Aspire Rx owner Hetal Chudasama. (Photo by Mike Lyons/West Philly Local)

A few months ago we wrote about the new independently owned pharmacy that opened right across the street from CVS on Locust Street near 43rd. The store’s location raised some eyebrows. So this week we decided to check back in to see how things were going at Aspire.

Aspire’s owner, Hetal Chudasama, knows better than most the risk she took in locating across the street from the big box behemoth. She managed CVS’s pharmacy for a few years and began working there in 2002.

“I’ve taken all of the things I’ve seen over the years and made them better,” Chudasama said.

While the pharmacists at CVS focus on quantity, a sort of churn-and-burn style of filling prescriptions, Chudasama slows the process of getting medication down to make sure patients get what they need.

“My number one thing is to talk to the patient and give them my time,” she said.

Aspire is one of a growing number of independently owned pharmacies popping up in small towns and big cities across the country. While in the 1970s and 1980s most pharmacies in the country were independently owned, the number started to nose-dive in the 1990s as big-big box stores like CVS and Rite Aid began to dominate the market. Even Wal-Mart and Target got into the pharmacy game as a way to get customers into the stores.

But independents are making a comeback, according to the National Community Pharmacists Association. Reasons for the increase include a tough job market for retail pharmacists leading to more willing to take a chance on their own business.

Example of a blister pack. (Photo courtesy of Aspire Rx)

Chudasama offers the kind of personalized service that most independents do – but places like CVS don’t. Aspire delivers prescriptions for free. Chudasama also assembles medication in specially designed blister packages that group multiple medications by days of the week, making it much less likely that patients will not take all of their required pills. She also works closely with physicians. These are things that CVS pharmacists simply don’t have time to do, she says.

“I went to school to be a pharmacist, not to just stand and count pills,” said Chudasama.

Switching prescriptions from a big box pharmacy to Aspire is as easy as making a phone call. And if you stop by on a hot day, chances are good that you can get a cup of cold lemonade. You’ll have to pay for that at CVS.

– Mike Lyons

The unveiling party for “Hollaback: Red, Yellow, Blue,” a new comic book that takes on the street harassment of women – the catcalls, staring, kissing sounds, hissing, etc. –  is tonight at Locust Moon Comics (34 S. 40th St.) beginning at 7 p.m.

Artist Erin Filson has teamed up with the anti-street harassment organization HollabackPhilly to create the comic, which follows the experiences of two women who are harassed and a man who figures out productive ways to intervene. Filson and the Hollaback team raised more than $8,000 through crowdfunding (link includes a video about the comic) to pay for the book. The first print run is about 2,000 copies.

Here is a Facebook page for tonight’s event.

The cover of Hollaback: Red, Yellow, Blue.

Police are looking for four men who robbed Forman Mills, a clothing department store at 48th and Market, this afternoon. The robbery happened shortly after 4 p.m. Four armed men in masks came in the store and robbed it of about $500, according to police. No one was hurt. The robbers fled on foot through the parking lot. We’ll post more information when it’s available.

Funkateer Desiree Russel and two of her teammates await instruction from their drill captain during Friday’s performance (see more photos below). Photos by Mike Lyons/West Philly Local

No doubt about it, “Chops” would have been proud of his Funkateers on Friday.

The Gold Coast Funkateers, a drill team based at Samuel B. Huey Elementary School (52nd and Pine), performed in the school’s auditorium, the kind of smooth, disciplined performance that their fallen leader, Drill Master Gregory “Chops” Scott, would have liked. Chops was helping to groom the Funkateers to become members of the Gold Coast Buccaneers, the fabled West Philly-based drill team and community outreach organization.

Scott, 55, a beloved community leader, was murdered in front of his home on the 200 block of S. Millick Street on Feb. 27. Police charged his cousin and another man with the shooting death.

The Funkateers were his last team. Scott’s widow, Alfreda “Cookie” Scott, sat with other older Buccaneers in the front row for Friday’s performance.

Show organizers said they wanted to remember Scott’s life and not his death. The Huey students he worked with took the stage dressed in Gold Coast Buccaneers colors, yellow and black, wearing t-shirts emblazoned with a picture of Scott. A group of Gold Coast elders and third grade teacher Sharon Bryant led the team through their steps. Bryant and the Standing in the Gap Foundation helped Scott make the Funkateers a reality. Standing in the Gap is a community enrichment foundation that was founded in memory of Bryant’s son, Donovan, who died in 2008.

“I met Chops out there in the schoolyard, on that emblem, and a very powerful partnership was formed” said Bryant, referring to the Gold Coast Buccaneers logo on the Huey playground. “It started with a few children up in my classroom and evolved into what you see today.”

