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.
Join The Gallery Schoolfor their 5th annual fundraiser Fashion Plates 5: Breakfast at Tiffany’s. It’s happening this Sunday, April 10 from 1-4pm atBrookside Country Club at Prospect and Adams Streets in Pottstown.
Please note: tickets are not available at the door. All tickets must be purchased by Friday, April 8 – that’s today! To get your tickets online, click here.
This year’s theme is “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” and the fashion show will feature pieces for him and her, courtesy of Boscov’s, and modeled by members of our community. Magical Sight and Sound will bring their musical expertise to the afternoon, and guests will be treated to a fabulous dance demonstration. Remi Rosales, co-director of the Salsa Dancing and Zumba program at the Ballroom on High and his student, Karen McArthur, will dance Remi’s salsa choreography to Ban Ban.
Your ticket includes lunch, dessert and an special endless cocktail “Tiffany Punch.” (There will also be a cash bar.) Guests will be treated to great door prizes and have the opportunity to bid on some fabulous silent auction items.
Bring a friend! Purchase two tickets for only $100, a $20 savings! Individual tickets are $60 each. Tickets for children under 12 are $30, and men are welcome, too! Your support helps The Gallery School fulfill their mission of making the arts accessible to everyone in our community.
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.
If you’ve seen a bunch of women dressed in black yoga garb and pink bandanas running around downtown Pottstown in the last few weeks, you aren’t imagining things and we aren’t being invaded by pink ninja yogis.
Image by Melia Rios-Lazo from Priceless Moments Portrait
Last year’s event drew over 1,200 yoga enthusiasts to the Art Museum in Philadelphia to do yoga and raise money for Living Beyond Breast Cancer, a non-profit dedicated to support services for women in treatment and beyond. While many breast cancer organizations focus on finding a cure, LBBC is different. According to their mission statement, their goal is, “To empower all women affected by breast cancer to live as long as possible with the best quality of life.”
Kosciewicz found out about the Yoga on the Steps event late last year and got a couple of friends, jewelry artist Carrie Grabowicz of Hammi Jammi Jewelry and Joy van Ruler, an artist who designed this year’s team logo, to join her on the steps of the Art Museum. This year, the team has 20 registered members and there is room for more. Fellow yoga instructor, Stephanie Smolik of Yoga-for-Every-Belly, is a team member as well.
So, what does all this have to do with pink-headed yogis running rampant through the streets of Pottstown and encouraging business owners, the mayor and borough manager to strike a yoga pose? Actually quite a bit. The excitement was all about the video the Tri-County for a Cure team is making to raise awareness about breast cancer.
Image from Living Beyond Breast Cancer
The impetus for the video was a conversation before one of Barbara’s classes about how funny it would be to do yoga in random places around town. Before long the idea had grown to involve raising awareness and funds for the Yoga on the Steps event and the team, Tri-County for a Cure.
Honestly, the first day of filming, I think many of us (myself included) were a little nervous about the idea of being filmed or photographed in yoga poses, but with Melia’s enthusiasm and skill, we all quickly got into the spirit of the day. Before we knew it, we were sitting in prayer squat near the door of a Septa Bus in front of Borough Hall.
We had a schedule, but also grabbed unsuspecting people along the way, and I was amazed at the support we found. We even convinced the UPS driver to pose with us near the police station, and some college kids on the steps at Montgomery County Community College.
“We attracted attention, beeps and awareness. Everyone we came in contact with was supportive of the cause and gave yoga their best shot,” said Kosciewicz. “We talked to people who were survivors, who had family members that were survivors or had lost someone to breast cancer.”
She continued, “At the end of each day filming I walked away energized, but also with the understanding that Breast Cancer is a terrible disease and something that has affected everyone. I would use the word ‘powerful’ to describe the filming days.”
The whole experience was, well, something amazing to experience. We got so many people to come out of their stores, offices, and comfort zones and be a little silly with us for an important cause. Barbara summed up the days’ filming this way (and I agree wholeheartedly): “I enjoyed the interaction with each and every person; the willingness of EVERYONE to do something for breast cancer and for Pottstown’s revitalization.”
The video is set to debut at the next Positively Pottstown Happy Hour on April 15th at the Academy of Massage Therapy and Bodyworks and High Street Yoga, which shares the space on the second floor of the massage school.
For information about the event in May, or to learn more about the organization’s services and mission, you can visit Living Beyond Breast Cancer’s webpage at www.llbc.org
If you can’t wait till April 15th for the video and want a sneak peek of the coverage, you can check out the Mercury’s coverage of the day, or visit the Tri-County for a Cure facebook page for links to the local news stories that ran about the filming
Tonight at 7 pm, there’s a Community Ward Meeting where residents are invited to present concerns to the Borough Manager and Department Heads in an informal setting and where Borough reps will give residents an update of what’s happening in the Borough.
I’ll be in town for some other meetings, including the Schuylkill Highlands open house at Morlatton Village in the late afternoon, and will stick around for this all-ward meeting. There are a lot of good things happening at the local government level, including the Heritage Action planning process, a new owner-occupied housing rehab program, and an update to the Borough website, among many others. Bring your questions and ideas — hope to see you there!
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 anopen housetomorrow from 4-6 pm atMorlatton Village and everyone is invited. See The Mercury’s articlehere.
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
Local wine consultants and educators, Dean and Lisa Foster, are offering a class on Wines of the Finger Lakes this Thursday, March 31 from 6:30-9:30 pm in Pottstown. The class costs $35 per person and reservations are required in advance. Call or e-mail for more info or to register: 610 469 6164 or Vintageconnections@comcast.net.
Through their blogs, “Vintage Connections Wine Info,” and “Grapevine” in the Pottstown Mercury, Dean and Lisa provide information and recommendations about wine, wine events, and the world of wine, primarily in the Montgomery, Berks, and Chester Tri-County Area of Southeastern Pennsylvania. They also focus on affordable and accessible wines, mostly priced under $20 and sometimes under $10, and available at PA Wine and Spirits stores or at wineries located in Eastern Pennsylvania.
Their consulting business, “Vintage Connections,” provides wine education, wine classes and seminars, educational food and wine pairings, wine tastings, and other customized services. If you haven’t been to one of their classes yet, you’re missing out on a very enjoyable opportunity to get over that hump of being intimidated by the sometimes overwhelming world of wine!
It’s that time of year… spring seems to bring with it lots of arts, cultural and community activities as we all come out of our winter hibernation. Please check out the updated calendar here and start making plans to come downtown, plant a community garden, get involved in a neighborhood watch and participate in the life of your community!
If you haven’t noticed – it’s a GORGEOUS day! This morning, after doing a yoga pose for a Team Tri-County for a Cure video down by the river, I took a jog along the Schuylkill River Trail, and it was just wonderful.
Give yourself some time to cut out of work early and get on the trail or into a local park or just out on the street on your bike. This is one of those gifts from above that you don’t want to miss!
And afterward, stop by the Tri-County Performing Arts Center for the Positively!Pottstown Happy Hour. It runs from 5-7:30 pm; the $5 cover gets you appetizers from Juan Carlos Fine Mexican Cuisine, cookies from Company Cakes and complimentary beverages. Then get your tickets and stay for The Crucible at 8!
And now, a fond remembrance for this beautiful day…
Positively Pottstown blog 