Philadelphia local news, sports, jobs, cars, homes

Tag: West Philadelphia

  • Is 2025 Philadelphia’s year of the parking garage?

    Is 2025 Philadelphia’s year of the parking garage?

    Three large stand-alone parking garages have been proposed in Philadelphia this year, unusual projects in a city where parking operators have long complained that high taxation makes it difficult to run a business.

    The latest is a 372-unit garage near Fishtown and Northern Liberties at 53-67 E. Laurel St. near the Fillmore concert hall and the Rivers Casino.

    The developers see it as a strong bet for an area of the city that has seen a surge of apartment construction, which, due to Philadelphia’s parking laws, requires developers to only build spaces to serve a fraction of the units.

    “There’s been about 2,500 units that have come online within a 5- to 10-minute walk” of the planned garage, said Aris Kufasimes, director of operations with developer Bridge One Management. “When you’re building those on 7-1 [apartments to parking spaces] ratios, that leaves a massive hole. Where is everybody going to put their vehicles?”

    Despite central Philadelphia’s walkability and high levels of transit access, two other developers have made similar calculations this year.

    In the spring, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) revealed plans for a 1,005-space parking garage in Grays Ferry along with a shuttle service to spirit employees to the main campus a mile away.

    In August, University Place Associates unveiled plans for a 495-unit garage. About a fourth of it will be reserved for the use of the city’s new forensic lab, but the rest will be open to the public.

    All three projects have baffled environmentalists and urbanists, who thought Philadelphia was moving away from car-centric patterns of late 20th-century development.

    It’s also surprised parking operators in the city, who say national construction cost trends and high local taxation make it difficult to turn a profit.

    Legacy parking companies in Philadelphia like E-Z Park and Parkway Corp. have been selling garages and surface lots for redevelopment as anything other than parking. They say the city has lost 10,000 publicly available spaces in the last 15 years, bringing the total to about 40,000 in Center City.

    “I don’t think I’ll ever build another stand-alone parking facility,” said Robert Zuritsky, president of Parkway Corp. and board chair of the National Parking Association. “It doesn’t make any sense.”

    Zuritsky and other parking companies have long noted that operators in Philadelphia, who often have unionized workforces, get hit with parking, wage, property, and the Use and Occupancy Tax.

    When combined with the soaring cost of building new spaces across the nation, it’s difficult to turn a profit in Philadelphia.

    A rendering of the Fishtown garage, looking towards the Delaware River.

    Zuritsky says it costs $60,000-$70,000 a space to build an aboveground lot in today’s environment and $100,000 to $150,000 below ground.

    “It’s like building a house for a car,” he said.

    Depending on hyperlocal peculiarities, Zuritsky says that taxation in Center City can eat up to 60% of the money they bring in and that to profit from new construction, an operator would have to charge $3,000 per space a month.

    “I wish people luck, the ones that are moving in,” said Harvey Spear, president of E-Z Park. “Between taxes, insurance, and labor, it comes to, like, 70-some percent of what we take in. We have more equipment now that does away with a lot of labor; we’re trying to compensate with that.”

    Urbanist and environmental advocates, meanwhile, have condemned the new garage projects, arguing that they will add to carbon emissions, air pollution, and traffic congestion.

    “A massive parking garage less than half a mile from the El [in Fishtown] is the wrong direction for any city that claims to take climate action seriously,” said Ashlei Tracy, deputy executive director with the Pennsylvania Bipartisan Climate Initiative. “SEPTA is already working to get more people out of cars and onto transit, but projects like this one and the one from CHOP only make that harder.”

    Here are the parking projects in the pipeline.

    Fishtown: 372 spaces

    The garage, with architecture by Philadelphia-based Designblendz, doesn’t just contain parking. It includes close to 14,000 square feet of commercial space on the first floor, which the developer hopes to rent to a restaurant — or two — on the edges of one of Philadelphia’s hottest culinary scenes.

    Another over 16,000-square-foot restaurant space is planned for the top floor, with views of the skyline and river. Both the top and bottom floors also could be used as event spaces.

