I hate to sound nostalgic (AKA old!), but I fondly remember when the USPS managed to deliver mail REGULARLY. We — and our neighbors — have had no mail delivered since Tuesday, and that batch included only some of the mail that had been scheduled to land on Monday, when our carrier was also a no-show.
Because you can receive a daily email from USPS that shows images of what is scheduled to arrive in your box each day, it has been rather unsettling to see how many items qualify as missing. Well, the mystery has been solved.
This morning, my husband decided to pay a visit to the actual post office, after efforts to contact a human by phone went nowhere. A worker explained that the postal manager for the West Chester region issued an edict recently to deal with the agency’s short staffing: surreptitiously skipping delivery days. She said the office needs 80 carriers to handle the load: It has 40. As a result, she said we should expect to see a delivery every 2 or 3 days.
I guess the idea of notifying customers about the worker shortage wasn’t part of the plan. Would it really have been too difficult to put a notice in people’s boxes on their lucky delivery day? Perhaps some publicity about this problem would help solve it. Sigh. End of rant, but curious about whether this is happening in other areas.
~ Chester County Resident # 1
Now this is the second such tale in less than a week.
I have you on my mailing list but my mailman hasn’t been seen for five days. I was told that he had health problems but there were no replacements. Also, PO closed in town. So I will try for Christmas card instead.
~ Chester County Resident # 2
My second friend lives in the Borough of West Chester. She works from home and is self employed and well…mail is kind of essential.
So Louis De Joy you plastic arsehole, where’s the mail? Santa might want to deliver the Christmas cards himself I guess?
It’s time for Washington to deal with this. We need our mail. This is happening all over. It’s bullshit.
What if this rundown house was your only choice for a home?
I am not deliberately trying to pick on East Whiteland Township no matter what some may think. But unlike many other municipalities (and I have been checking), East Whiteland does not have a person or people to regularly and routinely inspect rental properties in this township. They do not even have enough fire personnel to do all the life safety checks on rentals do they? (Asking the question because I heard there were people paid to do that I thought once upon a time out of the fire department or something?)
West Goshen (for example) has a rental property ordinance online. They have someone dedicated to rental inspections. That is in addition to the guys in the zoning department who inspect when the township gets complaints on rental properties.
The Borough of West Chester also has an ordinance and I am told as well as two dedicated rental property inspectors although residents say there are so many rentals they need more.
East Whiteland has a Rental Occupancy Report from 1992. I also found a form to fill out if you have a rental property. It mentions life safety, which is great and necessary. But I do not see anything about specific ordinances pertaining to rental properties and inspections of rental properties. And it is long past time to have that. East Whiteland is growing as a township and has grown exponentially in recent years. Does this township even know out of ALL of the new construction that is complete how many are rental units? And with ALL of the development still in the works and in various stages of construction, let’s get real, they are not all going to be owner occupied, aren’t some of these places going to be rentals? And what about the hotels? Are some of those like long term rentals at times? Sometimes when people can’t find housing they live in hotels/motels don’t they? Motor home parks? Trailer parks? No matter where the rental, shouldn’t people be safe?
Deception, coercion, recruitment, and abduction are just some of the tools of trade for traffickers.
Trafficking in America is a billion-dollar business in all 50 states, where women, children, and men are being exploited; their lives of no value other than the profits they earn.
Where sex trafficking can occur:
Moving around in your daily life, in the city, suburbs, rural areas
Transportation systems: Septa, Uber, and Lyft
Brothels (houses), motels, and major hotel chains
Escort services
Bars, strip clubs, high-end baller parties
Online via social media, such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter
The stretch of Lancaster Ave/Route 30/Lincoln Highway where these rentals exist is a no man’s land. No one sees the people who live there, not because they aren’t visible but because people don’t want to see them. Mostly immigrant, with little choice in housing. And by culture, used to living in close quarters. So one would think rental inspections along that strip and elsewhere would make sense, right? So everyone was safe?
