Reading program has a tail to tell

Morgan Zalot | Philadelphia Daily News

In a North Philadelphia classroom yesterday, Eva Hester, 9, shook the paw of Coco Chanel, 14, a poodle almost as tall as she.

“Nice to meet you,” Eva giggled, before sitting down to read Coco a book titled Who Said You Can’t Be the President’s Dog?

Eva is one of about 15 second-graders at the Gesu School, at 17th and Thompson streets, who participated this semester in Wag Tales, a portion of the North Philadelphia school’s Youth Education for Tomorrow (YET) literacy program.

Pupils sharpened their skills by reading to dogs one-on-one after school on Tuesdays.

“At first I thought they’d be afraid of the dogs,” said Valerie Haley, a fourth-grade teacher and YET coordinator at the independent Catholic school. “But . . . their reading really picked up and it enhanced [the skills] they already had.”

She saw improvements in the children’s writing, as well.

“When they write [about what they read] now, it’s more detailed,” she said, adding that she thinks Wag Tales is so effective because dogs can’t talk back.

Ariah NewKirk, 8, also participated in the program. She promised volunteer Libby Sherry and Sherry’s Cavalier King Charles spaniel, Lancelot, that she would continue reading every afternoon during the summer.

“I have three cats, Cassie, Precious and Angel,” Ariah said proudly, adding that she would read to them instead of to the dogs.

At Gesu, the only Philadelphia school with such a program, Wag Tales was spearheaded by Delaware County veterinarian Amy Brenner, who got the idea from “Sit Stay Read,” a similar program in Chicago’s public schools that raised pupils’ test scores.

“The kids come in very relaxed to work with the dogs,” said Brenner, who had volunteered with Gesu’s YET program for two years before beginning Wag Tales. “I find they really focus better.”

With daughter Sarah, 24, and their two West Highland white terriers, Lacey and Mo, she began the program in January. Two clients of her veterinary practice also volunteered with their dogs.

“The kids here are really nice and funny, and they were always happy to read with me,” said Zack Brown, 12, the youngest volunteer, who participated with his grandmother’s Cavalier King Charles spaniel, Posey.

Wag Tales is still in its pilot phase, and no statistical improvement in Gesu children’s reading has been documented.

But Brenner plans to continue the program next year and even expand it to other grades. “They really make progress,” she said. “The kids come in with big smiles and run to their favorite dogs.”

Arts on South works to revitalize culture on Philly’s South Street

Audio-visual newsgathering class final project for Philadelphia story video assignment.

Written by: Morgan Zalot and Ashley Nguyen

Camera and reporting by: Morgan Zalot, Ashley Nguyen, Iris Still and Caitlin Sullivan (Temple University)

Broken Home

Morgan Zalot | The Temple News

What Patricia Dullek once called home is now just a pile of bricks and debris on 18th Street, north of Berks Street.

“Those apartments were brand new,” the junior biology and pre-med major said. “They were beautiful.”

On March 11, Dullek’s home, which housed five other one-bedroom apartments rented by students, was split in half from the foundation through all the floors. Soon thereafter, upon attempting to retrieve belongings before the demolition, she and other tenants noticed many of their belongings were missing.

“[The landlord] said she’s not responsible because it’s condemned by the city, so whoever walks in gets to walk in and get the stuff,” Dullek said. “There was just a lot of looting going on, and we couldn’t keep watch 24/7, but we know that the landlord was going in and out.”

Dullek and another tenant, junior finance major Eric Williams, said they noticed the foundation shifting before it cracked when a construction crew working for Ferraro Properties, Inc. began digging on the lot next door to prepare for site excavation.

Christian “C.J.” Ferraro, president of the company, said Ferraro Properties planned to build a duplex next door, but its construction has been halted pending an investigation by the Department of Licenses and Inspections.

“We don’t know why there was settlement or what the cracks resulted from,” he said. “We’re waiting for the city to give us word of what’s going on.”

Williams said he noticed cracks in the walls, and the doors in his apartment seemed to be misaligned with the frames.

