Manayunk

When Michael Vogel was studying architecture at the University of Pennsylvania, he would spend a lot of his free time building things in the school's furniture-grade wood shop. Ten years as an investment banker, first in New York and then in Philadelphia, did not dull the Elkins Park native's interest in woodworking. "I tried to get access to woodshops regularly, but always found closed doors," Vogel said. The shops he approached would cite wear and tear on the machines, or insurance concerns, or that Vogel would be getting in the way as reasons to shut him out. The alternative was signing up for classes at a woodworking school, thus having regular access to a shop, but his schedule would not allow him to commit to, for example, certain set hours every Monday night.

"The Year of the Woman" was celebrated throughout Manayunk yesterday as more than 30 businesses, many owned by women, participated in the Second Sunday Festival. Among the performers were Maggi and Friends, who entertained at La Petite Gourmet on Main Street. Maggi (center) is joined by Alicia (left) and E.J. (right).

Artist Ellen G. Haham (right) of New York helps Karen Turney adjust a hat at the fifth annual arts festival along Main Street between Green Lane and Shurs Lane yesterday. The warm weather brought shoppers out to the city's Manayunk section in droves and they selected from furniture, clay, paintings, glass, clothing, jewelry and more. Jazz musicians also kept the fifth annual, two-day festival lively.

It would be an understatement to say parking is tight in Manayunk. And it wouldn't be outrageous to speculate that a free, guaranteed place to park is near the top of many a prospective resident's wish list. At Watermill at Manayunk, a new rental/condominium community at the east end of Main Street, the wish has been granted, and included in the rent. "The garage parking was a huge factor," said Justin Eshleman, 31, a customer-service representative for Pfizer Animal Health.

The Manayunk Cycling Festival began Friday and will culminate Sunday in the First Union USPRO Championship. The festival included stunts and a climb up Manayunk hill.

A trash truck lies half-buried yesterday after crashing into a building being demolished on Main Street at Shurs Lane in Manayunk, police said. The driver, David Arthur Sanders, was charged with drunken driving.

David Bezold browses on Main Street in Manayunk yesterday, where the works of more than 250 artists and crafts people from across the country was on display at the Manyunk Arts Festival. Bezold is looking at some of the works of photographer Gary San Pietro.

The bright lights of Manayunk are likely to get brighter still with City Council passage yesterday of a bill that will establish a special services district there. These districts are all the rage now, enabling commercial areas to tax themselves and use the money for enhanced security, street cleaning and promotion. Indeed, Philadelphia has five districts in various stages of development, from the pace-setting Center City District to Germantown, Frankford, South Street and City Avenue.

It's trendy and hip and chic - the Delaware Valley's newest "in" spot to dine and browse the expensive boutiques and craft shops. And when Main Street in Manayunk finally rose from the grave and became a hot spot, Victor Ostroff says, "No one was more amazed than me. "Who would ever believe that people would come to Manayunk to eat?"

The exhibition of Francis Speight's paintings of Manayunk (the show is in honor of his 91st birthday) is delightful. The dense and handsome colors in the show at Designer's Corner in Manayunk look as if they have thoroughly soaked up the light in that section of the city and are now giving it back. The paintings were done in a relaxed way, yet with lots of dash. They feature wide-angle views of Manayunk's hilly terrain, with its rows of houses on steeply graded streets and its terraced gardens with an Old World look.

SO WHY DID Mikel Martinson play in yesterday's U.S. Open local qualifier at Paoli's Waynesborough Country Club, when there were 110 other sites he could have chosen? Well . . . "My two roommates, they live in Leesburg, Va.," said Martinson, who's from Throckmorton, a small town near Lubbock, Texas, and now lives 8 months a year in Charlotte, N.C., while he plays the eGolf professional mini tour. "They're doing the one in Maryland [Worthington Manor Golf Club in Urbana], and it's actually full.

