Sunday, January 1, 2012

Coatesville is poised to rise from the ashes in 2012


The new 45th District will finally give us a state representative who does more than sit on his ass.  If Barry Cassidy does one half of what he did for Phoenixville our Route 30 Corridor will be a booming economic center. And maybe, just maybe he will do a lot more than Hennessey did to get the drug dealers out of Coatesville. (See Lisa Johnson)

The new SEPTA and Amtrak train station will be here sometime in 2015. The Hotel will open in 2012. And I haven't given up on the Velodrome.

The only fly in the ointment is Coatesville City Manager Gary Rawlings plan to lay off Coatesville Police. That would make the drug business good again in Coatesville, with people digging bullets out of their kitchen walls and the SUR 13 gangs coming up from southern Chester County recruiting Coatesville's youth again.

This is not the time to give Coatesville back to the drug dealers
Our national economy is finally moving out of the ditch the GOP bankers put us in. The Republican plan to kill our economy by putting police, firefighters and teachers out of work is not stopping our economy from coming back.
Coatesville will get a new train station and a Marriott Courtyard Hotel.
The fires are over and crime is down in Coatesville because our Police Department was rebuilt.  Coatesville is the best real estate value in Chester County and we are attracting new middle class residents.
The Republican Congress has cut off Federal support for local police. All over the country police are being laid off. In Coatesville and Mr. Rawlings is poised to balance the budget on the backs of the City of Coatesville Police.
But just when Coatesville is finally coming back is not the time to give our city back to the drug dealers and national gangs.
In 2008 a bunch of Coatesville retail businesses had enough of the armed robberies and closed but some long time businesses waited for the "Bloc of Four's" inferno of terror to end. But if a store owner has a gun pointed to his head while his cash register is emptied one more time he might decide that it's time to close up.
Armed robberies, muggings and traffic stopped waiting for drug sales doesn't fit with attracting legitimate businesses to Coatesville  Putting drug dealers back in control of Coatesville's streets might send businesses looking to invest in Coatesville running away.

Hopefully the Coatesville City Council will have the good sense to ignore Rawlings and take money out of the water authority sale fund to keep police working. And maybe the city council will admit that hiring Rawlings was a big mistake, buy out his contract and send him off to play golf. Who knows, maybe that’s what he had in mind when he came here. 

4 comments:

  1. Jim I do not know where the police are doing there jobs. I see them at night behind buildings with the prostitutes and I see drug transactions in school zones and the police just ride by. They never get out of their cars and I bet you that this summer will be the worst we have ever seen.

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  2. waiting to see if my comment was approved.

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  3. I know what you mean. Sometimes drug houses and drug transactions are obvious. I think two things could be going on. The first is we don't have enough police. The second is there may be an investigation in progress with wiretaps and videos. Such as the "Breadwinner" investigation.
    If Rawlings and some city council members succeed in laying off 10 officers we certainly will have a very bad summer. Coatesville will be a strictly reactionary force with no community building and no investigations. Business will be "good again" in Coatesville, dealers from Philly will move back in and the street gangs will be building a base of youngsters.

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  4. I've seen what look like drug transactions on Kersey Street right in front of the school and in sight of the Police Station parking lot.

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