    Kufasimes says that this aspect of the project could partly offset the kinds of costs that parking veterans warn of.

    “Our due diligence team went through those numbers and vetted them pretty thoroughly: The returns are what they needed to be,” Kufasimes said. “It’s got a multifunction of income streams, so we think that that really will help play a larger role.”

    Kufasimes also said a parking garage made sense in an area that’s seen more development than almost any other corner of Philadelphia. When investors purchased the land at 53-67 E. Laurel St. and approached his company for ideas, they met with other stakeholders in the neighborhood and determined parking would be appreciated.

    “It wasn’t necessarily all about the profit,” Kufasimes said. “A lot of people this day and age, that is their number-one goal. If this is a slightly lower return in the long run but can be better accepted by the community as a whole, we think that actually raises the value of the asset.”

    An overhead-perspective rendering of the Fishtown garage.

    At an October meeting of the Fishtown Neighbors Association, that argument appeared to pay off. Unlike most community meetings where a large new development is proposed, there were no adamant opponents of the project. The project also includes a 20,000-square-foot outdoor space, a green roof, and a to-be-decided public art component. All of that helped, too.

    “It’s nice seeing a parking garage, of all things, be as pedestrian-friendly and thoughtful as this,” one speaker said during the Zoom meeting.

    University City: 495 spaces

    The garage at 17 N. 41st St. is part of a larger complex of developments in a corner of West Philadelphia’s University City.

    Dubbed University Place 5.0, it largely exists because of a major expansion of the municipal bureaucracy west of the Schuylkill.

    For years the city has sought a new location for its criminal forensics laboratory. The debate became heated in City Hall, with numerous Council members making the case for locations within their districts.

    Councilmember Jamie Gauthier pushed for its location in University City Place 3.0, a newly built, state-of-the-art life sciences building that was coming online just as its intended industry was slowing down in the face of higher interest rates.

    To get the crime lab, Mayor Cherelle L. Parker’s administration said the police department would need ample parking. That’s where the new garage comes in.

    In June, Gauthier passed a zoning overlay that cleared away the regulatory hurdles to the project. Six weeks later, the developers revealed University City Place 5.0, which has 29 parking spaces on the ground floor reserved for official use by forensics vehicles and 100 spaces reserved for city employees.

    A rendering of the proposed University City parking garage as seen from 42nd and Filbert Streets.

    Designed by Philadelphia-based ISA Architects, the garage is also meant to serve University Place Associate’s other large developments in the area. Akin to the Fishtown garage, they have also sought to make the development pedestrian friendly, with a dog park, green space, and public art.

    The local community group, West Powelton Saunders Park RCO, also embraced the proposal.

    “The community met regarding this project back in August, and … they were all in support of this project,” Pamela Andrews, president of the West Powelton Saunders Park RCO, said at the city’s September Civic Design Review meeting. “We have a tremendous problem with parking, and the community members felt this was a much needed and welcome addition.”

    Grays Ferry: 1,005 parking spaces

    CHOP’s thousand-car parking garage by far has been the most controversial of the proposals. But it also makes the most economic sense for the owner. Unlike the other garages — or those owned by Parkway and E-Z Park — it will be owned by a nonprofit and exempted from many of the taxes that make it so expensive to own parking in Philadelphia.

    A rendering of the new parking garage CHOP plans for Grays Ferry.

    The hospital purchased the property at 3000 Grays Ferry Ave., next to the Donald Finnegan Playground, for almost $25 million last year.

    The seven-story development, which, plans show, would have far fewer amenities than its University City and Fishtown counterparts, is meant to serve CHOP’s new research facilities in Fitler Square and the new patient tower set to open in 2028.

    “We recently secured permits and have begun construction on the new parking garage at 3000 Grays Ferry Ave.,” a CHOP spokesperson said. “The full construction is expected to go through the fall of 2026. CHOP continues to engage with the community by providing support, timely updates and addressing feedback during construction.”

    At the time of its unveiling, CHOP argued that the massive garage was needed as SEPTA threatened to become unreliable due to a political funding crisis in Harrisburg. But detractors appeared almost immediately to denounce the hospital for worsening air quality in a lower-income neighborhood that is already a hot spot for asthma.

