Category Archives: d’oh

it’s not “nimby” to be sick of all of the development in chester county

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Today I had posted something from another blog (Cara at Hello West Chester) about development in West Chester Borough .

4 New Developments Set to Hit West Chester

The comment I am about to share has sent my teeth on edge and if you don’t want to listen to my rant, get off of this post now:

Chester County Ramblings my current neighborhood is not a dense borough, is not walkable, and has no restaurants/shops/galleries/etc. Regardless, I’m fine with development and don’t object to new neighbors. Not everyone is a NIMBY.

I don’t agree with everything you post but you are definitely “in the know” and I appreciate the updates.

As soon as my kids finish HS, I’ll be moving to a new place and WC Borough is on the list. I hope it has more apartments, nice buildings, restaurants, etc. by that time. It keeps getting better as it gets redeveloped. Maybe it will even have restored train service in a few years but I’m not holding my breath.

I’m curious as to why you choose to live in the suburbs of a major city when you frequently lament growth, development, and change? Wouldn’t some place like Forest County be a better fit? Or do you simply want access to the amenities this region offers by virtue of having the density and wealth of being near a city but not the development and congestion that come along with that? You can’t have your cake and eat it, too.

Also this comment:

Y’all hate when someone builds something on an empty lot 😂

And this one:

That was a historic parking lot though! George Washington parked there!

And this one:

Chester County Ramblings I own a home in the borough, drive or walk past these sites multiple times a week, doesn’t bother me one bit. I lived in Chestnut Square when it was first built and it was awesome, brought a lot of young people into the town, everyone was proud to live there and the property was always well taken care of. It brings more people to our local businesses and restaurants, more money into the borough. The only people I see complaining are the ones too high and mighty to live near “renters”. No one will convince me that replacing an empty concrete lot or an abandoned Burger King with a brand new, nice, apartment building is a bad thing.

And this:

All the NIMBY’s know is unhappiness about any sort of growth and change. They are perfectly content with this region stagnating and declining while the rest of the world flourishes and advances. I can see being against a 5-floor apartment complex on a farm in West Nantmeal Township, but on an empty parking lot in a walkable town with amenities?

I’m really tired of having the same conversation over and over and over again.

While some are reveling in their ignorance of what they think are funny comments, they are missing the point and the point is there are too many apartments.

NONE of these developments are even attractive at this point . The development can be along I 95 in Philadelphia or in Chester County and it all looks the same. Cheap looking Lego boxes.

Too many apartments are creating a transient aspect to society out here. It causes issues with other types of real estate. It encourages predatory real estate investors, etc.

It’s just whatever the developer can suck out of the plot of land. If these folks all want to be part of the conversation, they’re welcome to be part of the conversation but if they’re just here to be ignorant, they can F off.

I’m just tired of it. We can’t have intelligent conversations about anything.

People can either constructive and polite even if you are on the other side of the issue, but they are not . Does anyone think these apartments are doing anything in the long run? They aren’t. They cause more kids to be in already bursting at the seams schools and they cause other stresses on infrastructure which is human and otherwise so it’s services like utilities, and then it’s emergency services like fire and police, etc and roads.

So if anyone out there would like dense buildings next to you, give the developers your address I’m sure they can oblige.

We can’t handle everything that’s being built literally. And our municipalities can not afford it. They get the short term high of ratables, but then we’re all on the hook.

There is no pace. There’s no real design. There’s a lack of human scale in most of these developments and issues with setbacks as well. Find open space? Not if they can help it. You know how you get open space in any of these new developments? If they can’t build on all of the land correct?

And then there are the developers that shove these plans down the throats of people in various municipalities and then they just let everything sit there and rot Today we have seen in Berwyn what happens with that. See my post on Berwyn Square.

what’s up with roof collapsing at “berwyn square”?

Yes, communities have to grow and evolve to survive. But the growth shouldn’t always hurt so much and how about plans that are less dense and not so many rentals? That would probably be welcome just like anything other than a cram plan of apartments or townhouses.

