Two West Philly schools are holding community forums this week and your participation and input are important.

– Greening Lea, a project of West Philly Coalition for Neighborhood Schools (WPCNS), is at the center of discussion on Wednesday, from 5:30 – 7 p.m. at the Henry C. Lea School Auditorium (4700 Locust, enter through the small playground on Locust). Participants will be asked about their vision for Lea’s new playground being designed by SALT Design Studio. The studio seeks input from parents, students, teachers, and the community on the project.

Greening Lea began the process in early 2012 with a master plan and vision to revitalize the Lea schoolyards. Your help is needed as they are moving forward with the first stage of the project. Please answer the following questions and email your responses to: jscott1225@verizon.net or bring them to tonight’s meeting:

• What is ONE thing you love about your neighborhood?
• What is ONE thing you don’t like about your neighborhood?
• If you could make a change, what is the ONE thing you would change in your neighborhood?

More information on Greening Lea and tonight’s meeting can be found on the WPCNS website.

– On Thursday, April 3, from 5:30-7:30 p.m., the Paul Robeson High School for Human Services (4125 Ludlow St) will conduct its first Neighborhood Summit. The purpose of the summit is to determine the best way Paul Robeson High School can join with parents and community partners to improve the culture of the school and its community. All are invited! The format will be “chat and chew,” with informal discussions led by students and faculty.

Two big community events are happening in the Cedar Park neighborhood this weekend (April 5-6).

A Spring Clean-up is scheduled for Saturday, from 10 a.m. – 1 p.m. to wake up the gardens at Cedar Park (49th-50th & Baltimore). Lots of volunteers are needed to help with rose bushes and grasses and clean out the garden beds for future mulching and planting. Tools and gloves will be provided. If you have clippers to bring that would be helpful. If you want to join your neighbors this Saturday please RSVP at: https://www.facebook.com/events/686153788112115/

The annual Cedar Park Neighbors Scholarship Fundraiser on will again bring together local residents and businesses in an effort to help neighborhood youth who want to continue their education after graduation from high school. The CPN Scholarship Fundraiser is a great opportunity to mingle with your neighbors, friends and business people and enjoy music by local musicians and food prepared by neighborhood restaurants. Here are more details (from the CPN website):

What: Live music for all ages with West Philly based singer-songwriter Gretchen Elise, beer by Dock Street Brewing Company, wine, and food from Aksum, Fu Wah, The Gold Standard Café, and Dock Street. We’ll also have a Silent Auction to include handmade crafts, jewelry, museum tickets, gift certificates to local restaurants, and much more! Children will enjoy kids’ music and activities from 4-5 p.m.
When: Sunday, April 6 from 4-6 p.m.
Where: The Cedar Works, 4919 Pentridge Street (South of Baltimore, between 48th & 49th 49th & 50th)
Cost: Tickets are $40 and available online or at the door. Kids under 12 are free. To purchase tickets or make a donation, complete the form on this page.

Photo courtesy of Make Music Philly’s website

This summer, Make Music Philly (MMP) will return for its second year of spreading good vibes and tunes across the city. The organizers behind MMP, though, want to make the free one-day festival on June 21 bigger than the inaugural showing, and they’re looking for your help.

Early this month, Make Music Philly launched its first-ever Kickstarter Campaign, “You Make Music Philly,” to raise funds for marketing, social media and advertising efforts that will cast MMP’s net even wider this year. So far, since launching, Make Music Philly 2014 has raised a little over $1,700 of its lofty $20,000 goal. The fundraiser has 10 more days to go, ending on Friday, April 11.

“The inaugural Make Music Philly was by all counts a huge success,” Natalie Diener, coordinator for this year’s MMP event, told West Philly Local.  “Our biggest hope for year two is for Make Music Philly to reach beyond the boundaries of Center City—for each neighborhood to really take ownership of the MMP events in their area.”

According to Diener, part of the goal this year is to double the number of citywide events to 300 (last year, there were 150 performances and 50 involved organizations). Kickstarter donations will be used to achieved this goal by funding an improved website, print marketing materials like this flier, media advertising, and tee shirts for attendees, volunteers and donors.

“The best way for us to reach into every neighborhood and across every demographic is to get the festival’s name out there in every media,” said Diener. “Our neighborhood outreach is being done entirely grassroots right now. We are making great strides to get new venues and artists involved, but the Kickstarter funds would be a tremendous help.”

