May 2009 Archives

I received a flier about a free summer educational program at Community Progress Council.

The program, based on Tigers Action Plan from the Tiger Woods Foundation, is for kids age 8 to 17, and runs from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Thursday, from June 15 to July 16.

The program includes field trips, computer lessons, volunteer projects and character building, the flier says.

Call LoRita Freeland at 846-4600 for information.

Learn more about CPC here or the Tiger Woods program here.

Also, the city's summer playground program starts June 29. More information is available at the city Web site.

Update: I initially wrote that the city's program is free. But there are fees associated with it: $27 for the whole summer, or the daily fees vary depending on what activity is going on. See the schedule and get the details here.

Find more ways to entertain your kids (or put them to work) with the city's YES guide for 2009, found here.

Re-Stor-York will hold a recycling and e-cycling event from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday (May 30), according to an e-mail from Downtown Inc. The shop is on West North Street in York.

Re-Stor-York will take and recycle items such as old or non-working appliances, sewing machines, bikes, batteries, nails, etc.

E-Cycle 1st will take items such as old televisions (no wooden consoles or big screens), computer components, radios and speakers.

For more information about Re-Stor-York call 852-7574 or visit  www.restoryork.org. For info on computer and electronic donations contact E-Cycle 1st at 880-0637. 

I think I wrote months ago about my dilemma of whether to donate or save. I ended up donating a few items and keeping a few others. Maybe this will be my chance to donate everything I saved last time.

We had a bit of a scare in my apartment building last night.

I stopped in on my way to a city council meeting and thought I smelled something, possibly gas, in the stairwell. But I couldn't smell it in my apartment. As I headed out of the building, I began calling the other building residents to see if they smelled it, too.

One of my neighbors, upon arriving home, smelled it, too. He began calling residents. I went to the city council meeting, all the while hoping my building was still there when I came out. (I had made sure my neighbors would reach me during the meeting if I was really needed.)

My neighbor called the gas company, and someone arrived promptly and discovered that one resident (who was not home) had left two burners on with gas leaking out but no flame. The gas company employee stuck around to make sure the vapors made it out of the building.

Yet another example of why living in an apartment building connected to other buildings scares me a bit. I can be as obsessive as I want about making sure the stove is off, the toaster oven is unplugged, etc. But I can't control what the guy downstairs or next door does. And I've written too many stories about fires that start in one spot and then take out an entire city block.

I can't control anyone, but I can ask, via the blog, that everyone be careful. Please, check your smoke detectors. Be careful with things like gas appliances. And if you think something is wrong, call the authorities.

There's a new restaurant coming to town, according to a biz update on our Web site.

Read it here, but the gist is that Mi Caldero Restaurant and Deli opens tomorrow in the Loretta Claiborne building, 605 S. George St.  Sounds yummy.

Sherman Street, between Hay Street and Market Street, will be closed on weekdays from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. for road work starting June 1.

A detour has been set up, according to a news release, but the city is advising drivers to find alternate routes or expect delays.

The work is expected to continue through mid-July.

Interested in all things transportation? See the Road Runner blog.

So, to update on my last post, I went out to pick up my packages and met the UPS driver.

I told him I was sorry for missing him twice, and he was great about it. He told me to leave him a note next time, and it's not a problem to swing by my office because it's on his route.

Awesome.

I didn't catch his name, but that is terrific customer service.

So, I ended up answering my own question about how to get packages delivered if you can't be home to get them -- talk to the city UPS driver because he is the best.

Last week, I was expecting a package from UPS.

We kept missing each other, mostly because they insist on delivering during times when I have to be a work. Sorry UPS delivery guy, it is not possible for me to sit around from 10:30 a.m. until 3 p.m. waiting for my mail.

Anyhow, I signed the back of the "missed you" post it note UPS leaves, indicating it was OK to put the packages inside the first of two doors on my apartment building. The UPS guy wasn't having it, so tonight I make a trip out to Willow Court to pick it up at the warehouse. (UPDATE: He didn't see my note. See above.)

I have a question for city residents who can't sit around all day waiting: How do you get your packages delivered?

Is there an easy way to accomplish this -- preferably one that does not require me driving out to the township to pick stuff up four days after it actually would have arrived had I been home to get it? (Again, see the update where I answer this question.)

One of my pet peeves is when people walk across the street in the middle of a block while paying absolutely no attention to traffic.

I'm not about to say I've never crossed the street anywhere other than a crosswalk. I have, namely in front of my apartment building. But I've tried to wait for a moment when there is no traffic before making my move. As a driver, it makes me crazy when people just waltz into the street and expect you and your fast-moving vehicle to just work around them.

Friday night was an excellent example. I was headed south on North George Street, somewhere in the area of the Valencia, and I noticed a group of girls standing on one side. Then one of the girls thrust out her left hand, as though it had magical properties that can stop traffic, and marched herself across the street, forcing cars to stop.

With George Street being one of the busiest in the city, I think it might be wise to use the crosswalks there. Yeah, it'll require some extra walking. But it'll be better for everyone.

Monday is Memorial Day, so city offices are closed.

ALL trash collections for the week of Memorial Day are delayed one day.

So if your trash is normally collected on Monday, it'll be collected on Tuesday. If it's typically collected Tuesday, it'll be picked up on Wednesday. And so on. (This seems like it shouldn't be that difficult, but I know my neighborhood is full of people who can't figure it out on a regular week.)