According to Patch, “The apartments used were at street addresses 483, 577 and 609 Lancaster Ave. in East Whiteland Township…”
Someone sent me screenshots off ChescoViews and Google Earth I guess it was (I am not very good at using Chesco Views):
This stretch of Lancaster is the one that looks so desolate and run down when you drive by except for the too many cars on the D’Ambrosio property (one of the sites of human trafficking right?):
People always ask how East Whiteland can be focused on this grand future of over-development without “seeing” these properties or their residents. During COVID19 especially when we were all at home, you couldn’t help but see as soon as the weather warmed up how many people live in these rental properties alone. I have also had people tell me in confidence that there are some awfully crammed rental properties in some of the townhouse developments.
So….maybe it is time for East Whiteland to look at this differently? They need an updated local ordinance on rental properties right? And I think they need a full time inspector of rental properties and possibly more staff, like maybe a part time one.
East Whiteland needs this NOW, yesterday and into the future. They have to find the money to have proper inspectors because I doubt there enough in the Fire Marshall category, and how much work are they supposed to do anyway? Aren’t they already stretched thin?
So you know how the fire by the Wawa was December 2016? How about that building which is uninhabitable has just sat there and rotted since then? Seriously here are some photos taken over the past few years (a real slum lord special, right?):
Photos taken between 2017 and 2020
I was a renter for years. Face it, a lot of us were, and some still are. Would you want to live in any of these properties? What if you had no other choice? And were these landlords in the human trafficking locations 100% oblivious as to what was going on?
I also want everyone to know as per my sources, the East Whiteland Police Department truly went above and beyond the call of duty with this. It wasn’t just this girl messaging family that went into this. For a smaller department by comparison to large cities and boroughs, they put lots of man and woman power into this.
East Whiteland Police Department did exhaustive investigation and follow-up and coordinating with all different kinds of other agencies and states and it really does show their dedication to our community. These men and women should be publicly recognized for their efforts. In a time when police departments are being criticized, these men and women deserve to be commended. Ok yes, this is the job they sign up for, but this is huge. Or in my humble opinion it is. And kudos to our Chester County District Attorney as well.
I have many questions regarding human trafficking an how it happened. I will be curious to learn if the families of these girls who were rescued had ever reported them missing? If they did not, why not? Immigration fears or something darker? I ask because if my kid was missing I would leave no stone un-turned.
However I think we need to work as an extended community to prevent these things from happening and I think that means they need to have a system in place in East Whiteland Township and elsewhere in which rental properties are routinely and regularly inspected. Everybody’s been talking about this strip of rental properties in particular for years it’s nothing new. And East Whiteland like many other municipalities in Chester County are experiencing crazy amounts of development and growth. Why not have developers who want to be in our communities chip into programs like this? Isn’t it kind of part of infrastructure and municipal services? I mean it’s all great that mythical theory of build it and they will come but who keeps track once the developers have gotten their money out of sites and moved on?
I am calling on people in East Whiteland and Chester County to contact East Whiteland Township and ANY OTHER TOWNSHIP that does not have proper rental property ordinances and inspectors to catch up with the times. A lot of municipalities like East Whiteland are experiencing growth that is off the charts. Renters deserve safe places to live. Low income residents deserve truly affordable housing and safe housing.
Be safe out there. Thanks for stopping by.
Residential rental Properties along Route 30 Malvern. Not all that exist.
All balloon photos in this post are courtesy of Lee Ann Embrey and used with permission.
So balloons are kind of part of Chester County. Or they will be until there isn’t enough open space left for them to land.
My friend Barry owns US Flag Balloon, Space Shuttle Balloon, & Flighthouse Balloon. (They have a website and you can find them on Facebook too!) I have flown in his American Flag balloon on 9/11 before. It’s amazing.
All balloon photos in this post are courtesy of Lee Ann Embrey and used with permission.
Anyway yesterday they took the Space Shuttle Balloon up with some other ballooners. It was a perfect flight with a textbook safe landing as you can see from the photos one of my friends took, and well the video 6ABC and PHL17 published stories on their TV newscast talking of a Chester County balloon crash?
OMG 6abc Action News ! SERIOUSLY?? Do you even vet your viewer submitted stories for truth or accuracy? I know the pilot and balloon owner. That wasn’t “an emergency landing” , that was a plain old end of flight. (I can’t say much about PHL 17 because I did not see that report.)
They fly from point A to point B, land, and the ground chase team helps pack up the balloon and they are on their way.
All balloon photos in this post are courtesy of Lee Ann Embrey and used with permission.
