As Philadelphia gears up for another exciting bike race, those looking for a place with a good view can walk, bike or drive to East Falls. We’ll have prime seating and a great party with something fun for all ages.

On Sunday, June 3, 2012 from 9am–2pm, the Riverfront will be set aside for watching the bike race and enjoying the annual East Falls Bike Race Block Party.

East Falls residents turned out on April 13 to sample 20 tasty entries in the 2012 East Falls Chili Cook-off.  A team of judges chose the best chili con carne and best veggie chili in professional and amateur categories, while the public voted on the overall People’s Choice champion.

Judges for the 2012 Chili Cook-Off were Doris Bartuska, MD, Professor Emeritus at Drexel University College of Medicine, who has roots in the community dating from her student days at Women’s Medical College; Roxborough resident Jason Rego, Executive Sous Chef at Tir Na Nog Restaurant in Center City; and, Stephanie Rowe, branch head, Falls of Schuylkill Library. 

The winners of best chili amateur division were East Falls residents Alex and Heather Crujeiras, while in the professional category, kudos and the award went to chef Diane Floyd of Meal Makers, A Personal Culinary Service.  Honors for best vegetarian chili in the amateur category went to Elana Benamy, while Epicure Cafe won in the professional category.

After three deaths in our neighborhood in a week’s time, East Falls residents are fed up.  They turned out in force on a Sunday evening in March, on short notice, to demand action from the Streets Department, PennDOT, the Police Department, Councilman Curtis Jones and Mayor Nutter.  Invitations were hand delivered to all.  To their credit, Streets Commissioner Clarena Tolson, Councilman Curtis Jones, Captain Johnson, and David Dlugosz, Streets Department Traffic Engineer, Louis Belmonte, District Traffic Engineer, PennDOT, attended as well, to face the crowd.

The meeting focused on what can be done now, and in the longer run, to make Henry Avenue safe.  By design, it is not. It encourages speeding.  It is designed to move a large volume of traffic, as we have been told repeatedly by the Streets Department and PennDOT. Enforcement is not the answer.  The City cannot afford to detail police with speed timers there 24/7.  Periodic and unpredictable enforcement would help.  At the meeting, it was promised.   Right after the meeting, police were out there writing tickets but that has not continued.

A group calling itself the St. Bridget Restoration Fund is waging a hastily mounted campaign to raise money from parents, alumni, and parishioners to save the school.

The fundraising effort is part of a broader save-our-school strategy that calls for possible appeal to the Vatican and relentless pressure on the Archdiocese to change its decision.

Some 100 parents, alumni, teachers and students gathered on a recent evening at the Falls of Schuylkill Library to demand that their school remain open.  

“We’re fighting on many different fronts, political, financial, and legal,” said Sean Patrick Stevens, father of a pre-K son at the school and organizer of the meeting.  “We can’t afford to let a school like this close.”

The recent surge in home burglaries in the 39th District prompts our local force to remind residents how to deter thieves.

Make it Difficult for a Burglar

• • Most burglaries are committed by opportunist thieves. In two out of ten burglaries they don't even have to use force - they get in through an open door or window.
• Look at your home through the burglar's eyes - are there places where they could break in unseen? Have you fitted strong locks on your doors and windows? Would they have to make a lot of noise by breaking glass?
• • Look at your Construction Site or House under Renovation through the burglar’s eyes -  is it unsecured and full of expensive tools, ideal for breaking into the rest of the house and removing anything of value.
• • Do not post your travel plans on social media sites (Facebook, Twitter, etc)
  

Click To Zoom - Schuylkill Falls School’s second grade boys’ class, May 1957

In March, East Falls Historical Society began a new monthly feature for The Fallser, "Falls Faces," where readers are asked if they can identify anyone in an accompanying photo. According to East Falls residents, Theresa Corcoran and Ralph Altamore, the photo in the March “Falls Faces” feature shows Samuel Michini, Albert Iannitto, Frank Cecerio, and Joseph Malizia. Thank you, Theresa and Frank.

