It’s been two weeks since the brutal murder at the Wayne Wawa and we’re still aghast.
We didn’t know Stephanie MIller personally, but her death seems personal. We’re taking it personally.
She walked among us.
Her 6-year-old son goes to school here.
We’ve bought coffee at that Wawa.
The store on Old Sugartown has reopened, its floors scrubbed. The only hint of the horror that happened here: a makeshift memorial on a window ledge.
And yet, we’re haunted.
Stephanie’s death sickens and enrages us, even as it frightens and confounds us.
Questions swirl. Answers don’t satisfy.
We wonder how a man who had a protection-from-abuse order against him gets his hands on a semi-automatic weapon.
And then we hear that the Del-Ton DTI-15 rifle that Brian Kennedy used to shoot his ex-wife, repeatedly and at point-blank range, was purchased legally.
And that the protection-from-abuse order against him had lapsed last September. And that, on March 16, twelve days before the murder, Kennedy passed an “instant background check” at a local gun shop and carried his shiny new AR-15 rifle out to his shiny black BMW.
How is that even possible, we ask ourselves. Don’t you need some sort of special clearance to own military-style assault weapons?
We learn that you don’t. A similar Del-Ton AR-15 can be yours for $300 at King’s Shooter Supply in King of Prussia, Radnor gun-safety activist Gale Morrison tells us.
We start thinking: Kennedy lived at Stonegate at Devon apartments, a few blocks from the Wawa on Old Sugartown Road. The Delco DA won’t say where he bought the rifle, but we’re guessing he shopped nearby. We run this by Tredyffrin Police Superintendent Mike Beaty and Morrison. Both remind us that even if Kennedy had flunked the background check, he could easily have bought the semi-automatic in a private sale. The “PA loophole” – wherein AR-15s and other killing machines are lumped in with “long guns” so people can freely sell them to one another – is “dangerous and terrible” and “needs to be closed,” Morrison affirms.
Then we ponder the red flags. How could there have been so many?
We begin to research and read, obsessively. We learn that Kennedy had a criminal record. That three years ago, at the same Wawa, he threatened to kill Stephanie in the checkout line. “Get that f-ing life insurance policy before I kill you,” he’d whispered in her ear, so their son, then 3, couldn’t hear. “Excuse me,” she yelled, hoping to attract notice. But Kennedy stormed off with their son before Stephanie could even kiss her boy good-bye. A dedicated occupational therapist, she waited until after her shift that night to call police. Kennedy was found guilty of making terroristic threats and harassment.
At the preliminary hearing, Stephanie told the judge she was “very fearful” of her ex. She chose the Wayne Wawa for weekly custody exchanges because it was busy, well-lit and had surveillance cameras. Chief Beaty tells us hundreds of public child exchanges take place around town every week. As much as they’d like to, police can’t monitor every exchange, he says.
We ask Beaty if Stephanie might have been wiser to choose, say, a police station for her custody handoffs. Not necessarily, replies Beaty. “We don’t screen people entering the police station for weapons.”
Oh, OK. Never mind. “This was an evil act by an evil person,” Beaty adds, more than once. “They find a way. It rips your heart out.” Then we remember Morrison’s email, which directly contradicts the chief. We pull it up. “It’s total fallacy that he would have found a way; it could have been a car or a knife,” she writes. “Stephanie Miller would not have been dead in six seconds with either of these means.”
Maureen Acker of Merion Station and Lauren Williams and Michele Hunn of Radnor rally for gun-sense legislation in Harrisburg on April 8.
We read, too, about the “red flag” laws in 14 states and follow reports from last Friday’s news conference in Media, called after Stephanie’s murder to urge bi-partisan support for two red-flag bills pending in Harrisburg. Red-flag laws empower loved ones and law enforcement to seek “extreme risk protection orders” or ERPOs, which temporarily force guns out of the hands of folks who might harm themselves or others. Overrun by NRA opposition, a similar measure failed last year. We’re glad Republicans raised this year’s red flags – it will be easier for the GOP-controlled statehouse to pass them.
Radnorites Michele Hunn (second from right), Gretchen MacKenzie (far right) and Sara Wallace (third from left) along with others MOMS meet with Pa. Sen. Lisa Boscola about Extreme Risk Protection Orders.
