The neighborhood still faces problems with vagrancy, but something good is happening in Cedar Park, according to Cedar Park Neighbors president, Carol Walker.
About 45 residents of University City's Cedar Park neighborhood braved the rain to attend the meeting in the Calvary Community Center at 48th Street and Baltimore Avenue, which focused on discussing ongoing and potential improvements to the area, especially on Baltimore between 45th and 50th streets.
Business owners and officials from CPN and the University City District spoke at the meeting.
Among the evening's hot topics was the relocation of the Wine & Spirits Shoppe on the 4900 block of Baltimore to a larger store on the same block. The new store will be well-lit, allow self-service instead of keeping products behind the counter and increase the number of products it carries from 840 to about 1400, said George Peller, a Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board representative.
As community members expressed concern about continued drinking in Cedar Park, Walker noted that the new store will not sell half-pint bottles in order "to discourage our friends in the park."
Carolyn Hewson and Gail Fisher of University City District discussed plans for street lighting. UCD - an organization of prominent community figures of which Penn is a member - has raised about $855,000, enough to install the lights, Hewson said.
They also mentioned potentially placing potted plants on sidewalks, the landscaping on traffic triangles and improvements to a municipal parking lot, which residents had complained was a safety threat and site for loiterers.
Current enhancements in Cedar Park itself should be complete by the end of November, and a new children's play area will be installed in 2008, CPN vice president Monica Allison said. She added that she hopes Cedar Park will host community activities similar to those in Clark Park, which has overcome the same problems that Cedar Park now faces.
A new sign-making business, ongoing renovations to the Calvary Community Center, and potential mural renovations complement proposed changes in the park.
The meeting also touched on the Dock Street Brewing Co.'s informal appeal to the Zoning Board for a 10-year, rather than five-year, approval for its planned brewery and pizzeria and 50th Street and Baltimore Avenue.
A Vietnamese restaurant - under the same ownership as Chinatown's Viet Nam Restaurant - also plans to move in, and a yoga studio and Rita's Water Ice are in the works.
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