What about affordable housing? I mean, basic average houses that people can downsize to who are getting older but raised their families and possibly even grew up themselves in a particular community or area. I’m also talking about what used to be called “starter houses” for people who grew up somewhere and came back to raise their own families and start their adult lives in a particular community. And by affordable housing, I’m also referring to low income housing. The state of the current supply of low income housing in Chester County is deplorable.

These developers aren’t building for a sense of community. They’re building for a sense of their own bank accounts. This is why you saw two municipalities this past election put an open space referendum on the ballot – East Whiteland and Uwchlan. Both referendums passed.

We don’t live in Chester county because it’s just some random suburb, we live here because we love the history of our county and we don’t want to become what Montgomery County and Delaware County have become and we’re pretty much there. It’s becoming too much development, overcrowded schools and an urban feel which is not what most of us signed up for. Bucks County too. Basically pick a county.

The Municipalities Planning Code of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is something I have written about so many times before I’ve lost count. This is the state level zoning bible, the guides all municipal zoning throughout the state. This weighty tome came into being when the definition of suburb and exurb was very different than today. this thing has not been comprehensively updated since around 1969. We’re at 2024. That’s 55 years.

Supposedly there was a big update in 2022, but I don’t remember anyone in Harrisburg enacting an act of the state constitution to do it?

What changed in 2022? Things most people didn’t even realize happened:

Act 41 of 2022

Amended Title 53 of the Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes to establish the Municipal Boundary Change Act. This act also defined changes to real property that don’t require the assessment office to adjust an assessment

Act 97 of 2021

Amended Section 509 of the MPC to clarify the amount of financial security that municipalities should retain to cover the cost of remaining improvements on a subdivision or land development. This amendment took effect in February 2022

What we’re looking for in our communities among other things is more open space preservation, historic preservation that actually has teeth, and meaning, means to slow down the pace of development and have better control in our communities over the types of development we’re seeing. we want to be able to say we need to pause dense development and we want tools that our municipalities can legally have to help us preserve the feeling of where we call home.

It feels like every square inch of where we live is getting developed doesn’t it and as soon as you say, I really wish there wasn’t so much development you’re called NIMBY.

That’s bullshit. And the reality is the pace of development currently is not sustainable long-term and the stuff being built it doesn’t have staying power. The finishes and building style is just put it up as fast as you can. It doesn’t last. What is being built is not inexpensive and it looks cheap.

Parcels of land are built out to every inch possible. If any thing is retained as “open space” half of the time it’s not billable so you think a developers being magnanimous, but they really aren’t.

And then with all this development, especially in places like West Chester Borough you have people that’ll say “but we need workability and then maybe we’ll get the train back .”

Do you have two dollars? I can give you a piece of my bridge. I don’t really own a bridge. It’s a turn of phrase. All I’m saying is people are so gullible that they want to believe just about anything, but it doesn’t mean anything is based in reality.

And people always want to just say I’m NIMBY and I hate all development. There have been developments in the past I’ve actually liked. but those plans are few and far between or in some cases never actually happened because they were too good to be true.

Plans for development need to fit the communities in which they are going to be located. which of course is why I am worried about what is planned for the Weston tract in West Whiteland of W. King Rd. It’s why I am also concerned about whatever warehouses are being planned for the corner of Phoenixville Pike and W. King Rd. in West Whiteland.

Another thing I’m concerned about is whatever will happen with that random 15 acres that are partially in East Goshen and West Whiteland that were part of Schiffer Farm that the West Chester University Foundation is selling to a developer which backs up to a sweet older neighborhood on Old Phoenixville Pike.

And things like Lionville Station Farm are still in play aren’t they? And what is it about Downingtown Area School District that you don’t really know what’s going on with what the latest buyer is actually going to do?

And then you go past what used to be Happy Days Farm. The scale and just size of those warehouses is insane and no more farm.

If you want to see what negative impacts are occurring with all of this development try to drive through Ardmore or Wayne. Look at all the apartments in Tredyffrin, including along 202.

All of the development is overly dense and it’s about maximizing developer profit. It has nothing to do with community. It has nothing to do with any of us who were here first.

Again, all of this development is not sustainable. All of the rentals don’t foster a sense of community but they do create a more transient society. But go ahead, call me NIMBY if it makes you feel better. It’s not the truth.

what’s up with roof collapsing at “berwyn square”?

