I hate the phrase “hive mind”. It makes you want to look for virtual bug spray for social media. It’s also code for too lazy to do a little research so why not just say that?
I mean seriously every time I see the the hive mind schtick used on Facebook – and it’s usually Facebook – it’s such a totally visceral cringe reaction. It’s like they can’t say what they’re doing, which is crowd sourcing. And sometimes people crowd source because they really don’t know, but more times than not, it’s just because they want to pick everyone else’s brains.
It’s like with the advent of the social media age intellectual curiosity has gone right out of the window.
Now onto the next little life observation….
I also dislike people who ONLY communicate when you have a potential use. This is why newer people in my life often don’t become long term friends.
And why do I say that? Simple. When your use is over, or you disagree with them, they are completely done with you. I understand that human beings have egos, but when you keep letting your ego get in the way, you will end up being a very lonely person.
I also dislike people who end up being the types whom only have anyone as a friend as long as people agree with them 100% all of the time.
It’s funny not funny, but actually a little sad that when I agreed with I guess a now former friend on things, they were so tremendously OK being my friend. As soon as I didn’t agree with them, it seems they have no time for me. And the ultimate irony is that they sought me out for friendship in the first place.
I saw something yesterday that made me think of a now seemingly former friend, so I texted them. I heard nothing back at all which is odd because this is a rather chatty person.
Then I went to look to send them a message this morning on Facebook messenger and realized I couldn’t because they had unfriended and blocked me and their spouse had also unfriended me. But I guess people who are friendly just to actually use them are of more use? Seriously, it’s tremendously disappointing and a little hurtful.
My most recent conversation wasn’t even a month ago, and it was not a bad conversation. But I wasn’t agreeing with them on everything so I guess given their exhibited patterns of behavior with otherpeople I know I shouldn’t be surprised that this happened, yet I am. It was just a conversation, and I’m just not built to agree with everyone all of the time. I don’t think anyone is, realistically. Unless you are a Stepford Wife perhaps.
All these invitations for dinner and drinks with spouses that never materialized, which I never cared about. People’s lives are busy and I thought I had made or was making a new friend, and that was what was important.
I’m quite sure they will share the email around I sent to them essentially saying what I am writing right now, and I really don’t care. There is another person tied up in this who is like a dog who always carries a bone and they’re always really dumb about it like a drooling golden retriever puppy
So I guess I should say have a nice life to this person, and try not to burn too many more bridges. If this has all been some giant mistake, I am of course open to a conversation. But I think this is just their pattern of behavior. And that’s on them not on me, or anyone else.
But right now? I feel offended, hurt, and a little bit used.
Stupid me, but I actually thought that they were different than my initial gut check said and I feel foolish that I defended them to people who had well kind of warned me off of this person.
I have a clear conscience that I was a decent friend to them in the short time we were actually friends, but I’m half Italian and we remember these things. And it’s not about chewing on things not being able to let go, because I will – that’s why I’m writing this out now – it’s a case of remembering to trust your gut.
It’s also all about respect and loyalty. And being straight forward. I don’t let a lot of people in. I’m friendly and caring towards people because that’s in my nature but since I moved to Chester County as a middle-aged woman, I have learned this lesson a few times now that making friends as we age is not as simplistic as one would hope from when we were younger.
You always hope that when you’re meeting someone and you connect as friends that it will last. But sometimes it just doesn’t. And when people make you feel used, it really kind of sucks in the short term initially.
So I am putting this out into the universe and letting it go.
Humans are disappointing. I am sure I have disappointed my fair share of people over the course of 60 years, but at least try to learn from my mistakes.
And I’m going to hope that people learn to use a different phrase, other than “hive mind.”
I opened with that snippet from the Lower Merion School District meeting.
Why?
Because it has sent off a tsunami of social media speculation. I can’t resist and I have to memorialize some of it. It’s fascinating.
When I started seeing things appear on social media yesterday, I actually reached out to Natural Lands. They told me what was appearing on Facebook wasn’t true. I have no reason to doubt them. Because if Lower Merion School District is in the middle of a delicate transaction, no one might know anything yet.
