With the Fourth of July festivities and increased number of visitors in Center City in mind, SEPTA has prepared some subway and bus service changes for tomorrow. Here are some of them that may be of particular interest to West Philly residents:

• The Broad Street & Market Frankford Lines will operate an additional night of overnight subway service beginning at 12:01 a.m. on Friday, July 4.

•  Beginning at 4:30 p.m., service frequencies on the Broad Street & Market Frankford Line will increase to offer trains every 5 to 7 minutes until 1:15 a.m. to accommodate holiday event travel.

•  Holiday events in Center City and on the Parkway will force dozens of bus detours. Passengers traveling through Center City should consider rail travel alternatives. Detailed bus detour information is available online at http://www.septa.org/realtime/status

And here’s some more information on tomorrow’s parade, party and fireworks. The parade begins at 11:00 a.m. at 6th and Chestnut Sts. It will feature marching bands, floats, military groups and performance teams. Party on the Parkway is from 12 – 7 p.m. on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, 20th St to Eakins Oval. The 4th of July Jam and Grand Finale Fireworks will take place at 7 – 11 p.m. on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway. The Roots will perform with Nicki Minaj, Ed Sheeran, Jennifer Hudson, Aloe Blacc, and Vicci Martinez. Click here for more information.

Happy Fourth of July!

Photo by Bethany La Flamme

Over the weekend, SEPTA introduced a return to overnight subway service on Market Frankford and Broad Street lines, a pilot program that will be in effect through Labor Day. The new program means an uninterrupted, 24-hour subway service in Philadelphia (The Inquirer‘s Inga Saffron gets riders’ reaction to the return of the overnight train service).

Trains will now replace Nite Owl buses on weekends and holidays, including on July 4th and Labor Day. Buses continue to operate Nite Owl service on weekdays.

Here are some more details on how the overnight subway service will operate:

• SEPTA cashiers will staff major hubs and high ridership stations overnight on both lines. Where a cashier is present, riders will pay at the entrance gate.

• At unstaffed locations, signage will direct passengers through turnstiles to the Owl boarding location, where they will pay fares to the train operator at the head of the train before entering the train.

• Operators will accept exact cash fares, tokens, and passes. They will sell transfers, but will not give out change.

• Trains will run every 20 minutes between midnight and 5:00 a.m. Arrival times at the City Hall/15th Street Stations will be staggered by 10 minutes to accommodate transfers.

• Extra SEPTA police officers will be deployed to provide an enhanced level of security.

• A passenger guide with additional information and tips for riding is available online at www.septa.org/service/all-night.html

SEPTA used to have a 24-hour subway service, but it was replaced by buses in 1991 due to low ridership.

“Philadelphia has changed since that time,” SEPTA General Manager Joseph M. Casey said in a statement. “Now with all of the restaurants, increased late-night activity, and people moving back into the city, we’re excited to be able to provide this service that city, business leaders, and customers have been asking us for.”

Nearly 10,000 riders currently use the Nite Owl bus service on weekends, according to SEPTA’s report. SEPTA’s staff will evaluate ridership, staffing costs, overall security, and other factors to determine whether 24-hour weekend subway service will continue beyond the pilot program.

Renovations have begun on the storefront at 4533 Baltimore Ave., which will be the location of a controversial Subway restaurant. Judging by the sign above, some people are still not happy about it.

The Zoning Board of Adjustment has changed its mind and given the go ahead for a Subway restaurant to be located in a vacant storefront at 4533 Baltimore Ave.

The Board voted on Feb. 1 to approve the Subway, reversing a decision it made last month to deny the application because of concerns of nearby neighbors about additional traffic in the alley behind the proposed location.

The Board’s decision followed a “plea for reconsideration” from the Spruce Hill Community Association and the Subway franchisee’s attorney. In a letter to the Board dated mid January, Barry Grossbach, who heads a committee that considers zoning issues for the SHCA, wrote that the Subway would provide a stable tenant for the storefront property and that the Association was “at a loss” about the previous decision to deny Subway a take-out certificate that would enable it to open.

The Subway would be the first chain restaurant on that section of Baltimore Avenue, where many businesses are locally owned.

“‘Mom and Pop’ businesses are often operating at the margins and while they remain the central and cherished fabric of our neighborhood commerce, we are always fearful that what is here today might be gone tomorrow,” Grossbach wrote. “Subway … promised a degree of stability that any corridor would welcome.”

More than a dozen nearby residents wrote letters to the Board to voice their opposition to the Subway, including state Rep. James Roebuck, who lives on 46th Street.