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I mean, yikes! So much for Berwyn Square being the fabulous addition to Easttown Township, right? I mean, how long is Easttown Township going to allow this to go on? This affects property values of neighboring properties, residential and commercial. It looks like a slum.

I was tipped off today when I saw a post:

So the entire roof hasn’t completely collapsed as of earlier with photos sent to me, but you look at the photos being shared here that residents sent to me today and you tell me if you think that looks safe? And how about there’s no construction fencing around this entire project and does police tape, and those sawhorse / barricade things keep people out?

Residents have expressed concern for quite a while now haven’t they? Haven’t among the complaints been not only does the site look like a slum, people have questioned it being secure as in. They’re worried about people getting into it?

I posted about this in June 2024 :

“berwyn square” and isn’t it boooteeeful?

I think I first wrote about this in 2019 and that would’ve been under the prior developer. The meetings caused such a huge resident turnout that they had to cancel one of them and reschedule.

easttown residents turn out in droves, zoning meeting at hilltop house postponed

Residents have been against this super sizing since this first began and I think that was what 2018 or so? I’ve lost count because this has been going on and been a consternation for so many years at this point.

https://vista.today/2022/01/berwyn-square-interest-sold/

Much ado about development: the latest in Berwyn, Devon; Fallout from Radnor’s fallen trees; Cutting-edge beauty/wellness in Paoli; Uh-oh in Ardmore; Happy B-day Campli Photo & BMFI; Cool new companies & more
Local builders propose new Berwyn Square development around Handel’s

https://savvymainline.com/tag/berwyn-square/

This is the website for DP Partners who own this obviously dilapidated development site:

About

I have to ask how can they say? They actually care about the community around this site and how can Easttown allow this to continue? This is ridiculous. There isn’t even cyclone fencing up around this site. Haven’t residents been worried before about middle schoolers and other kids getting in there?

OK, everyone gets it. The site will be developed, but what was there before obviously needs to be taken down ASAP no BS. They need to clear that lot and make it look neat and safe. Now I realize in order for Easttown Township to do the cleanup themselves they might have to take the property via eminent domain, but wouldn’t that be for public purpose at this point because it doesn’t look quite safe? And I don’t like eminent domain, but they’re not taking care of the property and they’re not moving forward on the project right now, are they? Now I also wonder if Easttown could force the unsafe structures to come down as a matter of public safety without taking the property because I remember East Whiteland did that on two dilapidated properties two different times in recent memory.

The neighbors deserve better. The residents of Easttown in general deserve better.

It seems like no matter what municipality you live in you are living with development sites that haven’t quite popped yet and they just sit there rotting don’t they? 

Giddy up Easttown and DP Partners, giddy up. This is BS. This developer likes to tell people at meetings how he’s one with the community, well dude do you want this across the street from your house?

Rant over.

fa la la la …. flat? yuletide 2024, similar issues, different location?

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So they went from Devon Horse Show in 2023 where they fell flat, to a geographically somewhat undesirable and odd location? A golf club owned by the Union League in Lafayette Hill? What happened to that lease that was supposed to be more than one year with Devon Horse Show anyway? It’s one of the great mysteries of life isn’t it?

Anyway, so it’s happening again and the prices aren’t much different. And then there’s this great disclaimer. Basically can it be said they’re there to take your money, but they’re not responsible for anything?

And I’ve been hearing from people that tried it again that said it’s just the same song different radio station so to speak. Now I know where they’re having it because it was an insurance company owned golf club for a long time. It’s pretty but for an event like this? In my opinion, it’s just not another good location. Except I have to be honest, if they had handled it properly, Devon was actually a great location.

Here are two of the recent reviews I found:

So there you have it don’t you? And this is what I’ve also heard from people that went, but didn’t leave any reviews. They didn’t even bother to post about it on social media.

And the other thing is it’s Christmas and people don’t mind paying a tasty per head charge to walk in the door, if part of it goes to a nonprofit so where’s their nonprofit component this year? Or again it doesn’t exist does it?

