Category Archives: pay it forward

9/11 turns 22

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Please use this day to remember all of those Americans who died on 9/11. Multiple races, ethnicities, walks of life, and more. Remember all of those people who died on this day to help protect our freedoms.

Honor America by actually remembering who we are, not what some try to dictate whom they say we should be.

On September 11, 2020 it was the 19th unbelievable anniversary of 9/11. One of the things that 9/11 taught us, as journalist Harry Smith on NBC’s Today Show had pointed out then on the morning news is in this great country if we look, there is more that unites us versus divides us, and we learned that from 9/11. He also remarked that it’s hard for us to see it now and it is. We are a country divided.

We can’t remain a country divided, and this somber anniversary is the best example why.

Yet we are a country still divided, even more divided I feel. Full of zealots wound up in their own hatred determined to pummel us with what they feel are their superior views. I was reminded of that this weekend when a woman I wrote about decided to get quite literally in my face so I knew who she was or saw her.

We were at a ceremony marking the history of a cemetery and a church ruin. Was that her appropriate moment? No of course not, but what she didn’t get is that I already saw her before seeing her inches from my face and it cemented my sense of what she did being wrong all over again. I told her that I don’t speak to people like her and walked away.

But these people like this woman? They don’t understand that they get their very rights to try to remove the rights of others in this country because of our forefathers, and again because of the people who lose their lives for being Americans. Like 9/11.

On 9/11 Americans were targeted for violence and death for being American. And any other person who was from any other part of the world who died that day in NYC, Washington DC, or Shanksville, PA died for being in the US then for whatever reason.

Yes, there is always more that unites us versus divides us, and we learned that from 9/11 and that is often nearly impossible for us to see in today’s world . We are still a country divided. We can’t remain a country divided and the anniversary of 9/11 is the best example why.

Today also marks day 12 that an escaped murderer is on the loose in Chester County County. Here’s hoping Danelo Cavalcante is apprehended today. Here’s a video from a guy from this morning about this:

I think they totally don’t know where this guy is at this point and that bothers me because today is 9/11 and there are ceremonies everywhere even in Chester County.

Back to 9/11.

The news is once again full of stories of families who lost people on 9/11. Children who grew up without parents because they died on 9/11. This is unimaginable loss, and all of these people have gone forward with their lives which has to be so hard at some moments. Graduations, weddings, first days of school, first steps of children and grandchildren and more.

Again on 9/11, I am also going to pause and remember two men I went to college with. I’m not going to be some kind of weird death hypocrite and say I really knew them or they were my close personal friends because they weren’t. They were both people I met a couple of times, but people I never really knew who were close to people important to me to this very day. They lost their lives on 9/11.

9/11 Memorial in New Jersey – my photo.

Doug Cherry worked for AON. I remember when I found out that he had died in the trade center because I worked for then Wachovia Securities, and AON had a large office literally across the hall. Someone I knew from that office had oddly remembered I went to Ohio Weslyan. So they told me when they learned the names of those who had died in their company. But that wasn’t on 9/11 that was in the days that followed. I remember afterwards the days that followed when you started to see the roll call of names of people lost.

I remember when I heard about Doug I kind of felt old and felt my own mortality for the first time. He was my class, and although he wasn’t a close friend or somebody I even really knew back then, we went to a small school, so you remembered the faces even if you didn’t remember the people.

That was the case with Ted Luckett. He was the class ahead, and again somebody I didn’t know but remembered. But I remembered back then is he liked to sail — there were a lot of guys who went to Ohio Weslyan who were amazing sailors. Even on America’s Cup crews.

I remember when the first plane hit the World Trade Center. It was at this moment I was pulling into my garage back then where I worked for then Wachovia Securities in Conshohocken. I was listening to the radio. I remember the tears just starting to roll down my face because I knew, I knew they (terrorists) came back because I had walked out of the World Trade Center shopping concourse in 1993 when they blew up the garage.

And when I say I remember exactly when it was as the bomb detonated in that garage in 1993. I was standing on the sidewalk outside looking at Century 21. If life has been different I might still have been working in New York City on September 11, 2001.

I also remember as I walked into my office that fateful day in 2001, and all the brokers were riveted to television screens in their offices and their computers, at that point in time most people didn’t believe those were terrorist attacks. They just thought like a small plane had gone into the trade center. It was a crazy surreal morning as the news started to unfold. It’s crazy how clearly I can still remember it. I think this is like it was for our parents the day that John F. Kennedy was assassinated. You remember where you were and what you were doing.

I also remember calling my late father, who was on his cell phone on an Amtrak train to New York for some kind of an appointment, and when he answered the phone I remember saying “Where are you? Where are you?” And he told me they had just stopped at Metro Park, New Jersey, and I told him get off the train. Take another train back. And he told me oh no the AMTRAK conductors said it’s fine, it’s nothing and he would be back that evening. With the aftermath of 9/11 in NYC, he couldn’t get out of that city for days.

So it’s been 22 years, what have we learned? I ask that ever year.

Another of the other things I remember on this day now twenty years ago, two sisters I grew up with who were close childhood family friends and still are. One, at the time, worked for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. The other I think worked for Marsh and McLennan at the time (can’t remember for sure), but she did work somewhere in the World Trade Center. I remember being in a panic for days until I found out they were OK. One or both were out of state visiting their parents. And one sister had actually just left her job to go back to school or she definitely would have been there.