Again, I flew in his American Flag balloon on 9/11 once. My husband and son were part of the ground chase team. Maybe you should APOLOGIZE and CORRECT the record for US Flag Balloon, Space Shuttle Balloon, & Flighthouse Balloon? If you were really nice maybe they would take you up for a ride sometime.
There was NO emergency here. Oy vey no wonder people complain about #FakeNews because this IS fake news.
Barry and company are all fine, and weather permitting the American Flag will be flying tomorrow (weather permitting and here is the event information on Facebook.)
When we saw the news (those of us who didn’t get a chance to watch the balloon go up, at first because of the “story” we thought our friend had crashed.
Not cool Action News, not cool at all.
All balloon photos in this post are courtesy of Lee Ann Embrey and used with permission.
This is what community looks like. This is what it truly looks like when people come together for a greater good, and to support friends and neighbors.
Geoff Partridge is still missing.
Last evening it was bitter cold down on the Schuylkill, and still they came one by one to Flat Rock Park in Gladwyne for the Candlelight Vigil for Geoff Partridge. People who could not be there lit candles in their own home and posted photos on the event page.
A candle in Phoenix, AZ burned brightly last night during the Gladwyne, PA vigil. Courtesy photo from candlelight vigil for Geoff Partridge event page.
Last night you saw an example of the best kind of humanity. It’s the week before Christmas, and I don’t know about you but I’m praying for a Christmas miracle.
If you know anything concerning the whereabouts of Geoff Partridge please contact police.
And Philadelphia area media? Especially the television stations? Would it kill you to keep showing Geoff’s face on TV? I have seen what you have done with other missing persons, so please help his family out.
Lower Merion Township? I realize you all are not happy with this publicly but this is someone’s friend, son, husband, family member, neighbor and so on. And you know what? If this was someone beloved in your families these people would do the same for you. That is the thing about this community. I have seen it over the years.
True community like this is magical. Seeing these photos made tears well up in my eyes.
The one warehouse sale I went to in the 90s after brand was revived, was a free for all with grown women behaving like savage beasts over the dresses and clothes my mother and her friends all wore when we were growing up along with other lines like Vested Gentress which had more whimsical patterns. (Vested Gentress incidentally was manufactured right in Valley Forge PA between 1961 and 1985. Personally, I always liked Vested Gentress better.)
At the one solitary warehouse I attended women were doing arm swoops and taking entire rows of clothes off racks and elbowing people literally for clothes. I remember one woman with an empty baby stroller that she was tossing clothes into. And then there was the cattle call dressing room section of the warehouse. It was like a Loehmann’s dressing room where you all got shoved in at once. Only my friend and I were almost scarred for life by the woman who had the red thong and bad suntan pantyhose on (it was really funny, sorry.)
That was a one and done experience and the new Lilly wasn’t half the quality of the old Lilly. The old Lilly had fabric and lining that had some weight to them. They stood up to summer weather. The fabric also lasted, which is why you can still find a lot of vintage Lilly.
Once the brand revived in the 1990s, in my opinion it cheapened a little and I have noticed that some more since it was sold again in 2010 to Oxford Industries. The other thing is this: Lilly has become well regular. It’s everywhere now like overpriced Old Navy so why get so jazzed about it?
At the Lilly for Target debacle in April you had the Target website crash, stampedes in Target stores and unpleasantness that ended up with a whole lot of the cheaper line of Lilly for Target in eBay at quadruple the original selling price. And for what? So a lot of women could show up at parties all wearing the same dress. Truly, it happened a couple weeks ago at a friend’s college reunion – five women from different areas of the country showed up in the same Lilly halter neck dress with a hot pink and blue patterned fabric. I didn’t like uniforms back in the day but that was school and the idea of walking into a room and having a bunch of women wearing my dress? No thank you.
Lilly originally popped when style and fashion icon and first lady Jacqueline Kennedy started wearing Lilly Pulitzer in the 1960s. Jackie O as she was later known wore Lilly into the 1980s until Pulitzer mothballed the operation in 1984. Jackie and Lilly had been either schoolmates or classmates at Miss Chapin’s School in NYC.
So Lilly became this status of sorts. It was even mentioned in the Preppy Handbook. In the hey day of original Lilly you would see ladies from the Vanderbilt, Rockefeller, Whitney and other legendary society families wearing Lilly at appropriate times of year.
