Views from Point Breeze

I read with sadness about the passing of Lana Felton-Ghee.  I met Lana while I was Director of MBE/WBE Development at the Redevelopment Authority.  She had been involved in contracts at the airport and was trying to get work on a printing contract.  She was savvy and intent on being part of the myriad of work that we oversaw.  She was also a very sharp dresser.  She was interested in working on Convention Center contracts also and had attended opportunity meetings when I was part of an oversight committee for the expansion. She was also credited with running the election campaign of W. Wilson Goode.  He was the first African American Mayor of Philadelphia.  She won a 1976 Bicentennial contract and worked with John Street and Ed Rendell.  Any of us who had an interest in minority participation on city contracts knew who Lana was.  For her husband, children and grand-children, I wish you Godspeed on the healing process after the transition o...

Yesterday was a pretty exhausting day.  I started delivering products to the Church at 8:00 AM.  I then went to pick up Terry Carpenter and Earl Boyd to begin the process of preparing Thanksgiving meals for Seniors and shut ins in the South Philadelphia area.  After dropping the products off, Terry and I went to Dunkin Donuts and Pathmark.  My organization was also sponsoring a Thanksgiving dinner at Vare Recreation Center with the Young Chances Foundation.  Thanks to Tracy Montgomery, an ELITE representative, for assisting with the meal preparation also. By the time that we returned to the Church, Earl had it smelling like heaven.  My running around was to continue.  I had to pick up Kim Smith and go to Esposito's to pick up additional chicken leg quarters.  Kim made sweet potatoes and donated carrots and peppers....

The finale of Boardwalk Empire addressed a couple of story lines last night.  I wanted to see Dr. Narcisse meet his maker but it didn't happen.  He was holding Chalky's daughter Maybelle hostage after a chance meeting at the Club Onyx and she unfortunately did not make it out of the club alive.  Chalky's bargaining chip was that he knew where Daughter was hiding and Narcisse had to have her back.  This was a twisted relationship because he had killed her mother during an encounter for hire in the story line. Last night's episode was also the end for Richard Harrow.  He was a killer extraordinaire.  The scene where he rescued little Jimmy from the brothel will go down in cinematic lore for me.  He needed closure regarding the whereabouts of Jimmy Darmody's body.  The episode began with him testifying to the fact that the person Gillian claimed to be Jimmy was actually the soldier that she drugged and killed.  Harrow went to Nucky and volunt...

I went to see what I would call the Movie of the Year yesterday.  It was a matinee date with my Wife and I thoroughly enjoyed it.  The quality of the film making and the visual effects were awesome.  I have never seen a house as fabulous as the one in which the Sullivan family lived in.  A couple of aerial shots showed me that I need to revisit my decision not to become a pro athlete.  Also, Nia Long is one of the most beautiful actresses in the world! The movie is based around a gathering of friends for the Christmas holiday.It made me think of This Christmas, which was one of my favorite holiday movies until this one.  The tension was evident with the arrival of the first guests.  If one of my friends was an author, I would definitely ask them to refrain from recording personal experiences and secrets.  If an author is lucky enough to write a best seller, then most people will want to know the basis for the story.  Taye Diggs is sufferin...

I know that some people would fault me for reading the Philadelphia Daily News.  Many would say that it has a reading level meant for a 5th grader.  After an Eagles win, I find it much easier to review sports and then I glance through the front of the paper.  In a way, I am keeping sports writers, editors and copy wrights employed.  The first article in the paper referred to two young soldiers who killed themselves as a result of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.  Sgt. Timothy Gill and Sgt. Matthew Cooey could not defeat the demons which affect so many soldiers that return to civilian life apparently unscathed physically by exposure to warfare.  The holidays will be a sad time of remembrance in their respective households. Demetry Presley had just turned twenty-one in the past year.  He was from Sicklerville, NJ and had decided to come to a party on South Street at the Mixed Plate restaurant.  After a brawl inside the club, he was shot several ...

There was an article published in the Philadelphia Inquirer on November 10th, 2013 about a cemetery that was located in the Queen Village neighborhood of South Philadelphia.  The remains of at leas 5,000 people of African descent are interred there.  It is located in Weccacoe Playground and my interest is in the untold stories of the people whose final resting place this park represents.  How many of these citizens were born here?  How many struggled to find a way during this oppressive time for people of color?  I will try to dissect this into a couple of paragraphs but it might take two posts to complete this process. What is the history of the present site of Weccacoe Playground?  An initial google search indicates that this land was purchased by Rev. Richard Allen and his congregation in what was a major accomplishment at the time.  If this effort was made in a Southern state, all hell would have broken loose:  Now known as Weccacoe Pla...

I have never been hunting in my life.  I do not even own a gun.  I am a carnivore so somewhere along the line things that I eat have been living and breathing.  I just think that Melissa Bachman should tone it down a little.  She created a furor recently in South Africa when she posted a picture of a lion that she had killed.  Someone helped her pose the lion so it looked like it had died a peaceful death.  The high powered rifle and her smiling face would seem to indicate that the lion faced a painful demise. Melissa also posed on front of an alligator that had subsequently been hung from a tree like it had been lynched.  A large bear, an antelope and a wild boar were also among her countless victims.  How is if fair when an animal is going about its day in a native environment and hot lead tears through a vital artery.  Also, Melissa just exhibits this same strange smile like she really just accomplished something besides killing a defen...