The regulatory framework– Part 2: Walking a half-mile in a property owner’s shoes

I am so sorry for writing really long posts! Please try to get through this one. I feel it’s getting to the heart of the question: Why is High Street empty?

In previous posts, we’ve done an overview of the various documents, ordinances, and maps that dictate land use in Pottstown. We have a sense of the outside agencies and funding sources that are available to help make development happen. We know that the private sector prefers to know exactly what it’s getting into. In this post, we’re walking a half-mile in a property owner’s shoes… into the Borough’s website.

Over the past nine months that I’ve gotten re-acquainted with my hometown, I’ve been to the Borough’s website hundreds of times (no exaggeration) to look at maps, regulations, etc. It’s taken me quite a while to even begin to figure out how the heck things work, and I admit I’m still unsure about a lot of things. It’s kind of a bummer to admit that I can’t get through the maze more easily. And it is a maze.

Being a writer/communicator, I’m really big on websites that serve their purpose. The Borough’s website is not only for current residents, it’s also the point of entry for outsiders who are considering becoming insiders, i.e., potential homeowners and the business community. The website, in and of itself, should be a user-friendly, logical “document.” The fact that it isn’t gives the first hint that the functioning of the government and the approval processes might not be user-friendly or logical either. If your land development systems can’t be communicated clearly for the average citizen, then there’s probably something wrong with your systems.

Let’s go to the Borough’s website now.

1. First thing, I want to know what this town is all about. I click “About Pottstown” and go to “History.” The town’s “story” stops in 1964. That’s a little scary right there, and stops me in my tracks. I want to know about Pottstown today, but I can’t really find it anywhere on the site. Also, it looks like there’s only one photo on the whole site. (Picture = 1,000 words.)

I here confess that I wrote a bunch of the web copy for the PACA website. On the home page, they come right out with their mission, give three sentences about history and then move into the vision of the arts community for the present & future of Pottstown. I like to think these words create an image, draw people in, and make them feel the potential old-school coolness of this place. The Borough can have more about its history on its website, but at some point it needs to bring visitors to the present day.

So now you’re thinking, “What does this have to do with land development?”

Everything the Borough does and how it presents itself to the larger world is part of its redevelopment efforts. Successful land development is all about telling the story, selling a dream, a vision. It’s about the Borough selling itself.

2. Again, we’re developers or potential home owners now. The Borough’s website is chock-full of information about its ordinances, maps, etc. There’s a lot there. But it’s not enough to say the information is all there. It has to be presented in chunks that help a user make sense of the land development process itself.

On the main navigation bar on the left of the home page, I click on “Departments,” to see if they have a planning or community development department. I’m drawn to “Inspections and Permits.” There’s a huge amount of useful information – what you need a permit for, which zoning & planning applications are relevant to specific kinds of projects, residential property transfer and rental registration/inspection requirements.

If you go in this order through the website, this is where you first run into mention of the Homeowners’ Initiative Program. I guess it’s under “Inspections & Permits” because it will involve an inspection and a permit. (Okay, but that seems kind of random.) “It” turns out to actually be two programs (homeowner loan and rental conversion loan). They are also mentioned on the Economic Development page.

Before we go there, though, click on the link to the “Redevelopment District Map” at the bottom of the “Inspections & Permits” page. If I’m a redeveloper or a business owner, my ears perk up: What is the “Redevelopment District”? What are the rules and incentives there? But, no, it’s just a link to a map, and I can’t find anything more about it. On the entire website.

(Out of the blue, in an email, someone recently mentioned a “Core District Redevelopment Plan” from 2003. Is this where the Redevelopment District Map came from? Why have I never seen this plan before? Is it still relevant to Borough land use policy and programs? I need to call someone at Borough Hall to get to the bottom of this.)

3.a. So, let’s jump over to the Economic Development “Information & Links” page. Scroll down under “Homeownership Initiative Program.” Click on “Click here for the Step-by-step application process and to view the Boundary Map” You end up here. Click on Homeownership Initiative Program – Boundary Map. You end up here. This Homeownership Initiative Program Boundary Map is not the same as the Redevelopment District Map.

So why is there a link to the Redevelopment District Map under the Homeownership Initiative information on the Inspection & Permits page?