We ponder how – and if – a court order might have saved Stephanie. Kennedy’s escalating anger and mental health issues were well-established. Local cops knew about this couple. Someone might have stepped in and forced Kennedy to turn over his gun. But by all accounts, this was his first and only gun. Did Stephanie even know about it? And couldn’t Kennedy have hid it somewhere? The compressed timeline nags at us. Could she have become aware of the gun and secured a court order in just 12 days?
Morbidly fascinated by monsters, we peruse Kennedy’s Facebook page, a scroll of father-son photos, formerly “liked,” now strafed by ballistic commenters. You are a psycho piece of trash killing your boy’s mother!!! Now he has no parents! You selfish disgusting piece of scum!!! Rot in hell!!!! Will he see his newly venomous page? Will he read this edition of SAVVY? Do jailed killers even have Internet access?
We start obsessing over domestic abusers and gun violence. We learn that shooters, like Kennedy, often buy guns just before they act.
Of the 117 who died from domestic abuse in PA in 2017, 78 were shot. That’s why MOMS Demand Action, Radnor Residents for Gun Safety (formed after the Parkland shootings), CeaseFirePA and other groups worked like heck to secure passage of a law requiring domestic abusers to surrender their firearms in 24 hours.
The state’s first gun-safety measure in more than a decade, the new law just went into effect this week. Too late to save Stephanie from this madman/monster/coward who sped from the scene and OD’d in Thornbury Park (where he was hunted down by authorities and survived). But it’s a step. A something. It will save someone. Maybe many someones.
Our thoughts meander to the woman we’ve lost but have never met: Stephanie Falon Miller. We view a YouTube tribute created by a grieving friend. She’s blazing with life and joy. It hurts to watch. The video includes photos of her boyfriend, Michael D’Arco, who’d already bought an engagement ring but has no use for it now.
We check out the GoFundme set up by her parents, who will raise Stephanie’s son. The fact that they hoped for $25,000 but raised $43,000 cheers us. Good people – lots of them – walk the same streets as psychopaths. Like everything and everyone involved in this tragedy, the Millers stick with us – middle-aged Tredyffrin parents starting over with a 6-year-old.
In the months and years to come, when we stop in the Wayne Wawa for a hoagie, when we watch activists rally and monitor lawmakers debates about gun safety, we’ll think of you, your grandson and your daughter. No, we didn’t know her, but we promise not to forget her name: Stephanie.
Radnor Residents for Gun Safety invites the public to hear nationally known author/activist Igor Volsky, co-founder of Guns Down America, speak at Main Point Books in Wayne, May 21 at 10 a.m. (Vote in the primaries then stroll on over for free coffee, pastries and conversation.) Email [email protected] to join Radnor Residents’ Facebook group. Not a Radnor resident? Click here to learn more about MOMS Demand Action and CeaseFirePA.
Urgent care in your home for $79? Say hello to Vitable Health
Vitable founder and Penn State senior Joseph Kitonga.
A 21-year-old Penn State senior is upending urgent care on the Main Line, one house call at a time. (Talk about your Boy Wonders.)
A computer engineer from lower Delco – one Joseph Kitonga – turned down a job at Microsoft (!?!) to launch his own tech company: Vitable Health – urgent care on demand and in your living room.
His first target market? You, dear reader – assuming you live anywhere between Bala and Berwyn (or a bit beyond).
Here’s how it works: Call Vitable or “order” online and a certified nurse practitioner is dispatched to your doorstep within an hour. The NP spends up to a half hour with you, prescribes medication if needed, charges you a flat $79 fee, and goes off on her/his merry way. No surprise ER bills, no long waits in germ-filled rooms, no wham-bam-thank-you-ma’am visits.
The $79 fee is about $30 more than the typical copay at an urgent care center but hundreds less than what you’d spend on a concierge physician’s house calls, Kitonga tells SAVVY.
And his nurse practitioners are screened for personality as well as competence and work under a physician’s supervision, he says.
“Vitable delivers luxurious yet affordable healthcare for the modern age,” its website reads.
Alas, if you broke a bone, hit your head, have chest pains or suffered severe burns, go elsewhere. But if you’re 18 months or older and have flu, GI or UTI symptoms, an earache, pink eye, stings, sprains, a skin issue or need a school or camp physical, Vitable’s got you covered.
Kitonga debuted on the Main Line, figuring busy moms will gladly pay for the convenience. Plus, parking and traffic aren’t killer here.
The company’s charitable, too – it’s pledged to put 5 percent of profits into a fund for free or discounted visits for the medically indigent. Working in his parents’ home health care business showed him the inequities in health care and gave him “a desire to serve,” he says. He insists his model will also cut down on unnecessary ER visits, which he says cost the health care system $8 billion a year.
