Monthly Archives: September 2015

this is development reality, chester county

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Sometimes you can’t just look up, you have to look down from up. These are aerial shots taken this August in Chester County.  Sorry to say they were taken over West Vincent Township, but they were.  Can you say raped and pillaged when referring to the land?

Think about this when you vote in November because what we all love about West Vincent even if we don’t live there, is rapidly disappearing.  And further food for thought is if West Vincent lets Bryn Coed get developed densely it will be a horror show because in totality of acreage, the Bryn Coed is actually LARGER than Chesterbrook in Tredyffrin Township.

These photos clearly demonstrate why in Chester County we have to fight to save the land and open spaces we love.

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This is the Courtyard by Pulte, located on Birchrun Rd. It was originally an over 55 community of 300 homes. West Vincent Township changed it to a 185 home community and removed the over 55 restriction. Now there will be 185 additional children in their school system. This is neither land conservation or preservation.

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This is the Orleans/Toll development on Eagle Farms Rd in West Vincent Township

 

 

why I can’t support the sierra club for quite a while

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I did not use to have a problem with the Sierra Club, other than some of their fundraising campaigns can be irritating. But now I am going to take a close look at them and groups like them in the future because of something astounding I discovered by accident today.

What am I talking about? Their political endorsements. Who the Sierra Club endorses makes me question everything about them. And I think in a lot of cases non-profits should refrain from endorsing political candidates because eventually their poor judgment is noticed and noted. I respect and prefer non-advocacy or non-political endorsing non-profits.

I was told today that the Sierra Club endorsed Ken Miller for re-election for supervisor. And there it was on his website. And there it was on the Sierra Club Southeastern PA website.  Technically it was for the spring when he was still a Republican and not a KenOcrat.  Here is what it said:

Sierra ooof 1

My goodness one would think the man was a saint . I like the part where they left out his part (and vote) as a West Vincent Township Supervisor in the whole failed eminent domain for private gain land grab of Ludwig’s Corner Horse Show in December, 2011. This was the debacle that cost then Executive Director of the French and Pickering Creeks Conservation Trust Clare Quinn her job. They did not like it when she as a then West Vincent Township Supervisor voted in favor of an eminent domain for private gain land taking.  She did not seem to get that when her day job was land preservation/conservation it was a bad idea to vote for a land grab as an elected official with her night job, I guess? Here is an excerpt from the article:

….The board of the French and Pickering Creeks Conservation Trust voted unanimously to end its more-than-five-year relationship with West Vincent Township Supervisor Clare Quinn, said Cary Leptuck, the trust’s board president.

“The board believes that Ms. Quinn’s actions as a West Vincent Township supervisor in condemning the Ludwig’s Corner Horse Show grounds represent a fundamental conflict with the trust’s long-standing mission of voluntary land conservation,” he said….This month, Quinn was among the West Vincent supervisors who voted to seize the 33-acre horse show tract by eminent domain, a decision that prompted a widespread outcry that included two politicians, State Sen. Andrew E. Dinniman (D., Chester) and Chester County Commissioner Ryan Costello.

The supervisors said they wanted to use the land for a park and ball fields. The horse show could use it as well, they said, but those affiliated with the show questioned the feasibility of that arrangement.

The conservation trust passed a resolution on Dec. 3, “opposing condemnation as a means of land preservation and community access.”

 

Here is hoping the French and Pickering Creeks Conservation Trust remembers all this and doesn’t endorse Miller this fall…or they will become a land conservation/preservation hyprocrite non-profit too.

So…the Sierra Club. How could they endorse an elected official who every voted for eminent domain? Seriously?

If the Sierra Club can’t do it’s homework, why should people support them? Eminent domain is not exactly beneficial for the planet now is it? (Of course how they tell the tall tale of eminent domain around West Vincent Township today is it was all misunderstood. They were just going to take the Ludwig’s Corner Horse Show to “protect it”, they wanted to put a CONSERVATION EASEMENT on it.  Yeah sure and I have a bridge they can buy…in Brooklyn.

