HT to West Goshen Sunshine for alerting all of us to this latest episode of stupidity by West Chester Borough.
Once again West Chester Borough is trying to develop the parking lot at Church and Chestnut for a fake “attainable” housing development and destroy the West Chester Growers Market? And I can tell you that I believe development there wouldn’t either be “attainable“ or affordable. In my humble opinion, it would just be another hot mess for this over developed town.
Presentation and discussion at 1:03. Assholes. And yes I just said that. Out loud.
Go to 1:03
It’s like literally every few years they have to have some latest greatest stupid development plan to destroy one of the regions most established and well respected farmers markets, and the neighborhood where it’s held.
The Borough of West Chester doesn’t need more development they can’t handle what they already have.
While the market may not bring huge revenue, tall buildings or more parking spaces to the Borough of West Chester, they do bring something of great importance:
COMMUNITY.
Please if you live in the borough, contact your borough representative and ask them to consider these factors as they make their decision:
This market hosts 2000+ people every Summer Saturday
They provide a sense of community, where neighbors talk to neighbors
Their market acts as a drawing card to downtown businesses. Customers frequently shop there after leaving the market.
If the lot is developed, there is a chance that the Growers Market will no longer be able to serve the community.
So please, if you value the sense of community and supporting the local farm fresh foods that our market has brought to West Chester, contact your borough representative and tell them what the market means to you.
The Borough Manager’s phone number is: 610-344-3346. His name is Sean Metrick. He came from the Borough of Narberth, and he should know better.
Even if you don’t live in the Borough, but if you patronize the West Chester Growers Market or work in the borough or have friends in the borough I urge you to contact West Chester ASAP.
Tell them the numbers of “needed” units is wrong, ask them to produce the data that lead them to that number. They have to prove that this isn’t just to support developers etc.
Somewhere along the line we have to start saying no, and meaning it for development that is removing things that are integral to our communities.
I don’t know why West Chester Borough seems to think this is a good idea every few years but it’s time for people to stand up now and stop this before it goes further.
This is not about affordable housing. This is about some developer getting a project and making money. This is about coin. Nothing more, nothing less and I can have that opinion.
So the other night was a meeting of the West Whiteland historic commission. (Zoom link HERE.)
On the April 8th, 2024 agenda is this planned development that will literally destroy a small neighborhood on Old Phoenixville Pike . It is the plan for the 20 Schiffer Farm acres that are 15 in West Whiteland and 5 in East Goshen. It’s on their agenda because there’s a historic asset being discussed.
Discussing the historic asset is in the purview of the West Whiteland historic commission. The chair opining obnoxiously about the neighbors is definitely not.
At around the 32:00 minute meeting mark, this man calls concerned neighbors “whiners” and denigrates and mocks them. At around 38:20 minute mark again mocking residents about not having them pick a street name. Boaty McBoat face? I have to ask is that code for he’s an asshat ?
I don’t know this guy. But if that’s the attitude he takes about the residents and he’s in a volunteer appointed position serving a municipality, perhaps he should step down, because if this isn’t a clear-cut example of conduct unbecoming in an elected or appointed official, and he’s an appointed official I don’t know what is, do you?
Audio segment showing jerky boy behavior beginning at 3:04 or so…just press play.
Of course, this meeting was very interesting to me because other things fell into place. I noticed on the corner of the plans being shown to the township, the name of the engineering firm.
And I wonder, is it just coincidence that this is the same engineering firm where I had to block someone on LinkedIn for comments on my timeline since I started talking about development here and off West King Road? It was kind of obnoxious comments and mansplaining that I had chosen to ignore on things I had posted or shared until today when I decided I didn’t invite this man, so I blocked him.
As an amusing also maybe related fact, I’ve had at least three other people from Howell Engineering studying me. LinkedIn tells you who has been playing peek a boo. I just never knew this was in the job category of engineers? I wonder if they are the ones that showed up at my friend’s back deck incorrectly surveying his property as part of Schiffer farm a couple months ago maybe?
So it’s painfully obvious that this whole situation concerning those poor beleaguered residents and their lovely neighborhood on Old Phoenixville Pike is just going to be ugly until it’s settled.
But the guy from the historic commission, and it sounds like the guy who basically started the meeting who research indicates is the chair, was out of line. His job is history. His job is not opining on what kind of a development this is and how it will affect or not affect the neighbors and it begs the question is this guy a realtor? If so, when he’s sitting on the historic commission in West Whiteland, he needs to take his realtor had off and leave only his history hat on. And if he can’t be polite and professional, when referring to residents in the township he is supposed to be serving then he needs to sit down, shut up, and get off any commissions in West Whiteland, doesn’t he?
