West Philly resident Jay Sand has big, big plans to expand his popular world music program for youths that began out of his Pine Street living room. Sand’s goal is “to create the opportunity for every child to meet the world through music.”

Jay Sand

Sand, who has taught more than 1,000 classes to neighborhood kids, has launched an ambitious campaign to crowdfund this expansion. Last spring he took his program, which combines music and cultural exploration, into the public schools. His curriculum includes some 300 songs from more than 100 countries.

Now he wants to make it even more accessible to kids throughout the city regardless of income. Part of that plan is to create a series of CDs (and digital music) with all kinds of performers. He has already released one – All Around this World: Latin America – this fall. And two more, which will include music from Africa, are currently in post production. You can see some of the studio recordings in the video below.

So far he has self-financed these efforts, but now he is offering a chance for you to get involved through tax-deductible contributions (and get a special gift such as a CD or a “musical map” or even a free private concert for you and your family and friends).

To help promote his expansion, Sand is also putting on 24 straight one-hour webcast classes on December 7-8. You and yours can attend the free classes in person if you RSVP here. The classes start at 9 a.m. on Dec. 7 and Sand says the only song he will repeat during all of the classes is the Ugandan song “We Are Happy,” which he uses to mark the beginning of each class. Here is the schedule.

The University of Pennsylvania’s community outreach office is hosting a community meeting on Thursday morning, Dec. 5, to discuss public school initiatives, including its program at the Henry C. Lea School (47th and Locust).

The meeting will run from 8 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. at the Walnut Street West Library (40th and Walnut). Representatives of Penn’s Graduate School of Education, Lea School University Partnership and Netter Center for Community Partnerships will be there to talk about their programs.

Thursday’s meeting is part of the regular First Thursday Community Meeting series that Penn routinely hosts.

Click to enlarge.

Here’s a chance to recycle your old computers, TVs, CD and DVD players, maybe even a VCR – basically anything with a plug (except for large appliances). Bring them to Saunders Park (39th and Powelton) on Thursday, Dec. 5 from 9 a.m. to Noon.

The recycling service is free to everyone in the community, including businesses. The recyclers (eForce Compliance) say they will wipe clean or destroy all data.

The People’s Emergency Center and Penn Presbyterian Medical Center are sponsoring the event.

4510 Walnut Street / Photo by Mike Lyons.

After years as a shop selling phone cards to most recently an art studio, it looks like the storefront at 4510 Walnut St. will become West Philly’s third tattoo studio.

The property owner and the potential studio proprietors presented their plan to the Spruce Hill Community Association’s zoning committee last night for the 1,200-square-foot storefront, which is a couple doors west from Monarch Hardware. Marvin Graaf, the owner of the Falls Taproom in East Falls who would be a co-owner of the studio, told the committee that the studio would require no changes to the facade of the building, “no major construction” inside and, importantly for the committee, no neon signs anywhere, Graaf said.

Graaf and his partner recently met informally with people from nearby businesses, a church and mosque to talk about his plans and told the committee he received mostly positive feedback. One local business owner initially responded negatively, afraid that “Hell’s Angels types” might be hanging around the studio, a committee member said. But that business owner was persuaded that the tattoo scene has changed.

“I think the common perception is that you get a seedy crowd hanging around,” said Graaf. “That’s really not how it is anymore.”

The studio would be open until 10 p.m. on weekdays and 11 p.m. on weekends.

The studio still needs a nod from the full SHCA and a special use variance from the city.

– Mike Lyons

A new chapter began last night in the ongoing saga of 400 S. 40th Street, the contentious property on the edge of the University of Pennsylvania’s growing footprint that includes a historic mansion that community members, developers and Penn officials have been quarreling over for a decade.

Developers presented preliminary drawings last night to the Spruce Hill Community Association zoning committee for a graduate housing complex that keeps the original mid-19th Century Italianate mansion, strips away the hideous concrete block additions added when it was a nursing home and adds a detached five-story, L-shaped housing complex aimed at graduate students.

Residents look over a preliminary drawing of a new proposal for 40th and Pine last night at the Spruce Hill Community Association zoning committee meeting.

“We’re hoping to build support for this approach and avoid a couple more years of litigation,” said Jonathan Weiss of Equinox Management and Construction, the developer behind “Azalea Gardens.” “We’re trying to find a way forward.”

The developers and officials from Penn, which bought the property at 40th and Pine streets in 2008,  presented the plan as a compromise to  head off a lawsuit filed by the nearby Woodland Terrace Homeowners Association after the city’s Zoning Board of Adjustment (and the Philadelphia Historical Commission and SHCA) approved a plan last November that would have demolished the mansion to make room for a five-story structure. Penn officials argued that the mansion presented a hardship for any plans to develop the property.

That five-story structure without the mansion was proposed after many residents balked at a previous plan for a seven-story structure that kept the historic mansion intact. That proposal came after a plan to build an 11-story, long-term stay hotel (which was eventually built on the 4100 block of Walnut) was abandoned.  Continue Reading

Police are looking for leads in a recent series of gunpoint robberies at businesses in West Philadelphia.

The robbery spree began at about 6:30 p.m. on Nov. 13 at the Natural Coffee near 52nd Street and Baltimore Avenue when a man wearing a blue hoodie with white strings and a blue mask entered the store and demanded cash. The man fled with an undetermined amount of cash.

A man fitting the same description robbed the Cricket Mobile store at 5547 Baltimore Ave. at about 1 p.m. on Nov. 14. About an hour later, police say the same man robbed the Lucky 7 Food Market at 54 N. 57th St. Two more robberies were reported that day – one at about 7:20 at the Ace Cash Express near 52nd and one another 40 minutes later at Daslin Grocery at 700 S. 55th. The suspect in those robberies matched the previous ones, according to police.

A store employee at Ace Cash Express said the man entered the business at closing time and demanded cash. The employee pushed the “panic button” and after several attempts to open the cash register the suspect took $3 from the employee and fled.

Police describe the suspect as a black male, about 20 years old who was about 5 feet, 6 inches tall with a dark complexion.

To report a tip, do one of the following:

• To submit a tip via telephone, dial 215.686.TIPS (8477)
• Text a tip to PPD TIP or 773847.
• Use this electronic form to submit a tip anonymously.

This video of the suspect was posted on the  Philadelphia Police YouTube Channel.