Portland Taking Interesting Approach To Creating Walkable Sustainable Neightborhoods

Just read this great article over at grist.org, where the mayor of Portland OR talks about creating what he calls 20 minute neighborhoods throughout the Portland MSA. His definition of a 20 minute neighborhood is effectively a neighborhood where you can walk or bike to restaurants - they liken it to a "mixed use development."

It would seem Philadelphia is extremely well positioned to leverage this concept as it's a city of neighborhoods. It would be interesting to see this concept made part of the Greenworks Initiative or some other program(s).

Art + Soul Food = Btown June 12th

2nd Annual Art + Soul Food along West Girard Avenue, Brewerytown Saturday, June 12th, 2010 2-6PM

Philadelphia, PA (May 17, 2010)- The 2nd Annual Art + Soul Food event will take place on Saturday June 12th, 2010 from 2-6pm along the 2500-2900 blocks of West Girard Avenue. The annual event celebrates life, art, and soul food in Philadelphia’s Brewerytown neighborhood. The inaugural event last year drew an impressive crowd despite unfavorable weather conditions and now in its second year the event promises to be an even bigger success.
Art + Soul Food transforms over 20 area businesses and vacant storefronts into an eclectic mix of art galleries highlighting mostly local talent. From the dry cleaners to the sneaker shop and even the sidewalks themselves the entire avenue becomes one enormous celebration of art. Couple that celebration with the delectable tastes of the some of the city’s best soul food restaurants and you get Art + Soul Food.
This year’s Art + Soul Food has some exciting additions and highlights, including: A meet and greet with Darryl McCray of “Cornbread” fame, a former Brewerytown resident dubbed the father of modern graffiti. Catch the trailer to his upcoming documentary “Cry of the City” by producer Sean McKinight setting the record straight on Cornbread. A recent mural installation by acclaimed muralist and street artist, Shepard Fairey of New York City. Shepard Fairey is most known for designing the iconic Obama poster during the 2008 presidential election. Showcasing work of local artists including Young, owner of Young’s Sneaker City. Young will display his work that is normally only stored in the back office of his sneaker shop. It’s not uncommon to see him at his easel in the back of the shop on any given day. Art and music from 10 area students from St. Luke’s Baptist Church After School Program will be on display along the avenue. Plus, the official Heineken After Party at North Star Bar (27th & Poplar) featuring Heineken Specials and soul music from 6-9pm.
The event, a collaboration of local community groups, aims to instill a sense of pride amongst neighbors in the area as well as highlight all the positive features of the neighborhood to visitors. Art + Soul Food is sponsored by Heineken, MM Partners, Pennrose Development, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Daily News, and Philly.com. It’s made possible by the collaboration of a number of community groups including the Fairmount Community Development Corporation (CDC), Greater Brewerytown CDC, West Girard Business Association, and the Girard Coalition.
For more information about Art + Soul Food visit www.artplussoulfood.com. To receive sponsorship information or to learn how to showcase your work contact the Fairmount CDC at www.fairmountcdc.org or by calling 215.232.4766.

Walk To Work - Center City To Brewerytown

My car was is in the shop this morning so I decided to walk to the office from my house in the Fitler Square neighborhood via the Schuylkill River Trail to Brewerytown. It took only 25 minutes and was a nice way to start the day. I saw tons of people doing the same thing I was. In addition, lots of people exercising (biking, running, karate, yoga, etc). Notice the photos of cars sitting traffic as well as the statue of Stephen Girard behind the Art Museum.

Community Garden At 30th & Harper In Brewerytown

I was strolling by the community garden on 30th and Harper in Brewerytown today and noticed it has recently undergone a very nice upgrade, check it out.

Philadelphia To Double Number of Bike Lanes - Nice Move

According to an article on philly.com:

The city's proposed new bicycle network, now undergoing final revisions, will roughly double the miles of marked bike lanes to about 400, not counting 40 or so miles of separate trails on parklands. The bike lanes will come over the next decade as streets are repaved.

We applaud this, the key is really uniting all the bike lanes into a more cohesive transportation network, perhaps link to burbs, septa (imagine changing stations and secure bike storage at regional rail stops).