Are you confused just reading that last sentence? Welcome to my world.

What I’m saying is that I really need the dots to be connected for me.

3.b. Go back to the Economic Development “Information & Links” page. At the very top – no heading, nothing to draw your eye to it – there’s a link to information for businesses in the Pottstown Downtown Improvement District. Up pops what is essentially a whole other website with its own logo. The text says it’s still part of the Borough… a Main Street Program… a special assessment district. I can’t find a map… would my property be in this district?? There’s the Pottstown Downtown Foundation to support their activities. They have funding for their own façade programs… or do they?

I start to wonder if this program is still operating… Under the “Business Opportunities” link, I’ve been reading the same message for nine months. This may be the only place you can find the name of Pottstown’s Main Street Manager… well, the former Main Street Manager. (The current Main Street Manager is Leighton Wildrick. Leighton & I had a great chat last week. I’m sure other people want to talk to him too!)

Eventually, I find the PDIDA map on the Borough Maps page, which is under “About Pottstown,” but not on the PDIDA pages… Did I miss it there?

… From what I can tell by toggling back and forth between the two maps, the PDIDA district is not the Core Redevelopment District… still curious about that…

3.c. Go back to the Economic Development “Information & Links” page. Okay, so there’s an economic development plan. That will tell me what I need to know. Oh… wait… the link goes right to the document. It’s 145 pages. I have to read a 145-page report just to find out what their economic development strategy is? Forget it! I just want to know what programs they have to help me NOW!

3.d. Go back to the Economic Development “Information & Links” page. Click on “View the Maps.” Up pops a map from the Economic Development Strategic Plan. The first map is: “Development Areas and Opportunity Sites.” What do those red and blue boundaries mean? Is there special funding programs for those areas? They don’t seem to match up with the other maps I’ve seen. Geez, I guess I have to dig into that report.

Let’s review:
– Redevelopment District Map
– Homeowner Initiative Program Boundary Map
– PDIDA Map
– Development Areas and Opportunity Sites (from Economic Development Strategic Plan)

And add a couple more:
– Keystone Opportunity Zone (does a map exist?)
– Historic District
(We’ll talk about the Historic District and HARB in the next post.)

Why aren’t businesses coming to High Street?

I’m just trying to get a sense of what this town has to offer me and/or my business. I’m just trying to get my bearings. I didn’t even get to any of the actual development or building approval processes yet.

Look, who has time to do all this? Save staff time, residents’ time, business’ time by straightening out the message and getting it up on the website. The website is the entry point to your community and to your land development approval system. It has to be friendly, simple and clear to attract new people and businesses, not tearing their hair out and running in the opposite direction.

What is needed on the Borough website:
– A vision statement that inspires and tells potential homeowners and businesses what you’re all about and where you’re headed.
– Simple summaries of land use incentive programs and regulations, possibly sorted by specific user groups: current residents, potential home owners, potential business owners/landlords, potential developers.
– Examination of maps to see if they are all absolutely relevant. If they are, then there has to be some simple way to explain or graphically depict the overlaps. People purchasing real estate need to know what incentives they are eligible for and what regulations or special assessments apply to their property.
– Clear, logical visuals of the incentive programs, along with their funding sources, to show how they are related to each other.

For now, you could keep the same website design and just start consolidating and simplifying. (Simple is always better.) This could use the attention of a small, working committee of knowledgeable, local minds to sort this out. 🙂 I’d be glad to work on the writing and organization with them. This doesn’t have to take long. In the end, visitors to the Borough website should have a clear sense of what they have to do to become a home owner, business owner or developer in Pottstown and feel welcomed and inspired to check it out further.

Next up: The regulatory framework– Part 3: Walking another half-mile in a property owner’s shoes

Pottstown’s Riverfront: Creating a Place of Magic

There are several discussions taking place in the blogosphere around the possibilities for Pottstown’s riverfront, especially in the vicinity around the former Mrs. Smith’s site.

Save Pottstown! and The Pulse! brought to our attention a recent proposal that came before the Planning Commission for income-restricted, senior rental housing on some Borough-owned property on Industrial Highway. So far there’s a lot of concern about squandering a key asset (riverfront land) for such a use.

The conversation continues here and here.