One of the sisters, if not both, were posted on missing persons lists that kept coming out back then at a rapid-fire pace. You have no idea how surreal it was to see familiar names on these lists. Especially because at this point the missing persons lists were also presumed dead lists.

On the 22nd anniversary of 9/11, I am also going to once again pause for a moment to remember the OTHER terrorist attempt on the World Trade Center. February 26, 1993.

In 1993, I worked in New York at that time at an office located downtown in the financial district. 44 Wall Street. Gabriele, Hueglin & Cashman.

On that day, I had accompanied my office friend Deirdre to the World Trade Center to grab an early lunch and to check out some stores in the shopping concourse above the garage. We were back outside of the World 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. That much had come over the Bloomberg machine.

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 coming to visit New York after the attack. (I found out later he did not visit New York after this attack.)

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 1993 “incident.”

Except if you were there, like I was, you always remember that day as well. And I am sure I am not the only one who was in New York City downtown in February 1993 who felt as I did on September 11, 2001: that immediate “they came back” feeling.

Within the past few years I found my work friend Deirdre again, and we are reconnected. She still in the New York metropolitan area and has a beautiful family.

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? TWENTY TWO years after 9/11 what have we learned and what have we forgotten? What do we need to remember?

We never forget this day and never should. But what have we learned? I think we need to pay it forward as a country in memory of all of those first responders and others who lost their lives. We need to be better versions of ourselves. We need to come together as a country. 

We need peace, and less racial divide and polarizing, divisive politics. Is that possible? I don’t know. But we can try.

I don’t really have that much else to say about 9/11 today, other than this isn’t Taylor Swift’s 22.

I will close with it is so almost inconceivable to me that 22 years have gone by in a blink since 9/11 happened. Here’s wishing for a better world… and remembering those who lost their lives and gave their lives on this day as well as those who were in our lives then, but are not now.

#NeverForget

9/11 Memorial in NJ

ebenezer is getting a historic marker…finally

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I am not trying to be sour grapes here, but when you read this press release disguised as an article embedded below makes you feel like a couple of recent people did everything with regard to the ruin of Ebenezer with no help from anyone else ever. The truth is, there have been a lot of people involved, who should be remembered and thanked.

It’s like a very large village has loved this site and helped and tried to help over the years.

Those of you who know me know that I have worked on this personally for years. I have made publicly available all the information I found and shared loads of photos.

I do not do things like this for atta girls or accolades, but people could say thank you once in a while.

And folks could also say thank you to the families of the late Al Terrell and late Ann Christie as well. And former scout Luke Phayre and his mother, historian Catherine Quillman, Tim Caban former chair of East Whiteland Historic Commission, Theresa Schatz and Susan Evans -former member of East Whiteland Historic Commission, and even Dr. Bill Watson from Immaculata who is always so patient and helpful when you have any questions. There are also all the people who once lived in the area who contributed to the oral histories I posted up and gave me photos to use. Like the artist Claude Bernardin.

Or how about Chester County resident and retired Air Force Colonel Howard Crawford West Chester Veterans Council and commander of the American Legion Post 134 who was instrumental in our Veterans Day ceremony in 2016 on the site? Or Doug Buettner and others over the years who helped clean up the site? Or how about those wonderful East Whiteland police officers who showed up in 2016 to help direct traffic during the Veterans Day ceremony and became part of the honor guard?

Ebenezer is very special to me, even if I am a middle-aged white woman with no relatives in the cemetery.

I am so happy that historical marker is going up here and that there is now a small chance and hope for preservation in the future that lasts. I know that the ruin is too far gone to do anything but stabilize because a few years ago I was the one along with my husband, who had a structural engineer who dealt with historic properties look at it and give a report.

I will attend this ceremony, and I will have a happy heart and a smile on my face, as I am grateful that this is getting some more recognition. But I just want people out there to recognize that there are a lot of people who have cared about this site over the years and helped to the best of their ability.

To get to this point, it’s not just because of recent events, there are years of things behind this and lots of people who cared. Other friends like Christine, Tia, Dana and Keica.

And when I first moved here, East Whiteland Township didn’t truly give a crap about the site. East Whiteland beyond some of the member of the historic commission started to give a damn when Scott Lambert became supervisor. As a matter of fact, when we did the Veterans Day ceremony in 2016, not one supervisor showed up. I remember at the time those of us who worked on that couldn’t believe that. We kept wondering what would it have taken for any of the three supervisors or manager to have shown up even for a few minutes?

I realize I’m like the inconvenient guest at a dinner party because you never know what’s going to come out of my mouth, but I think it’s important to recognize here that a lot of people, not just me, have contributed to saving and trying to save Ebenezer.

If you go to visit this site, I hope you feel all the happy souls like we do when we’re on the site. If you go tomorrow, that is when the marker is being unveiled at 1:30 PM on Bacton Hill Road in East Whiteland.

Mt. Zion AME Church, East Whiteland Township to unveil new historic marker on Sept. 9

gad zooks! lady dog whistle is in a lather!

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I have to giggle because Lady Dog Whistle is at it again. She is our fearless and full of forsooth Mistress of Downingtown area manners. And egads! Apparently she has a girl crush on the fake professor running for Downingtown school board, so she is here to be his erstwhile champion. (I also secretly think she wishes she could be me, but that’s a topic for another day!)