    The project’s design was derided at the city’s advisory Civic Design Review panel and has attracted protest rallies, unlike its counterparts in University City or Fishtown.

    There are no regulatory hurdles to the development, but changes in the political or economic landscape could make it difficult to embark on a large capital project. Notably, the University of Pennsylvania proposed an 858-space garage in 2023 for the nearby Pennovation Center and has never broken ground.

  • Councilmember Gauthier pursues more red tape for university land sales in West Philly

    Councilmember Gauthier pursues more red tape for university land sales in West Philly

    Philadelphia Councilmember Jamie Gauthier has made it clear that she is unhappy with St. Joseph’s University.

    The school sold much of its West Philadelphia campus to Belmont Neighborhood Educational Alliance, a nonprofit led by Michael Karp, a developer of student housing.

    In City Council on Tuesday, St. Joe’s confirmed that the sale has closed.

    In reaction, Gauthier had authored legislation that sought to require more community oversight when large institutions make significant land sales in University City, which is part of her district. She thinks this sale might not be the last, given the turbulent state of higher education.

    Her original legislation was deemed legally dubious by the city’s law department and by most zoning attorneys consulted by The Inquirer.

    Gauthier amended the bill and got the new version passed by City Council’s Rules Committee on Tuesday.

    “It is an indisputable fact that college campuses significantly impact the communities that surround them,” Gauthier said at the hearing.

    “As higher education undergoes its most significant change in our lifetime,” she continued, “we must ensure that land-use decisions are made with their communities in mind, and recent actions by multiple universities prove this will not happen without legislative action.”

    The original bill sought to regulate how higher education institutions use their land, which is illegal. Zoning concerns land use generally, not only land use of specific actors.

    Gauthier amended the bill so it is triggered not by a change in ownership from a university to a non-higher education buyer, but by a proposed change away from educational use on lots over 5,000 square feet.

    So if a university sold land to a housing developer, the law would be triggered. It is not clear it would be triggered by what St. Joe’s did, which was selling land used for university purposes to another educational provider that claims to want to start a teaching college.

    The amendments also removed clauses that would have required neighborhood residents to join the Philadelphia City Planning Commission when it reviews land-transfer proposals, as is required by this bill.

    Gauthier pushed back against arguments that her bill is an overreach by noting that it simply requires a meeting with neighborhood groups, a review by the planning commission, and a demolition moratorium if there are no permits for new construction.

    “This bill doesn’t cripple anyone’s property values,” Gauthier said. “It doesn’t restrict anyone’s use or density rights. It adds more eyes and more transparency to land-use decisions for major properties that change entire neighborhoods. The idea that this could ever be wrong is simply preposterous.”

    The IPEX building at St. Joseph’s University in Philadelphia on Sept. 12.

    Representatives from a host of West Philadelphia neighborhood groups testified in support of Gauthier’s bill. They detailed their anxieties about living in the shadow of large institutions with expensive real estate portfolios and their frustrations with what they felt had been duplicity by St. Joe’s during a public engagement campaign about the sale.

    During neighborhood meetings earlier this year, attendees detailed their desire for a community college, health clinic, parking, or affordable housing on a post-sale St. Joe’s campus.

    They said they felt that the university ignored their feedback.

    “This thing about community engagement, we feel as though it was false,” said Jacquelyn Owns, a committeeperson in the 27th Ward. “It was just something to keep the community quiet while they did exactly what they wanted to do.”

    St. Joe’s representatives argued that Karp’s plans for the site are in keeping with the neighborhood’s broad desires, given that his Belmont organization runs charter schools.

    St. Joe’s also noted that it will still retain some property in the area affected by Gauthier’s bill and contended that the legislation would have deleterious effects on higher education institutions in University City.

    “It probably would devalue our real estate holdings, which, in turn, would then devalue our balance sheet, which would then restrict our ability to offer financial aid,” said Joseph Kender, senior vice president at St. Joe’s. “It would restrict our ability to start new construction projects. It would restrict our ability to offer new academic programs.”

