Will census show racial population shifts in Mt. Airy, Chestnut Hill?

Release of 2020 Census data is lagging because of COVID 19, causing delays in Congress and forcing redistricting troubles all over the country that will impact state and federal elections. And it may …

Quilt raffle in Mt. Airy to aid street vendors' kids

A remarkable group of young women from Northwest Philadelphia who have become virtual angels to children of street vendors in far-off Guatemala are holding a quilt raffle in conjunction with Mother's Day.

Maplewood Mall Project creates permanent, site-specific public art

The City is asking people to take part in a survey to choose from art work proposals by four artists about ways to decorate the walls and benches bookending the mall.

City responds to pause in Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine

COVID-19 Update - April 15. The city announced extending the FEMA-operated Center City mass vaccination clinic four weeks and shifting vaccine supply at its new FEMA clinic in North Philadelphia, the Esperanza Community Vaccination Center.

Community

Nip seasonal allergies in the bud

Warmer weather means flower buds and blooming trees, and if you are one of the millions of people who have seasonal allergies, it also means bothersome symptoms.

Mt. Airy couple forms ‘team’ to tackle trash

When Natalie Sloane and her partner Brody Rosenfeld moved to their new home last year, they began picking up trash that they found on the street and formed the Mt. Airy Trash Team to tackle the problem of litter in their neighborhood.

FOW director makes the environmental case for Woodmere’s St. Michael’s Hall plan

A conversation with Ruffian Tittmann, the Executive Director of the Friends of the Wissahickon, and Bill Valerio, the Patricia Van Burgh Allison Director of Woodmere.

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A community garden grows at Pleasant Playground

East Mt. Airy gardeners came out Saturday, April 10, to support a new community garden at Pleasant Playground. New, but with roots that go back 38 years.

Hill lawyer, Barbara Thomson, running for Municipal Court

Barbara Thomson, a Hill attorney with a background in public service, is running for a seat on Philadelphia’s Municipal Court in the May 18 primary election.

Ralston My Way senior services to close

After 11 years of operation, Ralston My Way, a respected nonprofit provider of services to older adults in Northwest Philadelphia, will cease operations May 4, 2021.

Phase 1C eligibility for COVID-19 vaccine starts Monday, April 12

More groups have been added to Phase 1C, including people receiving home and community-based services.

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Business

Local brewery adds workers, aids non-profits in pandemic

Attic Brewing Company has not only not laid anyone off, but they have doubled the size of their team and partnered with over a dozen local organizations and donated more than $14,000 to Germantown non-profits last year.

E-edition

Apr 15, 2021 issue

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Crime

Crime Report: 3 thefts from vehicles and a stolen car

The following crime report is for crimes reported in Chestnut Hill and Mt. Airy for the period between April 5 to April 11. Some dates earlier than the current period took place at that date and …

Food for Thought

The enduring art of the sandwich

This week, I’d like to make my case for the good old sandwich.

Home chefs are going gaga for kitchen gadgets

It began out of necessity. Stores and restaurants closed, the virus was too rampant, so we turned to our home kitchens for every meal. Some of us spent the year learning to cook, or to cook more often, and even to dabble in making bread and pasta with newfound free time. We ran to buy small appliances like juicers and toaster ovens, to make what we couldn’t pull through a drive-through to order.

Flix

‘Extremely Loud…’ a devastating drama about 9/11

As overwhelmingly sad as the subject matter is, the film's imprint is not only life-affirming but, almost miraculously, hopeful as well.

Hill author's new book explores sisterhood

When I first saw Janet Gilmore's new book, “She's your Sister and You Love Her, Right,” I thought it would be one of those light-hearted, quick-read pocket-sized birthday gift books that are ubiquitous in gift shops and tourist destination stores.

Calendar

Liner Notes

White Stripes hits collection a worthy re-introduction to the garage rockers

Anyone who grew up in the 80s or 90s likely had one or both of the following greatest hits collections: Steve Miller Band’s “Greatest Hits 1974-1978” and “Legend: …

Gardening

Plant an Earth Day tree

Earth Day returns on Thursday, April 22, 2021, the 51st anniversary of the seminal event that changed the world by giving birth to the modern environmental movement. Please plant a tree for Earth Day—any time in and around April 22 works.

Flower show chief excited by outdoor venue

Flower Show chief designer Sam Lemheney has a springtime present for the quarter million loyal Philadelphia Flower Show attendees who go to the Horticulture Society event each year in the freezing …

Features

Country styles are a comforting design staple

With so much changing in our world right now, we have been consumed with talking about and predicting what trends in design will result from the drastic changes in the ways we live and work.

In design, the only constant is change

Over the past few weeks we have taken a look at design as it has evolved over the past 100 years or so and focused on its influences, whether they be social, political, industrial or originate from a totally different impact.