I personally find this recording of this meeting beyond disappointing. And the reason I say that is, this is a historic commission that until this point, I actually held in high regard. They seemed much more proactive than a lot of other historic commissions, and they’ve done some really good work. BUT for all the good work they do, any member being obnoxious about the residents they are supposed to be serving to the best of their volunteer ability takes it all away.
This guy needs to apologize to those neighbors. He’s not in their shoes, he has no idea how they feel and if he can only mock fellow residents then he should step down from the historic commission.
As a matter of fact, officials at West Whiteland Township need to look into that. This is not acceptable behavior. He can say it’s a joke, but this is where these people live. Essentially, if this development gets built, it will destroy this entire neighborhood. People will potentially lose equity in their homes when a development comes rolling through their teeny weenie, narrow street.
The residents in this neighborhood on Old Phoenixville Pike, and the neighboring streets love where they live. They are fighting for their survival and rights much like other small neighborhoods all over.
This whole thing is very uncomfortable, especially for the people who will be most directly impacted. And it’s really disheartening when as residents they are just starting to go to meetings in some cases for the first time ever since they moved into the township to learn about what their rights are, and what this plan will do and how they will be impacted, and then they’re basically put down by this guy on the historic commission.
And what made it even worse is there’s a supervisor who is the liaison to the historic commission. This supervisor should have politely corrected him about not mocking residents who are also HER constituents. I did not hear her say anything in defense of those poor residents.
The strange tale of development behind Old Phoenixville Pike continues.
$657,000 for FarmerJawn and Friends Foundation Fund to revitalize a barn and create a hydroponic agriculture facility for innovative agricultural practices
I wrote about this a few days ago and I don’t think anybody paid attention to it. But then the email came out today and as a constituent of Congresswoman Houlahan, I received an email announcing who got grants in the area.
So she has gotten over $650,000 in a grant on a farm where she technically really can’t farm yet because it’s not lain fallow enough to be organic, right? And she doesn’t own the barn she’s getting the grant for The Westtown School does, so that makes it technically their property, so why didn’t they fill out the grant forms? After all, they are a nonprofit with a track record and form 990s etc. aren’t they? Does she now have organic status?
Please note the address in the letter above for the Farmer Jawn Friends and Foundation Fund. 6730 Germantown Avenue Philadelphia, PA 19119.
What is the problem with that address? She doesn’t rent that location anymore it’s a spa. Not affiliated with her because I called and asked. And the lady who answered the phone, remarked that she had returned mail addressed to that entity to the senders.
How can a person who has yet to truly farm on land that is leased or rented but has to lie fallow for a couple of more years in order to get organic certification get this kind of coin now? That is life changing money for a farmer. But this woman doesn’t have a track record although she has loads of media sound bytes , so how can she get such a large amount of money?
Look if she ends up being the real deal, I will apologize. But now all I see are lots of questions and my big thing is, how can someone who hasn’t actually farmed yet where they are, and doesn’t own the land, and the land is owned actually by another nonprofit apply for such a big grant and get it?
And at the end of the day, the address and stuff used for the grant application and for this nonprofit arm of her concept, goes to an address where she no longer has a lease, so how does that work?
I will note again that you don’t have to like my questions or my opinion but it’s not illegal. As taxpayers ultimately we pay for these government grants, so I think we deserve to have answers.
985 Mount Pleasant Ave in Tredyffrin Township, Chester County is far away from Tredyffrin’s Township administration building that Township Manager Bill Martin needs reminding that Tredyffrin has a responsibility to not only the 24/7/365 residents but in fact also to the college students living there, right?
So answer me this Tredyffrin: when is the last time this house now known as Villa Blue Tarp was inspected?
Why do I ask about this? Simple, once upon a time there was a big old yellow Victorian house on the corner of Booth Lane and Old Lancaster Road in Haverford in Lower Merion Township that was an off campus house even when I was in high school.
Originally the house was an off-campus house for rugby players. Then flash forward to late 90s/early 2000s and it became a duplex. We were never really sure if the duplex was done legally but it was done and it was two living units and still student slumlord housing.
It was a really tough party house to live in a neighborhood with. You would wake up and they would have 20 cars on their lawn plus additional cars on surrounding lawns. Trash, beer bottles and cans, etc. and they would keep you up until all hours, and they would sleep it off the next day. We all had to get up and go to work, get the kids to school, etc.
The police would come often enough, and truthfully, Lower Merion Township did not ignore calls from neighbors when the parties were too loud. But it was still a grandfathered off campus student rental.
Then, one day in November, right before Thanksgiving, the then slumlord landlord of that house at 20 Booth Lane called in an inexpensive roofer for some sort of repairs. It was a breezy/windy day and the roof caught fire. In a very short amount of time the upper floors of the house were completely engulfed.