First of all, what makes this so funny is all these people that love to say I am so anonymous, etc. etc. have nothing to say when Lady Dog Whistle surfaces.

I wrote about her about a year ago and truthfully, don’t follow her because she’s somewhat predictable in her repertoire of passive aggressive slut shaming. She loves to lecture on what she perceives to be the ills of people basically objecting to any politician, or extremism, and politics, that she personally supports.

the “lady” doth protest too much, methinks

So Lady Dog Whistle of Downingtown, she’s doing her Lady Whistledown encore, and shockers I am the target. And super duper shockers I am a bad bad person:

Gosh! They wound me to the core! actually, they have provided a great deal of amusement on a Sunday for me. Let’s break it down.

First of all, this was not an inappropriate photo I posted it was a political lampoon/meme. It was directed at a politician, Chris Bressi, running for school board. Bressi as you know is the co-opt king of any local issue, buzz word, or trendy phrase that might get him a vote.

Yes Chris Bressi, we see you. I will leave it to you to decide if it’s the Royal We or just we as in everyone in general.

This was an event that this politician went to two co-op for his own gain. I have nothing to say about the event, or the people who threw the event other than it was their event not Bressi’s event and he rolled up looking like he was ready for a Godfather or Goodfellas revival. I did not cover the other person’s face to mock their heritage or their celebration, I covered his face because it wasn’t this person‘s fault that a subpar slimy sleazeball of a politician rolled up for photo ops. It was a smiley face, not a “derogatory emoji.”

I still think that politician “professore” Bressi is a horse’s ass. And it doesn’t make me a racist and it doesn’t make me a proponent of micro aggression or whatever Trendy, Wendy term Lady Dog Whistle, and the “professor” care to toss at me.

And given my personal Italian heritage, I can mock him all I want since he’s choosing to conveniently play up his now. He’s a joke and he’s an embarrassment to Italian Americans everywhere. Yes, I did say that out loud and I will again I am sure.

Expressing opinions about a subpar politician desperately seeking relevance and attention in order to get on the school board after scrubbing, his original social media profiles is not exhibiting “hate.” It is in fact me using my first amendment rights which are not subjective.

So Bressi wishes to wax poetic about his Italian American heritage? That’s fine if he’s actually telling the truth, because you only have his word for it. So now, in order to gain sympathy, all of a sudden he’s going to say that his family members were targeted by mafioso? Dude, that is so early Sopranos.

But let’s talk about Lady Dog Whistle for a moment. Apparently, she had an interview with a good “professor”? So that means she is one of his contemporaries. People are always tossing about who she might or might not be, and truthfully, I’ve never cared because she doesn’t matter to me. She is a nut bag who surfaces for little hatchet job attempts and then evaporates into her beige, beige world.

Poor Lady Dog Whistle must be really hard up. I think she’s written about me three times now. And every time she does it just brings me more readers and that’s delightful. This is what the second or third election cycle where she’s tried to make me an election issue in Downingtown? It’s kind very amusing that they are so fearful of me that as a non-politician, just one woman with one voice is a threat to their well being. They really need to get out more.

Essentially, if you are a person who believes in book banning, have issues with anyone whose sexual identity doesn’t match your narrow view of the world, extremism in politics, etc. Lady Dog Whistle is your gal. Kind of like Bressi, but I don’t think he’s anyone’s gal and he is just an extremist tarting himself up as the second coming of Christ to get himself elected so he can fill the Downingtown Area School District with fake inspirational posters from Staples.

My last word on this for today is something that is just cracking me up right now. Chris Bressi loves to post when they go low, we go high. So I’m guessing that phrase is also very subjective or he just lets other people do his dirty work for him.

Regina George signing out.

🤣Kiss 💋 kiss 💋 haters 💋 🤣

fun at frazer antiques

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Frazer Antiques is one of my favorite places and a happy place. Located at 351 Lancaster Ave, Frazer PA 19355 ( (610) 651-8299 ) and they are open for the most part open from 10 till 5 every day except major holidays.

It’s an old school shop of many vendors. It’s eclectic and fun. You have to go through and then double back because it takes a while to take everything in. I hadn’t been in to visit the ladies at Frazer antiques and months until today. And it was so fun because there was so much that was different and new old stuff.

I found a few quite reasonably priced treasures. One was a new old stock vintage lampshade that was finally the perfect shade for a vintage lamp I bought at an estate sale over 15 years ago and had rewired. It had a perfectly nice lampshade on it, but it just was never the right lampshade.

I also found a lovely little tole tray, wonderful vintage glass candlesticks, and the cutest little pierced tin lantern Christmas ornament !

It was so much fun and they had lots of foot traffic which is great. If you have not been, go! Plenty of parking in front and behind the store.

landfilla estates?

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So here we go again…sort of. This article showed up on a random news app:

Smart News: Philadelphia Business Journal

Toll Brothers pays $33M for Malvern land, plans 280-home development

August 16, 2023
BY
PAUL SCHWEDELSON

Fort Washington homebuilder Toll Brothers is building 280 luxury townhomes in Malvern after acquiring 159 acres of undeveloped land.

The three parcels, at 272 Lapp Road, 278 Lapp Road and 367 Old Morehall Road, are just north of Route 202. Vanguard’s Quarry Ridge office building and Knickerbocker Driving Range are east of the property. Toll Brothers bought the Chester County land from Knickerbocker Lands LLC for $33 million.