Kitonga is also signing up companies for a “corporate subscription” rate, a perk they can offer employees.
An app is in the product pipeline. And yes, he’s planning to expand Vitable to zip codes far and wide.
Clearly, he’s thought this through, and quickly, too. Without huge capital costs, Kitonga was able to execute his vision in just five months.
Time will tell if Vitable lives long and prospers. Kitonga says he’s run the numbers and they add up. He also ran his entire enterprise by a fleet of Penn State professors and lawyers and got the green light.
At the end of the day, he says he’s “betting on word of mouth … We believe our service is incredible and hope people can’t help but tell someone else about it.”
Vitable Health, 484-416-0769, operates weekdays from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m., Sat. and Sun. 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Happily ever after for Devon’s quaintest cottage
Is there a cuter local building than the cottage that sits at 7 Lancaster Avenue in Devon?
We think not.
With its steeply pitched roof and Tudor touches, it’s the stuff of fairy tales.
And fittingly, it just got a Cinderella ending.
The building began life humbly – as a gas station.
Seems folks in the early 1900s didn’t want filling stations – aka “filthy firetraps” near their homes. So Pure Oil Co. built English-style cottages to house its service stations. And made them so stinkin’ cute, no one would dare complain.
Pure Oil built scores of them across the country, among them 7 Lancaster Ave. in 1926 or thereabouts.
Some, sadly, have been bulldozed, some preserved on historic registers, some repurposed into ice cream and coffee shops, and in our case, the office of a real estate company.
But Purtle & Purtle closed a while back and its cozy-but-dated Devon office literally went to seed. When old Margaret Purtle met her maker and her holdings liquidated, eBuild Construction’s Ed Gallagher looked past the weeds and smelled opportunity. He bought the place and gave it a long-overdue makeover: new roof, copper downspouts, HVAC, floors, windows – the works. “It was such a unique property; I just wanted to breathe new life into it,” Gallagher recalls.
He then asked veteran Main Line realtor Scott Furman to find him a tenant.
It didn’t take long.
Furman says he fielded inquiries all 39 days the property was listed last fall – from massage therapists, photographers, bakers, you name it.
Not only was the cottage disarmingly cute, it was a rarity: a “freestanding building on Lancaster Ave. with a super high traffic count at a signalized intersection,” Furman says.
Now, the happily-ever-after part.
Like umpteen passersby, Paige Sullivan had long been enchanted by the place. A former manager of White Dog Café and, since 2016, the spritely owner of Christine Shirley Sewing & Design, Sullivan calls 7 Lancaster Ave. “the first real estate I ever really wanted.” A friend of Sullivan’s even called old Mrs. Purtle nine years ago, but no, she wasn’t budging. Her dream denied, Sullivan eventually launched her sewing/craft studio in a cute-as-a-button space in downtown Wayne, sharing the rent with her counselor pal, Dina Previti.
After a hit-or-miss first year, Christine Shirley found its stride and expanded into the space next door in August. Between sewing classes, camps, larger retail space, Previti’s growing client roster, and new “d + p” retreats for young people, life was busy but good.
Not a few months later, Sullivan was driving west along Lancaster Ave. and nearly jumped out of her car. Her dream cottage had never looked better and there was a “For Lease” sign in the window “Freaking out with excitement,” Sullivan called Furman. Fifteen minutes later, she and Previti were inside.
It was perfect.
With two entrances and lots of natural light, it was “seemingly designed for us,” Sullivan says.
Even though they weren’t in the market, they signed the lease.
Business partners and pals Paige Sullivan and Dina Previti in their new Devon space.
Like their Wayne holdings, the cottage will have a split personality: a Christine Shirley Shop with pop-up artisan vendors in one room and Previti’s counseling support groups in the other. “There is a HUGE need for counseling for people struggling with anxiety, depression, and family relationships – especially young people in our community,” Previti tells SAVVY. (Amen to that.)
Some things are just meant to be.
Christine Shirley Shop/Dina Previti Counseling, 7 Lancaster Ave., Devon, will open May 1.
Sun-savvy styles at Wayne’s new AmberNoon
Dermatologist/ entrepreneur Erum Ilyas in her new Wayne showroom. She hopes her fashionable, sun-protective clothes (and her Capitol Hill testimony against tanning beds) will shrink her medical practice. “We don’t want to be seeing all these skin cancers. We want people to be living longer and not have scars,” she says.