They can try to dress it up and perfume it and tart it out a few years later, but eminent domain is eminent domain and politicians who vote in favor of such land grabs shouldn’t be endorsed by non-profits that preach a better planet, land conservation and land preservation.

Of course this isn’t the only questionable Sierra Club 2015 political endorsement. Take where I used to live in Lower Merion Township. They endorsed two candidates that are so PRO as in EXCESSIVE development they can’t possibly be green (unless they are nauseous).

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Oh ok because she could afford geothermal heating it’s ok to endorse her?  As for Manos, he’s done what exactly? Oh yes….like Liz Rogan (because face it they both got placed into office by the same people but that is a longer tale for another time) he has voted for so much development and so many bad pro-developer zoning overlays it is terrifying.

Residents were SO outraged by Liz Rogan being endorsed by The Sierra Club that a flyer went out in the spring:

Sierra club rogan

Here is an excerpt from the BACK of the flyer:

Let’s look at Ms. Rogan’s “green” record as a commissioner and as president of the Lower Merion Board of Commissioners. How has she impacted the LOCAL environment? First, consider her policy of encouraging development in inappropriate places from an environmental perspective. She’s enthusiastically endorsed huge development projects on Rock Hill Road (600 units – 330 being built now and 270 later on) and in the “M” District on the Schuylkill River in a FLOODPLAIN (about 600 units). Neither area is effectively served by public transit. This will bring many more cars, more air pollution and more urban runoff into the waterways. Is this green and environmentally sensitive? Hardly.

….Environmentally alert residents have worried about the continuing degradation of our creeks and streams in both the Mill Creek and Cobbs Creek watersheds. Storm water runoff from impervious surfaces, including roads and parking lots, is a major culprit. Ms. Rogan’s penchant for more impervious

surface through very dense development, in most cases, leads to more blacktop or asphalt parking lots. Is this green? We don’t think so…..

For years, residents have been asking the Township for stronger storm water management regulations and better remediation measures. Efforts to focus Ms. Rogan’s attention on this issue for years have been met with inaction. Now the threat of sanctions from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection – starting in 2018 – has brought about the creation of a storm water advisory “committee” probably too late to save these important waterways as viable streams. This is most definitely not green….

 

So.  Reading all this and knowing about these candidates PRIOR to knowing the Sierra Club endorsed them makes me question the efficacy of the Sierra Club and their moral compass as an organization. After all an endorsement should be made with careful consideration. Not with fluff and nonsense and who do you know and maybe they will get a pretty donation out of it, right?

If you are as incredulous and astounded as I was, here is how you contact the Sierra Club. These are national organization contacts. Obviously there is something wrong with the Southeastern PA Group since they obviously didn’t do their homework.

Anyway here are the contacts:

Contact Us

Sierra Club
National Headquarters
85 Second Street, 2nd Floor
San Francisco, CA 94105
USA
Phone: 415-977-5500
Fax: 415-977-5797
Sierra Club
Legislative Office
50 F Street, NW, Eighth Floor
Washington, DC 20001
USA
Phone: 202-547-1141
Fax: 202-547-6009

General information: information@sierraclub.org

Membership questions: membership.services@sierraclub.org

 

So the moral of this story is to do the research….you know, like the Sierra Club should have prior to endorsing.

Development isn’t land conservation/preservation. It’s development, a for profit enterprise that gains municipalities a short time high of new ratables.

TDRs (Transferrable Development Rights) are not land conservation/preservation.

Zoning overlays partially designed by and for developers are not land conservation/preservation. They are just another way to shove in development.

True conservation easements don’t need to occur by using eminent domain as a “tool”. Remember, eminent domain is not a helpful tool, but those who utilize it are tools…..

Vote smart no matter where you live this November.

And look for other non-profits to give your money to in Southeastern Pennsylvania.

Save your local environment by changing the face of who governs you.

canning season

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  Becky Home Ecky has taken me over the past three weeks. I have been canning apple sauce, apple butter, pear butter, pickled watermelon rind with red onion, and garlicky bread and butter pickles with jalapeño peppers. The apples and pears I picked myself out of the gardens of friends, and this year everyone seems to have a bumper crop of apples, especially.

