Philadelphia ‘Slumlord Millionaire’ Gets 6 Years In Prison

Map of Pennsylvania highlighting Philadelphia County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Robert N. Coyle Sr., a notorious Philadelphia slumlord, stood before the judge yesterday in tears, minutes before he was to be sentenced for defrauding banks of more than $10 million.

Coyle, 68, told U.S. District Court Judge Stewart Dalzell about his struggles growing up poor in Kensington, the same neighborhood where he later acquired wealth.  As a child, he lived in rickety houses and his mother worked in sweatshops and he slogged away in a paper factory as a teen, he said.

He became a real-estate mogul and admitted to the court he made mistakes when the economy soured.  In making his plea, Coyle, who wore a gray suit over his hefty frame, took several breaks to compose himself.

“I am not a slumlord,” he said, his voice quivering

Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/news/20130517__Slumlord_Millionaire__gets_6_years_in_prison.html#i8j4odiP1s7VadYl.99

Club Operator Who Fleeced John Bolaris Is Sentenced

The South Beach club operator who orchestrated the “bar girls” scheme that fleeced former Philadelphia weatherman John Bolaris out of $43,000 and eventually cost him his job was sentenced to 12 years in prison today.

According the Miami Herald, operator Albert Takhalov cried as he was sentenced.

Also sentenced today were Isaac Feldman, an investor in two of the clubs implicated in the “bar girls” ring, who received eight years, and Stanislav Pavlenko, will be sentenced later this month

Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/entertainment/celebrities_gossip/Club-owner-who-fleeced-Bolaris-is-sentenced.html#Z64Gm19j6VUFVsVD.99

Cold Stretch To Continue Overnight, Record Low Temp Possible In Philly

Philadelphians could wake up to a new record-low temperature on Tuesday.

The cold-for-May snap hitting the region today — temperatures are about 15 degrees below normal — should continue overnight, with a low temperature of around 41 degrees expected, the National Weather Service says.

If the mercury drops any lower than that, Philadelphia would have a new record: The coldest temperature ever recorded on May 14 is 40 degrees, according to the weather service.

The weather service is calling that mark a “possible vulnerable record low.”

Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/news/Cold_stretch_to_continue_overnight_record_low_temp_possible_in_Philly.html#3eUFqHvhv5DTxxW8.99

$2.3M Restoration Of Frick’s Lock Village Unveiled

Map of Pennsylvania highlighting Chester County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

EAST COVENTRY TOWNSHIP, PA — In its heyday, Frick’s Lock Village was one of dozens of stops along the Schuylkill Navigation for coal making its way from the coal regions and the river’s headwaters to energy-starved industrial cities like Philadelphia.

But it lost its economic lustre when the railroads took over the job of carrying the coal and it slipped from public view entirely in 1969, when it was purchased by PECO as part of the construction of the Limerick nuclear plant.

But it never slipped entirely from memory, at least not for people like Bill Carl, who lived in the former locktender’s house in the late 1930s, when it had no electricity and no plumbing.

“We rented this from the Reading Railroad Co. for $5 a month,” he said.

Read more:  http://www.pottsmerc.com/article/20130512/NEWS01/130519819/-2-3m-restoration-of-frick-s-lock-village-unveiled#full_story

Changing Skyline: Philly Steering Toward Bike Sharing

Philadelphia didn’t need Bicycling magazine to confirm that it is one of America’s best biking cities (No. 17 on its 2012 list).  You can see it every day on the streets:

Near northeast corner, May 2005. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The steady stream of commuters sluicing down Center City‘s bike lanes.  The tangle of bikes hitched to U-shaped racks and bike corrals.  (More, please.)  The proliferation of neighborhood bike shops.

Philadelphia probably could have ranked higher in the magazine’s esteem if it had a bike-sharing program, like most of the list’s top 20 cities.  You can now find cheap, on-street bike rentals in more than 135 places around the world, many of them with worse weather and hillier streets than Philadelphia.  Yet the city has remained strangely ambivalent toward the concept, even as private bikes have become a popular transit option within the city.

But the sight of Mayor Nutter tooling around Rittenhouse Square last week on a canary-yellow cruiser suggests Philadelphia is finally ready to commit.  To show the city’s seriousness, his Transportation Department organized a daylong bike-sharing demonstration with three top vendors, supplying a docking-station’s worth of bikes in paint-box colors.

Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/entertainment/20130510_Changing_Skyline__City_steering_toward_bike_sharing.html#oeXi4rzPYwBAAXdv.99

Philly-Area Gas Prices Dropping, Could Fall Below $3.00

Gas prices in the Philadelphia region are falling — and if that trend continues, the price could soon dip below $3 a gallon at some stations.

