Category: Neighborhoods

Park planting brings neighbors together

Unloading plants

Thanks to Tom Carroll of Preservation Pottstown for these photos from today’s gardening activities at the park at the corner of Washington and Chestnut!

Katy Jackson, one of the organizers from Citizens for Pottstown’s Revitalization, says via email, “We just arrived home from the park planting and it was superb!! The children in the neighborhood were as excited as they could be. They did a great job and each child has their own tomato plant, named, and several squash plants. It was a huge success…”

Kudos to all who helped bring the neighborhood together outdoors for this beautification and healthy living activity, and a big THANK YOU to Eric Schmidt of Colonial Gardens for the donation of materials!

Janet & friend
New gardeners
David on the move!

Pottstown’s Weekend – lots going on!

Please check out the calendar page at Positively!Pottstown for a line-up of happenings starting tonight and moving through the weekend. Dance the week’s frustrations away at Sunnybrook tonight… tomorrow morning, get up early, grab your work gloves and a trowel and take part in a community garden project at Washington & Chestnut Sts…. grab a cool drink and a bite to eat for the volunteers… head over to Smith Plaza, kick off your sweaty socks, literally slap some paint on an old car (trust me, it feels so right) and catch some music at the First Saturday Celebration… head home to shower… give in to the urge to skip cooking for one night and go back into town for dinner… go see Ragtime at Tri-PAC… wake up on Sunday energized after the awesome day you had the day before… stop by Memorial Park at 1 pm to see an interesting tradition in the burning of retired flags… It’s only 2 pm on Sunday afternoon, and there’s still plenty of time to do whatever you thought you were going to do before you got caught up in living in the moment…

I’ll be tending to stuff like this across the river here, but just might get to the matinee of Ragtime on Sunday afternoon. Have a great weekend!

SPX Hoops Recap

The hot, humid air in Father Doyne Hall tried to smother the 45-50 former players who showed up for the last game ever, but it didn’t stop old-timers and youngsters alike from running up and down the court for about three hours last Friday night. Those guys from this year’s graduating class of 2010 sure can shoot the 3! There was also an impressive showing from the – ahem – older grads, some of whom are still playing regularly. Former coaches on hand included Joe Donahue, Pete Sovia, Michele Repko Dunleavy, and Randy Reber, who will take over the helm for Phoenixville’s boys’ program next season. Thanks for the memories, St. Pius X!

St. Pius X Basketball Alumni

While we’re on the topic of basketball, I’ve changed the photo in the sidebar to my beloved neighborhood hoop at Franklin Elementary School in the North End. I’ve stopped by to visit this hoop several times over the years, which looks to be the exact same iron pole, backboard and rim where I spent so many hours playing, practicing and shedding tears of frustration while growing up. I won’t go on here about the kind of love a person could feel for a simple thing like that, for that place. The blacktop is crumbling now, which makes me just plain sad, but also reminds me of why I’ve been coming back to Pottstown these days. There are a lot of complicated, interconnected and entrenched reasons why a playground blacktop would be crumbling. I’m just trying to do my part to move things in the direction of smoothing that out for the kids coming along now who deserve to have their ball come predictably back up to their fingertips when they make their next move. Game on!

Building Community Vitality theme of CPR meeting this Friday, 7 pm

The monthly meeting and speaker series organized by Citizens for Pottstown’s Revitalization will take place this Friday, May 21, from 7-8 pm at the PAL building at 146 King St., Pottstown, PA. The featured speaker is Tom Carroll, president of Preservation Pottstown, tireless community volunteer and all-around positive guy.

The theme of Tom’s talk will be “Building Community Vitality.” He’ll be telling a story that made a difference in his life and how he views communication with others. He’ll also touch on “What is a non-profit corporation?”, Preservation Pottstown’s history and where they are today. If you want to learn more or volunteer, call 215-316-6383.

If you’ve been thinking about getting involved in any aspect of Pottstown’s revitalization, or if you would like ideas and support for organizing a neighborhood watch or even a block party, come to a CPR meeting. They’re a group of friendly, engaged residents trying to make all of Pottstown’s neighborhoods the best they can be. CPR is online at http://www.vivapottstown.com.

Citizens for Pottstown’s Revitalization – Take 2

So I went to the CPR meeting last Friday night at the PAL building because the speaker was Dave Garner, former Borough Councilman, and the topic was the Urban Land Institute’s advisory report that was released in January (Pottstown, Pennsylvania: Transformation Strategies.) I’m a nerd when it comes to just about any kind of planning report, more so if it’s from ULI.

Garner made clear that the views presented were his own. He mainly encouraged broad participation in the redevelopment efforts, by citizens and groups well beyond the official partnership that has formed among the Borough, the School District, the Montgomery County Redevelopment Authority and Pottstown Area Industrial Development Corporation, Inc. (PAID). He spoke of the need to establish a process by which decisions are made and to rigorously follow that process. Everyone should be challenged to do their homework, to know what’s going on, every step of the way. Then, when it comes time to actually make a decision, everyone should already be on board. Still, there must be a full & public discussion of the rationale behind anyone’s vote, for the record. But if the broader community has been doing their homework up until that point, they should already see/know/understand the direction that’s being taken.