The recipes mostly came out of my head and memory of canners past but I used the Blue Chair Jam Cookbook, Simply Recipes, and Ball’s website for added direction on procedure and proportion.

  I have memories of my mother canning and making preserves and her mother, my grandmother, and my late cousin Suzy.  My grandmother would pickle and preserveanything that stood still long enough, and she was an amazing cook. I remember my mother pickling okra and green tomatoes and I also remember her making peach preserves when my parents’ friend Charlie Peterson gave them a big bushel of peaches when I was little.

My mother’s German friends Susi and Babette were canning wizards. I remember all the things they made, pickled, and preserved. When you were in the kitchen of Babette’s farmhouse  in the fall you could hear the sauerkraut popping in their stone crocks in the basement.

  
And I also remember my great aunts on Ritner Street in South Philadehia doing a lot of canning too. They had essentially an extra kitchen in the basement and I remember them pickling and canning what came out of my Aunt Rose’s large kitchen garden in Collegeville.  
  
My Aunt Rose and Uncle Carl had this big old house with sweeping grounds that backed up to a farm when I was little. The farm had horses near some apple trees that would stick their heads over the fence looking for a pat (and some apples!)…my cousin sold the property after my aunt and uncle passed away and by that time (after 2000) where they once lived had stopped being country long ago, and was obscenely over developed.
  My great aunts would mostly can tomatoes and made these pickled hot peppers that would bring tears to your eyes. I remember the jars of canned tomatoes all lined up one after the other all in a row. It actually looked really pretty.

  I had a lot of fun doing my canning with the exception of a minor kitchentastrophe. I singed my backsplash behind my stove top when my giant 21 quart enamel pot I use for the canning water bath was off center on its stove burner.

My kitchen was filled with the smells of childhood.  The vinegary garlic spice odors of making a pickling brine. And the sweet smells of apples and pears cooking  in cinnamon, cardamom, ginger, nutmeg, star anise, and turbinado sugar.  They were wonderful smells and truly sensory memories.

  But last evening when I had finished placing my last batch of applesauce in the canning hot water bath, I was ready to be finished. Canning is actually pretty hard work, even if it’s fun.  Your arms ache by the time you finish pushing hot fruit through the chinois  before the final cooking stage. It made me realize how hard women used to work putting up food for their families to last all winter long.  

  A fun fact is canning dates back to the late 18th century France.  Canning food in unbreakable tins was an English invention from the early 19th century.

I am pretty much a novice at this culinary art form. I am not as nearly accomplished as some of my friends and neighbors. I am sure as I do more canning I will become more adept. 

  So now all I have to do is finish labeling and dating  my final couple of batches and put it away.

Thanks for stopping by.

  

remembering 9/11

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 Sept. 11, 2015, is the 14th anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City, the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., and United Airlines Flight 93’s crash in the field in Shanksville, Somerset County. This date has special significance to every American, and intense personal significance to far too many individuals who lost friends and loved ones. 

But September 11, wasn’t the first time terrorists visited the World Trade Center. In truth, Feb. 26, 1993. was the date of the first terrorist attack on the World Trade Center in New York City. I worked in New York at that time at an office located downtown in the financial district at 44 Wall Street.

On that day, I had accompanied an office friend to the World Trade Center to grab an early lunch and to check out some stores in the shopping concourse. We were back outside the Trade Center buildings, getting ready to cross the street, when suddenly the ground shook and moved. I remember that we were looking directly across the street at Century 21, a department store in Lower Manhattan. Then something happened that rarely happens in New York: Everything went eerily still and quiet. We looked up at what we first thought were snowflakes beginning to float and fall from the sky. After all, it was February.

Then car alarms began to go off one by one like the cacophony of many distorted bells. The snowflakes, we soon discovered, were in reality ashes. 

People began yelling and screaming. It became very confusing and chaotic all at once, like someone flipped a switch to “on.” At first, we both felt rooted to the sidewalk, unable to move. I remember feeling a sense of panic at the unknown. We had absolutely no idea what had happened, and hurried back to our office. Reaching it, we were greeted by worried coworkers who told us that someone had set off a bomb underground in the World Trade Center garage. 

