Tax season is here, and here’s some useful information for those who didn’t make a lot of money last year and need help filing their taxes. Starting Monday, Jan. 26, and through April 15, 2015, 20 free tax sites managed by the Campaign for Working Families will be open throughout Philadelphia. The sites will be offering free tax preparation and e-filing services to families who earned less than $53,000 in 2014 and to individuals with an income under $20,000.

Here are the locations of free community tax sites in West and Southwest Philadelphia:

West Philadelphia

Drexel University Dornsife Center for Neighborhood Partnerships, 3509 Spring Garden (wheelchair accessible)
Monday & Wednesday 2:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.
Friday 1:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.  Continue Reading

The Frank Furness-designed church buildings at 47th and Kingsessing were days away from demolition but are now undergoing renovation. (Photos by Mike Lyons / West Philly Local)

Renovation has begun on the 114-year-old Frank Furness-designed church at 47th and Kingsessing to convert it to commercial space that will likely house schools and save it from demolition.

The church building had fallen into such a state of disrepair that neighbors feared it may collapse. The City agreed and condemned the building, erected a chain-link fence and “cleaned” and “sealed” the building last June. Demolition seemed days away, but a local landlord, a historic preservationist and former Mayor Wilson Goode Sr. joined forces to convince the city to allow it to be sold and renovated.

After attempts to persuade the Department of Licenses and Inspections to remove the demolition decree didn’t work, Guy Laren, who owns several properties in West Philadelphia, and Penn historic preservation professor Aaron Wunsch asked for some help from Goode, who is chair of Partners for Sacred Spaces.

“What ultimately saved the church was Aaron’s unwillingness to give up,” said Laren by e-mail, who bought the main church building and the adjacent parish building.

The “Parish House” building adjacent to the main church building.

Laren said Wunsch boarded up windows to keep scrappers out and then courted Goode, who helped usher the purchase through the Department of Licenses and Inspections.

“The skies suddenly cleared,” said Laren.

They now have time to do the necessary repairs to shore up the church and hopefully satisfy L and I. Laren said he attracted two tenants, both schools, to occupy the space.

“I have two excellent potential tenants for most of the space inside the church,” he said. “Hopefully their tenancies will allow me to pay to renovate and restore the church.”

“If everything works out as I hope, there will be some additional space in the sanctuary that I can try to build out as either residential apartments or some other commercial use.”

The church’s latest tenant was the small congregation of St. Peter’s Church of Christ, which had occupied the church since 1979 and was reluctant to consider leasing the space to help pay for renovations.

– Mike Lyons

UPDATE (1/24/2015): A week later…

The state of the Spruce Street sinkhole. pic.twitter.com/JoHR9kZJ8B

— West Philly Local (@WestPhillyLocal) January 24, 2015

(1/19/2015): As of 8:25 p.m. on Monday, the sinkhole is still there. The cars that had been caught in it have been pulled out. We didn’t see any Streets Department crews working there when we stopped by on Monday night. Although the hole, which is on the eastbound lane, hasn’t been fixed, the block reopened to traffic (you have to get in the westbound lane to go around it). What makes it even more dangerous is that the hole is very close to the 46th and Spruce intersection. Please be careful when driving or biking on that block.

A large sinkhole opened up on the 4600 block of Spruce Street on Sunday under two cars parked on the block. A reader, Phil Gentry, tweeted this photo at around 4 p.m.

Photo by Phil Gentry.

The street surface there had problems over the weekend, and the Streets Department crews continued working on the block. A water main break closed the block to traffic on Saturday, and there was no water supply to nearby homes for several hours.

A police tow truck began pulling two cars off the edge of the hole at about 8:30 p.m.. The block is closed to all traffic and the Route 42 bus is on detour until 12 p.m. on Monday.

Photos by Mike Lyons / West Philly Local.

Here’s a roundup of some development projects going on in West Philly neighborhoods.

West Philadelphia Earthship

The Earthship is being built from recycled materials. (Photo from West Philadelphia Earthship IndieGoGo page).

A vacant lot at 675 N. 41st Street will soon become the location for the first ever urban Earthship, a completely sustainable building built from recycled materials, Generocity.org reports. The idea of an urban Earthship was proposed by Rashida Ali-Campbell, founder of Yeadon-based nonprofit Love, Loving, Love, Inc., and the lot owner, Thomas L. Miller, liked it so much that he donated the lot to the cause.

The West Philadelphia Earthship will house a Philadelphia branch of Love, Loving, Love, Inc., which specializes in holistic health education. The organization is planning to offer healthy-living workshops and other free community activities in their new Earthship office, according to Generocity.org.

The foundation of the Earthship has already been laid, and the main construction is planned to start in February. It will take about six weeks to complete, but it depends on how successful the fundraising campaign for the project is. To support the West Philadelphia Earthship, go to this IndieGoGo page. For more information about this project, read Generosity.org’s article here.  Continue Reading

Paul Steinke (photo from Linked In)

West Philly resident Paul Steinke, the former general manager of the Reading Terminal Market, will officially announce tomorrow that he will run for City Council.

Steinke’s announcement that he will run for an at-large Democratic seat in the May 19 primary was expected after he stepped down as general manager at the Terminal Market in early December. The announcement is scheduled for Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. at the Field House, a sports bar adjacent to the Market.

The former finance director of the Center City District and the first executive director of the University City District, Steinke, 49, has overseen a 30 percent increase in visitors and $4 million in renovation and expansion of the Market in the 13 years he has overseen operations there, according to a statement from his campaign. Steinke is a 1986 graduate of Penn State University.

Steinke hopes to be the first openly gay person elected to citywide office. He lives in the Spruce Hill neighborhood with David Ade, his partner of nearly 20 years.

All 17 City Council seats are up for election in November – 10 district seats and seven at-large seats.

– Mike Lyons

A fire and gas leak were recently reported in two separate incidents within one-block radius.

The residents of Garden Court Apartments at 47th and Pine were temporarily evacuated Thursday night due to a fire in one of the apartments, according to reader reports. The fire was reported at around 7:20 p.m. Fire crews put out the fire, and most of the building’s residents were allowed back in the building an hour later. It’s not known what caused the fire.

A gas leak was reported early Friday morning, around 1 a.m., on the 4600 block of Spruce Street. A pregnant woman was taken to the hospital and several others were evacuated from a house with apartment units where the gas leak occurred. The pregnant woman was taken to the hospital for evaluation. PGW was on the scene to repair the leak, 6ABC reports.