  Heidi Tirjan's schedule was packed. There were visits to a new bakery and a soon-to-open bookshop in Bryn Mawr, then off to Philadelphia to drop in on a couple of chic Northern Liberties retailers she thought should launch outlets in Lower Merion. She also found time to revel in a luscious victory: persuading the owners of the highly regarded Philadelphia restaurant Melograno to open another eatery on the Main Line. After years of wooing, Rosemarie Tran and Gianluca Demontis had succumbed to Tirjan's blandishments and their own desire, and are putting the finishing touches on Fraschetta, a restaurant they are opening near the Bryn Mawr Film Institute.

P AT FEENEY, 60, of Warrington, Bucks County, has owned Main Street Music in Manayunk since 1991. It's one of the few independent record stores still left in the city and the first official sponsor of WXPN's "Album of the Week. " Q: Most people download music from the Internet. How have you managed to stay in business? A: It's been rough, I'm not gonna lie. I think it's the allegiance of our customers. They'll see something online but they'll still wait until they come in and buy it from us. If it wasn't for them we probably would have closed years ago. Q: Who's the typical patron?

The 2013 Parx Casino Philly Cycling Classic will start and end at the Manayunk "Wall" but skip the Art Museum and Benjamin Franklin Parkway in favor of a more compact course. But at least the June 2 race will actually happen, surviving a threat to its existence when previous organizers could not find a corporate sponsor. U.S. Rep. Bob Brady and other civic leaders organized to save the event, recruiting Parx Casino and New Penn Financial as sponsors. The race, famed for its leg-burning ascents up Manayunk's hills, will end atop Lyceum Avenue, part of the climb known as the Wall, which organizers hope will provide dramatic finishes for the crowd.

The 2013 Parx Casino Philly Cycling Classic will start and end at the Manayunk wall but will skip the Art Museum and Benjamin Franklin Parkway in favor of a more compact course. But at least the June 2 race will actually happen, surviving a threat to its existence when previous organizers could not find a corporate sponsor. U.S. Rep. Bob Brady and other civic leaders organized to save the iconic event, recruiting Parx Casino and New Penn financial as sponsors. The race, famed for its leg-burning climb up Manayunk's hills, will end atop Levering Street, part of the climb known as the Wall, which organizers hope will provide dramatic finishes for the crowd.

LIFELONG Manayunk resident John Teague has been fighting a battle for years against the drunks that he and other residents say converge on their tidy riverside community on weekend nights after they pour out of the bars on Main Street. "It's just the sheer number of young people. There's not enough supervision, and that results in our property getting damaged," Teague, 50, said, adding that drunks often vomit or urinate on sidewalks and people's property. Wednesday night, Teague and other neighbors made some headway in their fight at a meeting with bar owners, representatives from the District Attorney's Office and members of the state Liquor Control Enforcement.

Will cycling competitors try to pump past each other on Manayunk's famed "Wall" this year as part of a Philadelphia International Cycling Championship? Mayor Nutter will consider "any viable proposal" for 2013, spokesman Mark McDonald said Tuesday. But mostly, the mayor said in a statement, the focus is on securing a "major pro cycling event" in 2014. "While we are all greatly disappointed by the cancellation of the Philadelphia International Cycling Championship this year owing to the organizer's inability to secure a title sponsor, I want all who are devoted to cycling to know that we are committed to working with the very best promoters to develop a complete event in 2014 that will reestablish our city as a world-class cycling destination," Nutter said.

MANAGERS of the famous Philadelphia International Cycling Championship owe the city big bucks from last year's race, including costs for cops and cleanup, according to the event's founder and city officials. Pro Cycling Tour announced Monday that it was canceling the annual race in Manayunk - initially scheduled for June 2 - due to rising costs and a loss in sponsorship. The group still owes $321,000 for the 2012 race, for traffic control, sanitation, police and emergency management, Fairmount Park event support and food-service inspection, said mayoral spokesman Mark McDonald.

ANITA GARIMELLA Andrews, 36, of Spring Garden, recently sold her start-up, Sepiida, to Delphic Sage, a Manayunk web-development and online-marketing firm. She is now part of their senior management team. In 2011, she won Philadelphia Business Journal's Women of Distinction Rising Star Award and also serves on the boards of The Enterprise Center and Alliance of Women Entrepreneurs. Her civic projects include TechGirlz, a nonprofit that introduces technology to young girls.