I think this is sad honestly because I think it had the potential of being something really cool. But this is a special and magical time of year and if you can’t really bring the magic because you don’t have the true generosity of holiday spirit, then this will keep happening won’t it?

My favorite bad review was the one that said it was a crime against Christmas. Buy that man a peppermint cocoa!

I will note I found one very glowing lonnngg new positive yet poorly written review and I have to ask: did that person pay for the admission or were they comped because last year weren’t they at the comped preview? Because they are in influencer category ?

Santa’s watching… do people think they’ll be back for a third year?

I posted all the reviews I saw on Google. They match again what I’ve been told by people I know who went. I’m going to say go up to Bethlehem or some of the other great markets for Christmas. One of my favorites is coming up and it is the Clover Market holiday market at Westtown School.

Also I have to ask how do you categorize the reviews family that’s doing this ? They are liking their own festival? I get that but are those real reviews or like familial sock puppets ?

Fa La La La La.

bah humbug in the 19333.

not being a grinch, so stop criticizing my commentary

so “yuletide” is moving…

it’s not the taylor swift effect, it’s just molly mark up greed.

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So the Taylor Swift Eras book is out. It’s being sold exclusively at Target and do we remember when Lily Pulitzer first hit the racks at Target?

OK, if you’re forgotten, I’ll refresh your memory: hordes of people buying as much as they can and reselling it on eBay and elsewhere for the Molly Mark Up ridiculous prices.

It’s the Target Effect . And this is the latest piggy thing that people are going to do with Target purchases this year. 

The book is $39.99 at Target.

Behold a listing I saw on Facebook today:

As May West once said “Welcome Suckers!”

And somebody bought it.

I’m just shaking my head because you can actually get it at Target online right? Do you even get free shipping if it’s over like $35 for a purchase.

Here are some Facebook marketplace listings:

Facebook will ding you for having a post that shares a traditional media publications article about naked bicycle riders that was posted in 2018, but they allow people to price gouge things available at Target for a fraction of the price.

Then there’s eBay:

Taylor is this what you intended? You don’t even get any profit on the Molly Mark Up for holiday 2024. Neither does Target.

And meanwhile, all of these vultures are literally flocking into all the stores and buying all the books up for at a time because that’s all you’re allowed to buy and some little girl somewhere who wants this for Christmas. Might not get it because her mother might not be able to afford the Molly Mark Up.

People this is big BS bag of wrong.

the holiday grocery shopping curse struggle is real.

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If I had been rescuing ducklings from an oil spill I would have been good this afternoon . But I was just getting some last minute holiday essentials delivered by Instacart.

Sigh. I went into pre-holiday meltdown over this one.

I treated myself to Instacart. I mean who likes going to grocery stores the week of Thanksgiving or any major holiday, am I right?

For me holiday grocery shopping PTSD started with a particular event in the early 2000s.

This comedically terrible event took place in the Bryn Mawr ACME before the store was rebuilt.

I had run in for a couple of things and I was right up against the shelving, reaching up on tips of my toes to get something off of the top shelf. All of a sudden it was “wham” and then “ouch”, as somebody had rammed a cart into the back of one of my heels and actually scraped it.

The cart was “driven” by angry male shopper who probably had a giant honey do list and instead of saying “Oh my gosh, are you OK?” He yelled at me that I should watch where I was going. He also told me that it was my fault.

Ummm yeah no.

Mouth flew open and I said “No, the correct response is ‘I am so sorry, I hope I didn’t hurt you,’ not ‘It’s your fault that I just maimed you.’”

Benny Brooks Brothers then told me I was a crazy bitch and basically cart wheelied down the aisle to I guess one presumes another ankle assault in a different aisle.

And since cell phones came into existence, the other thing I don’t like about holiday grocery shopping is listening to everyone’s cell phone conversations on speakerphone in the aisles. Women are more guilty of that than men and those women really should watch the conversations they’re having in public and that’s all I’m going to say other than no one needs to hear whom Charlie is cheating with, and favorite sexual positions of strangers.

Mmmkay no thanks.