Real estate

Mt. Airy condo project preserves the property’s church community

An architect’s rendering shows what the entryway to 7111 Germantown Avenue, a new condo development, will look like once complete. By Pete Mazzaccaro Local developer Ken Weinstein has made a …

Elfant Realtor has his own Mt. Airy historical mansion

Alex Aberle and Violette Levy stand in front of their 16-room, 6,724-square-foot structure with 12-foot-high ceilings, revitalizing one of Mt. Airy’s most historic homes into an airy modern …

Local expert insists real estate will come back first

Mimi represents this property at 28 West Abington, a three-bedroom, two-bathroom, brick twin that was the home of one family for over 50 years. Asking price is $349,900. By Stacia Friedman Magnolia, …

Area crews race on Schuylkill for first time since 2019

After a tense period of waiting for official approval from the City of Philadelphia, rowers from area schools were back out racing on the Kelly Drive course last Sunday for the first time since 2019. …

Singles sweep helps GA racquetmen defeat SCH, 5-2

When many of the tennis matches in last Friday's contest at Germantown Academy were still in the first set, a light rain began to fall and the Patriots and visiting SCH Blue Devils were pulled off …

Mount lacrosse falls behind Villa Maria in second half

For Mount St. Joseph Academy's lacrosse team, COVID-19 restrictions not only erased the 2020 season, but also impinged upon the start of the 2021 campaign. A COVID diagnosis at the school shut down …

Jenks students win big at science fair

At the 2021 George Washington Carver Science Fair, Jenks students Eleanor Palmer, Clarissa Lanzas, and Sofia Bartoli-Wright (8th grade) earned the honor of 1st Place for their project.

Penn Charter earns College Board AP Computer Science Female Diversity Award

William Penn Charter School has earned the College Board AP Computer Science Female Diversity Award for achieving high female representation in AP Computer Science Principles.

Jenks students celebrate Literacy Week

What is your favorite idiom? Or has the cat got your tongue? That was one of the questions asked during Literacy Week at Jenks Academy for the Arts and Sciences, which kicked off National Reading Month on March 1.

Frank Stephens Jr.: Beloved Mt. Airy artist and Free Library 'pioneer'

It is hard to know what to mention first about Frank Stephens Jr., a Mt. Airy resident for 49 years — his award-winning art, the fact that he was the first Black manager at the …

James Shea, university vice president, professor and avid runner

James, “Jim” Mark Shea, a former vice president of university relations an emeritus professor of communications at Temple University died at his home at Cathedral Village in Philadelphia …

Mt. Airy doctor remembered for compassion, activism

In Gene Bishop's desk is a stack of index cards — the kind doctors would fill out, one for each patient, in the hand-scribed days before electronic medical records. The cards date to the 1970s, …

Arnold Lee Greenberg, Miquon Upper School (now Crefeld School) founder

Arnold Lee Greenberg, 82, died in Penobscot, Maine, on March 5, after a struggle with prostate cancer. Born April 25, 1938 in Chester, Pennsylvania and raised in Philadelphia, Greenberg had a rich, …

Elda Davis: survived Nazi horrors, long-time Mt. Airy mom dies at 91

Elda Davis, who lived in Mt. Airy for 35 years and then Chestnut Hill for 18 years after her family survived the Nazi destruction of her home town in central Europe during World War II, died Feb. 3 …

Enemies of reading

Not so easy to end a 25-year seat-of-the-pants affair, Part 2.

Twenty-five years ago, my wife, Janet, gave me my favorite birthday gift: a reading chair. Over the years, however, the chair, like myself, has grown older and borderline decrepit.

Opinion

Take on our biggest crises with 30 Million Solar Homes

Solar power can help tackle three interlocking crises our community and country are facing: economic downturn caused by COVID, impending climate disaster, and profound social injustice. We can take …

Vaccination envy

Of the common ills social scientists have placed at the feet of social media, one of the most pervasive – particularly on Facebook and Instagram – is the phenomenon known by the acronym …

Letters

Letters: Current development projects imperil fabric of Chestnut Hill

Too often, our culture obsesses over the present. What is now is all that matters.

Letters: Where is zoning process?

I am writing this out of my concern regarding the process in place to change the zoning status of property in Chestnut Hill.

Letters: Significance for humans that the bird population is plummeting

Thank you for the article by Len Lear regarding Robert Peck [“City responds to Hill area scientists on bird die-offs,” March 25] . Few seem to understand the significance for humans that the bird population is plummeting.

Covid collecting for the Chestnut Hill Conservancy

Scenes that typified Chestnut Hill during the early days of the pandemic in the spring of 2020 are already fading from our daily experience: next-to-no cars on Germantown Avenue, closed stores, Xs …

Discovering Chestnut Hill: The Wissahickon Garden Club

Normally, the first week of March brings us a reminder that spring is just around the corner, with the arrival of the Philadelphia Flower Show. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Pennsylvania …

Together with our community champions: Looking back at 2020 for the Chestnut Hill Conservancy

Because of your support, the Chestnut Hill Conservancy has been able to sustain our stewardship of the history, architecture, and open space we treasure.

Discovering Chestnut Hill: Women’s Equality Day observed

This photograph from the Chestnut Hill Conservancy’s Archives appears to show women heading to the 1913 Woman Suffrage Procession held in Washington, D.C., in protest of the lack of voting rights …

Discover Chestnut Hill: remembrances of Chestnut Hill Past… (Part 1 Of 2)

This April 1940 photograph shows Alessandra Cartelli’s mother and sister, Rose and Louise Cartelli, before boarding the ship to Philadelphia to join Pietro Cartelli. By Molly Murphy Anyone who …