I will never forget the crazy kaleidoscope of images, throughout that afternoon, of all the people who were related to or knew people in my office who sought refuge in our office after walking down the innumerable flights of steps in the dark to exit the World Trade Center Towers. They arrived with soot all over their faces, hands and clothes. They all wore zombie looks of shock, disbelief and panic.

Of course, the oddest thing about the first terrorist attack on New York City is that I don’t remember much lasting fuss about it. I do remember that President Bill Clinton was newly sworn into office, but I don’t remember him or his wife Hillary coming to visit New York after the attack. (And now she is “Hillary for America” and wants to be President? Where was she then as our then First Lady?) 

Everything was back to normal in Lower Manhattan in about a month, maybe two. After a while, unless you had worked in New York, or lived in New York, you simply forgot about this “incident.”

  
  
So, on the morning of 9/11, as I pulled into my office building’s garage and listened to the breaking news on the radio announcing that a plane had struck the World Trade Center, tears began to run down my face unbidden. I knew in my heart of hearts what happened. I said to myself, “Oh no. They came back.”

I remember picking up my cell phone to call my father, whom I knew to be, at that time, on an Amtrak train bound for New York City. I remember him telling me it was fine and he’d be fine. I wanted him to get off in New Jersey and take a train back to Philadelphia. But the train was already pretty much past all the stations and getting ready to go into the tunnel to New York. That very thought terrified me. To this day, I still do not understand why Amtrak did not stop those last trains from going into New York City as the news of the World Trade Center attacks first broke.

I next remember getting in the elevator and getting off on my office floor to find people clustered around television sets and radios. And the news kept getting worse: first one plane, then a second, then a third, and then a fourth. 

The images and news just didn’t stop. Camera cuts from lower Manhattan to Washington to Somerset County. They are images that have to be ingrained in everyone’s mind forever like indelible ink. 

It took a couple of days for my father and brother-in-law (who had already been in New York on business) to get out of the city, but eventually they got home safely with many stories to tell of what New York was like in the immediate aftermath of 9/11. A lot of people weren’t so lucky. They never saw their loved ones again after that fateful morning. Many people in the Philadelphia and greater Main Line area lost friends, coworkers and loved ones. 

On September 11, I knew people who were lost, but fortunately I didn’t lose any loved ones. I have friends who did and who lost co-workers and staff they were responsible for. I remember for a brief time it seemed we were all a little nicer to each other, and politicians actually seemed to come together as one and grieve as a nation grieved. 

But here we are fourteen years later. I have only seen the site twice where the World Trade Center once stood proudly. The first time was about a year after the attacks. I remember a distinct pit in my stomach and looked away from the car window. I was in Washington a few years ago, and had the same intense, awful feeling in my stomach as we drove on the highway past the Pentagon. 

In 2015 we are a country divided by often extreme partisan politics. Our economy is only so-so, and the government seems skewed even more every day towards special interests. Middle Eastern immigrants are flooding the shores of any country that will help them escape the tyranny and bloodshed that is all they know. 

In Chester County local governments are letting oil and gas companies like Sunoco and residential developers destroy where we call home so they can rape the land for their gain and profit. Small potatoes I am sure to some when compared to 9/11, but to me they are two more examples of life off-balance. Other things include the news. I am and always have been a news junkie, but find myself watching and reading it less because it often seems as if it’s all bad news.

Face it, we are ALL different after 9/11, but I have to say we have become a country divided. Over everything. From the town to town, city to city, state to state to Washingtn D.C., we have become a country of extremism – especially politically. We are all still Americans, but are we always proud of that? Hyper liberal, hyper conservative, what happened to the people in the middle? Who cares about the people in the middle?

When did it become a crime to disagree with the status quo? To disagree with elected officials? To wish for better in the gray shades of a desperate recession? To be just a little bit different?

A country still at war, at war with itself inside our own borders. Who will do the healing if not each one of us ourselves? Who do we believe in? Who can we believe in? Can we hope for anything or is hope still just an overused word in our everyday vernacular? We have people who  shoot up churches in Charleston, murder a reporter and her cameraman in cold blood in a live shot, people who randomly shoot up shopping malls and movie theaters, and even worse the ugliness I remember from my childhood a race riots.

