[ sad stories ]

When he entered the University of Pennsylvania as a political science Ph.D. candidate five years ago, Abdel Rahman Ford felt fine. A bright future almost certainly lay ahead. Ford had a distinguished academic record and a law degree from Howard University. In 2006, Penn awarded him a prize for excellence in graduate student teaching — one of just 10 the Ivy League school gives out annually.

But by then, he wasn't feeling quite so well. His teaching duties became more difficult to perform; he found himself too weak to stand and speak for longer than a half-hour. He experienced hot flashes, uncontrollable sweats and swelling and numbness in his feet. He came down with regular bouts of pneumonia so severe that he had to stop teaching midway through one semester.

Ford had been diagnosed with muscular dystrophy in childhood, but says, "I never had any real complications until a few years ago, so I had just ignored it until then." Ford's frequent pneumonia had been the result of food getting into his lungs as his musculature deteriorated — he now receives all nutrients through a tube connected to his stomach. Walking became increasingly difficult, and his frame grew emaciated. As the disease shrank him from the inside, Ford says, covert discrimination ate away at him from...]]> http://www.citypaper.net/articles/2009/11/05/no-exceptions http://www.citypaper.net/articles/2009/11/05/no-exceptions [ law and order ]

Jessica Kourkounis TORN ASUNDER: Denis Calderon and Julio Maldonado's family believes the convictions that ripped them apart were miscarriages of justice.

On Oct. 23, Julio Maldonado stepped off a plane in Lima, Peru, with nothing other than the clothes on his back and 40-odd dollars in his pocket.

Maldonado, 42, has been a legal resident of the United States since he was 3 years old. He doesn't read or write Spanish, only English. Yet here he was, in the place of his birth, a stranger in a strange land. Nobody was expecting him, save for a local priest his stateside family called a few hours before his plane touched down and begged to meet him at the airport. Maldonado found lodging with a distant relative, but he's still bereft of virtually all of his worldly possessions, including his passport and birth certificate. His American fiancée even had to ship him clothes.

"Right now, I am lost," Maldonado told City Paper in a late October phone interview. "My life is in the United States, my family is in the United States. I'm not from South America anymore."

According to the U.S. government, he's no longer welcome here.

In 1997, Maldonado and his cousin, Denis Calderon, were convicted of aggravated assault, a second-degree felony, following a racially charged altercation in Northeast Philadelphia. The year before, the U.S. Congress passed the Illegal Immigration and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996, mandating deportation for any non-U.S. citizens, even legal ones, convicted of ...]]> http://www.citypaper.net/articles/2009/10/29/go-west-young-man http://www.citypaper.net/articles/2009/10/29/go-west-young-man [ travel stories ]

Matthew Smith

Since I moved to Philadelphia in June 2008, the idea's been taking shape. Weekend after weekend, I bike the Schuylkill to Valley Forge and stop; the road beckons west, but obligations call me home. Summer comes and summer goes. I stare at Google Maps; I follow the digitized terrain with greedy eyes.

Finally I do it: I announce my vacation, pack up the bike, and start pedaling the 380 miles to Pittsburgh with the notion of seeing something of this "Pennsylvania."

But having left a healthy six hours late, I soon realize plans to spend my first night in the verdant foothills of Appalachia must be scrapped. Normally, I'd knock on a door and beg the comfort of a patch of lawn. But normally, I'd have actually gotten somewhere. Is it possible, camping in the near-suburbs of the sixth largest city in the United States?

A nervous knock just outside Phoenixville yields the answer. Before I finish my plea, friendly husband-and-wife team Nell Hazinski and Doug Gunn say yes, sure, I can camp there. And could I use a hot dinner? God bless America, Pennsylvania, greater Phoenixville and the Hazinski-Gunns.

Outside of Morgantown, my route lures me from the main road, and suddenly I am floating through the heart of Amish country — real, live Amish country. Simple clothes dry on simple clotheslines. A man — and what a man — stands astride a harvester powered by a team of eight horses. Fresh squash sits piled like so much gold.

