The Freinds of Clark Park has a new website. Brian Siano said in an e-mail today that the new site is designed to be more of a community discussion site than the old site. The site also offers the ability to share content on Facebook, Twitter and other social media sites.

Here’s a sneak peak:

The featured mural on the cool Mural Arts Program interactive site, Mural Explorer,  is The Heart of Baltimore Avenue, a mural on the 4700 block of Baltimore Avenue begun as a tribute to Amare Solomon, the owner of the nearby Dahlak restaurant, but became a tribute to the whole neighborhood.

The multimedia site, which is awesome, features a slideshow on the making of the mural and a short video interview with artist David Guinn as he works on the piece, which was finished in September 2008. The mural also has its own dedicated site.

Above is a small portion of the “Heart of Baltimore Avenue.” When you get to the site, go to “explore mural” and push on the green plus signs to hear stories about characters in the mural.

The March cover of Grid.

This month’s issue of Grid, a magazine that covers sustainability in Philadelphia, features a cover story on West Philly activist Iris Marie Bloom, who is organizing to challenge natural gas drilling in Pennsylvania.

In an article entitled “Stepping on the Gas,” Bloom, director of the environmental group Protecting Our Waters, explains opposition to drilling in a massive rock formation known as the Marcellus Shale, which stretches from the northeast corner of the state to the southeast corner. Much of the drilling is concentrated in small farming areas in the northeast, northcentral and southeast parts of the state, in towns that most Philadelphians have probably never heard of – places like Towanda, Wilcox, Dimock and Hickory.

Bloom and others argue that the drilling, which includes a process of forcing sand, water and chemicals into the ground to break up the shale and free natural gas, is an imminent threat to fresh water in the state. The process is known as “fracking” (hydraulic fracturing) and Bloom and others are pointing to water contamination as one of the main hazards of the process.

“Drilling is being done in a rush because it is underregulated,” Bloom told Grid reporter Jacob Lambert.

Bloom’s opponents in the fight are, of course, big gas companies and drillers, legislators who support them and, sometimes, the residents of these areas themselves. In most cases, drilling companies have paid handsomely for the rights to drill on vast swaths of privately owned farm land, making many farmers instantly wealthy.

Willingness on the part of state legislators to regulate the drilling is likely to wain with newly elected governor Tom Corbett, she said. Just yesterday newly elected Governor Tom Corbett rescinded a moratorium on new leases for drilling in state forests.

Last week’s warm weather got us pining for spring. So even though the spring-like weather has passed for now we wanted to get something onto the site that reminded us that spring isn’t too far away. Filmmaker Clay Hereth has just what the doctor ordered.

Hereth spent parts of the 2010 growing season filming work at the Mill Creek Farm (49th and Brown Streets). The documentary he produced, West Philly Grown, debuted at the farm’s fundraiser in December. The farm produces, sells and donates thousands of pounds of produce per year and is an important neighborhood asset. An ongoing issue with the farm is getting the land it occupies into a permanent trust.

Organizers are petitioning the city, which owns the vacant lot where the farm and a community garden were started, to place the land into the Neighborhood Gardens Association land trust. That would ensure the land remains a farm and community garden in the future.

Here is part 1 of Clay’s film (we will put part 2 up tomorrow):

Rocco and others need foster homes. City Kitties has put a call out for folks who want to provide a foster home (or a permanent home of course) for cats displaced by fire at the Windermere Court Apartments and, more recently, the fire at 45th and Walnut. Because of the notoriety they have gained during the fires, City Kitties is experiencing a surge in the number of adoptable cats. They desperately need places for them to stay, at least temporarily. Even Rocco, who made it out earlier this week, needs a temporary home.

City Kitties has a list of criteria that would make a good foster home as well as applications here.

These two are missing after the fire on Thursday at 45th and Walnut:

“…a relative of mine was living in one of the apartments that was destroyed by the fire at 45th and Walnut. She is alright, but her two cats are lost. She wasn’t in the building when the fire was happening, so she didn’t manage to get the cats out, but she is still hoping that they escaped somehow. They are gray cats Lily and Fog and- Lily is a long-haired female and Fog is a shorthair male. If people could keep their eyes out for them, their owner and I would greatly appreciate it.”