“You could already see that the doors were knocked off balance, [and] you couldn’t even lock the doors,” he said. “It had gotten so bad, so I started thinking, ‘I should get out of here.’”

Upon returning to retrieve their belongings that week, both Williams and Dullek said the landlord, who declined to give her name, first informed them they were not allowed to enter the premises, then later offered to help remove their possessions.

The landlord identified herself as a property manager for 1922 North 18th Street LLC but declined to give contact information for owners of the company. The company is recorded as the owner of the property according to the Philadelphia Board of Revision Taxes Web site.

“[Ferraro is] still saying that he’s going to rent this building next door,” the property manager said.
Tenants said they noticed that, despite claiming the building was too unsafe for them to enter, the landlord and a few neighbors were seen entering the house on a few occasions before it was demolished.

Both said they suspected foul play and felt some of their belongings were stolen, in addition to whatever they lost in the demolition.

“I get there, and my stuff is all over the floor,” she said, adding that she did not feel her belongings were scattered as a result of any impact. “It looked like people were going through my stuff. It was scattered all over, but this was like stuff that wouldn’t even go together.”

Dullek said she was missing some clothing, everything from her kitchen and a few decorations from her apartment. Williams is missing his leather sofa, silverware and stereo equipment, among other things.

So far, neither student has filed a police report, nor have any arrests been made. It is unclear how the belongings went missing.

Both students said they had trouble getting a hold of the property manager between the house’s condemnation and its demolition and are still having trouble speaking to her about getting their security deposits back.

“The landlord is not responding,” Williams said, adding that he had problems getting in touch with her since he moved into the apartment. “The only time you can get a response from her is through text messages. She tries to avoid any phone calls at all costs.”

He said the property manager requested all six tenants of the house sign contracts that say they will not take legal action against her personally for their lost properties before she returns their security deposits.

Both Williams and Dullek said they refused to sign and have not received their security deposits back.

“I have not gotten my security deposit back to this day,” Williams said. “By law, she has until April 10. She claims by signing this, she will expedite the process.”

The property manager said she gave most of her tenants their security deposits back and is working to return them all as soon as possible.

As for lost belongings, she said after the property was sealed, anyone could have gone in at his or her own risk.

“I know they got most of their stuff out,” she said. “[There was] nothing really that we could do to stop people from going into a dangerous building if they want to. We did everything we could.”

Williams said free legal counsel arranged for the tenants by Temple’s Office of Off-Campus Living informed him he will likely have reason to take legal action against both the property management company and Ferraro Properties, Inc.

So far, neither Williams nor Dullek has filed a lawsuit. Dullek said her parents’ homeowners’ insurance company is likely to cover her losses.

“Temple doesn’t allow juniors and seniors to live in dorms, so we’re forced to go into off-campus housing, which allows us to be covered by our parents’ insurance,” Dullek said. “Because I lived alone, I’m covered. If I lived with a roommate, I would not have been covered for whatever reason, so it just played out really well.”

Williams, however, did not have as much luck with his parents’ insurance.

“[We] should have hired somebody to take all the property out before the building was destroyed,” Williams said. “Me and my family, nobody’s been through a situation like this. We would have insisted she [hire someone], but this was a chaotic experience.”

In Memoriam, and Mystery: The tragic death of Kensington’s Karl Papendick

Morgan Zalot | Philadelphia City Paper

In the shadows of the El on Palmer Street just west of Front, a young couple step out of their car, flowers in hand, and make their way across wet pavement. They walk up to the front steps of what appears to be just another dark, abandoned Philadelphia warehouse on a forgotten block in West Kensington.

But to Bill and Kelly, both 30, who asked not to be identified by last name, this is a site of sad significance. It was, just two short weeks ago, the home of their friend, 37-year-old Karl Papendick. And now it’s the place where he was found brutally murdered the day after Christmas.

