Tipster “Rick” reports that the 1700 block of S. Iseminger Street has not been plowed once during this Snowpocalypse. We’re sure the neighbors digging out their cars and throwing the excess snow in the street doesn’t help (police officers not excluded). Just so you know, the city mandates residents and business owners shovel a minimum 36-inch-wide path on the sidewalk in front of their properties within six hours of a snowstorm.

Ed Rendell had approved $200M for the Family Court project, but according to the Inquirer, it will only be around $140M. EwingCole Architects will be in charge of the 14-story project at 15th and Arch, and the neighborhood is already alive with opinions. The original Logan Square location at 1801 Vine Street will no longer be owned by InterContinental Hotels and will sit vacant. There even was a petition against this vacant building at such a key location for Philadelphia tourism.

Another example of a failed Manayunk business. Main Street Market will be expanding into the now-closed (a sheriff’s sale is great for public relations) Saxby’s in Manayunk. Belvedere Restaurant Group (the same group, headed by Joseph Scarpone, that opened Agiato’s and Terrace Taproom) signed the lease for 4343 Main Street, which basically means Main Street Market grocery store is taking over the old Saxby’s space. (We are pretty amazed Saxby’s couldn’t afford to stay in the area, given the only other coffee spaces are the conservative Starbucks and the liberal Mugshots; perhaps Manayunk was too small to cater to the middle ground.) After Saxby’s embarrassing sheriff’s sale and horrible 19-month legal battle, they still claimed to be “closed for renovations.” Garrett Elwood, director of economic development at the Manayunk Development Corporation, said last week the Manayunk Saxby’s franchise location was closed “due…

University City’s (or, more appropriately, Powelton Village’s) Easy Corner Bar wants to be something else, something that’s good for the neighborhood. Its owners are renting out the 800-square-foot restaurant/bar space at 500 North 35^th Street (on the corner of Haverford Avenue) so someone can open a “new coffee shop/cafe that is so needed on this corner,” says owner Dov Wisnia. Let’s hope the name is a homage to how easy it is to run a business here and not anything else. Gunshots and blood should not deter possible renters; improving neighborhoods is no easy job–just ask Vincent Fumo. Anyone interested in fixing up this corner spot by selling scones should e-mail Dov Wisnia here.

Photo courtesy of AmericanCity.org

POLICE BEAT: On Wednesday, January 12 between 10:30pm and midnight, 6th District officers arrested 5 males for Obstruction of Highway Related to Prostitution at 1200 Locust Street, 1200 Spruce Street and 215 S. 13th Street. On the 20^th they arrested 2 males for prostitution in the same location around the same time. Five days later the same officers arrested one male for prostitution at 300 S. 12th Street at 9:15pm. And then there were none.

The 500 block of Mercy Street in the Pennsport neighborhood has almost 20 vacant lots. This little loophole of a block is currently unrepresented by any civic association and no grants, projects or improvement ventures have even mentioned it–until now. Thanks to University of Delaware graduate Robyn Mello (a community organizer, activist and gardener), Philly Food Forests has been born to transform these vacant lots into public gardens and public space. Since the first piece of trash was picked up 4 months ago in September, 12 of the 18 lots have already been cleared and are ready to plant. Look for a new community garden headed up by Mello right up the block on 5th and Moore Streets.