Let the spring sunshine in … or don’t, with help from Strafford’s newest shop, AmberNoon.
In Eagle Village near Wink Lash Studio, AmberNoon is the first retail store/showroom for Wayne dermatologist Erum Ilyas’ hot-selling line of sun-proof clothing, heretofore sold online, at shows and out of her King of Prussia office.
Ilyas launched the line in August of 2017, sick of treating so many skin cancers.
“It’s the Number One thing I diagnose and treat,” says Ilyas, who sees 150 to 280 patients each week. “The incidence is rising at a rapid rate … I didn’t know how ethical it was for me to keep removing skin cancers from people.”
The Main Line is “pretty good” about applying sunblock to our faces, but less diligent about our necks, the V-area of our chests and our forearms.
Alarming note to golfers, tennis players, dog walkers and sideline-cheering parents: your clothes aren’t protecting you. A typical T-shirt has an SPF of 2 or 3 (not 20 or 30), Ilyas says. You may not be getting tan through your clothes but those rays are penetrating, aging your skin, and over time, causing cancer.
Clouds don’t help either, btw. They only block 20 percent of UV light.
Even today’s energy efficient light bulbs emit UVA rays. That story you heard about the basketball team getting indoor sunburns from its UVB-emitting gym lighting is for real, Ilyas says.
Until AmberNoon, UV-protective clothes were chemically treated and dowdy, many started by well-meaning skin cancer survivors, according to Ilyas. “Sun protective shirts were so medicinal-looking. They screamed ‘I don’t want skin cancer’ not ‘I want to look good.”
AmberNoon takes a new approach, using densely woven fabrics, UV tested through 40 washes, instead of chemically-treated textiles.
Most styles “reveal and conceal” as sun conditions permit, using roll-up features, zippers, thumb-holds and hoods.
Long interested in art and fashion, Ilyas designs everything herself.
For convenience sake, clothes are manufactured in LA. Between her medical practice, running AmberNoon, and driving her three kids to and from Shipley every day, Ilyas says she had no time to deal with an overseas factory. Slouch. (The company was named in part for Ilyas’ 13-year-old, Amber.)
The line will expand to hats and sunglasses in the next few weeks and menswear sometime this summer.
AmberNoon, Eagle Village Shops, Wayne, is open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Mon. to Fri. and 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sat. and Sun. A community grand opening celebration will be held Saturday May 11, noon to 2 p.m.
Au revoir, Paramour
Fearless Restaurants owner Marty Grims of Berwyn with daughter Sydney Grims, Fearless’ Business Development Director and a 2009 Episcopal Academy grad outside their Haverford location.
Best get your front-porch fix pronto. In late June, Paramour at the Wayne Hotel will close, to be replaced by Rosalie, a new “Northern Italian soul food” concept.
Operator will be Fearless Restaurants’ Marty Grims, owner of Wayne’s White Dog Café and Autograph Brasserie.
Why open a third place in the same zip code? Grims tells us he loves Wayne’s location and demographics. “If we didn’t go there, someone else would,” Grims says. “This way we can control the concept so that it doesn’t cannibalize our existing restaurants.”
Chef will be Merrick Devine of James Beard-winning Frasca Food & Wine in Boulder, CO. An old friend from Grims’ days at The Four Seasons, Ettore Cerace, late of Davio’s, will serve as GM.
Fearless will lease the space from another Grims pal, Wayne Hotel/Main Line property magnate Steve Bajus, who’s also Grims’ landlord at the White Dog in Haverford Square. Paramour will close June 23; Rosalie should be online by late summer.
Grims tells SAVVY he’s no longer pursuing a second Louie Louie in Malvern’s Uptown Worthington (the first is in West Philly) so he can focus on Rosalie and his fourth White Dog in Glen Mills.
Grill-your-own Korean BBQ joint debuts in Ardmore
Songsan Korean BBQ sells beer on tap and by the bottle but charges a corkage fee if you bring your own bottle.
Korean BBQ, where have you been all my life?
Eating out is (almost) always fun, Ardmore’s Songsan makes it a real hoot.
Open since late March, this wood-walled eatery has 12 tables, each equipped with an electric grill. Servers bring out marinated meat (beef, chicken and/or pork), condiments, and Ban-Chan – sides like miso soup, kimchi fried ice, Korean pancakes, pickled radish and assorted veggies. Just throw the protein on the barbie, watch it sizzle, then dress it up and dig in.
