A dozen sick and dead cats were removed from a Lawndale home Tuesday night.

PSPCA officers raided a home near Lawndale Avenue and Levick Street where a couple had been keeping several cats and neighbors became concerned about the smell of feces and trash.

Some of the cats were dead and most of the living ones were sick.

Manny Citron of the Philadelphia Managing Director's Office

Things were going well at the Lawncrest Community Association meeting until Manny Citron laid out the boundaries for the city’s new PhillyRising target: LawncrestRising will comprise Tabor Avenue to Godfrey Avenue to Hasbrook Avenue to Comly Street.

More like CrescentvilleRising, if you ask the association members.

Citron is the assistant managing director for the City of Philadelphia and oversees the Northeast branch of the PhillyRising initiative, which began in Frankford.

Citron spoke for 10 minutes at Tuesday’s Lawncrest Community Association meeting before taking questions from residents, who were mostly from Lawndale. continue reading »

A man was kidnapped Sept. 21 and rescued by police on the 6800-block of Martinsville Road.

Of course, there is not Martinsville Road in the Northeast — or anywhere in Philadelphia, for that matter. continue reading »

Diane Sahms-Guarnieri signs books at Ryerss Museum & Library. Photo by G.E. Reutter

Lawndale poet Diane Sahms-Guarnieri celebrated the release of her latest collection, Images of Being, with a book launch at Ryerss Museum and Library this past Saturday.

Sahms-Guarnieri, a native of Roxborough has lived in Lawndale for more than two decades. She said the common thread in the book is Philadelphia: “Images of Being is a reflection of my life, triumphs and defeats and those Philadelphians who have woven themselves into who I have become.” continue reading »

Q: I am searching for a single-family home for $120,000 somewhere near Bustleton Avenue so I can be near the bus to work. It can be a row home but I need it to have two kitchens – something like an in-law suite. I am having a hard time finding something to fill my needs. Do you have any suggestions?

A: No doubt you are having a hard time finding something. Either two kitchens or an in-law suite, especially in a row home in Northeast Philadelphia, are a rare find. I am not sure if a single-family* row home could even satisfy your needs. continue reading »

Jodie Rizzo,(right), of Holme Circle at Occupy Philly

Occupy Philadelphia is preparing to enter its second week and Tuesday’s noon-time crowd numbered a little more than 100 people.

Plain clothes police, reporters and the homeless mixed with activists on the plaza at City Hall. A number of Northeast Philadelphia residents joined the protest, all with different reasons.

Earl Refsnider of Lawndale is protesting the harsh treatment of the homeless by the government. “I am protesting the government screwing over people,” he said. It is getting harder and harder, as there are continued cuts in funding.” continue reading »

Director Joe Laub of The Actors Group of Fox Chase

Joe Laub has been enchanted with the theater since watching a Broadway show at the age of five.

He followed with a theater workshop at 13, and again when attending Wilkes College, where he minored in theater and performed in college productions. Sixteen years ago Laub met with other actors and actresses in his Lawndale home and they founded The Actors Group.

After one production at Lawncrest Rec Center, Laub met with the late John Curry at the Fox Chase Rec Center and TAG found a permanent home in Fox Chase.

“John Curry gave me a chance to do theater at the rec,” Laub said. “He was a great inspiration and always supported our theater projects.” continue reading »

It’s rare a mainstream news outlet can find Castor Gardens. Summerdale, Oxford Circle and Lawncrest often get the Castor Gardens label. Or simply, ‘Castor,’ whatever that’s supposed to mean.

When a body was found inside a car on the 800-block of Unruh Avenue, Philadelphia’s mainstream media rushed to report on it. Most came out without embarrassment. continue reading »

Residents on three blocks in two neighborhoods had to file reports with 2nd District Police when the tires of more than a dozen vehicles were slashed.

Police believe the slashings took place sometime between midnight and 7:30 a.m. Thursday, when the blocks in Castor Gardens and Lawndale were mostly quiet. continue reading »

Pennsylvania legislative district 172, as it stands today. Click to visit Redistricting the Nation.

This is part of ongoing coverage in “District 172: The Politics of Change after State Rep. John Perzel,” a collaborative effort with Philadelphia Neighborhoods funded by J-Lab.

Shaping legislative districts is by no means illegal. It’s a part of the democratic process.

After each U.S. Census informs leaders about population and demographic shifts throughout the country, each state, county and municipality is meant to see subtle movement in its boundaries to better reflect the realities there, from balancing population totals and community divides. For example, in the post-1990-census redistricting, Philadelphia lost two House seats to its western suburbs due to population growth there.

Where redistricting has earned the more negatively connoted term of ‘gerrymandering’ — coined in 1812 after a partisan Massachusetts governor — has been when political, not population, shifts seem to motivate legislative rewiring.

Now again, Pennsylvania is revisiting its boundaries, like the rest of the country, following the 2010 census. In April, a former Superior Court president was named the independent chair of the state’s Legislative Reapportionment Commission, which by October is due to send to the state Supreme Court its reapportionment draft of state legislative districts.

One district that will be watched by some insiders is the Pennsylvania 172nd State House Legislative district, formerly the precinct of John Perzel.

continue reading »