Goodness, some days articles just set my teeth on edge. And for those playing catch up, it’s a turn of phrase, it doesn’t actually happen.
MUST is Mixed Use Special Transit or as we knew it in Ardmore, More Unfair Special Treatment.
TOD is Transit Oriented Development, or another version of the Emperor’s new clothes.
First an excerpt:
by Denali Sagner
Published June 5, 2025, 5:00 a.m. ET
I wrote the rather young reporter. She was too busy to reply but she did correct the spelling of Carrie Kohs name. This morning when the article hit my in box she had another person entirely, Carrie Kohns. I have never been fan of Kohs who owns pucciManuli (very over priced and she’s definitely never been user friendly IMHO), but come on, if you are going to interview people and get paid for it, spell the name correctly.
Transit Oriented Development is and always has been mostly a myth to get more infill development, do try to keep up. In order for something to be destroyed it actually has to work. Since they included the photo of Narberth in the article, why isn’t the Inquirer covering important issues like Narberth residents trying to save Sabine Park from development? Wouldn’t that fit with the “Inquirer Lower Merion” of it all I guess? If they had done their homework here already they would know there is legal precedence that matters. See Downingtown, Kardon Park, Friends of Kardon Park. The Inquirer I believe is one of the papers which covered it years ago. https://www.sabinecoalition.com/
Also , Carrie Kohs and Chris Leswing whom they interviewed for a lil’ Lower Merion Township rah rah have it wrong. Bad plans for Transit Oriented Development and Mixed Use have almost killed Ardmore over and over. What you have now is a more transient community and still no parking. How do I know? Used to live there in that township and once was part of original Save Ardmore Coalition and helped fight for Ardmore against eminent domain for private gain ( heck it got national and international press – Economist etc.)
Look at the things NO longer in Ardmore – Clover Market and First Friday Main Line (also worked on First Friday for years) – one would hope that the regional paper’s “Lower Merion” section would be a little deeper than township propaganda (or Borough propaganda in the case of Narberth), but that would mean really getting out in these communities and asking people what they want, what they need, and what they think.
Oh and the photo of the man jogging past the historic Ardmore sign and showing the corner of the mural in the article? Residents and Save Ardmore Coalition did that mural. Not the township, not the Ardmore Initiative. ( See attached photo next.)
Mostly now people wonder what the Ardmore Initiative does and what people are paying for? Check out the crumbling broken sidewalks and overflowing township trash cans….and again no place to park.
I get that there are not enough folks left at the Inquirer with any institutional knowledge of the suburbs and Chester County, but you have archives.
Septa has been mismanaged and a mess for decades. For a while it was better, when Jeff Knueppel led them. He was their former lead engineer at one point, and he really cared. Then they handed it all over to Leslie Richards (Tom Wolf girl former Montgomery County Commissioner along with Josh Shapiro) after she made a mess of PennDOT. then all of a sudden Septa was flailing and she “retired.” My goodness what a trail of political breadcrumbs you are missing between Septa and the Emperor’s New Clothes fairy tail of MUST and TOD.
Wouldn’t it be nice if a paper ever wrote something helpful like how the Municipalities Planning Code of the Commonwealth of PA is woefully outdated (since 1969 or so) and needs a comprehensive overhaul? That weighty tome drives ALL of the zoning in PA and is why we can’t achieve any sense of balance or more productive development. And HB Act 502? All bundled in with other stuff by Shapiro? NO ONE has covered that much and they have zero clue the damage THAT could do to municipalities which is why maybe speaking to someone like Ginny Kerslake might help them. Part of what Ginny has said about this bill:
HB502 is a fast-tracking scheme for power generating or storage facilities for private or public consumption. It creates a seven member, heavily industry-biased board with immense power to issue a “certificate of reliable energy supply” – a golden ticket of sorts- to a developer/corporation, exempting their project from local zoning, land development and other ordinances:
Section 805
(d) Effect of certificate.–
(1) A county or municipal or other local government or authority by ordinance, regulation or other action may not require any land use approval, consent, permit, certificate or condition that materially impedes the purposes of this chapter or will delay or prevent the construction, operation or maintenance of a reliable energy generating facility or storage facility that has been issued a certificate of reliable energy supply.
HB502 usurps local authority over zoning and land use. It’s not surprising that the Pennsylvania State Association of Township Supervisors (PSATS) opposes this bill.
This new Lower Merion tab for the Inquirer is merely an elitist suck up version of the old Neighbors section. The Neighbors section was great while it lasted. I was actually a freelancer for them when the Neighbors section went online only. I wrote about Chester County and Main Line things. It was really fun.
Look I support journalism, especially print media. But they need to cover what matters, not just what panders well. And these papers need to keep some of those with institutional knowledge of areas around as well as educating the next wave of young journalists how to comb through their own archives. Heck if I can do it, I am sure they can as well.
Besides, I have maintained all along that SEPTA is fear mongering shutting down lines to get what they want. Maybe SEPTA does need to partially shut down and start over. It is one of the worst transit systems in the country. I think it’s a political ploy and another article in the Inquirer which I agree with says so. I will share an excerpt as I sign off.
Development fairy tales are generally speaking, just that. TOD and MUST and stupid zoning overlays are creating more issues than the problems they were advertised to solve. That is my opinion and I am sticking to it. Maybe just maybe, lots of things in Pennsylvania are simply mismanaged?
Philadelphia Inquirer: Transportation
(Tom said what we are all thinking: it’s a BS political ploy)