The sale did not include the driving range.

Toll Brothers (NYSE: TOL) is naming the master-planned development Anfield at Malvern and plans to open it for sale in spring 2024. Site improvements on the property are underway. The townhomes will range from 1,825 square feet to 2,995 square feet and include basements. Prices have not been disclosed….The development is expected to include a clubhouse, fitness center, gathering room, outdoor pool, pickleball courts, walking trails and a dog park. The site is located within the Great Valley School District….In the second quarter of this year, Toll Brothers built 2,492 homes at an average price of $1 million. The company’s townhome developments in the region include West Chester Crossing, Doylestown Walk and Overlook at Town Center in King of Prussia.

This is also in Vista Today.

OK they’re always Trendy Wendy so they are enticing people to live on top of an old landfill with pickleball. That makes me laugh because in Tredyffrin Township they were Pickleball courts that had open on Valley Forge Military Academy, and College land that I’ve just been shut down for noise and other zoning things according to Savvy Main Line:

So pickleball is not a slam dunk. I also think that I remember the plans done by Jason Dempsey/DP Partners, the last developer on that site, that the plans they had approved were slab on grade no basements? Or am I incorrect?

Just so we are clear information wise, this is the former Knickerbocker landfill owned for quite a long time by the Rubino family.

Next a reader of mine chimed in when I initially posted online and shared the article:

I’ve assisted in the redevelopment of many former hazardous waste sites of different kinds, but never for building homes on a full-blown landfill that received hazardous wastes — and this one also has an 8-inch oil pipeline through the middle of it. It’s common to install a cap (permeable geotextile topped with 2 ft of clean soil) over historical fill and then build on it, I’ve helped with that all over Philly, Camden, and Wilmington — but that fill was emplaced when the cities were built, not in our lifetimes. And it wasn’t hazardous waste, either.

This screenshot is from the 2021 plan, and at that time they still needed an environmental investigation via soil borings throughout the area to be developed. I’m curious whether that was done and what they found.

I also wonder what the geophysics are like on an old landfill like that and how thick the trash is where they’re going to build. There’s a clay cap over the entire surface, so they’re going to have to bring in soil to put over top of that (probably over geotexile), but I wouldn’t feel good about pouring concrete slabs for houses on top of a landfill and hoping they don’t eventually sink and/or crack. Ugh.

Older Knickerbocker stuff:

https://www.mindat.org//feature-7270226.html?mibextid=Zxz2cZ

https://www.eastwhiteland.org/376/Knickerbocker-Tract

Some Knickerbocker history
Re: East Whiteland meeting.

Well…sigh…

Apparently this new Toll Brothers project represents the entire project that Jason Dempsey/ DP Partners was developing .. .The early plans did include an additional 102 building units on the driving range but the entire supervisors board voted that plan down, didn’t they?

So we shall see.

I found stuff on East Whiteland’s website about Knickerbocker:

https://www.eastwhiteland.org/376/Knickerbocker-Tract

https://cumulis.epa.gov/supercpad/CurSites/srchsites.cfm

https://eastwhiteland.org/DocumentCenter/View/1637/Applicant-Petition-to-Amend-Zoning-Map-and-Comp-Plan?bidId=

I wrote about Knickerbocker two years ago:

what to do about knickerbocker? even chester county planning commission has hit pause with new letter.

Here’s a post about Knickerbocker and history around the area:

in the shadow of paoli hospital

So Chester County and East Whiteland will be dancing with Toll over Knickerbocker I am sure. A friend came up with the catchiest name for the project:

LANDFILLA ESTATES

Perfect name. Ciao for now.

Toll Brothers Upper Uwchlan- hideous

let me keep it simple: NO MEGA WAREHOUSES ARE GOOD D.A.S.D!

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Photo from Uwchlan Community Day
SPSF Group Photo

There are things within a community that happen where people can no longer sit idly by and say oh that’s too bad or I really should say something and say/do nothing. Saving Lionville Station Farm is one of these formative moments. This is a pivotal issue within the community, where they can no longer sit idly by.

I believe in the people trying to stop this mega warehouse monstrosity from coming to pass. For whatever it is worth, I support them. I know some of the people. I also had friends that used to live back there at one time who would be affected if they were still there.

I mean, can you literally imagine sitting in your beautiful backyard that you have worked so hard to earn, and your entire view shed is taken up by walls of giant warehouses as far as the eye can see, so large you can’t even take an adequate photo?

And along with this project, the whole right of homeowners to have an expectation of private enjoyment will go right out the window. 24 hours a day seven days a week truck after truck car after car in and out of this complex if it gets built? There will be no peace.

These are the projects that destroy communities. These are like the data centers. These are like the hydrogen hubs. These are the overly dense projects that developers bring into communities just like all the goddamn apartment buildings built on what was farmland that we really don’t need, but we’re getting anyway.

These are the projects that make you wonder what the hell the Chester County Planning Commission is doing, along with the County Commissioners? It also makes you wonder what the State Representatives and State Senators are doing for us in Harrisburg? Which is really kind of nothing on these issues.

A project like this shows you how woefullly outdated once again the Municipalities Planning Code is. The world has changed a lot since circa 1969 and the State Reps and State Senators are lazy because they have to enact an act of the state constitution to update this and they WON’T. You see it’s not that they CAN’T, they won’t.