I come across a little building: "Amish-Mennonite Information Center," it announces to a horizon of farmland. Inside, I am greeted with a big "Hello there!" from as pleasant an old man as ever grew a beard. His name is Paul, and he's a Mennonite. Turns out, he went to...]]> http://www.citypaper.net/articles/2009/10/22/point-breeze-pioneers http://www.citypaper.net/articles/2009/10/22/point-breeze-pioneers

[ turf wars ]

In November 2008, Antoinette Marie Johnson faced a now-familiar dilemma. She wanted to buy a place in Philly and had just enough money and credit to avoid the city's more far-flung outskirts, but couldn't afford Center City or other posh locales. She sought a balance between affordability and comfort, and ended up in the Graduate Hospital district.

Well, not exactly. GradHo has itself seen something of a resurgence in the last decade, and Johnson, the founder of ad agency At Media Inc., was priced out. So she looked south, just past Washington Avenue — a street that since GradHo's renaissance has acted as a physical gulf between the rich and poor, and often, between white and black. She dropped $180,000 on a three-story row home in a neighborhood called Point Breeze, which in recent years has ranked among the city's most dangerous, and which the Philadelphia City Planning Commission asked U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to recertify as a blighted area and allow the neighborhood to receive more federal assistance.

"My impression was what a lot of [drivers-by] see, which is you see the bulletproof glass in the windows and a lot of trash," says Johnson. Her house, at the intersection of 19th and Manton streets, sits far enough north in the neighborhood to avoid the most decaying pockets.

Like any homeowner, she wanted to make things better: Around the corner from Johnson's house is Concert Garden, which had sprouted thicke...]]> http://www.citypaper.net/articles/2009/10/15/keystone-state-skinheads http://www.citypaper.net/articles/2009/10/15/keystone-state-skinheads

[ soft white power ]

Three-year-old Ariana is ecstatic. Stomping in time to the raucous Celtic tunes floating out across a stone pavilion in Franklin D. Roosevelt Park, she giggles and twirls in front of the musicians with another little girl. When she runs back to her mother, green eyes shining and blond ponytail slightly disheveled, she knows what to say to get attention: "I'm gonna fuck you up!"

The adults around her — tattooed men with shaved heads and combat boots, women in tight jeans with dyed hair and heavy makeup — guffaw. "The things kids say," sighs one man, grinning and rubbing her head.

Ariana is one of the youngest attendees of this Leif Erikson Day celebration, which has for the past three years been held by the Pennsylvania white supremacist group Keystone United on the Saturday nearest Oct. 9 to honor the Viking explorer. This year, the event began around noon with a 70-person march to the Schuylkill riverside statue of Icelandic explorer Thorfinn Karlsefni and ended around dusk with the live Celtic music in FDR Park.

The eight-year-old Keystone United — also known as the Keystone State Skinheads — wants to "break the stereotypes of skinheads being alcoholic thugs and violent, drug-addicted criminals," according to its Web site. KSS members resist the "hate group" label and resent the government and media outlets profiling them as such.

"We're defined as enemies of the state," says Eric, who adds that he's been physically attacked for his affiliation with the group. "It's an uphill battle."

The group simply believes that the white race is superior to all others, and that white people should not mingle with people of color — and really, what's so wrong about that?

Online, the group seeks to counter the sinister connotations the word "skinhead" conveys. Alongside posts blasting diversity tr...]]> http://www.citypaper.net/articles/2009/10/08/barnes-foundation-the-art-of-the-steal http://www.citypaper.net/articles/2009/10/08/barnes-foundation-the-art-of-the-steal

[ art attack ]

"It's a story that needs to be told," says Aram Jerrehian, one of about 30 agitated elderly Merion residents packed into a midnight bus home from New York City on Sept. 29. Their outrage freshly piqued, the group excitedly rehashes the long-unwinding drama surrounding the proposed relocation of Albert Barnes' unparalleled collection of Impressionist and early modern art from their hometown to the Benjamin Franklin Parkway — a move they believe would violate Barnes' wishes and alter his collection's unique character, while costing at least $150 million, and possibly much more. (The architectural plans for the new building are scheduled for an official unveiling Oct. 7, after this newspaper went to press.)

A few hours earlier that Tuesday evening, they stood in the lobby of Alice Tully Hall in Manhattan, passing out fliers and trying to rally passers-by to join their cause. Inside, documentarian Don Argott's cinematic take on the now-familiar controversy flickered on the silver screen as part of the New York Film Festival before a spellbound crowd of 1,000, all dressed to the nines. Philadelphia's dirty laundry was on full display.

