After six years of providing affordable acupuncture treatments to West Philly residents, Philadelphia Community Acupuncture (PCA) announced that it’s closing its doors in mid-October.

According to owner Ellen Vincent, the decision to close PCA came after facing a lease renewal and learning that its current practitioners—Billy Scott, Bob Conrique, and Sarah Lefkowich—have or are relocating out state and leaving the clinic. Vincent, who herself now lives in Tuscon, Arizona, also stated that plans to bring in another lead acupuncturist to replace Lefkowich and to transfer ownership fell through, informing her “heartbreaking” choice to shut down PCA. She is currently working on establishing a firm closing date for the clinic.

Photo from Philadelphia Community Acupuncture’s Facebook page.

“I am heartbroken that the clinic needs to close. [Philadelphia Community Acupuncture] has been such a second home to so many people … more like a third place for them to go to rest, recharge, and heal,” Vincent, who moved to Tucson last year, wrote to West Philly Local in an email. “So many relationships have been formed and nurtured there and I hope they can somehow continue.  I have many incredible memories of being there, but the best are always those of a full room of people napping with needles—that’s what we’ve been trying to accomplish every day.”

Philadelphia Community Acupuncture, located above Satellite Café at 701 S. 50th Street, was one of the first businesses to move into the reincarnated firehouse on 50th Street in 2007. The mission of PCA was to always provide affordable acupuncture (at a sliding scale of $15 – $35) in a community setting—breaking away from the tradition of individualized, private sessions of typical U.S. acupuncturists to Asia-inspired settings where patients are gathered in groups in a large, relaxing space. PCA has serviced nearly 10,000 acupuncture treatments yearly “for the majority of our open years,” Vincent said.

PCA’s location in Mt. Airy, at 538 Carpenter Lane, is still open to the public, though. According to Vincent, her partner at that locale, Erin Schmitt, is “committed to the area and to the clinic long-term,” and she hopes West Philly patients will make the trip to Mt. Airy for treatments. Patients that are unable to use gift certificates and/or credits with PCA before it closes in West Philly can redeem them at the Mt. Airy center.

Still, Vincent hopes an acupuncture clinic similar to PCA opens in its place in West Philly, and is open to discussion with anyone interested in taking over ownership.

“All of this is way too difficult to manage long-distance without a partner at that location,” she said. “If I weren’t in Tucson, the clinic wouldn’t be closing.   I wanted that clinic to be there forever.”

Until it closes, Philadelphia Community Acupuncture will operate on limited hours: Mondays through Thursdays, 3 p.m. to 7 p.m.; Fridays, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.; and Saturdays & Sundays, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

–Annamarya Scaccia

Come September, Spark, the national nonprofit providing professional apprenticeships to underserved youth, will launch its first yearlong program in Philadelphia and is currently recruiting new mentors across West Philadelphia through this Friday.

As West Philly Local reported in December, the award-winning Spark came to Philadelphia in the spring to test-run a pilot program in the city, partnering with Henry C. Lea School, McMichael Promise Academy, and Mastery-Shoemaker Charter School to serve about 60 at-risk 7th and 8th grade students and connect them with two-month long apprenticeships at local businesses to complete career-related projects with their assigned mentor. Through these apprenticeships, students learn a variety of personal and professional  skills and build confidence and their personal identity in order to improve their educational career and goals, and keep them on the path to graduation. This fall, Spark expects to work with over 100 students based on the success of the pilot program.

Last year, West Philadelphia students worked with mentors from Honest Tom’s Taco Shop, the Enterprise Center, and the University of Pennsylvania. Those local businesses will partner with Spark once again this fall, along with the City of Philadelphia, WHYY, Reading Terminal Market, Duane Morris, and 16 other companies.

If you are a local business owner and would like to participate in this program, please fill out a mentor application here.

–Annamarya Scaccia

Attention neighborhood joggers, dog walkers and anyone who was planning to visit The Woodlands Cemetery and Mansion (40th & Woodland) this Wednesday: The gates to the cemetery will be closed for tree maintenance. The grounds will reopen as usual at dawn on Thursday.

If you’d like to support the work The Woodlands does to make this space open to the public, please consider donating here: http://woodlandsphila.org/support/.

Many folks are probably curious about the construction that’s happening over at Walnut Hill Community Farm on Market between 46th and S. Farragut Streets. It turns out that a community park is being built on the site and is expected to open mid to late-September.

