As the new school year approaches, parents and community members concerned about the cap on new students in the lower grades of the Penn Alexander School (4209 Spruce St.) have started an online petition asking that all school-age children living in the school’s catchment area be admitted.

The petition follows a letter sent by the Spruce Hill Community Association to University of Pennsylvania officials last month asking the university, which manages the school in cooperation with the School District of Philadelphia, to address the cap. Options recommended for investigation include erecting temporary classrooms and moving students from the middle school grades, where classes are sometimes under-enrolled, to a different building.

The group circulating the petition, Advocates for Great Elementary Education Everywhere (AGREE) West Philly, asks Penn President Amy Gutmann, School District of Philadelphia Superintendent Arlene Ackerman and Penn Alexander Principal Sheila Sydnor to “work collaboratively, and in a timely manner, with concerned community members to find a viable solution to PAS’s overcrowding problem.”

School officials have said that the K-8 school, which since its opening has pledged to maintain a lower-than-required student-teacher ratio, is overflowing with students in the lower grades. New Penn Alexander students begin to register on Monday (August 15), which will be the first indication of how many will be affected by the cap.

Young people on the streets in a small section of West Philly after 9 p.m. on Fridays and Saturday could be picked up by police under new curfew regulations aimed at deterring “flash mobs” in the downtown area.

The new regulations temporarily move the curfew for youths under 18 years of age from midnight to 9 p.m. on those days in Center City and a small section of West Philly. The new curfew is part of a plan announced yesterday by Mayor Michael Nutter that includes a bolstered police presence and longer hours for neighborhood recreation centers. The curfew for the rest of the city remains the same (midnight for youths 13-18 and 10 p.m. for children under 13).

The curfew will be enforced with additional police presence in West Philly from Market Street to Baltimore Avenue and 38th Street to 43rd Street.

Nutter’s announcement comes a little over a week after roving gangs of young people severely injured pedestrians in Center City on July 29 (see video below). Among those arrested was an 11-year-old boy. Those attacks happened in the afternoon.

Fines of up to $300 will be levied against young people who violate the curfew. Parents could also be fined and even jailed if their children repeatedly violate the curfew.

District Attorney Seth Williams, who stood side-by-side with Nutter during yesterday’s announcement, said:

“We will be prosecuting these young criminals to the fullest extent of the law. There is no excuse for what they did, and they have brought great shame upon themselves and their families. Let this be a message to any others who think that participating in flash mobs is acceptable or fun — don’t do it. We will apprehend you, prosecute you, and send you away. You will not damage the reputation of our great City. And I will be working with our State Legislature and City Council to enact laws to hold those parents who permit their children to engage in this type of criminal conduct criminally accountable.”

The new curfew will last through the remainder of the summer and will be re-evaluated at the beginning of the school year.

The city has also authorized some 20 rec centers to extend hours until 10 p.m. on Friday and Saturday nights.

Centers in West Philly with extended hours include:

Myers Recreation Center • 5800 Kingsessing Avenue
Christy Recreation Center • 728 S. 55th Street
Kingsessing Recreation Center • 5000 Chester Avenue
Shepard Recreation Center • 5700 Haverford Avenue

Here is surveillance video of one July 29 attack (originally posted on MyFoxPhilly). Some of the boys in the video are still wearing their school uniforms.

Video: Philadelphia Teen Mob Attack: MyFoxPHILLY.com

PhillyCarShare is ending its experiment as a nonprofit and has been sold to Enterprise Holdings, The Philadelphia Inquirer reports.

Many neighbors are probably wondering what will happen to the PhillyCarShare membership and its fleet (26 locations in West Philly) once the sale is finalized. According to Enterprise officials, they are going to retain the PhillyCarShare name, its 25 employees and even expand the fleet, which has been shrinking since 2009.

There was no mention of whether this transaction will affect membership fees and other rates. Currently, a PhillyCarShare residential member pays $15/month ($125/year), $0.25/mile, and hourly rates begin at $4.45.