A few years ago now I rode in my friend Barry’s balloon shaped like a giant American flag on 9/11. We soared over parts of Chester County. It was such am amazing and peaceful yet exhilarating and powerful feeling. A great way to remember 9/11.

Life must go on and time can’t stand still, but all in all I can’t help but wonder: What have we learned since about our country and about ourselves? Fourteen years after 9/11 what have we learned and what have we forgotten? What do we need to remember?

Simply said, as a country we need to do better. From local to national we need to do better, to be better. We need to vote smarter and field better candidates for public office.  On every level of government, even at the most local we need fewer apologists in office, and more who are actually accountable.

Finally today, take a minute and remember our first responders. They are every day heroes we can believe in.

Thanks for stopping by.   #NeverForget 

orzo lentil salad

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I just felt like making a late summer/early fall salad today.  I woke up and thought that is what I want it so I made it!

I made 2 cups of lentils and 1 cup of orzo according to package directions. Drained and cooled both.

I tossed them into a big metal bowl into that I added four grated medium sized carrots.

Then I added two grated large harder apples. I don’t remember what the Apple I used was – it was local  so maybe Gala.  I put a couple tablespoons of apple cider vinegar quickly over the Apple so it didn’t turn color while I was preparing the rest of my ingredients.

Next I grated a large red onion. And tossed the onion into the mixture. Then I added a cup of black seedless raisins, and a cup of chopped fresh Italian flat leaf parsley from the garden.

I added salt and pepper to taste and toss gently and moved onto the vinaigrette.

The vinaigrette was a honey mustard made with half cup of olive oil, and a little over half a cup of apple cider vinegar and sherry vinegar. To that I added salt and pepper to taste, and 2 healthy tablespoons of garlic powder and a few tablespoons of a grainy mustard that I bought from Spread Love Jams, Jellies and Condiments. Finally I added 1 tablespoon of turbinado sugar and 4 tablespoons of Carmen B’s local honey. 

I whisked The dressing to a frenzy and poured over the salad and tossed. It’s delicious!

bam! just like that summer stepped aside for election season 

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As seen in West Vincent today. I am sure they will disappear and be replaced by more signs. If township employees are instructed to remove these, get a photo if you can….it would not be a good use of taxpayer monies if township employees are seen doing campaign-related tasks, would it?

 File under #thetruthhurts and #eminentdomainisnogoodgain and #kenocrsttheoriginalruralpoliticalopportunist

  

is there a new race for open space in chester county?

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Stroud Preserve, West Chester PA (Natural Lands Trust Property)

Michael Rellehan has hit it out of the ball park in The Daily Local today. Every single person who lives in Chester County should read this article and the rest of his series. I think it is crucially important.

Daily Local: Open space in Chester County: Past, Present, Future

By Michael P. Rellahan, mrellahan@dailylocal.com, @ChescoCourtNews on Twitter

POSTED: 09/05/15, 1:58 PM EDT |

Excerpt:

Note: This is part one of a three part series.)
Numbers don’t lie, and in 1990 the numbers looked bad for the future of undeveloped land in Chester County.

The county — with its rolling landscapes, verdant farmland, quaint boroughs, and quiet suburban enclaves — saw its population growing at an astonishing rate. In the 40 years from the post-World War II boom in 1950 to the economic go-go-go days of 1990, the number of people who lived in the county rose by 136 percent, from 159,141 residents in the 1950 census to 376,396 in the 1990 survey.

Those people needed places to live and work, and figures showed that the construction of new homes and offices was eating open space in the county like Pac-Man ate dots. Figures showed the county losing 30,000 acres of farmland between 1982 and 1987, and having 32,400 acres under development proposal in 1988.

There was a real sense that people would look out the windows of the homes they had lived in for years and see not the green fields they played in as children but houses and buildings and strip malls. To put it mildly, there was a horror that the beauty of a landscape like those in Unionville or Birchrunville or Martin’s Corner would be replaced by something seen in Havertown or Lima or, worse yet, Upper Darby.

