Tag Archives: pennsylvania

what didn’t happen should be celebrated by west chester…and beyond.

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Screenshot

We have seen this scene of the opening screenshot so many times now. It’s captured in time. It’s a tragedy that didn’t happen, but could have.

The law enforcement, a lot of whom were local, did an amazing job. There are people who went to the protest who have sort of fluffed this off as not being a big deal, and they need to get their head out of their asses because it could’ve been a very big deal. It could have been horrible beyond imagination here in our corner of the world.

And while I have seen article after article and TV story after TV story, talking about the perpetrator and what he was carrying, and then last evening they conducted a search of his house and found more things, but I haven’t had to read about, and I think there should be some public officials standing up and really praising those who keep us safe in our communities.

Law enforcement was simply amazing here. It might be their jobs, but they are heroes.

So you have from the date of the protest which was Saturday, June 14th, West Chester Borough Police Department, Chester County Sheriffs office, FBI. Then yesterday add East Whiteland Police Department, the county and a bomb squad, which would be the one from Montgomery County that Chester County has access to – they serve Montgomery , Chester and I think Bucks Counties. I think they are then part of a larger task force, so after things were discovered where the man originally arrested from Saturday lives, who knows who all else was there, which had to include ATF at this point and Chester County Detectives and more.

My point is all of this law enforcement did this smoothly and by the book, avoided serious catastrophe, death, injuries, mass panic and where please are the elected officials? One would have thought a presser would have at least occurred by yesterday given maybe by Mayor Lillian DeBaptiste of West Chester Borough and perhaps the Chester County Commissioners, since this happened literally in the county seat with say a backdrop of the Old County Courthouse or in front of the Chester County Justice Center thanking these brave law enforcement folks for living their training so excellently, right? But where is it?

Where is the Governor of Pennsylvania or State Senators and State Representatives serving the area, including East Whiteland where the defendant lives praising law enforcement for doing something so amazing and preventing catastrophe that you quite frankly don’t see enough do you?

Law enforcement on any level doesn’t do their job for glory, it’s what they are trained to do. But people need to say thank you, and what their actions has averted and by “people”, I mean elected officials. On the TV interviews every day residents and people are all saying thank you, but where are those folks elected to public office and I do not mean local supervisors and borough officials because they do say thank you. I mean the state, county, and higher.

I am saying thank you but I am just a blogger. So time to step it up officials, as our men and women in our corner of the world have done something amazing.

Now onto other things. The accused as far as I can tell is still out on bail and one of the TV reports said his whereabouts are unknown, which after all that has happened is not comforting. I was told he made bail because bond was posted. It was high bail ($250,000), it was made. We don’t have to be comfortable with this, but that is the system, and maybe for certain kinds of arrests, the system needs to change? I don’t have those answers.

Then people are talking about why his house wasn’t searched completely after Saturday? Again, from what we can tell from media reports, law enforcement at first only had a warrant to search his personal space with the home, his bedroom I guess? It is not solely his home, and public records show the home is owned by family member, probably parents? And from the 6ABC report Leland Pinder did last evening where the accused’s brother was interviewed, it is in fact a family home so they would have had to have obtained a second warrant to search the whole house as far as my research would indicate.

Then as to the gotcha armchair warriors on social media talking about the accused’s 2nd Amendment rights, the answer is pretty clear: no concealed carry permit. Take a gun safety glass, it’s one of the things people are taught. This will undoubtedly raise a back and forth on guns in this area again, but the thing is this: there needs to be better mental health requirements surrounding gun ownership. And for things like this when people are out on bail, would it be the worst thing to have the people accused of things like this to be on ankle monitors?

For sure, this sequence of events has indeed shaken Chester County and various municipalities up. But let’s take a moment to THANK law enforcement for what they have done with no loss of life, etc. It’s remarkable in today’s world.

Thanks for stopping by.

what’s with the legal notice regarding an abandoned ame church “african union church” or “solomon’s temple” in london grove township?

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First of all, what is “quiet title”? A quiet title action in Pennsylvania is a civil lawsuit that resolves disputes over property ownership. It’s a legal process that can clear up uncertainties or competing claims about a property’s title.