A major highlight of these discussions was the comment of Dan Weand, Council member, quoted in part here:

“I do believe that whatever sets on South Hanover Street & Industrial Highway as our “Gateway to Pottstown” should be a ” W O W ” !!!

I would like to know what the other homeowners of Pottstown think the BEST USE for the riverfront land should be.

Perhaps Save Pottstown! would be cooperative with my question. Perhaps Save Pottstown! would conduct a survey and report the results to the Planning Commission and Borough Council.

Thank you in advance for your support,

Dan Weand
Borough Councilor”

I’ve been commenting at those sites and wanted to post my latest comment here, since all the links couldn’t get past the spam filter.

Posted at SP, today…

I agree with WhirledPeas, east1ender and BBQ Bill – there’s a new attitude and it’s really just getting warmed up.

kevins: point taken about the scale of the examples. The cities and their waterfronts are much bigger and so have more opportunities for really grand schemes.

Check out Paducah, KY. They have been the poster child for arts/economic revitalization for small to mid-sized downtowns. Here’s their Lower Town Artist Program.

Following up on that success, they have moved on to redeveloping their riverfront. A plan was approved in 2007, but I’m not sure of its status – whether it was a casualty of the 2008 downturn. Regardless, it can be really helpful to read through other towns’ plans, figure out the similarities or differences with Pottstown, see how they proposed to finance it, what roles were played by various non-profits, government & private sector partners. Can’t hurt to be well-versed in the possibilities.

I haven’t read through all this…it’s a lot of homework.

East1ender’s point about the flood plain is a good one. Before we go off in all directions on the riverfront, we should have an idea of the constraints: flood plain, wetlands, railroad tracks, streambanks, erosion, runoff, water quality, stormwater management. You’ll want these groups on your team: County Parks & Heritage, PA Dept. of Conservation and Resources, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and the folks from the Schuylkill River Heritage Area.

Check out this conference being held in Pottstown on Thurs. Sept. 23 by the Schuylkill River Heritage Area. It’s called “Building a Business Vision for Trail Town Communities.” I’m going to try to go to that.

Any takers?

Report from the road: Beacon, NY

I’d heard about Beacon, NY several times in recent years in the context of arts & cultural revitalization. I happen to go pretty close by when I take my oldest to and from college, so today I finally checked it out.

Beacon is a town of about 15,000 on the Hudson River. According to City-data.com, the town’s median income in 2008 was about $59,000; the median for New York State is $56,000. The median in 2000 was $45,000.

Check out their map on the home page of their website. When you hover over a peg and then click it, you get the name and location of a gallery, restaurant, or whatever. They have the pegs color-coded by category, too.

Beacon’s renaissance was aided by the opening of Dia: Beacon, one of the largest contemporary arts museums in the world. It’s located in a former Nabisco box-printing plant.

Their Main Street is interesting in that it’s got a stretch of just incredible red brick architecture, where virtually every storefront is occupied, then a stretch of 1950s architecture that is kind of rundown, and then another stretch of charming, upscale shops, which includes the Bank Square Coffee House. That’s where I am right now, taking advantage of the free WiFi. (I’ll have you know that I’m not a WiFi mooch! I did have a vegan chocolate, chocolate & cherry chip cookie that was melt-in-the-mouth crumbly and oh-so-chocolate-y, too)

Back at the other end of town, there are galleries, vintage clothing, several cafes, a wine bar, an Irish pub, real estate offices, antiques, and The Beacon Theater, which is in use while it’s being restored. (Why, oh why, can’t Pottstown still have the Hippodrome or the Strand??). Get this: In The Beacon’s window there’s a sign that says, “Thank you to the Planning Board for our facade approval!”

Along all of Main Street, right now there’s an exhibit called “2010 Windows on Main Street, Uniting Art & Commerce.” Local artists do installations in the windows of the shops. Stores & cafes have piles of large postcards with a map of Main Street, designating the locations of the installations. So you can see interesting stuff even when you’re just browsing. The exhibit runs from Aug. 14-Sept. 11. There are opening & closing receptions. The town is also having 4 different musical events on 9/11 at different times/venues in town.

Okay, I’ve got to get going to find their waterfront and then head home. I’ll update you on that tonight. I’m sorry I don’t have my camera with me!

