Insights and observations on the redevelopment and revitalization of post-industrial towns on the Route 422 Corridor in Southeastern Pennsylvania.

Change In Neighborhoods Impacted By Gentrification

One of the issues that can arise when you are revitalizing is the potential for people from other areas and income groups to want to live in your (town) neighborhood. Many times the sudden influx causes demand in real estate, both residential and commercial. The commercial revitalization sometimes makes it hard for some stores to remain downtown when rents go up.

Good Design as an Asset in a Downtown Setting

Good design in a downtown is always the hallmark of a revitalized community. It is always easy to see bad design if it is particularly bad. When you walk down a street in a downtown, your eyes do not focus on bad design in the form of a rusty fence or a broken sign. In every town there is something.

Law and Order In Phoenixville

It was with surprise that I saw that Chief William Mossman retired from Phoenixville Police Department. His new employer will get a solid law enforcement official with street smarts and technical correctness. I always looked at my relationship with the Chief and the officers of the Phoenixville Police Department as a match made in heaven.

The Hidden Economic and Social Impact of Illegal Workers in a Downtown Setting

Immigration is a hot topic in the presidential elections, and I started thinking about my interaction with illegal immigrants. Really it starts with me, as my grandfather was illegal. He did not find that out until he was about 90-year old, retired on social security, receiving a steelworker’s pension, black lung benefits and living in subsidized housing. I also have had work experience relevant to the issue.

Dialectics of Change

Change happens no matter who tries to stop it or promote it. When I go into a town to revitalize, by definition of the word it means change. You are taking what is in the town and offering either an enhancement, or repositioning in the regional marketplace. I always seek to look at how I proceed in terms of a linear programming model — To get from point A to point B in the straightest line possible, which will, in many cases be subject to constraints.

Grant Packaging

One of the items that people seeking government funding need to recognize is that there is not really only one source for many projects. There are federal grants, state grants, and local grants, each being a little different and each being a little alike.

Leveraging Local Dollars as a way of Funding Projects, Part 2

Last month I went over how important it is not to be an undiscovered island in a sea of projects offered to funding sources. I discussed how important it is to put a “face” on the project. Local leaders need to step to the forefront to discuss their project desires with the agencies regulating the activity. This ensures that the project is not coming from left field somewhere, but as part of an announced strategy to rectify whatever problem is at hand.

Leveraging Local Dollars as a Way for Funding Projects

People are always asking me, “how is it that you are able to access grants”? I always blow off that question because I do not know. I know that if you write a good application, you score a lot of points and you are competitive. That is all that you can ask, that you are competitive to get yourself on the board.

Financial Packaging in a Difficult Environment

In a time when money is tight in the public sector, things become more competitive when a community is seeking money for economic development. I write grants, and know that the level of the quality of applications is higher when there is less money.

Much of the time, the types of grants a community can apply for is dictated through the availability of local match money. Where there is an issue with raising the local match, the types of grants and availability of grants are limited.

Who Revitalizes a Downtown?

Any time you hear of a town that wants to revitalize the downtown area, there are reasons for people get together to form a revitalization committee. Some towns are not that bad. Some towns are really bad. The question is always, what do we do to fix it? Many times, the answers the group comes up with, are to tell others what to do.

Last Days of Lockdown

Within days I will be rolling out a new website highlighting to my trip across the country from May 15 to June 15, 2021. I am glad I could make the trip to visit cities across America. Thank my benefactor, Manny DeMutis, for letting me work on creative projects.

I took special care to visit friends along the way as we shared stories of the late 1960s and early 1970s. Hazy memories of hazy times added to the lure of the visits. Being in Charleston, WV, where I went to school, and Memphis, Tennessee, where I was a union organizer, made me a little nostalgic.

Change: The Ability to Say What You Think

Knowledge and technology have a way of inserting themselves to change customs and traditions of the past. What a person believed and spoke about in one era could be accepted as true, only to determine that it was false later because of a deeper understanding of the subject. I still believe Galileo was a heretic.

Change: Law and Order in the Cities 2022

As I visited cities across America between May 15 and June 15, 2021, I felt very secure walking around 70 towns and cities. I had a couple of incidents but nothing major. Most of my career has been spent working in less than stellar areas and performing community development tasks. I am familiar with the routine of hard-core teenagers and unstable homeless seeking to be aggressive.

Preparing for a Disaster

As I muddle through the plethora of options on flood recovery and mitigation in Downingtown, I have been struck by the FEMA and PEMA staff's professionalism. We have been able to make inroads in flood recovery due to their involvement and participation.

Flood Relief in Downingtown

Recently I was asked to help with the flood relief effort in Downingtown. As in many cases, I am helping at no cost. Unfortunately, the Borough of Downingtown is up against it with the flooding this year. There have been two floods, and the lower-income areas that have typically been located in flood plains and industrial areas were hit hard.

The Borough Building was flooded and the flood mitigation plan was destroyed. My mission was to expedite the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency (PEMA) buyout program.

Equity and Inclusion

What I have found interesting is the debate over what is being taught in schools. For example, when I was young, in Fords, New Jersey, school #14, we said the "Lord's Prayer" right after the Pledge of Allegiance. Then someone would be required to read a bible passage in front of the class. It was almost putting you on the spot. You had to be able to read, and if you went up there and stumbled around, it did not reflect well for you.

Institutional Poverty

While at the recent statewide downtown conference in Reading, I spent a couple of days checking out the city. One of the mobile workshops was held at a public housing complex close to the hotel.

What Makes the Reading to Philadelphia Train Project so Compelling?

The first time I tried to work on passenger rail service to Phoenixville (Greenline project), I thought we had a good chance of completing the project, and, at the time, the Citizens for the Train group was in high gear. There was a contribution from Liberty Property Trust to do the initial study, and there was participation from Norfolk Southern as we negotiated for the line.

Office Contraction May Exceed My Estimation

As I toured America the last month or so, I saw that many cities were ghost towns. If there was a large office concentration, those buildings stood vacant. Corresponding retail was either completely closed and all of the inventory pulled off the shelves or closed without notice of closure with inventory and fixtures remaining inside. It was hard to tell if the stores with inventory remaining would ever open.

Messaging and Vacant Space

I have finished my trip across the country trying to assess public/private space in the cities.

I was gone from May 15 to June 15 and stopped in many cities along the way. I took the southern route to head west and used a northern route to return.

I perceived that the virus has had different outcomes in many of the cities. A common factor was the vacancy rate, and it appeared to be exacerbated by communities that experienced civil unrest. There is considerably less foot traffic in almost all of the towns.