So in other words, London Grove Township wants to take over this parcel? Yet I have found 3 references to them having the parcel since 1965?

I found an action in progress in the courts:

Is it related to this from the London Grove Historic Commission last May?

At the request of the Girl Scout (Cadets) Troup # 4136, the Cadets visited the Historical Commission to introduce their project proposal to make improvements to the African Union Church and Cemetery located at 816 North Guernsey Road in London Grove Township. Their excellent presentation included initiatives to improve signage, headstone and landscaping at the cemetery, the proposed schedule, budget needs, fund raising, volunteer efforts and next steps. The Historical Commission was very impressed with the scope of the Girl Scout efforts, and their enthusiasm in performing this initiative. Subsequent to this discussion, the Historical Commission queried vis-a-vis the Chester County Historical Commission, that the cemetery ownership was transferred to London Grove Township in the year 1965 via an order approved by a county judge. We discussed the next steps, and a milestone to continue this initiative; that being formal application to the Girl Scout organization for their approval, as well as an on-site presentation to the London Grove Township Board of Supervisors (8 May, 2024) to seek funding and approval. After a few questions which were thoughtfully responded to, the Historical Commission encouraged the team to press on. Several from the Historical Commission volunteered to assist in the improvements if/when the project was officially initiated.

1-May-2024-Historic-Commission-Minutes London groveDownload

Here are the list of graves on Find a Grave:

Memorials in Solomon_s Temple Union Ame..Download

So it appears that a troop of Girl Scouts want this place saved in perpetuity. I applaud them.

I do not quite understand why London Grove is posting a legal notice if the research on the part of Girl Scout Troop 4136 found that they were deeded the land parcel in 1965 unless it’s just another screwy thing with Chester County deed and land records? I mean that is entirely possible, right?

I was alarmed when I saw this notice, but am hoping because the Girl Scout Troop 4136 id invested in this site, it is a good thing this township is doing? Lots of questions given who the solicitor is on the legal notice and that Warren Kampf the former state rep who now shills for Chester County is on the court docket, but there is a lack of information out there. It appears London Grove Township actually does have some land development plans going on like every township but they have one of the worst websites so finding information without a blood hound is difficult. People it’s 2025, so why do so many municipal websites just plain suck and why isn’t everyone recording public meetings yet? (But I digress.)

So back to African Union Church AKA Solomon’s Temple AKA Solomon’s Temple Union American Methodist Episcopal Cemetery at 816 North Guernsey Road in West Grove. It’s yet ANOTHER abandoned AME (African Methodist Episcopal) site is what it appears to me. Somewhere Bishop Richard Allen is once again turning in his grave. I still want to know how the AME Church cannot keep track of their former church sites, graveyards, and history better?

So from the blog page Documenting Chester County’s Black Churches and Cemeteries, I have learned the following and I quote the author directly:

Solomon’s Temple Union American Methodist Episcopal Church, London Grove Township

Solomon’s Temple U.A.M.E. Cemetery on Find A Grave.

John Bell, it is said, escaped from slavery in Maryland some time in the 1830s and became a huckster in the vicinity of Chatham. Fighting off a slave-catching party, he eventually accrued property and money, and on December 17th, 1849, for the consideration of $50, he gave an acre of land outside the village to James Wilmer, John Durnall, Perry Reed, William Lindsey, and John Mason, Trustees of the African Union Church, to erect what became known as Solomon’s Temple. A small cemetery was established on the ground surrounding the church.

John Bell died in 1873 and bequeathed a considerable sum to the church. Shortly thereafter, led to a small congregation meeting at the former Williamson Methodist Episcopal Church in nearby Penn Township. However, services continued on at Solomon’s Temple (which had become a U.A.M.E. Congregation in the 1860s) until the early 1900s.

By the 1960s, the church had fallen to ruin and the cemetery had become “covered with weeds, briars and saplings and many of the tombstones [were] leaning or [had] fallen over.” A group of township residents petitioned London Grove Township to take charge and maintain the grounds, and in 1965 a county Judge ordered just that. Today the cemetery is kept up by the township and is nominally open to the public.

