Nothing says summer in Philly quite like closing down the streets and throwing a good block party. It turns out that West Philly – particularly Cedar Park, Cobbs Creek, Kingsessing and Garden Court – have thrown more block parties than anyone else in the city.

Our friends over at PlanPhilly have crunched the data drawn from block party permits issued over the past 10 years and the 19143 zip code came out on top with 7,109 block party permits issued over the 10-year period. North Philly, particularly 19140, was second. The block that parties the hardiest? The 3500 block of Ryan Avenue in Mayfair, with 69 block party permits issued.

PlanPhilly’s Jon Geeting writes that the total number of block parties in the city over the past 10 years have decreased since a peak in 2008 of 7,679 total permits issued. But, Geeting points out, “this data set only includes authorized block party permits that people paid for. It doesn’t include all the block parties out there held without a permit from Streets, so keep in mind that this is only a partial picture of the phenomenon.”

Not surprisingly, the permit data shows that the most block parties are held around July 4th, Memorial Day and Labor Day.

Check out the full post at PlanPhilly here.

Colorful banners now decorate the 48th and Spruce Street Business Corridor as part of an effort to spur commerce near that corner, which includes the restaurant incubator, the Dorrance H. Hamilton Center for Culinary Enterprises, Baltimore Crab and Seafood and Accu Pizza.

Garden Court Community Association has installed 14 distinctive banners along Spruce and 48th Streets thanks to generous funding from Mosaic Community Church, the University City District, and The Enterprise Center. (Photo by Mark Mendenhall)

Community Unity Music Festival, a free and family-friendly event, returns this Saturday to Clark Park at 43rd and Chester. This year’s festival has a great line up: Papo Vazquez Mighty Pirates & Troubadours, Bobby Zankel & The Warriors of the Wonderful Sound, Killiam Shakespeare Band, The Universal Dance & Drum Ensemble, CiaraFaye Martin (vocalist), Clef Club Ambassador Big Band, Zenia McPherson (vocalist), Suzanne Burgess (vocalist), and other special guests.

The festival is organized with the help of a prominent West Philly musician, a member of The Branford Marsalis Jazz Quartet, Justin Faulkner.

The goal of the festival, which will take place from 12 – 7:30 p.m., is to promote nonviolence and unity in the Philadelphia community.

For more information, visit the event’s Facebook page.

Greensgrow’s new, larger and more permanent location at 5123 Baltimore Avenue is ready to welcome its first customers. The soft opening is this Friday, so stop by and check it out. Grand Opening is scheduled for Thursday, Sept. 8. The former temporary Greensgrow West location at 4912 Baltimore Ave. closed on August 7.

Greensgrow signed a long-term lease with the city for 5123-29 Baltimore Ave. in Spring 2015 and began developing the new lot late last year. Previously empty and overgrown with bamboo, the new site was reimagined by student architects from Drexel University who gathered input from local residents with an eye towards green building practices.

The site features a high tunnel, demonstration green roofs and rain gardens, repurposed shipping containers, and even a tiny house. An outdoor classroom is being built by students from the Workshop School for Greensgrow’s educational workshops and will be open for neighborhood schools and organizations to use. Several West Philadelphia partners and organizations such as Cedar Park Neighbors, the Baltimore Avenue Business Association and the Philadelphia Water Department, contributed critical support to getting the site cleared for reuse. The new fence was built with the support of an Indiegogo campaign started by a neighbor.  Continue Reading

A 9-story, 130-unit apartment building with ground-floor retail is proposed to be built on the parking lot at 4900 Spruce Street (see rendering above), and this will be the focus of a Garden Court Community Association (GCCA) meeting on Wednesday, Aug. 10.

“Information has been spotty at best so this is intended as a cross RCO community meeting,” writes GCCA Vice President and Zoning Chair Lauren Hansen-Flaschen. GCCA has been designated as an official RCO (Registered Community Organization) for the project, and developers are expected to be present at the meeting.

The building’s proposed height of nine stories and other features will require zoning variances. The developers of the nearby 8-story Croydon Hall Apartments, a once notorious squatters’ haven, are proposing the project. They own the parking lot at 49th and Spruce and lease spots there to Croydon residents. But the lot has remained mostly empty.

The meeting will take place at The Enterprise Center, 4548 Market Street, beginning at 6:30 p.m.

Martin and Malcolm arm wrestling for the future of the movement in The Meeting, one of three short plays that comprise this year’s Theatre in the X (Photos by West Philly Local).

Theatre in the X, the all-black free theatre that is quickly becoming an August staple on 52nd St., kicked off its third season Sunday evening in Malcolm X Park at 51st and Pine.

This year’s works include New Black Math, “a creative explanation of what a Black play is”; The Meeting, a poignant and provocative fictional meeting between Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr.; and Love, Queens who Suffer from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder,  a choreopoem that examines gun violence, abuse, love and heritage from the perspective of a black woman. Continue Reading