What’s happening: New plaza at 30th Street

– Staff writers Valerie Russ, David Gambacorta, Mensah M. Dean,

HERE’S WHAT will make news in Philadelphia this week:

DEVELOPMENT 30th Street plaza

Right now, Philadelphia’s “great new public space” outside 30th Street Station has a chain-link fence around it.

But at noon Wednesday, the plaza will be officially dedicated with a grand-opening ceremony. There will be music, food, fitness demonstrations and street performers.

The new plaza is a project of the University City District, which joined forces with City Councilwoman Jannie Blackwell, the City Planning Commission and the state Department of Transportation.

The groups worked to create a plaza from what had been an outer parking lane adjacent to Market Street in front of the old Post Office, which now houses the Internal Revenue Service.

University City District’s executive director Matt Bergheiser said the area will be “an inviting, social civic space for Philadelphia, creating a welcoming first impression for first-time visitors and a lively space for daily commuters and those who work in close proximity to the station.”

CITY HALL * Tipping treachery

Let’s say you go to a nice restaurant downtown one night, enjoy a meal, pay with your credit card and leave a tip for the waiter.

All of the tip money is going to the waiter, right? Wrong.

City Councilman at Large Jim Kenney said he recently learned that some local restaurant owners take 1 to 3 percent out of tips that are paid with credit cards to defray the cost of “handling fees” that restaurants are charged by credit card companies.

Kenney said he plans to introduce legislation Wednesday that would prevent restaurants from continuing the practice.

“We’re talking about $300 to $400 a year” per waiter, Kenney added. “In this economy, that can be the difference between a person paying their bills.”

COURTS

Margarita Garabito, 44, the woman who told police she regularly hit stepdaughter Charlenni Ferreira, was scheduled to go on trial in Common Please Court for the child’s murder.

The 10-year-old Feltonville girl died Oct. 21, 2009, from multiple blunt-impact injuries, a collapsed lung and infection, the result of years of abuse, authorities said.

Domingo Ferreira, 53, the girl’s father, committed suicide four days after being arrested and charged with Garabito.

Tomorrow

Matthew Devlin, the first mate who was talking on his cellphone when his tugboat pushed a barge into a duck boat on the Delaware River in July 2010, killing two Hungarian tourists, is sentenced in federal court.

Devlin pleaded guilty in August to misconduct of a ship operator causing death. He faces 37 to 46 months in prison.

State Rep. Cherelle Parker is scheduled to go on trial in Common Pleas Court for an April DUI bust in her Germantown district. Parker said she had one chocolate martini and was not driving drunk in April. Two Philly cops said otherwise.

Lawrence Crovetti, 65, the Feasterville man arrested three weeks ago for arranging for women to work as prostitutes at the Downtowners Fancy Brigade club house, has a preliminary hearing. Police said Crovetti is not affiliated with the South Philly Mummers club.

EDUCATION School TV

Lights! Cameras! Live SRC meetings!

Wednesday’s School Reform Commission meeting at 2 p.m. will be broadcast live for the first time on PSTV, the Philadelphia School District’s cable channel.

The focus of the meeting will be the school district’s plan to consolidate schools and sell excess buildings. That’s scheduled to begin at 5 p.m. The meeting will also be livestreamed on the district’s web site, www.philasd.org.

Spokesman Fernando Gallard said the meetings had been taped and then broadcast a week later on PSTV for years, but that ended sometime in 2010. In the 1990s, WHYY-TV broadcast some of the meetings live.

PSTV can be seen on channel 52 (Comcast) and channel 20 (Verizon).