From the Find A Grave Page:

John Bell, it is said, escaped from slavery in Maryland some time in the 1830s and became a huckster in the vicinity of Chatham, Chester County. After fighting off a slave-catching party, he eventually accrued property and money, and on December 17th, 1849, for the consideration of $50, he gave an acre of land outside the village to James Wilmer, John Durnall, Perry Reed, William Lindsey, and John Mason, Trustees of the African Union Church, to erect what became known as Solomon’s Temple. A small cemetery was established on the ground surrounding the church.

John Bell died in 1873 and bequeathed a considerable sum to the church. Shortly thereafter, led to a small congregation meeting at the former Williamson Methodist Episcopal Church in nearby Penn Township. However, services continued on at Solomon’s Temple (which had become a U.A.M.E. Congregation in the 1860s) until the early 1900s.

By the 1960s, the church had fallen to ruin and the cemetery had become “covered with weeds, briars and saplings and many of the tombstones [were] leaning or [had] fallen over.” A group of township residents petitioned London Grove Township to take charge and maintain the grounds, and in 1965 a county Judge ordered just that.

The stone foundation of the church remains, but the majority of the burials lack their original headstones that have been destroyed, buried or removed over time. Today the cemetery is kept up by the township and is nominally open to the public.

Sigh. Another place with a burial ground containing Black Civil War soldiers just sort of there. I am glad the Girl Scouts and London Grove Township Historic Commission have an interest. I am curious again as to the remark that London Grove Township has supposedly had this spot since 1965 when a Chester County Judge gave custody to London Grove Township. If London Grove has had control since 1965, why the new public notice court thingy?

Well here’s hoping this post spurs some interest including the desire for some reporter to write about this, right?

History matters. This place matters. I close with photos of the graves I have found.

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william penn safe (for now) and josh shapiro says he did it?

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So I wrote about this yesterday, right? I didn’t originate the news about the National Park Service and William Penn in his Philadelphia pocket park at 2nd and Walnut off of Samson Walk. It was international news after a few hours yesterday which made me notice. William Penn being discussed by British newspapers will do that.

total b.s. leave william penn alone.

Well about half an hour ago I noticed an update on the NBC10 app and apparently the hair brained stupid idea, plan, or proposal is now revoked and of course the I-95 Superman known as Governor Josh Shapiro is taking credit for swooping in to save the day?

Groan….politics….

IMHO the people did this with instant public outrage, not the Governor who is using this as political capital to feather his own political nest. I mean Governor you are everywhere these days so what is it you are interested in? A US Senate Seat? A Presidential bid? Sorry not sorry something has to be cooking, right? So while he’s at it, how about those pipeline issues, Governor darling?

Anyway, here’s what NBC10 is saying:


NBC10 Philadelphia: NPS withdrawals plan to remove statue of William Penn from site of his Philadelphia home

Published January 8, 2024 • Updated 12 mins ago

The National Park Service (NPS) has withdrawn the review of a renovation plan that included the removal of the statue of William Penn from the site of his former Philadelphia home. 

The NPS asked for input on the future for the park, located near the intersection of 2nd and Walnut Streets off Sansom Walk in Philadelphia’s Old City neighborhood, and they certainly received it — at least online.

The online site where the public was supposed to provide comment on the Welcome Park proposal on Monday—the first day of a 14-day period where the NPS were going to receive public input on the plan.

By 6:30 p.m. Monday night, the NPS said the public comment period was closed.

“The preliminary draft proposal, which was released prematurely and had not been subject to a complete internal agency review, is being retracted. No changes to the William Penn statue are planned,” the NPS said in a statement.

…In a statement on the plan, the NPS said the goal of the proposed renovations were intended to create “a more welcoming, accurate, and inclusive experience for visitors.”

After the proposal was withdrawn the NPS said:

“The National Park Service (NPS) remains committed to rehabilitating Welcome Park as the nation prepares to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence in 2026. Upon completion of all the necessary internal reviews, the park looks forward to engaging in a robust public process to consider options for refurbishing the park in the coming years.”

The park is located on the site of Penn’s former home, it is also named for the ship, Welcome, which transported Penn to Philadelphia. 