An unknown person shot Papendick execution-style, in the back of the head, in the living room of the warehouse he called home sometime in the early evening that day, friends and police say. There are no suspects, according to police. *

Candles, some still lit under the roof of the recessed door, line the top step. Taped on the door behind a padlocked gate are “miss you” notes from friends and a child’s drawing of hearts.

Bill and Kelly, who were friends of Papendick for five years, say they will keep the small memorial going for as long as they need to — either until the murderer is caught, or until Papendick’s home is sold and they’re no longer allowed to place things there.

“I don’t know why this happened. I want justice. I want to know who did it,” says Kelly.

Another couple that was friendly with Papendick, Jonathan Sher and Janet Finegar, are also shocked by his death.

“I honestly cannot conceive that even somebody who had just met him had done him harm. He was an incredibly sweet guy, incredibly friendly, open and warm,” says Finegar.

Just prior to the stop at their slain friend’s home, which has become a daily ritual, Bill and Kelly sat shaking their heads at a dark wooden table in Fishtown’s Rocket Cat Café.

“It wasn’t random,” Kelly says with conviction. She and her husband both say they believe that whoever shot their friend not only knew him, but planned meticulously each and every detail.

A number of things don’t add up, friends say. Papendick, who made a living selling computer parts on Craigslist and eBay and repairing computers, had surveillance cameras monitoring the entire street in front of his home (authorities have the tapes, and friends don’t know if they’ll be any help in the investigation). Bill and Kelly say he wanted to keep safe in the rough neighborhood.

Luna, Papendick’s year-old Rhodesian Ridgeback, was in her crate at the time of the murder. Many of his friends say the fact that the 100-plus-pound dog was locked up indicates Papendick had let the visitor into his home.

“I wish Luna could talk,” says Kelly. A high school friend of Papendick is keeping the dog, whom friends say has been sick since her owner’s death.

Additionally, Papendick was an avid gun collector, and kept his weapons hidden around his house — in a bookcase, underneath a table, somewhere in his bedroom. Six of those weapons, including a shotgun, were stolen.

It doesn’t make sense to friends that Papendick could have been forced at gunpoint into the building that evening, because they say he carried a gun himself. And how would a random assailant have known where his guns were stashed?

Bill also struggles to understand why whoever it was that executed Papendick and stole his weapons left thousands upon thousands of dollars in computer and camera equipment untouched in the home.

He pauses, searching for a thought, but reaches the same conclusion he has before: It had to be someone Papendick knew well.

“Whoever took his life was a coward,” Kelly says. “Anyone who kills someone from behind them is just a coward.”

Between the shock, thoughts and theories over the death of their friend, the couple conjures memories of the life that’s been lost.

Papendick, they say, was a jack-of-all-trades, handy with more than just computers. He was a photographer, painter and sculptor in some moments and a plumber, master chef and hiker in others. They say he could do everything, and did, and that he seemed automatically good at anything he attempted.

More than that, though, they remember a magnetic, charismatic person. Kelly fondly recalls Papendick teaching her to play dominos, while Bill has memories of poker nights, beers at the 700 Club and Johnny Brenda’s, and hanging out.

“He just had an infectious personality,” Bill says. “Once you knew him, you remembered him forever. And you could converse with him about everything. He was one friend I never shared an awkward moment with.”

He remembers walking into neighborhood bars in Kensington, Fishtown and Northern Liberties where bartenders and barflies alike would know Papendick. And it wasn’t because Papendick drank all that much, he says — it was because he had a way of making everybody feel like they fit in. He was nice to everyone, they say, and if he disliked someone, he simply “didn’t hang out” with that person.

“That’s why he’s gone, because he was so good,” says Kelly. “If he were a normal person, he wouldn’t have been taken.”

Still in shock, Bill and Kelly say they feel as though their friend is simply on vacation and that maybe if they can figure out what happened, it will bring him back somehow.

“I’m afraid it’s going to get swept under the rug,” says Kelly, referring to the police investigation. “I’m baffled by the fact they have no leads.” But then she and her husband both decide that the cops are likely investigating many of Papendick’s closest friends, and thus not sharing any information.