… Beacon’s Riverfront Park is separated from their dowtown by a few streets and the Metro-North Railroad‘s Hudson Line and station. It’s a pretty nice park that’s got a pier and a piece of land, with lawn and trees, that juts out into the river. It’s got a beautiful view of Newburgh across the river and of the Newburgh-Beacon Bridge. The park has a couple basketball courts, volleyball, grills, and playgrounds. It was filled with lots of people coming and going, as was the train station. The park seemed to be used mostly by locals, bringing big coolers, grilling and having fun. Apparently, I missed the river pool. It must be on the other side of the basketball courts, which is the northern tip of the park.

In the area of the pier is the Sloop Club, out of which the Woody Guthrie sails. It’s a replica of a Hudson River ferry sloop. Free sails are offered. From the website: “Launched in 1978, her purpose is to promote the beauty and wonder of the Hudson River by offering free sails to the public and sail training to volunteers. Only by experiencing the power, serenity and sheer glory of this American treasure will we as a people be inspired to cherish and protect it, and thereby ourselves.” The Club holds or participates in many festivals during the season to raise funds for their environmental programs.

Lessons to take away from Beacon, NY
– Main Street is home to many arts & cultural attractions, food/drink businesses & has kayak rentals.
– Waterfront is geographically separated from downtown, about a mile away, but accessible by foot, bike, car or Metro North railroad.
– Waterfront is not overtly commercial. Lots of opportunities for outdoor activities, which are generally free. – – There is a year-round Sunday Farmers Market.
– The Hudson River near Beacon is much wider than the Schuylkill River in the vicinity of Pottstown.
– Dia: Beacon museum, which is also not in the town center, draws large crowds that come downtown & help sustain businesses.
– I didn’t notice any lots, but the on-street parking was free!

Another First Saturday on tap!

If you’re in town for the holiday weekend, be sure to cruise over to Smith Family Plaza this Saturday from 10am – 2pm for the final First Saturday of the season, brought to you by the Pottstown Arts & Cultural Alliance.

Entertainment
10-11 am: Pottstown Dance Theatre – Hip-Hop performance
11am-12pm: High Street Music – Jazz
12-2 pm: Music by acoustic roots rocker Dina Hall

Men in Spikes fundraiser

Men: there’s still time to find two friends who will race in spikes to raise money for your favorite charity. The race starts at 1 pm.

Here’s how it works:
Pay a $200 entry fee, or get in touch with Mike Holliday at actone19464@aol.com regarding possible sponsorship.
Bring your own spikes or choose from the assortment at Smith Plaza.
Teeter and totter your heart out.
Cross the finish line.
It’s winner-take-all. If your team wins, you get all the proceeds donated to your favorite charity.

There will also be a 50/50 raffle going on. Tickets are $1, and purchasers get to cast a vote for their favorite team. The raffle proceeds will be split between the charity of the favorite team and the winning team’s charity. If you’re confused, don’t worry about it — all proceeds go to good causes! So… who will survive Men in Spikes?? Tune in for the action at Smith Plaza tomorrow!

The regulatory framework for land development – Part 1

Planning and land development take place within a regulatory framework. There are federal, state and local laws regulating a spectrum of issues, from environmental clean-up standards for a former industrial site to how high a fence can be in your front yard.

If there’s too little regulation, or not the right kind, consumers and communities suffer the consequences, most notably around issues of safety and the environment. If there’s too much regulation, the private sector goes elsewhere, or may selectively build where it can pass the additional costs of regulation onto well-to-do consumers who can afford it. For our purposes: the regulatory environment in any given state or locality plays a huge role in what kind of market activity happens there.

I’ve worked and volunteered largely in the public and not-for-profit sectors. However, I learned early on in my work in affordable housing that municipal and non-profit developers have to think and act like private sector developers if they want to achieve their mission. If a project fails, they may never get another chance. Also, they are not using their own money and have to carefully consider what level of risk is appropriate to assume on behalf of their public funders/taxpayers or private donors. But no matter what your end product, you have to be savvy if you’re getting in the game. Land development is not for the faint of heart.