They actually responded on social media:
I’m going with nothing to see here with Oakwell until there is actually something to see. Large real estate transactions, especially when you’re talking about hopefully a preservationist can be quite delicate, so in my opinion it’s time to put the egos aside and sit on the gotcha moments for now.
Like I said, sometimes the side show is more interesting than the circus. What is gained out of this game of gotcha?
Soooo the most recent West Vincent Township Supervisors’ meeting was a study in old school West Vincent crazy.
You can pretty much always count on West Vincent Township to bring the absolute freaking #crazy.
A resident at end of meeting was making public comment, NOT making a threat. See 2:01:30 of recording below (unless of course it magically disappears) – the West Vincent solicitor accuses a resident of making THREATS. That’s crazy. He was expressing his opinion that perhaps made someone UNCOMFORTABLE but it was not a threat and yeah Colonel Sanders the Solicitor WAS out of order IMHO.
And Colonel Sanders the Solicitor might not like my opinion either but perhaps he needs to freshen up his knowledge of the United States Constitution, in particular the First Amendment.
Now maybe the resident could have chosen words differently but to me what he was saying is as he listens to the petty back and forth in West Vincent Township, that there are bigger problems in the world and people are dying overseas. To be honest, that has little to do with what is happening in West Vincent Township, but that was his public comment. It wasn’t a threat, it was a bit of a word salad, but it was opinion. And that gentleman lived that overseas in the Middle East and is owed an apology by the township.
You can’t just threaten residents. You can steer them to stay on track for what is going on in the municipality, but you don’t threaten them and then say he was threatening the township. He wasn’t.
Once again it’s obvious that West Vincent needs another solicitor, isn’t it?
Then there is the whole thing about stormwater management. So what’s the deal with 1352 Shady Lane and pardon the pun there is something shady going on there? And their neighbors are their stormwater management plan?
And then the plastics bans and paper vs. plastic and the harvesting of tuna which was off topic to an extent, yet that was also not a threat….it was opinion. And then the guy who brought Richard Nixon to the meeting.
Oy just oy. What’s next tractor tipping in a certain field? Oh wait….never mind that already happened didn’t it?
Sign this post everything old is suddenly very new again in West Vincent. Or the more things change the more things stay the same.
Apparently Lower Merion School District has had a change of heart? I will believe it when the deal is inked but I am cautiously optimistic.
Truthfully, I had stopped following much of what was going on at Oakwell, because some of the volunteers involved with the Save Oakwell I found to be so distracting as individuals, that it made it hard to follow the actual issue. That being said I would occasionally get my updates from other friends I have that have been involved with this since the beginning.
Oakwell is next door to Stoneleigh. Originally was part of Stoneleigh land before we all came along. I remember going to some nonprofit thing there years ago I think with my mother, it was a garden thing. It’s been too many years to remember what.
I wonder what the prior owner thinks? I wonder because he is the one who set this all in motion in the first place isn’t he?
And then you have to wonder who is the new potential owner? When this all first started, Villanova University was buying it. Then came the whole thing with Lower Merion School District.
So who is the potential new owner the latest superintendent of the Lower Merion School District mentioned? Honestly, I don’t know. What I do know is nothing is finalized and if there is a new owner brewing, it has to be voted on by the school board. In public.
So I wouldn’t be quick to believe everything you read on Facebook just yet, and I am saying that as someone who has pretty goddamn good sources.
I think at best we are cautiously optimistic. I hope it’s saved so that tea pavilion survives because that’s actually rare to see one pretty much intact. Given the history of the property, of course what would be awesome is if it could be added to Stoneleigh but I don’t know that that is happening and we just have to wait and see at this point.
Just pray, it isn’t some predatory developer. One of the biggest problems in this area when it comes to saving gardens and preserving things is, there are no more Ernesta Drinker Ballards around.