“I live a block from this location and I too share these concerns about the impact a Subway would have on my community,” he wrote.

Appeals of the decision can be filed until March 2.

Plans for a Subway restaurant near 46th and Baltimore are in serious jeopardy. The Zoning Board of Adjustment recently rejected a takeout certificate to an out-of-town franchise owner.

The franchise owner, who proposed a Subway location at 4533 Baltimore Ave., has 30 days to appeal the decision, which was handed down on Jan. 11.

Several community members and nearby residents protested the proposed restaurant, saying the increased traffic would affect properties adjacent to the proposed location.

Wilhelmina Herbert, president of the Garden Court Community Association, recently sent a letter notifying nearby residents of the decision and praising them for speaking out against the plans.

“Without community support this would not have been possible,” she wrote in a letter dated Jan. 18. “We have shown that we can come together to ensure the safety of our children, to protect our properties, and for the overall good of our neighborhood.  Our voices have been heard!”

The Subway franchisee’s application for a takeout certificate, which is required for any restaurant, was originally approved by the Spruce Hill Community Association in a December meeting. Herbert and others, many of whom said they were never notified of that meeting, asked that the ZBA postpone a decision in December to give them time to discuss the proposal.

Many residents who commented on neighborhood e-mail lists and an earlier story here opposed the Subway because it would have been the only chain restaurant among several locally owned businesses in that area of Baltimore Avenue. But residents who lived near the proposed locations, which has been home to several short-lived businesses in recent years, insisted that their primary concern was increased traffic.

The city Zoning Board of Adjustment (ZBA) today postponed a decision on granting a takeout certificate to a proposed Subway at 4533 Baltimore Avenue to give the Garden Court Community Association, which borders the store’s location, a chance to review the proposal.

Several people who live near the storefront where the Subway is proposed attended the meeting at 1515 Arch St. and expressed concern about the increased traffic that would likely accompany the sandwich shop. Residents were led by Wilhelmina Herbert, president of the Garden Court Community Association, who lives nearby on S. 46th Street. She and other residents were concerned about the likelihood of increased traffic – from both customers as well as delivery and garbage trucks – along an alley that borders the rear of the store where neighborhood children often play.

“My issue is there is no parking,” Herbert told the ZBA.

Other residents – about 20 in all –  accompanied Herbert to the meeting. Many in attendance live on the west side of the 500 block of S. Melville and said they were not informed about a zoning meeting on the Subway proposal at the Spruce Hill Community Association (SHCA) earlier this month.

“Not one person from the 500 block of S. Melville was aware of [the meeting],” said Herbert.

The Spruce Hill Community Association today approved Subway’s application for a takeout certificate, which is required of all businesses that serve food, with stipulations that include the building a 6-foot high fence in back of the storefront to enclose the restaurant’s dumpster. The storefront, which is about 1,000 square feet, has the proper zoning and only the take-out certificate, which is usually a routine matter, is all that is needed for the business to open.

Much of the opposition at the Spruce Hill meeting was leveled at Subway because it was a chain, according to Barry Grossbach, who oversees zoning issues for the SHCA. A letter released a few hours before today’s meeting laid out the Association’s position (it is available in full below). In it, the SHCA zoning committee writes that the committee has no legal standing to reject the application simply because Subway is a chain.

“Spruce Hill has no authority to declare a corporate operator off limits no matter the feelings of individual committee members,” the letter states. “There is no stated policy about chain operators on Spruce Hill’s commercial corridors.”

The SHCA position includes stipulations about Subway’s use of the rear alley, lighting, painting and “general aesthetics.”

But nearby residents fear, once open, that Subway will not be able to control the traffic in the alley.

Ronald Patterson, the attorney representing Subway, tried to persuade Herbert to admit that the community opposition was really because Subway would be the first franchise restaurant on that part of Baltimore Avenue.

“You want to create a commercial avenue, this is what you get – you get higher-end tenants,” he said.

Herbet responded that she had “nothing against Subway.”

The Garden Court Community Association will have a meeting on the Subway proposal likely during the second week of January (the exact date is forthcoming). In the meantime, concerned residents can direct their concerns to the chair of the Zoning Board of Adjustments:

Lynette Brown-Sow
Chair, City of Philadelphia Zoning Board of Adjustment
1401 John F. Kennedy Blvd. 11th Fl.
Philadelphia, PA 19102
The Spruce Hill Community Association position (pdf) SUBWAY ON BALTIMORE AVENUE

Spruce Hill Community Assocation – Proviso