Are people gun shy about building walking/biking trails in Northern Chester County?

If you go into Northern Chester County you can find Confederate Battle Flags proudly flying and now and then someone proudly wearing a KKK baseball cap.

I was at Wednesday evening’s Brandywine-Struble Greenway Open House meeting in Downingtown.

I think the people from Chester County and the Brandywine Conservancy won’t say it publicly but I believe they are gun shy about putting Greenway Riverpark trail along the West Branch of the Brandywine from Coatesville to Hibernia Park and further into Honeybrook Township. And also the East Branch Greenway into Honeybrook Township that is now in the planning stages (some sections are complete). I believe they’re afraid of the white nationalist/property rights/KKK people in that area of Chester County.

I don’t think they need to be afraid of them.

We have exactly the same type of people in the Northern Montgomery County Skinhead/KKK areas along the Perkiomen Creek. They put up “Stop the Horse Trail” posters along RT. 29 when we tried to build the Perkiomen Trail.  They circulated rumors that Black People from Philadelphia would be “walking in your backyard and maybe robbing you”.  That’s a very long walk but reality doesn't intrude into the KKK mind.

The property rights people strung thin wires across the existing portions of railroad bed at neck level for horseback riders. One of those horseback riders happened to be Michael Marino who was Montgomery County District Attorney at the time. If Mike Marino hadn’t pushed for the trail’s completion it probably wouldn’t have happened.

It took 11 years from idea to start of construction. Add several years of property rights lawsuits during construction.

When it was in the planning stages many people complained that the Perkiomen Trail would lower their property values and some of them sold their properties near the proposed trail route before the imagined lowering of property values.  The trail was actually re-routed away from a group of property owners adamant in their opposition to the trail. Now, “Close to the Perkiomen Trail” is featured in real estate advertising.

The Perkiomen Trail is complete and successful beyond most people’s expectations.  Moccia’s Train Stop Restaurant gives “Along the Perkiomen Trail” a prominent position in their advertising.  Moccia’s old small Restaurant in Schwenksville re-opened as a light meal place and as does their new larger Restaurant, caters to trail users. It has hitches on the trail side for horseback riders. The Moccias are, by the way, an extremely nice family. 

The Skinhead/KKK types still have their “ceremonies” near the Perkiomen Creek but they don’t actually light crosses anymore, the fire might be seen from the trail.

Perkiomen Trail is regularly patrolled by Montgomery County Park Rangers. There is actually a level of security along the path of the road bed that didn’t exist before the Perkiomen Trail.

There is a deeply ingrained human need to stroll and socialize.  Italians call it La Passeggiata. There is also a deeply ingrained human need to be into a natural area with wildness. When you give people that live in car centered concrete and macadam communities trail systems that combine both, we flock to those places in huge numbers.

Because of the astounding success of the Perkiomen Trail and the Schuylkill Trail it’s easier to find support for new trails. The “property rights” people are still around and because we have a Black President they are highly aroused, but they just don’t have the clout they once had.