    A lawyer for St. Joe’s, Ballard Spahr zoning attorney Matthew McClure, said that even the amended bill might still be illegal.

    Despite the protests by St. Joe’s, Council’s Rules Committee passed the amended bill.

    That may be the last movement on the controversial legislation for a while. At its October meeting, the planning commission requested a 45-day hold on the bill to consider its ramifications more thoroughly. That means the full City Council will not be able to consider it until late November.

  • Before the Day of the Dead, a time to welcome departed dogs and cats as families create ‘pet ofrendas’

    Before the Day of the Dead, a time to welcome departed dogs and cats as families create ‘pet ofrendas’

    The spirits of the pets come first, treading home on soft, shadowy paws, making their way by the light of altar candles and guided by the eternal tie of love.

    They are welcomed with offerings of favorite treats and fresh water, and by the careful placement of old toys and worn collars that have become cherished mementos.

    It’s a new tradition connected to the Day of the Dead, the ancient Mexican holiday where people honor and celebrate the lives of family members at a time when the wall between worlds melts.

    Now, in Philadelphia and elsewhere, people have begun to recognize not just human relatives but those with wings and whiskers, the departed dogs, cats, birds, and other animals that enriched their lives. And who, like family, continue to be mourned and missed.

    The souls of pets are said to return on Oct. 27, a few days before the Dia de Muertos on Nov. 1 and 2.

    “The day,” said Gerardo Coronado Benitez, manager of the Association of Mexican Business Owners of Philadelphia, “is not about death, but about celebrating and remembering people, keeping memories alive. Of course many people want to keep alive the memories of their pets.”

    He is helping organize a big Day of the Dead event at the Italian Market on Nov. 2, where people will be able to place photos of relatives and pets on a community ofrenda ― a decorated altar ― at Ninth Street and Washington Avenue.

    A crowd gathers at last year’s Day of the Dead celebration at the Italian Market in South Philadelphia.

    Others have set up altars in their homes. These ofrendas may be adorned with traditional marigolds, with candy skulls, paper skeletons, and photographs. But they may also feature a snatch of fur or a whisker left behind.

    Genesis Pimentel-Howard created an ofrenda for her cat, Mobi, on a bedroom shelf of the West Philadelphia home she shares with her husband, Yaphet Howard.

    It’s hard for her to talk about Mobi, who died suddenly in May at only 4 years old.

    He was, she said, an adorable menace. Mobi loved to poke at and play with the couple’s other cat, Sannin, though Sannin didn’t always appreciate the attention.

    Mobi sometimes stole food from the trash. And he managed to push over and break Pimentel-Howard’s flat-screen TV. Still, she said, he followed her everywhere. She couldn’t even use the bathroom without him trailing her inside.

    “A sweet momma’s boy,” she said. “Always next to me.”

    On the ofrenda, Pimentel-Howard placed her grandmother’s pearls. And photos of her family dogs, Ella and Red, and her hamster, Shia LaBeouf. She added a shadow box that holds Mobi’s collar and an impression of his paw.

    “I’ll stay up as late as I can to welcome him,” she said. “I like to think he’ll be around.”

    Genesis Pimentel-Howard lights a candle for her late cat, Mobi, beside a lovingly crafted ofrenda in her Philadelphia home on Monday. The altar glows with candlelight, welcoming the spirits of her beloved departed pets. The ritual is part of a growing tradition tied to Día de los Muertos.

    The roots of the Day of the Dead go back 3,000 years, to Aztec and Mayan traditions. It is celebrated not only in Mexico but also in wider Latin America and in communities across the United States.

    Dogs have always played an important role. The ancients considered them sacred, guides that led souls through the afterlife. They revered the Mexican Hairless dog, the Xoloitzcuintle, or Xolo for short.

    It’s a Xolo dog, Dante, that guides Miguel to meet his ancestors in Coco, the popular animated Disney movie. And it’s a song from the movie, “Remember Me,” that has become the soundtrack for countless social media posts about departed pets.