So as I have been regaling all of you with tales of why I don’t like going to the grocery store right before a holiday, have you noticed the photos I’m posting? This is very important. This means that as any kind of a shopper even delivery you cannot escape the holiday curse sometimes.

I treated myself to Instacart, especially because I wanted things from Aldi and Aldi is crazy on a normal day. I had a “platinum shopper” so I thought I would be in good hands and yet when she tried to replace white wine vinegar with white vinegar, I should’ve known…. especially because I had as my instructions for a refund if it was not available.

She also wasn’t the most communicative shopper and that could’ve just been the Internet access in the store. She dropped the order off, and I went to retrieve it.

This is when I had my pre-holiday Calgon take me away moment. She had put the Dawn dish soap in the over stuffed shopping bag upside down. this meant my order was basted in Dawn dish soap.

Because there were things in paper containers, and paper sacks like flour for baking, they had to be thrown out because they were soaked in Dawn dish soap.

That soap permeated so much!

Also because the bag was poorly packed a lot of my eggs were broken and also were coated in liquid dish soap. And the yogurt container was somewhat smashed, with the added flavor of ….you guessed it….dish soap.

Now I admit Instacart customer service was wonderful and very apologetic because I sent them photos. I didn’t want them to think I was just trying to get free stuff . I don’t think even they had seen anything quite like that before.

Note that bags if you have to buy them aren’t that much and I would rather pay for a second bag then end up with dish soap all over my grocery order two days before a major holiday.

I also think I have to find another dish soap smell now.

Thanks for stopping by.

Thanksgiving shopping trauma victim signing off 🤣

west vincent needs a quorum and they need a real manager. like yesterday!

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Ok look I have to ask: how can this one remaining supervisor in West Vincent Township sit here this past week at a gathering with bumble the solicitor and everything that is old is new again manager who was exited a bunch of years ago not because he was fab and came back as an interim with straight faces? They literally just held a meeting without a quorum which is really just a gathering right? How can you hold a meeting about the business of a municipality without a quorum? The answer is you’re not supposed to. It’s a second class township. This is the big flaw in the structure of second class townships because although you can have five supervisors too many places only have three like here.

You have one supervisor that I suspect people are not going to see again (Sara Shick) and you have another one also with obvious health issues (Bernie Couris formerly a Republican Borough Council person in West Conshohocken) given the gray pallor at the meeting they were last attending wearing a giant hospital mask and then leaving after 20 minutes. You may not see him again either, right?

Now many things people do not know about Bernie Couris is he was in the papers years ago for a heart transplant. I have never found him to be my type of politician either in West Vincent or West Conshohocken, but he had a heart transplant I want to say 1990-ish, and went on to run marathons etc, and that I do find truly amazing and inspiring. That being said, if he is not well, that could be super serious, right? (And if you don’t believe me check South Jersey papers archives, Inquirer, Daily News, etc.)

And Sara Shick is a breast cancer survivor – used to be a peer counselor at Living Beyond Breast Cancer which is actually one of the few breast cancer charities I believe in. BUT given the way she looked at meetings the past few months (wheelchair, suddenly a hair covering, looking frail, and a very wobbly voice) something is up and hasn’t been to a meeting or part of one since September?

Look, I am not being mean, these people are UNWELL and this township doesn’t have a quorum. So both of them need to put what is rumored to be some sort of competition or not getting along aside for the good of their township, don’t they? It is OK to say you are sick or whatever and step aside and release that stress from your lives if you have a medical condition that requires attention and less stress, correct?

back to west vincent. the supervisors aren’t doing so well, are they?


So who is running the township?


And I realize government in West Vincent can’t escape being Pennsyltucky once in a while, but you can have a meeting and just say you’re getting together so everybody can see literally who’s left! They’re not actually doing anything because legally they can’t do anything without a quorum can they? And that is exactly what the remaining supervisor Dana Allen did. Had a meeting without a quorum and did not know the basics of you can’t post minutes that have not been approved by quorum?


And then you have to wonder if any of the former supervisor(s) that people fought so hard to rid the township of are just waiting in the wings, looking to be placed as the pinch hitter(s)? Now one pinch hitter I would approve of is Mike Schneider, for example. Or even George Dulchinos, right?