Owner is Brandon Ji, whose sister-in-law owns Songsans in Paris. If Ji looks familiar, he’s owned the Rittenhouse Deli next door for 15 years. He tells SAVVY that customers have long nagged him to open a Korean BBQ joint. We’re glad he did.
Songsan Korean BBQ, 66 Rittenhouse Place, Ardmore, 610-642-3184, opens Tues. – Thurs. 4 p.m. – 9 p.m., Saturdays noon to 10 p.m., Sundays noon to 8 p.m. Closed Mondays.
Tasty Thai in Wynnewood
We finally tried Rudee’s Thai, the new Wynnewood BYOB everyone’s buzzing about.
And yup, it’s as good as advertised.
The Egg Rolls ($4) and Crispy Taro ($8) were standout starters. For entrees, the Coco-Shrimp ($18) and the Crispy Duck ($25) “Signatures” were worth writing home about.
Owners are Heng and Rudee Lee, who sold Heng’s Thai Cuisine in Springfield to open Rudee’s. (Guess it was her turn.)
Rudee’s Thai, 333 E. Lancaster Ave., Wynnewood West Shopping Center, 610-994-3399 is open Mon. – Friday from 11:30 a.m. and Saturdays noon to 10 p.m. Closed Sundays.
Lionheart Tutoring: Roaring success in Haverford (Sponsored)
Lionheart Tutoring founder Dan Chinburg and his wife, Yuanyuan (Elizabeth) Zhang, Chinese director and tutor, share a passion for nurturing young minds.
By Susan Greenspon
The seed for Haverford’s Lionheart Tutoring was planted in South Korea when Main Line native Dan Chinburg, then a Fulbright Teaching Fellow, discovered hagwons – private tutoring institutes that were wildly popular and everywhere.
“I was impressed with how kids enjoyed the camaraderie with their tutors there,” says Chinburg. “America didn’t have this type of model.”
It sparked his entrepreneurial spirit to “create a robust tutoring firm that meets a child’s needs.”
Chinburg’s education resumé is long: B.A. in English and World Literature from Pitzer College in California and an M.S. Ed in Reading/Writing/Literacy from UPenn with a K-12 reading specialist certification.
Penn is where Chinburg met Yuanyuan (Elizabeth) Zhang, a Chinese native who was pursuing an M.S. Ed in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL).
The couple married and four years ago opened Lionheart Tutoring, a full-service facility that guides young minds from kindergarten through high school. Students get help with reading, writing, math and literature, science and Spanish, along with SAT and ACT prep, and the chance to learn or improve their Mandarin.
What makes Lionheart the king of the tutoring jungle?
“With our unique methods … to guide students step by step in a nurturing environment, we are able to bring students out of their shell,” says Chinburg. “They come to us feeling frustrated. They feel emboldened and energized working with us.”
Chinburg, who has been tutoring for 10 years, says he uses a different approach to SAT and ACT prep. “I don’t have students do endless practice tests which are very difficult to learn from. Instead, we build up their academic skills so that they understand the techniques and pattern recognition that are necessary to excel at the exams.”
Lionheart Tutoring is also one of the few tutoring centers that offers K-8 Singapore Math, a visual way to learn math, explains Chinburg.
For reading, he uses a systematic phonics program that maximizes efficiency and comprehension but is flexible enough to respond to students’ needs.
And Lionheart offers specially designed Python programming for middle schoolers who wish to apply coding to math/science concepts.
Zhang, a tutor for seven years, guides students to become proficient in Mandarin. “She designed her own program for young kids all the way through high school,” says Chinburg.
The youngest, beginning in PreK, are taught Mandarin through songs, coloring and games so it really comes alive.
Zhang “has perfect pitch,” adds Chinburg, meaning she has very little accent when speaking English which helps students follow her more easily. “She trains their minds to perceive these sounds. She’s had great success.”
For Summer 2019, Lionheart Tutoring will present a series of one-on-one sessions for reading and writing geared to show the “transformative power of literature,” says Chinburg, “giving students a way to see an ideal to strive toward.” They’ll read “The Baron in the Trees,” says Chinburg, about a prince who escapes into the trees for all sorts of adventures. “It’s a fun thought experiment about what it would be like to never touch the ground.”
If parents are feeling isolated and anxious about their child’s struggle to learn, Chinburg and Zhang can help. “Sometimes, just getting a third party in there will change the tempo of their child’s education,” Chinburg says. “We have such a long track record. We can always provide advice. It’s reassuring for parents to know they aren’t in it alone.”
