Week Five: Mural in Bella Vista

That Friday I was assigned to report on a Bella Vista mural that will likely be covered up by a developer's planned townhouse on the neighboring lot. Community members are upset about the proposed construction and seek to compromise with the developer to reach a compromise.  I spent the morning making phone calls to the developer's lawyer, folks from Philly's Mural Arts program and the murals artist to get a grip on the issue. 

A word of advice--when talking to lawyers, ask them to speak to you as if you are eight-years-old. No matter how comprehensive your understanding of legal jargon, try to get the source to put their ideas in layman's terms so it is easier to quote them accurately when you go to write. I spent a good 15 minutes trying to wrap my head around the difference between a zoning variance and a special permit.

While waiting for other sources to get back to me, I took a cab to the mural in Bella Vista (a hip section of South Philly). I was immediately taken by the neighborhood's atmosphere--it felt like a less pretentious Lower East Side. I'm having such fun getting to know the different pockets of the city.

I spoke with some business owners with shops adjacent to the mural to get their take on the townhouse project. On the cab ride back to the newsroom, some of those sources got back to me so I did some multi-tasking and jotted down notes in transit. The story came out pretty well, and I was excited to see it on the front of the local section that Saturday.