I have to ask should the state be stepping in here because I think this is crazy town and if I was living or working in this municipality and they don’t even have like the audit from the prior year finished yet let alone how can they really be talking about 2024 because they can’t really do anything with that either, can they?


Because again…broken record time… there’s not a quorum now, so wouldn’t you be anxious as a resident ? Or even as a township employee? Truthfully residents shouldn’t be just anxious, they should be up in arms. And before anybody jumps down my throat and says I am unsympathetic to people dealing with health issues, that’s not the case at all. This is a broken down system in this municipality once again, and that is not fair to anyone is it???


Again, supervisors who are not at the table and haven’t been at the table now in one case for several meetings, and in another case for a couple of meetings need to do the right thing. It is OK to say their health comes first and they are sorry they cannot serve any longer… but you can’t just pretend nothing is happening here, can you? And should you?

And let’s talk the everything old is new again interim manager? A right to know uncovered he is billing $75 /hour. How is the recruitment going and how can they appoint a manager without a quorum of supervisors anyway?

West Vincent 1124 2Download


So then there is why are they using Keystone Municipal Services for manager searching when The Meyner Center at Lafayette has the better track record? Here, check this link because the Meyner Center has the track record IMHO:

Executive Recruitment

Here is the job posting for a new West Vincent manager, but again, without a healthy Board of Supervisors HOW do they interview and hire one??? Picking a new manager is not just playing that child’s card game of match, is it?

A resident asked at the meeting asked the question of what if there was no quorum in December and the solicitor basically told her not to worry her pretty little head about it? I mean for real?

And of course because there really is no local journalism anymore you have nothing about this in the Daily Local and I doubt the Inquirer even knows there’s a problem.

West Vincent is careening in my opinion. I am glad I don’t live there but oh hell if this is not a reason for second class townships to go to a five member board everywhere in PA, I don’t know what is.

West Vincent is Crazy Town and not in a good or productive way.

life and local-ish politics
lawd have mercy, it’s groundhog day in west vincent!

let’s talk traffic in berwyn and paoli

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One of the great curiosities of Main Line traffic as you get into Chester county is the 25 MPH zone that exists in places like Berwyn and Paoli.

This means Easttown and Tredyffrin Townships, right?

Way too many people completely disregard the speed limits. And again there’s this whole big swath of 25 MPH zone.

I always marvel at the fact that I don’t think I have ever seen a cop from either municipality in this stretch along Route 30 a.k.a. Lancaster Avenue. No I’m sure they’ve been there, but you never see them at peak hours like rush-hour.

If Tredyffrin and Easttown actually took the time to enforce the speed limit there during evening rush hours or even during the day on weekends they would make bank. As it stands right now, it’s really kind of dangerous when you’re actually going the speed limit there on those stretches of road.

Think of this as traffic food for thought.

facebook fail: don’t say that word!

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OK so I got this notice recently saying that Facebook had removed a post from 2018. Yes, 2018. And then you can pull up like a screenshot of what they removed. What they removed was an article I had posted from 2018 about the naked bike ride in Philadelphia that I thought was funny. Think about it. I don’t know about the rest of you, but would you want to go around on your bicycle naked? I think it would hurt certain private parts.

But obviously some people enjoy a naked bike ride much the way they enjoy nude beaches. Which is something I did go to once briefly years ago (as in my early 20s) , and I didn’t understand that either. All I kept thinking is what if you get certain body parts sunburned, wow would that hurt.

And I’m not actually passing judgment on those who enjoy those things, I simply don’t understand them. But the article just tickled my funny bone and I shared it.

ENTERTAINMENT
Thousands of naked cyclists take over Philadelphia for the 10th year: Philly Naked Bike Ride 2018

By Julia Hatmaker | jhatmaker@pennlive.com

Published: Sep. 09, 2018, 12:13 a.m.

With loud cheers, thousands of nude and semi-naked cyclists took to the streets of Philadelphia on Sept. 8, 2018.

The occasion was the Philly Naked Bike Ride, a ten-year-old annual tradition in the City of Brotherly Love. The event has cyclists travel nearly ten miles from Fairmount Park into Center City. This year (like many in the past), the route included the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Rittenhouse Square, City Hall, Broad Street, South Street, Independence Hall and Logan Square.