The design and construction of Welcome Park was funded by the Independence Historical Trust and was completed in 1982, notes the NPS in the statement….The withdrawn proposal called for the William Penn statue and Slate Roof house model at the park to be removed and not reinstalled.

Yeah, Super Josh did all of this, right? Public outrage at the National Park Service’s latest bit of stupidity and political pandering and a complete disregard of the actual history of William Penn had nothing to do with it? The fact that it is a Presidential election year has nothing to do with it either ? (Somewhere Dana Carvey is reviving Church Lady and isn’t that special.)

Park withdraws review of Welcome Park rehabilitation proposal

Date: January 8, 2024
Contact:Andrew McDougall, 215-435-4372

PHILADELPHIA — Independence National Historical Park has withdrawn the review of a draft proposal to rehabilitate Welcome Park and closed the public comment period. The preliminary draft proposal, which was released prematurely and had not been subject to a complete internal agency review, is being retracted.  No changes to the William Penn statue are planned.  

The National Park Service (NPS) remains committed to rehabilitating Welcome Park as the nation prepares to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence in 2026. Upon completion of all the necessary internal reviews, the park looks forward to engaging in a robust public process to consider options for refurbishing the park in the coming years.  

The park is located on the site of William Penn’s home, the Slate Roof House, and is named for the ship, Welcome, which transported Penn to Philadelphia. The design and construction of Welcome Park was funded by the Independence Historical Trust and was completed in 1982.   

Updates on the project may be found on the park’s website at www.nps.gov/INDE.

Now let’s do remember that this park is barely a park and more of a rather dated 1980s concrete jungle masquerading as a park and has been since it was created . So making it more of a green space and honoring nature which is so part of Native American culture and history is not a bad plan, but William Penn and his slate house replica and his legacy should remain on the site that was his home in Philadelphia.

Also and once again people are in an uproar over William Penn because he owned slaves. At Pennsbury Manor. Quaker Charles Thomson, the most famous inhabitant of historic Harriton House in Bryn Mawr , Irish-born patriot leader in Philadelphia during the American Revolution and the secretary of the Continental Congress throughout its existence owned slaves before he freed them. Thomson prepared the Journals of the Continental Congress, and his and John Hancock’s names were the only two to appear on the first printing of the United States Declaration of Independence. He designed the Great Seal of the US too. So should he be removed from history too?

My point is some Philadelphia Quakers did own slaves and some known as “fighting Quakers” also fought in the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, and even WWI and WWII. Those are historical facts.

William Penn kept enslaved people. These are some of their names.

Slavery is wrong in today’s world, it wasn’t wrong quite yet in that world many centuries ago. It is an inconvenient truth yet part of the history that made this country. You can’t cancel all of our founding fathers and US history, nor should you. It was a different time. People and culture was different. Society was different. I say that as someone who has the genealogy of discriminated against people in my DNA. And there are plenty of people also descended from indentured servants as well as slaves.

Again, our history is our history. Covering it up and/or removing it means we could be doomed to repeat the mistakes of the past. Being open to all segments of history gives us the opportunity to learn so yes that should include Native American and history of other indigenous peoples (like the Inuit tribes) and slavery and black history along with everything else. They are all pieces of the crazy quilt of American history.

We can’t pretend bad things didn’t happen and we shouldn’t. But history doesn’t exist for the convenient bits, it exists for ALL of it, including William Penn.

Face it before there was George Washington, or Thomas Jefferson, or John Adams or Paul Revere or Betsy Ross or Prince Hall or Louis Glapion or George Middleton or Absalom Jones or Richard Allen, there was William Penn.

History has a place in our lives. We live in Pennsylvania. We fight to see pieces of land that were William Penn land grants saved, we need to save him too. There would be no Pennsylvania without William Penn.

Have a good night and keep an eye on this story.

total b.s. leave william penn alone.

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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.

Biden removes William Penn statue from historic Pennsylvania park in ‘inclusive’ makeover to show more Native American history

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.’