Lionheart Tutoring, Haverford Commons, 349 Lancaster Ave. #202, Haverford, 610-585-7942 offers private and small group instruction and enrichment year round.
Lionheart has two classrooms and free Wifi for waiting parents.
Tragic end to a months-long Main Line mystery
Friends and family of Geoff Partridge, president of the Radnor High Class of 2000 and the son of prominent Gladwynite Holly Morrison, will gather to celebrate his life Saturday at Appleford Estate in Villanova. Missing since Dec. 5 of last year, Partridge’s body was found in the Schuylkill River by a fisherman April 4. Authorities ruled his death a suicide but his fiancé, Jill Turanski, insists his death was accidental on Facebook.
A multimedia artist and athlete, Partridge suffered from bipolar disorder/depression and may have stopped taking his meds when he left the couple’s rented cottage on the grounds of Appleford and drove off in Turanski’s Jeep on the day he disappeared, according to the Find Geoff Partridge website (which was still online at press time).
Less than two hours later, the Jeep was found partly submerged – ignition on, keys and cell inside – in the Schuylkill at Flat Rock Park in Gladwyne, the town where he grew up and where his mother, realtor Holly Morrison, is a director of the civic association.
For days, water rescue units, search and rescue squads, cadaver dogs, drones, boat crews, and friends on foot patrol combed the river and its banks and turned up nothing. Until a fisherman found his body last Thursday upstream from Green Lane Bridge in Gladwyne.
Memorial contributions may be made to the Gladwyne Fire Company or Greater Philadelphia Search and Rescue.
Kentucky comes to KOP
The bourbon- and bacon-laced bread pudding at Sullivan’s Bourbon Dinner. Bourbon flights and cocktails were also served.
Bourbon. It’s what’s for dinner. Or rather, it’s what was for dinner at Sullivan’s Steakhouse in King of Prussia a few weeks ago. The folks from Jim Beam (Beam Suntory) came to town to host a Bourbon Dinner with bourbon chipotle-sauced pork chops and warm chocolate-and-bacon bread pudding with bourbon, pecans and salted caramel, washed down by bourbon cocktails and tasting flights (of Maker’s Mark 46, Basil Hayden and Knob Creek Rye.) We learned those bourbon labelers are mighty picky. A gold star to anyone who already knows that bourbon must be…
- made with 51 percent or more corn.
- aged in oak barrels for at least two years.
- bottled at between 80 and 160 proof.
- made in the U.S.A.
We also played “name that grain” with unlabeled jars on our tables. And lost. (The story we’re sticking with: Corn, barley and rye look indistinguishable in dim light.) Fork-lifting and glass-raising proved much easier.
Pranksters with a Purpose
A surprise flamingo fest at the Gordons’ home on Dorset Road in Devon.
Select lawns around town are being “flocked” by the youth group at St. David’s Episcopal Church to raise funds for a summer mission trip to Guatemala.
Church friends pay to have pink flamingos show up en masse on lawns, then the homeowner has to take out Flock Block (aka anti-flocking insurance) to protect themselves from future flocking.
Genius.
Jasper’s expands its ‘backyard’ in Conshy
Another new owner for the former Stella Blu/Imbibe space in Conshohocken.
The folks behind Jasper’s Backyard plan to open a casual gastropub, to be called Jasper’s Westside Tavern, in early summer.
Sounds smashing: scratch sandwiches and small plates, locally sourced organic veggies and proteins, local brews and “homegrown” cocktails on tap.
Shameless plug for a worthy cause: women’s heart health
Team SAVVY’s Barbara Bigford, Caroline O’Halloran and Nicole Dresnin Schaeffer at the 2017 Paint the Town Red event.
Come “Paint the Town Red” with Team SAVVY and Main Line Health at Devon Yard on April 25!
Enjoy a runway fashion show from Gingy’s, Louella and Anthropologie, fresh seasonal fare and wine, and gardening demos. (We swear you’ll be so inspired by the container gardening demos, you won’t be able to, ahem, contain yourself.)
Best of all, your $75 ticket will help low-income women get access to the top-shelf cardiac care at Lankenau Hospital.
If you have red in your closet, this is the night to rock it. Click here to snag your spot today. (A limited number of tickets will be sold.)
