We are happy to report that Saad’s Halal Restaurant at 4500 Walnut St. has reopened after a fire on Feb. 17 that heavily damaged the three floors of apartments above the restaurant.

The fire began on a third floor apartment, according to the Philadelphia Fire Commissioner’s Office, and the cause is still under investigation. The fire destroyed the top two floors of the building, forcing out about two dozen residents. The apartments will require extensive rebuilding and the roof of the building will likely need replaced.

Saad’s suffered some water damage and minor smoke damage, but is back in business.

The fire commissioner’s office also confirmed this morning speculation that smoking in bed caused the Feb. 16 fire at the single-story Transition to Independent Living Inc. building at 4536 Spruce St. The official explanation was “discarded cigarette in unit 4.”

The Philadelphia Weekly’s Tara Murtha has taken a thorough look at the aftermath of the Windermere fire for today’s paper. The piece, “Burning Questions in West Philly Apartment Complex Fire,” fleshes out all the parties in this tragic story – from the residents protesting for access, to the owners’ PR agent to a spokesman for the Mayor’s Office. The story also introduces us to a little known city agency that seems to share in some of the responsibility – Philadelphia’s County Animal Rescue Team (PHL-CART).

Many of us have been following this story for more than a month. Murtha’s piece is a must-read for a look behind the emotions and blame to see what a breakdown in communication between a city government, its residents and private enterprise looks like.

The “tapers” section of a 1985 Grateful Dead concert.

Few bands have richer concert histories than the Grateful Dead and Phish. Both bands were always far more successful touring than they ever were in the studio or on the charts. They attracted massive global followings and recordings of their concerts have been traded over the years with the enthusiasm and passion of avid baseball card collectors. Two people who play a key role in that recording history will be speaking tomorrow night at Drexel University’s Stein Auditorium (3215 Market St.) at 6 p.m.

Grateful Dead archivist David Lemieux and Phish archivist Kevin Shapiro are at Drexel for two days of talks and workshops. They have been brought to campus through the University’s College of Media Arts and Design. Lemieux has helped make dozens of Grateful Dead live shows available to the public. He also interacts with a very knowledgable fan base that has grown out the Grateful Dead’s early decision to allow fans at concerts to record their shows. Shapiro has done the same for Phish.

Both archivsts help the bands make decisions about releases and preservation. They will also talk about the impact of digital technology on their work.

A podcast of Lemieux and Shapiro playing and talking about select tracks from shows in Philadelphia will be available online today. The podcast will be available from 3-7 PM as a stream via http://www.drexel.edu/westphal/events/lemieuxshapiropodcast/.

As promised, here is part 2 of filmmaker Clay Hereth’s documentary about The Mill Creek Farm, a neighborhood farm at 49th and Brown in West Philadelphia. See yesterday’s story for the full intro to the film and Mill Creek Farm’s work.

The Freinds of Clark Park has a new website. Brian Siano said in an e-mail today that the new site is designed to be more of a community discussion site than the old site. The site also offers the ability to share content on Facebook, Twitter and other social media sites.

Here’s a sneak peak:

The featured mural on the cool Mural Arts Program interactive site, Mural Explorer,  is The Heart of Baltimore Avenue, a mural on the 4700 block of Baltimore Avenue begun as a tribute to Amare Solomon, the owner of the nearby Dahlak restaurant, but became a tribute to the whole neighborhood.

The multimedia site, which is awesome, features a slideshow on the making of the mural and a short video interview with artist David Guinn as he works on the piece, which was finished in September 2008. The mural also has its own dedicated site.

Above is a small portion of the “Heart of Baltimore Avenue.” When you get to the site, go to “explore mural” and push on the green plus signs to hear stories about characters in the mural.