On the screen, the fa...]]> http://www.citypaper.net/articles/2009/10/01/g20-summit-pittsburgh http://www.citypaper.net/articles/2009/10/01/g20-summit-pittsburgh [ war zone ]

Nate Boguszewski QUIET RIOT: Pittsburgh wasn't about to let protesters turn its G20 into a Seattle redux.

In the lead-up to last week's G20 summit, Pittsburgh vacillated between fits of excitement and paranoia. Luke Ravenstahl, the city's 29-year-old mayor, told The New York Times Sept. 23 that the confab of the world's 20 economic leaders would dispel the city's "'smoky' image and replace it with the real 'green' image." But outside Ravenstahl's efforts to market the city's environmental renaissance, the real story has been the permeating visceral fear, fueled by breathless media reports about potentially violent protesters, that the G20 would bring with it the kind of chaos often associated with the 1999 World Trade Organization protests in Seattle. Worse, the fear insisted, the summit might lure terrorists to this small metropolis that no longer wishes to be called the "Steel City."

And so the phrase "lockdown" doesn't quite get to the core of how militarized and contained Pittsburgh really was throughout the two-day G20 Sept. 24 and 25. The summit was held downtown, at the six-year-old David L. Lawrence Convention Center — a building, the city would have you know, that has received high honors for environmentally friendly design — which sits at the juncture of the Allegheny, Monongahela and Ohio rivers. In the 18th century, this downtown district was a wartime fort, which means it's relatively easy to keep unwanted people out. Access to downtown, in fact, is largely limited to two landlocked arteries — and during the G20, both of those were completely closed to automobiles and guarded by hordes of cops. The only o...]]> http://www.citypaper.net/articles/2009/09/24/taking-down-casinos-casino-free-philadelphia http://www.citypaper.net/articles/2009/09/24/taking-down-casinos-casino-free-philadelphia [ to the death ]

Mark Stehle DOES THE 'HOUSE ALWAYS WIN?: Casino-Free Philadelphia bets on the long haul.

If you look at it one way, Casino-Free Philadelphia and its partners have lost virtually every battle they've fought against the two casinos.

They fought for a city ballot item that would require casinos to stay 1,500 feet from any residential neighborhood, only to be defeated by a court ruling. What scant political support they once had has vanished. They've asked city officials not to grant the casinos special zoning laws and permits — to no avail. When they demanded that the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board deny Foxwoods' recent application for a renewal of its gaming permit, the PGCB voted to approve it.

The group (which earned honors in our Big Vision Issue this year) does claim one victory that no one can yet take from them: Some three years after the state informed Philadelphia that, like it or not, it would host two casinos, neither is up and running.

But last week, the PGCB dealt yet another blow to the anti-casino movement when it approved a $355 million financing plan for SugarHouse. Representatives claim construction could be complete in as little as 10 months, and plan to hold a groundbreaking ceremony in the next couple of weeks.

It's not, on the face of things, a bad time to ask whether Casino-Free's fight is even remotely winnable.

And yet the group seems to be as energetic as ever. Why?

Part of the answer has to do with a subtle transformation that's taken place within Casino-Free, especially ...]]> http://www.citypaper.net/articles/2009/08/13/ufc-101-philadelphia-mixed-martial-arts http://www.citypaper.net/articles/2009/08/13/ufc-101-philadelphia-mixed-martial-arts [ quality bloodsport ]

About eight months before Pennsylvania sanctioned mixed martial arts (MMA), former CP managing editor Brian Hickey penned a piece for this paper titled "Fight Schlubs: Do we really want mixed martial arts in Philly?"

It was a fair question. His piece toured a local MMA fight, a low-quality affair aimed at enticing local audiences to empty their pockets to see their friends, family members or gym buddies get their asses kicked in public.

But last Saturday's Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC 101) at the Wachovia Center — the first ever in Pennsylvania — was starkly different.

Even before TV cameras were rolling, an unprecedented 11,000 people showed up to the Wachovia Center for the oft-ignored preliminary bouts. By the main event, a capacity crowd of more than 17,000 was in attendance.

And this was no local dustup. In one corner was 205-pound Brazilian champ Anderson Silva, regarded by many as the best fighter in the world. His opponent, meanwhile — Georgia's 205-pound consummate underdog, Forrest Griffin — had built his reputation on overcoming superior talent with pure determination. Griffin's last two bouts had been awarded "fight of the night" honors — even when he lost his title in the last.

It was a contest between two undeniably talented fighters. It was over in under three minutes.