This is why all of these bad overly dense development plans including but not limited to this Audubon plan in Uwchlan for mega warehouses on Lionville Station Farm need to be election issues every single election cycle until meaningful changes occur. This is truthfully an election issue on every level and it starts with the Downingtown Area School District School Board.

This is a standalone issue. And many supporters of the school board are trying to conflate this issue with others and that’s wrong. Truthfully this is essentially how everything gets stalled in Congress and the US Senate. Sometimes things can be their own issue and should be.

DASD has the ability during August to unwind the contract. That means they have the ability to stop mega warehouses.

This developer has developed other kinds of projects like Shannondell, which is a wonderful, senior living and life care facility. A project like that, for example, wouldn’t put more kids in the school district. And with an aging population, something like this is actually needed.

‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️

READ: https://savelsf.com/blog/f/lets-get-to-work

WATCH:

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And while I am not, and never will support extremism and corresponding candidates for school board, but sadly if the DASD doesn’t stop the madness, they are going to lose the support of lots of people going forward. And that includes me.

With all the ugliness in this school district over the past few years, I have done my level best to support the path of right. For that, I have been verbally abused, harassed, harangued, doxxed, etc. This was for supporting the issues against the craziness of things like the anti-maskers/anti-vaxxers, anti-everything, Drag Queens reading to little kids and attending fundraisers, and more. I didn’t help to make myself money or anything like that, I helped because it was the right thing to do. But now I am asking for something in return. I am asking for them to withdraw from the contract with Audubon in August like they are legally able to!

I have gladly supported the issues of these people fighting to save their school district. It’s time for them to support the people in their community on this issue. Giant warehouses, hydrogen hubs, and data centers don’t help any resident anywhere. these are projects which suck up land and ruin communities.

A friend of mine described mega warehouses as being so huge it was like somebody put a tarp over the City of Philadelphia. We were having a conversation about their drive recently down to Washington DC and passing mega warehouses. They had wanted to take photos of the warehouses, but they were so big you couldn’t take like just one photo to even grasp the concept of size and scale. Or how terrifying the tractor trailers coming in and out of these places made the roadways.

I suspect some Downingtown school board directors/members didn’t understand why they were being sent the questionnaire and the pledge from SLSF. The conclusion probably is that they feel it has nothing to do with their job. Actually, it has everything to do with their jobs because they’re elected officials who are also part of a community and as a school board director/member you have an elected responsibility to do what’s best. And if you think giant warehouses are the best thing for your community then you don’t deserve to be in office. It is pretty much that simple to me. And it pains me to say that because some of these folks are just wonderful.

And I’m not accepting the general school board cop-out that their solicitor “doesn’t think it’s a good idea.” I mean for real, do you really think he cares about all of you and your issues? That guy is just all politics of a certain kind isn’t he?

So to the Downingtown school board people that I have supported all along, sadly this is where I have to draw a line in the sand. I want you all to succeed and truly keep your school board seats, but this issue of mega warehouses? You need to stop being pussies and step up and do the right thing. I’m tired of mincing words.

If you do not stop the mega warehouses while you have the opportunity and support the community that pays taxes to you, please don’t expect me to be giving your causes and issues a supportive platform going forward. I’m not saying I won’t be supportive, but what I am saying is I will no longer go out of my way to help. If you can’t help with this issue and stand up and be adults and do the right thing, why do you expect everybody else to support you all of the time?

And DASD, you aren’t the only elected official who is ignoring this. There are two sitting county commissioners running for reelection, and one empty suit, baby kisser running for the Republican minority seat, who also are ignoring this situation and this pledge/questionnaire

So all of you out there know I like the truth. I also learned interesting factual unvarnished truth today while digging in to write.

My research indicates and is validated that the guy named Duanne and the co-opt candidate “Professor” Bressi talk a really good game about SAVING LIONVILLE STATION FARM BUT HAVE NOT RETURNED A COMPLETED CANDIDATE QUESTIONNAIRE OR ACTUALLY SIGNED THE PLEDGE TO SAVE LIONVILLE STATION FARM!

To me that puts them in the category of liar, liar pants on fire. They are only trying to steal a campaign issue of residents of Chester County for their own political gain, which is why quite frankly I would throw their arses out of every social media group they belong to. If they meant what they said, they would sign the pledge and complete the questionnaire. Period. End of story.

If they are really interested in Saving Lionville Station Farm it would’ve been easy peeszy to complete the questionnaire and send it back in with a signed pledge.

BUT they HAVE NOT. So that is a very easy distinction for people to see why they shouldn’t vote for them for school board. These politicians are not doing things for people, only to further their own political gain. However, this is why it also looks really bad when the people who are in office haven’t signed the pledge. And that’s including two county commissioners up for reelection and not just the school board people.

I thought I would just point this out to all of you.

Here are all the politicians/candidates who have not signed the pledge, or completed the questionnaire:

Whether people like it or not stopping, mega warehouses has become a campaign issue for the fall of 2023. And it goes into the same bad category of pipelines, data centers, hydrogen, hubs, and too much goddamned development in general.

Politicians, this isn’t difficult. Working to stop mega warehouses will result in a plurality that will remember this on Election Day this fall. Ignoring the plurality on mega warehouses will most probably result in the demise of some candidates. It’s a simple fact of life sadly.