I still remember the photo that was front and center in Main Line Media News. It is an amazing photo and was taken by Pete Bannan. A firefighter in the middle of the flames. Neighbors were so scared that day as firefighters battled flames because we were afraid embers would jump to neighboring roofs.
All of the college students from Villanova who lived in both halves of the duplex were absolutely obnoxious to residents but they lost everything that day. They were mostly seniors and they lost all of their belongings and college memories.
So it makes you wonder about the condition of off campus college rentals, doesn’t it?
If you have ever had a kid in college and you have had to pay for off-campus student housing, you know how these landlords gouge. For what they charge in rent it should be the Taj Mahal but it’s not. Maybe to a college student it’s the Taj Mahal because it’s their place, but usually pretty much overpriced dumps.
Bill Martin who is the manager of Tredyffrin, came from Radnor Township where he was an assistant manager, right? So he was familiar with how municipalities should keep an eye on off-campus student housing, right? But Mr. Martin came to this area from New York via Villanova University correct? So does he have a soft spot for Villanova off-campus student housing? It’s a valid concern, isn’t it?
Now Mr. Martin loves Tredyffrin and apparently lives in Tredyffrin, so I would find it hard to believe that he is not aware of the problems, faced by the residents of Mount Pleasant when it comes to off-campus student housing. and that includes when he was at Radnor Township, which tightened up the student housing ordinance around 2010, and he didn’t go to Bridgeport Borough until 2011, and then to Tredyffrin in 2012.
Tredyffrin didn’t have a student housing ordinance until 2010. I remember because I had friends in more than one area of that township plagued by off campus student houses. It wasn’t just Mount Pleasant. I remember a couple of neighborhoods off of Old Eagle School Road, for example.
There were a lot of meetings packed to the gills about this issue, because true different was initially so reticent to add a student housing ordinance. One of the people affected by an off-campus student house, popping up with someone I’ve known since I was a kid. And pretty much after the student housing ordinance was passed they sold their house and moved out of Tredyffrin. Upscale neighborhood with lovely gardens and backyard pools, but they wanted to be someplace on the Main Line where their investment in their home mattered.
Bill Martin and the Supervisors in Tredyffrin? It’s well past time to wake up and stop pretending there’s not a problem with this house and other off-campus student rentals. If you were elected or hired, it doesn’t really matter, Tredyffrin owes her residents more.
Do residents need to start packing meetings again? Probably. Especially from Mount Pleasant which although incredibly historic an area, has been utterly disenfranchised by Tredyffrin for more years than not.
So we all know that this land has been for sale on the edge of East Whiteland, but in West Whiteland. It is one of two parcels you can see on W. King Rd. This particular parcel is part of Johnson Matthey, or it was until today apparently. Eli Kahn, has purchased the land according to the Philadelphia Business Journal.
Some of us were talking about this parcel earlier today, because a friend of mine, saw a bobcat in the overgrown, weedy plot of land, clearing it, or doing something like clearing it.
I actually said to someone I don’t think it’s anything to worry about. I said maybe they’re finally just cleaning it up because it’s been for sale for so long. Well I should’ve known better, it’s been sold.
I will admit, as soon as I saw this article what I said out loud sitting here reading it was motherf—-er. Yes I said that. Loudly. I mean Christ almighty HOW MUCH MORE DEVELOPMENT? HOW MUCH MORE?
Because this is already the rumored developer sniffing around on that 15 acres behind old Phoenixville Pike across W. King Rd., isn’t it?
And let us not forget that the Weston tract is in play for fairly dense residential development still, even if West Whiteland said no to the last round of developer ideas. And Weston is for sure getting developed as something. And gosh a few pipelines run around there too, don’t they?
And let us not forget the hot mess up at Ship Road and Lancaster Avenue in West Whiteland. And the Ship Road Couplet.
The above photos are from September, 2023.
HOW MUCH DEVELOPMENT CAN WE SWALLOW?
Oh the Philadelphia Business Journal referred to Johnson Matthey as:
“Johnson Matthey, a specialty chemicals and sustainable technologies company that owns the adjacent parcel with an industrial building on it.”
Well that made me giggle. Johnson Matthey is like a born again virgin I suppose? Are we all supposed to forget they were among the successor companies to Bishop Tube that still toxic paradise on S. Malin Road in East Whiteland? Is it just coloring outside the lines to mention the little fact of life called a local area evacuation in 2011 because of a hydrogen trailer explosion at Johnson Matthey?
The Johnson Matthey plant and nearby homes in West Whiteland, Chester County, have been evacuated after a hydrogen trailer exploded this morning.
Action News reports one injured person was taken to Crozer Chester Medical Center in an unknown condition and King Road is shut down between Ravine and Phoenixville Pike.