GasBuddy is reporting prices as low as $3.05 this morning in Woodbury, Gloucester County.  Gas can be found for $3.11 at other stations in South Jersey, and as low as $3.28 in the Pennsylvania suburbs and $3.29 in Northeast Philadelphia.

The average price for a gallon of regular gasoline in the Philadelphia area is $3.46 in Pennsylvania and $3.24 in New Jersey, according to AAA.

Read more:  http://www.philly.com/philly/news/Philly-area_gas_prices_dropping_could_fall_below_3.html

Philadelphia’s Washington Avenue Green

Map of Pennsylvania highlighting Philadelphia County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Formerly known as Pier 53, Washington Avenue Green is located at Washington Avenue, just south of the Coast Guard station and behind the Sheet Metal Workers’ Union Hall, 1301 South Columbus Boulevard.  The one-acre site on the long-abandoned pier is one of the few tracts along the Delaware riverfront that is owned by the City of Philadelphia.  It is the first of the public parks to be created by the Action Plan for the Central Delaware. Because there has been no commercial activity at that location for decades, the pier that originally had welcomed ships and freight carriers has deteriorated, and both native and non-native trees and plants took hold and flourished.

The rotted piers and eroded shoreline have become a nursery for migrating fish and a permanent home for several species of mussels.

This newly discovered habitat is being exploited and informs the park’s unique spirit.  Delaware Avenue Green has been redesigned and reconstructed as a public space on the interim trail that is planned for the southern section of the Central Delaware.

Read more: http://washingtonavenuegreen.com/

Tourism Officials Hope Casting A Wider Nets Brings More Tourists To Lancaster County

Map of Pennsylvania highlighting Lancaster County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The county’s tourism promotion board will soon launch a multifaceted campaign it hopes will catch the eye of as many as 100 million people.

It hopes many of of them will come here and spend money.

The Pennsylvania Dutch Convention & Visitors Bureau plans to diversify the $1.6 million it will spend on advertising this year.

In addition to a television commercial that will soon be aired in the Philadelphia and New York markets, the visitors bureau also will buy digital and static billboards to reinforce the same message.

Read more: http://lancasteronline.com/article/local/842667_Tourism-officials-hope-casting-a-wider-nets-brings-more-tourists-to-county.html#ixzz2Rc8YwZ9q

PhillyInc: Philadelphia Has Gained Much, But Not Jobs

English: This is my own work, Public Domain Photograph, not copyrighted Ed Yakovich http://www.flickr.com/photos/10396190@N04 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Several macrotrends have broken Philadelphia’s way:  The city’s population is growing again.  Residential building is up, and the city has seen an influx of college-educated young adults over the last decade.

But one trend remains stubbornly negative, as three recent research reports make clear: The city continues to lose jobs. The latest such evidence was included in the Center City District’s “State of Center City, 2013″ report, released Monday.

The special-services district can rightly brag about the increased vibrancy in the area wedged between the rivers and Vine and Pine Streets.  The city is cleaner since 1990, serious crime is down, and the churn in retail stores and restaurants is source of small-business strength.

Employment, though, remains a weakness, and if the long-term trend of job destruction does not change, it’s hard to imagine that the city could continue to maintain momentum in other areas.

Read more:  http://www.philly.com/philly/business/columnists/20130423_PhillyInc__Philadelphia_has_gained_much__but_not_jobs.html

Philadelphia’s Queen Village, A Neighborhood Of Reinvention

English: Map of Philadelphia County highlighting planning districts (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Way back when, Queen Village was the place to buy a house if you couldn’t afford Society Hill.

Joseph P. Fanelli Jr., who moved from the suburbs in 1985, readily acknowledges that Queen Village was his second choice.

“But looking at it today,” says Fanelli, president and CEO of Quaker City Manufacturing Co., the new townhouse in the 100 block of Catharine Street he bought 28 years ago for $175,000 “was a great buy.”

It was a lot of money in 1985, especially when you could buy what veteran real estate agent and Queen Village native Kathy Conway calls “a grandmom house” for $50,000.

Twenty years later, Fanelli sold the townhouse and its two secure parking spaces for $575,000. (He moved to a house on Bainbridge Street that his new wife, Katie, an IBM executive, bought when she transferred to Philadelphia.)

