A police source says that the person who robbed and sexually assaulted a 29-year-old woman at gunpoint on the morning of October 14 near 50th and Hazel, has been caught. More details, including the person’s identity, are not available at this time as the police are still working on some evidence. We’ll post more information when we have it.

The police released surveillance video earlier this week of the suspect, a young African American male, who was seen walking in the area prior to the 50th and Hazel robbery and assault, which happened around 11:50 a.m. The man is also wanted for questioning in relation to at least seven other armed robberies and attempted robberies in the area, stretching for over a month, between October 1 and November 3 (6ABC has more details about these incidents).

Sometimes the best thing to do on a Saturday morning is to spend time around tools. If you need a tool or two or would like to pass along ones you don’t need, this Saturday’s Fall Tool Sale and Drive at the West Philly Tool Library might be the nut to your bolt so to speak.

The sale runs from 9 a.m. to noon on Nov. 16 at the library’s headquarters at 1314 S. 47th St. They’ll have everything from wrenches, pliers and hammers to gas-powered lawn equipment and circular saws. Donations are tax deductible and they even will have some coffee and refreshments on hand.

Photo by Jim McWilliams, Philadelphia Marathon.

The Philadelphia Marathon is this Sunday and that means you need to be on your toes if you’re trying to get around the city that morning (an additional 150,000 or so people are expected to come into the city beginning at about 5 a.m.). The main race starts at 7 a.m. at 22nd and Ben Franklin Parkway and we have compiled some information below on street closures, changes in SEPTA routes and places to watch the race.

The race route enters West Philly along Chestnut Street before hooking a right on 34th Street and proceeding to Fairmount Park. The race winds through the park near the Please Touch Museum before connecting with Martin Luther King Drive and following the river before turning back toward the Art Museum. The 6-mile West Philly section are miles 7 through 13 on the 26-mile course. See below for the exact route, “cheer zone” spots and approximate times runners will be blowing through.

Public transit routes will be impacted and some some streets will be closed. Bus routes that cross the marathon route will be rerouted from about 4:30 a.m. until, in some cases, early evening, according to SEPTA. Here is a list of bus routes that will be changed, including buses 21 and 42. If you need to get to Center City or thereabouts on Sunday your best bet in most cases will be the Market-Frankford line.

The city also says it will enforce “no parking” regulations along the race route and will begin towing violators early Sunday morning. Look for signs.

Some of the major areas impacted include:

– The inner lanes of the Benjamin Franklin Parkway on Friday, November 15 through Sunday, November 17.
– Citywide along the 26.2-mile route of the Philadelphia Marathon on Sunday, November 17.

The following streets will be closed at 6:45 a.m. on Sunday, Nov. 17, and will reopen, as runners pass through the race course. All race routes will remain closed until 4 p.m. (Taken from the marathon website.)

• 21st Street, from Spring Garden to Arch streets
• 22nd Street, from Spring Garden to Arch streets
• Benjamin Franklin Parkway, from 22nd to 16th streets
• Arch Street between 16th to 4th streets
• 4th Street Arch to Vine streets
• Race Street, from 4th Street to Columbus Boulevard
• Columbus Boulevard (Southbound lanes), Vine Street to Washington Avenue
• Southbound off-ramp, from I-95 at Washington Avenue
• Washington Avenue, from Columbus Boulevard to Front Street
• Front Street, from Washington Avenue to South Street
• South Street, Front to 6th streets
• 6th Street, Bainbridge to Market streets
• Chestnut Street, 6th to 34th streets
• 34th Street, Chestnut Street to Girard Avenue
• Lansdowne Drive, Girard Avenue to South Concourse Drive
• South Concourse Drive, Lansdowne Drive to West Memorial Hall Drive
• West Memorial Hall Drive, South Concourse to Avenue of the Republic
• Avenue of the Republic, West Memorial Hall Drive to Centennial Circle
• Old Lansdowne Drive to the Sweetbriar Loop
• East on Black Road to Martin Luther King Drive
• Martin Luther King Drive
• North on Kelly Drive to the Falls Bridge
• The Falls Bridge
• Ridge Avenue, Schoolhouse Lane to Manayunk Avenue
• Main Street, Ridge Avenue to Green Lane.

Here are a list of the “cheer zones” (places to watch the race that include some sponsored zaniness) on this side of the Schuylkill:

• Wawa Cheer Zone, 34th & Chestnut Streets—Mile 7.5 (7:10 a.m.-9:15 a.m.)

• 34th Street & Fairmount Avenue—Mile 8.3 (7:15 a.m.-9:30 a.m.)