National Review: National Park Service to Remove William Penn Statue from Historic Site

By LUTHER RAY ABEL
January 7, 2024 8:58 PM

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?

https://www.nps.gov/inde/learn/news/park-seeks-input-on-the-rehabilitation-of-welcome-park.htm

an open letter to women of pennsylvania

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What do having rights mean?

Are our rights subjective?

Should we have rights over our individual choices? As in no matter what we might choose, it stays our individual right.

Should we have rights over our own bodies?

Why do politicians at a podium, or religious figures at a lectern or on an altar have the right to decide our path and shame us if we do not agree? If we are not June Cleaver and Donna Reed or even if we are, why should we be judged by this? If we are career women who are independent and may or may not have families and children, why should we be judged by this?

When did we become this angry society of political punishers and judgy judgersons of insanity?

Do we deserve free and fair elections?

Should people impose their paranoia, bigotry, phobias, hatred, and not so thinly veiled racism over your families and children in public schools?

What do you think about the way we were set up with a separation of church and state yet everywhere the faux pious with their fake Christian values are trying to impose their values on everyone regardless of how others might feel?

How do you feel about your rights being subjective? Mind you that’s a semirhetorical question because our rights are not subjective, but if we don’t pay attention we are allowing people into public office who will remove our rights thereby making them subjective.

How do you feel if from the area about these people demonizing the esteemed Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia for practicing medicine? Is Nemours Children’s Hospital Next? What about other hospital systems? Is medicine to be practiced according to the comfort levels of fanatics? And isn’t ironic that the new head of the Republican Committee of Chester County Raffi Terzian is a doctor? Makes you wonder how he can play politics and play medicine at the same time? Where is he on COVID19, masks, and vaccinations, for example? It’s a fair question, he’s a doctor and doctors are supposed to save lives, right? He was supposed to be a savior of the Chesco GOP but so far he’s shown himself to be part of the problems he was supposed to fix, hasn’t he?

When they shout, must we always shout louder? But if our voices are quiet, they win, so we don’t have the choice of being quiet and still, do we?

How do you feel about the Union League of Philadelphia’s decision to honor Ron DeSantis the creature of shithole Floridian Trumpian politics?

Beware the false prophets. Too harsh? Ok then, the Candidates of fall, 2022. The Man from Oz. Napoleon Ciarrocchi #whereisguy. Monsteriano Mastriano, Jessica Transphobic Florio. Gail Newman. Scary Sarah Marvin. The list seems endless and stretches across 50 states. It’s not just Pennsyltucky politics.

Vote ladies, our lives literally depend upon it.

“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves.”

~ Matthew 7:15

while women were sleeping, pennsylvania republicans did us dirty over our rights.

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Your eyes do not deceive you. Pennsyltucky Republicans in the wee hours forced a committee vote on abortion instead of settling the state budget by adding a proposed amendment to the Constituion of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania that states no guarantee of any rights relating to abortion or public funding of abortions.

So they can enact a proposed amendment to the state constitution to remove a woman’s right to choose no matter what the circumstances, but cannot enact an act of the state constitution to protect our communities from predatory development and bad zoning by updating the Municipalities Planning Code?????? At least now we understand fully (like we didn’t know before right?) the value of women in the birthplace of America just after the 4th of July.

According to these politicians, women only have value as dictated by men. Are you OK with that? I’m not OK with that, and I have never been any particularly great women’s libber over the course of my life. But I have always believed that no matter what her choice, each woman should have the fundamental right to choose what is best for them, their body, their own family.

This all took place at just before midnight last night. So as Thursday night was becoming Friday morning, Pennsylvania Senate Republicans worked feverishly to screw over every woman in Pennsylvania. If this gets passed this is something out of the reach of the Governor and a veto.

The screenshot directly above shows you how it was voted on. Those who said YEA need their offices and social media FLOODED and TODAY. As in THIS MORNING. We are the world of smart phones so use your little smart phone and look up their information and get busy. Here is the AP press release that contains a lot of salient information:

Senate GOP Advances Constitutional Amendment on Abortion By Associated Press Wire Service Content • July 8, 2022, at 12:07 a.m.

So if you are beyond child bearing age and have daughters, sons or grandchildren you had better school them today on safe sex and get them familiar with birth control and more because who knows how long they will even have access to that if this goes through.

