Tag: Economic Development

Ranking projects for Pottstown’s Heritage Action Plan

For those who have been following the development of Pottstown’s Heritage Action Plan or HAP, it’s time to rank the various projects and strategies that have surfaced. These rankings will determine the initial priorities for funding and completion.

To bring everyone up to speed… With funding from the Schuylkill River Heritage Area, Tom Carroll and I have been leading a cross-section of the community through a Heritage Action planning process on behalf of the Borough. The purpose is to produce a plan with a vision and marketing strategy around our heritage resources – arts, culture, history and recreation – so that we can entice hikers and bikers off the Schuylkill River Trail and into the downtown. We have identified our resources and ranked them, and are now at the point of prioritizing projects and strategies for the $25,000 we hope to receive in implementation funding from the SRHA in the coming months.

Anyone can be a participating partner! We welcome input from all organizations and individuals who care about the revitalization of Pottstown’s downtown. Here’s how to participate in the ranking:

Attached is a TRAIL TOWN COMPONENT RANKING  spreadsheet. If you have a few minutes over the next few days, please follow the instructions below and return your rankings by next Wednesday, May 11th to ptownHAP@gmail.com.

1.       Click on the link above to open the file.
2.       Rename file, adding your name, e.g. “Repkotrailtowncomponentranking.xlsx”
3.       Rank each component on a scale of 1 to 10; 1 being extremely important to 10, not important.
4.       In the suggested location column, add a suggested location if you are so inclined; i.e. “Bike Lane Striping” Suggestion: “Add bike lanes to Evans and Franklin Streets; connecting the North End to the Downtown”
5.       Return the completed ranking form as an attachment in .xlsx or .xls (EXCEL) format by Wednesday, May 11th to ptownHAP@gmail.com.

Thank you in advance for your input and ideas!

If you want to learn more, you can find previous blog posts and discussions here:
https://positivelypottstown.wordpress.com/category/trail-towns-tours/ or check out Pottstown Heritage Action Plan on Facebook.

PEAK event & literary arts in Pottstown

An estimated 600 people, most of them Pottstown’s youngest residents, turned out for a day of fun and information-gathering at the YMCA for the annual Pottstown Early Action for Kindergarten Readiness (PEAK) Community Event to kick off the Month of the Young Child.  

Erika Hornburg-Cooper of The Gallery School creates magic!

PEAK is funded through Pennsylvania-Pre-K Counts, United Way of Southeastern Pennsylvania, Pottstown Area Health & Wellness Foundation, and the Montgomery County Foundation and focuses on building partnerships with the early learning programs in the Pottstown community.

Please join me in sending a huge shout-out to Mary Rieck, PEAK Coordinator for the Pottstown School District, and all the other agencies and organizations who came out to share a few hours on a Sunday afternoon with the community.

PEAK was created in an effort to coordinate quality early childhood education and related services.  Every three- and four-year-old child has access to high quality child care, early childhood education, pre-kindergarten and kindergarten. Parents also receive education and resources so that they can do a better job at being their child’s “first teacher.”

These are all critical to the success of Pottstown’s students, which relates directly to the town’s fiscal situation. At last week’s meeting of the new PAID board, in response to a question, Dr. Lindley said something to the effect that if a child isn’t reading at grade level early in elementary school, there’s a very high chance that child is going to be a high-school drop-out. That’s pretty disheartening – to think that any person’s educational fate may be set at such a young age. As a mom who spent many hours reading to my sons from the time they could sit up, and as a creative writer myself, I am fiercely passionate about reading, writing and storytelling. These are the ways that humans of all ages connect. On the societal level, illiteracy and an undereducated workforce strain many aspects of community life, producing all kinds of negative fiscal impacts.

Family fun

My table was set up near the folks from Montgomery County’s Head Start and the YWCA, which runs literacy programs for all ages and for families, so I got to talk with their representatives for a few minutes about what they do. This got me thinking again about the potential for the literary arts to serve Pottstown’s children, improve educational outcomes, and play a role in revitalization. (Here’s an earlier blog post/discussion.) Now I’ve got an expanded take on my prior literary dreaming… What if all the existing organizations and programs – from early childhood through adult – got together to create/coordinate a year’s worth of literary programming to expose the community to an even wider array of writers and to make literature a more visible – and visitor-friendly – part of the culture of Pottstown? 

If we added “Literary Arts” as a category of resources to the Heritage Action Plan, we’ve already got:

Feel free to add to the list, and count me in for tapping the writers and publishing professionals I’ve gotten to know through my undergraduate university and my current MFA program at Bennington College.