Back in front of Papendick’s home, Bill and Kelly place the new bouquet on the doorstep and stop for a moment to reflect. They vow again to keep the candles lit and fresh flowers coming until justice is served.

“Come here again three weeks from now,” Kelly says. “That entire step will be full of new candles.”

Amber Alert system has its shortcomings

Morgan Zalot | Philadelphia Daily News

It seems like a classic case demanding some sort of public alert: Two young girls kidnapped by a deranged mother disappear for two months.

But when Tammy Kongkham allegedly snatched her daughters Kelly and Kimberly outside their Juniata Park school on Oct. 16, Pennsylvania State Police didn’t issue an Amber Alert, which would have publicized the disappearance nationally to faster locate them.

Those involved say that this failure illustrates serious shortcomings in a federal system, implemented in 2002, that missing-persons investigators hoped would hasten the recovery of endangered children and the arrests of their abductors.

Federal law requires all states to have child-abduction alert systems in place, but the varying state-to-state interpretations often cause tension and confusion, according to an Associated Press study published last month.

The AP also found that the law has no teeth, because the federal government does not enforce it.

Still, missing-child alerts have found success here in Pennsylvania. Twenty-three children abducted from Pennsylvania have been recovered as a direct result of the system.

In Kelly and Kimberly Kongkham’s case, city investigators and Department of Human Resources workers requested an Amber Alert.

But state police officials decided it didn’t meet the the criteria.

In Pennsylvania, that criteria requires that a child was abducted and not a runaway or throwaway; the child must also be under 18 years old and believed to be in danger of death or serious bodily harm, according to the state’s Amber Alert Web site.

“If those two criteria are not both being met, then they don’t issue an Amber Alert,” said State Trooper Danea Alston of the Philadelphia troop, adding that the court-issued custody order coupled with Tammy Kongham’s mental illness would not necessarily indicate that the children are in danger.

“I can’t say the court issue really doesn’t have weight,” Alston said. “All I can say is that for an alert to be activated it has to meet those two criteria.”

A SEPTA alert: Beware of pickpockets

Morgan Zalot | Philadelphia Daily News

The holiday-shopping season means a field day for pickpockets, and SEPTA is working to protect its riders – and their cash and belongings.

“We’re definitely trying to get the word out to make sure people safeguard their purchases and their pocketbooks,” SEPTA spokeswoman Jerri Williams said yesterday, adding that the transit authority does a campaign like this every year.

SEPTA employees will be distributing pamphlets titled “Eight things pickpockets don’t want you to know” along the Market-Frankford Line and the Broad Street Line.

The pamphlets will cover tips for riders on how to avoid becoming a victim. SEPTA police compiled the information, which was released yesterday.

The top tip from police and SEPTA officials is “don’t flash your cash.”

SEPTA is cautioning riders to keep fares separate from the rest of their money.

Commuters are also instructed to avoid carrying wallets in their back pockets; to remain alert waiting for the bus, trolley or train; to beware of strangers, and to avoid being overloaded with shopping bags.

New policy gives cops OK to carry more powerful guns

Morgan Zalot | Philadelphia Daily News

Commissioner Charles Ramsey announced yesterday that he was eliminating the Police Department’s “one size fits all” weapons practice, a change in firearm policy that will allow police to choose a more powerful gun that may also improve officers’ accuracy.

Effective Jan. 12, Philly cops will have the option to buy their own .40-caliber and .45-caliber Glock handguns to carry on the job. The Glock 9 mm pistol will remain the standard-issue weapon for the department.

“It’s good for the department,” Ramsey said during a news conference at police headquarters. “It gives them a variety of weapons to choose from that will be more effective on the street.”

The major differences between the new options and the Glock 9 mms are the size of the bullets and their velocity. The new options still fall under a certain threshold of power allowed under police regulations – that a bullet will not pass through a victim.

Ramsey said that the accuracy of models can vary among indivuduals and that one officer might be a better shot with certain models than with a standard-issue gun.