Mexican Restaurant Coming To W. Girard Avenue In Brewerytown

Back in March we put out a call for a Mexican restaurant to come up to W. Girard Avenue in Brewerytown. In just two months we are very excited to announce that we have just signed a Letter Of Intent with a very accomplished Chef (who must remain nameless for the time being) to open his first restaurant at 2711 W Girard. The project must be classified as tentative until full financing is in place, but we can say that it will feature a combination of authentic Mexican food and flavor from all regions of Mexico and, despite being a BYO, will provide a changing, unique menu of specialty cocktail mixers to add to your favorite spirit.



The Chef aims to create a cozy atmosphere with impeccable service, a communal table, and be affordable with a full meal (appetizer, entrée, dessert) running $20-25 per person. The restaurant will seat 40 or more and will be open from 4pm to 10pm Tuesday through Saturday.

Images From Shepard Fairey May Day Show At Deitch Projects

Yesterday I was in New York and stopped by the Deitch Project gallery to check out the Shepard Fairey May Day show. Here are some images from the show and a cool mural across the street from the gallery which is similar to the mural across from MM Partners offices at 2617-19 W. Girard Avenue in Brewerytown. Check out the show if you can, very cool

Shepard Fairey MayDay Exhibit At Deitch Project

On May 1, Shepard Fairey has an exhibit of new works opening at the Deitch Projects in NYC. Here is a link from Cool Hunting.

Cycling Rises 28% Year Over Year In NYC

This seems to be a nationwide trend, we have seen a similar trend in philadelphia and elsewhere. See full article on Infrastructurist, here are some quick highlights.

* 236,000 New Yorkers are riding bikes every day.
* 51,000 New Yorkers started biking in the just last year alone.
* One out of every 24 vehicles in motion on city streets is a bicycle.
* New Yorkers travel 1.8 million miles by bicycle every day.
* Bicycling is New York City’s fastest-growing mode of transportation.

Mural Arts Program + Shepard Fairey = New Mural In Brewerytown

Here is the official press release from Mural Arts announcing the murals Shepard Fairey will be doing in Philadelphia this Friday. One of them will be on Brewerytown at MM Partners' offices located at 2621 W. Girard Avenue. Feel free to swing by after 4.30pm this Friday if you want to watch him in action.

Great Piece on Urban Farming For Ecnonomic Development of Cities

Here is a great article from The Infrastructurist on urban farming as a tool for urban redevelopment. As we have posted before we strongly believe small and medium scale urban farming would work great in Philadelphia as the city has lots of vacant lots which are ideal for urban farming as a way to land bank for future development, improve fresh food options in inner city neighborhoods, create jobs and community and support of the buy local movement.

The article mentions Greensgrow Farms here in Philadelphia which is an amazing operation.

Next Installment In the Temple Philadelphia Neighborhoods Series On Brewerytown

Here is the latest article in the ongoing series being written by Temple Journalism students on Brewerytown as part of the Philadelphia Neighborhoods project. This story focuses on economic development along Girard Avenue, something MM Partners strongly supports. Enjoy the photo of Aaron and Cooper who work with MM Partners.

Brewerytown Clean Up Project - Philly Spring Cleanup 2010

MM is proud to have participated in cleaning up the playground/ball field at 31st and Thompson Streets in Brewerytown as part of the Philadelphia Spring Cleanup Project. Mr. James Carter of the Greater Brewerytown CDC coordinated the event and did a great job getting neighborhood residents and kids to chip in. We were blown away by the sheer number of cleanup projects throughout Brewerytown.

Sick ESPO (Steve Powers) West Philly Handrawn Map On Philebrity

Check it out on Philebrity:

Metro Philadelphia Article Today - "Brewerytown Next Hot Spot"

We of course are biased, so surprisingly we agree with this article in today's Philadelphia Metro that Brewerytown is a great place to live and invest. The article discusses the development along W. Girard Avenue including new retail coming like Mugshots Coffee Shop and the campaign to get a Mexican restaurant restaurant up to the avenue.

Nice quote by Mr. Roller btw.

Plan Philly Chronicles Rise of Retail In Center City

Over on Plan Philly there is a great article talking about the continued retail renaissance in Center City Philadelphia which date has gone unnoticed. Here is a link to the article

This is a trend MM Partners is pushing in Brewerytown to bring interesting service oriented retail to W. Girard Avenue and are working diligently to bring businesses like Mugshots up to the Avenue. We are currently working on a Mexican Restaurant and have some other interesting retailers are in the works.