    In Philadelphia, the Italian Market festival welcomes all who wish to take part in its Day of the Dead event to South Ninth Street between Federal and Christian Streets from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Nov. 2

    The Fleisher Art Memorial in South Philadelphia also will hold a big Day of the Dead celebration. Everyone is invited to help with final preparations for the ofrenda from 2 to 9 p.m. on Oct. 31, and to come to the Day of the Dead event the next day.

    “The animals, that’s family, too,” said María De Los Angeles Hernández Del Prado, the artist who led the creation of the Fleisher’s large, three-part ofrenda, which includes a section devoted to pets. “They’re the same as us, they just don’t talk the same language.”

    Pimentel-Howard knew after Mobi died that she would find a way to honor him, along with the other animals she has loved.

    “You don’t know what it’s like to lose an animal,” she said, “until you’ve lost one.”

  • Community College of Philadelphia interim president is selected for permanent role

    Community College of Philadelphia interim president is selected for permanent role

    Alycia Marshall, who has been serving as interim president of Community College of Philadelphia since April, was unanimously endorsed for the permanent role Tuesday.

    The board of trustees, at an 8 a.m. meeting, approved making an offer of employment to Marshall, who had served as provost and vice president for academic and student success at CCP for nearly three years before stepping into the interim role.

    Marshall was among four finalists for the job.

    “Congratulations,” Board Chair Harold T. Epps said to Marshall during the Zoom meeting, which lasted about 10 minutes. “You have earned it through a very tough and challenging process. …We look forward to working with you.”

    Community College of Philadelphia is poised to select its next president Tuesday

    Epps cited Marshall’s “stellar work” through the interim period as a factor in the board’s decision and said she had “the full confidence” of the board.

    “I’m a little bit emotional,” Marshall said at the meeting. “I’m very excited. I’m honored. I’m deeply humbled, pleased, ecstatic, and looking forward to the road ahead and the journey ahead.

    “I am fully committed to this institution, to our students, most importantly, and to the college community.”

    Alycia Marshall

    Epps said contract negotiations with Marshall would begin immediately to lead the college, which had an enrollment of 12,400 credit students and 1,381 noncredit students last spring. No terms or salary of her employment were released.

    Marshall will follow former CCP President Donald Guy Generals, who led the college for 11 years and was forced out of the job in April and placed on paid administrative leave through the end of his contract.

    Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle L. Parker congratulated Marshall in a statement.

    “The Parker administration supports CCP, Dr. Marshall, and the board in its mission,” she said.

    Maria Baez, student government president, was on the search committee and said while she liked all four candidates, Marshall was her first choice.

    Alycia Marshall speaks at a Community College of Philadelphia forum where she appeared as one of four finalists for president. She got the job Tuesday.

    “As a student, I see her passion for the students,” Baez said. “I see how connected she is with the students. Her heart is for the students.”

    Junior Brainard, co-president of the faculty and staff union, said: “As a union, we are looking forward to Dr. Marshall finally making good on the agreement we signed back in March,” referring to a contract agreement. “That includes SEPTA passes for all students, smaller class sizes, and improvements to health, safety, and working conditions that will be figured out through various committees.”

    During a finalist forum, Marshall addressed free SEPTA passes for students. While the college couldn’t offer the benefit to all students — it would cost about $2 million — a pilot will begin in the spring at the college’s West Philadelphia site, she said.

    Brainard said the college has to do better. The pilot only serves half the students at the West Philadelphia site and just 3% of the student body, he said.

    Marshall said in an interview Tuesday afternoon that the goal is to find alternative funding sources and expand the program to the entire college.

    She said among her priorities will be increasing and strengthening transfer partnerships, with the recently announced program with Cheyney University, an historically Black college in Delaware and Chester counties, as a model.

    “Many of our students have transportation issues and perhaps reasonably cannot drive the 25 miles to Cheyney University,” she said. “So Cheyney at CCP is going to provide opportunities to complete a bachelor’s while staying on our campus. It’s symbolic of where I would like to work together with faculty, staff and the administrators and the board … on really strengthening those pathways.”