There’s probably an impressive line-up of writers living in and visiting Pottstown already. By adding a few more events; “sharing” visiting writers within the context of larger community events; and then advertising all these events collectively, we might find that Pottstown is just a few stanzas away from being a literary arts destination. 

Two important community meetings tonight

Two meetings tonight will provide key information on various aspects of revitalization and serve as proof of the new collaborative spirit taking hold in Pottstown.

#1  For anyone interested in the status of the Pottstown Area Industrial Development corporation (PAID), the entity responsible for economic development in the Borough, there will be a meeting to announce their new board members this evening at 6 pm at the library on the The Hill School campus. The reconstituted PAID board is an outgrowth of a recommendation by the Urban Land Institute in a 2009 report for the Borough to create a single entity for redevelopment and revitalization. See The Mercury’s article here.

#2 If you want to know more about what’s happening in the Washington Street corridor and how you can get involved, Genesis Housing is holding a meeting called “Let’s Talk” at 7 pm tonight at the Ricketts Center, where you can learn about new projects and help design a community mural. The Ricketts Center is at  640 Beech Street, Pottstown, PA 19464. Community members will be asked for their ideas for a new mural at the Chestnut Street Park and to help to set priorities and develop future projects. An update on Washington Street neighborhood projects,  including the new community garden and the Science in the Park event, will be discussed.  Community concerns about this area and other sections of the Pottstown will be explored with the hope of setting priorities for future projects.

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then the proposed mural in the Washington St. neighborhood will speak volumes on the tenacity and determination driving the revitalization of Pottstown.  Genesis Housing Corporation, The Gallery on High and Citizens for Pottstown’s Revitalization are in collaboration to develop a mural at the park located at Washington and Chestnut Streets.  The artistic coordinators, Cathy Paretti and Erika Hornburg-Cooper of the Gallery on High have selected Robert Louis Williams, an accomplished local artist to design and create the proposed park mural.  Let’s talk about the different types of murals and what this mural should look like – this is the chance for your input!

Judith Memberg, Executive Director of Genesis Housing Corporation, will provide an update on their Washington Street neighborhood housing developments including the rehabilitation of vacant properties for new home buyers and the homeowner rehab programs.  Information about the Pottstown Homeowner Rehab Program will be provided.

Genesis Housing Corporation serves Montgomery County as a non-profit community development organization and is dedicated to the development of affordable housing and to the education of consumers on housing and financial issues.  For more information, visit their website at www.genesishousing.org or call 610-275-4357.

Heritage Action Plan assesses resources & linkages

This past Monday, about a dozen members of the Heritage Action Plan working group gathered at the Tri-County Area Chamber of Commerce to review the results of a recent listing and ranking of Pottstown’s heritage resources.  

The map below – created by Tom Carroll – shows the clusters of historical, arts, cultural, dining and recreational resources in and around the downtown. Some highly-ranked resources received “poor” ratings for physical condition.  It’s important to keep in mind that highly-valued resources, perceived to be in poor condition, may be excellent candidates for money or attention to draw the most benefit from them in our promotional efforts.

The map also listed major annual or seasonal events hosted in/by Pottstown every year. When these events are shown by the month in which they occur, it becomes apparent that the Borough and various other organizations are holding major events that draw visitors from throughout the region 8 months out of the year. Coordinating & enhancing promotion with downtown merchants and PDIDA could be one of several recommended strategies in the HAP. Creating additional events to fill in the other months would lead to a full year of “hometown celebration” programming.

As the working group moves toward defining Pottstown’s heritage marketing strategy and branding, history and the arts emerged as themes to pursue. Here were several comments/suggestions:

  • Start giving Historic Walking Tours on First Saturdays, led by MCCC students.
  • Consider giving Cemetery Tours, esp. for John Potts Cemetery, which is now not open to the public, and for Edgewood Cemetery. Coordinate with Pottsgrove Manor.
  • Look into creating a Historic Church Tour; several churches were highly-ranked.
  • Use banners (inexpensive) to designate High St. as an “Avenue of the Arts.”
  • Use banners to generate excitement & direct visitors to downtown. Add color! 
  • Coordinate with PDIDA & downtown merchants.

The group briefly talked about tourism/hospitality amenities that are lacking or need improvement. Safety and cleanliness had been concerns in our first large group meeting back in March. 

