50th Street between Warrington and Springfield (Photo by West Philly Local reader Rachel K.)

West Philly Local readers are concerned about illegal dumping on 50th St. between Springfield and Warrington and have written us to express their frustration.

Rachel K. writes:

“I’m just sick of the dumping on my block. I have reported dumping five times since I moved into our new place in June (long time West Philly resident). It’s usually tires and construction debris (on top of the standard litter we ALL deal with). I tried CLIP for a surveillance camera, but they said because it is a heavily trafficked area the solar charged cameras will be drained before morning… so not an option. I’m so frustrated…”

Rachel says she has called the Streets Department in the past and today she used this Streets Department form to report the problem. Please note that the form should be used for reporting illegal dumping on streets and sidewalks only. If you want to report illegal dumping on private property, please contact 311 (or tweet to @philly311).

We’ll keep you posted if using the Streets Department form has solved this particular problem (and please let us know if it worked for you). But what can residents do to prevent it from happening over and over again? Well, if you witness someone disposing off of large amounts of trash you are encouraged to report it to the police (please don’t approach and confront that person or persons). Here are the instructions from the Streets Department on how to report illegal dumping:

“If you have specific information of a person who is illegally dumping, please contact the appropriate Philadelphia Police District and ask for the Code Violation Notice (CVN) trained officer. If possible, please provide a description of the vehicle and plate information such as licensing state and tag number. You can use Citymaps to find the Philadelphia Police District.”

Here’s a summary of news coming out of our neck of the woods in the past few days and a reminder on a couple of community events this week. Editor’s Note: The meeting on the potential sale of the University City High School has been postponed until Wednesday, Feb. 26.

Provident Mutual Life Insurance Co. building. (Archived photo/West Philly Local).

• Another hurdle has been cleared for the plan to move the police headquarters into the Provident Mutual Life Insurance Co. building at 46th and Market Streets. Last Thursday, Councilwoman Jannie Blackwell introduced two bills that would allow the city to borrow up to $250 million for the project, according to a report by Philadelphia Inquirer. The 87-year-old building has been vacant since 1983, when Provident Mutual Life Insurance Co. moved out, and has been put on the endangered properties list by the Preservation Alliance of Philadelphia.

• A rally was held on Saturday, Feb. 8 to protest recent purse snatching and shootings in Philadelphia. The rally was held at 53rd and Market Streets, the site of the most recent purse snatching, when a 29-year-old woman was shot to death and her companion, a 34-year-old woman, was wounded. Dozens of people attended the event, organized by Handbags 4 Piece, and many people spoke out, including the mothers of the victims (check out the Handbags 4 Piece Facebook page for photos and videos).

• Ground was broken last week at the site of the new high-rise apartment building at 36th and Market Streets. The 28-story 364-unit mixed-use structure is a joint project of the University City Science Center and Southern Land Co., of Nashville. The project, which will also include 14,600 square feet of ground-floor retail space and parking for 200 cars and 140 bicycles, is expected to be completed in spring 2015.

• Residential burglaries are still a cause for concern in University City, according to the latest crime update released by the University City District. Over 20 burglaries took place in the area in January, which is a double of the number of burglaries in December. Three burglary-related arrests have been made. UCD also reports that there were about a dozen robberies in the area, four of them at gunpoint, with arrests made in nine of these cases. August and September were peak months for robberies in the area, with over 30 incidents reported.

• Great news for fried chicken and gourmet donuts fans: Philly’s super popular chain Federal Donuts is close to opening their location in University City. The awnings to their new shop at 3428 Sansom were recently complete:

Awnings at 3428 Sansom, complete! Nice and bright to lead you straight to lunch. pic.twitter.com/ZFpucdlUOC

— FederalDonuts (@FederalDonuts) February 6, 2014

Another tweet by Federal Donuts said that the new location is opening “very soon” but the date hasn’t been announced yet. We’ll keep you posted.

• Two meetings on the sale of vacant schools and other School District of Philadelphia properties in West Philadelphia will take place this week: on Tuesday, Feb. 11 you can learn more about the future of Shaw Middle School (54th & Warrington) and on Wednesday, Feb. 11 (postponed until Feb. 26) there will be a meeting on the potential sale of the University City High School, Drew Elementary School and Walnut Center buildings. Click here for more information. If you missed our story on the Wilson School building’s future, click here.

This is the next in the series of vignettes of local block captains drawn from Them That Do, a multimedia documentary project and community blog by West Philly-based award-winning photographer Lori Waselchuk. Make sure to go to Them That Do for more photos, videos and other information and updates.

