Photos by Dylan Moore.

UPDATE (6/12/2013): The Baltimore Avenue Dollar Stroll has been postponed until July, 2013 due to heavy rain and thunderstorms forecast for this Thursday, according to an announcement on the University City District’s Facebook page posted this evening. We’ll post more information about the new date as soon as we have it.

The Baltimore Avenue Dollar Stroll, the highly-anticipated annual event celebrating local businesses where most things are just a buck, is returning this Thursday, June 13. The stroll begins at 5:30 p.m. (it is always a good idea to get there early to avoid the crowds) and a record-setting 35 businesses will offer $1 deals along Baltimore Avenue, between 43rd and 50th Streets.

Besides the long-time participants, like Milk & Honey, Dock Street Brewery and Firehouse Bicycles, there will be some newcomers who recently opened shops in the area, including Little Baby’s Ice Cream and The Green Tambourine. This Dollar Stroll also showcases new parklets at Fu-Wah and Little Baby’s Ice Cream and the new pedestrian plaza at 48th and Baltimore.

In addition to storefront businesses, food trucks and vendors such as Jimmies Cupcake Co., Sunflower Truck Stop and Lil Dan’s will also be selling $1 items along the avenue. Also, don’t miss live music and entertainment: XPN favorite, The Fleeting Ends will perform live at 46^th and Baltimore, along with fire artists and street performers such as the Give & Take Jugglers. There will be also giveaways, face painting and balloon artists.

If you can’t make it this week there will be only one more stroll this year, on September 12.

Check out the flyer below for more details on what businesses are taking part in Thursday’s Stroll and what they are offering. For more information about this event, visit: http://universitycity.org/baltimore-ave-dollar-stroll

Click to enlarge.

Lois Zucker, owner of Lee’s Hoagie House – a neighborhood institution. (Photo by Mike Lyons/West Philly Local)

Lee’s Hoagie House, a Walnut Street institution on the west edge of Penn’s campus for 28 years, is closing for good tonight at 10 p.m.

Lee’s owner, Lois Zucker, is retiring and a new restaurant is moving into the space at 4034 Walnut, which is owned by Campus Apartments.

Lois has run the business on her own since her husband Jan died 14 years ago. “He was the heart and soul of this business,” she said.

Lee’s is a licensed chain that once had several independently owned shops. Lois and Jan opened the Walnut Street location in September, 1985. Its closing leaves only two Lee’s shops left in the city. The rest are in the suburbs.

A possibility remained that Lee’s would stay open under another owner. But Campus Apartments, which owns the Lee’s property and is one of West Philly’s biggest landlords, “wanted a change” for the storefront location, a valuable property on a block that has nearly exclusively student housing, Lois said. The potential buyer of the Lee’s license is scouting other locations in the neighborhood.

It remains unclear when the new restaurant, which will specialize in chicken dishes and “savory pies,” will open. There will be extensive renovation to the space.

The Zuckers built their shop around the area’s student presence and Lois said that students returned to the shop long after they graduated.

“The kids now come back with their own kids,” she said.

Lee’s also delivered subs via Fed Ex to Philadelphians or Penn students who had moved out of the region. She recalled sending two hoagies to a woman in Texas who was pregnant.

“She said all she wanted was tuna hoagies from Lee’s,” Lois said.

So there are just a few hours left to get a Lee’s hoagie in the neighborhood. Be sure to thank Lois. She’s the one in the green Lee’s t-shirt and ever-present white apron.

By the way, they don’t have any of their iconic t-shirts left to buy. We asked.

– Mike Lyons

We came upon this bike near 45th and Osage. (photo by Mike Lyons/West Philly Local)

A mural at the Alexander Wilson School.

The Alexander Wilson School (46th and Woodland), which is one of two dozen public schools slated to close in a couple of weeks, is being eyed as a possible location for a charter school.

A public meeting has been scheduled for Thursday, June  13 beginning at 6 p.m. to discuss that possibility. Speakers will include Marc Mannella, CEO of KIPP: Philadelphia Schools and Councilwoman Jannie Blackwell. The meeting will be held at the 46th Street Baptist Church, right across the street from Wilson at 46th and Woodland. All parents, students and members of the community are invited to attend.