The Red Cross is already on the scene and will be at the East Whiteland Fire Department to assist with a reception center.
Here is the official announcement from PEMA:
“An immediate evacuation is issued for West Whiteland Township in Chester County due to fire at Johnson Matthey Company. Residents in the area are to evacuate to East Whiteland Fire Company, 170 Planebrook Road, off Rt. 30 Frazer – evacuated roads include King Road, Ravine Road, Glen Loch Way and Lewis Lane. Residents needing assistance should call 610-344-5005. Motorists and pedestrians should avoid unnecessary travel within the perimeter of the area. Stay tuned to your local televison and radio network for updated information.”
So Johnson Matthey is still a site to watch so we assume Mr. Developer Man will have this just purchased the land at Phoenixville Pike and West King Road tested for toxic chemicals? Because there is that worry somewhat, right? Even if that goes industrial there?
So we really do need to think about this here. Traffic is already hard. There is RESIDENTIAL up and down King Road on BOTH sides of Phoenixville/Old Phoenixville Pikes.
There is residential already suffering on Ship Road.
And warehouses? Now they want to Amazon us over here? So other types of commercial real estate (offices)! aren’t moving so they are trying everywhere to dump it or convert it to residential and in Tredyffrin, to a school, but is residential really, really moving that fast? And then what’s left? Why warehouses and hydrogen hubs and data farms/data centers, right?
And where does that leave us suckers I mean residents? Those of us who lived here before developers, saw something juicy up the road or two roads over or three roads over or another township over?
What are our rights as residents of Chester County and these various municipalities? it’s like we have no rights and I don’t know about you, but I’m goddamn tired of it. We work hard to have our homes and to raise our families in a specific area and one by one every area is getting targeted by developers and none of these developers, or anything, other than predatory in my humble opinion, and I can have that humble opinion.
This is why, yet again, the Municipalities Planning Code of the Commonwealth of freaking Pennsylvania needs to be updated COMPREHENSIVELY. I mean come on you. Lovely politicians in Harrisburg. You haven’t done a comprehensive update since 1969 and I know you’re saying why rush but your constituents are saying it’s time.
God damnit it’s every day some other developer or some other plan. It’s exhausting and depressing. So I wonder, did this particular developer run out of places to build in West Chester Borough so he’s coming over to this part of the county?
These developers don’t care about any of the communities they come into. They just care about their profit margins. Where we live are just lines on a balance sheet.
So I’m sure I don’t have to remind this developer that my opinions are courtesy of my First Amendment Rights and residents do have some rights all around this proposed location?
Chester County is dying people. Dying.
Overdevelopment of any kind in this county needs to be an election issue for 2024. On every level of elected office from Harrisburg, PA to Washington DC.
The problem here as I see it is well there was overdevelopment in office space. Then overdevelopment in residential shoehorn development. But now the overdevelopment in office space has commercial property owners sweating some, maybe? So now they want to change the zoning so they can further exploit an area with more of a type of residential development existing resident do NOT want more of, they want LESS in the way of cram plans, fewer apartment buildings.
This is the shittiest development idea in a while in East Whiteland, and there always seems to be a parade of bad plans here as well as in neighboring municipalities, don’t there? This is a super problematic location already. It’s next to a rather accident prone area having to do with 202 doesn’t it?
It’s another big chunk of apartment buildings. East Whiteland is NOT King of Prussia but it sure looks like it, doesn’t it? What is wrong with stand alone single family housing not in McMansion price ranges? Not that housing of ANY kind is good here. As a matter of fact it’s a greedy dumb ass idea. There I said it out loud. According to Loop Net, it says the property is for sale as is commercial. DON’T CONVERT IT TO RESIDENTIAL!
Among other things allow me to point out that East Whiteland Township has no as in zero rental ordinances. Properties might get inspected if they change hands in a sale, but unless there is a known life safety issue, buildings aren’t routinely inspected. Or if it’s so decrepit on the outside it can’t be ignored, it might be inspected. There are SO many apartments now and renters as much as anyone else deserve safe places to live and a rental inspection ordinance would help with that.
The agenda item says “Presentation and Discussion for 52 Swedesford Road (Tri-Point Properties).”
That name. Tri Point Properties. I knew I had heard it before, so I researched. They are in Downingtown and around 2015 they wanted to develop a Borough of Downingtown parking lot into an Eastside Flats kind of monstrosity, didn’t they? It created quite a stink back then. Josh Maxwell would have been mayor then.
Developers come in and out of these townships. They take their profits, give a short term one time high of ratables and then they are onto their next project, leaving municipalities holding the bag. More apartments means more stresses on aching infrastructure which includes human beings as in first responders, not just roads, etc.
And what about the schools? How long before it’s Great Valley East and Great Valley West? Just look to neighboring districts, it is something that might need to happen if development is not moderated.
