District Attorney Seth Williams at the June Northwood Civic Association meeting.

Seth Williams says he doesn’t always wear his seat belt while driving.  Philadelphia’s District Attorney also says he was recently caught by a red-light ticket camera.

Lessons for enforcing driving in a town whose DA has broken a law or two can be implemented citywide. So Williams told 30 residents at Tuesday’s Northwood Civic Association meeting in the basement of St. James Church.

“It’s not the severity of punishment that changes behavior,” he said. “It’s the certainty of punishment.”

It was one of four hallmarks he gave for his developing administration, before taking questions from a community that has characterized itself in a quality-of-life war against blight and crime.

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At last night’s meeting of the Lawncrest Community Association, Councilwoman Marian B. Tasco presented a citation to Joseph Swing in honor of his 18th birthday. In the video below, Tasco explains the significance of the citation before the nearly 100 Lawncrest residents at the meeting sing happy birthday to Swing. continue reading »

Assistant District Attorney Michael Barry was one of many panelists at yesterday's hit-and-run hearing at Nazareth Hospital.

Senators, advocates and victims packed the Marian Hall Conference Center inside Nazareth Hospital yesterday morning to unite for a common cause. The hearing, hosted by Sen. Mike Stack and Sen. John C. Rafferty, chairman of the Senate Transportation Committee, discussed hit-and-run accidents in the Northeast.

The hearing was used to formally introduce senate bills that would toughen and increase the penalties for hit-and-run drivers who flee the scene of an accident that results in injury or death.

“The tougher penalties will help deter people from fleeing an accident,” Stack said. continue reading »

Photo by Jennifer Reardon

The Heavy Hitta’s Boxing Club, located at 6000 Rising Sun Ave. in Lawncrest, had a boxing exhibition and gospel performance Tuesday night.

The newly formed boxing club was hoping to showcase its boxers and advertise its new club to the Lawncrest locals — all while supporting a good cause.

Chief Executive Officer Rick Terrell, 35, and his right-hand man, Chief Operating Officer Lonnie Haile, 42, met and started the club back in July 2009.   continue reading »

Two frequent topics of consternation at recent Northwood Civic Association meetings are being taken to court.

A pair of unanimous 18-0 resident votes urged President Barry Howell and his board to go ahead with plans to request an injunction on the opening of an addiction recovery facility on Roosevelt Boulevard and to sue the Frankford Community Y to open its financial records.

“We oppose this as much as you do,” State Rep. Tony Payton, who circulated a copy of a letter he sent to the city’s chief of the Department of Behavioral Health Arthur Evans,  expressing as much to, said of the opening of a Volunteers of America of Delaware Valley home on the 4800-block of Roosevelt Boulevard. Howell, Payton and others maintain that this in direct conflict with Northwood’s deed restriction.

“I think these court proceedings will bring to light that deed restrictions trump city zoning,” Payton said. “We certainly hope that’s the case.”

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State Rep. Tony Payton at the February Frankford Civic meeting.

It has become something of a tradition at Frankford Civic Association meetings in the past year.

The first 15 or 20 minutes of the meetings, held in a conference room on the second floor of the old Frankford Hospital, are devoted to typical zoning issues, event announcements and new community concerns. Then something changes.

The meeting becomes more of a conversation and the topic is always the same: recovery homes.

True to form, it happened again Thursday night. Only three or four residents were in attendance, outnumbered by media and legislative aides and almost doubled by the association’s executive board, but the conversation was no less lively.

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The futures of two large neighborhood institutions were discussed at Thursday’s Frankford Civic Association meeting.

First, the now vacant Salvation Army building, on Frankford Avenue near Unity Street, is up for sale, recycling residents’ fear over recovery homes that have beleaguered Frankford for years. Second, the latest chapter in the harried sale of the Frankford Y was announced, including a sale date that passed without action.

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Here’s a summary of the week’s Northeast news we didn’t cover. See others here.

Escaped convict Oscar Alvarado has been captured as of Monday.

Kamilah Alvarado, 22, Dean Ortiz, 33, and Crysta Otto, 27, of Barnett Street near Erdrick, in Mayfair, face charges for holding up the apprehension of the escaped convict by hiding him inside a Motor Inn in Trevose. Alvarado is accused of murdering a woman in October 2008.

Keep reading for break-ins at Franklin Mills Mall, a sentence for an ex Northeast charter school board president, and more. continue reading »

District Attorney Lynne Abraham says a temporary farewell to Burholme's community groups.

There is nothing more important than a community “involved in its own life,” District Attorney Lynne Abraham said to attendants at last night’s monthly meeting of the Burholme Civic Association and Town Watch groups.

Abraham, a frequent guest of the Burholme groups, came to say farewell, as she is stepping down as District Attorney after 19 years on the job. She will be replaced by Democratic District Attorney-elect Seth Williams. continue reading »

Inside the brightly colored, Spanish-classroom of the Sankofa Freedom Academy in Frankford, a handful of residents were imbued with the global impact and practical cost-saving of properly weatherizing a home Wednesday night.

A representative of the Energy Coordinating Agency, which trains, consults and teaches on energy conversation, particularly to people of low income, was hosted by state Rep. Tony Payton’s office.

During the 90-minute session, Ron Edwards, a representative of the agency, started by describing the generally accepted concept of global warming and talking about projections of the country and the world’s peak oil production. He then pointed out common energy-losing parts of Philadelphia homes and simple, low-cost ways of reducing heat loss.

“That draft under your door means a lot more than a cold living room,” Edwards said last night.

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