I remember my mother wearing Lilly when we were growing up. Not a lot, just a few pieces. In particular I remember a couple of pairs of summer slacks that she would wear. They were so obnoxious a pattern that I remember a man in the grocery store (total stranger) saying “I bet your husband can never lose you in those pants”. (She didn’t wear them as often after that.)
My friends and I wore Lilly growing up and into our 20s and 30s when we would hunt the vintage down before it started to get as hotly collectible as certain baseball cards. A big debut time every year for Lilly was the Devon Horse Show as a matter of fact.
But as new Lilly progressed and more and more Lilly stores opened and more and more retailers started carrying Lilly all over the place we just kind of stopped. The prices were crazy, the fabrics and designs not as good as the original line and most importantly too many people were wearing it. And it is an age appropriate line these days too. It’s geared towards younger women in my opinion as opposed to original Lilly which was just geared towards women who liked a certain style.
But the historical status symbol of Lilly drove some women I know to check out the warehouse sale this week. My one friend snapped a shot of the sale yesterday and said their was a FIVE hour wait in line. She said she had no idea it would be like that and left.
Then up pops this thing on the local news last evening and this morning. Women who had waited for hours were abruptly shut out of the sale for “re-stocking”. Huh? Sounds like when there are lines of clothing manufactured just for outlet shoppers doesn’t it?
Call it a case of retail rage – instead of paisley and pink, shoppers were seeing a deep shade of red after the first day of a Lilly Pulitzer warehouse sale ended abruptly early.”I’ve never had a problem getting in the first day of the sale,” said Cathy Hedegard.Upset shoppers attending the Lilly Pulitzer warehouse sale wanted answer after they were told the doors were closing early on Thursday night.The annual sale is at the Greater Philadelphia Expo Center in Oaks, Montgomery County….It attracts people from all over the country – like Anni Carroll. She drove 10 hours from Charlotte and waited in line with her three children but didn’t get in”It’s extremely frustrating. I have three children under three with me. They were not allowed to use the bathroom inside – they closed the doors and wouldn’t let anyone in,” said Carroll.”The security guards are actually videotaping us thinking it’s kind of funny which is not,” said Joanne Resendiz.
And even more bizarrely was watching the television report which showed upset on the verge of tears women all outraged they could not get in because they “support” Lilly like a line of clothing has cult status. Maybe OLD Lilly, but new?
My favorite and the winner of the what-the-hell-were-you-thinking-Mother-of -the-year was the woman on camera being interviewed who drove TEN hours to be at the sale. All the way from Charlotte, North Carolina with THREE children under THREE for a clothing sale. Whhhhaaaatt? How much Lilly was she going to buy that she drove TEN hours with three LITTLE kids who couldn’t even go to the bathroom anywhere? That is simply astounding.
Forgedddaboutit.
I don’t know about you, but no way no how. Nothing is worth this drama. Especially when you see it everywhere like Baby Gap. Sorry. This latest Lilly silliness shows exactly why it is time for a lot of women to find something else to wear. The Lilly for Target debacle was bad enough, let alone drama over a warehouse sale.
And somehow this Lilly doesn’t strike me as what the original Lilly intended. Ladies save your pennies. Unless it is vintage Lilly it’s not so Lilly anymore.
Maybe I am post -surgical cranky, but I want to hear from State Senator Andy Dinniman and others on this.
I just had a WTF moment when a friend of mine texted me to let me know that the Chester County SPCA fired her (again) today. And oh yeah, they used the West Goshen Police Department to do it.
I am about to almost use a bad word: BULLSH*T
Once you get past the whole how-do-you-fire-volunteers of it all, I am stuck with how is it the Chester County SPCA continues to use a local police force like their own private security detail?????? (And yes my friend gave me one of the badge numbers but I am not disclosing this here as it is not the officer’s fault.)
Who is paying for this??? Are taxpayers/residents of West Goshen and Chester County on the hook for this misuse of municipal resources ???
I am completely and utterly disgusted. I hope the media eats the Chester County SPCA for breakfast. I hear some of the media is already working on stories.
I mean how can you get “people and animals together” when you keep using the local police as bouncers to fire volunteers?