However what do I think? I think East Whiteland’s Planning Commission will say yes to this, because I just do not think they get that when they can say no, they should once in a while and not entertain nonsense.
Here are the names of the Planning Commission members. Feel free to reach out to them if you are against this if you do know any of them:
My final bone of contention is the planning commission has made Zoom disappear. That is a mistake and not very sunshine friendly. If they don’t wish to do Zoom, at a minimum the meetings should be recorded and put on East Whiteland’s website and You Tube. It’s more sunshine friendly.
I would suggest as many turn out in person as possible for this meeting. But it’s East Whiteland so you just don’t know if anyone will attend.
Carpe Diem, East Whiteland residents. If you don’t want to live in King of Prussia it’s time to start attending meetings and speaking up in general. Don’t be complacent. Say no to further becoming a King of Prussia cloneship.
The first Planning Commission meeting for West Whiteland Township was January 9th, but I missed it. The topic was that old folks development planned for Boot Road kind of on top of the Mariner East/SuNOco/Energy Transfer. Literally. Just put the address into the county pipeline interactive map.
I was concerned about this before as were many, many people. Which is why I was glad West Whiteland Supervisors didn’t just green light the plan 100% before. Among other things, there is no safety plan in the event of a pipeline emergency. We are talking elderly people, with any range of issues and that includes memory as in Alzheimer’s. It’s bad enough the pipeline runs super close to seniors in those places in East Goshen because the places were already built before Mariner East/SuNOco/Energy Transfer came through in recent years.
Yes, we’ve all lived mostly ok with petroleum pipelines. This is different. It’s more can go boom and will do so rather quickly and has the ability to cause incredible amounts of damage to life and property. Many of us, myself included live in blast zones for one pipeline or the other, so why built for at risk humans on top of a pipeline essentially?
Anyway since I missed the meeting I asked West Whiteland if I could have the zoom link. It’s a public meeting and publicly recorded so if you cannot go in person or attend the zoom portion, you CAN request to view it. (CLICK HERE) I will note again, that I requested the meeting like anyone else can. I have to point this out since people seem to think I actually run various townships with my blogging superpowers or get extra special treatment which makes me howl with laughter at the sheer absurdity of it. The truth is regular people have rights, and you can ask questions and ask to view public meeting recordings. The other truth is I am one opinion, one woman, why so fixated?
At first the meeting seemed pleasant enough and they welcomed a new member, Ginny Kerslake. If you click on below, turn up volume or watch entire meeting.
Now I make no secret that Ginny is one of my favorite people. I am very happy to see her on the Planning Commission in West Whiteland. There used to be another lady on it, but that committee runs itself like a boys’ club and often their attitude in general leaves a lot to be desired, so I have to wonder if that is why she is no longer there? I think some of them prefer those of us in the female species to be seen and not heard. I am sure I am on that list for expressing my opinion on things before them.
This plan IMHO is still a fool’s errand. I don’t object to senior living facilities, but plans that are kind of bad….are just kind of bad. What makes THIS plan bad? Location and proximity to pipelines. That would be Item 9 being referred to a lot in the recording. I also think it’s too close to the road etc. It’s an awkward location all the way around, if most of us are honest, and no matter what happens, we can indeed think that.
That is kind of a BIG item (emergency plan) to NOT be addressed when submitting plan again or whatever, isn’t it? And Ginny Kerslake expressed the SAME concerns she expressed as an ordinary resident the LAST time this plan came up. And wow the rush of Male Chauvinist Planning in the room was something else. And mansplaining. Oy the mansplaining.
One of the chief voices on the recording I think was West Whiteland Planning Commission Vice Chair Mark Gordon. Why do I say that? The East Goshen and pipeline references. You see, Mr. Gordon was an employee of East Goshen Zoning Officer /Director of Codes until some point in in 2022. I guess he retired? Do they miss his sparkling know it all personality? He might not like that I said this, but it’s not illegal and I am just a silly woman, right?
Anywhoooo, a couple of those voices on the recording who were NOT anyone representing the applicant were horrible IMHO. So the other blue meanie I think was a guy named Jeff on the Planning Commission? Why are he and the Vice Chair so full of themselves anyway? Did I miss something? I have known quite a few men and women on planning commissions in various municipalities throughout the years and a lot of them have quite frankly amazing resumes and they didn’t behave so poorly even if they didn’t agree with the public, so what gives?
The representatives of the applicant was quite pleasant throughout, I thought….and this can’t have been fun for them since they still don’t have a safety plan, right?