So, for this month’s “Falls Faces” feature, do you recognize anyone in the above photo? Taken in May 1957, it shows Schuylkill Falls School’s second grade boys’ class.

If you can identify any of these youngsters, contact Ellen Sheehan at 215-848-8396.

Once again, it’s time to join your friends and neighbors for the East Falls Chili Cook-off. This year, it is on Friday, April 13, 6:00 to 8:30 pm, at Sherman Hall, next to Old Academy Players, 3544 Indian Queen Lane.  Once again, a distinguished panel of judges will select the best vegetarian and meat chilis in the professional and amateur categories. The top honor, however, is the People’s Choice, the chili voted best by the community.

All are welcome at the cook-off.  Admission is $15 per person, $25 for two. Children under 12 are admitted free. There will be a 50-50 raffle and activities for children. East Falls Community Council sponsors the Cook-off.  Proceeds support community activities, programs, and organizations.

Want to enter? It might not be too late.
Call Roger Marsh at 215-848-1376 or review the cooking application at EFCC website, eastfallscommunity.org.

Photo Caption:
Friends and neighbors enjoying chili and conversation at last year’s cook-off.  Photo by F. Joseph LoCastro.

A group of parents and parishioners from St. Bridget Church is challenging the decision of the Philadelphia Archdiocese to close St. Bridget School and merge with Holy Child in Manayunk. 

The group, which also includes alumni of the school and community representatives, call themselves the Committee for a Sustainable Holy-Child –St. Bridget Regional School. They argue that based on enrollment, demographics, school plant, accessibility, and neighborhood stability, St. Bridget deserves to be the site of the proposed merger, not Holy Child.

In a letter to Mary E. Rochford, Superintendent of Catholic Schools, with copies to Archbishop Charles J. Chaput, and schools Blue Ribbon Commission Chair Jack Quindlen, parents John and Megan Grady ask the Archdiocese to “reconsider” its decision.

The East Falls Annual Chili Cook-off is set for Friday, April 13, 6:00 to 8:30 pm, at Sherman Hall, next to Old Academy Playhouse on Indian Queen Lane.

All cooks—amateur and professional—are encouraged to enter and compete for bragging rights.  A team of judges will make awards in the professional and amateur categories for best chili con carne, best meatless chili, and best side dish.  The big honor, though, is the People’s Choice—awarded to the cook voted best by the public.

We bring a report of another fender bender for our community’s roster of vehicle mishaps. According to the eyewitness account, a couple of Philadelphia University students met unexpectedly at the intersection of Warden Drive and Vaux Street, on Monday, Feb 6. 

After stopping at the stop sign on Vaux Street, one student proceeded to drive across Warden Drive, expecting the approaching car coming down Warden Drive to stop. There is no stop sign for Warden Drive traffic, so that vehicle never slowed. Crash! We are delighted to report that no one was hurt, but the damage to both cars was extensive.

Join your neighbors for the Fifth Annual Arboretum Cleanup Day on Saturday, April 14, 10am to 1pm.  The Arboretum, also known as the Rock Garden, is one of the secret treasures of East Falls.  It’s the wooded hillside on Midvale Avenue, between Mifflin School and the railroad overpass. 

Created in the 1930s by the Works Progress Administration, the Arboretum boasts handsome trees among huge boulders.  The area suffered from two decades of neglect until George Grigonis and other Fallsers organized the first of four cleanups that have removed tons of invasive vegetation, dead branches, rotten tree trunks, and other debris.

In a Press Release dated January 30, 2012, The Pep Boys – Manny, Moe & Jack, the nation’s leading automotive aftermarket service and retail chain, whose corporate office is located at the edge of East Falls, announced that it has entered into a definitive merger agreement under which it will be acquired by The Gores Group, one of the nation’s leading investment firms, led by founder and CEO, Alec Gores. Total enterprise value of the transaction is approximately $1.0 billion.

The hits keep on coming here in “Crash Alley” in East Falls.