After a short feel-out period, Silva descended, dodging Grffin's attacks with minute movements of his head and countering with quick, dead-on stabs.

After 90 seconds, Griffin had been knocked down multiple times. His punches we...]]> http://www.citypaper.net/articles/2009/08/13/uhuru-philadelphia http://www.citypaper.net/articles/2009/08/13/uhuru-philadelphia [ the people in your neighborhood ]

Jessica Kourkounis Diop Olugbala, center, with fellow Uhuru members

Last Saturday, West Philadelphians flocked to Clark Park for its now-familiar monthly community flea market.

Less familiar, perhaps, is the fact that, besides being a great place to buy old tools, vintage vinyl and some killer breakfast tacos, the market also serves as a fundraiser for the politically radical Uhuru Movement, an organization composed of self-described revolutionaries espousing a platform of socialism and black power.

Maybe you've heard of Uhuru: Their fliers are ubiquitous. Or you might have bought a couch from them: Besides the flea market, the group operates Uhuru Furniture & Collectibles at 12th and Spruce streets in Center City. Or, you might even have seen Uhuru in the news a few months back, when two of the group's members were accused of assaulting the civil affairs officer who tried to remove them from a City Hall protest.

So who are they?

The Uhuru Movement — the word means "freedom" in Swahili — was founded in 1972 by radical political thinker Omali Yeshitela. (On a recent visit to Uhuru headquarters at 38th and Lancaster, members were gathered around a video of Yeshitela speaking.) Besides Philly, the organization has a presence in Oakland, Calif., and St. Petersburg, Fla.

Uhuru's Philadelphia chapter was born in the wake of the 1985 bombing by Philadelphia police of MOVE — another black radical group that practiced a back-to-nature lifestyle. The bomb killed six adults and five children, set ablaze an entire city block, and spurred Uhuru to expand to Philly.

Uhuru has sinc...]]> http://www.citypaper.net/articles/2009/07/23/drew-olanoff http://www.citypaper.net/articles/2009/07/23/drew-olanoff

[ accidental activists ]

Drew Olanoff knows who to blame.

He knows who to blame for his grandma's death two years ago. For the recession. For Phillies losses. For misplacing his keys and grabbing a warm soda instead of a cold one. He even knows who to blame for the band Nickelback.

It's his cancer.

"My cancer is an absolute jerk," Olanoff says.

Olanoff has spent the past two months blaming his cancer for everything that goes wrong or drives him crazy. His family and friends have started blaming Drew's cancer, too. Even strangers are blaming his cancer.

And every time someone blames his cancer?"I can picture my cancer going, 'Ooh, that one hurt. That was a low blow.'"

Olanoff, 29, is a pretty regular Philly guy. At 6-foot-3, 236 pounds, he may be a little bigger than average, but his Phillies jersey, more than a dozen tattoos, a couple of facial piercings and baseball cap help him blend into his native city. His jersey, though, doesn't have a player's name on the back; it has the words "Blame Drew's Cancer." He wears a yellow LIVESTRONG bracelet on his left wrist and a black-and-yellow LIVESTRONG baseball cap on his recently shaved head. One of his tattoos is a Twitter handle with a woman's signature underneath. The reason? Olanoff auctioned the space to tattoo the name of the highest Twitter bidder for the benefit of the Make a Wish Foundation.

"When you first look at him, you don't think he's a tenderhearted bear, but he is,"...]]> http://www.citypaper.net/articles/2009/06/18/sidecar-sideshow http://www.citypaper.net/articles/2009/06/18/sidecar-sideshow [ proxy fights ]

The declaration sounded like a response to a major political scandal. Her manner appeared a reaction to a grave societal ill.

And depending on your perspective, maybe it was. It was June 3, and Shikomba was before a packed public hearing of City Council's Streets and Services Committee, railing against the Sidecar Bar & Grille. She was adamant that the venue's application for outdoor seating be denied.

The issue, which concerns just 13 tables and 26 chairs, has transformed into a bitter struggle between neighbors in Graduate Hospital, the primarily residential area surrounding Sidecar at 22nd and Christian streets.

To understand the dispute, one must first consider the bar's history. For three years, Sidecar, which opened in 2006, operated with outdoor seating. It had obtained permission from the South of South Neighborhood Association (SOSNA) just after opening. SOSNA, however, doesn't have the authority to grant that permission. Sidecar needed an ordinance from City Council and didn't have one.

