon as we have them.

Here’s a list of kindergarten open houses scheduled at local elementary schools in March. The list has been compiled by the West Philly Coalition for Neighborhood Schools. Date correction: The kindergarten open house at Penn Alexander School will take place on March 4 (not March 3).

A. D. Harrington School
5300-34 Baltimore Ave., 19143
(215) 471-2914
www.philasd.org/schools/harrington
Open House: March 4, 9:00-9:54 a.m.
Note: Please come to main building (address above)

Alain Locke School
4550 Haverford Ave., 19139
(215) 823-8202
http://webgui.phila.k12.pa.us/schools/l/locke
Open House: March 4, 9:30-10:30 a.m.

B. B. Comegys School
5100 Greenway Ave., 19143
(215) 727-2162
Open House: March 4, Call the school for exact time

Henry C. Lea School
4700 Locust St., 19139
(215) 471-2915
http://webgui.phila.k12.pa.us/schools/l/lea
Open House: March 4, 8:45 – 10:00 a.m.

Martha Washington Academics
766 N. 44th St., 19104
(215) 823-8203
www.philasd.org/schools/marthawashington
Open House: March 4, 9:30-11:00 a.m.

Morton McMichael School
3543 Fairmount Ave., 19104
(215) 823-8272
http://webgui.phila.k12.pa.us/schools/m/mcmichael
Open House: March 4, Call the school for exact time

Penn Alexander School
4209 Spruce St., 19104
(215) 823-5465
www.philasd.org/schools/pennalexander
Open House: March 3 March 4, 9:30-10:30 a.m.

Samuel B. Huey School
5200 Pine St., 19143
(215) 471-2901
Facebook page
Open House: Participation unconfirmed, call the school

Samuel Powel School
301 N. 36th St., 19104
(215) 823-8201
www.philasd.org/schools/powel
Open House: March 4, 8:30-9:30 a.m.

The lamb biryani (Photo by Annamarya Scaccia / West Philly Local)

When I first reported on the opening of Shaban Kabab & Curry (4145 Chestnut Street), I was excited by the prospect of having a new South Asian restaurant in the area. After all, as someone who enjoys cuisine from the region, I was looking forward to tasting Pakistani food—Shaban’s specialty—for the first time.

So on Monday night, I made my way through the blistering cold to the corner of 42nd and Chestnut Streets, where Shaban Kabab & Curry set up shop. Once inside, owner Mohammad Sajad greeted me with a warm cup of ginger and milk as we sat at the window bar. The dining area is small, but cozy, made up of polished aluminum furniture, grey and bright green walls, and a wood panel wall fixture that immediately pulls your focus. While Shaban’s cuisine may be traditional, there’s definitely nothing traditional about the design of the restaurant.

Sajad and I make small talk while I wait for the dishes he’s prepared for me to taste. Since opening, he tells me, Shaban has been really busy, with Thursdays through Sundays being the busiest days. (The restaurant was empty on Monday evening save for one customer, although online orders seemed to have been racking up.) And the feedback he’s received has been mostly positive—”People just love [the food],” he says.  Continue Reading

The Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape people are an active tribe from Southern New Jersey, where they hold state recognition. Hear stories of their challenges and successes as they preserve their culture in Native American Voices: The People—Here and Now. (Photos courtesy Penn Museum)

The goal of a new, large exhibition opening at the Penn Museum (3260 South Street) on Saturday, March 1 is to help us leave preconceptions about Native Americans behind. “Native American Voices: The People—Here and Now” is a rich and highly interactive show that features a wide range of contemporary Native North Americans – artists, activists, journalists, scholars, and community leaders. They speak out in video and in audio, sharing stories, poetry, and short essays on issues that matter to them today: identity, political sovereignty, religious freedom and sacred places, language, celebrations, art, and cultural continuity.

Besides a central introductory video, touch screen towers and multimedia stations are placed throughout the gallery, allowing visitors to encounter Native American perspectives on key themes.

The exhibition will have on display over 250 Native American objects—ranging from 11,000-year-old Clovis projectile points to contemporary art, which will help to tell the stories of Native American peoples today, their aspirations, histories, art, concerns, and continuing cultural traditions.

The exhibition opening will take place from 11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. and will include Native American music and dance, presentations by Native American community leaders from around the country, as well as arts, crafts, workshops and children’s activities—all free with Museum admission.

For more information, visit this page.