Cedar Park

Lovely patch of greenery in the midst of college kids, stoners, kids playing dodgeball and the occasional drunk guy walking down the street with a can of warm Old English. Streets lined with fruit trees and small gardens. Little Baby’s across the way. Cedar Park café busy and bustling with people. I remember this area 10 – 15 years ago. Totally different from what I remember. But hey, I like it. Cool spot for people watching.

Ths park helped me make the decision to move into the area. I have completely fallen in love with thia park. Not just as a place for my kids to play but when i went i felt a real sense of community. Parents knew and interacted with each other, they had seniors playing chess and other games. No one was cursing or smoking and if someone did the adults kindly asked them to ove and they did. Real diversity. They have little concerts in the summertime. Love this place.

Ah, Angry Park… On a good day, there’s bound to be several people drunk and yelling about something or other. And on bad day, bullets still fly sometimes. Aside from that, it’s not a bad triangle of green space bordering of of multiple aspects of West Philly.

Our nice little neighborhood park. Welcome to the nice part of west Philly aka Cedar park. With rich old school architecture that is maintained and the ability to walk around feeling safe. In the summer stick around to watch some fire twirlers and partake in the small music festival.

The park is part of the streetscape — separated from traffic by low concrete walls and a few fences, but open enough that what happens in the park is well in view to everyone around. Which is good, I think. The park functions as a part of the neighborhood, with people’s homes on one side and the commercial strip between 49^th and 50^th on the other.
A new playground was installed just in the last year or so. Usually at least a few kids are hanging around, happy to play with other kids who happen by. The local bums have their own hangout spot along a wall a little further down the street, and they seem well disposed to keep a friendly eye on the kids, keeping their alcoholic energies to themselves. In my opinion, it works out pretty well.
The commercial strip across the street includes the Satellite café, the liquor store (Pennsylvania Wine and Spirits), Elena’s Soul Lounge, and the Dock Street brewery and pizza joint in the old Firehouse at 50^th St. with a bicycle shop and acupuncture outfit up the exterior staircase.

Im here for the carrot cake man. I just discovered him *smacks head* and it is the BEST carrot cake eva. I dont even like carrot cake but I would happily choke to death on this.
Cedar park is a great place to sit and eat carrot cake. mmmm

Yes, the park is nested in the midst of Baltimore Ave. And yes, it could use a few more trees, but it is adorable, the playground is fun, and you can sometimes catch the carrot cake man there in the evening. If not there, he is also selling his wares at Crispy Sweetie Bakery on 52^nd st.

I first heard about Cedar Park last year when City Paper dubbed it better than Clark Park in the Choice Awards. To this day I don’t know what City Paper was smoking since Clark Park has the overall offerings stacked to the gills. But Cedar Park is a relaxing park that offers up plenty of interesting occasions of it’s own.
You can’t go wrong with anything that’s a neighbor of Satellite Café, Vix Emporium, and Danger! Danger!, especially with it hooks up a dose of nature in between. But it’s especially awesome when Food Not Bombs hooks up it’s potluck socials over the summer. It’s also a great haven for people watching especially when people need to wait for a Dock Street table. And it’s having it’s yearly fair on Saturday that’s going to hook up food, music, and a moonbounce!