To the members of the Downingtown Are School District School Board, who are running for reelection and wish to keep their seats, ponder this carefully. This is literally your Waterloo. So y’all get to decide if you want to be Napoleon or The Duke of Wellington.

Rant over.

a battle won in the war to save lionville station farm and some clarity needed

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Uwchlan said no to the crazy overnight construction hours requested by Portman who will be destroying Happy Days Farm, which originally was a Penn Land Grant. Portman which acquired this magnificent property wanted overnight construction from 7 PM to 3 AM.

And in unexpected news, Audubon Land Development WITHDREW their preliminary sketch plan for Lionville Station Farm.

This is far from over. This isn’t winning the war against mega warehouses, it’s just a battle won. Neighbors and concerned citizens MUST remain vigilant.

Now we are all being asked to write to Downingtown Area School District:

Email the DASD school board and superintendent.

Uwchlan Township has confirmed that Audubon has “diligently” withdrew their mega-warehouse sketch plan. Remember when DASD attorney Mr. Roger Huggins went on the record and said “so far Audubon’s been doing a pretty good job and they have been diligently pursuing their obligations.” Well, any fact finder can tell you that by withdrawing your sketch plan, you are not diligently pursuing anything.

My email is below. Feel free to use as you wish in drafting your message.

rodonnell@dasd.org

lwisdom@dasd.org

cghrayeb@dasd.org

jbertone@dasd.org

ablust@dasd.org

mgurthy@dasd.org

jhoughton@dasd.org

mmiller@dasd.org

lstrobridge@dasd.org

mross@dasd.org

Dear DASD school board and Superintendent,

The prospective purchaser of the Siemens Property (Audubon Land Development) has withdrawn their proposed sketch plan from Uwchlan Township.

Consequently, since the sales agreement took effect on July 13, 2022, over a year ago, there has been a complete lack of official progress in meeting their commitments to pursue the land’s development rights.

Any studies that may have been communicated with you have not been received by the Township, nor have they been formally submitted. This renders them essentially meaningless.

Maintaining this property under contract with a potential buyer who has shown no measurable progress in pursuing development endeavors represents a violation of your fiduciary obligations. You are now dealing with a buyer who is actively failing to adhere to the contractual terms. The buyer is already in default.

With no existing sketch plan and no possibility of obtaining conditional use approval by August 29th, it is now your responsibility to promptly terminate this agreement with Audubon.

Enough is enough!

It should now be very clear to you that the $96M has always been a fantasy. Yes, you got played. It’s time to do the right thing before you do any more harm to the reputation of our school district and our community.

~ Message this morning to from Save Lionville Station Farm

A round of applause goes to SAVE Lionville Station Farm which is doing a great job in spite of certain factions incorrectly asserting that they are supporting extremist school board candidates like Chris Bressi. They are not. Chris Bressi and his tribe keep trying to co-opt their issue and group. This group has one purpose and that is to stop the warehouses.

This group has asked politicians current and prospective to sign a pledge essentially asking for them to agree to SAVE Lionville Station Farm and the surrounding area from the insanity of mega warehouse development and that means if elected or on school board voting no.

This pledge is very similar to the ones we as the then Save Ardmore Coalition many many years ago asked politicians current and prospective to sign to stop eminent domain for private gain in Ardmore. Save Lionville Station Farm is NON PARTISAN just like we were.

The Save Lionville Station Farm Group has been challenged constantly since inception by factions and people trying to co-opt, infiltrate, take over, take advantage of what their goal is: TO STOP MEGA WAREHOUSES AND SAVE LIONVILLE STATION FARM.

The fact that these people in this group have put down politics for community and the greater good is amazing in this ridiculous political climate is nothing short of amazing.

So kindly see more cheap political tricks from people like “Professor” Chris Bressi as exactly what they are: cheap political tricks. This politician in particular will use any community group or cause around for personal gain. Even a Uwchlan Supervisor has commented on it in a community group.

I believe in honor and integrity, and I do not believe this politician has either. He will tell you he does and he likes to talk about those words, but I don’t think he actually knows what they mean in real life.

If someone farts and Bressi can use it, repost, and ask for a campaign donation, he does it. He’s only supporting himself and attempting to co-opt everyone and everything else. He’s like an empty suit. And although he shows up at events gladhanding the music thing about this political candidate is he never wants his photo taken.

Bressi’s kindred spirit running for County Commissioner, David Sommers, is more subtle but he’s hanging around to try to get votes not to actually help residents here. He doesn’t actually say he’s for saving anything other then his political aspirations, and he has a website that is glossy and full of unicorns farting rainbows but the devil is in the details and he hangs around with Margie Miller from DASD who is most definitely a snake. He will have his photo taken with anything or anyone that stands still long enough. As always, he’s running a campaign that is all fluff and little substance. And he hasn’t seemed to pledge to stop mega warehouses, or fill out a candidate questionnaire. So that answers your question right there about what he’s about.

Political candidates like these two aren’t going to know your name, if they get elected. They are going to remember that they signed any pledges to do anything other than further their own ambition.

But what I am seeing out here is people trying to conflate school board issues. For the people trying to save Lionville Station Farm that is their issue. It is not to be added to or conflated with other issues. People on both sides are trying to conflate their issue with other issues, as well as co-opt them for political gain.