The park is the latest element to come to the small homestead at 4610 Market Street since it opened in 2010 as initiative between the Walnut hill Community Association and local residents. According to Allison Blansfield, program manager of West Philly Foods (which oversees the farm’s CSA, apprenticeship program, and farmstand), the space was designed as a sitting park for residents to use as a place of relaxation. Tables and chairs will be place throughout the park, which will coexist with the already-established community garden and production farm, with native trees and perennial florae planted on the grounds.

Photos by Mike Lyons/West Philly Local.

In addition to providing tranquility, the park will add a level of safety and security to Walnut Hill Community Farm, said Blansfield. Solar-powered streetlights that turn on at a certain level of dimness will be installed on the site, which barely receives any illumination currently, she stated. According to the program manager, the crew was also able to stabilize a “severely eroded” part of the land during construction and build a retaining wall restoring “the integrity of the alleyway.” This wall, she said, is another added safety feature for the residents whose backyards face the farm.

A small greenhouse is also being assembled and will open the same time as the park. The greenhouse will allow Walnut Hill Community Farm to grow its own vegetable starts and flower starts for community residents, and increase production on the farm, said Blansfield. A water capture system was also recently built in partnership with Septa that collects rainwater running off the roof of the 46th Street El Station and irrigates the farm.

The Walnut Hill Community Farm produce stand is open every Thursday from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. until October. The farm itself, however, is open all day to the public.

–Annamarya Scaccia

UPDATE 3 (8/15/13): NBC10 reports that the cause of the fire at the New Horizons building at 48th and Trinity was arson. Fire brigades previously responded to the building for other suspicious fires, about five in the past year and two in the past month, according to neighbors.

UPDATE 2 (11:00 p.m.) We have received the following update from the Red Cross:

“Residents living on the affected 2nd floor will be provided lodging by the management company. Residents on other floors are allowed back into their homes, but anyone who decides not to stay, because of the lack of doors, will be assisted by the Red Cross with a place to stay. Responders on the scene are now determining how many people are choosing not to stay in their units.”

The Red Cross was assisting 28 people displaced by tonight’s fire with snacks, water, and blankets. The primary issue is that many apartments don’t have doors on them. Red Paw Relief members assisted with 11 cats and one rat.

UPDATE (9:30 p.m.): Red Paw Relief was on the scene to assist residents with their pets. Residents are waiting outside to learn whether they will be allowed back in the building tonight or put in a hotel by the building management.

A fire that broke out this evening at the New Horizons apartment building located on the 1000 block of 48th Street forced residents to jump out windows in an effort to escape the blaze. The fire reportedly started on the second floor of the building around 6:15 p.m. and some apartments sustained smoke damage.

Witnesses saw some residents jumping out windows in the back of the building. One of the people who jumped, a woman, was taken to the hospital with back pain, according to CBS Philly. Another person was taken to the hospital with smoke inhalation. The fire is currently under investigation.

On-scene at the 1000 blk S.48th St apt fire assisting a resident w/her cat. pic.twitter.com/86I6o4hFG7

— Red Paw Relief Team (@RedPawRelief) August 14, 2013

1 cat pulled from bldg on its way to @pennvet w/possible smoke inhalation. Thanks for the blanket @RedCrossPhilly pic.twitter.com/FuJdaBGB64

— Red Paw Relief Team (@RedPawRelief) August 14, 2013

On-scene w/ @RedCrossPhilly pic.twitter.com/aP6bhCNfoZ

— Red Paw Relief Team (@RedPawRelief) August 15, 2013

Breakdown of cats at @pennvet 1 w/smoke inhalation, 1 w/burns, 1 jumped from 2nd floor.

— Red Paw Relief Team (@RedPawRelief) August 15, 2013

Twitter photo by Annamarya Scaccia.

Many of our readers expressed concern about Cafe Renata at 43rd and Locust being closed last week. So here’s what happened – Renata owners, Katie and Yasser, were doing a little facelift and also installed a new counter. Katie said that they moved the bar out of the center of the room and Yasser, actually, built the new bar and a bunch of tables himself with recycled pieces of wood. After the remodeling the cafe space for seating has increased by about 30%. The new counter and long table were made from salvaged trees and Yasser did the finishing work.

“We couldn’t have done it without the West Philly Tool Library. I think we borrowed a zillion different thingamajigs from them for this project,” said Katie in an email.