OK, stop. Before you read any further go check out the video below.

Done?

Cool right? That piece is by West Philly artist Nilé Livingston and is part of the “Baltimore Avenue Series,” which she will show on Monday, June 25th at The Gold Standard Café (4800 Baltimore Ave.) from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.

Livingston describes the exhibit as:

“Biographic interpretations of growing up in West Philadelphia have inspired me to explore endless character encounters. I sketch my ideas on paper and then collage them in Photoshop. Creating art is my relentless urge to explore sources of anxiety, document interactions, share memories, as well as provide evidence for narrative works that address social, environmental, and technological changes.”

You can read more about Nilé at her website.

The University City District (UCD) is inviting the public to a celebration of dirt tomorrow. Actually, a celebration of really high quality dirt.

The Dirt Factory, UCD’s new public compost facility, located in a vacant lot near 43rd and Market, officially opens tomorrow and there will be free food and drinks, music and a lot of dirt talk.

The Dirt Factory features two huge, “Earth Tub” composters, each with a capacity of 3,200 pounds. The Pedal Co-op will pick up compostable material from local businesses and residents and deliver it to the site, which is located at 4308 Market St. Residents can also drop off material. All of that will be combined with leaves from sidewalks and streets around the neighborhood to produce compost, which will then be available to residents for gardening projects.

Besides the big commercial composters, the site will feature smaller, residential composters that will be used to demonstrate how home composting works. A few raised beds are also on the lot to demonstrate best practices in urban gardening.

The name for the facility was chosen from 86 suggestions. Stephen Metzger and Carina Giamerese will get 6 months of free compost pick-up from The Pedal Co-op for the winning name.

Wednesday’s opening ceremony runs from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. and will feature food and drink from Dock Street Brewing Co., Four Worlds Bakery and Little Baby’s Ice Cream.

Stay tuned for more info and hours of operation.

You know that bike that has been locked to street sign near your house for what seems like years? The City wants to know about it.

On July 23 the City is planning a “clean sweep” of abandoned bikes.

Here’s a notice from the Mayor’s Office of Transportation and Utilities:

The Mayor’s Office of Transportation and Utilities (MOTU) and the Philadelphia Streets Department need your help to identify all of the abandoned bikes in the city in preparation for an Abandoned Bike Clean-Up project.  On July 23^rd,the Streets department will be conducting a clean sweep of abandoned bicycles. 

Removing abandoned bicycles from city streets helps bicyclists by making bicycle parking easier to find and it helps non-bicyclists by clearing-out scarce sidewalk space.  Abandoned bikes are those that have missing or damaged parts, are in un-useable condition, and have been locked in the same location for one month or more.  These bikes will be tagged with notification for removal by the city one week before the scheduled removal.  All of the bicycles that are removed during the sweep will be donated to local charities for refurbishment.

You can report an abandoned bike by calling the City’s 311 hotline. You will need to know the location of the bicycle, what the bike is locked to and any distinguishing features including color, broken or missing parts or any “unique identifiers.”

A large Wine and Spirits Store is coming to the corner of 43rd and Chestnut, replacing an adult video store and check cashing spot.

The Zoning Board of Adjustment (ZBA) voted 3-1 to approve the proposed store, which had drawn support from many neighborhood residents and opposition from others, mostly Muslims who live near the location or worship at a nearby mosque.

A timeline for the 5,000-square-foot store’s opening is not yet available. Renovations could begin as early as August when the check cashing establishment’s lease runs out. The video store, Risque Video, is on month-to-month lease. An initial 10-year lease for the Wine and Spirits Store has been proposed. The store will be open 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. and closed on Sundays, according to the proposal.

The ZBA’s decision reverses a denial of the proposal in April and follows a special hearing last week that included more public input.

The Wine and Spirits Store at 4301 Chestnut St. will be a a “premium collection” store similar to the ones near 12th and Chestnut and 19th and Chestnut, which feature a broader selection of products than other stores and do not sell small package items such as pints and half pints. This will be the first premium store in West Philadelphia.

Stipulations in the proposal include increased security around the store.

The Spruce Hill Community Association (SHCA) is appealing to the City Council to delay the implementation of the controversial property tax assessment overhaul, the Actual Value Initiative (AVI), which could help bail out the city beleaguered school district by increasing taxes on long under-valued properties. Residents in neighborhoods where property values have far outpaced the city’s valuation could see their property tax bills double, triple or even quadruple.

City Council is expected to consider AVI legislation at Thursday’s regularly scheduled meeting. The City Council has until July 1st to submit a new budget and tax rate. But the property assessments needed to implement the AVI have not been completed. That’s one of the reasons the SHCA is pressing for a delay.

In a letter sent to members today, SHCA President Ed Halligan urged the City Council to take more time to let residents prepare for what could be substantial changes to their tax bills. The extra time would also allow city assessors to do a thorough inventory and assessment of the city’s housing stock.

Several versions of the AVI have been floating around City Hall and it is unclear what the final version might look like. What does look certain is that a basic formula will hold: If your home has been assessed too low, your taxes will likely increase.

While homeowners would be hardest hit, many renters will probably not be immune from dramatic tax increases as property owners will likely look to pass on the added costs.

