UPDATED 8/9/13 at 2:10 p.m.: After a few readers asked about the petition in City Paper, we reached back out to Greensgrow to get more info. According to Greensgrow’s Ryan Kuck, as a phase one step, the farm hub gathered signatures from business associations and community leaders for each proposal they’ve assembled. If any of the proposals move forward and once they’ve identified a site, Greensgrow will reach out to the community through meetings and the like for community input.

As we reported in June, a garden center was being proposed at an empty lot at the southeast corner of 51st Street and Baltimore Avenue (pictured). A couple of weeks ago City Paper wrote that Kensington farm and garden hub Greensgrow has its eye on two plots of West Philly land, including at 51st and Baltimore. We checked on it and found out that nothing is set in stone, although, according to a Greensgrow rep, those sites are among many swaths of West Philly land they are considering as their next home.

Ryan Spak, owner of the corner lot on Baltimore, said much the same when we spoke to him this week. While he would be “honored” to bring a garden center to the lot because “the neighborhood deserves one,” he said that he is considering multiple possibilities for the land and an operator has not been identified. As for Greensgrow, Ryan said they were at the community meeting at Seeds Gallery on June 21 and showed interest, but he would not confirm if they are in talks.

We’ll keep you posted on this development when we have more information.

-Annamarya Scaccia

Come this fall, Mighty Writers will ink its missive on the streets of West Philly.

The beloved Philly nonprofit dedicated to teaching Philadelphia’s youth to think and write with clarity will open its third location, Mighty Writers West, housed in People’s Emergency Center at 3861 Lancaster Avenue. Fall programs will launch September 16, and former Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Annette John-Hall will serve as Mighty Writers West program director.

This is a new Mighty Writers site in West Philly. They are looking for someone who can replace the words “Make Your Mark” with “Mighty Writers.” (Photo via Mighty Writers’ Facebook page).

“We’re excited because the kids and volunteers we meet in West Philly will define the flavor of Mighty Writers West,” Maggie Leyman, Mighty Writers’ development director, told West Philly Local.  “We’ll incorporate a lot of what we’ve learned in South Philly, but we can’t wait to learn what gets West Philly kids excited, and what gets them writing.”

According to Leyman,opening locations in the North, South and West locations of Philadelphia was Mighty Writers’ intention from the start, as the non-profit’s “honing in on three neighborhoods” it sees as underserved and “reasonably far apart.” In West Philadelphia, she said, Mighty Writers will be able to reach those kids who have traveled to the South Philadelphia location for past workshops, as well as kids who wouldn’t travel to either location, but are interested in its programs. Still, the non-profit does understand that the entire city “needs more accessible and free out-of-school programs.”

“Our executive director, Tim Whitaker, always says that you could put a Mighty Writers, or pretty much any writing program, every ten blocks and you’d see programs filled to capacity,” Leyman told West Philly Local. “The whole city is underserved, as far as kids’ educations are concerned. We wish we could put a Mighty Writers in even more Philly communities but that would take some serious funding.”

Mighty Writers will host an open house at the new location in early September “to welcome people into Mighty Writers West so they can sign up for programs, meet our staff and volunteers, and see what we’re all about,” said Leyman.

Mighty Writers West is also currently accepting applications for its afterschool program for students in grades 5-8 residing or going to school in one of the following ZIP codes: 19104, 19131, 19139 or 19143. For more info and to download an application, click here. Application deadline is August 15, 2013.

–Annamarya Scaccia

Thanks to an $82,000 grant from The Barra Foundation, University City District’s West Philadelphia Skills Initiative (WPSI) will move employment training site, West Philadelphia Skills Center for Economic Advancement, from pilot phase to a fully-integrated, holistic approach.

The Center for Economic Advancement, located at Community College of Philadelphia West on 47^th and Chestnut Streets, was opened in 2012 as an intensive soft job skill training site that helps bridge the employment gap in West Philadelphia. The Barra grant will allow WPSI, which launched in 2010 to address issues of unemployment and poverty in the community, to implement the most effective strategies tested during the Center’s pilot phase over the last year.

“From recruitment, assessment and selection to programming and evaluation plans, we have studied which approaches work best with our participants and our employers,” WPSI Director Sheila Ireland told West Philly Local. “Although we will maintain a stance of continuous improvement, we know feel that we have a good understanding of what works.”

