TUESDAY, APRIL 25, 2017 VOL. 95 ISS. 28
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A watchdog for the Temple University community since 1921.
L&I hopes to open office near campus City Council could approve two new Licenses and Inspections offices in rapidly developing areas. By KELLY BRENNAN Community Beat Reporter
EVAN EASTERLING/THE TEMPLE NEWS Will Mundy, 72, is the head of the Page Street Garden Residential Association and the block captain of 1600 Page Street. He rakes the garden next to his house so he can provide fresh fruits and vegetables to his neighbors year-round.
A community experiencing change PART II OF A SERIES North Philadelphians have seen firsthand how Temple is changing their neighborhood. By MICHAELA WINBERG, GRACE SHALLOW & EVAN EASTERLING
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orin Collins grew up in North Philadelphia. She spent summers with her friends, munching on cheesesteaks and sipping cherry coke at a shop on North Broad Street, playing hopscotch, jumping rope and attending tennis lessons offered on the courts near Pearson and McGonigle halls. She’d volunteer at the “self-help center” her mother established on 15th Street near Diamond. It offered programs like arts and crafts classes and tutoring for the community. When it was colder, and school was back in session, her family would go to a Rothschild factory on Broad Street near Lehigh Avenue to pick up pieces of fabric to make school projects. Collins left the neighborhood for nearly 20 years to work in the military
GRACE SHALLOW/THE TEMPLE NEWS The Rev. Renee McKenzie leads a weekly service in the Church of the Advocate.
and for airlines tracking and maintaining aircraft. When she returned to Philadelphia in the late 1990s to care for her sick father, a fraternity house had replaced the shop on Broad Street near Norris where Collins ate her first cheesesteak. Her mother’s self-help center was closed and the factory was gone. Everything was so different from her childhood, when she lived at 12th and Huntingdon streets with her mother, father and three siblings. “Just that whole feel of a bustling, productive community is gone,” Collins said. “Watching buildings fall down and houses fall down just from the wind blowing. That’s pretty rough. I didn’t un-
derstand it. I still don’t.” Collins’ story is one of many like it for people who grew up in North Philadelphia. The area’s history has been influenced by Temple’s presence. In Part II of our series on community relations, The Temple News hopes to tell the story of the neighborhoods surrounding Main Campus by detailing its history
City Council will vote to approve two new Department of Licenses and Inspections districts before it goes out of session for the summer. One of the district offices will serve the Temple area because of the increase in development in the area. With City Council’s approval, the department would oversee districts in the Temple and Point Breeze areas of the city. Currently, L&I oversees five geographic districts throughout the entire city. Offices would be located in both new districts to monitor the increased development. The Temple area and the Point Breeze area have been major development “hot spots.” There has been an increase in construction permits and licenses unlike anywhere else in the city, which prompted L&I’s proposal to create the new districts, said Karen Guss, L&I’s director of communications. Guss said City Council was “very supportive” of L&I’s creation of the two new districts. “This office would be a way for the city to be more efficient in monitoring development in the Temple University area, responding to the volume of applications for city services in a timely manner and — just as important — being engaged with our existing residents in the area,” City Council President Darrell Clarke wrote in a statement. Clarke represents much of the area in North Philadelphia where the development boom has been taking place. According to the department’s website, L&I regulates construction by reviewing construction plans and conducting building inspections. The department monitors land use and zoning in the city and enforces city construction
DISTRICT | PAGE 6
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COMMUNITY | PAGE 8
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GENEVA HEFFERNAN/THE TEMPLE NEWS Sophomore Troy Madden gets an oar at the beginning of practice Thursday. The crew team’s next event is the Dad Vail Regatta on May 12.
Finding space to pray, live out their faith on campus Muslim students are resourceful in using available space to pray.
sides the head and ears, all other body parts must be washed three times. Depending how much time each student spends on Main Campus on a given day, they may have to pray twice here and three times at home, while other students may need to pray four times a day on campus. Students said the Interfaith Prayer Space can become crowded due to its limited size and the number of students who use it. Some can’t use this space at all due to their limited amount of time between classes. As a result, some students try to find their own spaces to pray on campus, or they wait until they leave to pray.
By JENNY ROBERTS Opinion Editor
The floor in the Interfaith Prayer Space is covered in red prayer rugs positioned so students can face Mecca. The room, nestled in a corner of the Student Center’s third floor, is the size of a small office, and its walls are bare except for a single clock. “Because it’s an interfaith prayer room, we’re not allowed to hang things, we’re not allowed to change anything,” said Fahtma Saad, a sophomore psychology major and secretary of the Muslim Students Association. “The fact that we’re even allowed to keep the prayer mats down is a big plus.”
ELENA IWATA FOR THE TEMPLE NEWS Senior film major and President of the Muslim Students Association Ibrahim Souadda uses the Interfaith Prayer Space to pray. Muslims pray five times per day.
Before each prayer, Muslims must perform “wudu,” a cleansing practice that requires them to wash their hands, mouth, nose, face, arms, head, ears and feet with water. Be-
PRAYER | PAGE 10
ONLINE
Practicing Muslims are required to pray five times per day. This requirement, called “salat,” is one of the Five Pillars of Islam, which are duties required of every Muslim. The
prayers are “Al-Fajr,” “Al-Zhur,” “Al’Asr,” “Al-Maghrib” and “Al-’Isha.” The times of these prayers change slightly throughout the year as the time of sunrise changes.
NEWS | PAGES 2-3, 6
OPINION | PAGES 4-5
FEATURES | PAGES 7, 10-16
SPORTS | PAGES 17-20
The search for the dean for the Beasley School of Law is over. Read more on Page 2.
A Chick-fil-A location shouldn’t open on Main Campus because of the brand’s history of anti-LGBTQ actions. Read more on Page 4.
A student advocates for Obamacare because her medical bills would be $50,000 per year without it. Read more on Page 7.
The football team ended its spring practices with the Cherry and White game on Saturday. Read more on Pages 19 and 20.
Experience this story with video and more photos at longform.temple-news.com.