Hundreds of tools will be available at the 5th annual tool drive and sale. (Photo courtesy West Philly Tool Library).

On Saturday, March 16, the West Philly Tool Library, a community-based tool lending library, invites neighbors to its 5th annual tool sale and tool drive. The event will be held from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. at 1314 S. 47th Street (between Woodland and Grays Ferry Avenues).

This is a great opportunity to pick up tools at super low prices (starting at just $1) and to support the Tool Library. A large selection of tools will be available, including circular saws, screwdrivers, hammers, gas-powered lawn care tools, wrenches, pliers, and many more.

Also, if you have tools you don’t need, bring them to this event and Tool Library will put them into productive community service. All donations are tax deductible and Tool Library staff members will be on hand to process your donations and provide receipts for tax purposes.

Coffee and light refreshments will be served.

For more information visit westphillytools.org or email: Peter@WestPhillyTools.org

Farmer’s market, soccer and Shakespeare … now get ready for some cold beer!

Hey, you heard it here first (unless you read about it on the Friends of Clark Park website over the weekend): Clark Park will be home to its very own (if only temporary) beer garden this Spring as part of the citywide “Spring into Your Park” event on May 18. Apart from the beer, the event will include food, music, games and other activities for adults and children alike (we’ll have more info about this later). The goal is “to promote the well-being of West Philly’s beloved green ‘town commons’ together.”

In order to make this neighborhood celebration a success Friends of Clark Park is seeking volunteers who can contribute in the following areas:

Advance work: graphic designers, sponsors, raffle-prize donors.

Event-day work: licensed bartender, decoration setup crew, security staff, acoustic musicians, membership-table workers.

If you’d like to volunteer, please email Anthony West (anthony.abbott.west@gmail.com) and let him know how you can help.

Confused about the new property tax system? Curious about how your property taxes or rent will be affected by the Actual Value Initiative (AVI)? There’s a good opportunity to learn more and have some of your questions answered at a neighborhood meeting on the property tax overhaul that will take place this Wednesday, March 13, at 7 p.m. at the Griffith Hall of the University of the Sciences (Woodland Ave & 43rd St). The meeting is organized by Cedar Park Neighbors, Garden Court Community Association, Spruce Hill Community Association, Walnut Hill Community Association, and Woodland Terrace Homeowners Association.

The meeting will include: a representative from the Office of Property Assessment (OPA), Councilwoman Jannie Blackwell’s Office, Dr. Kevin Gillen, Economist, University of Pennsylvania, Patrick Kerkstra, journalist, moderator.

The AVI was devised as a way to make the tax burden more fair citywide: Some residents’ property taxes are going up, others are coming down. The initiative included a mass reassessment of the city’s building stock.

S. Epatha Merkerson.

Law and Order and Lincoln star S. Epatha Merkerson will be in West Philly on Tuesday, March 12, to present her first feature film, The Contradictions of Fair Hope, at International House. Ms. Merkerson is an executive producer and co-director of the film. The event is part of Scribe’s Producer’s Forum Series, which brings distinguished independent filmmakers to Philadelphia.

The documentary, narrated by Whoopi Goldberg, covers a little-known aspect of American history; it examines how newly-freed slaves throughout the South formed “benevolent societies” to respond to hunger, illness, and the fear of a pauper’s grave. The film traces the development, struggles, and contributions of one of the last remaining African-American benevolent societies, known as “The Fair Hope Benevolent Society,” in Uniontown, Alabama.

The Contradictions of Fair Hope was released in 2012 and won Best Documentary awards at several film festivals, including the Philadelphia Independent Film Festival and the Festival International du Film PanAfricain in Cannes. S. Epatha Merkerson and writer Rockell Metcalf who will also participate in Tuesday’s event, believe that the film is, “an incredibly important teaching tool and a powerful call to action to return to a community of benevolence, mutual care and concern in America.”

Screening of The Contradictions of Fair Hope (2012, USA, 78 min) with Co-Directors S. Epatha Merkerson and Rockell Metcalf
Tuesday, March 12, 7 p.m.
International House (3701 Chestnut St)
Tickets: $10, $8 students/seniors, $5 for Scribe and IHP members
For more information and tickets click here.

Pssst. Hey, West Philly meat eaters! This Saturday, March 2, there’s a great opportunity to try meat from local farms and help neighborhood schools. Philly CowShare, a West Philly-based company that  sells “shares” of locally-raised, grass-fed beef and pastured pork, is hosting a one-day meat sale at the Calvary Center at 48th & Baltimore, from 2 – 6 p.m. A portion of the proceeds from the sale will go to the West Philly Coalition for Neighborhood Schools and Penn Alexander School’s HSA.

The sale offers a one-stop shop where you can learn about participating farms, buy a package of beef or pork to cook at home and even get some recipes! The following items will be available for purchase: steaks, roasts, ground beef, no-nitrate bacon, sausage, pork chops, and sampler packs (pre-orders for sampler bundles are available online). All meat is individually packaged, labeled, and USDA certified.

Philly CowShare helps connect “communities of responsible farmers and butchers with urban communities who simply want to eat well.” The company sells bundles of beef called CowShares and bundles of pork called PigShares that are available to purchase individually and as a group. Philly CowShare challenges the consumer to eat healthy meat and to eat meat more mindfully and wants to make sure that “the farmer and butcher are paid fairly and the animals are raised in accordance with their nature and in harmony with the land.”

To learn more about how Philly CowShare operates, visit their website or Facebook page.

Spruce Hill residents are invited to attend a second meeting to guide future development decisions in their community. This Action Planning Workshop will be held at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 27, at the Wilson Student Center on the campus of the University of the Sciences (42nd & Woodland).

The session will again be led by Jennifer Hurley, a professional planner hired by the Spruce Hill Community Trust. Residents will be asked to confirm their community vision, brainstorm about ways to make it a reality, and plan next steps.

This meeting follows up on one in December that drew an unexpected turnout of about 90 people who were asked to indicate their likes and dislikes about directions that development could take in Spruce Hill. Hurley has taken that material and pulled it together in a presentation that may be viewed on the Spruce Hill Community Association’s website.

The Spruce Hill neighborhood boundaries run from Market Street to Woodland Avenue, 38th Street to 46th Street.

For more information about the planning workshop, contact Barry Grossbach, chair of the trust, at b.grossbach@gmail.com or at 215-349-7825.

About 90 people participated in the first meeting about the future development of the Spruce Hill neighborhood. (Photo from Spruce Hill Community Association’s Facebook page).