Ramsey said the goal was to allow officers to choose the weapon they feel most comfortable using.

“Officers who make life or death decisions ought to have some ability to choose which weapon suits them,” Ramsey said. “My job is to provide officers with what they need to protect themselves.”

The new firearm options are Glock 22 .40-caliber, Glock 35 .40-caliber tactical, standard-size Glock 21 .45-caliber and slim-frame Glock 21 .45-caliber handguns.

Ramsey said they were optional because the department can’t afford to reissue new handguns and because turning in the old guns would create a glut of firearms, making it more likely that the old guns would make it back into circulation on the street.

The weapons, which Firearms Training Unit Commanding Officer Capt. Mark Fisher estimated will cost $400 to $450, will be available for police to test-fire free of charge at the Police Academy. The handguns will be available in time for the department’s yearly firearm qualification, so those who choose to switch will not need to requalify.

Local rabbis mourning after India attacks

Morgan Zalot | Philadelphia Daily News

RABBI ABRAHAM SHEMTOV was preparing for a trip he wished he didn’t have to take.

“Everybody expresses the shock,” he said by phone yesterday. “The reaction has been one of dismay and horrific pain at what happened, but a strong result [has been] not only to continue but to go even further.”

Shemtov, chairman of the executive committee of the worldwide Chabad-Lubavitch movement, was en route from his Philadelphia home to the group’s headquarters in Brooklyn, where he expected to make plans to depart today for Israel.

He and others in their large Hasidic Jewish sect expressed shock that they now must bury two of their own, reportedly killed by terrorists during a three-day siege in Mumbai, India: Rabbi Gavriel Noach Holtzberg, 29, director of the Chabad House in Mumbai, and his wife, Rivkah, 28.

In addition, the Associated Press reported yesterday that Rabbi Bentzion Chroman, Rabbi Leibish Teitelbaum and Israeli tourist Yocheved Orpaz also were killed in the Chabad center.

Shemtov said he planned to leave for Israel by noon today to attend the Holtzbergs’ funerals, tentatively scheduled for tomorrow morning.

Shemtov’s son, Rabbi Yudy Shemtov, director of Bucks County Chabad-Lubavitch in Newtown, said “red tape” involving moving the bodies from India to Israel could delay the funerals.

“It’s a question of getting the bodies over to Israel,” said Yudy Shemtov, 42. “Everybody was ready to hop on a plane last night [to go to the funeral]. They’re not postponing it to wait for a bigger crowd, it just happens they can’t get the bodies there logistically.”

He said that his father would attend to fill a leadership role, and that he also might travel to Israel if the funeral does not conflict with a Chabad-affiliated class he is leading today.

“I feel as a merit of those who were taken [I should stay for the class],” he said, adding that although he did not personally know the victims, “they would want me to continue the class.”

Both Shemtov and his father said a strong response has been expressed throughout the local Chabad community.

Abraham Shemtov said that from each of the nearly 20 Chabad pulpits in the Philadelphia area, Chabad leaders had expressed the organization’s position on the situation during Jewish sabbath services on Saturday.

“[What happened] is reflective of the problems facing civilization as a whole and, in a microcosm form, this particular [attack on a] bastion of kindness [the Mumbai Chabad House] is indicative of the evils of society,” Abraham Shemtov said yesterday. “And we therefore call on everyone to draw conclusions which will have helped to face the challenge.”

He said he was confident that Chabad would move forward as a strengthened community.

Yudy Shemtov said that Saturday’s services at Chabad locations were dedicated to the Mumbai victims, and that he was inspired by the levels of attendance and support.

“At this point, people are just really trying to digest what’s going on and what’s the best way to move forward,” he said. “This is a global issue [more] than just the impact on Chabad, and we don’t just go on in a time like this. We fight back, and the way you fight back darkness is with greater intensity of life.”

The Chabad organization is discussing how to respond to the deadly attack, not only against its people but against ideals and civilization, the younger Shemtov said. He said Chabad would move forward combating “darkness with light.”