Here’s the 411 mansplaining Planning Commission members: you don’t know everything, no one has to kiss your rings. Yes, I am saying once again I am not fond of West Whiteland’s Planning Commission boys’ club. I have encountered it with other meetings and their obvious disdain for residents and neighbors and non residents and neighbors kind of just goes on. And it should NOT. If they don’t want to play nicely with residents etc., why are they there? That was Ginny Kerslake’s first meeting, so what is the objective? To beat her to a pulp verbally and will this continue every meeting moving forward? And point of fact, the Planning Commission has a liaison from the Board of Supervisors and why didn’t he calm the tone? He could have, it would have been most appropriate.
It’s funny, this coming week Willistown Township deals with the decorum of residents speaking at meetings. It seems West Whiteland needs to do the same with some of the Planning Commission members towards residents and seemingly women on their own board? I think it’s pretty pathetic but who am I but a mere mortal and female?
The biggest problem with certain West Whiteland Planning Commission members after mansplaining and dismissive atty-tudes is that they seem to think that if they make a recommendation it should be Gospel. They are an advisory board only. And I am glad Ginny Kerslake is there now because she will shake things up in a POSITIVE manner. I may or may not agree with her decisions while serving, but I will rest assured as will all West Whiteland residents that she LISTENS and does her HOMEWORK.
So yeah, boys’ club, I will get out the popcorn. And while I am waiting for the next mansplain be rude to female commission members occasion, I will take a moment to upload other agendas and some related screen shots where this Columbia Cottage thing has been discussed or other pipelines + elderly dwelling areas. It goes back to 2020 and I don’t even think I found them all. But seriously boys, what are you recommending for approval when all that time there hasn’t yet been a safety plan? How will you be when the plans for Church Farm Lane which will be Hershey’s Mill- like comes up? Maybe man babies, it is time to check your egos at the door and remember WHY you are SUPPOSED to be there?
You won’t like my opinions here, but am I completely wrong? I don’t think so.
I just can’t even with East Goshen. I just don’t want to believe they’re turning into one of those townships,that need constant watching yet here we are aren’t we ?
It’s dumb stuff from the procedurally wonky, to being utterly miserable to residents, to wondering what the else they are up to? The meeting this week was quite the revelation. I don’t want to say this new combo chair and vice chair are skirting the phrase “power trip,” but are they?
Oh East Goshen, really? The term is not abstaining, it’s recusal. If you are going to recuse yourself from something, then you don’t continue to run the meeting you get your rump off of the dais and you leave the room until that item is finished. Good Lord, from claiming 100% transparency and inclusiveness at this meeting to this, they all should’ve been given Roberts Rules of Order for a New Year’s gift.
Madame Chair shouldn’t wish to be a little bit preggers here politically, correct?
⬆️ This snippet above is yet another interesting snippet from the most recent East Goshen Township meeting. This is a public meeting so people can record off of recordings and while watching. You kind of have to if sunshine is becoming an issue because things just disappear or then you can’t hear them or something right?
My favorite part about this comes at the end when that ever so delightfully charming vice chair basically says they have to kind of defund their police. Why not cut other areas? There are lots of things with budgets, correct? I mean what is really wrong with the finances in East Goshen Township that they don’t want to pay their police force to protect and serve? It doesn’t seem like the police force is asking for anything outrageous does it? Or did I miss something?
⬆️ Once again see above. This is a very curious business with East Goshen and are they literally trying to get rid of incumbent Township volunteers of the registered Democrat persuasion by changing up how they appoint people to boards? And the magical sudden appearance of people interested for one committee in particular when other committees can’t dig up a dead body to serve? Really?
And in particular wait for the end and listen to the vice chair, essentially kind of threatening or maybe it’s just harassing harangue a resident who has served East Goshen Township for years? Talk about conduct unbecoming in a public official. That guy should resign, or maybe stand at the end of his driveway and hand out plastic bags all day?
Yes I am totally serious here about resigning. And he might not like my opinion, but I am entitled to it under the United States Constitution that he likes to believe in so much.
Threatening either overtly or perceived threatening is not a good look especially with a female resident/sitting committee member during a meeting with “come to the township in person and we’ll go at it” is something this township needs to take seriously, don’t you think? Vice Chair Jon Hertzog should realize that you can’t speak to any resident this way, and does he have an issue with women in particular? Need sensitivity tracing much?
East Goshen seems to be, well, delaminating. I actually feel sorry for the three newest supervisors.
Now, so people don’t go all hooting and hollering about me sharing snippets and not the whole video from East Goshen, at bottom their meeting and it’s entirety as posted by them on YouTube.
And for goodness sake stop saying “Zoom Room.” It’s cringey. Every time Madame Chair says that I keep waiting for a disco ball to drop or something.
Our history and our identity as a country, and as a region, is tied directly to William Penn. He came here with people to settle in Pennsylvania the state that was named for him to escape religious and other persecution.
