The 48th Street Neighbors group is organizing their first Porch Hop this Saturday, May 19, from 4 – 7 p.m. and everyone is invited. Nine porches both north and south of Baltimore Avenue along 47th and 48th streets are participating in this event and it’s a great opportunity to meet, greet and hang out with your neighbors. Stop by one porch and then hop over to another.

The 48th Street Neighbors is a community group that has been meeting since September with the goal of making the neighborhood more vibrant and less vulnerable. Laura Crandall, one of the group members and Porch Hop organizer, said that this event will help bring people in the neighborhood together to build community. The group is hoping to continue organizing social events throughout the summer. They have also been taking neighborhood strolls in the evening and hosting monthly potluck meetings.

Everyone is welcome to come to the Porch Hop, but especially folks from Spruce Street down to Kingsessing which are within a few blocks from the most northerly and southerly porches hosting this event.

Drinks and snacks will be provided at each porch and you are encouraged (but not required) to bring drinks (alcoholic or not) and/or snacks to the first porch you visit. All of the details, including addresses are included in the flyer below.

You can RSVP and invite your friends on the event’s Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/events/405856216103211/

A huge multi-home porch sale is being held this Saturday, May 12, on Melville and Locust Streets beginning at 9 a.m. Check out the flyer below for more details.

Here are three community meetings and public hearings scheduled this week:

• On Tuesday, May 8, the Spruce Hill Community Association is holding its monthly board meeting at the SHCA office at 257 S. 45th Street. The meeting begins at 7:30 pm. For more information, please call 215-349-7825 or visit: www.sprucehillca.org.

• This Thursday, May 10, from 6 – 8 p.m. there will be a School District Community Budget Session at West Philadelphia High School. Neighbors can learn about and discuss the reorganization plan proposed by the School District and the Actual Value Initiative proposed by the Mayor. The Actual Value Initiative’s goal is to reassess properties in Philadelphia based on their actual market value, which basically means higher property taxes for many homeowners. The current proposal would help generate approximately $90 million to support Philadelphia’s schools. To read more about what will be discussed at the meeting, take a look at the following documents: A Blueprint for Transforming Philadelphia’s Public Schools, Actual Value Initiative (AVI), Property Tax Reassessment Talking Points.

• Also on Thursday, community members are invited to attend a presentation and a brainstorming session to generate ideas on how we can create greener, more sustainable schoolyards in Philadelphia. One of the schools whose schoolyard is being proposed for this project is West Philadelphia’s Lea Elementary (47th & Locust). The presentation is organized by the Community Design Collaborative, AIA Philadelphia, and the Philadelphia Water Department. The presentation will take place from 4 – 6 p.m. at the Center for Architecture, 1218 Arch Street. To RSVP, go here. For more information, contact Cedar Park Neighbors Vice President, David Hincher, at david.hincher@gmail.com or visit the Community Design Collaborative’s website.

A group of community members helped clean up and beautify Barkan Park at 50th and Spruce on Saturday. Mark Mendenhall of Garden Court Community Association sends word that the next clean up and Spring Planting at Barkan Park will be held on Saturday, May 19, from 2 to 4 p.m. For more information, call (215) 476-2983.

Thanks to the joint efforts of several community organizations and over 300 volunteers, residents of the 3800 block of Aspen Street in Mantua are getting their homes improved and their block beautified.

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The volunteers and vendors, who are providing repairs to 20 homeowners on the block and working on greening and beautifying the block, will get together this Saturday, March 31, at the Green Block Party Open House. The open house will be held from 10:00 a.m.- noon and will include the house tours to see improvements in progress. There will also be an opportunity to learn more about healthy homes, meet the program partners, and hear local leaders and residents speak. Update: If it’s raining the open house will be held at the Mantua Community Improvement Committee building, 619 N. 35th Street – between Mt. Vernon and Haverford.

The project is carried out by the Green Block Build Collaborative, a coalition of community organizations including Philadelphia LISC, Rebuilding Together Philadelphia, The Partnership CDC, and a wide variety of other community partners. It is also supported by Drexel University and the University of Pennsylvania.

The Green Block Build strategy is to improve low-income households, block-by-block, house-by-house by building on the strengths of each partner organization. Each home on the block will receive multiple critical repairs or energy efficiency upgrades, energy assessments, education around home health issues, and financial education. Other home improvements include the installation of green and cool roofs, rain barrel installation, the removal of allergy and asthma triggers such as mold and dampness, weatherization improvements, and overall greening.

The projects are designed to specifically meet the needs of each homeowner. For example, one homeowner with physical handicaps will receive repairs to his home that make the bathroom, backyard, and other rooms more handicap-accessible.

Once the renovations are complete, Drexel University will conduct an analysis of the program’s impact.

“Lord have mercy, we’ll enjoy living in our neighborhood again!” said Barbara Hall, the block captain, when she learned about the Green Block Build Program, “This has given me so much hope.”

See more, including photos, on Plan Philly.

Have you recently taken a great photo of the neighborhood? Would you like to share it with your neighbors? Please email it to us at: editor@westphillylocal.com and we’ll publish it on our site and Flickr page. Please don’t forget to include your name and your photo’s title or caption.