Angie Mason: March 2009 Archives

The York Young Professionals Home Tour is coming up May 8.

Eight homes in four city neighborhoods will be featured this year, including a "penthouse" at 18 S. George St., according to the YYP Web site.  This year's reception will be held at Codo, the new apartment complex at 241 N. George St. The Little Ivory Blues Band will perform on the roof deck, and Agrodolce will cater.

Cost is $5. I didn't see a complete list of properties on the site yet, but I'm sure it will be coming later.

(Photo is of Will and Nicole Clark, who were on the home tour in 2005.)

I've seen several notices about upcoming city events recently, so I'm going to round them all up here.

Flipside beat me to this one, but here it is. Go Green In the City with the Beaver Street Merchants Association from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. April 18. The event includes musicians, local artisans, local green businesses and more. Find more details here or here.

Box Lunch Revue comes back May 5. Live entertainment will be out at Cherry Lane on Tuesdays and Thursdays throughout the summer. I don't see a full schedule up yet, but I'll keep you posted.

The 34th Annual Olde York Street Fair will be held from 12:30 to 6:30 p.m. on Mother's Day, May 10.  Applications for the street fair are available on the city's Web site now.

And finally, the city is holding a Citizens Fire Academy starting in May. Applications are due May 15. They're available on the city's Web site, too.

Last week, I wrote about these stickers I've seen posted on the parking meters in my block.

I've left several messages at the city's parking bureau with no response. But today I talked to Joshua George, the chairman of the General Authority, which oversees parking in the city.

George said he noticed the stickers at some meters on Market Street recently. He said they're just an effort to keep customers better informed of the meter hours and costs. The authority has received complaints in the past from people who say it's not clear what the hours are, he said.

So, the better informed they can make people, the less likely they'll hear complaints later.

The other night, I had my semi-regular phone chat with my sister, who lives in West Virginia.

Sometime during the conversation, she said "You must have your windows open." She thought that because she heard the vrrrooom of what she thought was a motorcycle outside.

Nope, windows closed. All sealed up. But with Market Street just steps away, the rev of engines is a constant sound -- even more so on weekends. Sometimes I think I've become accustomed to the noise. I don't think I even noticed that motorcycle until my sister pointed it out. And she's not the first person to remark on the noise from the other end of the phone line. You should hear it when a fire truck blares by.

I've written about this before, sorry to be redundant. But I started thinking. It's going to start warming up soon (I hope). That means it will be time to open the windows and let in some fresh air, which my cat absolutely loves. But opening the windows means inviting even more noise in the apartment. It'll be nearly impossible to watch television again, at least until it gets to be super hot. Then I can close the windows and turn on the air conditioner. But even the AC's hum can't drown out those engines.

On Saturday evening, I was making my way back into the city and stopped at Chinatown Express on West Market Street to pick up dinner.

I parked at a meter, and someone parked at the meter in front of me. I went in and picked up my curry chicken, and as I was on the way out, I passed the guy who parked in front of me, who was helping a child up the steps.

Then I realized he'd left his car running at the curb. I didn't see anyone else inside.

Seriously? I know the pickup counter at Chinatown Express is probably less than 20 feet from the curb, but it still doesn't seem like a great idea to leave your car running. When I park anywhere, I try to take out everything that seems worthwhile. After reading all the police log entries where people's cars have been broken into for change, I'm even nervous to leave pennies in there. So leaving the car running seems to be asking for trouble.

Maybe I don't know the whole story -- maybe he locked the doors and had another key to get in or something. (Or maybe, speaking as someone who has locked her keys in the car while it was running, it was an accident.) 

Still, seems like it'd just be easier to take the extra five seconds to start the car again.

Forgive me if I'm just behind on this one, but over the weekend I noticed a sign for a new Thai restaurant at the old National Grill, in the first block of North Beaver Street.

Esaan has a Web site up with its menu posted. Looks yummy. The site says it will open in early 2009.

Anybody else notice these around town?

I spotted these stickers on the parking meters in my block a week or so ago. It seems like a good idea to make people aware of the meter hours and such, even though the stickers probably can't be expected to last long, as a friend pointed out.

But maybe a week before I saw these stickers, someone stopped me in my block to ask me the hours for meters. And once, as I plugged a meter on George Street on a weekday, a passerby wrongly assured me that I didn't need to since it was about 6:15 p.m. So, looks like there are some people who could use the extra info.