“They may have taken away the bodies,” Yudy Shemtov said. “But they didn’t take away our spirit and our commitment to do what is right, what the world needs, and we hope to be there to respond and guide people through this.”

Heartbroken by horror: South Philly chefs worked at Mumbai hotel whereterrorists struck

Morgan Zalot | Philadelphia Daily News

Cover story.

ATUL MEHTA sat with his sister at her suburban home Thursday night, his eyes glued to the television, watching the horror unfold at his former workplace in Mumbai, India.”I was absolutely devastated,” Mehta, 51, recalled yesterday during an interview at Lovash, a restaurant he manages on South Street. “It was like somebody just pulled a carpet from under me.”

As fighting extended into a third day, commandos yesterday killed the last two gunmen inside the luxury Oberoi hotel, where 24 bodies had been found, authorities said. Dozens of people – including a man clutching a baby and about 20 airline crew members – were evacuated from the Oberoi earlier yesterday.

The New Delhi-born Mehta, who trained as a chef with the Oberoi hotel chain, worked at the Mumbai location in the early 1980s.

“It’s an absolutely gorgeous five-star hotel, compared to any in the U.S.,” he said, adding that he could not imagine an attack there because of the hotel’s pristine location overlooking the bay on India’s west coast.

He said that he and his sister could do nothing but cry and watch news coverage of the attacks, which had claimed more than 150 lives as of last night.

“I lived there long enough to make beautiful friendships,” said Mehta, who was able to get through to one of his friends’ wives in Mumbai and learned that she and her family were safe.

Mehta trained alongside Lovash owner Mohan Parmar at the hotel chain in New Delhi. Parmar, 48, has brothers and sisters in Mumbai.

“I talked to them, and they’re OK,” Parmar said. “They’re all sad [and] very upset to know it’s happening in their back yard, but they have confidence in the Indian government and enforcements.”

The Mumbai attacks hit home not only for Indians living in the Philadelphia area, but also for area members of the Chabad-Lubavitch Jewish community.

A Chabad center in Mumbai was among the attackers’ targets. The bodies of New York Rabbi Gavriel Noach Holtzberg and his wife, Rivkah, former residents of Brooklyn who had moved to Mumbai to run the center, were found at the Jewish center. Their now- orphaned son, Moshe, who turned 2 today, was scooped up by an employee Thursday as she fled the building.

“Calamity befell the entire civilized world and we were caught [at its] worst,” said Rabbi Abraham Shemtov of Philadelphia, chairman of the executive committee of Chabad-Lubavitch and the movement’s longtime envoy to the White House. “It’s an unbelievable, cowardly act that doesn’t belong to a civilized world.”

Back at the South Street restaurant, Parmar said that he was shocked to hear of the terrorist attacks, but that he believed they could happen again if India does not properly defend its long coast.

“They had left the sea area wide open [to attack],” he said.

Mehta and Parmar have similar theories about why the attack happened, and why the sprawling, luxury Oberoi hotel became one of its most prominent targets.

“India has managed to economically establish its name on the global map,” said Mehta. “Pakistan has not done that well.”

Some news reports have quoted Indian authorities as stating that the terrorist attack originated in Pakistan.

Mehta said that India and its northwestern neighbor, Pakistan, were formerly one nation. He added that the two nations have clashed over control of Kashmir, to the north, and he also mentioned India’s strong ties to the U.S.

“[They attacked hotels] because this is where Westerners stay,” Mehta said. “They’re after the Americans and the British.”

At least five Americans were killed in the attacks, according to Associated Press reports.

Regarding the attackers, Mehta said that “they’re basically suicide bombers. They know they’re going to perish, so they don’t care. They will destroy anything that’s in their way.”

Parmar said that he knew what sparked the deadly attacks: “Most people are jealous. Indians are doing so well in this modern world.”

Most Pakistanis and Indians get along well, he said, adding that many of his friends are from Pakistan.

“These are pointless people [doing this],” said Parmar. “They don’t have feelings. This is uncalled for.”