Not until this year, though, did the bar's co-owners, Adam and Jennifer Ritter, run into trouble regarding the seating. On April 15, at a meeting of SOSNA's zoning committee, the Ritters proposed an expansion to a three-floor bar and music venue. Due to protests from a small coalition of neighbors, the plans were scrapped.

At the same time, neighbors who opposed the expansion learned that the Sidecar had been operating without city permission for outdoor seating.

"From that point on," says Adam Ritter, "I became enemy No. 1 to these people." In late May, inspectors from L&I arrived. The tables and chairs in front of Sidecar were folded.

On May 21, a bill was introduced to Council that would allow Sidecar to reopen its sidewalk seating. Both the Streets and Services Committee and the Planning Commission gave it favorable recommendations, and it's set to face a final vote in Council today, June 18.

[ awesome awesome awesome ]

A pack of wild chickens has colonized the 600 block of Pierce Street in South Philadelphia.

Everyone on the block knows about them — it's impossible not to. From the roosters' first early-morning cock-a-doodle-doos to the final muffled clucking of the brood as it settles down for the night, the chickens make a din that can be heard on either side of the block and, indeed, from a few blocks away.

They're everywhere — lurking in the tall grasses of the block's vacant lots, clambering over the concrete walls that separate neighbors' yards, seeking out friendly humans with a bite to eat, escorting the chicks, like ducklings, across the road.

No one knows how many there are.

"Once, I counted 40!" shouts a kid who lives on the block, but a nearby group of adults shake their heads: He could never have counted them, they say.

Not that 40 is a crazy number. This spring there are babies everywhere, and residents report finding eggs stashed in their yards. The chickens have already colonized both sides of Pierce, and residents say they've seen — or at least heard — chickens on neighboring blocks, as well.

The population, it seems, has become self-sustaining. The chickens mate, they lay eggs, they find their own food, raise their own young. They seem to be relatively safe from predators and other urban fauna. "What's interesting," muses Jaime Antonio Jr., "is that we have a lot of cats on the block, and they don't mess with them. You'd think they'd kill them."

At night, the chickens ascend the neighborhood trees and brood there, safe among the branches. In the colder months, they somehow manage not to freeze.

"In the winter, they just sit up in the trees with snow on them," comments resident Sarah Pohlman. "It's wi...]]> http://www.citypaper.net/articles/2009/05/14/eric-mayberry-metro-interview http://www.citypaper.net/articles/2009/05/14/eric-mayberry-metro-interview City Paper: Metro is noted as being one of a few papers in the country making money. You were its publisher. It just seems strange that you would leave. What the heck, Eric?

Eric Mayberry: My history in media for the last decade-plus has been as a turnaround specialist. I'd been with Metro four years in December. It was just time to move on. I can't let grass grow under my feet lest I fall asleep. So to me four years sounds like an adequate time to have done some things and move on. The paper's brand is better than it's ever been, arguably better than the Daily News [with whom Mayberry once worked as director of advertising and director of new business development] in some circles. The Metro achieved that success quickly, too. One of the things that drove my decision though was that Metro International did downsize operations all over the world in February 2008. There are people who are no longer there that I liked. Now, most people see businesses as products and services and that you have to find people to market those products and services. I see business as living organizations that are made up of that people that do what they do everyday. When you start to lose some of those important people, it gets to the point where it's not as fun. Time to start over. Prince starts a new band when he feels like he needs some new inspiration and a different direction. That's where I'm at right now.

CP: But you know — and I'm no purist — nothing's as good as Wendy, Lisa and the Revolution.

EM: Good is relative [laughs]. Not to spend too much time talking about prince. If you listen to what he's doing now and what he's done in the interim between say then and the present, Purple Rain is a great rock album. But he's made some great jazz since that you never thought Prince was going to make back then.

CP: You tried to buy the Metro — the Philly branch — and you had certain people to invest with. Do tell.

EM: I made a formal offer to buy the Philly property but we couldn't come to an agreement on the right deal for everyone involved. It...]]> http://www.citypaper.net/articles/2009/04/23/civil-war-museum-philadelphia http://www.citypaper.net/articles/2009/04/23/civil-war-museum-philadelphia

[ things we can't afford anymore ]

Last summer, a handwritten sign was taped to the door of the Civil War Museum of Philadelphia, a nondescript redbrick building at 18th and Pine. The museum had been there for eight decades.