    She cited workforce development and strengthening partnerships with K-12 schools, too, including expanding dual enrollment opportunities and reaching into areas of the city that the college currently is not penetrating enough.

    When Marshall was named as interim, Epps cited her “academic and organizational leadership, along with her extensive expertise in STEM, her focus on mentoring and serving underrepresented student populations.”

    Community College of Philadelphia announces four finalists for president, including its current interim leader

    Marshall, 51, received her bachelor’s in mathematics from the University of Maryland Baltimore County, her master’s in teaching from Bowie State University, and her doctorate in mathematics education from the University of Maryland.

    A native of Maryland, she started her career as an adjunct professor at Anne Arundel Community College in Maryland, near Annapolis, and later became a full tenured professor and chair of the mathematics department.

    CCP board appoints provost as interim leader after ousting president

    She was promoted to associate vice president there and founded the African American Leadership Institute and spent a total of nearly 23 years at the Maryland community college. She’s also a rising presidents fellow with the Aspen Foundation, a nonprofit aimed at creating thought leaders in their fields to address critical challenges.

    Alycia Marshall, then interim president of Community College of Philadelphia, speaks at commencement in May.
    CCP board removes president, voting not to renew contract and placing him on immediate paid leave

    At a campus interview session for the job, Marshall said she would lead both internally and externally, focusing on faculty and staff satisfaction as well as building relationships with funders and donors.

    She said she has already met more than 20 City Council members and state legislators.

    Marshall acknowledged that an employee satisfaction survey she commissioned when she became interim president showed low morale and promised to address it “through ensuring transparency and frequent communication.” The results of that survey haven’t been publicly released.

    Marshall said that over the last six months, she learned to be comfortable not knowing what will happen next. After a board meeting earlier this month, a consultant who is the liaison to the presidential search committee said on a still-active microphone that Marshall had not been well-received on campus.

    Marshall said at the interview session that she did not agree with that and that she has developed relationships with people across the college.

    “If you have worked directly with me, you will know I am here for the students and I am here to support faculty and staff,” she said.

    Marshall, who maintains a residence in Maryland, said she would move to the city full time if selected for the job.

    The other finalists for the job were: Jesse Pisors, former president of Pasco-Hernando State College in Florida; Jermaine Wright, vice president for student affairs at City University of New York-Lehman College; and Lisa Cooper Wilkins, vice chancellor of student affairs at City College of San Francisco.

  • Barry Leonard, celebrated crimper and longtime Center City beauty salon owner, has died at 87

    Barry Leonard, celebrated crimper and longtime Center City beauty salon owner, has died at 87

    Barry Leonard, 87, formerly of Philadelphia, celebrated crimper, longtime innovative owner of the Barry Leonard Crimper & Spa in Center City, unisex beauty salon groundbreaker, fashion and marketing trendsetter, haircutting mentor, and Army veteran, died Sunday, Oct. 12, at his home in Hallandale Beach, Fla. The cause of his death has not been disclosed.

    Born in Philadelphia to a family of hairstylists, Mr. Leonard swept the floor at his father’s beauty salon in West Philadelphia as a boy and, in 1955, became the first male to graduate from the beauty culture curriculum at Murrell Dobbins Career and Technical Education High School. He went on to help rewrite state statutes to allow unisex beauty salons in the 1970s, wow the marketing world with innovative ads that featured Fidel Castro, Albert Einstein, Santa Claus, and the Wolfman, and own high-end shops in the old Marriott Hotel on City Avenue and then on Chestnut Street for 43 years.

    A proponent of what he called “natural haircutting,” Barry Leonard, Crimper, counted politicians, musicians, actors, and other celebrities as well as local residents as his regulars, and most of them were fine with waiting months for an appointment. He moved his bustling salon from the Marriott to 1527 Chestnut St. in 1972, relocated to 1822 Chestnut in 1995, and retired to Florida in 2005.

    In the early 1970s, he saw that men appreciated hair care, too, and he successfully challenged an old state law that required separate locations for male and female haircuts. So unisex salons became common in the 1980s and ’90s.