There are lots of resources available on the AVI and we will collect them when and if it’s passed. Meanwhile, here is a good primer on the AVI that Plan Philly put together a few weeks ago.

Below is a copy of the SHCA letter to Councilwoman Jannie Blackwell.
SHCA letter to Jannie Blackwell

West Philly resident Rob O’Brien passed away on June 1 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. He was a long-time activist and teacher who organized a series of rallies and vigils on the Rutgers campus, where he was an instructor, in the wake of Rutgers student Tyler Clementi’s suicide. Rob died of a heart attack. He was 44.

In honor of Rob his family and friends are hosting a Pot Luck Celebration at the William Way Community Center. Please bring a dish to share with everyone. There is also a blog set up for the memorial.

The following information was submitted by Rob’s family and friends:

Rob was living at 48th and Hazel at the time of his death. He loved Dahlak, both the food and the bar. Ask anyone who’s been at the Dahlak bar in the past few months if they remember the guy with curly blue hair and all the tattoos, and you’ll probably hear from several people. He was trying to organize a community education series at Dahlak, a series of film screenings and discussions. (The first and, as it turns out, only, one of those happened on May 10th.)  He also loved Fuh Wah and knew all the staff there by name.

Robert Thomas O’Brien (born October 2, 1967) was Ph.D. Candidate at the Anthropology Department of Temple University. He was Assistant Instructor of Anthropology at Rutgers University (Jan 2007-Sept 2011), Adjunct Professor at the Department of Culture and Communications of Drexel University (Jan 2003-June 2009) and Adjunct Professor at the Department of Anthropology of Temple University (Sept. 1999-Dec. 2006).

He was the author of “Unemployment and Disposable Workers in Philadelphia: Just How Far Have the Bastards Gone?” published in 2006 in the journal Ethnos, and was the co-author, with Judith Goode, of “Whose Social Capital? How Economic Development Projects Disrupt Social Relations,” a chapter in Social Capital in the City.

Rob was a very active member of the American Anthropological Association (AAA), through the Society for the Anthropology of Work (where he was an officer of the Board), the Society for North American Anthropology, and the Committee on Labor Relations, of which he was a founding member. In 2006 he was the recipient of the Carrie Hunter-Tate Award for academic and professional service from the National Association of Student Anthropologists.

Rob was a committed, life-long activist. He spent his early 20s working for Greenpeace, first as a grassroots organizer. He later rose to the position of Co-Director. From the mid-1990s, he was involved in work, research, community service and activism around poverty, drug use and health care. He served as Executive Director and Board member of Prevention Point Philadelphia, a harm reduction/syringe exchange program. He was a co-founder of the Philadelphia County Coalition for Prison Health Care, was a member of the AIDS Treatment Activist Coalition, and was a volunteer with Catholic Worker.

Beginning in 2000, with his work with the Temple University Graduate Student’s Association – American Federation of Teachers Local #6290 – Rob became increasingly involved in academic labor issues. From 2004 to 2010, he published, along with Kerim Friedman, the blog “AAA Unite.” Through this blog he reported on the AAA’s efforts to find conference facilities in unionized venues, the boycott to Coca-Cola and its products that he helped organize, and other actions supported by the AAA Committee on Labor and other anthropology action groups.

Rob brought the same passion and commitment to his teaching, and he was very inspiring to students who pursued activism and research of their own.  At Rutgers University, Rob and his students called attention to bullying against queer youth, and organized a series of vigils and protests after the suicide of Tyler Clementi, a Rutgers student.  Rob worked intensively with upper-level undergraduates at Rutgers in classes on medical anthropology, gender and sexuality, and others; and he also supervised honors theses and independent studies. In 2011 he was the Anthropology Department nominee for the Rutgers School of Arts and Sciences Teaching Award.  In the 2010-2011 academic year he also served as a Rutgers University LGBT Liason.

At Rutgers, Rob shaped students’ thinking in critical and creative directions. Students have circulated testimonials on his email list:

“I am a former student of Rob’s and he was one of my favorite professors during undergrad,” wrote one alumnus, “His classes were part of the reason I stayed in Anthropology and much of what he said during class has stayed with me to this day.”

Another graduate summarized Rob’s impact as follows: “There is so much knowledge I have obtained because of him and so much knowledge that he helped turn into wisdom within me that I was always grateful for.”

A third student wrote: “I visited him in the hospital in the fall of 2009, and found him on his computer, trying to explain Foucault to a student via webchat. Rob went so far out of his way to help all of us, even when he was hurting terribly.”

Rob left Rutgers on a medical leave in September 2011.

Rob died of a heart attack on June 1st, 2012, at the hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. His body was donated to Science Care, and his organs to Gift of Life. He is survived by his mother and stepfather, Catherine Ann and Bob Hemmelstein, his father and step-mother, John and Carol O’Brien, his sisters, Staci Lea Bustle & Christine O’Brien Holland, and his brother, John Francis O’Brien III.

 Information contributed by Christopher Carrico, Gabriela Vargas-Cetina, Staci Bustle, David M. Hughes and Anna Melton.