I don’t talk about my pets much. As a matter fact, even though I’m a blogger, there are a lot of things I don’t talk about because so many are such a judgmental jerks a lot of the time, and my pets are very dear to me.
Today has been a soul crushing day.
At around 5:00 PM I said goodbye to a beloved dog. I know I haven’t cried all of the tears that will come in the middle of the night, and I just literally have a heartache.
She came into our lives 10 years ago this coming October. She had been a puppy mill pull from Ohio. She landed at ArF in the Hamptons.
One fall day, after my sister had picked her up in the Hamptons, we drove to New York City to pick her up.
She was a tiny little miniature dachshund, and so scared when we first got her. She had lived in a cage the first two years of her life. She was little and fluffy, and had a very funny personality. Her entire life she spent between 8 and 8 1/2 pounds, so she was tiny.
When she would see you enter a room she would bounce. Or she did that for me, she would literally bounce up and down. And she was so fluffy. She had little Clydesdale feet. If I watched TV in bed, she would sit on my shoulder like a little furry parakeet.
She was a happy little thing with really bad eyesight, who would do zoomies throughout the house until you were exhausted watching her and your sides ached from laughing. She also was a big begger. And the last few years of her life, I think she had 11 teeth, and she still could beg with the best of them.
This past December, she went for her regular vet check up and everything was fine, but Dr Hahn told me she needed a dental. But then in January all of a sudden there was this little bump on the side of her face. I thought it was an abscess.
But when we took her in to see Dr Hahn eight weeks ago, the look on his face told me everything. It was a tumor. It wasn’t an abscess because it was on the side of her mouth in the rear where she had had teeth removed a few years ago.
When you have a veterinarian who cares about his humans as much as their animals, it really helps. And the look on his face was so stricken because it was the kind of tumor you couldn’t do anything about and was already growing so fast. It has been a long day and I can’t remember if it was a squamous cell or a melanoma but it was one or the other.
So we had eight extra weeks with her. And I made her a promise the day of her diagnosis that I wouldn’t keep her alive for me.
I remember when we first got the diagnosis people kept asking me what can’t you just operate on her? I know we couldn’t. She was a 12-year-old dog with a giant tumor. If people want a tip going forward, don’t question someone’s decision if they’ve already worked out a plan with their veterinarian. It is already hard enough when you get this news.
For the past eight weeks I have loved every extra minute. I’ve had to soften her food so she could eat, but even today she ate a full meal just really really slowly because by the time she woke up this morning she couldn’t really open her mouth because of the tumor.
It’s always so hard trying to figure out when the right moment is to say goodbye to our pets. They give us unconditional love that we truly don’t have in this world.  I had decided this weekend along with my husband that I was calling the vet on Monday because I could see the stage she was getting to. She kept trying for me, but I knew I had to be the grown-up here.
So we set the appointment for this afternoon. This morning when I got up, she gave me the “look.” She was tired and she was ready. So we had one last day together.
Then, in a matter of minutes, she was just gone. But like my other dogs before her, she will live in my heart and memories forever.
Goodnight little Georgie, I love you.
Please support the animal rescue of your choice in honor of my little girl.
It’s an 18th century farmhouse. There is at least one barn to go with it, but in order to see the barns, you have to be on the property, and that would be trespassing.
This farmhouse is on the Clews & Strawbridge/Clews Boats property. Here is the current property ownership information on the three parcels that comprise this property:
So this property came up as a topic of conversation locally within the past couple of years because the developer wanted to put a giant apartment building right there. The developer at that time said they would restore the farmhouse, and even back then I questioned it because it was like the building envelope was compromised or pierced.
In the end East Whiteland said no they didn’t want apartments right there, so there was no zoning change and it’s still the boat dealership. I looked on Google and the boat place has rather mixed reviews, so I don’t really have a feel for the business there.
Truthfully, I don’t care about the business there, but I really wish they cared about the farmhouse on their property. It’s a historic asset.
It’s total demolition by neglect and it’s horrible. And it’s NOT East Whiteland Township’s fault. They can’t control this. But they could check on the house to make sure it’s secure, given all of the broken windowpanes, etc.