Like last year, Make Music Philly will kick off at 8 a.m. and end at 8 p.m., and include all the do-it-yourself ingenuity Make Music Day—of which MMP is a part—is known for, for free. But there is one change: MMP will hold a grand finale spectacular at Penn’s Landing at the close of the june 21 festival, said Diener.

Interested venues and musicians can login and sign up here to register for Make Music Philly 2014. For more information, visit makemusicphilly.org or check out MMP’s Facebook and Twitter pages.

–Annamarya Scaccia

As you may have heard, today is the drop-dead deadline to sign up for health insurance under the Affordable Care Act (aka “Obamacare”).

The easiest way to do that is to go to the website here. As we have mentioned before, if you need some help navigating this thing, call a Free Library of Philadelphia branch, set up an appointment for today and get in there. There is a Certified Application Counselor Designated Organization at many library branches. They can help you.

Here are some pertinents:

• Charles L. Durham Library | 3320 Haverford Ave. | 215-685-7436
• Lucien E. Blackwell West Philadelphia Regional Library | 125 S. 52nd St. | 215-685-7429
• Walnut Street West Library | 201 S. 40th St. | 215-685-7671

Here is what you will need when you sign up (via the Free Library):

• Social Security Numbers (or document numbers for legal immigrants).
• If employed, your employer and income information for every member of your household who needs coverage (for example, from pay stubs or W-2 forms—Wage and Tax Statements).
• Policy numbers for any current health insurance plans covering members of your household.
• A completed Employer Coverage Tool form: For every job-based plan you or someone in your household is eligible for, you’ll need this form.

To speak directly with a customer service representative from the Health Insurance Marketplace please call 1-800-318-2596. Assistance is available in multiple languages.

The Obama administration has been really going after “The Young Invincibles,” you all between 18-29 who think it’s a wise financial move not to pay for insurance. Obama has a message for you.

AUNI alumni (Photo via AUNI website).

The wonderful young folks from the Agatston Urban Nutrition Initiative (AUNI), a school-based program of the University of Pennsylvania’s Netter Center for Community Partnerships, are hosting a delicious fundraiser on Saturday, March 29. The annual Eats and Beats community dinner is an event that showcases youth leadership and skills and also helps raise funds for AUNI’s High School Internship Program.

West Philly Local wrote about AUNI’s youth efforts to grow and sell organic food in West Philadelphia. AUNI also offers healthy cooking lessons to high-school students and older community members and teaches how to tend to school gardens and operate farmers markets and CSAs.

Eats and Beats serves a locally sourced, 4-course organic meal prepared and grown by youth interns, featuring ingredients from local farms, restaurants and businesses, including Bon Appetit, Franklin Fountain, Guacamole, Milk and Honey, Lancaster Farm Fresh, John and Kira’s Chocolates, Little Baby’s Ice Cream, Pure Fare and Tara’s Catering. The event will also include live entertainment and speakers, a silent auction and raffle with gift certificates to restaurants, yoga, fitness and cooking classes, and locally-made arts and crafts.

The event will take place at the Mantua Haverford Community Center (631 N. 39th Street) from 5:30-8:30 p.m.. Suggested minimum donation is $25. Click here for more information and to RSVP.

The heart of Cedar Park (Photo by Annamarya Scaccia / West Philly Local)

Over the past 10 years, West Philly has undergone a semi-orchestrated revival, with the last five of those years seeing rapid — and, in some areas, dramatic — change. New businesses started popping up along the Baltimore Ave Corridor while young professionals and grad students began moving out further and further from the confines of 40th Street.

And, as with any other metropolis experiencing accelerated regrowth, West Philly has also seen an increase in housing and rental prices throughout those years. But nothing as dramatic as the spike in monthly rents that’s happened in the Cedar Park area over the last year: an 18 percent jump from 2013 to 2014.

As Technical.ly Philly reported last week, rental listings from the San-Francisco-based rental service Lovely showed that, in Southwest Cedar Park, the monthly median rent price went from $900 in January 2013 to the current $1,100 medium—the highest increase among neighborhoods in Philadelphia.

“It is troubling that the rents went up that high. I’m surprised to see that it went that high,” Michael Froehlich, president of the Cedar Park Neighbors association, told West Philly Local. Although he knew the rents were rising in the area, he said, he didn’t think they were “the highest” in the city. Continue Reading