And here’s a more local article from 2023 :

NSFW: Pics from the 2023 Philly Naked Bike Ride

It’s a thing. It’s not my thing, it might not be your thing, but if they’re allowing it to go on on the streets of a major metropolitan city without incident, why is Facebook removing articles about it? Let alone removing an article in 2024 that was posted in 2018? I didn’t even remember I had posted it. It was that long ago.

Facebook has these random algorithms and I guess they look for keywords much the way the email review platforms do for compliance officers reviewing emails in financial institutions and other kinds of businesses. Of course that’s why your average compliance officer will tell you that is why they have to go through almost every email because the programming doesn’t necessarily get it right.

I remember many years ago when I was a bridesmaid in a wedding party. One day an email went out from the bride to be’s mother about where we were supposed to get pantyhose or spanx or something. Literally, it was one of those mama bridezilla occasions where you know you had to wear certain types of bras along with spanx underneath the baby butt pink Vera Wang bridesmaid’s gown. Quite literally it wasn’t the bride who was the problem, it was the momzilla. ( Sorry I don’t know what the correct phrases to describe when it’s the mother of the bride who is the issue not the actual bride.)

Anyway, this woman would send out emails to every email. She knew you had even if you weren’t supposed to get personal email if avoidable to corporate emails. So literally you would get an email and it was like the edict on high. And it was just as bad this time as the email which had proceeded it, which was telling us about trying a liquid diet for five days before her daughter’s wedding. So whatever the word was in this particular email, it got flagged by the compliance officer’s software in the brokerage branch I worked in, and I remember getting pulled into the office, and I wasn’t actually in trouble. The compliance officer was a very mellow practical dude, and he said “I just want you to see how ridiculous the word programming is for email review” and that was when I first learned about like the fact that these programs had like keywords that they would search out, and those words weren’t set by each individual compliance officer in a bigger corporation, they were set by corporate.

I think this is where Facebook kind of is or Meta or whatever the hell they call themselves these days and for what they do allow on Facebook versus even sharing a legitimate media outlet went against community standards. They allow multitude of conspiracy theories and all sorts of fake news like we saw during Covid and the last couple of presidential election cycles. Yet they removed this?

And again, it’s from 2018, which kind of gives you creepy insight as to how they are all crawling all over our personal pages and any other pages or groups we might belong to. It’s like they want to find something wrong to justify their existence yet when you report a Facebook profile for being taken over by spammer and it’s someone you know they don’t take down the profile and they don’t return the profile to the original owner.

Zuckerberg is a jackass. His baby will literally allow porn accounts with his algorithms, but they remove things like this. I actually went and Googled to get some proof of that because after all now you have to wonder if they scour your search history too? Look away if you don’t want to see. Actually, I didn’t really post anything truly offensive below, just enough to prove the point that these accounts exist on Facebook and they allow them but they take an article talking about a naked bike ride off of Facebook for going against “community standards.”

It’s like they allow spammers and hackers to pollute their social media site along with fake products from overseas for sale that if you order them they either never arrive or look nothing like what you saw on Facebook originally, but if you are just a regular person, sharing an article you saw on the news that you thought was funny that was real news and actually kind of benign they will ding you for it.

And to think people think they’re going to build their “business brand” via social media platforms like Facebook?

Facebook where light hooking is ok, but not articles from real news outlets. Thanks for stopping by.

how tall is your truck?

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From IrishEyez ChesCo

The above photo came out yesterday afternoon with the following message from IrishEyez ChesCo:

5:31pm – Roadway is now open

West Whiteland – 1:21pm – 11/19/2024

S Whitford Rd & Spackman Ln – Accident

PD on scene with a vehicle vs bridge with the iron safety beam collapsed and down on a truck. This is at the Amtrak Bridge. Roadway will be closed for an extended period of time.

S Whitford Rd is closed between Clover Mill Rd & Spackman Ln

westwhiteland #irisheyezincidents #accident

Submitted Photos

This is right next to the Whitford Train Station. Whitford is pretty busy. I think somebody told me a few hundred people use this train station every day or almost every day. And the thing about it is commuters have to use this railroad tunnel to get from one side of the station to the other, depending on where they get on and get off.