And then you have the people on the DASD school board that people actually like and want to have them stay in the office, only they’re cutting off their noses to spite their faces. Their community is not saying don’t sell the land if you can’t afford to keep it, they’re asking to save the area from mega warehouses. They are asking that Chester county not be made to look like the Allentown, I-80 corridor.

I am a realist. And I also get frustrated by people who just say to save everything as open space yet then never even suggest how that is supposed to be afforded.

Unless a land angel appears from the sky, I don’t think this parcel will be completely protected in perpetuity. But I do think that there has to be another better plan out there and another buyer for the parcel that could at least preserve some of it and not load it up with apartments or mega warehouses.

I will close by saying that I think everyone needs to stop being used by the current crop of political candidates. And people fighting to keep the DASD school board from going crazy like it should be in Bucks County instead of Chester County need to remember that Saving Lionville station farm is a standalone issue. Do not conflate it with other issues. And it’s OK for it to be it’s own issue.

To the school board directors of the Downingtown Area School District I simply state the following: you have the unique opportunity here to unwind a disastrous plan. Take that opportunity and run with it. Don’t do an imitation of Lower Merion School District’s school board. Do the right thing for your community. Give people the best reason possible to still believe in you: believe in them and stop the warehouses which will detrimentally affect everyone even the district. And get a new solicitor for your school district.

Stop the bad plan, seek a new plan and compromise with your community.

I will also note that I have had people who want the warehouses stopped attack me for suggesting they not get used by politicians. Their largest retort is my trying to pass along the benefit of prior experience as being a distraction to their mission is kind of funny.

Ok whatever. I can walk away from lots of issues I’ve been helpful on. And I can stop responding to people that contacted me looking for help as well. And I might just do that. Which would be a bummer because the one thing you can always count on if I try to help and it’s not that I want something, it’s not that I want your vote for elected office, I just do things because I think it’s the right thing to do.

Put that in your pipe and smoke it as my one grandmother used to say

Thanks for stopping by.

garrett hill residents are you awake over there in radnor township?

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Oh Garrett Hill. Time to stand up and fight again. First of all check out the oddness from the recent planning commission meeting which occurred August 7th, 2023:

What you need to pay attention to is Wentworth Lane (again) and then scootchy forward to sidewalk dining in Garrett Hill on Conestoga Freaking Road which is fakakta level insane. Don’t let Farhy do your talking. He is dead wrong about sidewalk dining.

Wentworth Lane is also fakakta screwballs with a preliminary plan that wasn’t a preliminary plan but was it a sketch or a figment of our imaginations? And what is the planning commission or township attorney who was there talking about as far as litigation on that site? Who is suing whom and where? Something about clear title needing to be proved before plans get submitted?

But please for the love of all that is holy, listen to both the sidewalk dining and Wentworth Lane of it all and wonder if Garrett Hill needs to storm the Radnor Township proverbial Bastille again? I kind of think so.

And while we are talking Radnor Township, how many lawsuits is the Township of Radnor embroiled in at present?

I will start – I found this still active:

Case NumberCV-2022-002234TitleMNG 2005, INC. d/b/a CBD KRATOM et al v. Township of Radnor et al

Anyway, have fun Radnor residents in general. You are living in times more screwy than the Bashore years. Have fun. You elected them.

Outdoor_Dining_GH-CR_to_DCPCDownload
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just another raggedy post?

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I will freely admit I am a bit salty about Farmer in the Westtown Dell’s latest post. The message is clear even if that is not actually her intent: if you aren’t with her, you’re against her. So is it you can only worship, you CANNOT raise or voice concerns about how things look (you know like the mowing issues), and you can’t say anything else? If you do, is there a shade of shade of inference none too subtly that anyone who has anything other than glowing praise and accolades is a racist?

Come on, really?

See this Instagram post from 2 days ago:

From Farmer Jawn Instagram (Public Post) 3 Days ago

So yes I wrote a post about the way the place formerly known as Pete’s Produce looked. And this was after an email blast to her followers came out. And by her I am referring to Westtown’s New Farmer in the Dell, Ms. Barfield.

That email hit a bad chord in me. I felt as if those of us expressing concern were being chided for expressing valid concerns about how everything looked. Lady, it’s called communication and that is not necessarily one and the same as an Instagram post is it?

So I wrote about it and how I felt. It’s my right is it not? I was not being racist. But I had people saying I was and messages that were vile.

well…ummm….when you want to believe in someone and something but still you just…wonder.

So let’s back up (again.) When they first announced Ms. Barfield was the new farmer, I was welcoming with a couple of basic questions – essentially concerning the Pete’s workers who had worked that farm for in some cases, years, and would she be hiring any of them. Here verbatim is what I said at the time (December 9, 2022) :

I welcome a new farmer to continue the tradition of Pete on this land. BUT with Pete, retiring, a lot of his workers are now unemployed, so I hope since so many of them worked so hard for him for so many years that this new farmer will adopt some of his workers as hers. What I am hearing Westtown School is that might not be so?

FarmerJawn is expanding their agriculture access vision into Chester County

Truthfully, I thought it was kind of cool initially when she was chosen because she was a female farmer. I did not object to the switch to organic farming, but I will still repeat what I initially said because I know organic farmers: it is a BIG process. Going organic and getting organic certification is a lot of hoops, and expensive. I also noted it doesn’t happen overnight.

