The Spruce Hill Community Association (SHCA) Board of Directors invites the community to our Annual Meeting.

This year we will have two keynote speakers!!!

First, Philadelphia Mayor James Kenney will address the future of the Provident Mutual Life Insurance Building at 4601 Market (the former Police Department redevelopment site).

And second, Drexel University’s Sr. Vice Provost for University Community Partnerships, Lucy Kerman, will discuss and answer questions about Drexel’s education initiatives in West Philadelphia, including Drexel’s plans for a new public school in University City and the Promised Neighborhood Grant, through which Drexel is working with 7 local schools, including West Philly High.

There will also be updates on SHCA’s activities over the last year, and election of officers and board members. All five officers and 10 board members will be chosen, with bios of all the candidates available at the meeting.

The meeting will take place at the Penn Alexander School Cafeteria (43rd St, between Locust & Spruce).

All are welcome!

City and private planning officials last night unveiled an “action plan” to turn 500 acres of vacant lots, desolate schoolyards and derelict parks into revitalized green space.

Green2015: An Action Plan for the First 500 Acres is the result of cooperation between the city and PennPraxis, the hands-on branch of the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Design. It’s ambitious and expensive, although the city maintains that the costs will be kept low thanks to private and community partnerships and the fact that many of the sites under consideration will be relatively easy to green-up.

The idea is to create green space where there isn’t much, particularly for the 200,000 or so Philadelphians who live further than a 10-minute walk from a public park. A caveat: These spaces won’t necessarily be turned into “parks.” Some will be spruced up school playgrounds, for example. Many are an acre or less.

The city is inviting citizen feedback here.

Here are some “opportunity sites” in West Philly that the plan mentions:

• Walnut Hill Community Park and Farm (pictured left). This project on a quarter-acre lot near 46th and Market is actually already underway and will include a pocket park and an urban garden (p. 79).

Green 2015