Old Google Photo

I even found a video from August that some train spotter who post videos of trains on YouTube posted:

Trains are a mode of transportation and anywhere there are train stations and train tracks, there are underpasses.

And people always say things like “why can’t they change the bridges and tunnels” no matter where it occurs whether it’s Exton like yesterday or the center of Wayne in Radnor Township like a few days ago. The railroads can’t just magically lift and rebuild tunnels everywhere and they won’t because that isn’t going to solve the problem of people in trucks that don’t know the dimensions of what they are driving.

Other things to be considered or when the roads are done when the roads are done, the distance in the tunnel might get a little shorter, but again, most of these people don’t seem to pay attention to the dimensions of the trucks. They’re driving so they don’t even take that into consideration.

But the tunnel like this one on Whitford? It also affects commuters, who have to use the tunnel as pedestrians to cross from one side to the other of the station.

No matter what happens or doesn’t happen with the railroad underpasses, no matter how many warnings or low beams or warning, beams or signs are put up, it’s still up to the truck drivers knowing the dimensions of what they are driving and where it is safe to travel with what they are driving.

I remember when the Waze app came out how it wreaked havoc with railroad underpasses everywhere because the app just saw a better route with less traffic congestion, it didn’t see the underpasses. I don’t know if any of these direction apps have evolved enough to recognize there are railroad underpasses or not. So again, drivers can’t depend just on the app, directing them where to go. They have to know the areas in which they are driving, and that includes the heights and depths of railroad underpasses versus the dimensions of their freaking vehicles.

The driver yesterday could’ve killed himself with that beam coming down or a pedestrian or another car.

So I’m going to get off my soapbox now, but this is as infuriating as the people who drive through our covered bridges with trucks that are too big and destroy them.

Rant over.

From IrishEyez ChesCo

pet peeve: lazy fire lane parking

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Gosh we wouldn’t want fully ambulatory lazy as F shoppers to be inconvenienced while picking up booze and QVC, right?

This is a total pet peeve. Especially when it’s not a far walk to regular parking spaces. In Frazer at Lincoln Court shopping center, it’s a particular pet peeve because you have older shoppers from the grocery store who park in the legitimate spots, including handicap spots who nearly get hit because these people parking in the fire lanes and on the sidewalk block site lines. and yes, East Whiteland Police ticket all of the time.

Now another place where they do it, and this one young woman was caught this morning. Doing it with an empty parking lot around her. I am talking about the Wawa in Malvern Borough.

The woman who got out of the car was like 20s or 30s and the parking lot was empty. And she didn’t have a limp or a cast or was escorting an older person out or getting a giant order she couldn’t possibly carry.

Just lazy meets entitled.

This is as bad as the people who are not handicapped who park in handicap spaces.

My favorite handicap parking. Space story was many years ago. Circa 2010 in the Acme parking lot in Bryn Mawr.

I had just pulled in to do some grocery shopping and a teenager with an elite private school sticker on the back of what was probably his father‘s car pulled into the handicap parking. Space that was right there in the front by the door. I looked at the kid and I said where’s your handicap placard. And he looked at me and sneered and said “well, why would I listen to you? You look like you’re driving your net worth in that old Jeep.”

I love a good misplaced sense of entitlement. I also love the fact that police used to frequently drive-by the Acme day and night because it was so easy to get a ticket written because there’s always somebody who wasn’t handicapped parking in a handicap spot.

And I see the abusers of handicap parking spaces as well as fire lane parking often in places like downtown Wayne along N. Wayne Ave. and in the parking lots behind some of the shops. And it’s always funny in Wayne because the meter attendants seem to see the expired meters, but they don’t seem to see the people who aren’t handicapped parking in handicap spots, etc.

I don’t understand why people have to park in fire lanes and handicap spots. I especially don’t understand it when there’s usually plenty of parking close enough by and there’s no legitimate reason for doing this. It’s just laziness or entitlement.

It’s also wrong.

Rant over.