UPDATE (12:05 p.m.): The Philadelphia Inquirer‘s Aubrey Whelan is reporting that two viewings will be held for Officer Wilson. The first will be held at the Francis Funeral Home at 5201 Whitby Avenue from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Friday. Another viewing is scheduled from 7 a.m. to 10 a.m. on Saturday at the Palestra on Penn’s campus (235 S. 33rd St.) followed by a funeral service at 10:30 a.m.

State Sen. Anthony Hardy Williams, Councilwoman Jannie Blackwell, and Neighbors of Cobbs Creek will host a candlelight vigil for slain Philadelphia Police Officer Robert Wilson III, who was raised and lived in the Cobbs Creek neighborhood of West Philadelphia. The vigil will take place on Thursday, March 12 at the basketball court on 61st Street and Baltimore Avenue, beginning at 7 p.m.

Wilson served in the 22nd Police District in North Philadelphia and was murdered last Thursday while making a security check at a Lehigh Avenue business.

The Philadelphia Police Department and Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 5 have established a GoFundMe page for Wilson’s family. Click here if you would like to contribute.

Mary Pitts-Devine. From Linked In.

The 46-year-old woman who was shot eight times Sunday morning by a neighbor who then shot himself remains in “very critical condition” at Penn Presbyterian Medical Center, according to police.

Police say that Mary Pitts-Devine had an ongoing dispute with her male neighbor, identified in media reports as 53-year-old Steven Outlaw. They lived in separate apartments at 4530 Spruce Street in a three-story converted twin. Outlaw reportedly lived above Pitts-Devine, an entrepreneur, writer and former social worker.

The dispute culminated in Sunday’s shooting. Police recovered a handgun in Outlaw’s apartment that was registered to him.

Pitts-Devine, a 1997 graduate of LaSalle University, is the CEO and Founder of Prophetic Presentations, an artistic production company that is “speaking to the hearts of mankind via the arts,” according to its website. On the site, she writes that she has “a desire to help those trapped in the social ills of life, such as drug addiction, homelessness, disparity of all kinds, and severe family dysfunction. This burden stemmed from my brokenness I experienced as a child growing up in Foster Care.” On social media platforms, she writes that she is a breast cancer survivor and a kidney transplant recipient.

Neighbors have said that the dispute between her and Outlaw had been ongoing for about two years and that he had accused her of tapping his telephone line.

Our thoughts and prayers go out to the friends and family of Ms. Pitts-Devine. We’ll update with new information when we get it.

– Mike Lyons

A tribute to Robert Wilson III painted by a fellow officer of the 18th Police District.

Most of you have probably heard the tragic news about the murder of Philadelphia police officer Robert Wilson III during an attempted robbery last week. Wilson, a 30-year-old father of two boys aged 9 and 1, who served in the 22nd Police District in North Philadelphia, was a long-time West Philadelphia resident, and his sister and grandmother also live here, according to various media reports.

Wilson lived in a rowhouse near 55th and Locust. A West Philadelphia High School graduate, he walked his dog in the neighborhood and neighbors often saw him tinkering with his motorcycle, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported. Neighbors also admired how he raised his boys, who stayed with him on weekends and holidays.

Wilson died in a shoot-out with two gunmen inside a GameStop in North Philly. Police arrested and charged two brothers, 30-year-old Carlton Hipps and 26-year-old Ramone Williams, in connection with the shooting and Wilson’s murder.

Here is a video of Wilson’s grandmother Constance Wilson and sister Shakira Wilson-Burroughs speaking to NBC10’s Monique Braxton inside their West Philly home about their grandson and brother’s life and legacy:

 
Our deepest condolences to Officer Wilson’s family, friends and colleagues.

The numbers are in for “parklets,” those little curbside, pop-up platforms with tables and chairs found outside a few local businesses, and it turns out that people, and businesses, seem to like them.

