Some readers contacted us regarding Cedar Avenue, some of which was stripped of pavement last month. It looks like repaving will begin soon. Today a neighborhood resident tweeted that he saw a “tow truck… going down Cedar Ave warning people to move vehicles or they’ll be towed.” “Hopefully, they’re re-paving today!,” he added.

We turned to the Streets Department for more information and they referred us to the Streets Department Planning Paving for the 2014 Season page on their website. According to information posted there, the 2014 Planned Paving Program for city streets and roadways started in June and will go on until November. Usually, the paving process takes place in three stages over a 3- to 5-week period due to utilized by the city conventional paving method, which “mills off the top asphalt surface, preps and repairs utility manhole covers and any roadway base areas, then applies a new asphalt top surface.”

Here is the list of streets and roadways included in this year’s City Paving Program. By the way, Cedar Avenue will be re-paved all the way from Baltimore Avenue to 63rd St/Cobbs Creek Parkway (there is no schedule currently available). Re-pavement work is also taking place on S. 52nd Street from Woodland to Whitby Avenues and on other West Philly streets.

Here you can find more information for this week’s (the week of Sept 29) street improvement work and please make sure to move your car from the work sites when temporary “No Parking” signs are posted so that your vehicle is not towed. If it is towed, contact your local Police District to find out your car’s location.

Photo courtesy St. Mary’s Church.

This new event will help you relax during lunchtime by listening to music at a historic and remarkable sacred space. Starting today, St. Mary’s Church, Hamilton Village, located at 40th and Locust Walk on the Penn campus, invites residents to free lunchtime concerts every first Wednesday, from 12:15 to 12:45 p.m.

The first in a series of First Wednesday Free Concerts at St. Mary’s will feature organist Wesley Parrott playing pieces by Foote, Vierne, and Bartholdy on the parish’s historic Aeolian-Skinner Organ. There are continued efforts to restore the church organ, so free will offering will be appreciated.

The present, expanded version of St. Mary’s, Hamilton Village was completed in 1876, but the church dates back to 1824, when the cornerstone for the original church was laid.

For more information about the church and more events please visit www.stmarysatpenn.org.

Residents discussing 4224 Baltimore Ave. design plans at one of community meetings in 2013.

A coalition of community groups are urging Councilwoman Jannie Blackwell to introduce legislation that would help move along the large residential and commercial complex proposed for 43rd and Baltimore, across from Clark Park.

The project has stalled because the property owners do not want to navigate Philadelphia’s zoning process.

So the Friends of Clark Park are circulating a petition asking Blackwell to take “swift action” to prevent the property owners from abandoning a proposal that has been devised after a series of public meetings. (For a full history of the project, click here.)

The Spruce Hill Community Association and the University City Historical Society have also sent letters to Blackwell asking her to introduce an ordinance that would exempt New York-based Clarkmore LLC from the zoning process, which can be a gauntlet of delays and even legal challenges. Clarkmore already has the right to build a no-frills 92-unit building on the property at 4224 Baltimore Avenue as it is currently zoned and the firm is reportedly willing to go ahead with that plan rather than go through the zoning changes required to build the 132-unit complex proposed after more than a year of consultation with the community.

“We do not want to see that ‘by right’ project to go through,” said Barry Grossbach, chair of the Spruce Hill Community Association’s zoning committee. “It’s going to be a box and it’s going to be ugly.”  Continue Reading

The Walnut Hill Community Association (WHCA) is holding a Community Day next weekend on the grounds of the old West Philadelphia High School and is organizing a cleanup this Saturday to prepare the area for the celebration. The cleanup will take place on Saturday, Oct 4, between 9 a.m. and 12 Noon and volunteer help will be greatly appreciated.

Volunteers are needed to pull weeds, do light gardening work, and sweep up leaves. All residents and friends are invited to join in and all ages are welcome. Light refreshments will be served and the following items and supplies will be provided: t-shirts, brooms, rakes, shovels, gloves, and more.

Here’s more information on volunteer sign up:

• All volunteers meet at 47th & Locust on Saturday, Oct. 4, at 9 a.m.
• Coffee & Bagels
• Registration/Sign-in
• Walnut Hill Community Association membership table
• Community Day 2014 volunteer sign up and flyers onsite

The Walnut Hill Community Day will be held on Saturday, Oct. 11, at 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. and will include lots of fun activities, raffles, live entertainment, food and drinks, a farm stand, and much more. More information is coming soon. Interested vendors (food truck vendors: $50 per space; craft tables: $25 per space) are asked to contact Tyson at 267-499-6492 or Amin at 267-975-1962.

Just a reminder that Walnut Hill boundaries are between 45th and 52nd Streets and between Market and Spruce Streets. Here’s contact information for WHCA:

Walnut Hill Community Association
4637 Walnut Street
Philadelphia, PA 19139
215-472-1381
walnuthillevents@gmail.com

There was a gunpoint robbery at the Garden Court Eatery (4725 Pine St) over the weekend. Police say two men robbed the store on Saturday, Sept 27, around 9:30 p.m. One man, armed with a black handgun and with his face covered with black garb, entered the store, jumped over the counter, pointed the gun at a female employee and told her to open the register. When she opened the register, the man took cash and fled.

The suspect ran across the street toward an alleyway. He approached the store from the same direction, police say.

Another man, wearing a gray hooded sweatshirt with the hood covering his face, stood at the entrance until the first man finished the robbery and then fled in the same direction, according to police.

The armed suspect had a black backpack with “Sugar House Casino” written on it and was wearing white gloves, according to police. Police say they have surveillance video of the robbery, which they should release soon (we’ll keep you updated).

This is the third gunpoint robbery of the Garden Court Eatery this year. The previous two robberies took place in January and February.

Police are investigating the death of a 21-year-old female Penn student whose body was found in a three-story student boarding house near 40th and Sansom.

Police say roommates discovered the woman on Sunday night, at around 11:30 p.m., in her bedroom and attempted CPR. When police arrived they observed a blood spatter on the wall next to the woman, according to a police report.

An empty pill bottle was found on a nearby table for 60 pills prescribed to the woman about two weeks ago for treatment of depression, according to the report. There were also two notes on her desk, one addressed to her family and one to her mental health doctor at Penn. The letters appeared to be suicide notes, according to police. The woman’s roommates told police that they heard her screaming and heard banging sounds coming from her room earlier Sunday.

Police said they are treating the death as suspicious and the investigation is continuing.