So here we are a few centuries later and it’s like we’re right back where we started.
To remove him from anything is egregious. And YES I get that the Daily Mail and other sources are perhaps being alarmist, but this is my opinion on the matter because I truly believe that this could indeed happen.
Why can’t different parts of history co-exist? Why does some history have to be suppressed in favor of other pieces of history?
And before some of you jump all over me for daring to have an opinion on this, my thought process is simple: if we deny or repress history (which is not always pretty), we are doomed to repeat the mistakes of the past.
And to remove William Penn when he had historically good relationships with Native Americans makes no sense. To me it runs contrary to the history of William Penn completely. If he could co-exist peacefully with Native Americans hundreds of years ago why does he have to not as a part of history not be able to co-exist with Native American history on this historic site?
History is good, history is bad, history is history. We can’t just keep replacing history. It all needs to be there for us. It’s how we grow as human beings and Americans. Oh and I am saying this as a woman, a Democrat, a Pennsylvanian, a Philadelphian.
By Stephen M. Lepore For Dailymail.Com00:11 08 Jan 2024, updated 00:44 08 Jan 2024
The Biden administration’s National Park Service is starting a ‘rehabilitation’ process for a Pennsylvania park that incudes the removal of a statue of founder William Penn and inclusion of representation of Native American tribes.
The Deb Haaland-led parks service sent out the request for input on the changes to Welcome Park Friday on their website and in a post on X.
Penn, the founder of Pennsylvania in 1681, was notorious for his amicable relations with the Native tribes of the region. The park was established 300 years later.
The park itself is named after the ship Penn sailed to America and includes a museum dedicated to celebrating the life and contributions of William Penn.
However, the parks service says it wants to ‘provide a more welcoming, accurate, and inclusive experience for visitors.’
The National Park Service (NPS) has announced it will be rehabilitating (via reduction) Pennsylvania founder William Penn’s Welcome Park to “provide a more welcoming, accurate, and inclusive experience.” Named after the ship that bore Penn to that city of fraternal affection, the park is the site of his former Philadelphia home and the Slate Roof House. As part of this reimagining of Welcome Park, the park service has confirmed that “the Penn statue and Slate Roof house model will be removed and not installed.”
Needless to say, this is all very stupid.
Two things:
One, it’s true that Welcome Park is monumentally ugly — if no one said it, I will. It’s a slab of stonework (composing a street plan for Philadelphia) with the approximate footprint of a Division III high-school gymnasium in the middle of a city block. The spot could use a rethink to maximize the importance of a location that held the Slate Roof House, an abode in which the Quaker William Penn wrote his charter, a document that would see many of its tenets replicated in the U.S. Constitution. The location also hosted members of the Continental Congress, including John Hancock and John Adams.
Two, just because something might be in need of reinterpretation does not mean that progressive revisionists get carte blanche to “inclusify” benches and fire hydrants with Howard Zinnian signage while deleting the only two items of note — the Penn statue and the model house. Why not rebuild the Slate Roof House and keep the statue in its front entry? Or make a model ship and house, something interactive for kids to mess while maybe even learning something?
Ahhhh the sweet smell of hypocrisy and Jesús take the wheel (because someone has to.)
This morning PoliticsPA got me on a post on Twitter. I read and stopped. And thought no way these Klanned Karenhood types couldn’t be so stupid. Then I clicked.
Now Clairice as we know is part of the witch hunts in public schools, and they can call themselves what the want, they are all Klanned Karenhood on their bus. And she’s a buddy of Beth Ann Rosica of West Chester. And they have a podcast…or HAD. It seems to have died. (Well there is another Moms in the Middle Podcast, so who knows?) Will Beth Ann be on her defense team?
Now that is definitely special and well how does podcast buddy Beth Ann feel about this news today I wonder? How does anyone feel?
Here is this woman tell all of us how she feels education should be with dark money behind her and there is this news?
Hypocritical much? (Complete docket to date is next)
This is like the Florida news with the head of the Florida GOP and co-founder of Moms for Liberty and their ménage à trois and sexual assault issues, isn’t it?
Florida GOP Chair Christian Ziegler, husband of Moms for Liberty cofounder, accused of sexual assault by alleged menage a trois lover by Bob Norman | Nov 30, 2023 | Featured News
Christian Ziegler, Florida’s GOP chairman and husband of Sarasota County School Board member and Moms for Liberty co-founder Bridget Ziegler, is under criminal investigation after a woman filed a complaint with the Sarasota Police Department alleging the longtime Republican official had raped her, according to a heavily redacted police report obtained by the Florida Trident.
The complaint was filed on October 4 and the alleged sexual battery occurred inside the woman’s home in Sarasota on October 2, according to the report. Among the few words that went unredacted in the report are “rape” and “sexual assault complaint.”