But I parked in the first block of Market Street the other night and didn't see any stickers there. I've been trying to reach the parking bureau to see what's up, and I haven't heard back.

Three years in the city, and I finally made it to the St. Patrick's Day Parade.

It's not really my fault I'd never been there.

In 2006, I was working and assigned to cover the parade. But snow caused the event to be called off, so I spent the day wandering to see how people spent the holiday.

Last year ... OK, I can't remember where I was last year, but it wasn't the parade.

So this year, I made it. It was a good show, even if it was looooong. Several city candidates were in the lineup, holding up signs, handing out stickers and other election goodies. Bagpipers were on my list of favorite entries, and  Tim Fulton (decked out in some bright yellow pants) seemed to be enjoying his role as grand marshal.

It was a fun day. But if you missed the parade, I'm sure you can still find a place to celebrate tomorrow.

(That photo was taken by one of our photographers, Jason Plotkin.)

I was browsing around the City's Web site today and noticed that new ShotSpotter results were finally up.

I think the last monthly report available was from November. But now the information is good through February. So, I updated the gadget we have on the City Living page so you can run a date and see how many gunshots, firecrackers and other noises were recorded.

I haven't spent too much time with the data yet, but I see the obvious spike in firecrackers around the holidays. Notice any other trends?

To visit the City Living page, click here.

To see the monthly reports from the city, click here. The ShotSpotter reports are on the right side under the headline "Important Documents."

It's ba-aack. Street sweeping, my warm-weather nightmare, returns March 17.

Don't get me wrong, I have no problems with the fundamental purpose of street sweeping. The trash can definitely pile up on our street, so anything designed to help make it look a little better out there is fine with me.

I'm just so bad at remembering to put my car in the right place on the right day. I can't tell you how many times I've gotten reminder phone calls after midnight, crawled out of bed and pulled on my shoes to go drive my car around the block and park on the other side.

I'm trying to remember right now how my block works ... no parking after midnight the third Thursday of the month on one side, and the fourth Saturday on the other side. Or is it the fourth Thursday and the third Saturday? I'll have to check the signs again.

Last year, I actually set my cell phone's alarm to go off on street-sweeping days. I'm not sure it helped, but I'll try anything to avoid a ticket or tow.

Read up on street sweeping here.

Over the weekend, I told you that the York Coffee Co. had a sign up indicated they were closed and would reopen under new management.

Today, I looked again as I headed to City Hall and the "open" sign appeared to be on. So feel free to get your caffeine fix once again.

From the city:

York Mayor John Brenner will give the 7th annual State of the City address from 5 to 7 p.m. March 25.

The speech will take place at York College's Collegiate Performing Arts Center.

A reception will be held before the speech with proceeds benefiting the city's YorkScape fund. Admission for the event is $10 or free for students with a school ID.

Nominations for the York Awards, to be presented after the speech, are being accepted until 4:30 p.m. March 16. Plans are to post the nomination forms at www.yorkcity.org.

What do you want to hear the mayor talk about?

The city issued the following press release today:

Mayor John S. Brenner reminds residents to clear their sidewalks of snow and ice.

Residents are also reminded that according to Section 302.3.1 of the City of York Property Maintenance Code, the owner, occupant and/or tenant of every property in the City shall remove all snow and ice from all sidewalks on the property within eight hours after snow has ceased to fall. The cleared area shall be at least 36 inches wide along the entire length of the sidewalk.

Snow that has stopped falling after 10 p.m. must be removed before 10 a.m. the next morning.

To view the full section of the ordinance visit www.yorkcity.org or for more information call the Bureau of Permits, Planning and Zoning at (717) 849-2256.

Today is the kind of day I wish I still drove my grandfather's old Jeep. It would plow through everything, no problem.

Anyway, it was pretty nasty on my drive from the city to West Manchester Township this morning. There wasn't a clear road in sight. Everything was pretty much covered.

My car was parked pointing south on South Queen Street, and typically I would have snuck down Mason Avenue to Duke Street and made my way to Philadelphia Street. But I figured that the alley wouldn't be clear, so I took Princess Street to George Street. I still slid around on several streets.

So be careful out there. If you can, stay home!