Demolition

Proponents of saving a circa 1950 beachfront movie theater in Cape May from demolition are vowing to fight a "secretive, immoral" vote by the City Council to let the owners of the property move ahead with plans to build condos on the site. Members of the nonprofit Beach Theatre Foundation had been urging the council for more than a year to designate the theater, designed by noted regional architect William H. Lee, as a historic structure - believing the declaration could help bolster the fight to preserve the property.

CAPE MAY - Members of the Cape May Zoning Board on Thursday night reached no decision after listening to nearly four hours of testimony on whether to allow the demolition of a beachside movie theater described as architecturally significant. The zoning board is trying to decide whether to allow Frank Investments, a Palm Beach, Fla.-based arm of a family theater company, to tear down the circa-1950 Beach Theatre and redevelop the site for apartments and retail space. In three previous hearings, members listened to more than 10 hours of testimony from residents and from lawyers and experts representing Frank Investments.

More than four months after a Burlington County demolition company won the contract to tear down the decrepit Parkade Building in downtown Camden, engineers and utility workers are finally beginning to gut the building. But because of recently discovered engineering challenges, the eyesore won't be out of sight any time soon. "We planned with plans which we had available," said City Engineer Uzo Aniarakwe. Workers quickly discovered that those 1950s plans weren't up to date. Workers now are trying to account for all water, sewer, and gas lines going into the building, while being careful not to affect the High-Speed Line operation that runs parallel to the three-acre Parkade site.

Residents of the Gardens section of Mount Holly have won a reprieve to the town's plan to demolish their homes as part of a neighborhood redevelopment project. In a ruling Wednesday, the U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals said the township cannot file for eminent domain - which would require homeowners to sell their residences to the city - while an appeal by residents to save those homes is pending. A federal District Court dismissed the residents' challenge to the township's redevelopment project in January, leading about 30 residents to file an appeal.

A demolition crew Monday began the process of tearing down the Windermere Court apartment building, a fire-damaged structure that remains filled with former tenants' furniture, clothing, mementos, photographs, and countless other belongings. In recent weeks, salvagers hired by the building's owners have helped many of the 100-plus former residents of the West Philadelphia building recover some of their possessions, such as bicycles, jewelry, important documents, and even cash. But since the building at 48th and Walnut Streets has been deemed unsafe for anyone to enter, its owners have said there was limited time for salvagers to bring out items.

The ever persevering tenants of the Windermere Court apartments in West Philadelphia said that they've already been burned by the city and the building's owner in the wake of the Jan. 10 fire that destroyed the complex. So you couldn't blame them yesterday when they weren't prepared to trust someone else to go into their apartments to retrieve their valuables. A day after City Councilwoman Jannie Blackwell successfully lobbied a state court to delay the demolition of the charred building, at 48th and Walnut streets, the owners had someone on site to gather information on belongings and pets.

Former tenants stormed the barbed-wire gates that surround what's left of the Windermere Court apartments, angry, frustrated and desperate to salvage whatever parts of their lives the fire of Jan. 10 left behind. Following news that the owners planned to start demolition of the property by yesterday, groups of tenants protested outside the building, at 48th and Walnut streets, on Saturday, Sunday and yesterday. Councilwoman Jannie Blackwell yesterday successfully lobbied a state court to delay the demolition for two days.

The yellow excavator rolled down the Zamboni tunnel shortly after lunch break on Friday. Like a big slow-moving insect, it turned, and, with devastating efficiency, its long-armed claw grabbed at a row of 18 seats. The engine roared as the claw yanked at the Spectrum's carcass. Concrete dust filled the arena, tiny specks glittering in the midday sunlight streaming through a hole in the arena's wall. The excavator claw stripped reinforcing rebar from the concrete with the ease of a woman pulling a thread on the hem of her dress.

JOHN ANDERSON, 22, of Williamstown, N.J., stood out from the Flyered-up thousands gathered in the Spectrum parking lot yesterday to watch the 43-year-old arena meet its maker - because below his Ron Hextall jersey, he was wearing a gray plaid kilt, and cradling bagpipes in his arms. Anderson said that he had just come from playing at a funeral at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Catholic Church, in South Philly, and didn't have time to change. So he grabbed the Hextall jersey he had stashed in his car and hurried to the high-noon wrecking-ball demolition in his County Fermanagh kilt.

IREAD Mr. Thomas' recent letter on racial profiling, and I'm reasonably certain it still goes on, but religious and ethnic profiling are also part of that sordid practice. I've been religiously profiled at least four times, and if you want cases of ethnic profiling, make inquiries in those neighborhoods where English is a secondary language. It might help if we realize the police are constantly upgrading their requirements. At one time, if you wanted to be a police officer or firefighter, you had to grease your ward leader $400 or $500.