Can you imagine fall without pumpkins? Another fun-filled pumpkin-centered event is happening this Sunday, Nov. 6, from 1 – 4 p.m. Community members and their families and friends are invited to celebrate the Autumn season during the annual Pumpkin Day at Clark Park (43rd & Chester Ave.). This is a free event featuring pumpkin decorating, face painting, fall crafts, prizes, and snacks. Families and children are especially welcome.

The event is hosted by the Vineyard Community Church – West Philly. If you would like to volunteer please email Erica Cheslock at echeslock[at]juno.com.

Sharon Salzberg, a nationally renowned meditation teacher and author is coming to the Calvary Center for Culture and Community (48th & Baltimore) next week to present a talk and a meditation retreat. The talk will take place on Friday, Nov. 11, from 8 – 10 p.m., and the day-long retreat will be held on Saturday, Nov. 12, from 10 a.m. – 6 p.m.

Sharon has played a crucial role in bringing Asian meditation practices to the West and has been leading meditation retreats around the world for over three decades. She’s the author of The New York Times best seller “Real Happiness.”

On Friday Sharon will introduce the principles of meditation and provide a basic understanding of the practice. Saturday’s program will explore the tools of meditation in greater depth, and include meditation practice and discussion. Both days will feature guided meditations, talks, and allow time for questions and answers. Both new and experienced meditators are welcome.

Tickets are $20/Friday, $75/Sunday, $90/both. You can register online here, or by phone: 215-238-0989. A portion of proceeds will go to the Children’s Community School.

Piggy is a 3-5 year-old terrier mix being fostered for the ACCT by West Philly resident Meagan Coneeny. Through no fault of her own, Piggy was surrendered to the shelter by her family when they were unable to keep her. She must have had a happy home, because she is one of the happiest and most good-natured dogs.

Piggy is a playful and energetic girl, and she loves to play and go for runs and walks, but she’s also very understanding when you need to stay in all day and work, and is very mellow in the house. All she wants to do is cuddle with you all day – she has absolutely no body handling issues. You can hug and squeeze her and give her belly rubs and she just loves it! This is a good sign that she would do well in a house with children. She has been gentle with the few children she has met while she’s been staying with Meagan.

Piggy has been living with two cats and is very good with them. She is friendly, but does not focus or fixate on them. She will curl up next to the older cat in the house sometimes and they will sleep together happily for hours. She is not very food motivated (and never shows food aggression), and has never stolen food or been otherwise destructive in her foster house. She even leaves the cat food alone! Piggy is well housetrained and crate-trained, and is very good with sitting and waiting. She pulls a bit on the leash, but is improving every day.

Piggy is a little picky with her doggie friends, so if you are interested in adopting her and already own a dog, you should schedule a dog meet to see how they get along. Sometimes her energy level can be a little intimidating to other dogs, although there are a few very mellow dogs that she gets along well with.

Please adopt this wonderful girl today! She is healthy, spayed, and up to date on her vaccines, so she is totally ready to go. She would be a fantastic addition to any family – prepare to be loved unconditionally by happiest dog in the universe!

Piggy needs a forever home before Thanksgiving!

Please contact Meagan Coneeny at mconeeny[at]vet.upenn.edu with questions or for more pictures. Adoption information can be found online at http://www.acctphilly.org/.

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

Only one school in the area is slated to close, the Charles R. Drew School near 38th and Powelton, in the school consolidation plan unveiled yesterday by the School Reform Commission.

Beginning next school year students at Drew, which is a K-8 school, will be spread among Samuel Powel Elementary, Martha Washington Elementary, Alaine Locke School and Middle Years Alternative school.

The plan also changes the grade configuration in the 2013-2014 school year at Alexander Wilson School (46th and Woodland), which is currently K-6, to K-5. Sixth grade students will attend Shaw Middle School. Shaw (54th and Warrington) will expand from 7th and 8th grades to include 6th grade as well. Grade changes at Comegys Elementary (51st and Upland) and Harrington Elementary (53rd and Baltimore) to K-5 will also feed Shaw’s new configuration.

Students at two other local elementary schools – Lea Elementary and Penn-Alexander – will experience no changes under the plan, which will eliminate 14,000 empty seats. The School District of Philadelphia has said that it hopes to eliminate some 70,000 empty seats over the next several years.

Under the plan, West Philadelphia High School will be put for sale sometime during the 2012-2013 school year.

The District has scheduled a series of public meetings to discuss the consolidation plan. The fist meeting in West Philadelphia will be held on Wednesday, Dec. 7 from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the new West Philadelphia High School.

The full report is available for download here.

Reader Lisa has written to us expressing her concern about the increasing number of dogs without leashes in our area. She wrote:

“I’ve been noticing more and more people walking their dogs without leashes. Inside the bowl at Clark Park is an accepted location, but I’m talking about up on the sidewalk, in the north section of the park, and around the neighborhood. I am afraid this is a bad trend, and something bad is going to happen. My dog does not like when other dogs run up to him, even if they are friendly, so we stay out of the bowl. Today I had to leave the park altogether because two large dogs were roaming the sidewalks quite a distance from their apparent owners. How do I know if they are friendly or not, or how close I can get without them trying to meet my dog, or if they will run immediately to their owners if called? There are plenty of children (and adults) who are not fond of dogs either. It is likely that off-leash dogs make them uncomfortable also.

I’m sure the owners think their dogs are perfectly trained, always friendly, and thus special and safe enough to disobey the law. Many may be right, but certainly there are exceptions. Is it really fair to ask me to assume that any off-leash dog must be friendly and safe just because the owner obviously thinks it is? Can a parent be expected to promise their child that the 80 pound dog down the street is not going to run up to her? Everyone has the right to feel safe. That is the point of the leash law. I’m glad owners of social dogs have the bowl to let their animals run, but that should be the only place. What can we do? Post more leash law signs? Ask the police to give out tickets for a while? Or will a few good dog fights or bitten children solve the problem?”

Lisa adds that she does NOT want law enforcement to ticket dogs that are off-leash.  Also, with the number of dogs, it is remarkable how rarely we see missed droppings in the neighborhood.  The community is generally good at that.  However, she does not want “a few overconfident people to mess things up.”