Residents, community activists and even beat cops are hoping the recent tragic shooting of an unarmed pizza delivery driver in the Cedar Park neighborhood will fast-track the Philadelphia Police Department’s (PPD) efforts to become more transparent.

The shooting of Philippe Holland on April 22 near 51st and Willows by two plain-clothes police officers came during a Department of Justice review of “officer-involved shootings” in the city that will likely lead to recommendations for a public review of “officer involved shootings.”

Philippe Holland

Residents attending the monthly meeting with neighborhood police last night in the Calvary Center at 48th and Baltimore had questions about the shooting, in which Holland was critically injured after police shot 14 times at the car he was driving. Holland was shot in the head, neck and leg. Patty Bullack with the 48th Street Neighbors group read aloud a letter signed by about 130 community members asking the police to make public the findings of an ongoing investigation of the shooting.

Lt. Brian McBride, commanding officer of the PPD’s University City substation, said he was unable to disclose any details of the investigation, but hopes its findings will eventually become public.

“I can’t say anything about the case, but I can say that they’re looking at a lot of things about what happened that night,” McBride said.

Unlike departments in other big cities, Philadelphia’s famously secretive police department has never been compelled to publicly discuss officer-involved shootings in the past.

But McBride said that the department has made significant strides toward transparency under the leadership of Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey, who became the top cop in 2008. One of Ramsey’s initiatives has been the posting of some details of officer-involved shootings online, which began last year. The posts do not include any details about the outcomes of formal investigations of the shootings.

Philadelphia’s police department doesn’t reveal those details. Yet.

“We have nothing to hide but it seems like we do because we’re stuck in an archaic way of doing things in Philadelphia,” said McBride, who added that he expects Ramsey to make the investigation into the shooting of Philippe Holland public. McBride said that many cops want details made public because “99 percent, probably more, of [police-involved shootings] are justified.”

But there are serious doubts, at least among members of the public, that the shooting of Holland was justified. Holland had finished his last delivery of the night and was walking back to his car when the officers approached him during the investigation of a recent shooting in the area. Holland, who may have believed he was being robbed, ran to his car and drove toward the officers. They opened fire. Holland, who was in critical condition for several days, is currently recovering at a hospital in Newark, New Jersey.

Kelvyn Anderson, a Cedar Park resident and executive director of the city’s Police Advisory Commission, said at last night’s meeting that the commission is pushing for a “public reckoning” of officer-involved shootings, which would include a public discussion of investigations.

“We think that is what is needed here,” he said. “We hope this will lead to some significant changes in the way we deal with things like this in the city.”

The Justice Department released findings of a similar investigation in Las Vegas in 2012 that recommended the release of several key documents any time the police investigated an officer-involved shooting. The same Justice Department official who led that investigation is currently reviewing procedures in Philadelphia.

There will likely be further discussion about the shooting at the Police Advisory Commission monthly meeting on Monday, May 19th at the Sweet Union Baptist Church, 1536 N. 59th Street (near 59th and Lansdowne) beginning at 6:30 p.m.

–Mike Lyons

This windsurfing board was one of the better scores a few years back. (Photo by West Philly Local)

Since some of our readers will be moving this spring-summer while others will be diving headfirst into dumpsters and dashing to curb alerts (it’s “Penn Christmas” time y’all!), here are a few things to know:

• If you want to get rid of your old mattress, please be aware that the city has a new mattress disposal policy. All mattresses and box springs should be put in plastic mattress disposal bags before you place them curbside for a pickup. You can buy mattress disposal bags at most major retailers and home improvement stores and on Amazon.com. Seriously, they’ll leave it if it’s not bagged up.

• TVs and computer equipment are considered hazardous items and will not be collected curbside (we’ve seen a few of them sitting on the curb though). Unless you find someone who wants your TV or computer, you can bring them to one of the Sanitation Convenience Centers or read below about PennMoves options.

Mattress disposal bag.

