CLOSE UP Video Interviews

A man who lives in the house alongside the historic cemetery behind the Chestnut Hill Baptist Church regularly clears the flat and worn gravestones of leaves and other debris.

He gave your correspondent and buddy an impromptu tour. Pointing out different graves, “He was at Gettysburg. The fella over here was at the battle of Little Round Top. You can see it by the 20th Volunteers Main. The 20th Main was the line Chamberlain and his men did that right handed [ ] like a swinging door move to stop the Confederates from getting the hill; it won the day....This gentleman here is a veteran of the War of 1812.” He pointed out headstones for the Sands family which he believes was prominent in the early days of the church.

Some of the graves are partially grown over with grass and there may be others that are totally covered over. See photo album here.

The man says the cemetery is a kind of common ground for the neighborhood. People come through, some walk their dogs, children play. Referring to imminent construction of an apartment complex on the former Sunoco site, adjacent, “They’re going to block it out when they put this building up… I think it’s five stories. It’s a pity, huh? " See article about the new construction here.

More information about the history of the Chestnut Hill Baptist Church can be found on the church’s website here The Chestnut Hill Conservancy’s archives are rich with historical information. According to notes attached to a 1945 photo of J.S Jenks school students, children attending Christian Youth Brigade meetings at the church would play in the graveyard. The Conservancy also houses an 86-page, 1898 book by Robert Milville Hunsicker, “Chestnut Hill Baptist Church 1834-1897 Glimpses of Sixty-three Years” and a 2001 publication “ Tombstone inscriptions at two Chestnut Hill church cemeteries: Chestnut Hill Baptist and Chestnut Hill Methodist” by the Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania listing the churches gravestone inscriptions.  Watch video interview about historic Chestnut Hill Baptist Church cemetery here. A list of those interred follows

Alexandra “Alex” Khalil is running for the U.S. Senate. In a crowded field of 14 Democratic primary candidates vying for outgoing Republican U.S. Senator Pat Toomey’s seat in the May 2022 primary, she says can’t get the political reporters for Philadelphia’s paper of record, the Inquirer, to mention her name.

Khalil is mounting a vigorous door to door campaign and one of those doors was your correspondent’s. She’s expounds a progressive agenda of Medicare for all and a living wage. But she’s not against nuclear power.

Her entree into politics came when her son told her to check out Barack Obama. Kahlil did more than that: she worked on his campaign and now holds elected office as a councilperison for the borough of Jenkintown, a small town just outside northwest Philadelphia. There she is fighting against privatization of public utilities such as the sewer service. Professionally, she works in IT for the pharmaceutical company Merck. Khalil has also practiced law.

As the daughter of Palestinian parents from the West Bank, Khalil is especially keen on the protection of human rights regardless of identity or any other criteria.

In our interview, Khalil was most animated when she spoke of the conversations she has had with people while canvassing widely around Philadelphia area and in Lebanon and Schuylkill counties: the 80 year old woman whose husband suffered a stroke, and now they can’t pay their property taxes. She’s spoken with many seniors who are in similar danger of losing their homes, perhaps faced with high medical bills. She’s touched by the families who have lost children to drugs. She lays these ills at the feet of the Republican Party for failing to adequately fund human needs, schools and infrastructure.

Khalil believes her string connection with people as both a councilperson and campaigner will set her above the crowded field in voters’ estimation. She’s received coverage in the Northeast Times, her race is covered in Spotlight Pa and elsewhere and she is hoping more major media outlets will give her a fair shake

Watch video interview here.

Hilltop Books, the bookstore of the Friends of the Chestnut Hill Library, now has on display historical ledgers of the Chestnut Hill Library and other historical records of the Free Library of Philadelphia system. Two ledgers contain daily counts of circulation by subject area at the Chestnut Hill Branch appearing to date back as far as 1937. A large, dried-out leather edition “Registration Book Vol 1” of the “Chestnut Hill Branch” with ribs on the spine contains 1476 numbered and handwritten names and addresses and appears to date back to 1897. These, possibly, are individuals who had borrowing privileges at the branch. Among these are a number of prominent Chestnut Hill family names. The Free library of Philadelphia Annual Report of 1896 indicates it was the first such report. It appears that this book is preserved in electronic format. See the worldcat record here.

