Fifth Street: Small Businesses Nourish the Neighborhood
North Fifth Street has been busy with small business, shoppers and community activists for years. The small businesses on the street have a waterfall effect that has nourished the neighborhoods it runs through. According to one store owner along the strip, a main concern is safety – providing a safe environment would allow for more […]
Feltonville: Handball is uniting communities and keeping kids out of trouble
In a city where drugs and violence are easy to get wrapped up in, there’s a constant need to get the youth involved in safe outlets that keeps them off the streets. Wally Amaro, 38, is a role model for the kids in the neighborhoods. A humble man who works in commercial construction, his real […]
Hunting Park: Esperanza Aims to Improve Neighborhood Conditions
Esperanza is a faith-based community development corporation and nonprofit organization. It was founded in 1986 by the Hispanic clergy of Philadelphia. At the time, the Hispanic clergy wanted to address some of the larger problems that the community faced – access to affordable housing, access to jobs, safe communities and an education. Philip Dawson, 29, […]
Hunting Park: Bodegas and Bodyshops Revive The Economy of North 5th Street
Specks of sawdust shimmered in the sunlight as the shrill of power tools echoed throughout the skeleton of a body shop. The sight is no longer uncommon along the 5th Street Corridor of North Philadelphia, between Luzerne and Wyoming streets, but rather serves as evidence to the recent economic influx of Hunting Park. “I’ve been […]
Juniata Park: Carribbean Native Connects Local Community To Philly Creek
As litter from the sea washed upon the white sand beaches of Puerto Rico, Doryán De Angel discovered her zeal. Fueling her fervor for the recovery of Earth’s waterways, the environmentalist is now the community watershed leader of the Tookany/Tacony-Frankford Watershed Partnership (TTF), a Philadelphia-based initiative established in 2000 to promote community engagement with the body […]
Juniata Park: MVP360 Offers More Than Just Sports
Lighthouse Field is home of the Philadelphia Eagles. No, not the Eagles you’re probably thinking of, but the Eagles flag football team. Find yourself at the field on a Saturday and you may have a chance to see them in action. The Eagles flag football team is part of MVP360, a nonprofit leadership development program […]
Hunting Park: Latin Music Lessons Transcend The Classroom
Salsa rhythms pulsate beyond the basement of Esperanza College and flow into the streets of Hunting Park. The Caribbean-based beats resonate from Artístas y Músicos Latino Americanos (AMLA), a non-profit arts and artist’s organization established in North Philadelphia. Accentuating Latin composition, the music school, which was founded in 2006 by Grammy-nominated music producer Jesse Bermudez, recently […]
Hunting Park: Local Efforts Encourage Minorities And Millennials To Vote
Equipped with pledge cards, iPods, and polling data, a group of five millennials cramped into a minivan. Maneuvering through North Philadelphia, the team knocked door-to-door along nestled rowhomes in Hunting Park, Juniata Park, and Feltonville, greeted by residents stricken with consternations surrounding Election Day. The canvassing clan is a constituent of the National Council of […]
Juniata Park: Animal Group Aims to Educate Pet Owners This Winter
As the weather starts to get colder, people are covering up to stay warm. Yet animals are sometimes left out in the cold. This can be due to neglect or due to innocent ignorance. Regardless of why, the Animal Control and Care Team of Philadelphia wants to educate people about keeping their pets safe in the […]
Feltonville: Roastmaster Joe Cesa Heads Fair Trade Bean-Team
Fair trade is no sales gimmick for pioneering coffee roaster Joe Cesa.
It takes a special person to coax a smile out of a caffeine addict who has yet to have their morning cup of Joe. Or maybe it just takes a guy named Joe. Enter Joe Cesa. He has both categories covered. Bonus: He’ll make you coffee. It’s 10 a.m. on a Tuesday and Cesa is […]