As the new school year approaches, parents and community members concerned about the cap on new students in the lower grades of the Penn Alexander School (4209 Spruce St.) have started an online petition asking that all school-age children living in the school’s catchment area be admitted.

The petition follows a letter sent by the Spruce Hill Community Association to University of Pennsylvania officials last month asking the university, which manages the school in cooperation with the School District of Philadelphia, to address the cap. Options recommended for investigation include erecting temporary classrooms and moving students from the middle school grades, where classes are sometimes under-enrolled, to a different building.

The group circulating the petition, Advocates for Great Elementary Education Everywhere (AGREE) West Philly, asks Penn President Amy Gutmann, School District of Philadelphia Superintendent Arlene Ackerman and Penn Alexander Principal Sheila Sydnor to “work collaboratively, and in a timely manner, with concerned community members to find a viable solution to PAS’s overcrowding problem.”

School officials have said that the K-8 school, which since its opening has pledged to maintain a lower-than-required student-teacher ratio, is overflowing with students in the lower grades. New Penn Alexander students begin to register on Monday (August 15), which will be the first indication of how many will be affected by the cap.

Young people on the streets in a small section of West Philly after 9 p.m. on Fridays and Saturday could be picked up by police under new curfew regulations aimed at deterring “flash mobs” in the downtown area.

The new regulations temporarily move the curfew for youths under 18 years of age from midnight to 9 p.m. on those days in Center City and a small section of West Philly. The new curfew is part of a plan announced yesterday by Mayor Michael Nutter that includes a bolstered police presence and longer hours for neighborhood recreation centers. The curfew for the rest of the city remains the same (midnight for youths 13-18 and 10 p.m. for children under 13).

The curfew will be enforced with additional police presence in West Philly from Market Street to Baltimore Avenue and 38th Street to 43rd Street.

Nutter’s announcement comes a little over a week after roving gangs of young people severely injured pedestrians in Center City on July 29 (see video below). Among those arrested was an 11-year-old boy. Those attacks happened in the afternoon.

Fines of up to $300 will be levied against young people who violate the curfew. Parents could also be fined and even jailed if their children repeatedly violate the curfew.

District Attorney Seth Williams, who stood side-by-side with Nutter during yesterday’s announcement, said:

“We will be prosecuting these young criminals to the fullest extent of the law. There is no excuse for what they did, and they have brought great shame upon themselves and their families. Let this be a message to any others who think that participating in flash mobs is acceptable or fun — don’t do it. We will apprehend you, prosecute you, and send you away. You will not damage the reputation of our great City. And I will be working with our State Legislature and City Council to enact laws to hold those parents who permit their children to engage in this type of criminal conduct criminally accountable.”

The new curfew will last through the remainder of the summer and will be re-evaluated at the beginning of the school year.

The city has also authorized some 20 rec centers to extend hours until 10 p.m. on Friday and Saturday nights.

Centers in West Philly with extended hours include:

Myers Recreation Center • 5800 Kingsessing Avenue
Christy Recreation Center • 728 S. 55th Street
Kingsessing Recreation Center • 5000 Chester Avenue
Shepard Recreation Center • 5700 Haverford Avenue

Here is surveillance video of one July 29 attack (originally posted on MyFoxPhilly). Some of the boys in the video are still wearing their school uniforms.

Video: Philadelphia Teen Mob Attack: MyFoxPHILLY.com

Today is the last day to register for kindergarten at the Henry C. Lea School (47th and Locust) until registration for the entire school begins on Aug. 22.

The West Philly Coalition for Neighborhood Schools has all the you need to get your youngster into the school, which has managed to skirt many of the problems associated with budget cuts through grassroots community efforts. The school has retained its art teacher and will have a fully staffed library thanks to a grant by the West Philadelphia Alliance for Children and volunteers from the neighborhood. It is also bolstering its music program.

If you have been near the corner of 45th and Chestnut recently, you may have noticed the large, blank, west-facing apartment building wall and thought something wasn’t quite right. That’s because the large mural of Paul Robeson, which greeted eastbound travelers on Chestnut, is gone.

But worry not; the famous actor and All-American athlete and son of a former slave who lived his later years in his sister’s row home at 4949 Walnut St. shall return. A new Robeson mural is being created as you read this.

The original mural, painted by Peter Pagast in 1999 and removed in February, is being replaced with one by Ernel Martinez, who painted the Malcolm X. mural at Ridge Avenue and W. Susquehanna Avenue.

Amy Johnston from the City’s Mural Arts Program said the mural will be back up some time next month.

“The mural is being repainted on parachute cloth in the artist’s studio,” she said.

The Robeson and Malcolm X murals are part of the African American Iconic Images collection, which also includes portraits of Jackie Robinson, Women of Jazz and Malcolm X, among others, and historical scenes of African American life and community.

A group of West Philly youths have decided: If the people can’t get to fresh fruits and vegetables, they’re going to get the fresh fruits and vegetables to the people.

Starting tomorrow the Youth Urban Mobile Market (YUMM) will begin delivering fresh produce from 52nd to 60th Streets in a bicycle-driven cart. The cart will launch on Friday at the first ever Youth Growers Market at Malcolm X. Park (51st and Pine Streets) from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.  The YUMM cart will pedal the neighborhoods four times weekly, helping relieve the dearth of fresh food in many parts of West Philly.

The cart and tomorrow’s market are staffed by young folks from the Agatston Urban Nutrition Initiative, which is part of the University of Pennsylvania’s Netter Center for Community Partnerships. Students from a number of area schools are involved, including: Martin Luther King High School’s “Seeds for Learning;” Saul High School’s “Henry Got Crops;” the School of the Future; Pepper Middle School; the Philadelphia Urban Food and Fitness Alliance; Earth Keepers; and Walnut Hill Farm.

If things go as planned a lot more people in Philadelphia will see mobile fruit and vegetable carts around the city. The YUMM cart is the first of the City’s “Healthy Carts” program. Twenty carts are planned to begin operating in low-income neighborhoods in 2011-2012 as part of the “Food Fit Philly” program.

For more information on the YUMM cart or the youth growers program, write Lan Dinh at: landinh89 [at] gmail.com.

They will all be on Baltimore Avenue tomorrow.

The monthly Baltimore Avenue Stroll, which runs tomorrow at 5:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., will feature the usual large selection of dollar items – from cans of beer and samosas to theater tickets and ice cream. But new additions include the city’s first “parklet,” which will be officially unveiled a few hours before the stroll begins. As we reported earlier, the parklet is on 43rd Street, adjacent to the Green Line Cafe.

As part of the celebration DJ Osagie will play some tunes in the parklet.

Speaking of music, there will be a lot of action at the west end of the stroll this time. None other than Schoolly D, a gangsta rap original, will be DJing outside Elena’s Soul, which will be serving dollar wings, yams, potato salad, mac and cheese. Schoolly D also has a song, “West Philly,” on the downloadable “West Philly Mix Tape.” You can pickup a card that gives you access to the download at the University City District table, which is usually located near the Calvary Center at 48th and Baltimore.

The Philly rock band The Makes will be performing and the new Mediterranean restaurant Aksum (4630 Baltimore Ave.) will participate in its first Dollar Stroll. There will likely be more food trucks in the mix this time too. For a rundown of vendors, click on the image.