UPDATE (5/16/14): The spring picnic in Cedar Park has been cancelled due to rain.

The “Love Your Park” week is coming to an end, but there are a couple of events left that we think you might love. Two great traditions started last year at Cedar Park and Clark Park. This weekend, both events are back and organizers are inviting community members to spend some quality time with their neighbors and friends, enjoy live music and try some food and drinks from local restaurants and breweries.

Friday, May 16

Spring Picnic in Cedar Park (49th & Baltimore)

The 2nd annual Picnic in Cedar Park will take place this Friday, from 6:00-8:00 p.m., so come out and say hello to your neighbors. BYO blanket and picnic or pick up a “picnic special” from one of participating local businesses: Gold Standard Café, Dock Street, Mariposa, Hibiscus Café, Taco Angeleno, and more! The event is organized by Cedar Park Neighbors. Check out the event’s Facebook page for more information.

Saturday, May 17

Party in Clark Park (43rd & Baltimore)

Also in its second year is the Party in Clark Park, which includes food trucks, live music, $1,000 in raffle prizes from local businesses, games for all ages and a Dock Street beer garden.  The party runs from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. and admission is free. The food trucks on hand will include Foolish Waffles and Dapper Dog and the entertainment will include Disco Hootenanny (about 6 p.m.), Flat Mary Road, and Nicole Gauthier’s Temple University Dancers.

New and renewing members of the Friends of Clark Park get a free beer at the beer garden. The party will go down rain or shine, organizers say.

Renaissance Healthcare & Rehabilitation Center’s resident Fannie Mae Ausby with State Rep. James Roebuck (left), State Rep. candidate Algernong Allen, Renaissance staff and family at her 107th birthday party.

Renaissance Healthcare and Rehabilitation Center, which is located near S. 47th and Chester, recently had a great celebration. One of its residents, Fannie Mae Ausby, turned 107 years old! On May 9, Ms. Ausby’s friends at Renaissance hosted an all-star gala in her honor, featuring music by local performer Jimmy Wells. Guests included members of the Ausby family, the staff and residents of Renaissance, Roger Harman of the Gold Standard Café, political candidate and community organizer Algernong Allen, and the 188th District’s State Representative James R. Roebuck.

Roebuck presented Ms. Ausby a citation from the State Capital. She also received a letter recognizing her birthday from Philadelphia City Mayor Michael Nutter.

When asked about how she felt to be going on to 107 she replied “Live right, eat right, love God and he loves you right back.”

Happy Birthday Ms. Ausby!

State Rep. James Roebuck presenting Ms. Ausby with a citation from the State Capital. (Photos courtesy of Renaissance).

Photo courtesy UCD.

The Free at Noon concert series returns to The Porch at 30th Street station on Friday, May 16 with live performances by Hamilton Leithauser and Chet Faker. Leithauser, the lead singer of the recently broken-up indie rock band The Walkmen, will perform songs from his solo debut album titled Black Hours. Chet Faker is an electronica musician from Australia, who has also recently released his debut album, Built on Glass.

Sounds like something fun to do at lunchtime, plus there will be some awesome food trucks at The Porch on that day: Bonjour Creperie, Dadz Grilled Cheese, Innovative Catering, and Local 215. Smak Parlour, a mobile fashion boutique, will also be there.

Free at Noon concerts are presented by the University City District (UCD) and WXPN Radio. For more events at The Porch, visit: http://universitycity.org/porch-events

This windsurfing board was one of the better scores a few years back. (Photo by West Philly Local)

Since some of our readers will be moving this spring-summer while others will be diving headfirst into dumpsters and dashing to curb alerts (it’s “Penn Christmas” time y’all!), here are a few things to know:

• If you want to get rid of your old mattress, please be aware that the city has a new mattress disposal policy. All mattresses and box springs should be put in plastic mattress disposal bags before you place them curbside for a pickup. You can buy mattress disposal bags at most major retailers and home improvement stores and on Amazon.com. Seriously, they’ll leave it if it’s not bagged up.

• TVs and computer equipment are considered hazardous items and will not be collected curbside (we’ve seen a few of them sitting on the curb though). Unless you find someone who wants your TV or computer, you can bring them to one of the Sanitation Convenience Centers or read below about PennMoves options.

Mattress disposal bag.

• Furniture can be left curbside for a pickup, up to two items per week.

• If you are holding a yard/porch sale please post an announcement about it on our Classifieds page and we’ll share it in our social media.

• If you are putting some decent stuff curbside or see something that may be interesting to your neighbors, feel free to send us a tweet, preferably with a photo (@westphillylocal) or put a photo on Instagram with the hashtag #westphillylocal (use that for Twitter too). We’ll spread the word. Also let us know if you score something particularly awesome or unusual. We’d be happy to spread the good news.

• Last but not least: There’s still no word on the annual PennMoves sale, but it looks like it will not happen, just like last year, and all the gently used items collected from students will go to local Goodwill stores. This year, PennMoves is also working with Philabundance to collect non-perishable, unopened food items, and Goodwill will accept all electronics, both functional and not, as they are teaming up with Vintage Electronics, an e-waste recycler. Off-campus residents may bring their items to Penn’s campus to one of the pickup location sites. For more information on what items are accepted and where you can drop them off, visit this page.

It’s that time of year when thousands of Penn students are moving out of their dorms and campus apartments, so some streets will be closed to get this done. Here’s a traffic advisory from Penn’s Division of Public Safety:

On Tuesday, May 13 and Wednesday, May 14, 2014, Spruce Street will be CLOSED to traffic from 34th through 40th Streets, in both directions, between 7:00 a.m. – 8:00 p.m.