According to the Pew Charitable Trusts’ 2013 State of the City, the median household income for the University City region is $21,801, with 48.1 percent of residents living in poverty. In West Philadelphia’s West Market region, the numbers are slightly higher—$26,487 and 33.8 percent. West Philadelphia Skills Initiative aims to change that tide by connecting local residents with partnering employers that have operations in West Philadelphia through its three programs: the Center for Economic Advancement, Job Pipelines, and the Youth Employment Network. Last year, WPSI worked with over 130 participants across all three programs, which either provide training or professional internships in the medical assistance, information technology, landscaping, lab technology, administrative, and security industries among others.  Continue Reading

Photo by Annamarya Scaccia / West Philly Local.

After we posted our food and booze updates in West Philly earlier this month, readers started asking about what’s happening with the shuttered Mexicali Cafe at 110 S. 40th Street, and a couple of readers heard through the grapevine that the former Mexican joint is turning into a Korean restaurant.

Well, we did a little digging and found out that the University City space is, in fact, under construction, and it seems another restaurant will take its place. According to Licenses and Inspections records, Mizu Sushi Inc., which is listed as the applicant, was issued a renovation permit for the existing restaurant on March 15. The work described for the permit includes “interior renovation to an existing restaurant”–meaning interior upgrades, ceiling work, and construction of an ADA-compliant bathroom. A separate electrical permit was issued to Mizu on April 10.

West Philly Local stopped by the site multiple times, but was unable to connect with the owner. We did drop in Mizu, which is collecting packages for 110 S. 40th St according to a handwritten sign on the door, and the workers we spoke with were tight-lipped, declining to give out the owner’s contact info per his request. When asked about whether the space will open as a Korean restaurant, the worker said he heard the rumor but couldn’t confirm if it is true. We’ll post an update as soon as we have more info.

-Annamarya Scaccia

Prospero (Catharine K. Slusar) and daughter Miranda (Hannah Gold). Photo by Annamarya Scaccia / West Philly Local

Last night, Shakespeare in Clark Park (SCP) opened its eighth season with “The Tempest” at the “Bowl” on 43rd Street and Chester Avenue. The packed crowd laughed and reveled in the Bard’s majestic epic, which is directed by Swim Pony Performing Arts Artistic Director Adrienne Mackey and stars Catherine K. Slusar as protagonist (or antagonist, depending on your view) Prospero–a lead role typically cast with a male actor. And, without a doubt, Sean Hoots of local outfit Hoots & Hellmouth exceeded expectations with his ethereal and enchanted music.

Make sure to catch “The Tempest” at Clark Park before it closes on July 28. The remaining shows are on Thursday-Sunday, beginning at 7 p.m.

Photo by Mike Lyons/West Philly Local.

The late Mott Green / Photo by Karen Kirchhoff.

When Mott Green founded the Grenada Chocolate Company Cooperative in 1999, it was his mission to not only make the “best chocolate in the world,” but also do so ethically and sustainably — “Tree to Bar,” as he put it.

The award-winning dark chocolate made by the small Hermitage, Grenada-based company is organic, produced by solar-power machinery built by Green’s hands. The operation is also a worker-owned coop, in business with small local cocoa farmers and as many as 50 factory workers, and offering employee shareholding and fair wages. It’s an ethical, sustainable model wholly in line with Green’s overarching personality the Washington-born, New York-raised activist dropped out of the University of Pennsylvania in the late 1980s because he didn’t want to surrender to the confines of regular society. He spent much of his 20s squatting around West Philly and dedicating his time to homeless activism.

The work that Green, who died suddenly on June 1st at the age of 47 while working at his factory, committed his life to is also the subject of the 2012 documentary, Nothing Like Chocolate. Directed by Kum-Kum Bhavnani and narrated by Susan Sarandon, the film tells the stories of Green and Nelice Stewart, an independent cocoa farmer in Grenada, and how the Caribbean island “has become home to this revolutionary venture”—an organic, ethical chocolate made in a country where chocolate productions is often a “dirty industry,” said Bull Gervasi, produce & facilities manager of Mariposa Food Co-op, which was one of the first in Philadelphia to sell Green’s chocolate bars 10 years ago. Grenada Chocolate Company is sold online and in stores across Europe and the States, with a flagship store recently opened in the Caribbean country.  Continue Reading