The business is Leon's Barbershop, named after its owner, Leon Thomas, who has cut hair at the corner of Chestnut and Church Streets (across from the Grower's Market) since 1993. Leon estimates that he and his associates have provided more than a third of a million haircuts in the past fifteen years. In his spare time, Leon hosts an after school program called "Leon's Barbershop Supper Club," at the YWCA, providing trips and cultural experiences for local children. He also supports other community efforts and has a strong interest in African and African-American history.

In his own words, Leon is headed "back on the block" which once included the tailor shop of abolitionist John George, for whom the East End was nicknamed "Georgetown." By 1896, the block boasted two restaurants (nos. 215 & 233), two grocery stores (nos. 204 & 217), two cigar stores (nos. 224 & 225), a bakery (no. 229), a florist (no. 208), a dress shop (no. 253) and a shoe store (no. 209). The block remained a mixture of commercial and residential uses until after World War II. Appropriately, Samuel Pierce had a barbershop at no. 211, next door to Leon's new location, as late as the 1930s.

Nasiir, Leon and Jason pose at the old location (above)
208 E. Market Street (below)

On Sunday, May 25 from 3-8pm Leon will host a "jazz fundraiser and customer appreciation day" at the E. Market Street site to give everyone a chance to see his new location. He hopes to complete the move in time to open on June 1.

NOTE: For more info about Leon's Barbershop or the "Supper Club" after school program, call 484-354-4350.

1. Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver. An insightful consideration of the foods that people in the U.S. eat and why we know so little about them.
2. The Audacity of Hope and Dreams from My Father by Barak Obama. Find out what the next president of the United States thinks about his life and others.
3. Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress: A Novel by Dai Sijie. During the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s, two adolescent Chinese boys are sent to the country for re-education; one smuggles a copy of a Balzac novel--the only thing they have to read.
4. Bearing the Body by Ehud Havazelet. After Daniel dies mysteriously and violently in San Francisco, his estranged brother Nathan and his father Sol, a Holocaust survivor who lost his own brother in the camps, travel from Boston to California to gather Daniel's ashes. In two days, a family history unfolds: who has born what body, for how long, and in what ways. Lovely, silently beautiful prose.
5. The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears by Dinaw Mengestu. This debut work from an Ethiopian emigre is set over eight months in a gentrifying neighborhood of Washington, D.C. in the 1970s.
6. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. When the character of Death comes to take a young boy, he meets his 9-year-old sister Liesel Meminger (the book thief) and she becomes an enduring force in his life despite his efforts to resist her.
7. Bridge of Sighs by Richard Russo. A story about lower-class childhood and small-town life in economically declining upstate New York.
8. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz. This first novel by a Dominican-American author won the 2008 Pulitzer Prize winner for fiction.
9. The Brooklyn Follies by Paul Auster. A surprising accessible and touching story about ordinary human life by a post-modern giant. The Coen brothers will never film this one, but people will enjoy reading about Nathan Glass.
10. Childhood's End and Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke. Two classics by the master of science fiction.
11. Collected Short Stories by Andre Dubus, Sr. The two most recommended stories are "A Father's Story" and "The Killings."
12. The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas. With a complex plot that is intensely exciting and runs for around a thousand pages, this story of Edmond Dante's search for retribution, justice and punishment is a nineteenth-century classic.
13. The Design of Everyday Things by Donald Norman. This book explains why product/program designs don't always work out as expected once they fall into human hands. This book is a classic "usability" text.
14. Disgrace by J. M. Coetzee & Peter Kent. An excellent story that is challenging, disturbing, and a really good read.
15. The Electronic Literature Collection. This collection of multimedia texts, which is available for free at collection.eliteratur e.org/1/ challenges "traditional conceptions of the literary and narrative or poetic modes."
16. Farewell, My Lovely by Raymond Chandler. An outstanding example of the "crime-noir" genre.
17. Fixer Chao by Han Ong. In this scathing parody/critique of social class and identity, a Filipino-American grifter joins a plot to defraud New York City socialites by pretending to be a feng shui expert.
18. God Bless You Mr. Rosewater by Kurt Vonnegut. One of Vonnegut's best novels that is often overshadowed by his better-known works like Slaughterhouse Five and Cat's Cradle.
19. The Hakawati by Rabib Alameddine. A four-generation family saga with a cornucopia of Arabian tales and historical dramas that create a one-of-a-kind novel.
20. The Illiad & The Odyssey by Homer. Two of the works at the foundation of the Western literary tradition.
21. In a Lonely Place by Dorothy B. Hughes. Pulp fiction from the late 1940s that puts us inside the head of a serial killer named Dix Steele as he goes to pieces in postwar Los Angeles.
22. Istanbul: Memories and the City by Orhan Pamuk. This book, which was translated from Turkish, celebrates the city at the crossroads of history in Europe and Asia.
23. The Jewel in the Crown by Paul Scott. This first of four novels in Scott's "Raj Quartet" is an absolute masterpiece of fiction.
24. King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa by Adam Hochschild. An excellent history of the Congo that explains the background to Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness as well as some of the problems in modern Central Africa.
25. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini. A disturbing novel about life in Afghanistan during the Taliban, and now a major movie.
26. Let Me Stand Alone: The Journals of Rachel Corrie by Rachel Corrie. The journal of a young American woman who was crushed to death by a military bulldozer in 2003 while trying to save a Palestinian family's home from demolition.
27. Ludlow by David Mason. A verse novel that recounts the labor struglle that accompanied the bloodiest coal-mining disaster in Colorado history.
28. March by Geraldine Brooks. A Pulitzer Prize winning novel (2006) about the Civil War experiences of March, the absent father character in Little Women.
29. The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan. A critical examination of the ingredients and processes that created four kinds of meals (from industrial to organic). You'll never look at food on your plate in the same way again.
30. The Places in Between by Rory Stewart. The author walked across Afghanistan two weeks after the fall of the Taliban..
31. The Professor's Daughter by Emily Raboteau. Contemporary fiction dealing with African-American identity.
32. Religion and Violence: Philosophical Perspectives from Kant to Derrida by Hent De Vries. Philosophical-theoretical attempt to rethink, and thereby reconfigure, the relationship between violence and religion.
33. The Road by Cormac McCarthy. A journey on foot taken by a father and his son across post-apocalyptic America.
34. The Sacred Games by Vikram Chandra. A novel about Bombay and its underworld.
35. The Stone Gods by Jeanette Winterson. A cyberpunk literary novel, or something like that.
36. Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin & Ruth Sabol. The history of Abraham Lincoln, the people who surrounded him, and political intrigue. A history book that is also a page-turner.
37. Things Are Disappearing Here by Lynette McGrath. An incredibly beautiful book of poetry by a colleague and West Chester resident.
38. The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien. This story, set during the Vietnam War, is relevant to the Iraq War as well.
39. The Time Traveler's Wife by Mary Clark & Audrey Niffenegger. As a librarian, Harr DeTareble, travels involuntarily through time, his life and that of his friend/girlfriend/wife run in parallel as their paths cross and then diverge.
40. Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson. A moving description of a project that builds schools for girls in Afghanistan as a way of promoting peace.
41. Tao Te Ching. A new English version of a classic work by Stephen Mitchell that is close to poetry.
42. Waiting for the Barbarians by J. M. Coetzee. A remarkable novel in the best tradition of Kafka that points to modern paranoia: "we don't know who they are or what they want, but we should go kill them."
43. White Teeth by Zadie Smith. This debut novel, written when the author was very young, won the Whitbread first novel award.