"The Civil War museum is now and forever closed at this location," it read.

It went on to say that the museum, which owned one of the most respected Civil War collections in the nation, would be relocating to The First Bank Building at Third and Chestnut. Philly Civil War buffs were excited. While Philadelphia markets its revolutionary history, it had long ignored the city's prominent role in the Civil War. The museum was crumbling. The new site, an impressive building in the heart of the historic district, would open in time for Philly's big 2011 Civil War sesquicentennial events.

On Sunday, however, the Inquirer reported the deal was off. Gov. Ed Rendell withdrew $15 million in promised state funding, citing budgetary constraints. Having sold its old headquarters in expectation of the state money, the museum is now homeless.

On Monday the news reverberated around the local Civil War community.

Dan Rolph, historian and head of reference services for the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, reclined at his overflowing desk. Rolph is from Kentucky, and shares the white hair, dark eyebrows and solemn expression of his favorite ge...]]> http://www.citypaper.net/articles/2009/04/02/career-alternatives http://www.citypaper.net/articles/2009/04/02/career-alternatives In these tough economic times, more and more women in Philadelphia seem to want to become strippers. Managers at three different clubs say they're seeing a spike in applicants for stripping jobs. A manager at Daydreams on Unruh Avenue in the Northeast says he's seen a rise in the amount of women applying for positions in the last couple of weeks. A manager at the Gold Club, in Center City, says he's seen the same thing.

"There's been a drastic increase here of girls trying to apply for positions. Oh my God!" says the Gold Club manager. "Every day I get calls for auditions. We have such a small place, but more and more girls continue to apply. The girls seem to get younger and younger by the day and they're coming from all over. They come from everywhere — Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey and other places. It's crazy."

Delilah's Den, a gentlemen's club located on 100 Spring Garden St., has also witnessed an increase in applicants since early this year. "Since January there has been an increase in entertainer applicants," said a sales representative. "We have received most applications from young college students looking for more income, and also from career women who have been laid off and are unemployed."

I spoke to a few women who are either stripping or considering stripping to get a sense of what went into their decision-making. The main advantage they saw was pretty clear.

"It's easy money. I would leave with cash in my pocket every night. I've already applied to one place here. I need it to pay for school and a new car," says one 19-year-old college student and Philadelphia resident who asked that her name not be used.

Academy of Natural Sciences: Family Four-Pack of Tickets | Mango Moon |

Illustration by Evan M. Lopez | Photo by Neal Santos

A BEAUTIFUL MIND: Our writer knows the truth about gaming. Why can't any politicians see the light?

[ confessions ]

I can't stop writing about casinos.

God knows I try to get away from them. Since my first casino story in Philadelphia, a piece on Foxwoods' proposed move to Chinatown, I've written about all manner of non-casino-related topics: taxi unions, drug corner payphones, radical Christians, Obama's inauguration ... but I keep coming back.

Worse still, I find my own work to be increasingly arcane. I cite obscure statistics; I can't make it through two paragraphs of a Daily News article on gambling without plotting twice as many new blog posts.A recent hourlong segment about casinos on WHYY's Radio Times actually made me dizzy.

Part of the problem is that the more I learn about casinos in Pennsylvania, the more I see them lurking behind every political decision.

Take the mayor's budget. Despite priding himself on refusing to forecast a possible windfall from Foxwoods and SugarHouse, the mayor is counting on $23 million in "host fees" from the casinos starting in 2012, as well as state casino revenue in the form of wage tax relief and economic redevelopment money. State lawmakers recently threatened to take that revenue away as a penalty for the slow progress on casinos. On Tuesday, the mayor met privately with Sugarhouse investors. On Tuesday, those same lawmakers backed down from their threats.

Suddenly, Nutter — who, as a candidate, pledged to fight casinos — now lists the slot parlors, along with...]]> http://www.citypaper.net/articles/2009/04/02/back-by-popular-demand http://www.citypaper.net/articles/2009/04/02/back-by-popular-demand [ PSA ]

During last year's inaugural Philly Spring Cleanup, friends, family and neighbors got together, rolled up their sleeves and went to work cleaning our neighborhoods and parks. The first Philly Spring Cleanup set a record as the largest single-day cleanup effort in U.S. history. Here are some of the remarkable results:

More than 15,000 volunteers came out to help.

More than 3,500 blocks, 71 commercial corridors, 28 recreation centers and 27 Fairmount Park sites were cleaned and revitalized.