When my kids were young and attending a small Montessori school in central New Jersey, I took a spot on the board as this 20-year-old organization was re-negotiating a lease and found itself with a healthy surplus. When faced with the question of how/if the school wanted to grow, we decided to consider all possibilities: renovate and continue to lease at the current location; purchase and renovate a building nearby; or look for land and build a new school. Within a 3-year period, I led the school – with a lot of help from staff and other parent volunteers! – through the analysis, planning and construction of a new 10,000 square foot facility just about a mile from the old location. It involved negotiations with the current landlord, working with a realtor, scouting properties and options, constantly running in-house financial analyses and income/expense projections, lining up an architect experienced in designing pre-schools, getting a land use lawyer, a builder, and securing construction financing and permanent tax-exempt bond financing through a local bank, with the services of a bond lawyer.

I tell you all this to establish some degree of “street cred” when I say: land development is a risky, expensive, gut-churning business, in which “time is money.”

Developers put money into escrow with a municipality when they put in an application for approval. The town’s engineers, codes staff and planners are all getting paid from that escrow account when they do their reviews of the application – all those nit-picky details that are supposed to ensure the “health, safety and welfare” of the eventual users of the buildings, roads, parking lots, etc. And every time a developer has to talk to his own lawyer, architect, planner or engineer, the meter is running.

Once the project starts, municipal inspections have to be timely; enforcement can’t be arbitrary. Because construction financing is typically at a higher interest rate than permanent financing, if a project’s timeline keeps getting extended, it could sink the project, or at least result in serious losses for the developer. A clear, streamlined set of regulations, consistently enforced in a timely manner, is critical for enticing the private sector to choose your town over another town for the location of their buildings and business.

The logic is similar for potential home buyers and small business owners, whose budgets have an even smaller margin for error. No one is going to put their hard-earned money into play – whether it’s for a home in the historic district or for retail space on High Street – if there’s a great deal of uncertainty and wasted time in the land use approval and enforcement processes. Who needs it, if things are likely to go smoother elsewhere?

Next up: The regulatory framework– Part 2: Walking a mile in a property owner’s shoes

And the beat goes on…

Whew. I’m back. Still not 100% healthwise, but I met my creative writing homework deadline of Sept. 1st, and there’s now enough space in my head, and my back is allowing me to sit at the computer long enough, to start blogging again about planning, redevelopment and interesting happenings in Pottstown.

Next up: The Regulatory Framework for Land Development – Part 1

Just checking in…

Hi, dear readers! I threw my back out a couple days ago and haven’t been able to spend a lot of time at the keyboard, but things are improving and I hope to post again before the weekend is out.

In the meantime, mark your calendars for the community events scheduled for Saturday, September 11. I think I’ve come up with a cool community building activity; I just have to talk to a few folks to see how/where we can set it up.

And for things to do this weekend, check out the calendars at the Pottstown Arts & Cultural Alliance and The Pottstown Post.

The Arts and Community & Economic Development

Here’s the pre-requisite for this blog post… Please read Evan Brandt’s excellent article about Bethlehems’s highly successful, long-running Musikfest, run by the not-for-profit ArtsQuest. I was among the group that visited, hoping to glean some insights that might benefit Pottstown.

First, the basic assumption – and it has been shown in numerous studies – is that arts and cultural development provides economic benefits, sometimes in a very big way.

Second, the following discussion assumes that Pottstown wants to consider an economic development strategy that involves the arts and culture. From what I can tell, there is a core group of folks who would like to see this happen, but I’m not sure there’s consensus.

Third, each community is different and, therefore, each community needs to come up with its own “authentic” strategy. Musikfest works in Bethlehem because of their Moravian heritage. In 1993 ArtsQuest also instituted a successful annual Christkindlmarkt, modeled on the outdoor Christmas markets in German villages and towns. As Amy Francis said in The Mercury, “We can’t recreate what you’ve done here… We need to figure out what we are.”

I confess: I had a head-start because I took a class in Cultural, Community & Economic Development last year as part of a continuing education requirement. In that class we looked at the case studies in Tom Borrup’s The Creative Community Builder’s Handbook: How to Transform Communities Using Local Assets, Arts, and Culture. Musikfest would be a fine addition to Borrup’s book, although I’m anxiously awaiting the book that Jeffrey Parks said he hopes to write some day soon about his experiences in Bethlehem. 🙂

Below is an overview of Borrup’s book to help put Bethlehem’s success and Pottstown’s challenges in context.