“We were going to end up looking like Delaware County unless we did something,” said Irene Brooks, the East Bradford woman who had been appointed as the county’s first female commissioners in 1986. “That was terrifying to me.”

 

 

Above is but an excerpt of the first part of this series which is going to be a few parts long. This first article was long and worth every word. I was so thrilled to see it, because I had noticed that The Daily Local in the era of modern journalism does not do much anymore in the way of these in-depth looks at issues facing our county, Chester County. Truthfully they should let Michael Rellehan do more reporting like this. It is to me, absolutely wonderful.

The open space and beauty of Chester County drew me here long before I was a resident. But in the last decade plus in spite of open space and preservation initiatives, development has occurred at alarming pace. Which is why when a sponsored Facebook post out of West Vincent came along this morning in my news feed, I could not believe they posted it with a straight face.

Obviously it is election season, and this community page is quickly becoming a thinly veiled re-election shilling campaign page to keep Ken Miller in office in West Vincent. (Miller got jettisoned by his own political party when he got tossed in the Republican primary his past spring and ended up on the Democrat ballot as a write in. Truthfully, he is not a Democrat, just a political opportunist hanging on for dear life.)

Anyway this is what I saw:


A sponsored post means the admin or admins of the page are paying for the post to reach all timelines of a certain geographic area. It’s not terribly expensive but it is paid content to ensure their certain selected posts go farther than they would organically.

But their broad faced declaration which implies elected officials have been toiling away at saving open space during the Miller era ? Really? Would their  attempted taking of Ludwig’s Corner Horse Show grounds via eminent domain for private gain to build a mini city in the midst of rural cross roads been open space preservation?

The West Vincent Supervisors who supported an eminent domain taking of Ludwig’s Corner were Ken Miller, David Brown, and Clare Quinn. This is what jettisoned Quinn out of office eventually as well as costing her the position she held with the French and Pickering Creek Conservation Trusts, right? Remember Kathleen Brady Shea’s December , 2011 Philadelphia Inquirer article? 

Let me refresh your memory:

Horses and hot-air balloons, the optimal modes of transport in Chester County’s West Vincent Township, offer idyllic vistas of covered bridges and rolling pastures – as well as a jarring contrast to a recent, acrimonious land dispute.….The supervisors voted Nov. 28 to seize the horse show grounds by eminent domain for a public park, generating an outcry that rivaled the din of a steeplechase and resulted in a reversal less than a month later….About 300 protesters packed each of two township meetings, and the fracas cost one of the township’s three supervisors her day job.
On Monday, the board of the French and Pickering Creeks Conservation Trust ended its more-than-five-year relationship with its executive director, Clare Quinn, one of West Vincent’s three supervisors.

Now at the time the West Vincent Supervisors all claimed they were doing this to “preserve open space”, which of course is and  always has been hogwash. The plans flying around for the land at the time had nothing to do with preservation. But given the predilection for revisionist history, they will keep on trying I’m sure.

And I have to ask if those cheap and hideous apartment towers behind the Ludwig’s Corner Horse Show lovingly referred to as “Miller Towers” along with all the shoved in plastic house developments between West Vincent and Upper Uwchlan are also considered “preserving open space”?

 I remember when I first moved out here everyone was talking about that giant Dietrich  Estate / Bryn Coed (roughly the size of Chesterbrook which was roughly 885 to 1000 acres) or whatever being ripe for development?

There was all that talk of developer TDRs (transferable  development rights) and development talks with a major developer over all of this land? It is or was 1000 acres of land? If the development chatter has not gone away but rather gone underground what would that mean for Supervisors  Miller and Brown?  That certainly could not be considered “open space preservation” if that tract of land gets raped and pillaged by a developer much the way the old DuPont Estate Foxcatcher Farm in Delaware County is today in its new plastic self called Liseter? Or if it becomes the next Chesterbrook?

Of course this is yet more reason people in West Vincent should retire Ken Miller by voting him out of office this November and Dave Brown when he is up for re-election, but I digress.