Today St. David’s Church in Wayne, PA did a pop-up version of their annual fair. Flea market, books, clothes, kids toys, and more.
It was just fun. It was a beautiful day. A lot of people were out. Apparently they were lined up to get in before it even opened at 9 AM. The church raised a lot of money for their outreach.
I didn’t get tons of stuff but I found a few treasures!
I just love older colored glass. That vase is of indeterminate age, but hand blown which I love. A pair of never used April Cornell pillow shams for $6 and antique hand towels for $2 each.
A handmade pottery wren house for the garden. And some books. Including a very special one, that my friend Eddie Ross wrote and gifted to me today out of some treasures he found….and he personalized and signed it.
I also found a little garden sign.
But in this crazy and often unpleasant world in which we live, today was just a nice day. Happy people having a fun time shopping and volunteering and kids also having fun.
In life, we all need more days like this. Actual community in action.
Is there a fire on the floor or in the hearth because it looks like Mrs. Puddle Duck the Executive Disaster of Historic Harriton House built that on the floor? One would have thought she would’ve learned how to lay the fire by now? But then at her inaugural meeting 2 years the fire department came, right?
I am finally off of their mailing list but I have been told by people I know that they continue to send out letters for money etc. How long has it been since the rental property at 500 Harriton Rd. has been rented? They had it listed originally for $5000 a month which really made me laugh out loud. It has been empty since September 2023. So that means rent was last collected in September? The rent last paid by a tenant was $3000 a month so how do they justify the hike?
They had a wonderful tenant whom they gave the bum’s rush to and will they say why? I know that this person was probably the best tenant they had had since my friend’s sister and her husband rented it years ago, with another friend of mine in between. This most recent tenant whom I know? I provided an enthusiastic reference for them when the former executive director was there….but that was when Harriton still felt like Harriton….sigh.
I have to wonder if they fixed all the things that needed fixing in this property? It’s a very old building so things need maintenance and repair.
Listed for rent now for $4500 a month? Please don’t misunderstand me, it’s a charming rental, but it’s not worth what the ask is currently and it’s quirky. And I wonder what the realtor is getting as a rental commission because his mom is on the board of Harriton House yes?
So the Zillow listing has like 96 photos which is odd for a rental listing, or real estate listing in general. One of the photos on the Zillow listing gave me pause, because it shows there’s a problem with the inside ceiling, and this is a very important historic asset in Lower Merion Township. Is that wood rot? Rot from a leak? Is the roof okay?
Zoom in to the left to see some of the most obvious damage
Of course, my other thing I wonder about the attic is did they fix the missing panes of glass up there because there had been a couple of panes missing for years.
Also they don’t mention that this place has no air conditioning or a garage. And it’s a shared basement in a sense with the original historic part of the house, and that basement floods.
But the biggest question is how can the rental have the address of 506 Harriton Road when it’s attached to the historic home which is 500 Harriton Road? 506 was the address attached to the office and education center, so how does that work exactly?
So there’s this developer who presented the same plan about developing affordable (“attainable”) housing to West Goshen like the day before they made a pitch to West Chester Borough.
And again in West Chester Borough, it’s a developer drooling after that Church Street lot where the West Chester Growers Market is. One of the longest standing and truly wonderful farmers markets in our region, and they’re threatening it again. What is it about the church street lot that makes every developer have to have it ?
Also interesting about this other than the fact that the in my opinion back door presentation was done the day before West Chester Borough in West Goshen. Very interesting that both municipalities share the same solicitor, right? That’s kind of a coincidence that really isn’t, isn’t it?
So yeah, this developer is shopping. This idea all over the place correct? Give them the land they’ll build you supposed affordable housing. I have a bridge I can sell you.
And I know the solicitor isn’t going to like my opinion because they haven’t liked my opinion for years, have they? But the one thing they can’t remove are our constitutional rights to have an opinion and ask questions, correct?