Borrup categorizes ten arts and culture strategies that various communities have used to achieve economic or social development goals, and he gives examples for each.

Building Strong Economies through Arts and Culture
1. Create Jobs
2. Stimulate Trade through Cultural Tourism
3. Attract Investment by Creating Live/Work Zones for Artists
4. Diversify the Local Economy
5. Improve Property and Enhance Value

Building Social Connections through Arts and Culture
1. Promote Interaction in Public Space
2. Increase Civic Participation through Cultural Celebrations
3. Engage Youth
4. Promote Stewardship of Place
5. Broaden Participation in the Civic Agenda

Of course, most of us might say that we want to do all of these. And the reality is that while a community may focus on one or two of these strategies, there can/will be benefits that flow into some of the other areas as well.

The rest of the Borrup book goes through a very detailed process that communities can follow to reach consensus on what they want their particular arts and cultural plan to look like and accomplish. Under each of these steps, there are set tasks. Go here if you want to see them in the Table of Contents.

Steps for Creative Community Builders
1. Assess Your Situation and Goals
2. Identify and Recruit Effective Partners
3. Map Values, Strengths, Assets, and History (My note: This is where you figure out who you are and what’s your story.)
4. Focus on Your Key Asset, Vision, Identity, and Core Strategies
5. Craft a Plan That Brings the Identity to Life
6. Securing Funding, Policy Support, and Media Coverage

Take this process with a grain of salt: there are examples in the case studies, where an entrepreneurial, charismatic artist or community leader came up with an idea, took a risk and helped turn a community in a new direction, and I would put Jeffrey Parks and Musikfest in this category. The example from the Borrup book that remains most vivid in my mind is Waterfire in Providence, RI. This public lighting of fires on the river was started by the artist Barnaby Evans as a one-time event in 1994, and now it happens several times throughout the summer and fall. I’ve never been to see it, but it gives me chills just looking at the website. It seems like such a powerful ritual and it attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors.

But, barring an Arts and Cultural Superhero, Borrup provides a useful guide for communities to undertake this work together. It’s something for Pottstown to consider because there’s a history of the community not working together and skepticism around new ideas. Mr. Parks and his “Friends of Jeff” volunteer posse made Musikfest happen as soon as Bethlehem Steel closed, and it was pretty much a success from the start. They weren’t trying to make a comeback from a long-term economic slide. They weren’t operating in an atmosphere of cynicism and apathy. If a vision, goals and a plan for Pottstown come out of a collaborative process, you will by definition “broaden participation in the civic agenda,” and you would be repairing the way the community functions, which I think is a critical steppingstone to finally improving the local economy.

Another important note: The ArtsQuest organization has three goals.
1. Arts access for all
2. Urban revitalization
3. Organizational sustainability

While “economic development” is part of urban revitalization, note how their main mission is the arts. The economic benefits flow from their carrying out their arts mission in an ever-evolving, sustained way. They have renovated and occupy a building called The Banana Factory, which led to the eventual private sector renovation of nearby buildings. (Mr. Parks said, “Government is not the vehicle. You need the entrepreneurial activity of investors and NGOs.” That’s non-governmental organizations/non-profits.) The Banana Factory includes 28 artists’ studios, digital photo classes and programs for at-risk youth. They have the only hot glass studio in the Lehigh Valley. And, as mentioned in Evan’s piece, they are embarking on the SteelStacks project, which will provide entertainment and community gathering spaces for a year-round program of events, sealing Bethlehem’s identity as the arts and culture hub of the Lehigh Valley.

I think Pottstown’s economic future lies in an arts and cultural strategy, tied to sustainability and its industrial past. This is why I get excited about pie, or green manufacturing of hip stuff, or – I don’t know – the thought of an industrial-sized, noisy atelier filled with blacksmiths, welders, and stone and steel artists/sculptors, creating massive installations that will end up all over the world. I think the elements are there for a good story, by which I mean: there’s something authentic and real there that residents, visitors and investors could believe in. As to the specific form of that strategy – I don’t presume to have the answer. But I know it’s there, within Pottstown’s borders, in its history and its people, just waiting to be discovered.