There were some questions regarding where things stand now. A Memorandum of Understanding among the four principal partners was now with the School District. Some seemed impatient to not lose momentum while this agreement is ironed out and PAID hires a new executive director. Several comments were made to the effect that citizens can/should continue paying attention to, and participating in, various aspects of the revitalization efforts, yet it’s unclear what specific role could be played. Still a lot of “ironing out” to be done. I realize this post doesn’t get at the heart of the ULI report’s contents, but I’ll get to that in another post before too long — it’s all interesting, good stuff! And, bottom line, it’s not rocket science, i.e., its all quite do-able.

CPR reiterated its offer of Neighborhood Watch signs for anyone, anywhere in town, who wants to step up to be a Block Captain – a contact point for people in the neighborhood when issues arise. For that and to get on CPR’s email list, send an email to vivapottstown@hotmail.com.

There was a very good turnout for this meeting – maybe 30 people? – and they were from all areas of town. All Pottstown residents are invited and encouraged to attend CPR’s next meeting on Friday, May 21 at 7 pm at 146 King Street. The speaker will be Tom Carroll, president of Preservation Pottstown, an organization with a 6-pronged approach to its community development efforts.

Citizens for Pottstown’s Revitalization – Take 1

I was in town last weekend for several activities, and first on tap, after my grilled cheese & pie at The Very Best, was attending the monthly meeting of Citizens for Pottstown’s Revitalization, a relatively new grassroots coalition of borough residents. (You gotta love a URL like http://www.vivapottstown.com!) The group’s mission is to instill pride and empower residents to get involved and take positive actions in their neighborhoods and throughout town. The two leaders, Katy Jackson and Anna Johnson, have lined up a series of speakers for their meetings, which take place at the PAL building at 146 King Street on the 3rd Friday of the month, beginning at 7 p.m. and lasting about an hour.

I had met Katy a few weeks before (and Anna briefly), when Katy took me on a walking tour of her block in the vicinity of King, Washington, Chestnut, and Franklin Streets. It was one of those gorgeous, sunny, warm afternoons when everyone seemed happy just to be outside. So, there’s this sweet park at the corner of Washington and Chestnut that was just abuzz with activity. Plans are in the works for neighbors to (hopefully) plant some flowers in one area, and for art students from the high school to use a block wall at the back of the park as a kind of rotating exhibit space to showcase their work throughout the year.

I’m not sure how far along the residents are in working out this next concept, so I’ll just say this: there’s a chance there will be a space available in the neighborhood for a community garden. Community gardens are growing in popularity, especially in places where wholesome foods, such as fresh fruits and vegetables, are not available or are too expensive. Basically, a lot is divided up among interested residents and/or groups/clubs. Someone who knows something about gardening coordinates & teaches, so that participants end up with a steady flow of food and even flowers. Of course, donations of tools, plants, seeds, soil are sought to make it all happen.

Community gardens get people outside, get neighbors working together, provide better food at a lower price, raise awareness about nutrition and food production, and put an empty or nuisance lot to good use. That’s a lot of win-wins in there. So, if this happens, maybe it could be a kind of pilot project for other gardens around town.

But this wasn’t what this post was even supposed to be about! I’ll try again in the next one…

Trash Talk

Although I’ve done my share of trash-talkin’ on basketball courts in PA and NJ, this post is actually about real trash 🙂 This Saturday from 8 am – noon, there will be neighborhood clean-ups happening around Pottstown. The clean-up was organized by Councilman Mark Gibson and Bill Sharon of the Codes Department. Details can be found on the Borough website & in The Mercury. The gist of it is that you can get trash bags at Borough Hall or Empire Hook & Ladder at Franklin & Chestnut. Fill the bags with trash from your neighborhood and leave them on pre-approved street corners, where they’ll be picked up later in the day. (Exelon has donated two dumpsters for the stuff.) And don’t forget to stop by Empire afterward for free refreshments, donated by Genesis Housing Corp.

For information contact: Bill Sharon 610-970-6507 or Mark Gibson 610-960-9445

And now for another kind of trash-talk…

The current exhibit at The Gallery on High is “Ecoart,” and it features pieces made from recycled, re-used and salvaged materials. It’s free and open to the public and runs until April 24. Check it out. Who knows? You might pick up something Saturday morning that you’ll want to turn into a work of art!

The Gallery is at 254 E. High St. Hours are Tuesday through Thursday 10am to 4:30pm; Friday 10am to 5:30pm; Saturday 10am to 3pm. Closed Sunday and Monday

Blog at WordPress.com.

Up ↑