And if those suggestions aren't enough, check out:

1. The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood.
2. Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier.
3. Five Quarters of the Orange and Gentleman and Players by Joanne Harris.
4. The Rings of Saturn by W. G. Sebald.
5. The Ruling Caste by David Gilmour.
6. The Postman Always Rings Twice by James M. Cain.
7. The Gathering by Anne Enright. Winner of the Booker Prize.
8. The Known World by Edward P. Jones.
9. Maps for Lost Lovers by Nadeem Aslam.
10. Out Stealing Horses by Per Petterson.
11. The Ruling Caste by David Gilmour.

Happy reading!

The first running of the Criterium took place on Saturday, June 11, 2005. Although the race attracted about 10,000 people and was very well-received by cyclists, it annoyed several local businesspeople who thought it cost them business. The following February, some business owners circulated a petition asked Borough Council to require that the race be moved to a Sunday. That was too late to accommodate the official race calendar of U.S.A. Cycling, the national association which had already scheduled events for the next day. So instead, the Criterium organizers and the Chamber of Commerce made extra efforts to minimize street closings and to alert business owners ahead of time. The race went ahead on Saturday, June 17, 2006, and once again attracted thousands of people to the Borough.

Racers round the corner at Market and Matlack Streets

The race's proponents did not delay in reviving their objections. Less than two weeks after the race, Norley and Len Doyle (of Taylor's Music) announced plans to circulate a "questionnaire" to Borough business owners to see how many supported a change to Sunday in 2007. In November, as Borough Council considered the request to close streets for the third running of the race, Norley and Dempsey raised objections once more. Council listened but decided to support a Saturday race, which took place on July 7, 2007. The crowd was estimated at over ten thousand as new events like the Kids Race (ages 3-12) were added, and once again cyclists declared their satisfaction with the race course and preparations.

A number of local businesses made their own effort to make the race a success. Instead of grousing about lost business, the owners of The 5 Senses and Carlino's Market, assisted by the Chester County Art Association, staged a block party that drew people to their portion of W. Market Street between Church and Darlington before and during the race, which ran along Church, Market, Matlack and Gay Streets. Other businesses advertised sidewalk sales and other specials designed to appeal to race spectators.