  • High school students will be cleaning up the downtown on the April 30 Clean-Up Day, and this should be the beginning of more frequent clean-ups downtown by student volunteers.
  • Need to do a better job of tapping volunteers in the community.
  • Involve high school students in creating marketing materials.
  • Need signage, banners, kiosks to get Trail users into the downtown – still must decide how many, what goes on them, where to place them and prioritize list.
  • Need more occupied storefronts, esp. creative-related, for critical mass to attract trail users.
  • Will need lodging for overnight visitors when Trail is complete.
  • Consider a winter carnival in February.
  • HAP partners must continue to have conversations & coordinate with County & PennDOT regarding road projects and trail linkages.
As one participant noted: “This is exactly what the ULI report was talking about.”
We expect to have another large group meeting in the next couple weeks as we solicit more input on a vision statement, marketing strategies, and trail town components like signs, kiosks and connecting paths. The public is invited to join in here or by emailing PtownHAP@gmail.com.


Man-made waterfalls: A vision for Pottstown?

This past Friday, Joe Zlomek, Managing Editor of The Sanatoga Post, published an interesting revitalization story out of Rosemont, Illinois. You can check out the article here: “You can see the Pottstown waterfalls from Illinois.”

Joe describes the way this relatively new town created waterfalls at one of their gateways and at an entrance to a walkway along the Des Plaines River and asks readers to imagine something similar along Pottstown’s Schuylkill Riverfront.

With funding from the Schuylkill River Heritage Area and the William Penn Foundation, the Borough is in the midst of developing a Heritage Action Plan. The plan will lay out a vision, goals and objectives, and a marketing strategy for linking Schuylkill River Trail users to downtown resources, such as shops, restaurants, arts, culture, history and recreation. The River and the Trail are key to any revitalization and economic development strategy.

A working group meeting is taking place this morning, Monday, April 18 from 10:30am-noon. Anyone interested in being part of the planning or implementation of the Heritage Action Plan is welcome to attend this or future meetings.  Please send an email to PtownHAP@gmail.com or check out the Pottstown Heritage Action Plan on Facebook for more info.

A huge “THANK YOU” to Joe for giving us some creative food for thought!

First Suburbs meeting: Help make Pottstown’s voice be heard

The Southeastern Pennsylvania First Suburbs Project is holding a public meeting Thursday, April 14 at 7:30 pm with Housing and Urban Development Region III Administrator Jane Vincent to call for fairness in regional housing policy.

The Statement of Purpose on their website declares:

“The Southeastern Pennsylvania First Suburbs Project is a regional coalition of community leaders from developed suburbs that have joined together to harness their communities’ power by directly engaging citizens to affect policies and practices that will lead to the stabilization and revitalization of their communities.”

The First Suburbs Project has galvanized communities in Bucks, Chester, Delaware and Montgomery Counties. Pottstown is a member of this coalition and will be taking a bus to the meeting, which will be held at the JP Mascaro and Sons Building in Audobon. To get on the bus, which will leave Borough Hall at 6:30 pm, call the Borough at 610-970-6511.

To read some prior blog posts about the challenges facing Pottstown and other First Suburbs, check out the following links:

Community Gardens & First Suburbs – the start of a (long) conversation

First Suburbs: Affordable Housing Notes from NJ

First Suburbs – Challenges of Rental Housing

First Suburbs, Keim Street Bridge & Keystone Blvd. Extension

Urban planners to study Pottstown’s riverfront

A group of urban planners earning continuing education credits will soon be studying Pottstown’s riverfront and coming up with concepts for the Borough to consider – all free of charge. Last night Borough Council voted 7-0 to endorse the Borough’s participation in the online class.

Rutgers University’s Professional Development Institute (PDI) offers a range of courses to urban planners and other land use professionals from all over the United States and the world. They recently put out a call for communities who had land use and design challenges that could be the focus of one of their 5.5 week urban design studios.

As The Mercury reports today in “Urban planners ‘assigned’ to Pottstown riverfront as case study,” there has been much talk in the past year about the Urban Land Institute’s 2009 report that urged the Borough to create “a place of magic” on Pottstown’s riverfront. The PDI class will look at the numerous physical constraints and possibilities along the river, while learning urban design concepts from instructor Matt Wanamaker, a principal of the Philadelphia urban design and place-making firm Brown & Keener.

Brown & Keener’s home page states its mission simply:
“Envision futures.
Raise civic expectations.
Create agendas for change.
Make great places.”

