A 47-year-old woman was killed early this morning in a vehicle accident at the intersection of 51st and Locust streets, according to reports.

The accident occurred at about 2:15 a.m. and involved two cars. The unidentified woman was the passenger in a minivan that struck another car, an SUV. The male driver of the minivan and a man and a woman in the SUV were seriously injured in the accident, according to ABC News and The Philadelphia Inquirer.

The minivan reportedly struck the SUV first and the impact was so great that the SUV flipped on the roof of a third, parked car. Rescue crews had to pry open the vehicles to extract all the passengers.

Both cars reportedly ran stop signs at the 4-way-stop at 51st and Locust.

The US Citizenship and Immigration Services’ Philadelphia office will move from its Center City location at 16th and Callowhill to West Philly by the end of 2012.

The new office will be located in 2.0 University Place, a new University Place Associates LLC’s five-story building at 30 N. 41st St. where it will occupy the first three floors (53,000 of the 97,000 square-foot space). The 15-year, $26 million lease was negotiated by building leasing and the US General Services Administration reps. The building is currently under construction.

University Place Associates founder Tom Leonard told The Philadelphia Inquirer, “they looked at what was available in Center City, didn’t like it, and broadened their (search) to West Philadelphia.”

“This will be a much nicer facility,” he added.

Located at the foot of the University City Science Center, the building will feature an extensive green roof with a 20,000-sf rooftop park, high-efficiency HVAC systems, open floor plans with 90 percent natural daylight, ‘gray water’ recycling systems that utilize rainwater to operate restrooms, onsite bicycle racks, changing rooms, and car sharing facilities among other things.

This week’s featured cat is Polly. She’s available for adoption through City Kitties. Polly is a polydactyl kitty with extra toes on each of her paws. Polydactyl cats are sometimes referred to as ‘Hemingway cats’ because the author is known to have favored them.

Polly was found wandering the streets alone and scared with a terrible eye infection. But as you can see, it didn’t take long for this stunning dilute calico to heal, clean herself up, and look forward to the next phase of her life.

Polly’s got more than a unique look—she has a winning personality to match. She adjusts easily to new surroundings and is quick to make herself at home. Her favorite toy is a string to chase, but she also enjoys curling up on a lap or pillow. As a young and gentle kitty, Polly is likely to adapt well to cats, dogs or children. She’s ready to find her forever home today, so don’t miss your chance to adopt this special girl!

Polly is spayed, FIV/FeLV negative, up to date on FVRCP and rabies vaccinations, and has been tested/treated for fleas and parasites as needed.

Polly’s adoption fee is $85 to help subsidize the cost of veterinary care. To fill out an application click here.

• The Philadelphia Tribune and WHYY’s Newsworks site both have stories about the innovative high school program located in the Navy Yard called The Sustainability Workshop, which has deep West Philly connections. The school, which teaches students to solve real-world problems, is run by West Philly resident Michael Clapper, a former teacher at West Philadelphia High School and until recently an education professor at Saint Joseph’s University, and Simon Hauger, who gained national attention as the director of West Philly High’s Hybrid X Team. The program gives about 30 seniors from West Philadelphia, South Philadelphia and Furness high schools the chance to spend a year focusing on energy efficiency, climate change and other issues.

• Today’s Philadelphia Inquirer includes a story about the efforts of the West Philadelphia Alliance for Children (WePAC) to keep school libraries open. The organization has helped reopen 10 libraries at schools in West Philly that were or would have been shuttered due to budget cuts. WePAC supplies volunteer storytellers and librarians and has donated a heap of books. We have also reported on WePAC’s good work.

• The City Paper‘s online restaurant blog Meal Ticket alerts us to the opening of Chewy’s food truck, which slings sandwiches, burgers, hand-cut fries and “tater tots tossed with buffalo sauce, Whiz, bacon crumbles and ranch dressing.” Meal Ticket reports that they also have an “Apples to Apples” BLT that includes Granny Smiths and cider mayo. The truck is a joint venture between Charlie Sokowski and Terence Jones, an old street food hand. The truck operates between 34th and 35th streets on Market from 6 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Cedar Park Neighbors is hosting a neighborhood Meet and Greet event tomorrow night at Aksum (4630 Baltimore Ave.). Don’t miss the opportunity to say hello to your neighbors and spend some nice time in their company while enjoying complimentary hors d’oeuvres served by Saba Tedla, Aksum owner and Cedar Park resident.

The meet and greet will begin at 6 p.m and go on until 8 p.m., unless, of course, you want to stay for dinner. To RSVP go to the event’s Facebook page.

“Have you seen my burlesque dancers?” ChrisK asked me as he handed out a flier for an exhibition of Neo-burlesque fashion design at the Intersections Gallery on 3933 Lancaster Avenue. Dressed in full burlesque regalia as part of a “roving exhibition,” three performers made their way up and down Lancaster Avenue like many of the other attendees of this weekend’s LOOK! festival, a two-month celebration of the arts that opened Friday on Lancaster Avenue. Spanning 36^th to 40^th streets, LOOK! is an extensive and diverse showcase of local work put on by the University City District.

A good few of the event’s 13 venues are reclaimed windows, storefronts, and in some cases whole buildings newly renovated for the event. At least one gallery built new stairs just for the occasion.

Much of the work on display was the recent output of local artists such as Randy Dalton, also a member of Dumpster Divers of Philadelphia. In the basement of the Community Education Center on 3500 Lancaster Avenue. Dalton’s Blue Grotto collected and arranged over 100 blue lights, curios, and ephemera to give this neighborhood’s art scene the “blue ribbon” it richly deserves, says the artist.

This street is lined with lots of different memories. At 3854 Lancaster, Melissa J. Frost installed an image from a punk show at Killtime, a venue located at this address from the early 1980s until 2003. Adding an interactive, technological flair to the event, a Drexel communications class presented “Augmented Avenue: Memories of Lancaster Avenue”, at the Projects I Gallery on 3820 Lancaster Ave. Using smartphone technology, students created phone-readable codes that correspond to certain locations in the neighborhood accompanied by short personal narratives of community members.

Other highlights included live funk and jazz, paste-up art works adorning telephone poles, and the debut of a guerrilla art installation on the roof of Dr. Kermit Gosnell’s now-infamous clinic where an incalculable number of people died under the doctor’s care. Like many of the pieces in LOOK! the installation called special attention to the building itself; a banner hung on the corner of the building with a collection of definitions of the verb, “regard”.

These exhibitions continue until Nov. 30. More information here.

– Jane