The University City District studied parklet use in 2013 – observing and counting who used them and how – and released a report this week detailing what they found. The study included six parklets outside the Green Line Cafe on Baltimore Avenue, Honest Tom’s/Lil’ Pop Shop, Fu-Wah Market, Manakeesh Cafe, Little Baby’s Ice Cream in Cedar Park and Ramen Bar at 4040 Locust.

To get the data, the UCD parked an intern at each spot during the operating hours of the host businesses on Tuesdays and Wednesdays in the spring and summer of 2013.

It shows that most of the people who use the parklets are patrons of the “host” businesses (you don’t have to be, but most were). In terms of daily unique users, the Honest Tom’s/Lil’ Pop Shop parklet (which both offer very portable products) saw the most traffic (just over 140 per day) with the Green Line spot second at about 60 visitors. The parklet outside of Manakeesh, which sits curbside along a busy section of Walnut Street got only a few visitors per day.

Use at the Honest Tom’s/Lil’ Pop Shop location spiked at about 2 p.m. and then again at about 6:30 p.m. Green Line’s parklet was busiest at about 2 p.m. and 6 p.m. and Little Baby’s parklet saw most of its daily use between 8:30 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. The others spiked during lunch and dinner times.  Continue Reading

Mayoral candidate Jim Kenney (Facebook photo).

UPDATE (3/5/2015): The event has been cancelled due to the inclement weather and will be re-scheduled. Stay tuned for more information.

This Thursday, March 5, the 27th Ward Democratic Executive Committee will host a forum with candidates contending in May’s primary. Mayoral candidate and former city councilman Jim Kenney and city council candidates will be present, including Blondell Reynolds Brown, William K. Greenlee, Ed Neilson, and W. Wilson Goode, Jr.

The public is welcome to attend this meeting, which will take place at Rosenberger Hall at the University of the Sciences (600 S. 43rd Street, near Woodland Ave.), starting at 7:30 p.m.

The primary election will be held May 19 and the general election is slated for Nov. 3. You can get up to speed on the council and mayoral candidates on the Committee of Seventy website.

Snow emergency: In anticipation of a heavy snowfall expected to hit the Philadelphia area overnight and in the morning, the city has declared a snow emergency in effect starting at 6 a.m. on Thursday, March 5. If you parked your vehicle along one of the emergency routes the city wants you to move it. All vehicles remaining parked along the emergency routes after 6 a.m. will be towed. If your car is towed please call 215-686-SNOW.

Here are the snow emergency routes in West Philadelphia:

• Chestnut Street from Cobbs Creek Parkway to 20th Street
• Walnut Street from Broad Street to Cobbs Creek Parkway
• Woodland Avenue from Cobbs Creek Parkway to University Avenue
• 34th Street from University Avenue to Grays Ferry Avenue
• 38th Street from Walnut to University Avenue
• 63rd Street from City Avenue to Walnut Street
• University Avenue from 38th Street to 34th Street
• Island Avenue from Woodland Avenue to Enterprise Avenue
• Cobbs Creek Parkway from Walnut Street to Woodland Avenue
• Schuylkill Avenue from Market Street to Walnut Street

Trash collection: Snow emergency also means that there will be no trash and recycling pick up this Thursday because garbage trucks will be used for snow removal. If your trash collection day is Thursday please hold it until next Thursday. The Streets Department also announced that only trash and recyclables set out curbside will be picked up this Friday (no rear drive pick-up).

Schools: All public and Archdiocese schools will be closed on Thursday due to the snowstorm.

SEPTA: The following bus routes are currently on detour: 7, 9, 14, 19, 27, 28, 31, 32, 38, 44, 48, 52, 55, 56, 58, 62, 65, 84, 88, 90, 92, 93, 95, 97, 98, 99, 103, 104, 107, 109, 110, 111, 112, 114, 115, 117, 118, 119, 120, 125, 126, 131 and G. Information on the detours for specific routes will be published on the System Status section of the SEPTA website. Click on the weather icon next to the route for complete details.