[UPDATE, Dec 1: Both the woman and Bridget Ziegler independently told police they had engaged with Christian Ziegler in a three-way sexual encounter more than a year before the incident, according to a search warrant in the case released late Friday. Bridget Ziegler was expected to show up at the victim’s home for a threesome planned on the day of the incident, according to police, but was unable to make it.]
The incident under investigation by Sarasota police occurred when Christian Ziegler and the woman were alone at the woman’s house, without Bridget Ziegler present, the sources conveyed. …The Zieglers are one of Florida’s top political power couples in the GOP. Christian Ziegler is a longtime Republican Party official who served as vice chairman of the state party prior to his election as chair in February. Prior to that he was a Sarasota County Commissioner who ran on a “family values” platform.
Bridget Ziegler has become a star within the MAGA movement who was personally endorsed for her school board seat by Florida Governor and Republican presidential candidate Ron DeSantis, who also appointed her in March to the state board that oversees the special district previously overseen by Disney World prior to DeSantis’s politically motivated feud with the entertainment company.
She is perhaps best known as the cofounder of the right-wing group Moms for Liberty, which has supported book bans in public schools across the country. Bridget Ziegler personally helped lay the groundwork for DeSantis’ Florida Parental Rights In Education Act (known as the “Don’t Say Gay” law) that disallows instruction on “sexual orientation or gender identity” in kindergarten through the third grade. She stood behind DeSantis as he signed the bill.
Following in the Moms For Liberty model, Ziegler has been a leading anti-trans activist and “critical race theory” opponent who has said her aim is to bring “religious values” into public schools that she claims are “indoctrination centers for the radical left.”
Can we all admit an uncomfortable, but obvious truth?
Spoiler alert: This is the part where sex canoodles with politics and more pointedly, hypocrisy.
When you learned holier-than-thou Florida Republican Party Chairman Christian Ziegler, his sanctimonious wife, Sarasota School Board member Bridget Ziegler and a yet unnamed other woman had engaged in thrupleism your first reaction was somewhere along the lines of: (A) Oh now, we’re doomed (B) Yeah, so?, (C) Duh.
By now we have all pretty well figured out the greater the Bible-thumping in the hands of a pol, the greater the likelihood we’re merely one grope away from a Jerry Springer Show moment.
In time, we’ll find out if Chairman Ziegler did indeed sexually assault the unnamed woman. He has denied raping the woman, and an investigation is underway. But we do know the Zieglers and the woman consummated the friendship on at least one occasion about a year before the alleged crime occurred. And we have also learned Ziegler, who chairs a party that loves to caterwaul about “family values,” recorded the liaison.
What might we call this cinematic achievement? “Bridget Does Sarasota”?
It’s probably worth reminding everyone, it was Bridget Ziegler who was a founder of “Moms for Liberty,” which is sort of the template for the worst next-door neighbor from hell who roots through your garbage and tells everyone how many wine bottles are in your trash.
Mrs. Ziegler inveighed against anything remotely gay showing up on school library shelves. Moms for Liberty promoted parental control in schools and championed traditional values. Who knew “traditional values” included setting up a ménage à trois, unless you’re Madonna?
Almost immediately after the salacious and potentially criminal revelations went public Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis took a brief break from his presidential delusion tour to call for Christian Ziegler to step down as state GOP chairman…..After all, the notion of a powerful (for now) phony couple getting funky with an added member to the team hardly tarnishes the brand of a political party that has shown all the moral spine of Shakespeare’s Iago meets George Santos. The House of Representatives is now lead by Louisiana’s Mike Johnson an evangelical Christian who has managed to invoke God’s name even when he orders coffee….
By Trump’s standards on what passes for morality, Mr. and Mrs. Ziegler come off as The Beaver’s parents. “Say, Mrs. Cleaver, you look lovely in that bustier.”
Did the Zieglers get somewhat frisky? Sure. Are they shameless hypocrites? This is even a question?
But they are merely loyal footsie soldiers in a party populated by the sleazy likes of Matt Gaetz, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Lauren “The Fondler” Boebert and perhaps the best for last, Jim Jordan, who has steadfastly declined to cooperate with an investigation into the sexual assault of Ohio State University wrestlers by a team doctor when he was a coach….
The condescending, self-righteous Christian and Bridget Ziegler aren’t extreme outliers in the Republican Party. They are simply a mirror reflecting an enabling GOP that long ago lost its way when it willingly appeased its worst figure.
Well, okay, this mirror is glued to a ceiling, but you get the idea.
Well this is an interesting turn of events, is it not? The ranks of Klanned Karenhood no matter what they call themselves are problematic, aren’t they? Burning question to end with is does Clarice also enjoy a good chianti and fava beans?