If any women I know are upset by my post, hey get over yourselves because regardless if you are pro-life or pro-choice this affects women’s rights because no matter what the choice, a woman should have the right to decide what is right for her body, her life, her family.

It is astounding that we just celebrated the national holiday which is all about our freedoms and our rights, and here we are on the verge of losing them in a state that counts as a birthplace of America?

A lot of this can be laid at the feet of a female Pennsyltucky Republican named Kim Ward. Her phone number in Greensburg is (724)-600-7002 or (717) 787-6063. Be sure to give her a call.

If you want to understand how elections will have consequences, this is it. So guess what? You might have to hold your nose on voting for a couple of choices but if you don’t vote these people out of office this coming November we’re all screwed and future generations are screwed.

Do not let Pennsylvania Republicans screw with our state constitution to remove rights. It’s pretty much that simple. If our founding fathers fought, blood, and died for us to have rights, who are these turds to remove our rights? They do NOT have that right.

Get busy ladies and supportive gents, time is a wasting. #mybodymychoice

Call, write, protest, mail metal coat hangers by the bag full to Harrisburg.

I am not chattel. No woman is chattel. Enough political fuckery.

If all of our rights are not protected equally under the rule of law, we fundamentally have no rights. It’s just that simple.

PA SB 106

PA SB 956

the company you keep

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On Mother’s Day, the Stepford Wives for Totalitarianism want you to go to the home of their Chief Cook and Bottle-basher of their Chester County “chapter” and well…be indoctrinated. I always find that ironic and somewhat amusing that they are fighting against indoctrination, yet they are just one big cult out of Florida with “chapters”.

Their guest speaker is a math teacher from Ohio on leave from his job so he can be a full time conspiracy theorist.

The 2020 election wasn’t stolen. But Douglas Frank and his bogus equation claiming otherwise are still winning over audiences.
By Sara Murray and Jeff Simon, CNN
Updated 12:01 AM EST, Wed January 19, 2022

These are the people that those people are bringing into our communities. They don’t live here, they don’t vote here, they don’t work here, they don’t pay taxes here. Yet they are meddling with where we call home. I have a problem with that. They aren’t offering reasonable people for us to listen to or even candidates that makes sense. They are part of the study of extremism in politics.

Extremism and politics is ruining our area, our state, our very country. And we are allowing it to happen. This is where both political parties, Republicans and Democrats , in our area should actually come together and deal with this. But they won’t because they would rather stand each on their own little hill and point at the other and say it’s “their fault.”

The Chester County Democrats want to live by Kumbaya and you can’t. You actually have to study literally The Art of War by Sun Tzu. The book literally teaches you that you can’t understand your enemy, unless you can understand how they think. And Chester County Republicans and Democrats alike, haven’t a clue. It’s a push me / pull you of politics.

The greatest charlatan of all times was our last US President. Trump said decades before he could essentially run and win in either party. So truthfully as the charlatan and malignant narcissist he is he could have picked either party and won. Decimating the GOP was a cake walk for him because it had already been weakened by the infiltration of the tea party originally. Not that the Democrat party is necessarily much better because at this point. Everyone and everything is ruled by extremism and extremists.

Chester County Democrats and Chester County Republicans BOTH need to get their heads out of their collective asses, along with the state party leaders. And the State Republicans in particular are to blame for a lot of these crazy candidates like the one running STILL for Congress in the 6th. Bet he will be at this on Sunday.

Are you listening Lawrence Tabas? Nancy Patton Mills? Y’all need to wake up.

this is why artists are drawn to our area

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Yesterday with the storms was also a marvelous day for photographers. Here are some that I took.

This is why we need more open space preservation and fewer fields of ticky tacky plastic mushroom houses.

the case for open space

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See this photo above? The one I am opening this post with? Gorgeous view and vista, right? That is what conserved and protected open space looks like.  That is part of the 571 gloriously preserved acres on Stroud Preserve, which we all have to visit thanks to the Natural Lands Trust. This is one reason why I am so in awe of this non-profit.  They are amazing.

Now look at the next photo. Also taken by me from the air a couple of years ago and notice the difference:


Next is another shot- both of these were taken over Chester County .


