Eight-year-olds Ava Schwemler and Iris Wexler sold ice water to passing motorists on Saint Martins Lane this week to raise funds for the American Red Cross and Habitat for Humanity. (Photo by Michael J. Mishak)
by MICHAEL J. MISHAK
As many Northwest residents felt the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina at the gas pumps last week, many more felt the profound devastation in their hearts, volunteering their homes to displaced families and pledging donations to the massive relief effort.
From lemonade stands to relief concerts, Chestnut Hill residents responded in varied ways to what many have called the worst natural disaster in the country’s history. The storm, which hit the Gulf Coast region last Monday, and its aftermath has claimed untold thousands and displaced more than 500,000 people.
Last Friday, business owner David Schieber set up a situation room in the offices of the Chestnut Hill Community Association. Seated before a laptop computer, an emotional and sleepless Schieber worked frantically to locate an evacuee family in need of shelter.
Governor Ed Rendell was among the hundreds of people who came to pay tribute to long-time Chestnut Hill resident Ernesta Drinker Ballard at a memorial service at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church on Friday.
Ballard, who died Aug. 11 at the age of 85, was a giant in Philadelphia’s horticultural and preservation circles, a founding member of the National Organization for Woman, published author and respected administrator responsible for bringing the Philadelphia Flower Show to international prominence.
In his homily, Ballard’s cousin, the Rev. Hentzi Elek, remembered her as a feminist, leader and “mother to many in this great city … [who] shared her gifts and talents with everyone she encountered.”
In the final stretch of a short campaign season, three candidates seeking election to the state House of Representatives in the 200th District traded barbs at a Chestnut Hill forum last week, touching on everything from the minimum wage to school reform to the controversial legislative pay raise.
Democrat Cherelle Parker, Republican Robert Rossman and Green Marlene Santoyo pushed their platforms and answered questions from an audience mostly stacked with party operatives and supporters.
Still, the event, sponsored by the Chestnut Hill Community Association, provided some members of the electorate one last chance to probe the legislative hopefuls before a special election on Sept. 13. The winner of that contest will succeed former state Rep. LeAnna Washington, who was sworn into the Senate in June.
Last week, both Rossman and Santoyo railed against what they consider an entrenched, ineffective Democratic power base in Northwest Philadelphia. Responding to the criticism, Parker billed herself as the “homegrown, not handpicked” candidate with the government experience to advance
Bogged down in a bitter political quagmire for more than a year, an historic fleet of 18 World War II-era streetcars returned to Girard Avenue last week, 13 years after SEPTA “temporarily” replaced them with diesel buses.
The transit agency’s restoration of light rail on Route 15, which stretches from Port Richmond to Haddington, fulfills part of a promise it made to the city under then-Mayor Rendell in 1992, when it cut regular trolley service on Routes 15, 23 and 56 to remedy a budget crunch.
Initially, SEPTA promised to return trolleys to the three routes within five years, but it did not allocate resources for the project until Rendell threatened to veto the transit agency’s budget in 1997.
Eight-year-olds Ava Schwemler and Iris Wexler sold ice water to passing motorists on Saint Martins Lane this week to raise funds for the American Red Cross and Habitat for Humanity. (Photo by Michael J. Mishak)
Ernesta Drinker Ballard