Read more: http://www.philly.com/philly/classifieds/real_estate/town-by-town/20130421_Town_By_Town___Queen_Village__By_the_Numbers.html

‘Catastrophic’ Budget Laid Out By Philly Schools

Map of Pennsylvania highlighting Philadelphia County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

If the “catastrophic” budget picture Superintendent William R. Hite Jr. laid out Thursday comes to pass, Philadelphia schools would be virtually unrecognizable come September.

There could be no money for counselors or librarians. There might be no sports or extracurricular activities. No dedicated funds for secretaries, aides, or summer school would be provided. And that would follow the steep cuts made over the last two years.

There also could be 3,000 layoffs, including some teachers.

This doomsday scenario comes as a result of a deficit of more than $300 million in the district’s $2.7 billion 2013-14 budget. Officials have asked for $120 million in additional funding from the state and $60 million from the city, as well as $133 million in concessions from labor unions.

Read more:  http://www.philly.com/philly/education/20130419__Catastrophic__budget_laid_out_by_Philly_schools.html

Hysterical Interview Of Ryan Lochte On Good Day Philadelphia

The interview is funny but after Ryan is done watch Sheinelle Jones laugh so hard she cries, snorts and they go to break.  Ryan has a new reality show on E! which he is promoting, hence the interview.

Click here:  http://www.myfoxphilly.com/video?autoStart=true&topVideoCatNo=default&clipId=8787217

Changing Skyline: Cool Affordable Housing For Young Teachers

Map of Pennsylvania highlighting Philadelphia County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

It’s easy to imagine the sprawling 19th-century brick mill on South Kensington’s Howard Street as just another high-end apartment complex for twentysomething professionals, the newest outpost on Philadelphia’s ever-advancing frontier of gentrification.

Situated a few blocks north of Fishtown‘s hipster bars and BYOB food shrines, Oxford Mills preserves the kind of authentic architectural details that make young, and not-so-young, renters swoon: high ceilings, huge windows, thick wooden beams.  The amenities hail straight from the wired generation’s handbook.  Plans call for an office incubator that rents desk space by the day and a public cafe that spills onto a sliver park furnished with outdoor tables and a fire pit.  You know, for those cool, late summer nights when you want to linger with friends.

But Oxford Mills, which will hold a ceremonial groundbreaking Wednesday, ventures down an uncharted path.  It is being built by a private company, D3 Real Estate, which intends to market the units as affordable housing to teachers, especially novices working in programs like Teach for America, and others who fall into the growing category known as “the working poor.”

Newly minted professionals with college degrees are not generally seen as the target demographic for low-income housing, a term that still brings to mind no-frills residential complexes built for the chronically poor, elderly, or disabled.

Read more:  http://www.philly.com/philly/home/20130415_Changing_Skyline__South_Kensington_housing_development_for_low-wage_workers_is_a_socially_driven_project.html

Amtrak Reports Increase In Ridership On Keystone Line, Says Lancaster Is Third-Busiest Station In State

Ridership on Amtrak’s Keystone line through Lancaster County grew by 5.2 percent in the last six months, the nation’s passenger railroad corporation announced Tuesday.

Amtrak has 13 trains each weekday stopping at the Lancaster, Mount Joy and Elizabethtown stations on the Keystone line and nine weekend trains.  The Keystone line carries passengers between Harrisburg and Philadelphia.

The Keystone carried 723,461 passengers in the first half of the fiscal year, compared to 687,860 during the same period last year.

Read more: http://lancasteronline.com/article/local/836140_Amtrak-reports-increase-in-ridership-on-Keystone-line–says-Lancaster-is-third-busiest-station-in-state.html#ixzz2QAEZu4bn

Schwartz Launches Her 2014 Bid For Governor

English: Official congressional portrait of Congresswoman Allyson Schwartz. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

As U.S. REP. Allyson Schwartz gears up for a 2014 gubernatorial campaign, a familiar name is talking about succeeding her in the 13th Congressional District, which covers parts of Philadelphia and Montgomery County.

Marjorie Margolies, a former television reporter who teaches at the Fels Institute of Government at the University of Pennsylvania, held that seat for one term, from 1993 to 1995.

She famously lost re-election after changing her 1993 vote on then-President Bill Clinton’s budget, giving him a one-vote margin of victory that broke her promise not to support an increase in federal taxes.

There are no hard feelings, though, since they are now related by marriage – Clinton’s daughter, Chelsea, is married to Margolies’ son.