Recently we attended a party out near or in West Vincent. We got turned around on the way and ended up in a development I never knew existed.  I think it may have been off Fellowship Road, I am not sure, because it was one of those times where you just get all turned around.

Anyway, we ended up in this development that had rather large houses so crammed together you felt as if you were in one of the houses and stuck your arm out the window that you could basically touch the neighbor’s house.  Don’t misunderstand me, it was a pretty, well-kept neighborhood but it looked so incredibly phony, almost like a movie set. Or a life sized model. And it was also very odd because it was a neighborhood no one was outside. Not even to walk a dog. It was eerie.

Every day we hear about more and more developments happening. Just this weekend somebody posted the following photo taken  in West Vincent:


If I have the location correct it is on Birchrun Road and has passed through a couple of developers’ hands? Like Hankin and now Pulte maybe?  Anyway soon this will be a crop of plastic houses. And it seems like Chester County keeps sprouting  more and more crops of densely placed plastic houses.

You would think that Chester County would have learned from the mistakes of Montgomery and Delaware Counties.

Just look at what once was Foxcatcher Farm or the DuPont estate in Newtown Square at Goshen and 252? How is any of that attractive? And look at the beautiful natural habitat that was literally bulldozed under. I said before I’m a realist, I didn’t expect when an estate like that was broken up it would remain pristine and intact, especially given the history and events of recent years.  However, it still shocks me that none of the land was truly conserved. In my opinion, the only land that has not been built upon is land they couldn’t build upon easily.

  

The two photos you’re looking at above I took this spring. Giant manor sized  houses so close together .  And they are going up lickety-split in all of  their Tyvec glory.

I think it’s horrible. I think it’s horrible especially since I have seen what nonprofits like the Natural Lands Trust are able to accomplish and achieve in land preservation. But did Newtown Township ever wanted to preserve any of it given the projects that have almost but not quite happened on the former  Arco/Ellis school site in recent years?

However there are many opinions when to comes to development. Recently my blog posts about Foxcatcher, which are in some cases years old, were brought up again on a  Facebook page about Newtown Square.

  

Ok so this Nathan above  is entitled to his opinion even if he is somewhat ignorant in his approach.  I never called Newtown Supervisors  “commissioners” are we will start with that. And if he wants to go pointing fingers, there are several villains in these plays.  At the top of my list are  local municipal elected officials, state elected officials, and developers.

We’ll start with the local elected officials. These are the people that have temporary elected stewardship over our communities. I think they have an obligation to represent us all equally and not just select factions or special interests. But the reality of politics even on the most local level is that is whom they cater to exactly.  Are we talking about real or theoretical payola  here? Doesn’t matter because at the end of the day they get sold a bill of goods and they know better than the rest of us. When you challenge a local municipality on development most of the time they will throw up their hands and say “Wecan’t do anything. All our codes are based on the Pennsylvania Municipalities Planning Code.”

Then there are the state elected officials. These are the guys whose  campaigns are supported by not only local elected officials but people with big check books  like developers. Our politicians on the state level could reform and update the Pennsylvania Municipalities Planning Code but they don’t want to deal with it.
They also don’t want to deal with the building and development lobbyists. And it’s those lobbying groups that killed a very interesting bill that was proposed in Pennsylvania a few years ago.

This was known as HB904 in the seission of 2007:

AN ACT 1 Amending the act of July 31, 1968 (P.L.805, No.247), entitled, 2 as amended, “An act to empower cities of the second class A, 3 and third class, boroughs, incorporated towns, townships of 4 the first and second classes including those within a county 5 of the second class and counties of the second through eighth 6 classes, individually or jointly, to plan their development 7 and to govern the same by zoning, subdivision and land 8 development ordinances, planned residential development and 9 other ordinances, by official maps, by the reservation of 10 certain land for future public purpose and by the acquisition 11 of such land; to promote the conservation of energy through 12 the use of planning practices and to promote the effective 13 utilization of renewable energy sources; providing for the 14 establishment of planning commissions, planning departments, 15 planning committees and zoning hearing boards, authorizing 16 them to charge fees, make inspections and hold public 17 hearings; providing for mediation; providing for transferable 18 development rights; providing for appropriations, appeals to 19 courts and penalties for violations; and repealing acts and 20 parts of acts,” adding provisions to authorize temporary 21 development moratorium. 22 The General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania 23 hereby enacts as follows: 24 Section 1. The act of July 31, 1968 (P.L.805, No.247), known 25 as the Pennsylvania Municipalities Planning Code, reenacted and  1 amended December 21, 1988 (P.L.1329, No.170), is amended b.