And they said West Chester Borough has to make a decision in four days? Four days for a life, altering decision for residents, and one of the oldest farmers markets in the area? Most reasonably intelligent elected officials would walk away from such a proposition, but who knows what will happen with the Borough of West Chester, because that place is perennially slightly shady about stuff, right?
This is not about truly building affordable housing. This is just another way for developers to get projects built.
Look no local government should be assisting a developer with financing, correct? In the end is this all just to support the developers and those developers support?
And regarding the numbers of “needed” units, no one has asked them to produce the data that lead them to that number, have they?
If West Chester Borough or West Goshen really needs/wants “accessible housing” then apply for the state funding to do it . Or get a 3rd party 501c3, like SELF Inc. purchase an appropriate spot and create housing – same BS is happening in Montgomery County and Bucks too.
Supposedly, there are West Chester Borough Council meetings this week. Their website isn’t very good but I know this will be discussed, and people are entitled to public comment. People should check the agendas carefully because this is also something that would have had to have been properly advertised ahead of time, and have you seen it properly advertised anywhere? 
I will close this post with another snippet from the West Chester meeting this week. Listen and decide for yourselves. If I lived in West Chester Borough, I would get all my friends and neighbors at every public meeting this week to protest this. if I was running the West Chester Growers Market, I would be consulting with attorneys to make sure rights were protected, can’t you agree?
I used to love Wayne and North Wayne in particular. North Wayne had all these crazy cool houses from little workingman’s twins on Willow Avenue to the big Victorians on the surrounding streets.
But bit by bit and peace by piece it’s all disappearing. It’s like the Radnor Historical Society might as well not even exist any longer.
I happen to be on N. Aberdeen Ave. today because I got turned around. Not because any roads were close I just hadn’t been back there in forever. So when I was coming around N. Aberdeen I realized something was missing: Jonathan Lengel’s house built in 1888. He was a builder in Wayne when Wayne was becoming what we know her for today, or knew her for it because the houses keep getting torn down. He was the architect on the Wayne Hotel as a matter of fact and there is a suite named for him.
So Jonathan Lengel built himself a house at 236 N. Aberdeen Avenue in Wayne in 1888 or thereabouts.
In 2008 that house was threatened by predatory development:
Radnor planners will consider Lengel house demolition
The Radnor Township Planning Commission Monday will hear a proposal to tear down the home of Jonathan D. Lengel, a builder who constructed a number of significant houses in Wayne around the turn of the 20th century.
The owners of 236 N. Aberdeen Ave. in the “Little Chicago” section of North Wayne are proposing to tear down the single-family house, reportedly built in 1888 by Lengel for his family, and build two twin houses.
The property is in a dense community that suffers stormwater issues from Gulph Creek, which runs through it.
But in real life, it’s a subject of inch-high anecdotes and soggy stories of the worst kind of neighborly offense: problems that flow from multiple sources.
In the North Wayne neighborhood long nicknamed Little Chicago, where a number of people are second-generation residents, a proposed two-lot subdivision is causing concern over density, neighborhood fabric and of course stormwater.
The property in question is on the 200 block of North Aberdeen Avenue, a partially one-way street, where half of the homes (most with front porches and no driveways) have properties that slope down to Gulph Creek.
Across the creek are the back yards of homes on Willow Avenue.
There, a little more than a century ago, was the Wayne Natatorium, a fresh-water pool created there by damming the creek. Today, that history is still evident in soggy yards, flooding basements and an eroding streambank.
The proposed subdivision would cause the teardown of the 1888 home of Jonathan D. Lengel, a builder who constructed many homes and well-known buildings in Wayne during its first naissance.
What the would-be developers want to replace it with are two twin homes, both with two-car garages, which would double the impervious area on the property. To those on Willow, this brings fear of increased flooding. To some on North Aberdeen, it means a large structure with no architectural similarity to the majority of the neighborhood homes and the loss of at least three needed parking spaces.
The twins are reportedly modeled after those in a Chester County development.
What makes doubling the impervious coverage possible in this dense, waterlogged area is the adjustment of floodplain lines originally established by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).
