Here’s an opportunity to use your design skills and have your artwork displayed all along Baltimore Avenue (plus win a few prizes).

The University City District has announced an open call for participation in the Baltimore Avenue Banner Design competition. The winner’s work will ultimately be fabricated as a 24 x 36 inch banner and installed along Baltimore Avenue. The banners currently on display along Baltimore Avenue between 45th and 50th streets will be replaced next spring with new ones, possibly featuring your design.

Here are the details of the competition.

• The design competition is open to everyone.

• An individual can submit multiple concepts.

• There is a particular interest in work that is responsive to Baltimore Avenue and the neighborhood, but the sky is the limit!

• The winner will receive $200 in University City restaurant gift certificates and $300 in cash, and your artwork on over 70 banners.

• Submissions are due Friday, March 2. Late submissions will not be accepted.

If you are interested in submitting a design please email the following to Mark Christman at: mark[at]universitycity.org:

Name, Address, Email and telephone number, Proposed design (jpg or pdf), and one-two sentence description of proposed design(s).

A selection committee will be comprised of Baltimore Avenue and neighborhood business owners, artists and neighbors.

Mariposa Food Co-op is expanding into a space five times bigger than its current location and needs more help. Currently, the store is hiring for part-time cashier positions and also looking for an intern starting this winter.

The cashiering position is hourly based and includes benefits. For more information and to apply please go to this page.

Mariposa Food Co-op is also looking for an energetic self-starter seeking professional experience in membership management and communications to help open their new food co-op. This position is unpaid, but includes some perks. For more information and to apply for this position please go here.

The Friends of 40th Street, a coalition of organizations focused on developments along 40th Street from Market to Baltimore, will present the feedback gathered this summer during a series of public meetings aimed at gathering feedback for a number of proposals.

The meeting will begin at 6:15 p.m. at The Rotunda (4014 Walnut St.).

The forums touched on issues such as commercial development, public space and transportation along the 40th Street corridor. Those who attended the meetings were also concerned about the role that Penn and Drexel would play in the development of the street and surrounding neighborhoods, according to previous reports.

Those representing organizations in the area are encouraged to bring updates or announcements to share.

In the area on Market St. between 30th Street Station and the site of the former US Post Office building community members gathered to celebrate the opening of a new public space yesterday – “The Porch” at 30th Street Station.

Spearheaded by the University City District,  project has been in development for eight years as part of a larger conversation between the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, Brandywine Realty Trust, Amtrak and the UCD about the revitalization of this central transit hub of Philadelphia.The name of the new space was chosen from some 500 entries submitted by the general pubic.

Once a dangerous walkway outside of the one of the nation’s largest train stations, The Porch is now a 40-foot-wide space complete with tables and chairs, umbrellas and foliage. The project cost about $300,000 and was paid for with the help of a grant from the William Penn Foundation.

The Porch is part of an incentive to make this area more pedestrian-friendly by including farmers’ markets and community programming like weekly yoga and kickboxing classes led by Drexel Unversity Recreational Athletics staff as well as weekly circus events presented by the Little Circus. The Porch is also part of a more “capital intensive” vision for this area of the city. Over the next decade Brandywine Realty Trust (responsible for the Cira Centre) will be redeveloping the old US Post Office building for commercial use.

A fall festival at the space is coming up, including a Milk & Honey-sponsored honey tasting with Urban Apiaries and an apple cider history event presented by Bartram’s Garden.

– Jane

A couple of dozen pumpkins entered our 2011 Pumpkin Carving Contest. The artistic endeavor and sheer jack-o-lovliness has impressed folks far and wide. Alas, there can only be a handful of winners. And here they are:

• Reader’s Choice –  Bimal Desai‘s toothy, super-freak of a pumpkin (Pumpkin 21) topped the voting (160 votes cast). Bimal wins gift certificates from Wake Up Yoga and Dock Street Brewery.
• Kids – Wyatt Baker, 8, and his super crafty use of the stem (Pumpkin 4). Wyatt wins a tote bag and a gift card from VIX Emporium.
• Philly-themed – Katrine Lvovskaya and Becca Lausch with “Fall-o-delphia”, their homage to our lovely skyline and the love that is the Love Statue (Pumpkin 17). Katrine and Becca win a gift card from Milk & Honey Market.
• Scariest –  Terry Coleman – That “Gears of War” skull freaked the judges out a lot (Pumpkin 5). Terry wins a gift certificate from Aksum cafe/restaurant.
• Funniest/Ironic/ Wow! – Nate Johnson (Pumpkin 19). There has to be a place in our awards for a pumpkin that just blew the judges’ minds. A fitting tribute to REM and Michael Stipe a couple of weeks after the band announced the (yes, we had to do it) End of their World as We Know it. Nate wins a fall food basket from Mariposa Food Co-op.

Last but not least, we want to give a hearty shout out to everyone who entered a pumpkin and all who voted.

If you’re free around lunchtime tomorrow swing by 30th Street Station for the opening of “Philadelphia’s next great public space.” The celebration starts at noon and will also include the unveiling of the new name of the plaza along Market Street adjacent to the station – once a sort of dangerous and confusing mix of pedestrians dashing to make trains, taxis and Market Street traffic. Now it has trees, tables, chairs and sensible traffic patterns, making it a fitting introduction to our fair ‘burg for commuters and tourists alike.

Tomorrow’s opening ceremony will include street performances, refreshments and live music.