And I thought it was bad when they used the police the last time…but two police cars to confront a woman????? REALLY????
But there is something fugly and funky going on about this website because for a few minutes it came up and then it went down.
So the reason I was sent this post was so I could see the apparent systemic problems with horse rescue within the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Can we say it isn’t just Jessica Basciano, Barbara Luna, Turning for Home and Off the Track Thoroughbred Rescue that people need to have their eyes open with?
This manure pile that is horse rescue seems to have a lot of whinnying going on, yet the more I read about it, the more I wonder why PA’s Attorney General isn’t looking at inconsistencies and oddities in all of this from the end of those who are registered in PA as charities to criminal investigations having to do with animal rescues? From how the horses leave the track and where they go to how the horse rescues run and if they meet to burden for animal protection and welfare let alone how these businesses and non-profits run doesn’t it just seem the questions are layered with questions?
And let me be clear, I am not just speaking about the two rescues blogged about up here before, but the entire business of horse rescue in Pennsylvania. I heard a tale yesterday of a situation going on at another Chester County barn that seems just nutty. I don’t own horses, never have, never will. But am I wrong in saying that it seems the only consistency about horse rescue in Pennsylvania are the many inconsistencies? Is it just me who seems to feel that if there are hard and fast rules, there seems to be a lot of gray area for interpretation?
And lets talk about the group that is supposed to be helping being the eyes and ears of right, ok? LAPS or Large Animal Protection Society? I have been told repeatedly by those in animal rescue in general that these folks have badges or something? That they can go in and do surprise inspections and if need be, remove animals? But is their judgement clouded because of personal relationships their ranks may or may not have with persons in the groups they are supposed to keep an eye on? (And before someone in LAPs gets in a lather, sorry but it is not beyond the realm of reasonable to ask questions is it?) And what of all the people worried about horses in Chester County who have a hard time with LAPs personnel? Are they all bad people out to bad mouth LAPs or are they merely good people who keep going back to the well that is LAPs hoping they will actually do their job?
LAPs has on their own website:
LAPS Can Assist Other Humane Agencies
In addition to investigating reports of cruelty to large animals, prosecution offenders, and rehabilitating and placing animals in new homes, LAPS is always ready and willing to provide information and support to other agencies both within and out-of-state. We have provided people in other counties with the means and knowledge to encourage their local law enforcement officials to step in when the local humane societies do not, and have many times supported the State Police in their investigations in areas where the humane agencies do not provide service.
Also, we are glad to help anyone wishing to organize a humane society in an area not currently serviced by one. We have “been there, done that” and are more than willing to share the information you will need to get started. Our knowledge of the way the system works has been hard-won over the years since 1988 we have been in existence. If you need help, just call!
So LAPs if all this kerfuffle and conundrum concerning horse rescue has you down, can’t you all turn to other rescue groups for assistance? Like the Humane Society and the ASPCA?
I will note that I went to www.GuideStar.org and pulled the most recent 990s I could find on Turning for Home, LAPs, and Another Chance for Horses. I am posting them as they are public record and they are registered non-profits. There are no 990s to be posted on Off The Track Thoroughbred Rescue because has anyone ever been able to actually find a business registered, a non-profit registered, or is it just a fictitious name registration? Maybe that is why the judgement I found based on that recent court date is lodged against Ms. B? (See the links below, you can check the documents out yourself.)
Every time I say I am done with this cautionary tale the more that crops up. Water seeks its own level, mold spreads, choose your analogy I have but one final question and that is when did it stop being about what is right for the horses?
I think a non-profit rescue called the “Foxie G Foundation” took in some of these poor beasts and apparently same person as involved in that case last year in Adam’s County a guy named James Houseman. It is like hop scotch with horses. )
By Sari Heidenreich – email (PALMYRA, Pa. (WHTM) -Twenty four horses, including four who are pregnant, were seized from a Dauphin County farm by the Humane Society of Harrisburg last week….Earlier this month, Kaunas said this is the first type of horse hoarding case she has seen.)
Lower Merion Township? I realize you all are not happy with this publicly but this is someone’s friend, son, husband, family member, neighbor and so on. And you know what? If this was someone beloved in your families these people would do the same for you. That is the thing about this community. I have seen it over the years.