Usually, East Falls is portrayed and publicized as a walkable community. What most fail to realize, however, is that to do so you may place your life in peril.  Accidents which begin in the street, many times end on our sidewalks -- placing pedestrians at risk.

In 2011, the short span of time between December 26th and January 12th was marred with at least three accidents in the vicinity of one of East Falls’ most prominent landmarks, the Queen Lane Reservoir.

Anticipating the “ax to fall” did not cushion that blow as parishioners of St. Bridget Roman Catholic Parish in East Falls learned on January 6th of this year that its school was listed for “consolidation” by the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.

St. Bridget School, the Archdiocese’s “Blue Ribbon Commission” had determined, would merge with Holy Child School, a “regional” school in Manayunk, at its Hermitage Street site. The consolidation would mean transporting St. Bridget’s 215 students to another community.

Already a merger of four Catholic Schools in Manayunk, Holy Child was formed several years ago in the Archdiocese’s last round of closures and consolidations.

They’re off! Many East Falls families with young children attended the opening of Ridge Avenue’s Inn Yard Park playground in December.

Special thanks to Jennifer Arnoldi, East Falls mom and “I’ll-never-give-up” go-getter, who was relentless in her determination to procure both funding and volunteers to bring the project to fruition.

Councilman Curtis Jones, Jr. climbed the 8’ high fish, pausing for a photo op – and a big breath!

Games, face-painting, activities, treats, music and Santa delighted a bevy of young Fallsers, compliments of East Falls Community Council.

The Philadelphia Redevelopment Authority (PRA) Board selected local developer Onion Flats to develop the Rivage site at Kelly Drive, Calumet Street and Ridge Avenue. The Onion Flats proposal will bring 126 residential units and 8,700 square feet of retail to the currently vacant parcel. For years, East Falls has worked to make sure that a good use would come to this City-owned, purchased to make certain it would be developed to benefit the area. This particular project was strongly preferred by the East Falls community.

Just when many on the East Falls Community Council’s Traffic Committee were beginning to believe that the month of December would be atypical for the community and free of traffic accidents, word arrived of two accidents occurring on December 19th.

Details are sketchy as this article to goes to print, however, the following is known.

The first mishap occurred at the intersection of Vaux Street and Warden Drive around 9am. It is known that two vehicles were involved, one of which careened into the mailbox. This underscores a pattern with many of the traffic accidents here in East Falls. They start in the street and many times end up on sidewalks or on a resident’s property, putting many more folks beyond the drivers of the vehicles at risk for injury, or worse!

The second mishap occurred on School House Lane near the R-6 Commuter Rail crossing. Again, details are sketchy. It happened after sunset and involved at least two cars. A number of emergency vehicles were on hand, including an ambulance.

The EFCC Traffic Committee advocates on behalf of the entire East Falls community for safer streets and enforcement of traffic laws.

If you are witness to an accident anywhere and at any time in East Falls, please send us the information: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Streetscape Progress

Thanks to all who attended the groundbreaking celebration for East Falls’ long awaited “Welcome to East Falls” island at Ridge, Midvale and Kelly Drive. It was a wonderful thing to kick off this long-awaited project. This streetscape project is estimated to take about four months. Before the end of 2011, work will begin on installing an electrical conduit and creating the new curbs. Already, you can see that the Sunoco Station has a single entrance on Midvale Avenue (unfortunately, the tree closest to Ridge and Midvale had to be taken down because it was hollow inside and unsafe).

Soon, at the Mason’s building, the curb edge will be transformed, with a new entrance to the small parking lot there. In the spring, the pedestrian island will be installed.

Come one, come all, to the grand opening of the Inn Yard Park playground on December 3rd at 11am, rain or shine. Children and adults will be entertained by Ben FM, holiday music, give-aways, a juggler, face painting, children's music, a participatory African dance, balloons, and, of course, our beautiful brand-new playground. 

You will not go hungry or thirsty for, in the spirit of the holiday season, pizza will be provided by Slices, and hot chocolate courtesy of East Falls Presbyterian Church. We are also grateful for the financial support of East River Bank and the food donations from Brother's Deli.