Neighbors and Friends Out for a Night Out Under the Tree and a Movie
Trees can be amazing neighborhood builders. Our efforts to discuss development, open space, zoning, trees and development have brought out the neighbors for a night out. On Saturday, July 23, 2016 about 30 plus neighbors and friends sat with the tree in the background and had Ice Treats and watched the movie The Lorax.
Everyone loved the movie night and we got more signatures from friends and neighbors for the petition.
A special Thanks goes out to the Friends of Jefferson Park (https://www.facebook.com/groups/FriendsofJeffersonSquarePark/) for loaning the equipment and Chris of D’Emilio’s Old World Ice Treats for stopping by and providing Ice Treats. It is great when we can support local neighborhood business (https://www.facebook.com/OldWorldIceTreats/)
We learned a lot about holding block parties and getting a permit for the party. We included a link to Philadelphia’s online Block party permitting application
https://secure.phila.gov/Streets/BlockParty/
Some key points is that the weekends are easier to get and cost less than weekdays and that the signature for the permit has to live on the block. Owning the corner property does not count. Everyone on the block was great and very supportive of the event and pretty much all signed the petition. We only missed people if they were not home. We also learned that even the Friends of the Parks have to get permits for their events. Go figure that one out!
Why the Lorax?
Well, when we were researching the movie “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn”, we saw this movie The Lorax and it was a perfect movie. From Wikiepedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lorax)
The Lorax is a children’s book written by Dr. Seuss. It chronicles the plight of the environment and the Lorax, who speaks for the trees against the Once-ler. As in most Dr. Seuss works, most of the creatures mentioned are original to the book.
The book is commonly recognized as a fable concerning the danger corporate greed poses to nature, using the literary element of personification to give life to industry as the Once-ler and the environment as The Lorax.
This was perfect movie for adults and kids showing how greed and over development can easily wipe all the trees off the neighborhood.
Here is a clip link:
If you are interested in playing movies for public consumption there are basically two places to go to and you have to purchase the movie license for the night.
We got the Lorax license to play the movie from Swank.com (http://www.swank.com/)
We are still thinking about the other movie and that can be licensed from Criterion Pictures USA (http://www.criterionpicusa.com/)
Please don’t forget to sign and share our petition to save small open spaces in new developments in Philadelphia.
https://www.change.org/p/councilman-mark-squilla-save-old-2-st-tree