This and That
Another bagelry in Bryn Mawr. Spread Bagelry will open its first suburban location at Bryn Mawr Village this summer. Spread specializes in Montreal-style wood-oven bagels. Its Spreadquarters are at 24th and Walnut. Up-Ryes Bagel and Deli has been open softly since March 28. Its grand opening, in the old Mrs. Marty’s space on Bryn Mawr Avenue, is set for April 27.
Yup, we’re a broken record. But there have been so many thefts from unlocked cars up and down the Pike, our heads are spinning. Just last Wednesday, Radnor police reported four cars – parked outside Autograph, White Dog and Chili’s – hit by thieves. Lock your doors. Don’t leave your purse visible. Don’t be a victim. (Please.)
In a bid to revamp its Whole Paycheck rep, Whole Foods just lowered prices on hundreds of grocery items by 20 percent on so. Never mind that The Wall Street Journal reported that the chain raised prices in late 2018 and early 2019, citing rising costs for ingredients, packaging and shipping.
Town, meet Gown. Gown, meet Town. Now play nice. In an effort to shore up town-gown relations, Villanova is hosting campus tours for neighbors this spring. It’s also wrapping up a new film that shows students living off campus how to behave themselves. The film will be required viewing for all students applying for a parking permit, according to Nova’s community relations director.
Speaking of Nova Nation, the popular off-campus apartment complex, Home Properties of Bryn Mawr, aka Home Props, has a new owner and will heretofore be called The Villas of Bryn Mawr. Really.
A new colt of Triple Crown winner American Pharoah is alive and kicking. And the price he fetches could turn Kennett Square’s Walnut Green Farm into Green Acres. Despite his arrival a few weeks early, the foal, to be named by his new owner, weighed in at a robust 140 pounds. His mom, High Quail, isn’t too shabby either. Her star-studded bloodline includes Seattle Slew.
Tredyffrin Township might be in line for a new trail, connecting the new Atwater Development to the Chester Valley Trail. Chester County and Tredyffrin Township officials are studying the feasibility of turning the old Warner Spur rail line into a 1.95-mile multi-use trail. Works for us.
From St. Joe’s Prep to St. Joe’s U. with lots of Bucknell in between. Prep Class of 2004 senior b-ball team captain John Griffin III is headed to Hawk Hill to assist new men’s hoops coach Billy Lange. No stranger to St. Joe’s, Griffin’s dad was the Hawks’ head coach from 1990 to 1995. Griffin The Younger led the Prep to the Philly Catholic League championship. So Lange’s figuring he can help coach the Hawks to Big Five glory.
Netflix hit “Queer Eye” is hunting for makeover candidates in the Philly area. Which doesn’t guarantee they’ll move filming here in the next season or two but hints that they will. To nominate someone, email [email protected] with the nominee’s name, photos & story. Gritty is off limits. He’s perfect as is.
Sorry, but all the gun “safety” laws you want to pass will do nothing to stop someone with a mission to find and use a gun. It will only prevent law-abiding citizens from owning one. If, on the other hand, someone who shouldn’t have a gun is able to purchase one, the seller and/or the people involved in allowing that person to purchase the gun—yes, that means the bureaucrats who don’t do their jobs properly—should be prosecuted.
The only way to stop a bad person with a gun is to have a good person with a gun. Thank goodness we still uphold the 2nd Amendment right to carry in PA.
I visit the Main Line often, I’ve a son, who is married and now with their first daughter, living there. I’m from the UK. You are so wrong when you say gun safety laws don’t change things. Are you saying of the 40,000 (the equivalent to 1000 747’s crashing annually, would the public stand for that?) people shot and killed in the US, in 2018, none of those would have been saved if there was much stricter gun control? When I read only ‘more guns’ I kind of assumed this type of thinking was reserved for the crazy people (who ironically should have their guns removed if they have them). This hiding behind the Second Amendment is also for the deluded. No rational, reasonable honest person would say that has anything to do with today’s America (kind of makes you think who are this Supreme Court bunch?). So if you were in Wawa at the time, (I passed it 20 mins. after incident and was shaken then just seeing the number of police officers) with your gun and the guy walks in and starts shooting, you would draw your weapon and start shooting as well? So we’ve gone from a domestic-related murder to a gun battle in a store? Maybe you’re a good shot, calm under extreme pressure, good eyesight, quick reactions make the correct decision, steady hand, highly trained and tested, then maybe you might have got a round off before he shot at you, but you’re still too late to save the woman (unless you shoot him before he does anything?) and now you’ve a situation on your hands. How many rounds does he have, how many do I have, what about my family, my kids, did I shoot the wrong person, is there a back door I can use? Stop abdicating the responsibility to the bureaucrats; that is the administration’s job. It maybe too late for the USA, I cannot think of an event horrific enough to change the opinion expressed here. If you want to know what’s wrong with the US, but I’m guessing you don’t think that way? Look in the mirror.
