We don’t see too many of these, but when they come up, our editors can practically feel Northeast residents collectively slapping their foreheads in frustration.

In a story about a car accident that resulted in the death of a teenager Sunday, FOX29 made the simplest — and biggest — of our Right NEast/Wrong NEast mistakes: the reporter confused a neighborhood with a street. In other words, the writer assumed that because the car accident took place on Torresdale Avenue, that it also happened in the Torresdale neighborhood.

Except the accident occurred in Frankford. Not only is that an entirely different neighborhood, but it’s on pretty much the opposite side of the region as Torresdale. Frankford is the southern-most neighborhood in the Northeast, while Torresdale runs straight into the Bucks County border.

Thanks for taking the time to cover this, FOX, even if the most basic aspect of the story is inaccurate.

Outside media don’t care about the Northeast. We have all seen them misuse, misspell and mistake our neighborhoods and our streets, so we at NEast Philly wanted to do something about it. When they get it wrong, we set it right in a segment we like to call Right NEast/Wrong NEast.

Danza showed his Viking pride at a Northeast football game. Photo by Bill Achuff.

It started about a month ago. Or seven months ago, depending on where you think the story really begins.

It was hyped for months: Tony Danza would be teaching at a high school in Philadelphia for his new reality show. And then we come to find out, he’d be spending the semester at Northeast High. Even those who aren’t Danza fans, who didn’t spend their childhoods watching him on the small screen, were excited that something big, something of national interest, would be happening in the Northeast. continue reading »

Photo by Maria Konidaris

More than a month ago, we ran a story about Mayfair residents’ thoughts on the flashing blue light and accompanying police camera at Cottman and Frankford.

Fox 29 ran the same a similar story yesterday.

The original NEast Philly story was written by Temple student Maria Konidaris for her Philadelphia Neighborhoods class. She interviewed several residents, got the history of the light and talked to the presidents of the Mayfair town watch and civic associations. FOX29 reporters talked to a couple of the same people. continue reading »

Mayfair CDC Executive Director Brian Patrick King mentions some of the politicians who've helped the organization.

For Kim Wilson and her 5-year-old daughter Marian, the STARS Program housed in Mayfair’s John M. Perzel Community Center provides a support system for facing the struggles of a disability.

“When you get a diagnosis for your child, there’s a whole process you go through in coming to terms with the diagnosis,” Wilson, whose daughter has been diagnosed with mild autism, a severe articulation disorder and a sensory integration dysfunction, said. “But then you also find out that there is this larger community of families going through that same process. Part of what STARS did for us was learning that we weren’t alone in what we were going through.”

Now, STARS, a sports program for disabled children, and more than 50 other groups that call the state-of-the-art John M. Perzel Community Center home, are facing possible program cuts, increases in fees or even facility shut downs due to recent and projected state funding cuts. continue reading »

Recently redesigned, Alfie’s in the Blue Grass Shopping Center [map], has reopened to offer food and entertainment.  Aside from a full menu, Alfie’s offers Sunday night salsa (and other dances throughout the week) until 1 a.m. — a great way to forget about the upcoming work week.

There is plenty of parking in the spacious lot of the shopping center just outside Alfie’s.  Since the nightclub/restaurant has been renovated recently, the entire place is new and sparkling with freshness.  The floors and tables are kept clean, as are the dishes..  The staff from the hostess to servers is very friendly and always eager to help you.  I was also very pleased to see how well kept the bathrooms seemed to be, given the large crowd that usually appears on Sundays. continue reading »

Q: We had our house in Burholme on the market for several months and we have had only four showings and no offers. Our real estate agent is blaming the market, but other people in the neighborhood have sold their homes. My husband wants to renew our contract with this agent because he knows him, but I want to find another agent. What can I do?

A: Did this agent even try to market your home? Can you find it on the Internet? Has he shared feedback with you from the four showings? It makes me wonder if he put any effort into it if he is blaming it on market conditions. Whatever his excuse, there’s no reason a house should not sell in any market. Every home just needs to be priced correctly in the market of the moment to sell. continue reading »

What is the leading health threat for women in the U.S.?  It isn’t cancer and it isn’t men.

You might be surprised to know that heart disease is the leading killer in women in the U.S. and has been for several years now.  This silent killer hardly ever gets the recognition it deserves.

One of the large reasons that heart disease goes overlooked as the leading cause of death is because most women do not realize the problems — or even the symptoms — of heart disease. continue reading »

Q: My landlord has given me a notice telling me that she is selling my duplex in Academy Gardens. I am worried, and I don’t like the idea of strangers going through my apartment. Do I have to let them in?

Also, I have been here for four years, and paid on time every month, and I want to stay but she told me she can’t guarantee that the new owners will want to keep me. I thought they had to accept a lease with the property.

A: Anyone buying real estate will want to see the entire property.  It can be uncomfortable, but if there’s any hope of you staying, you should make it as easy as possible to see it. Nobody wants a problem renter, even with a great payment history.

If you consistently deny showings because you don’t want to move, your landlord will not get a chance to find a buyer who may actually want a renter already in place when they buy. You might just guarantee that the new buyer won’t want to keep you, or you could even find yourself evicted sooner.

Everything should be spelled out in your lease. Your lease should contain the following information:

1. continue reading »

People in the Northeast were saving spots even during that "mini" storm in December '09. Photo by Bill Achuff.

Now that the snow is finally going somewhere, it’s time to take a step back and re-evaluate the parking situation. Perhaps now that there are fewer lawn chairs, trashcans and other paraphernaila saving spots, we can look back on the 2010 blizzard and laugh . . . or at least not slash tires, breaks windows and steal traffic cones.

We had hundreds of readers weigh in on various snow-related topics, but none was as popular as the spot-saving issue. Here are some of their thoughts, in addition to remarks from police officers, politicians and Mayor Michael Nutter:

continue reading »

From left: Mike Bobby, who takes it upon himself to remove graffiti from Fox Chase and Steve Phillips, Fox Chase Town Watch president, display their patrol gear. Photo by Morgan Zalot.

When Stephen Phillips saw a group of teens brutally beating Eddie Polec to death from his Fox Chase doorstep in 1994 and no police responded to his 911 calls for help, he and a group of community members decided something needed to be done.

“You’d rather be proactive than reactive,” Phillips, who raised three children in the neighborhood, said. “Our community was reactive to the tragedy.”

Polec, then 16, a Cardinal Dougherty High School student who lived in the neighborhood and the son of a well-known crossing guard in the area, was beaten with bats by a mob of teens from a local suburb on the steps of St. Cecilia’s Church. Phillips said more than 30 calls were made from the area to 911 during Polec’s in a span of 20 minutes, but no police were dispatched to the scene until it was too late to save the teen.

“It was a major failure of the Philadelphia 911 system,” he recalled. “[Polec] was literally an innocent bystander.” continue reading »