In this case, the proposed change to the line moves it about 40 feet towards the creek bed, nearly in the creek bed….The commissioners were presented with the proposals, and its opponents, Monday at the caucus section of their meeting, where no votes are taken.
As for the design of the proposed twins, longtime North Aberdeen resident Rose Hyatt told the Planning Commission earlier this month, “To build these homes in our neighborhood, it looks like a joke. This isn’t a neighborhood for big houses and garages like this.”
On paper, stormwater is all about calculations. But in real life, it’s a subject of inch-high anecdotes and soggy stories of the worst kind of neighborly offense: problems that flow from multiple sources.In the North Wayne neighborhood long nicknamed Little Chicago, where a number of people are second-generation residents, a proposed two-lot subdivision is causing concern over density, neighborhood fabric and of course stormwater.
The property in question is on the 200 block of North Aberdeen Avenue, a partially one-way street, where half of the homes (most with front porches and no driveways) have properties that slope down to Gulph Creek.
Across the creek are the back yards of homes on Willow Avenue.
There, a little more than a century ago, was the Wayne Natatorium, a fresh-water pool created there by damming the creek. Today, that history is still evident in soggy yards, flooding basements and an eroding streambank.
The proposed subdivision would cause the tear-down of the 1888 home of Jonathan D. Lengel, a builder who constructed many homes and well-known buildings in Wayne during its first naissance.
What the would-be developers want to replace it with are two twin homes, both with two-car garages, which would double the impervious area on the property. To those on Willow, this brings fear of increased flooding. To some on North Aberdeen, it means a large structure with no architectural similarity to the majority of the neighborhood homes and the loss of at least three needed parking spaces.
The twins are reportedly modeled after those in a Chester County development.
When it comes to development I guess everything old is new again because 236 N. Aberdeen Ave., which was a historic house no longer exists. I have to ask what does the Radnor Historical Society do these days? I also have to ask what changed with stormwater management back there in Little Chicago because it hasn’t gotten better. It’s only gotten worse.
Here are some screenshots pertaining to 236 N. Aberdeen:
I really didn’t think it was possible that what was denied circa 2008/2009 would come back in 2024 and succeed. I mean common sense would dictate that the street hasn’t gotten any wider. The storm water hasn’t gotten any easier and yet here we are another historic house, gone out of Radnor Township, and some big behemoths will take its place which will have greater impact because of impervious surface coverage, parking, etc.
Someone told me when this house came up in meetings, they kept saying how horrible the house was etc. etc. It wasn’t horrible and it meant something and had context in the area where it was.
But then again, look at what happened to the Wayne Bed and Breakfast Inn? I drove past there today and it was horrible. Lots of big, expensive new construction going up with all the character of a Lego set.
And then there are the McMansions going up tremendously fast on Radnor Street Road. Naked acres. North Wayne used to be known for trees on Radnor Street Road and it’s like they just stripped the street and properties of trees and now you have McMansions growing there with lovely and more historic homes with trees and gardens across the street.
It’s really totally depressing going through the Main Line these days. Lower Merion and Radnor continue to lose their allure. Yes, it’s a very expensive suburb and as my one grandmother always said, money doesn’t know who owns it. But it’s so damn disappointing that people get together in the communities to save their communities and then they’re safe for a while and then a few years past and basically the same development plans come back or other development plans show up and it doesn’t matter.
If you want another plug from me for why the state representatives and the state senators in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania need to enact an act of the state constitution and update the Municipalities Planning Code, here you go.
I will leave you with an editorial that I wrote for Main Line Media News May 6, 2008. I think it still resonates. 
Ahhh Spring! The landscape is lush with greenness and the air heavy with the scents of lilac and old fashioned viburnum. But what else does spring bring us as citizens up and down the Main Line? A full course of new and disturbing smaller development plans to peruse.By the time this column hits the ink of a newspaper, two new and bothersome plans will have made their debut in front of two separate townships: the proposed destruction of 236 N. Aberdeen Ave in North Wayne, and the super sizing of footprint of 106 Cricket Avenue in Ardmore.