While the fate of most of the closing schools is unclear, it is likely that some of them will become independently run charter schools. Some 57,000 of Philadelphia’s public school students were enrolled in charter schools this year, about 37 percent of all students.

Begun in 2003, KIPP: Philadelphia Schools currently operates one elementary school, KIPP Philadelphia Elementary Academy, two middle schools, KIPP Philadelphia Charter School and KIPP West Philadelphia Preparatory Charter School, and one high school, KIPP DuBois Collegiate Academy. The company hopes to operate 10 schools in West and North Philadelphia by 2016, according to its website. Those plans include adding one elementary school per year between 2013 and 2015.

– Mike Lyons

The Greening Lea project began with installation of this pilot planting bed. (Photo courtesy West Philly Coalition for Neighborhood Schools)

Now here’s an enormous chance to help a neighborhood public school transform their playground from a swath of asphalt to a green area. The Henry C. Lea Elementary School is one of 10 finalists for a $75,000 Green School Makeover grant from Global Green USA. The school has been selected out of hundreds of entries from across the country!

The 2nd Green School Makeover Competition will award a $75,000 cash prize and a $5,000 Office Depot gift card to one K-12 school in the U.S. for an innovative green school project. The winner will also receive technical assistance from Global Green USA’s team of green schools/green building experts.

Organizers from the Henry C. Lea School (4700 Locust St.) hope to transform the school’s play area into a green and healthy environment. Currently, the school’s primary play space is a barren asphalt lot devoid of benches, greenery and shade. In addition to a new school garden that would provide an outdoor area for science classes to do planting, the school plans a new recycling program and the installation of rooftop solar panels. For more information on the Greening Lea project visit this page  or contact Julie Scott at jscott1225@verizon.net

To vote for Lea please follow the link below, select Lea’s entry at the bottom left and click “Submit.”

http://globalgreen.org/gsmctop10

The project proposes transforming the school playground into a green environment.

SEPTA is conducting trolley track work this summer on the Routes 10, 11, and 36 and residents should expect shuttle buses on these lines and limited traffic on the affected blocks.

A switch and track crossing renewal project for the intersection of 49th Street and Woodland Avenue will take place June 9-22 and service on SEPTA’s Route 11 and 36 trolleys will be affected during this two-week period. Normal construction hours will be Monday-Friday, 7 a.m.-8 p.m. and possibly on weekends if it is necessary for maintaining the project schedule. During the project, 49th Street and Woodland Avenue will be closed to traffic in all directions for a full block from the worksite. Here are more details on the changes in the operation of the 36 and 11 trolleys for the duration of the project (source: septa.org).

Route 36 Service:
• Buses will replace all trolleys from the Eastwick Loop to the 40th Street Portal.
Passengers traveling to Center City can board any trolley at the Portal for service to 13th
Street.

Route 11 Service:
• Eastbound, Route 11 trolleys will operate from the Darby Loop to 50th Street and
Woodland Avenue, then travel over 49th Street to Chester Avenue and on to the 40th
Street Portal for Center City destinations. Passengers needing to make stops on
Woodland between 50th Street and the 40th Street Portal can transfer to shuttle buses at
50th and Woodland.
• Westbound, trolleys will operate from 13th to 40th Streets via the Center City tunnel, then
travel on Woodland Avenue to Chester Avenue to 58th Street and back to Woodland for
service to the Darby Loop. Shuttle buses will be available at the 40th Street Portal for
customers that need to make stops on Woodland between the Portal and 57th Street.

SEPTA is also conducting a track renewal project on a portion of the Route 10 trolley line. During this project, which is expected to be completed by Aug. 31, 2013, tracks will be replaced on Lancaster Avenue from 40th to 44th Streets, the intersection at 48th Street and on 41st Street between Wallace Street and Lancaster Avenue.

The project will be completed in three phases. Shuttle bus service for the Route 10 trolley will be in effect between 63rd Street and Malvern Avenue to 33rd and Market Streets for the project’s second and third phases, June 23-August 31, 2013. Buses will also substitute trolley service on the Route 15 from August 18-24. For more information, visit SEPTA’s website or call SEPTA Customer Service at 215-580-7800.