 West Vincent and Upper  Uwchlan are not the only Chester  County municipalities guilty of wanton and often indiscriminate ill advised development . It is all over the county with more plans happening daily it seems. Downingtown, Malvern, East Whiteland, Willistown, East Goshen, Easttown, West Chester,Charlestown, Schuylkill, Phoenixville , Westtown,  Coatesville area and out beyond to Oxford.

You name the municipality in Chester County and there is development.  Way too much of it. And remember there is what we can see  today, and there is what is coming down the road in various stages of planning and municipal/developer dealmaking.

And many folks  point to Tredyffrin to the start of it all with Chesterbrook. That was the first monster development in Chester County of its size, wasn’t it?  And once that got in, the cherry was popped in Chesco, wasn’t it?

TE History has a history of Chesterbrook available online. In it this brief white paper of sorts discussed the Cassatt family and the history of Chesterbrook farm, which was sold in the late 1960s:


The timing of the final approvals of this development that no one wanted which to this day has had long term far reaching effects. And it was probably one of the first  developments of its kind under the Pennsylvania Municipalities Planning Code, Act of 1968, P.L. 805, no. 247 which took effect January 1, 1969, correct? And when was its last real update? The 1970s? It (the MPC) was conceptualized to protect our communities, but does it?  Look no further than their section 705 titled Standards and Conditions of Planned Residential Devleopments just to name a section that we would all benefit from getting  updated.  That and what historic and land preservation really means, as well as the updated definition of what suburbs and exurbs are and the list goes on.

 The PA MPC is the bible on which all of our zoning and municipal land use guidelines come from. When we don’t like a development how often have we heard from land use professionals, municipal employees and politicians “we can’t do anything, they are all good under the municipalities planning code.”

People always lament that the land conservation and preservation nonprofits don’t do enough. They can’t . Why? Because they can’t buy up all the land.

Developers have the money and political lobbying power to do so and until we comprehensively change in Pennsylvania when,what, and how they are allowed to develop and where, nothing is going to change. And to change that, the Municipalities Planning Code needs to essentially be overhauled. In order to be effective stewards of our land with regard to conservation and preservation, our state level tools need to reflect what we,as residents  of our communities, actually want.

 In order to get more where we want in a lot of cases we need to change the faces of who govern us starting with the most local positions in various borough councils, supervisors, commissioners, town councils, mayors. And whichever state representatives and state senators next time they are up.

So think about all of this going into the fall, and I can’t wait to read the rest of the articles in this Daily Local series.

Thanks for stopping by and  incidentally  all the development photos have been taken in Chester County between 2012 – 2015.

budweiser clydesdales come to town !

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My friend Peggy took these photos last evening in West Chester! She gave me permission to share with all of you! I totally spaced and forgot they were coming. What a sight! What gorgeous horses and look how cute the Dalmatian is!

I used to love seeing them at Devon Horse Show. I remember because they were so big the ground around the ring would shake when they came rolling in.

   
   

school lunch

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country school

Norman Rockwell illustrations are perfect for back to school posts.  I just love them. And yes, very VERY much days gone by.

Today’s topic is school lunch.  Not the menu necessarily, but have school lunches improved really under Obama? While in some regards, yes, definitely, I have to wonder.  I did however, find a recent article in Politico informative on that topic.

Our school starting this school year uses a company named Whitsons for lunches.  Now interestingly enough I read an article in The Day out of Connecticut where one school district used to use this company and chose another called Chartwells because they felt they were getting healthier options at the same cost. The other thing about Chartwells is they believe in sustainability and for their school lunch programs they like to source food locally.  Considering we live in a county that has amazing farms, and so do adjacent counties companies committed to  supporting local agriculture and sourcing food locally is very appealing.

lunchHowever, I will note no complaints thus far on the school lunches. The reports have been the food is a much higher quality and there is more variety and it is overall more tasty and much fresher. But this post really is not about the food service company used for school lunches because my research indicates that Whitsons has a very good solid reputation.  What this post is really about is lunchtime scheduling.

Our son eats lunch at 10:30 a.m. every day. Not one or two days a week. Every day. He is a high school teenage boy. Eating lunch at 10:30 a.m. means by noon he is hungry and by the time he gets home, ready to pass out. The flip side is I hear of very young elementary school age children eating lunch at the same school at 1:30 p.m.