Interim bookstore manager Laura Lucas indicates that the Friends are working with the Chestnut Hill Conservancy to preserve these and other historical treasures.

Download phone camera generated Free Library of Philadelphia First Annual Report 1896.pdf (26150.8K)

Click here for a small photo album of the books.

Click here for a small video of a "page-through" of the books.

Brothers Max and Zachary Frankel are scions of E J Frankel Enterprises started by their great grandfather. (Grandfather shown in picture courtesy of Legacy.com/Inquirer. ) The firm developed the Philadelphian and other properties of note and has diverse interests in Florida. They plan a dense development at the site of the former Sunoco station at the highest point in Philadelphia, Bethlehem Pike and Summit Avenue just off of Germantown Avenue in the tony Chestnut Hill Neighborhood. Doing business apparently as TPM LLC or 10 Bethlehem Pike, they plan a 4 or 5 story 34 unit luxury apartment building which their architect Sergio Coscia says will preserve sight lines of the historic Baptist Church of Chestnut Hill. Neighbors expressed alarm at the size of the project at a well attended community meeting on February 16. Chestnut Hill’s major property owner, Richard Snowden of Bowman Properties whose own multi-story residential complex a few blocks away had met similar community push
back, expressed reservations about the aesthetics. See photos of building and site plans, elevations, schemes etc here.

Since September, your correspondent has been posting polls on NextDoor to inform and learn from the community, to take its pulse and to move the community on issues near and dear to him. As few as four and as many as 330 people have voted in these polls with naming the bookstore and a ban or leafblowers being the most popular. See more about NextDoor at the end of this post.

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Nov 3 POLL: DO YOU SUPPORT PROTECT THE VOTE RALLIES BEGINNING NOV 4?

Takeaway: Most support the rallies but after 16 people registered their choice, NextDoor shut down commenting but left one comment from a detractor standing. It may also have closed voting in the poll. Here's the poll link

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Nov 2 POLL: WHAT IS YOUR TOP NOV 3 ELECTION CONCERN?

Takeaway: Before the poll was taken down only hours after  its posting, 17 people voted, many citing counting of mail-in ballots as top concern. 3 or 4 people had grumbled about the post as harmfully sowing anxiety.

WHAT IS YOUR TOP NOV 3 ELECTION CONCERN?Our State Rep Chris Rabb and a local computer expert don’t believe our electronic voting system is secure. https://youtu.be/2n9uraDCSng
And there are news reports of confusion over PA’s mail in ballots counting https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/02/us/politics/Pennsylvania-presidential-election.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage . Some polling places are bracing for possible voter intimidation http://www.pikecountycourier.com/news/local-news/open-carry-and-voter-intimidation-what-does-pa-law-say-DC1370036 Of course you have voted or are going to BUT WHAT IS YOUR TOP NOV 3 ELECTION CONCERN?

Mail-in ballots may not be accurately counted

Electronic voting system may be hacked

Irregularities at polling stations may negatively impact the count

Other (See my comment)

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Nov 1 POLL: DO ACTIONS SPEAK LOUDER THAN WORDS?

Takeaway: the NextDoor algorithm may have made this the last visible post on anyone's news feed

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Oct 27 POLL: HOMELESS IN MOUNT AIRY - IS THERE A RIGHT TO HOUSING?

Takeaway: 40% believe not or are unsure and since children are people, that means that nearly half are unwilling to say that children have a human right to housing.

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Oct 21 POLL: WHAT'S WRONG WITH THE OCT 22 CHESTNUT HILL LOCAL?

Takeaway:  A fair amount worth saying something about. (In the 10/29 edition  there is a help wanted ad for an associate editor.)

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Oct 21 POLL: DO GOOD FENCES MAKE GOOD NEIGHBORS?

Takeaway: You will know your good neighbor by the good fence they build between you and them

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Oct 9 POLL: DO YOU SUPPORT BLACK LIVES MATTER OR BACK THE BLUE?

Takeaway: Of 133 votes, less than a third believe it is possible to support both

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Oct 6 POLL: WOULD YOU ATTEND A (VIRTUAL) CHESTNUT HILL TOWN HALL AND WHO MIGHT HOST?