This year, the opposition is quiet, Borough Council approved the special event permit without any rancor last December, and the race is poised to run on Saturday, July 5. According to a letter sent by the Chamber of Commerce to Borough business owners:

The last event should wrap up around 9pm and the streets will reopen at 9:30pm. There are additional events arranged for cyclists of all valibers for the following day including bicycle tours of West Chester's parks and alleys, historical buildings; historical areas outside of the Borough; a winery tour and, for riders who like pain, a hill tour that includes something called Dick Sabo's "Hill Hell." These tours and more depart from Hoopes Park in the northwest part of the Borough.

For more information about the race and associated events, visit www.ironhilltwili ghtcriterium.com.

The tours continue throughout the summer when each of nine communities hosts a tour every Thursday evening except July 3. All are free, they start at 6pm, and after each tour, the local sponsoring organization will provide light refreshments. In return, they ask that participants call the reservation number (see below) to give them an idea how many people are coming. This summer's schedule includes:

Date	Location	Call to pre-register
June 12	West Chester's Everhart Grove	610-918-7348
June 19	Kennett Square Historic District	610-444-5020
June 26	Lionville Historic District	610-363-9450
July 10	East Pikeland	610-933-1770
July 17	Modena	610-384-6777/470-7162
July 24	Malvern	610-644-2602
July 31	Historic Marshallton Village	610-486-0790
August 7	Historic Yellow Springs	610-827-7414
August 14	The Mill at Anselma	not required
August 21	Lincoln Highway & Pottstown Pike	610-363-9525

For information about the {Town Tours & Village Walks" program, email Karen Marshall, the Heritage Preservation Coordinator of the Chester County Parks & Recreation Department, or call 610-344-6415.

1. If you're coming up on a red light, don't push on the gas pedal any more than you need to reach the rear of the vehicle in front of you. Accelerating towards a red light and then braking to stop wastes both gas and brake pads. Let you engine compression slow you down instead, but resist the urge to put your transmission in neutral to coast further -- it's unsafe and its against state law and.
2. When you start up from a complete stop, use only enough gas to accelerate smoothly -- don't "get rubber" or go for extra sound effects. With a manual transmission, make your shifts at the lowest RPM that will keep the engine from stalling in the next highest gear, and repeat this process until you reach a gear that allows you to drive safely with traffic while allowing your engine to find its "sweet spot" (i.e. the RPM which provides the best mix of power, if you need to accelerate, and speed to keep up with traffic).
3. If you're carrying extra weight in your vehicle, get rid of it.
4. Check your cold tire pressure each day before driving and make sure that you've got whatever pressure is recommended on the side of the tire.
5. Warm up your engine for 30-60 second, but no more.
6. If you are parking your vehicle for any length of time, or even stopping for more than a minute, turn off your engine. Once upon a time it was cheaper to buy fuel than rebuild starter motors, but those days are long past. Don't shut off your engine while waiting for a long traffic light, however, or any time that you are in the traffic right-of-way unless your vehicle is protected by a flag person, warning signs or other emergency signals.
7. Plan your trips to kill two or more "birds" with one stone. Plan your stops to minimize the number of trips, the driving distance between them, and the number of places where you have to wait to make a left hand turn.
8. On highways, obey the speed limit. Automobile transmissions are "tuned" to allow their engines to operate most efficiently at around 55 mph. Fuel consumption increased rapidly as your speed goes beyond that point.

None of these suggestions will turn your Bronco into a Prius, but they'll help you to get the kind of fuel consumption figures that the salesman promised you when you bought it. If that's not enough, then consider the alternatives -- walking, biking, taking public transportation, or staying at home.

Habitat has operated in Chester County for two decades and built two houses in the Borough on Hannum Avenue in 1996. According to the Habitat for Humanity newsletter "Site Lines" (Winter 2006), negotiations with the Davis brothers started in 2003, and in the meantime, Habitat officials presented plans to Borough Council to build a house at 427 E. Barnard Street, and 17 more houses on land located between Worthington and Bolmar Streets just north of E. Barnard Street. Ground for the first project was broken in July 2005 and the new house was dedicated on July 8, 2006. The larger project was more complicated and required a zoning amendment plus a special exception to pull it off. On February 21, 2007, Habitat received final approval for the first phase of the project and broke ground on May 17, 2007.

Huston briefly mentioned Phase II of the project, which will construct nine more houses on Poplar, E. Barnard and Bolmar Streets. On Tuesday, June 10, the Borough's Planning, Zoning, Business & Industrial Development (PZBID) committee unanimously recommended final approval of the next phase. The full Council will vote on the matter at its Wednesday, June 18 meeting. [NOTE: WCJIM, who wrote this article, chairs the PZBID committee.]

For more information about Habitat for Humanity International, call 800-422-4828 or visit their web site at www.habitat.org. For information about Habitat for Humanity of Chester County, visit their web site at www.hfhcc.org. To volunteer or get more information, email Jason Pyrah at Jason@hfhcc.org or call him at 610-384-7993, ext. 12.