HUH? So yes, I will be once again buying protein bars so he can tuck one in his back pack for a snack, but that is not the point. The point is it is just too darn early in my opinion.

What time do your kids eat their lunch at school? And I will note there is no snack break or recess because it is high school. Friends I know who are either educators or in related fields say this is a common phenomenon with kids being starving by 1 p.m. or so.

I had thought we had been told last year that last year was the last year of lunch at breakfast time, and once this year rolled around, lunch would not be quite so early. Maybe if they alternated years so different sections of classes didn’t always get stuck with 10:30 a.m. or if it was only a couple of days a week I wouldn’t be complaining and writing this post.

So let’s talk school lunches.  What time do your kids eat lunch and what do you think about the time they eat?

Do they like the school lunches or do they brown bag it? (It seems to me in general kids are not bringing their lunches as much as we did.)

Thoughts?

slow learners opening in bryn mawr

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I don’t generally post about movies. But I loved this one and have seen it twice and it has it’s hometown opening in Bryn Mawr this weekend at Bryn Mawr Film Institute:

Slow Learners

Starts Friday, September 4!

Limited Screenings

Closed Captioning available · (NR) USA – 1 hr 36 – digital

2015 · d. Don Argott and Sheena M. Joyce OFFICIAL SITE 

Starring Adam Pally, Sarah Burns, Reid Scott

Hometown filmmakers Don Argott and Sheena M. Joyce (Art of the Steal, Rock School) codirect this wicked romantic comedy about two friends unskilled in the world of romance. Jeff (Adam Pally) and Anne (Sarah Burns) embark on a bawdy, party-fueled journey in the hopes of trading their awkward dispositions for heartbreaking hipness.

Co-director Sheena M. Joyce (The Art of the Steal, Rock School) will be at BMFI on Friday, September 4 for a Q&A after the 7:00 pm screening.

Following the 7:00 pm screening on Saturday, September 5, producers Tammy Tiehel-Stedman and Jamie Lokoff will be in attendance for a Q&A. Tiehel-Stedman, a native of the Philadelphia area, won an Oscar for Live Action Best Short Film at the 2000 Academy Awards. Lokoff co-owns Milkboy with fellow Slow Learners producer Tommy Joyner.

Friday, September 4 7:00pm Q&A · 9:45pm

Saturday, September 5 7:00pm Q&A · 9:45pm

Sunday, September 6 7:00pm

Monday, September 7 7:00pm

Tuesday, September 8 8:00pm

Wednesday, September 9 8:00pm

Thursday, September 10 4:45pm

Go to Bryn Mawr Film Institute Website for their page on Slow Learners .

It is a sweet movie which is also smart and funny….and set in Media! I love downtown Media so that was a treat. But the characters are was hooked me into the movie. They are wonderful, and I bet you will find one to identify with.

I will admit I have a built in bias because I know the producers who are also the dynamic duo behind MilkBoy Coffee and MilkBoy Recording/MilkBoy The Studio. But you know what? The movie is terrific! Jamie Lokoff and Tommy Joyner have hit a home run with this project!

If you don’t believe me that this is well worth seeing, read THIS.

If you have FiOs you can also rent this on demand.

YOUTUBE preview CLICK HERE

Starring: Adam Pally, Sarah Burns, Reid Scott, Catherine Reitman, Kate Flannery & Bobby Moynihan

Sex, drugs, and…book clubs? High school guidance counselor Jeff (The Mindy Project’s Adam Pally) and his co-worker and best friend Anne (Enlightened’s Sarah Burns) are anything but cool. Their terminally unhip ways (he’s in an all-male book club, she’s diagnosed by her doctor as “clinically abstinent”) have left them perpetually single. Tired of being alone, they vow to shed their nerdy ways and find love during one wild summer of drinking, partying, and (hopefully) getting lucky. But when you go from dyed-in-the-wool dork to cool and confident overnight, things are bound to go awry… Reid Scott (Veep), Bobby Moynihan (Saturday Night Live), and Kate Flannery (The Office) co-star.