Takeaway: There is only some interest in a virtual town hall and even less interest in the question

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Oct 5 POLL: NAME THE BOOKSTORE, THE FINALISTS ARE...

Takeaway: By a considerable plurality but with only a third as many people voting in this finalists poll as in the original poll, the peoples really like "Books on the Hill"

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Oct 2 POLL: Should the CDC require face masks?

Takeaway:  The people have spoken; make facemasks the law nationwide

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Sept 28 POLL: I'M SORRY: WHAT ARE YOU SORRY ABOUT FOR POSTING ON NEXTDOOR?

Takeaway: For the most part, NextDoor users stand by what they posted

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Sep 25 POLL: IS COVID-19 POSTER AT POST OFFICE MISLEADING?

Takeaway: If you've posted to a NextDoor group with only 6 members don't expect more than 6 responses

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Sep 18 POLL: POLICE PERMANENTLY PARKED  TOP OF THE HILL? PROTECTING BANKS OR PEOPLE?

Takeaway: Most people believe the police presence at the top of the Hill benefits some combination of the public and small businesses but 25% believe they are there at the bank or banks' behest. The police have not responded to a request for clarification.

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Sep 15: NAME THE BOOKSTORE, THE CH LIBRARY FRIENDS WANT YOUR IDEAS

Takeaway: 324 people and likely more with opinions is giving the Friends Board pause before deciding on a name

Sep 4 POLL: SHOULD WE BAN OR RESTRICT GAS POWERED LEAF BLOWERS?

Takeaway: About half or more people would consider a ban or restrictions on gas powered leaf blowers

Shawnee Street resident Beth Eames was very sad to see the grand, 100-some year old sugar maple tree in her front yard succumb to disease and have to be cut down last year. So, to honor the tree, she commissioned noted local ice and wood carver Roger Wing to convert the 12 foot high remaining trunk into a work of art, only giving him the high vision prompt of "flowers." After working two straight weeks in the heat, Wing just completed carving what appear to oversize sunflowers, using a special wood-burning tool to set the flowers and stalks off against a dark background. He will return twice a year to apply a natural oil to preserve the work. Eames also had Wing carve an alcove with a seat in the trunk so that people can come by, sit and take selfies. (Why not take a selfie and post it here: https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/chtreetrunkcarving/ ) The current times were added motivation for Eames to do something nice for the neighborhood and give an artist good, paying work. Watch video of tree trunk sculpture and interview here.

By mid-afternoon Tuesday, most businesses along the Germantown Avenue business corridor (excluding some of the vacant ones ) had been securely boarded up in the wake of widespread protests and looting elsewhere in the city. The Weavers Way Coop market, which has a wide expanse of windows, was a notable exception. (The Coop's General Manager, Jon Roesser, explains its decision not to board up below.) When asked why he was boarding up the Wells Fargo Bank a workman replied "It's a job. Do you think I like doing this? It's sad."

Joe Pie of McNally's Tavern, was putting a new coat of dark green paint on the entrance door (No boarding up to do because the tavern hasn't had windows on the narrow facade for more than fifty years.) He said that businesses along the Avenue had been "cased" the day before and was very alarmed should any photos be posted on social media. Bohemian Pink owner Monika Schermer said her store was boarded up based on the advice of the Chestnut Hill Business Association and the 14th District Philadelphia Police. Schermer directed questions to the Business Association. Its Executive Director Phil Dawson could not be reached for comment.

Outside the Fresh Market at 7 pm, a market employee stood outside watching two workmen prepare to board up the doors. He relayed that the CVS, farther down the street, had been broken into. Talking on the phone, one of these workers could be heard saying he would be back at the store in the morning to take the boards off so the store could open for business. "Hopefully I'm going to be putting these boards on and off for a couple days."

Large, delicately lettered chalk messages have already appeared on some of the boards. "Love lives here" on one and "Community" on another. Hillary O'Carroll proprietress of Isabella Sparrow, captured in a photo in the below tweet, is behind the heartwarming words. She says she wanted to add non-political messages of love and home by writing on the the boards. The one shown above "Black Lives Matter - donate: NAACP.ORG & phillybailfund.org" she attributes to an employee of Caleb Meyer.

