A murder nearly 60 years ago that still casts a long shadow over neighborhoods around the University of Pennsylvania today will be remembered Friday when the 3600 block of Hamilton Street in Powelton Village, will be named “In-Ho Oh Memorial Way” in a special ceremony.

In-Ho Oh was a 26-year-old Penn graduate student who was beaten to death by a group of nearly a dozen young men and boys on his way to drop a letter in a mailbox at about 9 p.m. near 36th and Hamilton on April 25, 1958. The murder exacerbated racial tensions in the city and became national news. Oh lived with his aunt and uncle in a small apartment at 36th and Hamilton and planned to return to Korea and his family after his studies at Penn.

Law enforcement’s reaction was swift and severe. Nine people were charged with murder, many juveniles, and prosecutors pushed for the death penalty. In the end, five were sentenced to terms ranging from life in prison to 10 years.  Continue Reading

There’s a lot of road construction going out there right now. That means the occasional closed street and detour – and lots of orange cones. This driver found out what can happen if you ignore the cones along 45th Street near Walnut, where crews are replacing pipes.

A screen shot from the video for “West Philly Jawn” by Post Sun Times.

West Philly means a lot of things to a lot of people. We get a chance to see what it means to members of the band Post Sun Times in the video for their song “West Philly Jawn” posted on Tuesday.

In an interview with the Philly music magazine Jump, singer/guitarist Robin Carine noted that the band members grew up in North Jersey and that he himself has lived in West Philly since 2009.

The video includes a riff with Mike Fuller, the trolley poet, and few seconds of the world through Omar‘s eyes.  Continue Reading

The City of Philadelphia has taken the landowners of 4301 Walnut Street, where the Supreme Shop n Bag is located, to court to pay more than $158,000 in property taxes.

The city filed a “sequestration” case against Gladwynne-based EFBEE Associates, owners of the property, in municipal court on July 11. The School District of Philadelphia, which would receive much of the taxes collected, is also named as a plaintiff (see the file below). A sequestration hearing is typically the last resort on commercial properties owing back taxes on the 66,000-square-foot parcel and will likely result in the garnishing of rental income – so Supreme will pay the city its rent instead of the landowner – until the back taxes are paid.

EFBEE has 20 days to respond to the sequestration order.  Continue Reading

The trolley tunnel will close down tonight at 10 p.m. and reopen at 5 a.m. on Monday, SEPTA has announced. The closure is due to maintenance of overhead wires and will impact all routes.

Routes 11, 13, 34, and 36 will divert to 40th and Market Streets and Route 10 will divert to 40th and Filbert Streets.

This closure is not related to the annual “Tunnel Blitz,” which was recently postponed due to the recent problems with Septa’s Regional Rail cars.

UPDATE (July 15, 2016): The meeting turned out to be anticlimactic as the developer did not show up. The developer is seeking a zoning variance to build the apartment building. The land is zoned for single-family homes only. Those present at the meeting voted overwhelmingly against the variance.

University City’s hot real estate market is putting another community garden under pressure. A public meeting has been scheduled for Thursday, July 14 to discuss a proposed apartment building on one of the parcels that make up the Holly Street Neighbors Community Garden.

The garden is located on four small parcels along 41st Street between Baring and Powelton in the West Powelton neighborhood. A proposal to build a 6-unit apartment building at 320 N. 41st St. is scheduled to go before the Zoning Board of Adjustment in September. One of the four parcels that the garden sits on was up for Sheriff’s sale in May, but was taken off at the last minute. Another parcel is owned by a real estate company and a third parcel has recently been claimed as part of an inheritance.

The Holly Street property has officially been a community garden for about 12 years, but nearby residents have been planting on the vacant lots for decades.

“People have gardened here for years and years and years,” Winnie Harris, who has been managing the garden since it began, told Plan Philly in May. “We wanted the land before anyone else wanted it. And now just because University City is a hot real estate market, you want to build in every open space? I don’t think that’s right. I think the people that were there first should get preference.”

The meeting begins at 7 p.m. at the Mount Zion Church at 4110 Haverford Ave.