Center City

  Emilie DeS. Atlee, 97, of Narberth, a portrait and landscape painter who used the Atlantic seaboard as her material, died Wednesday, April 3, of advanced age at her home. Mrs. Atlee was a celebrated portrait artist who started out rendering portraits on paper with pastels and expanded into the use of oil pigments on canvas. She also painted with watercolors. Many of the scenes she painted were of the seashore or city. Others depicted the countryside and a covered bridge, or the play of light over treetops.

Despite gaming revenue's precipitous decline at Atlantic City's casinos in the last six years, glamorous images of gamblers behind poker and blackjack tables will be included in the 2013 campaign of the Atlantic City Alliance, which is charged with rebranding the Shore town and its new tourism district. The addition of gaming ads - one titled, "Your Tables Are Ready;" another, "Bring Your Game Face and Your Poker Face" - is a shift from last year's inaugural campaign. The alliance works in partnership with the Casino Reinvestment Development Authority and was created as part of Gov. Christie's five-year revitalization plan for the ailing resort.

Sometimes bad bosses teach good lessons. "You can learn a lot from leaders who aren't very good, who aren't very effective," said H. Paulett Eberhart, chief executive of CDI Corp., a Center City-based engineering and staffing company with $1.1 billion in annual revenue. "You can remember how you felt," she said. These days, there's a lot of attention being paid to female executives. City Councilwoman Blondell Reynolds Brown has been pushing for more women on executive boards.

The agency overseeing Philadelphia's Delaware waterfront took a first step Thursday toward reconnecting Center City to the river by hiring a respected landscape architecture firm to develop a strategy for bridging the daunting I-95 canyon and making it easier for pedestrians to access the water. The firm has not been asked to explore the possibility of burying or removing I-95, as many have advocated, but will focus instead on finding ways to improve the existing connections at key points between Market and South Streets.

The midday tour of the Phillies Rally Trolley proved to be a whirlwind affair. The Phanatic and other Phillies folks boarded at Citizens Bank Park, and by shortly before noon, headed toward Center City, with freebies for fans, including rally towels, cheer cards and Phillies party beads, and possibly some coupons or special offers. The club was promoting the home opener, scheduled for 4:05 p.m. Friday against the Kansas City Royals. About 12:30 p.m., the open-air vehicle whipped around City Hall onto Broad Street, and ran a couple of red lights, thanks to a police escort.

Gloria M. Harris, 68, of Philadelphia's Brewerytown section, a retired customer service representative for several area companies and department stores, died of cancer on Friday, March 29, at home. Ms. Harris was known among family and friends as a good cook who prepared favorite meals for holidays and special occasions. She was an outgoing woman who was "very welcoming to anyone she met. She was a very quiet and sweet person," said her sister Miriam Harris. Ms. Harris was raised in Brewerytown and lived there much of her life.

BILLY WILSON enjoyed being the center of attention. The high-spirited Billy, always fashionably dressed, would take to the dance floor with the slightest provocation, and charm his friends with his outgoing personality. "He made friends easily," said his daughter Tahirah Wilson. "He never held anything back. " James P. Wilson, known as Billy, was a 10-year employee of Service Employees International Union Local 32BJ, which represents office cleaners in Center City, an artist whose work reflected the African-American experience, an Army veteran and a doting father and grandfather.

A HOT STRAWBERRY-BLOND PR gal, Lori, is driving her hot T-Bird convertible north on La Cienega to the hottest restaurant in L.A. I am in the shotgun seat. The orange sun hasn't dipped into the blue Pacific. We're early. The wide street is empty. Lori passes 100 yards of clear curb and stops in front of the valet. I offer a news flash. "Lori, there are a million parking spaces. " She smiles sweetly and says, "Stu, in L.A. everyone valets," making a verb out of a noun. Years later, in Philly, owners of businesses - mostly restaurants and hotels - that ordered up "reserved-for-valet" parking spaces from the city got a severe case of sticker shock.

At Potito's Bakery at 16th and Ritner in South Philadelphia, the moneymaker has always been its famous cannoli, ranked tops in the city the last four years. Potito's owners since 2009, Matthew and Cristina Benigno, wanted to take the next step, so the couple opened a second shop at 1315 Walnut St. about two months ago and they have another opening in North Wildwood just before Memorial Day weekend. The big question now: Can this traditional neighborhood bakery succeed with locations throughout the region?

WHEN MAYOR NUTTER presented his $3.75 billion budget proposal two weeks ago, it did not include additional money for the cash-poor school district. But elected officials knew the request was coming. School officials had already voted to close 23 schools and asked the union for $133 million annually in givebacks. Finally, on Thursday, School Reform Commission members said they would ask the city for $60 million and the state for $120 million to help close a $304 million gap. That request is complicated by the city's move to Nutter's property-tax reform system, the Actual Value Initiative.