Hillary Clinton is coming back to Philadelphia and this time she will visit a voter registration event in West Philadelphia, according to local media reports. The event will be held on Tuesday, Aug. 16 at West Philadelphia High School (4901 Chestnut St), beginning at 1:15 p.m. (doors open to the public at 11:15 a.m.).

The purpose of the event is to encourage people to register to vote before the October 11 deadline.

To RSVP, please go to the event’s page on the Hillary Clinton website.

Community Unity Music Festival, a free and family-friendly event, returns this Saturday to Clark Park at 43rd and Chester. This year’s festival has a great line up: Papo Vazquez Mighty Pirates & Troubadours, Bobby Zankel & The Warriors of the Wonderful Sound, Killiam Shakespeare Band, The Universal Dance & Drum Ensemble, CiaraFaye Martin (vocalist), Clef Club Ambassador Big Band, Zenia McPherson (vocalist), Suzanne Burgess (vocalist), and other special guests.

The festival is organized with the help of a prominent West Philly musician, a member of The Branford Marsalis Jazz Quartet, Justin Faulkner.

The goal of the festival, which will take place from 12 – 7:30 p.m., is to promote nonviolence and unity in the Philadelphia community.

For more information, visit the event’s Facebook page.

Greensgrow’s new, larger and more permanent location at 5123 Baltimore Avenue is ready to welcome its first customers. The soft opening is this Friday, so stop by and check it out. Grand Opening is scheduled for Thursday, Sept. 8. The former temporary Greensgrow West location at 4912 Baltimore Ave. closed on August 7.

Greensgrow signed a long-term lease with the city for 5123-29 Baltimore Ave. in Spring 2015 and began developing the new lot late last year. Previously empty and overgrown with bamboo, the new site was reimagined by student architects from Drexel University who gathered input from local residents with an eye towards green building practices.

The site features a high tunnel, demonstration green roofs and rain gardens, repurposed shipping containers, and even a tiny house. An outdoor classroom is being built by students from the Workshop School for Greensgrow’s educational workshops and will be open for neighborhood schools and organizations to use. Several West Philadelphia partners and organizations such as Cedar Park Neighbors, the Baltimore Avenue Business Association and the Philadelphia Water Department, contributed critical support to getting the site cleared for reuse. The new fence was built with the support of an Indiegogo campaign started by a neighbor.  Continue Reading

Looking from Spruce Street, the proposed 9-story building at 49th and Spruce.

Developers presented preliminary plans last night for a nine-story apartment building with ground-floor retail space at 49th and Spruce Streets to a standing-room-only crowd that voiced concerns about property taxes, parking and affordable rents.

Proposed by the developers who refurbished the nearby Croydon building, Hillel Tsarfati and Kfir Binnfeld, the 160-unit building would be built on the parking lot on the southwest corner of 49th and Spruce. The mostly one-bedroom apartments would be marketed toward “young professionals,” with rents 15 to 20 percent below market rate – similar to Croydon, Binnfeld said.

The building would include eight floors of 20 apartments each and retail on the first floor. Floors would include 12 one-bedroom apartments, 6 two-bedrooms and two studios each. Rents would be roughly the same as Croydon – currently a minimum of $975 for a two-bedroom and $850 for a one-bedroom, according to the proposal.  Continue Reading

SEPTA’s annual Trolley Tunnel Blitz, originally scheduled for nine days in July but postponed due to the Regional Rail issue, will take place on weekends and weekday nights starting Friday, Aug. 12.

SEPTA Trolley Routes 10, 11, 13, 34 and 36 will not operate in the Center City tunnel on the following weekends:

• 8 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 12  to 4:30 a.m. Monday, Aug. 15
• 8 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 19 to 4:30 a.m. Monday, Aug. 22
• 8 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 26 to 4:30 a.m. Monday, Aug. 29

Trolleys will not operate in the tunnel on weeknights from 8 p.m. to 4:30 a.m. on August 15-19 and 22-26. Trolleys will use the tunnel on weekdays during peak rush hours and throughout the day (from 4:30 a.m. to 8 p.m.).

During the closures, trolley service will begin and end at 40th and Market Streets. Trolley passengers can board the Market-Frankford Line at 40th Street Station for travel to and from Center City.

More information about the Trolley Tunnel Blitz is available on septa.org.

A 9-story, 130-unit apartment building with ground-floor retail is proposed to be built on the parking lot at 4900 Spruce Street (see rendering above), and this will be the focus of a Garden Court Community Association (GCCA) meeting on Wednesday, Aug. 10.

“Information has been spotty at best so this is intended as a cross RCO community meeting,” writes GCCA Vice President and Zoning Chair Lauren Hansen-Flaschen. GCCA has been designated as an official RCO (Registered Community Organization) for the project, and developers are expected to be present at the meeting.

The building’s proposed height of nine stories and other features will require zoning variances. The developers of the nearby 8-story Croydon Hall Apartments, a once notorious squatters’ haven, are proposing the project. They own the parking lot at 49th and Spruce and lease spots there to Croydon residents. But the lot has remained mostly empty.

The meeting will take place at The Enterprise Center, 4548 Market Street, beginning at 6:30 p.m.