Today, we discovered a new South Street West business that apparently opened last week.

Nice signs

If you can’t read the numerous signs, it’s a new pharmacy! Located at 1735 South St., this new pharmacy desperately fills a need in the neighborhood.

Oh, wait.

Actually, this is probably the most unnecessary new retail addition that anyone in the neighborhood could have ever imagined. Impressively, it’s even more redundant than the pharmacy that opened up last month, just across the street.

Pharmacy on the corner

Across from Walgreens

Oh, and the hospital across the street has a pharmacy, too!

That’s right. One corner. four pharmacies. Fighting together IN THE STEEL CAGE! Who will survive? For the record, at least the newest pharmacy’s windows aren’t…

Over the summer, we brought 263 N 3rd St. to your attention. The building was most recently inhabited by Lite Bite, an unpretentious luncheonette that went under several years ago. A few years back, a developer purchased the property and received approvals to add several stories to the building. The developer proceeded with initial demolition efforts before shutting down the project. Over the summer, a different developer purchased the property for (a greatly reduced price of) $300K, and appears ready to move on a variation of the first developer’s plan.

Today

Next week, N 3rd St. LLC will go before the ZBA to request several variances for this building. If we’re reading the refusal correctly, they seek permission to build four additional stories on top of the existing building, with six apartment units over those four floors. The developers intend…

Gold Star Park is a wonderful neighborhood pocket park. It’s located on the 600 block of Wharton St., sitting between Sheridan and Marshall Sts., on the north side. Its 25K sqft footprint includes a playground and plenty of green space that the local community uses for events in the warmer months. When we snapped these photos a week ago, outdoor events weren’t exactly on our minds.

The sign

A snowy park, from Wharton St.

Looking southwest through the park

What you might not know is that the park sits on the site of the long demolished John Hay School. The school was constructed in 1906 and burned in 1939. The park, like the school, was originally named for John Hay, a private secretary for Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War. It was later renamed Gold…

Though you’ve probably already heard, Ted’s Montana Grill, located at Broad and Spruce Sts., closed about a month ago. The upscale grill was exposed back in March for having mice (one of the critters was conveniently near a street-side window when the Inside Edition’s Rat Patrol was doing their investigating). Although most people know, and maybe understand, that this is a city and most restaurants have probably seen a mouse or two (we just don’t want to see them as consumers), this may have tarnished to Ted’s reputation somewhat. We imagine this had little to do with the restaurant ultimately closing.

Former space

After all, it wasn’t just the Philadelphia location that was suffering; Ted’s actually shut down nine of their establishments throughout the country in recent months. According to George McKerrow, one of the chain’s…

One of the items on last week’s postponed South Philadelphia H.O.M.E.S meeting agenda was a proposal for a three story, two unit building at 2314 Federal St., on a long-vacant lot.

This one

This lot sits across the street from another vacant lot, across the street from a number of blighted buildings, and around the corner from some newish homes and some additional homes currently under construction.

Lot across the street

North side of the 2300 block of Federal St.

In spite of the SPHINC meeting not taking place last week and the developer not being able to present the project to the community, he received approvals from the ZBA and should begin construction in short order. The development of this lot is good news for…

Neighborhood improvements are on in the way in Queen Village, where new schoolyards will soon be built at the Meredith and Nebinger schools.

Since August, neighbors and parents of students at the Meredith School, located at 5th and Fitzwater Sts., have participated in a series of meetings designed to generate community input and feedback for plans for a new schoolyard they’re calling Meredith Green.

Meredith today

From another angle

In June, Meredith Home & School received a grant from the Community Design Collaborative that provided services from volunteer landscape architects, designers, contractors, and other professionals to help improve their schoolyard. The cost, estimate and final design are set to be presented to the community in February. The plan includes aspects like landscaping, vegetable gardens, a green…