As “the client” the Borough should end up with multiple concepts along with rough sketches from the class. Local officials, such as Chris Huff from the Planning Commission and Councilor Joe Kirkland, will be able to participate in the online discussions and respond to questions as they arise. The goal for the Borough is to get some realistic and fresh ideas that will spur community discussion about its vision for the riverfront. The class was announced on the PDI blog last week and had 7 people signed up within a couple days, according to Leo Vazquez, Director of PDI at Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers. If all goes well, there could be other opportunities to collaborate with PDI in the future – a win-win for the professionals taking PDI courses and for Pottstown.

A Vision for Pottstown: What do YOU see?

As part of the Heritage Action Plan that’s being developed with funding from the Schuylkill River Heritage Area and William Penn Foundation, representatives from lots of organizations and institutions in town got together for a workshop last month, where we talked about our individual visions for Pottstown.

A vision statement should answer these questions: What do we want to create? What do we want our community to look like?

Below is a summary of the workshop participants’ visions for Pottstown. There seemed to be consensus around the idea of a future Pottstown with a safe, clean, revitalized, business-friendly downtown that promotes heritage resources and is accessible by various modes and attractive to families and young people.

1. Envision Pottstown as a revitalized place; focus on downtown; clean up blighted properties. Need for occupied storefronts downtown.
2. Have Pottstown’s streets be clean, welcoming, attractive and safe to bring people into town; heighten police presence; create safe link between Hill School & downtown.
3. Project a new, positive, business-friendly image.
4. Develop and promote a sense of place.
5. Promote a garden feel to Pottstown.
6. Build on existing arts and culture as economic development tool.
7. Envision Pottstown as a place that works together with existing assets/resources.
8. Pottstown should be the cultural leader in the region. Must coordinate offerings.
9. Move drug treatment center to new location.
10. Give Pottstown a progressive image. Add a new twist in arts, culture & sustainability that ties into the trail, natural resources & Pottstown’s history (pie, steel, railroad.)
11. Promote health and healthy living, farmers’ market, bike-sharing program, vibrant streetscape, activity on streets, eyes on the street. Create comfortable atmosphere, place where families are active, walking on streets.
12. Enhance and create transportation linkages, especially to improve foot traffic for businesses; be pedestrian-friendly; improve way-finding. Highlight the airport as a resource. Create a multi-modal community.
13. Market studio & residential space to art students; need more bars/entertainment for young people.

WHAT’S YOUR VISION FOR POTTSTOWN?

Schuylkill Highlands holding open house for economic development plan

The Schuylkill Highlands is one of seven “Conservation Landscape Initiative” regions in the state of Pennsylvania. It’s a place that includes the Schuylkill River watershed; it’s also a collaboration of people and partners who want to preserve the landscape and promote sustainable economic development.

The Schuylkill Highlands is holding an open house tomorrow from 4-6 pm at Morlatton Village and everyone is invited. See The Mercury’s articlehere.

The open house will showcase the findings, outcomes and recommendations for The Compatible Economic Development Plan: Valley Forge to Reading and The Hopewell Big Woods.

Carter van Dyke & Assoc., Campbell Thomas & Assoc., Susan Huffman along with the Task Force will exhibit their findings on:

– Place -Based Tourism recommendations
– What types of businesses are needed and where
– What types of infrastructure improvements are needed and where
– Next steps to enhance the visitor experience, encourage economic development in this region and preserve our natural, cultural and historic resources
– Next steps to plan for the influx of visitorship to our gateways and river towns as the Schuylkill River Trail is completed.

Pottstown’s Heritage Action Plan, which is in the process of being formulated by a wide range of local Partners, is one piece of the larger, regional heritage tourism/economic development puzzle. I’ll be there tomorrow and hope a few faithful readers and Heritage Action team members from Pottstown can get there, too!

When: Thursday, March 31, 4-6 pm. Come and go as you please.
Location: White Horse Inn, Morlatton Village, 31 Old Philadelphia Pike, Douglassville, PA 19518

Creating public art through local partnerships

I just had to share this link to the website of Olde Town Grove City, PA. I got it from Stephanie Dittrich Conlon; she’s the creator of Community Buzz, which covers Berks County towns. Thanks, Stephanie!

It’s a great example of a bunch of local partners coming together to create public art around a parking signage project. It involves students from a residential treatment community, the borough’s Design Committee, the school district, an artist-in-residence, ArtsErie and other arts funders, Interstate Machine and Fabrication, Canadian National Railroad, Tower Presbyterian Church and the Borough of Grove City, among others.

Pottstown is now creating a Heritage Action Plan that will include similar partnerships to come up with a vision, goals and objectives to draw visitors from the Schuylkill River Trail to its downtown. Check out the Pottstown Heritage Action Plan page at Facebook and join the conversation!

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