Benefit Concert Tonight at Tri-PAC

If you’re looking to kick off your weekend with some pizazz and a gift from the heart, get to the Tri-County Performing Arts Center at 254 E. High Street tonight for SONGS THAT GO LIKE THIS . …. . A BROADWAY REVIEW. Proceeds from the evening will benefit the local Habit for Humanity and the Tri-PAC.

This musical performance is brought to you by Maggie & Mark Moliterno and Friends. Maggie is an award-winning dramatic coloratura soprano, Pottstown native and a versatile actress, who has appeared in principal roles in opera, operetta and musical theater in the U.S. and Europe. Mark, is a bass-baritone, who has performed throughout the United States, Canada, Great Britain, and the Far East, with numerous opera companies, symphony orchestras and festivals. He is also an Adjunct Associate Professor of Voice at Westminster Choir College of Rider University in Princeton, NJ.

The “friends” part of the evening’s performance includes approximately 25 young vocalists from the area.

Photo courtesy of Village Productions
Tickets are $20 for children 12 & under and $30 for adults. A wine and cheese reception is included. The show starts at 8 pm. For more info, check out Tri-Pac’s Facebook page, their website, or call 610.970.1199.

The new Tri-County Performing Arts Center is the home of Village Productions. Village Productions is a dynamic nonprofit performing arts organization that seeks to strengthen community, inspire creative exploration, educate, and entertain, through the presentation of quality performing arts events and educational opportunities geared toward a diverse audience.

Positively Pottstown makes the Sanatoga Post

The Sanatoga Post today mentions Sunday’s article, “Pottstown as Fashion Hub??” in its post, “We Made Tires, Steel Here. Why Not Paper Clothes Too?”

Below is my comment/reply. Please note that the one sentence I questioned has since been removed from the article. I do appreciate the continuing conversation with Joe Zlomek, publisher of The Sanatoga Post, and the rest of the community. Also, here I’ve added links within my comment that did not appear on the Post’s site so people can learn more, if they wish.

“Sue Says:
August 19, 2010 at 9:49 am
Hi, Joe – thanks for the feature! Just wanted to clarify your last sentence: “Those firms were less environmentally sensitive than green fashion is sure to be, she notes.” While the assertion may be true, I never did note that! Your last paragraph implies that my post was critical of the area’s industrial past and those employers, whom I never mentioned, thus giving the wrong impression. One of my grandfathers worked in the mines upstate and then for Bethlehem Steel; another for the Reading Railroad; a grandmother worked in a mill. They were living the American dream, as difficult as it was. That’s part of Pottstown’s heritage, I’m proud of it, and I think the town should embrace it with a modern twist.

I’d also like to reiterate that the green fashion idea is just one of several sustainable, green avenues the Borough could consider… along with still trying to attract more conventional manufacturing jobs, if the opportunities present themselves. Tim Phelps, Tri-County Area Chamber of Commerce President, recently had an opinion piece in The Mercury (Aug. 14) about the U.S. Air Force KC-X aerial refueling tanker project that Boeing is vying for. From my understanding of the piece & some other online reading, it seems that contract would be especially valuable to specific manufacturing hubs in Michigan, North Carolina and Johnstown, PA (perhaps other U.S. locales as well). The work in Johnstown is expected to result in jobs/orders for subcontractors in the manufacturing and supply sector here in the Pottstown area. That would be a good thing, too.

While I think Pottstown would do well to go all-out with a forward-thinking economic development and marketing plan built around sustainability and the arts, we have to keep in mind that jobs are jobs, and the area needs them… as long as they are not of a potentially hazardous or noxious nature. (I had to add that caveat because I came out against a “green” recycling plant/landfill proposal several weeks ago that I believe falls into that category.)

Best,
Sue
Positively!Pottstown

Joe Zlomek Says:

August 19, 2010 at 10:11 am
Sue, your point about the story’s “environmentally sensitive” sentence is understood. It was an interpretation and not your direct statement. Consequently, I have removed it in its entirety.

Your other points are well made. Thanks both for correcting and commenting!

Sue Repko Says:

August 19, 2010 at 10:12 am
Thanks for the edit, Joe 🙂

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