• Furniture can be left curbside for a pickup, up to two items per week.

• If you are holding a yard/porch sale please post an announcement about it on our Classifieds page and we’ll share it in our social media.

• If you are putting some decent stuff curbside or see something that may be interesting to your neighbors, feel free to send us a tweet, preferably with a photo (@westphillylocal) or put a photo on Instagram with the hashtag #westphillylocal (use that for Twitter too). We’ll spread the word. Also let us know if you score something particularly awesome or unusual. We’d be happy to spread the good news.

• Last but not least: There’s still no word on the annual PennMoves sale, but it looks like it will not happen, just like last year, and all the gently used items collected from students will go to local Goodwill stores. This year, PennMoves is also working with Philabundance to collect non-perishable, unopened food items, and Goodwill will accept all electronics, both functional and not, as they are teaming up with Vintage Electronics, an e-waste recycler. Off-campus residents may bring their items to Penn’s campus to one of the pickup location sites. For more information on what items are accepted and where you can drop them off, visit this page.

It’s that time of year when thousands of Penn students are moving out of their dorms and campus apartments, so some streets will be closed to get this done. Here’s a traffic advisory from Penn’s Division of Public Safety:

On Tuesday, May 13 and Wednesday, May 14, 2014, Spruce Street will be CLOSED to traffic from 34th through 40th Streets, in both directions, between 7:00 a.m. – 8:00 p.m.

– Emergency vehicles and hospital patient transport vehicles will be permitted access.

– Access will be provided to the Ryan Vet Hospital. No taxi cabs will be permitted access.

– Vendors will be permitted access to enter the street prior to the 7 a.m. street closure.

– Bikes will need to be walked on Spruce Street while the streets are closed to traffic.

– Septa Routes 40 and 42 will be re-routed (check this page for more info).

– During this street closure: HUP, Penn Vet, Morgue and Wistar deliveries will be allowed to enter Spruce Street at 34th Street.

– Garage 14 will be open and accessible throughout move-out.

(Photo by Annamarya Scaccia / West Philly Local)

Ten years later, and it seems repair work has finally started on the neglected roof where the notorious looming steeple of Christ Memorial Reformed Episcopal Church (4233 Chestnut Street) once stood.

Much like Naked Philly, a reader tipped West Philly Local off about the work last month after they noticed scaffolding erected around the base of the former 170-foot-high steeple, which collapsed in 2004 during an intense storm. According to a permit pulled from Philadelphia Licenses & Inspections, that section is undergoing partial roof demolition and extensive roof repairs, including installations and replacements.

As shown in the photo above, the steeple area of the church on the corner of 43rd and Chestnut Streets is fenced in, with a rubble pile atop the steps, and construction equipment left around on the 43rd Street side. A letter from the City of Philadelphia regarding a permit for equipment placement for building demolition, dated for 11/16/2013 – 1/16/2014, was tacked to the fence.

Currently, the former Christ Memorial Church houses the Media Mobilizing Project, a grassroots community and media-organizing group, and Christ the King Prayer Chapel, which runs a Sunday school and Sunday worship service. The 127-year-old church building was sold to Guy Laren, a local private developer, nearly a decade ago after its former congregation faced legal issues with its insurance company.

-Annamarya Scaccia

UPDATE (5:30 p.m.): The tree branches were removed by the city and the street was reopened around 4:30 p.m.

Reader Frank Innes reported earlier this afternoon that a tree near the northeast corner of 46th and Regent crashed into the street sometime overnight, damaging a minivan parked near it. 46th Street was blocked off between Regent and Chester. Frank sent along a couple of photos too:

Some of our readers wrote to tell us about a loud, window-shaking boom they heard in the Spruce Hill area near 46th and Locust on Friday morning, shortly before 7 a.m., and were wondering if it was some kind of an explosion. So here’s what we found out: Police say the noise came from a blown transformer near 46th and Locust Streets, which caused temporary power loss in some households in the area.

No injuries were reported, according to police.