And, the Graham Aquatic Center's outdoor pool reopens on Sunday. The pool is at 542 N. Newberry St. The hours and fees can be found on the YMCA's Web site. Click on news, then scroll down.

(File photo at right shows Dasir Harris of York cooling off at the pool last year.)

Check out the Cheap Eats column for info on a new city restaurant, Esaan, which offers the interesting combo of Thai food and ... gelato?

 Read more here.

Check out Esaan's menu here.

The results are in, and Kim Bracey secured the Democratic nomination for Mayor. The vote tallies were:
Bracey: 1337
Genevieve Ray: 780
Gerry Turner: 256
Roderick Artis: 64

In the Democratic city council race, Henry Nixon pulled out early as the leader while Joe Stein and Renee Nelson were neck in neck most of the night. But in the end, the results were:
Nixon: 1159
Nelson: 1048
Stein: 985

Read the mayoral story here.

Read the council story here.

And, be sure to check out the map our graphics department made, which shows how each precinct in the city voted for mayor. (There was a tie in one disrict.) It can be found here.

On the Republican side, both the city council and mayoral races were uncontested.
Wendell K. Banks is the mayoral nominee and Jay Andrzejczyk and Nina Aimable are the council nominees.

April ShotSpotter data is out. Interestingly, the number of gunshots, firecrackers and "other noises" recorded were nearly identical to March.

Gunshots: 186 in March, 185 in April
Firecrackers: 341 in March, 334 in April
Other noises: 171 in March, 178 in April

Download the monthly data report here.

To see other monthly reports, visit the city's Web site. The reports are in the right-hand column, under the heading "Important Documents."

Or, if you'd like to see the results for a specific date, go to the City Living page.



 

Summer's coming, and it brought a plethora of news releases about city parks. So here's a look at a few things happening in parks.

• Bring on Play and volunteers are out building the new playground at Lincoln Park today and will be out again tomorrow. They're still raising money. BOP night at Sovereign Bank Stadium will be June 18, at the 7 p.m. game against the Newark Bears. BOP will get $4 a ticket. Go to the Revolution Web site to buy tickets, click "fundraising code access" and enter BOP09 to make sure BOP gets your proceeds.
• Merrill Lynch employees will spread mulch and pick up litter at Campus Park (that's the one at South Duke Street and College Avenue) tomorrow through the "Angels in the Park" program. The company donated $1,000 for the mulch. Want to be a park angel? Contact Tom Landis at 849-2276 or tlandis@yorkcity.org.
• The York County Community Foundation and the city will hold a public meeting at 7 p.m. May 28 to review a draft master plan for renovating Penn Park. The meeting will be at Zion United Church of Christ, 100 Lafayette St.
• The parks need your pennies. The city is looking for businesses and organizations to put collection boxes out for the "Pennies for Programs" fundraising drive. Boxes are available until June 5, according to a news release. The goal is to raise $10,000 for the Summer Playground programs at four city parks. More information on the summer programs is here. 

(The file photo above shows Dejon DeShields throwing a foam javelin during the Day of Play at Lincoln Park last summer.)

Workers were in the process of removing the facade of the Market Street garage this morning. The garage is in the beginning stages of a $3 million renovation.

"Ugly" isn't my term, by the way. When I interviewed business administrator Mike O'Rourke about it last year, he called the garage "a monolithic ugly sitting there on Market Street."

Someone else once pointed out to me that the stuff covering the front of the garage is the same as what's on the side of the Rodeway Inn on North George Street. If it's not the same thing, it's pretty close.

It's also worth pointing out that what used to be an entrance lane to the garage from Duke Street has been closed, and part of it has become a pedestrian walkway. But you can still access the garage from Market Street. 

I urge you all to visit reporter Tom Joyce's political blog today for an entry that's not exactly political. Tom was on duty yesterday when news came in that a 9-year-old girl had been shot to death on South Duke Street.

Read Tom's entry here.

If you haven't read the story about Ciara Savage, the news and updates are here.

Our business reporter had a story several weeks ago that MB & Company, located at 19 N. George St., would soon become Bistro 19.  I just noticed the sign for the new restaurant hanging on the side of the building yesterday, and today, someone on The Exchange has pointed out that there's a new Web site.

So go here to learn a little more about Bistro 19. The menu's not up yet, so I'm curious as to what kind of a price range it will have. In the business story, one of the owners said it would have an "upscale, elegantly casual" menu.

This (annoying) rain we've been having for the past week has caused the the first build day for Lincoln Park to be postponed.

Background: Bring on Play raised money to build new playgrounds at Lincoln Park. Build days were scheduled for Saturday May 9 and Saturday May 16.

But, an e-mail from the city tells me this weekend's work is off. I drove past the park on the way in, and it was looking pretty muddy.

New build days are May 15 and 16.

Volunteers who had signed up to work this weekend will be contacted to reschedule. Anyone who signed up for May 16 should still plan to attend that weekend. Let's hope we haven't washed away by then.

I noticed an "open" sign on a new FoodMart at the corner of Penn and Market streets the other day.

According to one of our experts over at The Exchange, the shop belongs to a former Market and Penn Farmers Market vendor who branched out.

Read more from someone who's been in the store here.