Edward, it could easily then just become the Wild Wild West. Bad guy with gun shoots up the place, good guy 1 with gun is there and shoots bad guy with a gun. Then good guy 2 with a gun shows up, doesn’t know that good guy 1 with a gun is good and shoots good guy 1. At the same misses and shoots bystander x, then bystander x’s adult son shoots good guy 2 with a gun…etc. I could keep going. I don’t know the answer anymore because whatever is introduced is shot down by those who just don’t want to let go of their guns, because the 2nd amendment is highly coveted.
Thank you for weighing in. I especially appreciate hearing the British perspective, particularly from someone who also knows the Main Line and came so close to witnessing this heinous crime.
Superr valid points. I so appreciate your weighing in on this issue, particularly from your UK perspective…
First, no “law abiding” citizen is prevented from buying or owning a gun. And when stronger gun safety laws are passed, still no law abiding citizen will be prevented from buying or owning a gun. Better gun safety laws, and better technological enforcement of those laws, won’t totally erase gun tragedies like this, but it WILL reduce them.
Once again Caroline, you and your team nailed it! Well done and thank you!
The critical issue is mental health.
I knew Stephanie. I know her parents and son.
She was our babysitter.
My daughter and I know her son.
Stricter guns laws are necessary.
Stricter restraining orders would have preventing from purchasing a gun in a store like at the mall.
Restraining orders are sent to schools, local police and other government entities.
I do legal pro bono work in Chester County.
You must go before the Judge and your attorney sends out copies.
Stephanie was a loving person who brought happiness to all who knew her.
It could happen to anyone.
The good news is her son has loving grandparents.
TE school Superintendent and teachers have taken him safely into their loving arms.
Mental health issues are addressed in our society.
Wake up
Help
I’m confused, Liz. You write that mental health is “the critical issue” – then you mention legal matters, i.e. gun laws and restraining orders. So perhaps you meant to say there are multiple critical issues involved in this tragedy? p.s. I am gratified to hear about Stephanie’s parents and the welcoming arms in T/E.
Caroline, once again excellent reporting. The tragedy that happened at Wawa could have been avoided. We are not immune in our sleepy Radnor hamlet to domestic gun violence against women. Time for everyone to get on board with common sense gun laws that would have given Stephanie a fighting chance against a deranged ex-husband.
Thank you for sharing your reasoned perspective, Annie. I do sense a turning tide. More and more people (and not just women) are getting on board with common-sense gun safety laws.
Thanks, Annie. I do feel the tide is turning and that sensible gun laws are on the horizon. This is more than a mental health issue…
Caroline–thank you for covering Stephanie Miller’s story and highlighting all the ways “the system” seemed to fail in protecting her. Our family knew Stephanie and her parents starting back when I lived close to their home in Tredyffrin 19 years ago. Stephanie used to babysit our oldest son, Ryan. His baby book has our first list of instructions for Stephanie–with her name written atop the page, when she began watching him when he was still an infant. She was truly gifted at working with children. As she grew older, pursued her career, and then had a child of her own, we loved seeing her with her own baby, and often with her mother too, as they shopped in Tredyffrin like so many of the rest of us do every weekend. We’re all still in shock how suddenly, brutally, and wrongfully she was taken from this world.
We hope the that in the future, our local police–both Radnor and Tredyffrin–will encourage and facilitate peaceful custody exchanges at their stations when issues of safety are raised, especially when one of the parents is a known aggressor and dangerous threat to the other parent. Even if the police don’t screen people who enter the station for weapons, they would certainly see someone coming in carrying a hard-to-hide Del-Ton DTI-15 rifle like Brian Kennedy used to kill Stephanie Miller.
Thank you for sharing a fuller portrait of Stephanie than I was able to provide, Sharon. Your suggestion re: custody handoffs sounds reasonable to me and will absolutely mention it to police.
So glad you’re raising this important issue with township officials, Sharon. And I’m so sorry you lost your former babysitter, Stephanie – and in such a horrific way.
Caroline, Thank you for writing with passion and courage about this plague in our society, mostly victimizing women.Women must be at the forefront of the fight for stricter gun purchasing laws and safer custody exchanges.