The City of Philadelphia will pay $4.4 million to Philippe Holland, the pizza delivery driver who was shot several times in April 2014 in the Cedar Park neighborhood by two police officers who thought he was involved in a shooting.

         Philippe Holland

The settlement is the largest in the city’s history for a victim of a police shooting, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer.

“We will strive to ensure that tragedies such as this do not happen again in our City. The Philadelphia Police Department has agreed under the settlement to implement a new training protocol for all current and new plainclothes police officers,” City Solicitor Sozi Pedro Tulante said in a statement released today by the Mayor’s Office.

Holland had just delivered a pizza to a home near 51st and Willows at about 10 p.m. on April 22, 2014 when two plain-clothes officers, Mitchell Farrell and Kevin Hanvey, approached him with their guns drawn. Farrell and Hanvey were investigating a shooting in the area. Fearing a robbery, Holland ran to his car and tried to drive away. The officers opened fire, hitting Holland in the neck, head and leg while he was behind the wheel. Police regulations prohibit shooting at a moving vehicle.  Continue Reading

Artwork by Laura Murdoch.

Need some holiday gifts with some Philly flavor? The annual Go West! Craft Fest holiday edition is this Sunday, Dec. 18 at The Rotunda (near 40th and Walnut) and will feature more than 100 artisan vendors selling handcrafted, locally made items.

Everything from hand-knitted winter clothing to locally made preserves to handmade toys will be available at The Rotunda. This thing has gotten so big over the years that it has now expanded into The Rotunda’s amazing Sanctuary space.

The Go West! Craft Fest runs from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and here is a list of vendors.

The Philadelphia Historical Commission’s committee on historic designation will consider several West Philly properties, including two churches, during a Dec. 14 meeting. The owners of one West Philly property, on the 4000 block of Chestnut Street, is asking for its designation to be rescinded.

Designation means that a property would be placed on the Register of Historic Places and the Historical Commission would serve as the regulatory body for the property. Every alteration that requires a building permit would go before the commission.

The meeting begins at 9:30 a.m. at 1515 Arch St., Room 18-029.

Here are the properties. Click on the link to see a PDF of the application.  Continue Reading

Carol Isom

A GoFundMe page has been set up to help offset funeral expenses for Carol Isom, the woman killed when she was struck near 52nd and Locust by a car fleeing police on Nov. 29.

Carol Isom, 55, is survived by her husband of 34 years, five children, including a 19-year-old daughter in her second year at Temple University, and five grandchildren.

“My mom was everything. She was everything to everybody around here. She was like the neighborhood mom, and she did nothing but love, nothing but smile,” Brittany Isom, Carol’s daughter, told 6ABC.

Police say the pursuit began when two men in two vehicles began shooting at each other along Westminster Avenue and ended at 52nd and Locust when one of the vehicles struck the vehicle Isom was driving. She lived nearby on the 200 block of S. 53rd St. Her 56th birthday would have been on Dec. 10.

(Google Street View image).

A proposal introduced Wednesday night at the Spruce Hill zoning committee to turn what committee chair called “the single greatest nuisance property in the history of Spruce Hill” from a fraternity house into a three-unit drew skepticism from neighbors, who want the 3,100-square-foot property to go back to being a single family home.

Until recently the property at 422 S. 42nd St. (a block north of Baltimore Avenue) housed the University of the Sciences fraternity Upsilon Sigma Phi, a bane to residents on the block for decades.

New Jersey-based Vasupujya Properties bought the property for $395,000 on Sept. 1 and, according to the zoning request, hopes to renovate its maze of small rooms into three apartments. The building is legally zoned as a fraternity house and can legally accommodate up to 12 residents. The reconfiguration of the four-story building would include a bi-level, two-bedroom apartment in the basement and first floor, a one-bedroom on the second floor and a bi-level three-bedroom on the third floor.  Continue Reading

The property at 4301-4303 Baltimore from an archive photo taken in 1912, when a butcher shop was located where Clarkville is now. Crews work to install the trolley tracks on Baltimore Avenue. (City of Philadelphia, Department of Records).

The days of cheap slices and cold 40s at the corner of 43rd and Baltimore are long gone. At the Spruce Hill zoning committee meeting last night, the owners of 4303 Baltimore Avenue (the row home adjacent to Clarkville and across from Clark Park) threw out a couple of names of restaurants interested in moving into the first floor restaurant space they have proposed.

They include:

• Koreana – A Korean street food place with a current location at 3801 Chestnut St..
• Ant’s Pants – Café/brunch. Current location at 2212 South St.
• Southeast Bistro – Southeast Asian meets Cajun. Current location near 19th and South.
• House – A more traditional lunch/brunch place in Media.
• Same Same – A Vietnamese street food restaurant with a location in Northern Liberties.  Continue Reading