Leonia Johnson is a young block captain on the 200 block of S. Millick Street in West Philadelphia. Photo by Lori Waselchuk

Last March, Leonia Johnson stood up at the Cobbs Creek Block Captain Association’s monthly meeting to speak about the murder of her neighbor and friend, Gregory “Chop” Scott, two weeks earlier. Scott had been shot seven times, at point blank, in front of his home on South Millick Street. When Johnson described cleaning the bloody crime scene after the police finished their work, the meeting room filled with moans. Her listeners, too, knew such pain.

“Chop was old school,” she said. Perhaps she wanted her audience to know that for her, age meant wisdom and experience. She was the youngest member of the association by decades.

Johnson described how Scott helped her keep the block safe. “If he saw young people selling drugs, Chop would ask them to move on and they would. They might not have liked what he was saying, but they respected him.”

Her message was both a memorial and a call for unity. She said that the people who lived on the 200 block of S. Millick had “prayed together and declared as a block that this will not make us weaker.”

She knew that several members of the association also had experienced violent crime on their watch. So she said: “I say all this to you so that you do not give up your hope… and so that you do not become complacent.”

Johnson’s block has a history of unity, not violence. “We are like a family,” she told me during a recent interview. Then, after thinking about her words, she smiled to herself and added, “And we can be quite dysfunctional at times.”

Block captains have been a steady influence on S. Millick. “We’ve never not had one,” said Johnson.

“When I was young, my mother was block captain. I watched the respect my mother got.” Johnson was a junior block captain, too. “I thought it was the coolest thing in the world to have a title,” she recalled.

After she graduated from college, Johnson got a job as a youth counselor at the Philadelphia Anti-Drug/Anti-Violence Network, then moved into her mother’s home. Johnson, who now is 34, became the block captain eight years ago, after the previous captain moved away.

Being a young block captain has its advantages and disadvantages. One advantage is Johnson’s ability to relate to youth. She once interrupted a dice game on a porch and a boy came up to her afterward to complain that he lost money because of her. “I told him ‘Well, you owe me thirty thousand dollars!’ and when he said ‘What?’ I said, ‘When I see ya’ll gambling, all I think about is how my property value is dropping thirty thousand!’”

Johnson understands why there are so few young block captains. “Very few 30-40 year-olds do community service,” she says. “They are trying to establish themselves and they don’t think about the next generation.”

She had her own doubts too, she said. “I wondered how I’d be able to be effective and still have a life.”

Johnson is concerned that the block captains with whom she works are getting old and there are no volunteers to take over. If the older block captains simply fade away, “we won’t benefit from their knowledge,” she worries.

Johnson has built friendships with the elder block captains and feels responsibility to assist them when she can. It’s a lot to take on. “Somebody needs to help me bridge the gap!”

–Lori Waselchuk

The Dorrance H. Hamilton Center for Culinary Enterprises (310 S. 48th St) is hosting an awesome event on Wednesday, Feb. 12: The Culinary Voice will put Philadelphia Culinary Arts students to the test to create a healthy and delicious menu item for School District of Philadelphia cafeterias. Dobbins and Randolph High School students will take part in this live cooking competition.

The event is organized by Get Healthy Philly, a project of the Philadelphia Department of Public Health. The judging panel will include youth, local chefs, including celebrity chef Kevin Sbraga, and School District representatives. The event starts at 4 p.m. and is free and open to the public.

For more information and tickets, click here.

Thinking of adding a new feline buddy or two in your house? Look no further than your own neighborhood!

Cheech is “about the sweetest cat ever,” says Tracylea Byford who fostered him for several months. (Photos courtesy of Project MEOW)

Cross-eyed Cheech and his buddy Ping Pong are in the Baltimore Pet Shoppe window waiting to meet their new humans. While they don’t need to be adopted together, each must go to a home with another feline playmate. Cheech’s comical look will have you laughing, and he loves nothing more than a good romp with the feather wand, or a cuddling after he’s tired.

Ping Pong? Well, this boy is so active that the photographer had to wait until she had tired out both boys to get a picture of him, since he apparently is in constant motion when he’s awake. These are gentle boys, they get along with other cats, and are safe with children. While they have not been around dogs, it appears they would adjust to one with proper introduction.

Apply to adopt either or both kittens at the Baltimore Pet Shoppe (4532 Baltimore Ave) or go to: projectmeowadoptions@gmail.com to request a PAWS application.

(Tracylea Byford of Project MEOW contributed to this post).

All public schools in Philadelphia are closed Monday, Feb. 3 due to the winter storm warning in the area. Early childhood and after school programs are also closed, but administrative offices will remain open, according to an announcement by the School District of Philadelphia. Between 4 and 8 inches of snow is expected to fall in the area today. The snowstorm warning is in effect until 5 p.m., according to Accuweather.com.