But in the face of violence, Parmar said, he is not afraid to travel back to India. He’s planning a trip next month.

“This thing is not going to stop anybody,” he said. “They just have to be more aware.

“But God is good. God will build that country again. We all should get unified around the world and face terrorists.”

Mehta said that he felt numb, angry and sad all at once, thinking of all his friends in Mumbai.

“I just pray for peace for everyone,” he said. “Even the people who are responsible. It’s only people who have no peace in their minds that do things like that.”

Fishtowners march to save their library

Morgan Zalot | Philadelphia Daily News

It was Kafkaesque, said Fishtown’s A.J. Thomson, as more than 100 bundled-up Fishtowners marched along Girard Avenue on yesterday’s sunny but chilly afternoon.”Fishtown takes to the streets to save its library,” said Thomson, 32, shaking his head as he followed the march. “It’s a surreal scene. How often do people have to do something like this?”

Thomson, a lawyer who has a 4-year-old daughter, joined in the rally and march yesterday to save Fishtown’s library, one of 11 slated to be closed as part of the Nutter administration’s budget cuts.

The crowd rallied at its library, near Girard and Montgomery avenues, then walked the mile-and-a-half to the Kensington Library, near Front and Dauphin streets.

Kensington Library, along with the Ramonita de Rodriguez Branch, at 6th Street and Girard Avenue, are proposed alternates to Fishtown’s library.

At the rally, at-large City Councilman Bill Green spoke to the sea of Fishtowners, some bearing signs that read, “We love Fishtown Library” and “Books before the budget.”

“Do not let the process keep you quiet, you have to remain loud,” Green, who has been fighting for the libraries in City Council, told residents. “Scare them into doing the right thing.”

State Rep. Michael O’Brien, D-Phila., also addressed the crowd.

“This is a very, very special place, not just for the community, but for me,” he said of the Fishtown Library, to cheers. “This is where a lifelong love of education started for my children.”

O’Brien asked that Fishtown residents tell Mayor Nutter to make cuts with a scalpel, not an ax.

Teri Ramsay, 54, who has been instrumental in working to keep the library open, announced that more than 4,000 signatures were collected for a petition.

After four young children performed a short play in which a mother lion could not learn to feed her cub without the library, the crowd, accompanied by a police escort, began its march west on Girard Avenue.

As marchers left the Fishtown Library at about 2:30 p.m., Thomson’s daughter, Julia, pulled on the door of the library.

“An unsolicited testament to how she loves the library,” said O’Brien, looking on.

Thomson held his daughter’s hand as they kept up with the group, which blocked traffic in the outer lane of Girard Avenue.

“She wants to be able to take her little sister or brother to the library,” he said. “But we don’t know if that’s going to happen.”

Thomson, a member of Friends of the Free Library, said that he had attended similar rallies Saturday at the Kingsessing and Eastwick branches.

He said that Fishtown got the most support of the three.

“These are neighborhood people coming out for our library,” he said, adding that he “grew up in the library” and that he takes his daughter there every Monday night.

“We’re not taking [the cuts] lying down,” he said. “I want to be able to tell my kids that I at least tried to keep the library open.”

About a half-hour later, the crowd rounded the bend at Hope and Dauphin streets, under the shadow of the El, to arrive in front of the Kensington Library. They gathered in front, sandwiched between the stairs to the York-Dauphin El stop and a corner bar, and began to chant: “Books before the budget.”

Ramsay, who runs a parenting program in Fishtown, estimated that between 25 and 30 people had dropped out during the march, unable to walk the distance.

She said that the committee plans to write a business proposal requesting that the city leave the Fishtown Library for the community to run.

Many Fishtown residents don’t feel safe, either, among the corner catcalls and broken glass of Front and Dauphin streets, Ramsay pointed out.

“You can tell from where we are, though it isn’t actually too far, it’s miles away,” she said.

“It’s not to put this neighborhood down . . . but would I feel safe sending my grandson here? No.”