What do you think defines a great neighborhood? We think this. This yard sign was spotted on S. 46th Street.

Many Spruce Hill residents know Richard Guffanti, a retired teacher and community organizer who lives near 45th and Spruce. Richard is always ready to help his neighbors with various problems and is also keeping an eye on his block.

This thank you note and photo came from our reader Veronica:

“This is Rich Guffanti, shoveling the pedestrian walkway on 45th and Spruce – an area he isn’t even responsible for as a homeowner! He was just doing it so that people can get through safely. I was catching the bus on 45th and Spruce and saw him being a great neighbor. Thank you, Rich.”

2013 West Philly Local Pumpkin Carving Contest Readers’ Choice Winner Milena Velis.

On first glance, Milena Velis’s carved pumpkin seems out of place.

A thick, padlocked chain marks an X in front of a fence. In the distance, the moon rises above a school building framed by bare, gangly trees.

It’s an image in stark contrast to the werewolf, skeletons, pumpkin heads, and haunted forest that comprised the entries in West Philly Local’s 2013 Pumpkin Carving Contest. But while Velis’s pumpkin may not show a spooky motif synonymous with Halloween, it could be considered the most frightening of them all.

After all, what’s more terrifying than the School District of Philadelphia shuttering 24 schools—including local University City High School and Alexander Wilson Elementary—and laying off nearly 3,000 staff members in the face of steep budget cuts and choked funding?

The chilling implications of the public education crisis on Philadelphia and its families is largely why Velis’s pumpkin, which took two days to design and nearly three days to carve, won Readers’ Choice in the contest. To the many West Philly Local readers who voted, her pumpkin symbolized the “scariest thing” to happen to Philadelphia this year. Velis said this was her intention with her Scariest Pumpkin category entry—to memorialize what happened at the beginning of the school year.

“Part of it is just that there’s something so unbelievable about the permanent closing of schools that it does take a while to process it. That’s true for a lot of people,” Velis, a 29-year-old Cedar Park resident, told West Philly Local. Continue Reading

West Philly Local is proud to present a series of vignettes of local block captains drawn from Them That Do, a multimedia documentary project and community blog by photographer and videographer Lori Waselchuk. We profiled Waselchuk in 2011 upon the release of her book Grace Before Dying. She lives in West Philadelphia and Them That Do begins with stories close to home. West Philly Local will publish a ten-part series featuring a block captain profile every Wednesday.

Waselchuk is an award-winning photographer and author. She began Them That Do as a 2012 Pew Fellowship for the Arts.

Thirty years ago Gregory Pac Cojulun walked into his first neighborhood meeting. He walked out a block captain. “I was ambushed,” Cojulun said with smile that hinted that all was forgiven. “I just wanted to see how things were going and they nominated and voted for me.”

Now in his sixties, Pac Cojulun needs a cane to walk, but rarely sits down. He is still the block captain, but his bigger commitment is given to Malcolm X Park.

Cojulun likes to network on behalf of his neighbors. “I’ve met a lot of different people in different agencies. I’ve gotten to the point I can call people up and they recognize me.” He is also the president of the board that maintains Malcolm X Park, which he says can demand 60-70 hours of his time a week.

“Our park was a thug park in the 60’s and 70’s. Nobody wanted to come through it,” said Cojulun. Through a grant from the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society nearly twenty years ago, a small group of residents began to clean up and restore the park. Today the park is an active cultural and social center in West Philadelphia. Cojulun says that it has been a slow process to revitalize Malcolm X Park and the board’s ability to plan programming and make improvements depends on donations.

Cojulun’s pride, though, is apparent. During a recent theater event, he walked slowly around the park’s centerpiece, a large round gazebo, checking in on young and giggling high school actors. He proudly watches and greets them as they prepare for a theatrical performance. “We try to make sure everything is done right, and make sure the people are happy,” he said.

Project Runway Season 12 winner Dom Streater making it work (Photo by Barbara Nitke / A+E Networks)

While it’s no secret that West Philadelphia is a neighborhood of stars, it was confirmed last night when Dominique “Dom” Streater won season 12 of Project Runway.

Throughout the season, the 24-year-old local fashion designer, who was born and raised on 58^th and Chestnut Streets (“a really nice community to grow up in,” she said), captivated the judges with her juxtaposition of competing patterns and bold colors. And her collection shown on last night’s Project Runway finale was no different—appropriately titled “Retro Redux,” Streater’s runway show at New York’s Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week was a vibrant explosion of cool blues and purples intercut with contour shapes that oozed luxury and sophistication.

It’s an edgy trademark look that defines her trend du jour line, the Halcyon Clothing Collection, which she currently designs out of her home in Overbrook. But, as Project Runway’s latest winner, Streater will have the opportunity to launch her next collection with the help of a sizeable prize package, which includes $150,000 furnished by GoBank, state-of-the-art products from HP and Brother Sewing and Embroidery, and a $50,000 styling contract with L’Oreal Paris (among other goodies).

Before last night’s season finale aired, West Philly Local had a chance to chat with Streater, a graduate of Moore College of Art and Design, about making it to Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week, what defines West Philly fashion, and building her brand in her hometown. Continue Reading

West Philly squatter Jessica Meyers now officially owns this rowhome (with the red bench) near 52nd and Funston.

Awesome news for Jessica Meyers, the heroine of our story “Jessica Meyers, squatter-turned-homeowner, wins bid for home, and loses donations,” originally published in July, 2013. Her dream of home ownership officially came true last week when she paid off the remainder of the auction balance owed for the abandoned rowhome at 52nd and Funston where she had squatted for the past eight years. The Public Housing Authority signed over the deed to the house last Wednesday, NBC Philadelphia reported.

Jessica says going to closing was “amazing.”

“I can’t believe it came to realization and that I came up with the money in two months. It’s a true testament to not giving up,” Jessica told West Philly Local. Jessica landed the winning bid for the legally-abandoned PHA-owned site in July, and had to come up with the remainder, which she partially raised through two online fundraisers, money she received from friends, part-time jobs and selling some of her belongings at flea markets. Some of her friends, though, told her during the two months to just give up. But she didn’t.

Jessica is now putting together a press packet with a letter of request for donation to building material companies like Home Depot, Lowe’s and local lumber yards stating why she needs building materials.