    Mr. Leonard is shown styling the hair of Annie Halpern, his future wife, in this 1985 photo in the Daily News.

    “Hair,” he told The Inquirer in 1973, “is the only part of the body that can be changed readily and allows the individual to play his role as he feels it at that particular moment — protest, freakiness, sensuality, anything.”

    His New Age salon featured wicker furniture, hanging plants, big pillows, Japanese koi, and free coffee, fruit, and wine. He charged $12.50 per cut in 1973 and $25 in 1991. Sometimes, he booked 75 heads a day, his wife, Annie, said.

    Most often, he consulted with customers before the cut, assigned the job to an assistant stylist, and checked back when the work was done. Over his career, he told his wife, he likely attended to more than 1 million customers. In 1991, he told The Inquirer: “My general philosophy is to make people happy.”

    He also created and distributed do-it-yourself manuals for those who couldn’t get appointments and introduced computerized styling technology in the 1980s so clients could design their own cuts on video screens. “I’m a firm believer that nothing lasts forever,” he told the Daily News in 1977. “But right now, I’ll stay the way I am. It’s really a matter of the world catching up with me.”

    This then and now photo appeared with a story in The Inquirer in 1973.

    He was featured often in The Inquirer, Daily News, Philadelphia Magazine, Philadelphia Business Journal, and other publications, and writers dubbed him the “top hair gun” in Philadelphia, “the dashing haircutter,” and “Philadelphia’s leading proponent of hair as art.” He dabbled in selling franchises, endorsed a new Japanese hair-straightening process, and hosted runway-style hair shows and crimper workshops.

    Women told him his beauty advice changed their lives. Men said his haircuts improved their sex lives. “I was the image changer,” he told The Inquirer in 2002.

    In the late 1960s, Mr. Leonard gave local advertising whiz Elliott Curson a haircut, and Curson, delighted with the result, suggested rebranding Mr. Leonard as “a crimper,” British slang for hairdresser. What followed was a hugely successful ad campaign and a friendship that lasted more than 50 years.

    One of their first ads featured the phrase: “When I come out of Barry Leonard’s, I won’t look like my mother.” Curson said: “He had that look, the outfit, and the vision that worked so well.”

    Mr. Leonard and his wife, Annie, married in 1986.

    Mr. Leonard liked to wear a work shirt, vest, blue jeans, boots, designer glasses, and turquoise jewelry to work. His own hair flowed down to his shoulders when he was young. He told the Daily News in 1977: “Anybody can be where it’s at. But I’m where it’s going to be.”

    He was a member of Intercoiffure America and participated in its competitive showings in New York and elsewhere. He was included in a display called “Movers and Shakers” at the now-closed Philadelphia History Museum.

    “He would meet you once and have an impact on the rest of your life,” his wife said. “Everybody loved him. He was passionate and compassionate.”

    Barry Leonard was born Jan. 27, 1938, in Philadelphia. He grew up in Wynnefield and Bala Cynwyd, and served in the Army’s 101st Airborne Division for two years after high school.

    Mr. Leonard (second from right) celebrated his 80th birthday with his children.

    He wore a traditional tie and jacket, and cut hair with his father and in a few local shops before opening his place at the Marriott in 1962. He also spent some time working in London and first heard the word crimper there.

    He married Charlene Brooks, and they had daughters Karen, Susan, and Elizabeth and a son, Brett. After a divorce, he met Annie Halpern at a party in 1983. They went to a Neil Diamond concert on their first date in 1984, married in 1986, and moved from Center City to Florida in 2005.

    Mr. Leonard was an avid boxing fan, and he knew his way around the popular Blue Horizon venue on Broad Street. He had a summer home in Longport, N.J., and enjoyed time at Gulfstream Park racetrack in Florida.

    He was spiritual and loquacious, his wife said. He had favorite witty quips, and his family and friends refer to them as “Barryisms.”

    This article about Mr. Leonard’s fashion sense was published in the Daily News in 1977.

    He attended all kinds of galas and benefits, and doted on his children. “He gave me my first shag” haircut, a longtime friend said on Facebook. Another friend said her neighbor cut her hair once. “The results were not good,” she said. “Barry fixed me.”