The plans for 106 Cricket are being brought to the residents of Ardmore by the fine folks who brought them the plans for 130 Cricket. Suffice it to say, when the township agreed with the residents that 130 Cricket Avenue was a plan that left a lot to be desired, it went to court on appeal.
With regard to 106 Cricket, I will admit I am at a loss: what does a developer or property owner do with a site that contains a mortuary or funeral home when that use is to cease? Personally, I would find it creepy to live atop a former death depot, but it isn’t up to me to judge. I will say that once again, as was the case of 130 Cricket, this plan is just too much plan for my comfort level. What happened to the thought of new development complimenting the surrounding area? Why is it most plans today simply overwhelm an area? No wait, don’t answer that. Profit margins.
In North Wayne, residents recently defeated the proposed inclusion of a public storage facility in their extended neighborhood (or at least for the time being). Now they have received news that a house of serious local historic value faces demolition so someone can build new homes on the site of 236 N. Aberdeen Ave. New development on one of the most congested streets in North Wayne? And what of that little thing called impervious surface coverage and stormwater management?
Why on earth in an utterly flood prone area would anyone with a brain wish to double impervious surface coverage on a fairly steep sloped lot that leads to the Gulph Creek? A plan that could have an immediate and negative effect on residents on the low side of the creek? No wait, don’t answer that. Profit margins.
Who cares about another small neighborhood, anyway? Who cares about the home that builder Joseph Lengel built for his own family in 1888 in North Wayne? Who cares that Joseph Lengel was one of the builders who executed the dreams of the famous architects who brought the fabulous structures to Wayne we all “ohh” and “ahh” over?
And while we are discussing plans, let’s revisit a few gems we have all read about or born witness to: Rugby Road in Bryn Mawr, Allaire on North Buck Lane in Haverford and the Exxon Station in Ardmore on Wood-side and Montgomery. What is occurring with these plans? Are these plans moving forward?
Rugby Road is apparently still alive, and as for Allaire? Who knows. Perhaps people don’t really don’t wish to pay big bucks to overlook an auto body establishment and live across Lancaster Avenue from a mattress store?
Finally, the plan to add a car wash and a mini mart convenience store to the Ardmore Exxon station? Seriously, what is wrong with these people? It’s not only a mostly residential area, but there is a Wawa right behind them, and a car wash already on Lancaster Avenue in Ardmore. Is it our fault that peddling gas isn’t as profitable as it used to be? Well, cry me a river, but I am not all that sympathetic considering what we are paying for gasoline these days.
What happens to small neighborhoods when these plans stall, end up in court, or get approved and simply don’t move forward as planned? Go visit some of these neighborhoods and judge for yourselves. It adds an air of sadness mingled with frustration. In a couple of cases, can it also be said it adds a whisper of true blight?
It is inconceivable that these odd small plans are still moving forward considering the current state of the economy, the real estate market, and the mortgage crisis, but they are. As affected residents, at times it feels like you have barely gotten through one issue, and yet another one arises. Maybe, just maybe, people had best take a look at proposed legislation in Pennsylvania (if it is still alive) that would allow local governments to exercise temporary development moratorias as needed: PA House Bill 904.
House Bill 904 is common sense, bi-partisan proposed legislation you have probably never heard of. Critics will argue that this raises property rights issues, but to them I ask the following questions: What isn’t a property rights issue in Pennsylvania? Don’t residents in an area potentially to be affected by development still have private property rights as well?
Well, enough out of me. I am going for a walk. I want to take every opportunity to enjoy nature before it’s all overdeveloped.
A postscript is a comment left on this very post:
Gosh, I hit a nerve. So is he related to the developer? Someone having something to do with Radnor Township? And why should I get over it because he’s uncomfortable because I’m talking about it? Why is it “best gone”? I’m not alleging anything. The deed is done. The house is gone and I’m expressing my opinion on this and other ugly development and unless they are going to repeal the First Amendment , he can actually just bugger off.