These are a sampling of the 250 comments on the Instagram post that I found distasteful:

BUT I have a huge problem with the way I feel those of us out here who are essentially being told we are racists because we asked what was going on over there and can anyone understand this? That is wrong. I am not a racist and I have read through all of the 277 comments (or that was how many at last count.) Just because someone is not your race and says “hey I don’t like something happening” that is not racist. People aren’t saying because she is a black farmer or even a female farmer that she is bad or can’t do the job. They are also NOT saying she shouldn’t own farm land. Out here specifically people were referring to how run down parts of the property looked because the freaking weeds weren’t cut along the sides of the road leading into the market area. Sometimes things are just about what people say. Sometime it’s not more or bad or wrong.

People did try to have a conversation about this on this Instagram post. Like one lady said and I quote:

I find what bothers me the most is that conventional farmers such as Pete and others are made to sound as if they are horrible stewards of the earth. I wish you the best but please respect all farming practices. There’s nothing unhealthy about the soil on that farm.

One of the replies this person received was horrible. She was told she had white logic essentially and what the offensive same hell does she mean? Just like the subsequent comment to someone else asking about “your species”? I am sorry was this person an alien?

And then there are the locals who feel they have to literally suck up and say that they are so sorry everyone is so negative and change doesn’t come easily and please forgive everyone for the negativity. The negativity is primarily coming from the supporters of Farmer Jawn. And yes, I agree change doesn’t come easily. But it’s all about how the change is presented.

Let’s review: when Westtown first announced the new farmer of that land people were excited. The land would stay farmed and not become a crop of cheap plastic mushroom houses. Then it was nothing really, including the weeds which didn’t get cut for months. That made people wonder and worry, myself included. I was not racist on my comments and am not a racist but yeah I am damn straight going to react to words like raggedy. And when I have never made the race or sex of this farmer (or any other farmer) an issue, why is she saying that is why people are asking questions?

Newsflash, Ms. Barfield, people asked questions and had understandable concerns considering how well tended the land had been by the last steward of the land even if he wasn’t organic. I will note he wasn’t exactly a straight Round Up farmer, either. He was just a conventional farmer, not organic. But for what it is worth conventional farmers I know do employ a lot of organic practices even if they do not have the organic official status because of the expense of becoming certified organic. This farmer could have played this straight and allayed fears people had. But she really has not in my opinion. And that is why I am finding this Instagram you did offensive to those of us who live here.

And that is the thing of it: you are the new steward of the land but you are unknown except for your social media out here in the community you are entering into. And you have kind of been putting this combative vibe out there. It’s not warranted. Life is difficult enough at times without that. Just because I am white doesn’t make me a bad person does it? So why would you assume I judged you by the color of your skin? I didn’t. And I won’t.

Ms. Barfield. I do not have a problem with either your mission or your vision. I do still wonder if the Westtown land will be too much and too expensive for you long term, but that isn’t wishing you ill or implying you can’t do it. I am not slamming you as a female farmer of any creed or color. What I have a problem with is anyone implying folks have a racial angle if they ask questions about your Westtown farming. That will not engender good will in the community you wish to be a part of.

Farming like gardening is kind of like life, especially when you are cultivating. Because lady, people require cultivation too. I was planning to show up and support you when you announced your August 18th opening. I was happy to hear this. But then came your Raggedyness post on Instagram and those comments. Now, I will get there when I get there.

My business in particular doesn’t matter a hill of beans, and I know that, but what I am saying that may resonate, is that if we had questions or reservations at all, are we really actually welcome as potential customers?

A customer wants to feel welcomed. That’s a pretty simple tenet of customer service.

Ms. Barfield, FarmerJawn, I wish you the best, but I am never one who will mince words when something strikes me as wrong or unfair.

Wishing you all peace.

NBC News 5/14/23

be the change caln township government and help one of your commissioners.

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1701 Olive in Coatesville. This is a Caln commissioner’s house is it not? How can her municipal friends ignore the way she is living? How can they complain about other properties and ignore this? It’s horrible. As in really bad.

How can the condition of this property be safe? Residents locally say it’s been like this for years. These photos were taken today as in this morning.

There’s letting things go overgrown, and then there’s this. This looks like an abandoned property doesn’t it? Only it’s not. So when Caln Township commissioners ballyhoo on occasionally at meetings lamenting how they want to make the township a better place how are they not seeing this place?

I felt badly for this politician when her husband/partner went to jail this year for child porn. (I now say husband/partner because if you look on the Chester county court records I don’t see a marriage license so I don’t know what they are) and I felt badly for her with that situation because I honestly didn’t think she knew that was going on, and I still don’t. But she cannot continue to live in a house with a property this condition.

curious and curiouser….in caln

I think this politician is actually a very sad human being. But living like this, just can’t be a good idea can it? Because when you see an exterior like this, you wonder what the interior is like don’t you?

Lorraine Tindaro obviously needs help. And no one can even see her house from the street and it’s not like she has a grand estate with a half mile driveway.

The condition of this property just keeps getting worse. And you have to wonder if everything going on inside that house is OK if this is what the exterior looks like don’t you? If her political friends care for her, they will get her property cleaned up for her and help her.

This gallery of photos to follow are from July 20:

1701 Olive July 20, 2023