A Million Stories

Last Wednesday morning, Dennis Crowley received a text message from his employees at the Gold Standard Café saying that their building had received a radical new paint job. The café, at 48th and Baltimore streets, was in its fourth week of operation. By the time Crowley arrived, employees had begun removing the splotches of silver. Broken Christmas ornaments that had held the paint lay shattered on the ground, and the word "Gentrifuckers" was spray-painted on the wall.

This was not the first "anti-gentrification" vandalism act targeting a new business in West Philly. Not long after it opened a few months back, WakeUp Yoga's West Philly studio was decorated with the words "Yuppie Scum."

Crowley (who used to work at City Paper) doesn't believe anyone from the area could be responsible. Nearby residents, he says, know that the café's owner, Roger Harman, has lived in the neighborhood since the 1960s, and that this Gold Standard is a reprise of the Gold Standard Restaurant that opened in 1979. "As a person who sort of identifies with counterculture movements, my initial reaction to any anti-establishment movement is sympathetic," says Crowley. "But in this circumstance, and anti-gentrification vandalism in general, when it comes without knowledge of the history of the establishment, it's an outrage."

Crowley's rage was soothed that day by customers offering condolences and assistance. Not to mention all the new patrons. "The tips by the girls working the counter were doubled," he says.

- Andrew Thompson

For the first two minutes of Public Enemy's performance at the 2009 Roots Picnic, you could almost forget the last decade of Flavor Flav's life. The drugs, the reality shows, the Comedy Central Roast — all were forgiven as the infamous hip-hop hype man, backed by The Roots, spat out classic rhymes with dexterity and intensity.

In fact, the good vibes continued throughout P.E.'s furious re-creation of 1988's It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back, thanks in large part to Chuck D's bassy righteousness and Captain Kirk Douglas' gnarly guitars.

Then Flavor refused to leave the stage. As the band milled about, he instructed the crowd to raise fists and make peace signs. He espoused unity, then declared that the only person you can count on is yourself. He summoned a reluctant Beanie Sigel from the wings and forced him to drop rhymes. Beanie dropped one and loped away.

Flav kept going, unleashing a rambling series of sincere thank-yous and insane motivational speeches. "This is the most legendary night of my life," he said.

- Patrick Rapa

There aren't enough shoes in the city to honor all the people who were murdered in Philadelphia last year.

This Saturday, June 13, at 2:30 p.m., Mothers United Through Tragedy, a tiny Strawberry Mansion-based nonprofit, is set to host its eighth annual Footprints of Life ceremony in front of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. A pair of shoes will be laid on the ground to represent each man, woman and child killed in Philadelphia in 2008 — 333 total. The problem is, they don't have enough shoes.

"They haven't been coming in as quickly as I'd hoped," says founder Shirley Boggs, whose own son was shot to death during a 1997 robbery.

At last count, Boggs had 175 pairs of shoes, and was in particular need of men's shoes — just 20 came in during last Saturday's collection at Broad and Olney.

"I'm hoping, and I'm praying," Boggs says. Call 215-227-5331 or 267-235-0046 to donate or get more information.

- Christopher Wink

Perhaps you've noticed the BigBellies. The Wall-E-like trash cans, which weigh about 300 pounds, were recently installed across Center City as part of Mayor Nutter's "Greenworks" project. They feature separate trash and recycling bins, and have the ability to compact and make room for at least five times more garbage than a typical trash can of the same size.

Powered by the sun, the BigBelly compactors can send a signal to collectors when they're full. This A) helps prevent overflowing, and B) saves money, because it will cut down on unnecessary trips. In fact, the city cut the number of workers assigned to these cans from 33 to nine after installing the BigBelly cans.

Now, you'd think the big concern with a trash can that stores garbage longer would be smell. But according to Deputy Streets Commissioner Carlton Williams, the way the canisters open keeps odors trapped inside. If that's true, these are a pretty cool innovation. And we certainly hope that's true.

- Matt Petrillo

A few months ago, a crappy thing happened: Someone broke into my car and stole the uniforms of the basketball team I coach, the middle school varsity at Wissahickon Charter School (an awesome K-8, where my wife teaches). Who looks at a box of kids' uniforms and thinks, "I should steal those"? But someone did. I had taken them home to wash them, lazily left them in the trunk, and either I or the school was gonna be out several hundred bucks.

A few days later, I was complaining about this at work, and senior editor Patrick Rapa took it upon himself to e-mail the Sixers. A charter school team had its uniforms stolen, he said. Would the Sixers be willing to donate some new ones?

Fantastically, the Sixers said yes. And so, this past Monday, I found myself standing in the halls of WCS with school co-CEOs Jamal Elliott and Kristi Littell, the varsity and junior varsity teams, and ... Hip-Hop, the Sixers' man-size rabbit mascot, who'd come to present the new uniforms to the school.

A quick observation about meeting Hip-Hop in "person": He never breaks character. Even when only adults are around, he whistles, never speaks. And he appears to be pathologically mischievous. The school brought him in through a side entrance, so he wouldn't cause pandemonium in the halls. He promptly found a class of young kids and wreaked havoc.

Anyway, we had a little ceremony: Eighth-grader Chris Birch said a few words, and Hip-Hop gave out the new uniforms (they're beautiful). We'll try to do them justice. In the meantime, I'll plan on cheering loudly at some Sixers games next year. Thanks to everyone involved.

- Doron Taussig