The Gold Coast Buccaneers are based a few blocks from the school and have a tradition of community service in the neighborhood dating back to the 1960s. Their mission is “to provide leadership, inter-generational recreation, discipline, culture, education and values while creating services and support to improve the quality of life in their respective communities.” The kids who are admitted to the program have to follow a regimented program of discipline and ethics. The organization even keeps an eye on their grades. Older Buccaneers, like Chops, serve as mentors and hope to keep the Gold Coast Buccaneers tradition alive. To do so they will need younger recruits, much like the ones that graced the stage at Huey.

– Mike Lyons

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Jayla (ACCT name) is a beautiful 1-2 year-old female pitbull mix that was found earlier this month in Clark Park (it’s possible that she had been abandoned.) She was taken to ACCT Philly and is now officially up for adoption (or foster) at ACCT shelter.

Jayla is already spayed, so she is one-paw-out the door, ready to go home with you. Jayla is a gorgeous dog and you will be the envy of your friends, walking this cutie pie down the street! She is very playful and full of spunk and would love to go for long walks or maybe a jog! Jayla also seems to be interested in meeting other dogs. A doggy friend for Jayla would be great! She is a sweet young girl who would love for you to show her the good life! So come into ACCT and meet her today!

If you or someone you know would be interested in adopting or fostering her please contact ACCT shelter (267-385-3800 or acctpetfinder@gmail.com). Jayla’s ID is 19795850.

The “design” table offers some suggestions during a community meeting on the proposed property at 4224 Baltimore Ave. on Monday.

The roughly 40 residents who sat down Monday evening at the International House (3701 Chestnut St.) to offer their input on the proposed 92-unit residential development project at 43rd and Baltimore made a few things clear: More parking, no pharmacies, absolutely no undergraduates and a design that respects what Clark Park means to West Philly.

Their input was part of the first of three community meetings designed to weave community input into design, retail space and transit choices to be made by the developers of the property at 4224 Baltimore Ave., the long-vacant plot across 43rd Street from Clark Park.

“Working with the community we can aspire for a project that works for the community, for the neighbors, for the business owners,” said Omar Blaik, a 15-year resident and former senior vice president at Penn, whose firm, U3 Ventures, is serving as a development liaison between the community and the property owners. U3’s job is to gather community input over the next couple of months and integrate them into the project’s design.

So far, there is no design. A conditional use permit from the city allows the development of a 92-unit structure, but places few restrictions on the amenities offered or the businesses that could occupy the first floor of the project. No building drawings were offered at the meeting. Those will be available at the next meeting in mid June, when the comments from Monday’s meeting are passed along to architects.

Residents were broken into groups and asked to address the building design, ideas about retail spaces, the type of units that should be offered and parking/transit. Here’s what they had to say:

• Design – This group of residents recommended that there be at least 50-60 parking spaces incorporated into the design. The original proposal calls for six. They also advised that the service access for the project in no way interferes with trolley traffic on Baltimore Avenue. So no double parking etc. The height of the building should fit in with other buildings in the vicinity.

• Retail – They recommended businesses that fit the current flavor of the neighborhood. The options range from a single 5,000-square-foot business (the space at Mariposa is about 5,500 feet for comparison), or whether it should house several smaller spaces. The Green Line Café at 43rd and Baltimore, for example, is about 1,000 square feet. Milk and Honey Market is about 2,000 square feet. Resident Mel Clampet-Lundquist suggested a design that incorporates a pub/restaurant that looks out over a recreational space that could be used for wiffleball, similar to Rookie’s, a Wisconsin pub/field. “Absolutely no pharmacies,” the group concluded. Another suggestion was a “restaurant that served good booze rather than a pub that served bad food.”

• Unit type – This group was asked to consider the preferred market for the complex. There was a clear consensus that it should not include undergraduates. Other possibilities included single families or condos that could be purchased by current neighborhood residents looking to downsize. One issue the group raised was the added pressure that would  be placed on the Penn Alexander School if the project marketed to young families.

• Parking/Transit – They recommended a resident-to-parking-space ratio of 2:1 or 3:1. They also recommended that the project should encourage walking, biking, car share and public transit to residents through added car share spaces and maybe a SEPTA kiosk.

Blaik said that these suggestions will be be taken into consideration in the designs that are set to be released at a June meeting. A final meeting will be held in early July.

What can you do?

This process isn’t over. The developers are collecting ideas from residents at a website, 4224baltimore.com. They encourage everyone to submit design ideas on the “community” portion of the site, including photos of building designs you like and restaurants you would like to see housed there.

– Mike Lyons

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