More than 2.5 million pounds of trash and 48,000 pounds of recyclables were collected.

Last year's cleanup effort is something we can be proud of, and I commend all of those who helped out. Over the past year, citizens across the city have been asking me, "Are we doing the Cleanup again this year?" When I've spoken with you, I can feel your pride when you tell me about what's happening in your communities and share your willingness to work together to keep them clean and vibrant. So, back by popular demand, I'd like to announce the city's second annual Philly Spring Cleanup, set to take place on Sat., April 4, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.

The theme of this year's effort is "Building Sustainable Communities," and the goal will expand beyond trash pickup and planting trees. These projects are vital to a successful cleanup, but I hope that other beautification projects, like graffiti removal and the restoration of our neighborhood murals, will encourage the trend of preserving Philadelphia's artistic and cultural appeal. If all of us do our part, we can keep Philadelphia sustainable so future generations of families and workers will have an opportunity to live and work in a world-class city.

Business As Usual

Councilman Jack Kelly doesn't have the best memory sometimes.

Testifying this week in the trial of his former chief of staff, Christopher Wright, Kelly couldn't recall whether he'd seen a disclosure form on which Wright indicated receiving a $1,000 check from the Chawla brothers — Wright's co-defendants and businessmen who had successfully lobbied Kelly to introduce a bill allowing mechanical parking garages they intended to install in a development.

Asked if he knew that Wright had lived rent-free for a year in a Rittenhouse Square apartment initially owned by the Chawlas, Kelly had to think hard.

"I believe he said he was living in an apartment," he finally said, sounding slightly irritated, as if being asked to recall what he had for supper last Tuesday. "I think he said Ravi [Ravinder Chawla] was loaning it to him."

What Kelly does remember is friendship. He remembers very well, he testified, that Sant Properties — owned by Hardeep Chawla — has made contributions to his office since 2003, and that during his tight race for re-election last year, the Chawlas came through — though his memory needed jogging:

"Do you remember asking Ravi Chawla to come up with $30,000 [in campaign contributions]? ... He had it the next day," asked a lawyer for Ravinder Chawla.

"I don't recall," said Kelly vaguely.

"But you recall getting the money?"

"Oh yes," answered Kelly, brightening.

In theory, Kelly is serving as a witness for government prosecutors. But lawyers for the defense used the councilman's somewhat contribution-dependent memory to show that the Chawla brothers (and their attorney and co-defendant, Andrew Teitelman) didn't need to bribe Wright to get Kelly's ear. They had already obtained it, legally. 

Asked whether the Chawlas' history of contributions was a reason he'd helped them, Kelly answered, "Yes."

It isn't illegal to favor campaign contributors — though it might strike taxpayers as slightly audacious for Kelly to freely admit that his contributors are his friends, and that ...]]> http://www.citypaper.net/articles/2009/01/29/alis-wagon-fairmount-philadelphia http://www.citypaper.net/articles/2009/01/29/alis-wagon-fairmount-philadelphia

Michael T. Regan

TO FIGHT ANOTHER DAY: Jessie Menken inside the store/parenting center that she almost closed.

In the days following the announcement that she was closing her store, Jessie Menken felt like she was sitting shiva. Friends and neighbors stopped by Ali's Wagon, the part parenting center, part children's and home boutique on Fairmount Avenue, to tell her how sorry they were that it wouldn't be around for years to come.

The outpouring of community support made Menken, 32, wonder about her decision. Ultimately, though, she knew closing Ali's, which she owns with her husband, Nat Weston, made sense. Sales had been dipping, and, with a second child due in February, they weren't willing to gamble on a rapidly deteriorating economy.

Then, last week, something crazy happened. A Fairmount resident who had attended a weekly moms' group at the parenting center stepped forward with unsolicited financial support, offering to help keep Ali's open for the indefinite future.

"I felt very strongly about this store and its place in the neighborhood," says the donor, who wishes to remain anonymous. "I have the means to help, and it's as secure an investment as any nowadays, short of hiding [your money] under your mattress."

She has committed to investing in Ali's over the next few years with plans to reassess in one year. She sees the commitment as an investment in a neighborhood she cares about.

Menken hopes to pay back the money, but there's no guarantee.

"That somebody can do this blew my mind," she says. "Somebody did this without being asked. It's amazing."

Menken, who has a ma...]]>