• Kids Cheer Zone, 34th Street & Girard Avenue @ the Philadelphia Zoo—Mile 8.5 (7:15 a.m.-9:30 a.m.) J

• West Memorial Hall Drive near Please Touch Museum—Mile 9.8 (7:15 a.m.-9:45 a.m.)

Course Turnaround at Martin Luther King, Jr. Drive & Black Road—Mile 11.1 (7:20 a.m.-10:00 a.m.) A runner’s favorite, the Vaudevillians NYB return again for a wild and quirky time to keep runners going as half marathoners are almost to the finish line and the full marathoners are getting into the groove.

The Philadelphia Marathon route (from the official website). Click to enlarge:

Saturday, Nov. 16, is LOVE Your Park Fall Service Day and you can show appreciation of your neighborhood park by helping with the Fall cleanup. Several West Philadelphia parks are participating in the event and neighbors are welcome to help beautify their park and prepare it for the winter.

Help may be needed with the following activities: leaf raking, general cleanup, mulching, tree and bulb planting, cleaning garden beds for winter, and others. The participating parks are:

–Barkan Park
–Cedar Park
–Clark Park
–Cobbs Creek
–Granahan Playground
–Lotus Gardens
–Malcolm X Park
–Morris Park
–Royal Gardens
–Saunders Park Greene/Willow Triangle

If you live near one of these parks and want to help, please go to: http://loveyourpark.org/volunteer/, select your park on the map to check what activities are scheduled and at what time and then fill out the sign up form.

300 block of North 42nd Street.

A group of West Powelton residents attended last week’s Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBA) meeting to speak out against a proposed development on the 300 block of North 42nd Street that would have squeezed seven single-family homes onto a lot zoned for just one.

Through a combination of the community’s testimony, the Planning Commission’s recommendation and the ZBA’s own concerns, the project did not receive a variance.

The hearing, which ran over two hours, was the culmination of multiple community meetings and strained attempts to communicate with the project’s developer, 42nd Street LLC. Even after meeting with the architect and seeing the site plan and renderings, the majority of residents on the block signed a petition expressing their lack of support due to what they saw as an overuse of the property.

The developer’s attorney stressed during the hearing that the lot was over 12,000-square feet and irregularly shaped. The visible portion of the lot is between 320 N. 42nd and the Lombard Presbyterian Church, but it also extends behind the houses on the west side of the street, forming a triangular shape. This was the justification for attempting to fit so many houses in the space, according to the attorney.

The case was set to be heard last September, but the developer requested a continuance. Through the leadership of the West Powelton/Saunders Park Registered Community Organization (RCO), residents returned for the second meeting with prepared testimony. Each resident spoke about a different concern, from traffic, parking and child safety to how the development would affect the fabric of the neighborhood.

Martin F. Cabry, chief of staff for Councilwoman Jannie Blackwell, said after the meeting that the testimony from the community was one of the best he has ever heard.

To get involved with the group that helped organize the community around this issue, attend tonight’s monthly meeting of the West Powelton/Saunders Park RCO. The meeting begins at 7:00 p.m. and will take place at the Mt. Zion Baptist Church at 4110 Haverford Ave.

– Alex Vuocolo

2013 West Philly Local Pumpkin Carving Contest Readers’ Choice Winner Milena Velis.

On first glance, Milena Velis’s carved pumpkin seems out of place.

A thick, padlocked chain marks an X in front of a fence. In the distance, the moon rises above a school building framed by bare, gangly trees.

It’s an image in stark contrast to the werewolf, skeletons, pumpkin heads, and haunted forest that comprised the entries in West Philly Local’s 2013 Pumpkin Carving Contest. But while Velis’s pumpkin may not show a spooky motif synonymous with Halloween, it could be considered the most frightening of them all.

After all, what’s more terrifying than the School District of Philadelphia shuttering 24 schools—including local University City High School and Alexander Wilson Elementary—and laying off nearly 3,000 staff members in the face of steep budget cuts and choked funding?

The chilling implications of the public education crisis on Philadelphia and its families is largely why Velis’s pumpkin, which took two days to design and nearly three days to carve, won Readers’ Choice in the contest. To the many West Philly Local readers who voted, her pumpkin symbolized the “scariest thing” to happen to Philadelphia this year. Velis said this was her intention with her Scariest Pumpkin category entry—to memorialize what happened at the beginning of the school year.

“Part of it is just that there’s something so unbelievable about the permanent closing of schools that it does take a while to process it. That’s true for a lot of people,” Velis, a 29-year-old Cedar Park resident, told West Philly Local. Continue Reading