Rendering of the new Baltimore Avenue Pedestrian Plaza provided by University City District.

Many folks are probably wondering what is going on at 48^th Street and Baltimore Avenue, so here’s what we learned: The three bumpouts now hugging the curbs of the intersection’s south side were the first phase in a new University City District project that’ll transform the glut asphalt into a pedestrianized plaza.

The second phase, which should start this week, will have stone barriers and terra-cotta style planters housing budding perennials installed around the bumpouts’ outer edges, serving as protection from oncoming traffic. A new crosswalk directly connecting the Gold Standard Café and the Calvary Center was also painted.

Once completed this spring, the plaza will shrink the vast, daunting gap of the 48^th Street and Baltimore Avenue juncture, shortening crossing distances, improving pedestrian safety, slowing vehicle speed, and “better [knitting] together Baltimore Avenue,” UCD’s Seth Budick told West Philly Local. The organization partnered with the Mayor’s Office of Transportation and Utilities and worked with the West Philly community to develop design plans, he said.

The local plaza development is one of two implemented by UCD, which received two grants under the City of Philadelphia’s recently-announced Pedestrian Plaza program that aims to convert excess street surface into usable pedestrian spaces. The first plaza, named Woodland Green, was finished last fall at 42^nd Street and Woodland Ave.

– Annamarya Scaccia

This is an unfortunate incident that happened to a neighbor over Memorial Day weekend and a reminder to all neighbors to make sure you don’t leave any valuables, both money-wise and of personal value, on your porches. A neighbor, Mike, who lives on the 4400 block of Larchwood Ave reports that his camera bag with photo and video cameras and other equipment (all about $1200 worth) was stolen off his porch after he left it there by accident. Mike left his bag and some other items on their porch on Sunday night after he and his wife returned home from introducing their newborn baby to family. Photos and videos of the meeting were on the cameras.

The camera bag was stolen between 11:30 p.m. on Sunday and 3 p.m. on Monday when Mike discovered that it was missing: “I accidentally left some items on our front porch… Although most items were still there, someone stole my camera bag, complete with my Pentax K10D camera, Tamron AF18-250mm lens, external flash unit, and Kodak zi8 small handheld video camera. Also, miscellaneous batteries, 2 memory cards, a lens filter.”

Mike says that he filed a report with the police. “As you can imagine, we are upset about losing around $1200 worth of equipment. But we can’t replace photos and videos of our family meeting our baby,” he writes.

Update: The stolen cameras and lens are not very common, Mike adds, so if anyone sees them at a local resale, pawn or flea market, please call him 610-389-0985.

This Wednesday, May 29, Spiral Q Puppet Theatre, Public Citizens for Children and Youth (PCCY), and a group of students from Powel Elementary are teaming up to stage an “artful action” in front of City Hall and in the City Hall Caucus Room to protest the proposed school budget cuts. Specifically, this event addresses the need for art instruction in the schools that would be eliminated if the proposed budget comes into effect. The students will be there from 9 to 11 a.m. and are inviting other kids to join them.

Spiral Q and PCCY, which helped arrange the event, will transport several of the “Terracotta Warriors” that children made this semester as part of this year’s school-wide thematic unit on China (students choose a different country/culture each year). Each warrior is the size of a child and was decorated by a small group of children.

Along with the visuals, the students and parents will deliver petitions to Councilwoman Jannie Blackwell, who is the chair of the Education Committee.

Powel invites other schools and kids to join in tomorrow’s action as it will be “a pretty cool sight to see” and also to bring “drums, signs, gongs, [and] enthusiasm!”

For more information and the tentative schedule please visit the event’s Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/events/139407546249353/

The unveiling party for “Hollaback: Red, Yellow, Blue,” a new comic book that takes on the street harassment of women – the catcalls, staring, kissing sounds, hissing, etc. –  is tonight at Locust Moon Comics (34 S. 40th St.) beginning at 7 p.m.

Artist Erin Filson has teamed up with the anti-street harassment organization HollabackPhilly to create the comic, which follows the experiences of two women who are harassed and a man who figures out productive ways to intervene. Filson and the Hollaback team raised more than $8,000 through crowdfunding (link includes a video about the comic) to pay for the book. The first print run is about 2,000 copies.

Here is a Facebook page for tonight’s event.

The cover of Hollaback: Red, Yellow, Blue.

Police are looking for four men who robbed Forman Mills, a clothing department store at 48th and Market, this afternoon. The robbery happened shortly after 4 p.m. Four armed men in masks came in the store and robbed it of about $500, according to police. No one was hurt. The robbers fled on foot through the parking lot. We’ll post more information when it’s available.

Funkateer Desiree Russel and two of her teammates await instruction from their drill captain during Friday’s performance (see more photos below). Photos by Mike Lyons/West Philly Local

No doubt about it, “Chops” would have been proud of his Funkateers on Friday.

The Gold Coast Funkateers, a drill team based at Samuel B. Huey Elementary School (52nd and Pine), performed in the school’s auditorium, the kind of smooth, disciplined performance that their fallen leader, Drill Master Gregory “Chops” Scott, would have liked. Chops was helping to groom the Funkateers to become members of the Gold Coast Buccaneers, the fabled West Philly-based drill team and community outreach organization.

Scott, 55, a beloved community leader, was murdered in front of his home on the 200 block of S. Millick Street on Feb. 27. Police charged his cousin and another man with the shooting death.

The Funkateers were his last team. Scott’s widow, Alfreda “Cookie” Scott, sat with other older Buccaneers in the front row for Friday’s performance.

Show organizers said they wanted to remember Scott’s life and not his death. The Huey students he worked with took the stage dressed in Gold Coast Buccaneers colors, yellow and black, wearing t-shirts emblazoned with a picture of Scott. A group of Gold Coast elders and third grade teacher Sharon Bryant led the team through their steps. Bryant and the Standing in the Gap Foundation helped Scott make the Funkateers a reality. Standing in the Gap is a community enrichment foundation that was founded in memory of Bryant’s son, Donovan, who died in 2008.

“I met Chops out there in the schoolyard, on that emblem, and a very powerful partnership was formed” said Bryant, referring to the Gold Coast Buccaneers logo on the Huey playground. “It started with a few children up in my classroom and evolved into what you see today.”

The Gold Coast Buccaneers are based a few blocks from the school and have a tradition of community service in the neighborhood dating back to the 1960s. Their mission is “to provide leadership, inter-generational recreation, discipline, culture, education and values while creating services and support to improve the quality of life in their respective communities.” The kids who are admitted to the program have to follow a regimented program of discipline and ethics. The organization even keeps an eye on their grades. Older Buccaneers, like Chops, serve as mentors and hope to keep the Gold Coast Buccaneers tradition alive. To do so they will need younger recruits, much like the ones that graced the stage at Huey.

– Mike Lyons

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