Fishtown

Three City Council members yesterday promised a temporary city bailout of St. Mary Hospital in Fishtown - pledging to help keep the hospital open until its management can meet with prospective buyers. Councilmen James J. Tayoun, Angel Ortiz and David Cohen promised the hospital financial support during a seven-hour hearing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court. Afterward, they and Fishtown community leaders led a rally near the hospital to support the 128-year-old facility. Meanwhile, Bankruptcy Court Judge David A. Scholl extended until May 13 an injunction that has prevented closing of the emergency room.

Cops seek suspect in armed robberies * Luzerne Street near K A surveillance camera recorded a man who is wanted in a string of armed robberies, and police are asking for help from the public to identify and arrest him. The man robbed a store at gunpoint on Frankford Avenue near Venango Street, in Kensington, on Nov. 2, police said. On Nov. 20, police said, the man robbed a Dunkin' Donuts on Girard Avenue near Berks Street, in Fishtown. He pulled a gun on employees, demanded money from the register and ran off with about $300, police said.

Sharon Van Etten is an itinerant singer-songwriter. Originally from New Jersey, she went to college in Tennessee, where she was involved in a destructive relationship that she mines in many of her direct, unflinching songs. She now resides in Brooklyn. Van Etten's career roots, however, begin here in Philadelphia. She recorded her first two brilliantly discomforting albums, Because I Was in Love (2009) and Epic (2010), with producer Brian McTear in his Fishtown studio, and Philly is her second home.

THOMAS JOHN LEDERER had his hands full with all those kids. There were his own six children, followed by 16 grandchildren, not to mention nieces and nephews - and even neighborhood youngsters, for whom he was a surrogate father. But Tom loved it. He never lost his zest for living or his optimistic attitude. If you asked him how he was doing, he'd invariably say, "I never had a bad day. " Tom Lederer, a retired surveyor for the city Water Department who helped run water lines across many Philadelphia parks, a lover of nature who planted gardens in his neighborhood and who taught the kids to look at the stars, collapsed and died Thursday behind the wheel of his car on I-95, south of Savannah, Ga. He was driving back to Philly from Cocoa Beach, Fla. His wife of 56 years, the former Rita Lavery, took the wheel and guided the car safely across four lanes of traffic to the side of the highway.

Police yesterday issued an arrest warrant for a Fishtown man and were seeking several others in the baseball bat attack on a deaf black woman and her son in their home in a predominantly white neighborhood. Lt. Stephen Johnson, of the Conflict Prevention and Resolution Unit, said a warrant had been issued for Kevin Norton, 23, who lives on Crease Street, a block from where the family was attacked. He said Norton, who is white, would be charged with ethnic intimidation, aggravated assault and burglary.

Charles Murray thinks I live in a bubble, and it worries him. He believes that people like me are influential but detached, and that the level of isolation in which we live jeopardizes the well-being of society. When he looks at me, here is what he sees: Main Line home, Ivy League law degree, kids in private schools, a Stairmaster in my office, and no domestic beer in my fridge. I tried to convince him that he is mistaken, highlighting that I grew up in Doylestown in a three-bedroom, one-bath home (with only a tub, no shower)

Residential garages in Philadelphia have long been both the envy of neighbors (a designated parking spot!) and the bane of urban-planning types (they're block-killers that disrupt the streetscape!). Lately, though, ambitious home buyers are seeing street-front garages as something different: opportunities. Across Philadelphia's developing neighborhoods, creative individuals with reverence for the city's industrial past and willingness to embark on expansive remodeling work are transforming former garages - often priced at a fraction of finished residences - into homes with loftlike living areas, custom workspaces, and, yes, even a parking space or two. Jennie Shanker, 47, a Fishtown-based sculptor, converted a 150-year-old carriage house-turned-machinist's garage into her workshop and home about nine years ago. "It was a complete and total shell - and in a way, that was the beauty of it," Shanker said.

RE: "For Olney Wife, a Ghastly Find" : This article sheds light on the senseless acts of violence plaguing our society. I have lived in Philadelphia for more than 30 years. I would have never foreseen the "City of Brotherly Love" to be as violent as it is. The article sent chills through my spine. It made me realize just how cold and murderous people have become. One can only imagine the pain this poor woman is feeling. The thought of coming home to find your spouse murdered is devastating.

After the recent attack on Joan Smith and her family, I hope the white people of Philadelphia have finally come to the consensus that racism is alive and well in the City of Brotherly Love. Most white people are in denial when it comes to racial prejudice, primarily because they do not want to face the beast that lurks within. They say, "Things are better now" and "Every time something happens where a black person is involved, black people always holler 'racism.' " White people who do not consider themselves racists need to do more to educate their brothers, instead of telling black people our lot will be better if we get educated and speak "properly" and act in a certain way. I do all of those things, and my family and I are still subjected to racism.

A racially motivated attack in Fishtown last night left a black woman and her 15-year-old son injured after they were beaten by three white men and two white women wielding baseball bats, police said. Police said the incident apparently grew out of an earlier fight between two 15-year-old girls. According to police, racial slurs were exchanged during the fight and during the later beatings. The beating victims were identified as Joan Smith and her son Walter. Police said three other children were in the home during the attack, which occurred at 10:13 p.m. The assailants had broken into the house on the 1200 block of Marlboro Street, police said.