We Are Looking For a Few Good Tacos

MM Partners in partnership with the Girard Coalition and The Merchant Fund is looking to entice a mexican restaurant to come join Mugshots in the W Girard Avenue retail renaissance.

We have a few renovated storefronts on W. Girard Avenue in Brewerytown that are ideal locations and will provide a generous fit out package along with potential grant money to assist a business owner with the upfront costs. There is real demand for a mexican restaurant and we are committed to helping make it a reality. Please contact us if you are interested.

For everyone else, please stay tuned as we will keep you up to date on our progress.

Here is the Press Release issued today and it was already covered on Foobooz and Phoodie

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT: Angel Coleman
Executive Director, Girard Coalition, Inc.
215.825.8821 acoleman@girardcoalition.org

Girard Avenue Seeking Mexican Restaurant
Grant Funding Available
The Girard Coalition, Inc., is partnering with MM Partners, LLC and The Merchant’s Fund to attract a Mexican restaurant to West Girard Avenue in Brewerytown. The restaurant should offer authentic Mexican cuisine, and be willing to serve a lunch and dinner crowd. This opportunity would be ideal for a restaurateur looking to open a second location on a growing commercial corridor.
The location is between Brewerytown and Fairmount, just minutes from the Art Museum, Fairmount Park, the new Westrum development (Brewerytown Square), the Philadelphia Zoo and I-76.
MM Partners, LLC is a real estate development, management and construction company committed to the revitalization of the West Girard corridor. They have several mixed-use properties for lease. MM has recently signed a lease with Mugshots Coffee House & Café for 2831 W Girard. The Mexican restaurant will be housed in one of MM’s available commercial spaces, and they will provide a generous tenant improvement package to sweeten the deal. Visit their website www.mmpartnersllc.com for more information.
The Merchants Fund is a Philadelphia charity established in 1854 to provide charitable gifts to business persons facing financial hardship. Their mission is to provide financial assistance to current and past merchants in Philadelphia. They will provide a small grant to help develop the Mexican restaurant. Grants are competitive. New ventures are not qualified only expansion projects of businesses with at least a three year track record in an existing retail location. The Next deadline for considerations is Friday, April 30, 2010 (postmarked). Visit their website www.merchantsfund.org for more information about their products and services.
The Girard Coalition, Inc is 501c3 nonprofit organization with a mission to revitalize the Girard Avenue corridor between I-95 and the Philadelphia Zoo. We partner with neighborhood groups, businesses and political leaders to improve the quality of life in the Girard Avenue community. Our primary focus is business development and attraction. Visit our website www.girardcoalition.org for more information.

Great Piece About the Strengths of Philadelphia's Art Scene

For MM Partners' part, we have applied for a grant to build studio space at 2617-19 W Girard. Here's a sample from the article, good quotes from the chief of the NEA, but go read the whole thing.

..."I don't know how many times I've said it in the last few months: 'We've got to look at what they're doing in Philadelphia,' " Landesman told about two dozen arts administrators and city officials at the Crane building in the 1400 block of North American Street... "This seems to me to be really where the creative economy is happening," Landesman said of Philadelphia. "We need to be in places where there's already some real momentum because we want to be successful." ...

Zoning Approval = Coffee? Yep!

Fantastic news this afternoon: Mugshots CoffeeHouse received zoning approval to open at 2831 W Girard Ave! Look for the opening in the spring or early summer. Thanks to everyone who came out to support the application, we can't emphasize our appreciation enough. A special thanks to the good posters at Philadelphia Speaks, who helped spread the word.

MM Partners Loves Urban Farming - Brewerytown needs some farms

MM Partners really likes the concept of urban farming and believes its a great use for vacant land for many reasons:

• better use of vacant land
• better for storm water run off
• return tax delinquent properties to tax rolls
• great way to redevelop fringe neighborhoods where there are an abundance of scary, overgrown lots currently used for short dumping and who knows what else
• who wouldnt want a farm as a neighbor to look out at?
• creates local jobs
• introduce better fresh foods into many neighborhoods

The list could go on and on, but the bottom line is Philadelphia is a great place for urban farming. There are a number people throughout the area already doing it, here a few great links:

http://urbandirection.blogspot.com/2010/02/urban-farming-links.html
http://era-errant.blogspot.com/2010/02/new-agventure.html

Brewerytown is an ideal neighborhood to try this out, we would welcome anyone interested to contact us.