Sitting on a patch of neatly trimmed grass on Germantown Avenue is a green sign carved with golden letters, which reads “Nicetown: Putting the nice back in ‘The Town.’” Though the motto doesn’t boast much creativity, it holds a lot of meaning, particularly for the people living there. “We have a lot of dreams and we’ve been working hard to achieve our goals,” says Majeedah Rashid, the chief operating officer for the Nicetown Community Development Corp. (CDC).

Rashid isn’t just referring to making Nicetown “nice” again, but she means bringing businesses and the community together through several development projects, an issue …

In the concrete jungle of North Philadelphia, amid the broken sidewalks, fading stop signs and aging brownstones, stands a refreshingly out-of-place building. Its small garden peels back from the sidewalks of the quiet block. The refurbished warehouse and former conveyor belt storage unit no longer looks like the industrial building it once was. Instead, the bright rainbow colored “children’s entrance” announces the positive environment that is Mercy Family Community Center.
“We’re just a hidden secret, but we don’t want to be hidden,” said child-care director Barbara Coleman. “The community knows about it, but we want …

Like every agency within city government, the Philadelphia Police Department has taken some cuts in its budget. But 39th Police District Capt. Stephen Glenn wouldn’t know anything about that.

“We’re not doing any worse off,” Glenn said. “With budget restrictions I don’t know if the police department is hiring at the same level now. But we have more police officers since Nutter came in. More than we ever got under Street.”

Glenn’s not talking about just a few more officers either. He’s talking about 20 more, a significant number than can affect change and …

Not many in Nicetown or Tioga can say their neighborhood doesn’t have multiple options when it comes to public transportation from SEPTA. All Regional Rail lines, except the R4, crisscross the neighborhood like a deformed tic-tac-toe board. Buses constantly crawl across various streets in the neighborhood. SEPTA’s CCT Connect for disabled riders is also in heavy use.

While the Roosevelt Expressway cuts across the northern section of Nicetown, SEPTA’s Broad Street subway line …

If there’s one thing that can bring a community closer, it’s a trip out of town together.
At least that’s what Kamika Foster, 26, of Commission Street in Nicetown believes.
For eight years now, members of the Nicetown community have organized a yearly ski trip to an assortment of destinations like the Poconos, Massachusetts and Vermont. This year, instead of visiting one of the group’s usual destinations, the group will travel to Woodbury, Conn., for a weekend.

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It’s 11:45 a.m. on a Friday in the Nicetown area of Philadelphia. Children and teenagers litter Germantown Avenue on an unusually cool April afternoon as they window shop and gather with friends on street corners.

On the surface, the sight seems like a pleasant one.  One of youthful enthusiasm and innocence in an area riddled with crime and drug-use.  When you look deeper at the situation, however, there’s one question that needs to be asked.

Why aren’t these kids in …

The bookstores of the Tioga and Nicetown community are much more than stacks of literature and textbooks. They serve as a forum for the community and an educational outlet for the people of the neighborhood.

When customers walk up to the poster-clad staircase of Black and Nobel Bookstore, the employees and owner Hakim Hopkins immediately welcome them with smiles and hearty handshakes. It seems as if Hopkins knows just about every customer on a personal basis.

Beats from a local rapper boom from the speakers and …