    They called him “one of a kind,” “truly the best around,” and a “mentor and a friend.” His wife said: “He was the love of my life.”

    In addition to his wife, children, and former wife, Mr. Leonard is survived by eight grandchildren and other relatives. A brother died earlier.

    A celebration of his life is to be at 11 a.m. Saturday, Dec. 6, at Gulfstream Park, Third Floor, Flamingo Room, 901 S. Federal Highway, Hallandale Beach, Fla. 33009. RSVP to blcrimper@aol.com.

    This ad by Mr. Leonard and Elliott Curson appeared in The Inquirer in 1982.
  • Philly lawmakers want to ‘clamp down’ on smoke shops. Their landlords could be next.

    Philly lawmakers want to ‘clamp down’ on smoke shops. Their landlords could be next.

    There’s a smoke shop in North Philly peddling recreational drugs across the street from a daycare. A West Philly storefront that sells loose cigarettes on a residential block. A convenience store in Spring Garden that advertises urine to people looking to pass a drug test.

    These are among the so-called nuisance businesses that City Council members and neighborhood association leaders cited Monday as lawmakers advanced legislation to make it easier for the city to shut down stores that sell cannabis and tobacco products without licenses.

    And legislators said their next target could be the landlords who rent space to those businesses.

    “We have to work with our city departments and our state partners to clamp down on these businesses,” said City Council Majority Leader Katherine Gilmore Richardson, who represents the city at-large. “We’re just being inundated.”

    Members of Council’s Committee on Licenses and Inspections passed two bills Monday that city officials say seek to close loopholes store owners exploit to avoid being cited for failing to obtain proper permits.

    In introducing the legislation earlier this year, Gilmore Richardson cited an Inquirer report about Pennsylvania’s unregulated hemp stores, which sell products advertised as legal hemp that are often black market cannabis or contaminated with illicit toxins.

    City Council bill would crack down on unregulated smoke shops, citing Inquirer report

    One bill makes it easier for the city to shut down nuisance businesses by removing language that classifies some violations as criminal matters, requiring that the police investigate them as crimes rather than civil violations that are quicker to adjudicate.

    The second piece of legislation makes it illegal for businesses to essentially reorganize under a new name but conduct the same operations as a means of evading enforcement.

    Both pieces of legislation could come up for a full vote in the Democratic-dominated City Council in the coming weeks. Members of Mayor Cherelle L. Parker’s administration testified in favor of them, meaning the mayor is likely to sign both.

    A smoke shop in South Philadelphia.

    Neighborhood association leaders also testified Monday in favor of the changes, but several said more aggressive enforcement is needed. They said smoke shops in particular have popped up throughout their commercial corridors, as have convenience stores that don’t even have licenses to operate as businesses, let alone sell recreational drugs.

    “We’ve seen firsthand the selling of illegal drug paraphernalia and [loose cigarettes], many of which children walk past in order to get to the candy bars and seniors walk past to get to the milk,” said Heather Miller, of the Lawncrest Community Association. “We need to address this.”

    Elaine Petrossian, a Democratic ward leader in Center City and a community activist, called for “much” higher fines and penalties for landlords. She cited progress the municipal government has made in New York City, where authorities cracked down on building owners who knowingly rented space to tenants selling cannabis or tobacco without licenses to do so.

    Several lawmakers said they’d support a similar approach. Councilmember Mark Squilla, who represents a district that spans from South Philadelphia to Kensington, said landlords must be held “more accountable.”

    “If they had some skin in the game, maybe they’d think twice about renting to an illegal operation,” he said.

    Councilmember Jamie Gauthier, who represents parts of West Philadelphia, agreed. She said she recently attempted to meet with a building owner who rents space to a problematic smoke shop in her district, but was rebuffed.

    “He was like, ‘These people pay me rent, and that’s the extent to which I basically care,’” Gauthier said. “We need something that forces property owners to be more accountable than that, because neighbors are suffering.”

    Staff writers Max Marin and Ryan W. Briggs contributed to this article.