River Wards help to support dying woman’s fundraising wish
Linda Belz, 30, of Port Richmond, is an ovarian-cancer patient who is the terminal stages of her illness. Her dying wish, she told the Philadelphia Daily News recently, was to be able to pay the $9,000 for her own funeral, so she could leave her family members debt-free when she passed.
The River Wards are helping grant her wish, and then some.
Online, about $13,523 has been raised from 350 donors on a gofundme.com page created by Belz’s friend Jenn Szewczak.Kiddie Garden Daycare in Fishtown held an all-day bake sale on Tuesday, April 16, raising $950, according to Betty Becker.
“We, just joking, said we’re going to sell some cupcakes. And people were great. Some people even gave $40 for a pretzel,” Becker said.
The S & C Sweet Factory, in Port Richmond, is selling “Lollies 4 Linda.” Students at Penn Treaty Middle School have also organized a fundraiser.
“Lace Up for Linda,” a softball tournament to benefit Belz, will be held May 17–19 at softball fields near Port Richmond; the specifics will be determined, keep checking playphillysports.com/events.html.
And more fundraisers and charitable events are expected to come. Szewczak said the money exceeding the $9,000 would be donated to cancer research.
Donations can be made to the “Linda Belz Benefit” through any Citizen’s Bank Branch, or at: P.O. Box 5920, Philadelphia, PA 19137.
Linda Belz’s online donations page can be found at gofundme.com/2k9z64.
NoLibs to get New York-inspired flea market for the summer
The Brooklyn Flea, a popular and established flea market that operates in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, New York, has announced that they will be setting up their tables in the Piazza at Schmidt’s in Northern Liberties starting in June and going all summer.
The Brooklyn Flea will still have the “Brooklyn” name when it opens in Northern Liberties on Sunday, June 2. It will be held at the Piazza every Sunday all summer.
The Brooklyn Flea is known for offering a “tightly curated selection of jewelry, arts and crafts by local artisans and designers,” according to its web site, rather than taking a first-come, first-serve approach to vendors.
Brooklyn Flea co-founder Alex Butler told Philadelphia magazine that the space was recommended to them by New York developer Jared Kushner, who recently bought a 60-percent controlling interest in the Piazza from developer Bart Blatstein.
About 20 of the 100 vendors setting up shop in Northern Liberties may be from the Brooklyn area, Butler said.
Squilla proposes delaying AVI bills
City Councilman Mark Squilla (D-1st dist.) has proposed a bill that the city not issue property tax bills to any homeowners based on their new property-value assessments under the Actual Value Initiative if they are appealing their AVI judgment.
“Our main concern was that a bill would go out … before the appeals process was completed,” Squilla told Newsworks. “This [proposal] would only allow [the city] to bill the amount of the previous year until the appeal was complete.”
New property tax bills will be issued in February. Squilla, who represents homeowners in Northern Liberties and Bella Vista who have had greatly increased property values due to AVI, believes that not all AVI appeals will be processed by that point.
Under current regulations, homeowners with pending appeals would have to pay for their new AVI property value, and would be eligible for reimbursement if their appeal led to a finding of a lower property value.
Under Squilla’s proposal, homeowners will pay the same tax amount as they paid in last year’s bill until their appeal is processed.The proposal will be discussed further during City Council budget discussions.