The Inky quotes PhillyCarShare executive director Gerald Furgione:

“Enterprise definitely saved us. The only thing we regret is that we will no longer be a nonprofit.”

A bill for $2.7 million in back taxes and penalties has apparently led to the sale.

The debate over whether car sharing firms should be treated the same as regular car rental firms, which pay an excise tax in most states for each car rented, has been heating up in recent years and may be behind the sale as well.

Today’s cat is Vanilla Bean. She is about one year old.

‘Nilla was abandoned when she was no longer a kitten. She tried to join up with a band of feral cats, but since she wasn’t feral, she kept dashing into the road. Luckily, she was found and now lives with a foster mom.

She is very playful, still a kitten, and she gets along with the two boys who live at her foster mom’s place, but they’re not kittens so they don’t want to play with her. She would love to go home with someone who will play with her.

“Nilla is not quite little kid proof yet (but learning!), so it’s better that any human kids in the home be about 8 or older. She doesn’t like to be held like a baby, but if you hold her right way up and give her head and chin scratches, she will love you forever.

What about her name? She’s not a Vanilla Bean, but that’s what foster mom’s human daughter called her and the name stuck. For now, you can call her ‘Nilla, but please don’t hesitate to change it.

Vanilla Bean is spayed, vaccinated, dewormed, housetrained, flea treated, and FIV/FeLV negative. Please email projectmeowadoptions [at] gmail​.com to meet her. Adoption application and adoption fee of $85 apply.

Street Movies!, a series of free outdoor short movie screenings and live performances organized by Scribe Video Center (4212 Chestnut St.), are happening this month in communities all around Philadelphia. The films, including animation, documentary, and experimental, focus on environmental justice, healthy foods, new immigrants and urban green spaces.

This Saturday, August 6, Street Movies! will be in West Philly. Four films will be screened in Clark Park’s Bowl (45th & Kingsessing) starting at 7:30 p.m. The film presentation is hosted by the Jubilee School and the Green Guerillas, who will power the screening with their biodiesel waste and vegetable oil-powered bus the “Grease Guzzler.”

Philly-based hip hop artist Alwatan Kwele, who is originally from Tanzania, will open the evening.

There will be another screening in West Philly hosted by Mill Creek Community Partnership on August 27. Stay tuned for more information about that event.

Here are synopses of the films (from the Scribe site):

The Future of Our History
by Jubilee School
K-6 students of Jubilee spend two years studying W.E.B. Du Bois, making a pilgrimage to Great Barrington, MA, where they visit the graves of Du Bois’ wife and young son. (2011, 15 min)

Pumzi
by Wanuri Kahiu
35 years after “The Water War” has ruined earth’s surface, a young woman defies the governing council of her indoor community, escapes to the outside to plant a growing seedling. (Kenya, 2009, 21 min). Philadelphia Premiere.

Green Grease Guzzlers
by Green Guerrillas Youth Media Tech Collective (in person)
A story about alternative and sustainable transportation, this excerpt showcases Green Guerrillas ona move, making their collective’s transportation more “eco-friendly” with the conversion of a 1990 Ford Econoline diesel bus into a lean and green biodiesel/waste veggie oil machine. (2010, 30 min). Philadelphia Premiere.

Save the Future
by Jenny Deller (in-person)
A young girl re-imagines her life as a PSA, blurring the lines between her family troubles and environmental catastrophe. Save the Future is a companion short to her feature “Future Weather” about global warming. The whole production was environmentally conscious. (2009, 3 min)
 

Today is the last day to register for kindergarten at the Henry C. Lea School (47th and Locust) until registration for the entire school begins on Aug. 22.

The West Philly Coalition for Neighborhood Schools has all the you need to get your youngster into the school, which has managed to skirt many of the problems associated with budget cuts through grassroots community efforts. The school has retained its art teacher and will have a fully staffed library thanks to a grant by the West Philadelphia Alliance for Children and volunteers from the neighborhood. It is also bolstering its music program.