This act stayed around a couple of years until it was just made to disappear. it was last referenced in a 2009 article:

Philadelphia Inquirer: A home-building ban in an economic crisis? By Diane Mastrull

Amid an economic disaster that has brought the home-building industry to its knees, a Pennsylvania lawmaker intends to resume his push for building moratoriums.

That bill was a great idea. It would’ve allowed communities to hit the pause button for a brief amount of time.

As individuals and residents  in these communities facing wanton development our culpability partially lies in the fact that we keep electing these people to public office. And once these people are in elected office, not many are willing to hold their feet to the proverbial fire are they?

I also do not feel it is as simple as saying people should just put up the money to buy all the open space.

Ordinary people don’t often have the means to match what developers will pay so they can put up hundreds if not thousands of houses.  Even on small building sites, often regular people cannot match what developers will offer to buy a house as a tear down because the lot or neighborhood is desirable for them to build on . I saw that happen a few years ago when someone was trying to buy a house and they ended up bidding against a developer. They just walked away from it. They couldn’t compete.

But as for people like this Nathan, I am not going to just zip my lip as so eloquently stated. We need to speak out about these monster developments in order to preserve our very way of life. It’s not just open space, it’s more complicated than that. It’s what makes us want to live in a specific area in the first place. We are trying to preserve our communities. Our sense of place.

People who are extraordinarily pro-development for whatever reason will immediately label people like myself as being completely “anti-development”. But that isn’t it .

What we are looking for is yes, preservation and land conservation, but also moderation.  And when is the last time in recent years that you have seen moderation in any kind of development?  The ironic thing is that shortsighted on the part of the developers. If they exercised moderation once in a while they would get a lot farther with their plans.

But it is as if development is revving up to warp speed once again.  It makes me wonder if that is why people in Chester County can’t save their oak tree – seriously, it’s in the Daily Local:

Chester Springs family works to save 270-year-old oak tree 

By Virginia Lindak, For 21st-Century Media

Chester Springs resident Jim Helm has spent the last several weeks trying to save a historical estimated 270-year-old oak tree on his property from being destroyed by utility companies. The tree, which stands on the border of his property, extends into power lines which run along the road, making it vulnerable for unwarranted trimming and cutting by Verizon and PECO…Recently the Helms discovered Verizon crews cutting off branches of the oak tree and halted engineers as best they could, as the police were called in to regulate the situation and ordered the Helms back to their house. West Vincent Township officials have told the Helms they want to help save the tree but progress has been slow.
Helm noted that between the trimming conducted by Verizon and West Vincent Township, 25 percent of the tree’s canopy is now gone….Perhaps a larger question continues to loom; as modern development continues to grow at a rapid rate in Chester County, who will advocate on behalf of the few, rare old trees left and save them from being cut down?

We need open space. We also need just basic land and community preservation. Every plastic McMansion, “Carriage House” and townhouse development that comes along further detracts from what makes where we live special. It lines the pockets of developers and creates a sea of plastic houses that are ridiculously close together.  Also, what do we as communities really get out of these developments except traffic jams and a change in our overall ecological profile?

From one end of Pennsylvania to the other we need land development reforms. We desperately need to re-define what suburbs and exurbs are. Having the ability for our communities to have temporary moratoriums on development is not a bad thing, either. And in order to get these things we have to put better people in elected office from the most local level through to the Governor’s mansion.

We also need to better support land conservation groups. If we don’t, open-space will merely become an antiquated term with no practical or real applicability.

Thanks for stopping by.

the little book of barns

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The barn book is out! Get it while it is hot!

By carla joy zambelli