Read more:  http://www.philly.com/philly/news/politics/20130409_Schwartz_launches_her_2014_bid_for_governor.html

PhillyInc: Merger Of Real Estate Firms Tied To Life Sciences May Give West Philadelphia Area A Boost

English: Map of Philadelphia County highlighting West Philadelphia (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

For 50 years, the University City Science Center has been where scientists and start-ups have toiled to build the next generation of Philadelphia-area companies.

But to hear science center president and CEO Stephen S. Tang, what would really help nurture that entrepreneurial soup would be if a big life-sciences company were to put its headquarters or research operations in West Philadelphia.

Given that several of the biggest drug companies locally have already made long-term commitments elsewhere, there is nothing on the horizon presently.  But a merger between two real estate firms that focus on life-sciences properties may aid Tang’s quest.

Late last month, BioMed Realty Trust Inc. said it would acquire Wexford Science & Technology L.L.C. in a $640 million transaction.

Read more: http://www.philly.com/philly/business/columnists/20130408_PhillyInc__Merger_of_real_estate_firms_tied_to_life_sciences_may_give_West_Philadelphia_area_a_boost.html#ixzz2PsybwX00 
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A Philly Accent? Fuhgeddaboudit

Map of Pennsylvania highlighting Philadelphia County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Like most Philadelphia natives, I know the sound of a Philadelphia accent:

“So I tollum straight up, ‘Yo, Paulie, your sister’s wit me.  And we’re gawna ride widges down-ashore or this car don’t make it past Pashunk Avenue!’ “

And like most Philadelphia natives, I don’t hear any accent in my voice when ordering kawfee at the Melrose or wooder ice at Rita’s.  Yanohwaddamean?

Seriously, me?  An accent?  Fuhgeddaboudit.

Nevertheless, I was disturbed by the recent headline “The Strange Decline of the Philly Accent” in the Atlantic magazine‘s online site, www.theatlanticcities.com.

Read more:  http://www.philly.com/philly/news/20130407_A_Philly_accent__Fuhgeddaboudit.html

Creating A Buzz For 14 Philadelphia Neighborhoods

English: Map of Philadelphia County highlighting West Philadelphia (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

To some, they are former diamonds in the rough, locales that a decade or so of change has polished into something now truly unique.

And many have made the cut as city neighborhoods that the Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corp. will be showcasing in a new, two-year campaign.

The 14 areas, to be unveiled Friday as part of the campaign’s launch, are: Fairmount, Spring Garden, Graduate Hospital, Callowhill, Bella Vista, East Passyunk, Fishtown, Northern Liberties, Queen Village, Pennsport, Cedar Park, Spruce Hill, University City, and Powelton Village.

“Philly is a city of neighborhoods. What does that really mean?” GPTMC president and chief executive Meryl Levitz said of the impetus behind the campaign. “We want people to go one block farther. People haven’t felt this good about Philly as they do now.”

Read more: http://www.philly.com/philly/business/20130405_Philadelphia_s_gems__Its_neighborhoods__that_is.html#ixzz2PbMBcjXg 
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Philadelphia’s Homicide Tally Shows Dramatic Drop

English: This is my own work, Public Domain Photograph, not copyrighted Ed Yakovich http://www.flickr.com/photos/10396190@N04 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Editor’s note:  Great news!

PHILLY’S HOMICIDE rate is raising some eyebrows – but this time, it’s for all of the right reasons.

From the start of the year through Wednesday night, 54 homicides were recorded, a 39 percent drop from the same period a year ago, according to police statistics.

Shootings were down 20 percent, from 274 to 218, and overall violent crime fell 9 percent through March 31, the last date for which those figures were available.

For a city that has long been haunted by stubbornly high homicide tallies, the lower figures represent an encouraging sign of progress.

Whether that progress can be maintained through the notoriously violent spring and summer months is anyone’s guess.

Read more:  http://www.philly.com/philly/news/20130405_Philadelphia_s_homicide_tally_shows_dramatic_drop.html

Philly Coffee Shop Ranked #1 In America

Coffee cup icon (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Philly’s Ultimo Coffee, which started at 15th and Mifflin Streets in 2009 and opened a second shop last year at 22d and Catharine Streets, just snagged the #1 spot on TheDailyMeal.com’s list of America’s Best Coffee Shops.

“What makes Ultimo tick — and brings in Philadelphians in flocks? Simplicity, and a little bit of love,” the blurb reads, in part.  ”And many will argue that Philadelphia, often seen as the underdog to the big cities of the Northeast, is hands-down the winner for the best cup of coffee because the coffee scene there is hardly home to the snobbery that can come with ‘Third Wave’ coffee.”  No atty-tude!