On the Tailored Home store, O'Carroll's message is simply "This is home"

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Comments of John Roesser, GM of Weavers Way Cooperative Association

"So typically, when patients arrive in the preoperative area, we meet and make sure that the plan is correct. And then the nurses will put a small IV in your hand through which we can administer a very, very gentle sedative. We also give you many eye drops to prevent infection and to dilate the pupil as widely as possible before we take you to the operating room.

Once in the operating room, we make sure that you're positioned comfortably on the table. There is a large microscope that goes between your face and my eyes. It's quite large and it's in between us (I take it for granted now) and so my view of your eye is quite magnified. And with the foot pedals, I'm able to focus in and out and zoom the microscope- and that's the right foot. And with the left foot, I'm able to control the irrigation, the aspiration and the fluidics of that machine that breaks up the cataract. Both feet and both hands. And my hands are hovering right above the patient's face. And then your neck has to be extended enough that you're looking through the microscope and able to see everything. The surgeon is sitting at the patient's ear. So right eye? I'm sitting by your right ear. Left eye, we switch the room around, move the pedals and sit on the other side.

We cleanse the area around the eye with antiseptics again to prevent infection. And then we put a sterile sheet over your face and open just the area for the eye that we're going to work on. We put a metal speculum, a little holder, in between the eyelids so that if you would happen to fall asleep during your surgery I'll still be able to do the work and continue on. And then we make two very small incisions into the eye. We gently open the front of the capsule of the cataract in a perfectly round fashion. And then we use a phacoemulsification hand probe which pulverizes and aspirates the debris from breaking up the cataract. So we remove the hard, nut-like aspects of the cataract. Then we use a different hand-piece to tease out the sticky bits leaving the capsule of your own tissue open, clear and intact. Then we fold the lens implant and put it into the capsule and let it unfold in place. Then it's just a matter of removing some of the gel that we had used to smooth the entry and exit of instruments in and out of the eye.

We inject a little bit of antibiotic into the eye, make sure the wound is secure, and take away the drape. And then we put a few more drops in, put a protective shield on the surface of the eye and take you to the recovery room. And within about 20 minutes you're able to get up and go.

The eye is a moving target. there is nothing at all that paralyzes or stills the human eye. So we need to just talk you through it and make sure that you are kind of playing our game to hold still and to look straight up at the light. When you're looking through the microscope, the view is so magnified that the tiniest of movements looks large which is very helpful in what we need to be doing. But also it's a problem if the patient is moving because even one millimeter is too much. There's not a lot of wiggle room within the anterior chamber of the eye. There's between two and five millimeters of depth we have to work within.

Microsurgery!"

Walking through cataract surgery video interview with an ophthamologist

Amy E. Weber, MD

Your correspondent observed and spoke with Chestnut Hill Local Editor Pete Mazzaccaro on a busy Monday morning as he was busy finalizing stories with his associate editor, staff writer and interns, churning out the obituaries that are usually handled by the vacationing articles editor, deciding on lead stories and knocking out headlines, then laying these out with photos for the front page. The weekly, a publication of the Chestnut Hill delivers news and features to some 5000 residents of Northwest Philadelphia and neighboring Montgomery County through with its printed edition and to thousands more regular readers of its online edition, https://www.chestnuthilllocal.com

Watch video of Editor finalizing stories and headlines for weekly edition.

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“She was a fabulous draftsman, designer composer - her compositions - the values the colors...!” Retired artist and teacher Aurora Gold expressed feeling overwhelmed (in a good way) by Oakley’s artwork while touring through an exhibit at the Woodmere Art Museum of high resolution photos of the murals Oakley created for the Pennsylvania State Capitol. Upon discovering Oakley’s American Renaissance style paintings when she was younger , Gold immediately fell in love with them and questions why in art school, she wasn’t introduced to Oakley along with the great masters. Gold has been visiting the Woodmere for more than 65 years and began bringing her art students from the Stephens Country Day School in Chestnut Hill to the Woodmere back in 1952. Upon overhearing Gold wax poetic about the work on display conversing with a companion, your correspondent shortly afterward coaxed Gold to be recorded describing her fascination with the artist and how impressed she was with Woodmere's exhibit. Watch video interview of artist teacher extol American Renaissance painter Violet Oakley.