– Emergency vehicles and hospital patient transport vehicles will be permitted access.

– Access will be provided to the Ryan Vet Hospital. No taxi cabs will be permitted access.

– Vendors will be permitted access to enter the street prior to the 7 a.m. street closure.

– Bikes will need to be walked on Spruce Street while the streets are closed to traffic.

– Septa Routes 40 and 42 will be re-routed (check this page for more info).

– During this street closure: HUP, Penn Vet, Morgue and Wistar deliveries will be allowed to enter Spruce Street at 34th Street.

– Garage 14 will be open and accessible throughout move-out.

Philippe Holland.

A group of West Philly residents are demanding answers about the shooting of an unarmed pizza delivery driver, Philippe Holland, who was critically wounded by two undercover officers near 51st and Willows in April.

The residents, many of whom live near where the shooting happened, are calling for the public release of results from the investigation into the shooting, according to a letter signed by dozens of residents and sent to local media on Monday.

The officers fired 14 times at Holland, striking him in the head, neck and leg. Holland, who is from Upper Darby, is recovering at a hospital in Newark, New Jersey. Many of the same neighbors started the “Fund for Phil” soon after the shooting to help raise money for Holland and his family.

Local residents who are interested in signing the letter should contact Patty Bulack of the 48th Street Neighbors group at: pbulack — at — gmail(dot)com.

Here is the letter in full:

We are residents of the West Philadelphia neighborhood where the 18th are concerned with the safety of our neighborhood and are grateful for the efforts of the Philadelphia Police Department and its officers to keep us and our neighborhood safe. We work hard at creating positive relationships with local public representatives, and with law enforcement, and hope that the outcome of this conversation will lead to an improved relationship, rather than broken trust.

We are writing in response to the shooting of Philippe Holland on April 22, 2014 at 51st and Willows by two undercover police officers. What we believe about the case is as follows:

• Philippe is a pizza delivery man, a job that is dangerous in a neighborhood such as ours where muggings are frequent.
• Police were responding to a shooting in the neighborhood, and suspected that Philippe was the shooter.
• Philippe fled in his car and was driving his car in the direction of the officers.
• In response, officers fired fourteen shots, despite police procedure that directs officers to not shoot at a moving vehicle.
• Three shots hit Philippe, placing him in critical condition.
• The officers who fired the shots were not in uniform, making it unclear who they were to anyone on the scene. We are concerned about that and wish that to be addressed. We believe that police should be clearly identified so as to help bring a situation under control, when they do so in a professional manner. Plainclothes officers have less at their disposal to identify themselves, which is important to do especially in situations where civilians may be distracted or panicked.
• We also question why relatively new officers were assigned to undercover duty in this case.

Given the subtleties that are introduced into their role by being undercover, it seems more prudent that veteran officers be prioritized for assignment to this kind of duty.

We are deeply troubled and disappointed by the actions of the two police officers involved. Many of us could find ourselves in a similar situation, and we are troubled that someone going about their job could be so severely injured by our local law enforcement. We are appreciative of the willingness of our local police to put themselves in danger for the sake of our collective safety. However, the response of the officers in this particular situation made us feel unsafe and we want to make sure this never happens again. Moreover, while the safety of our neighborhood’s residents is important to us, so is the safety of anyone who visits our neighborhood. We value living in a place where diversity thrives and desire it to be open to anyone regardless of race, gender or class. This incident undermined both our safety and our values.

In light of that, we request the following from the 18th Police District:

1. Information about the incident, the investigation and the final outcome: We cannot build trust with our local police force if we have no insight into the procedures that lead to a particular choice made by an officer, all of the details of an event and the reasons for the consequent disciplinary action or lack thereof. Similarly, we cannot trust that the investigation is being carried out justly, without knowing all of the details. Because of this, we request that upon completion of the investigation, the outcome of the investigation and all information relevant to the case be released and made available for community review.

2. Proper discipline for the police officers involved: We are aware that an investigation of this incident is currently underway and we appreciate that the Philadelphia Police Department is this incident seriously. We would like to reiterate the importance of properly disciplining the police officers involved.

Lastly, we want to note that we are aware of the ongoing review of the Philadelphia Police Department by the Department of Justice and of upcoming release of the findings. We plan to attend the public meeting and share our requests with the Department of Justice as well.

We appreciate your time in reading this letter and look forward to your response.

Regards,
Patty Bulack
Jamie Gauthier
Mariya Khandros
Algernong Allen
Barbara Tilley
Susan Heyner
Aravind Joshi
Sue Gerber
David Krueger
Amara Rockar
James Beck
Adam Weaver
James Beadle
Marcy Morgan
Chad Ostrowski
Tom O’Malley
Carolyn McCoy
Bruce Dorpalen
Jason Sandman
Liz Spikol
Nati Passow
Brian Spooner
Irene Plantholt
Steve Plantholt
Molly McGlone
Tina Horowitz
Fran Berge
Michael Froehlich
Bob Behr
Nancy Juergens
Jessi Roemer
Josh Block
Maryte Papadopoulos
Yanni Papadopoulos
Regine Joseph
Stacey Holiday
Lee Garner
Tim Emmett-Rardin
Jo-Ann Fishburn
Kimya Jackson
Margaret Ferrigno
Pamela Kane
Amy Kietzman
Karena Thurston Valentine