The Philadelphia International Championship bike race is coming on June

For the first time anyone that can ride a bike can do the course before the racing begins:

 “Registrants for the Bicycling Open will take to the course from 7 to 10 a.m., before the pros roll to the start line.”

“Cycling’s top men and women have challenged this route over the years – from Heiden, Armstrong and Hincapie in the early days to today’s stars like Alex Rasmussen, Peter Sagan and Ina Teutenberg. It’s a special experience, and if you can ride a bike, you can do it, too. You’ll ride the course at your own pace, on your own terms. If you’re a serious amateur, hammer away and compete like a pro would. If you’re interested in just enjoying a beautiful Sunday morning ride on the streets of Philadelphia, grab your mountain bike, road bike, cruiser, whatever, and join us,” said David Chauner, president of Pro Cycling Tour. “The Bicycling Open is a great way for families and friends to try something different together and to become a real part of the pageantry and festival atmosphere that the Philly race is known for around the world.”

Ride for a charity

“In addition to the personal challenge, participants in the Bicycling Open can also ride for a cause. The event’s connection with Charity of Choice encourages registrants to challenge friends and family to sponsor their rides, with funds raised going to the riders’ own favorite charities. That means if groups of people band together and ride for a specific charity, a sizable donation can be generated just by having fun riding bikes.”

SEE:

Get On a Bike & Feel Like a Pro in First Bicycling Magazine Open

"Classic Walkable Downtown" vs. Drug Corner Downtown

Tech company to open in downtown Pottstown (video)

• By Evan Brandt
  ebrandt@pottsmerc.com

"The company makes underwater “remotely operated vehicles,” or ROVs, more than 1,950 of which are used by the military, port security and for commercial uses to get a look at underwater conditions that might be too dangerous for a human diver."

"The idea of locating in a classic, walkable downtown was appealing to the company,” Bamford said.“Proximity to restaurants, the TriCounty Performing Arts Center, public transportation and convenient parking factored into their decision, as did plans for expansion of the Schuylkill River Trail and the continued growth of Montgomery County Community College in the borough,’ Bamford said."

Exactly! Good companies are attracted to areas that are good for their employees to live in. The corollary is that if your city is a high crime area where the primary industry is drug sales you are not going to attract many good businesses.

All the talk about revitalizing Coatesville over the last several years has attracted urban pioneer type people who have the gumption to participate in changing Coatesville to an attractive place to live. They are the people that you see volunteering in clean ups and actively bringing about change in Coatesville. I am getting vibes that some of those people are ready to give up on Coatesville. 


Coatesville is positioned to change from the drug depot of Chester County to a livable town. There is a near tsunami of developments coming towards Coatesville including the train station, Marriott Courtyard Hotel, the Velodrome and the rumor of expanding the GO Carlson Airport from a business jet facility to a UPS or Fed Ex hub. 


What concerns me is the new Coatesville City Manager's insistence on laying off police to "Bloc of Four" 2008 levels. A new crime wave and / or arson wave would cause housing and commercial development to just skip over Coatesville and leave us by the wayside.


I think we should maintain the present number of police officers by using the water company sale funds. New residents and new businesses in Coatesville will over time increase our tax income. But if a new crime wave comes we would not get those new residents and businesses.


If there is another 2008 police layoff induced crime wave the shopkeepers in Coatesville that had a gun to their head while their stores were robbed and did not close up might decide to leave Coatesville. Residents that located here expecting the redevelopment of Coatesville could move out. And Coatesville could be caught in a downward spiral of less money for police, more crime, and taxpayers moving away, less tax income, less money for police, more crime, and tax payers moving away and on and on. 

I think things are changing in Chester County in regards to Republican control of, well, just about everything in Chester County.

First of all the alleged misconduct was not about protecting some campaign contributor. I believe that Ms. Arnold deserves some slack because she was a mother trying to protect her sons.  I think she may have gone about protecting her family in the wrong manner. But I think Judge Arnold believed that she could get away with allegedly fudging the records. That she did not get away with it is what I think is important. 

There are Republicans here that have not gotten “the memo” about protecting other Republicans. The memo that says it’s just not the same as when Teddy Rubino controlled things. 

Maybe you didn't notice, but it took a while for the local newspapers to write about Judge Arnold. 

AP picked up the story in Harrisburg otherwise I think you might not have seen it this quickly in any local papers. 
See:

Coatesville Dems

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 2012

Downingtown District Judge Rita Arnold Chargedwith misconduct

Check the time stamps.

I think that without internet communication no one would have known about this so soon. Then again about 20 years ago when the internet was not significant there might not have been an investigation by the Judicial Conduct Board. 

Things are changing for the better in Chester County. You can see a faint shadow coming from a sliver of daylight shining into the Machiavellian gear works of Chester County.

In the middle 1970s when Teddy Rubino was Republican Party Chairman and ChesCo Commissioner there was so much corruption here in Chester County that President Carter formed a special committee to investigate the FBI in Chester County that reported only to the President. Theodore Rubino died just before he was to enter Federal prison, but I believe the corrupt system in Chester County lived on.

The CCRC’s Area 14 Chair Richard Legree came up during that period.

That special committee investigating the Delaware Valley FBI was about the drug business in Chester County. I think it concerned Daniel Joseph an informant and witness critical to several trials of accused drug dealers arrested in April of 1976, among them Richard Legree, and trials of two PA Bureau of Drug Control agents. Daniel Joseph was murdered in Virginia while in the Federal Witness Security Program by someone allegedly believed to be from Chester County. His murder along with the  investigation of the Pennsylvania Drug Control Agency made it possible to stop the prosecution of untried individuals and undo the prosecutions of many of the 40 people arrested in a drug sweep of Chester County. Richard Legree had a new trial and was acquitted. 


I think that what happened with the Downingtown court was an, “I can get away with this”, the party will protect me attitude. But I believe that "protected class of people" attitude is part of the same attitude of control and of protection of Republicans that I believe protects some players in the drug business.

The important part of this is that Republicans were a part of the investigation into the actions of the Downingtown Court.  The old “protected class of people” in Chester County that I think has its roots in Prohibition times is at least partly dead.

SEE:

SATURDAY, APRIL 16, 2011

About Coatesville’s version of Allentown’s SWEEP (Solid Waste Education and Enforcement Program).

AND:

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 14, 2011

How Richard Legree went from " Biggest drug pusher in Chester County"to CCRC Area 14 Chair

Did Councilman Jarrell Brazzle actually say he was concerned about a train falling on the Velodrome?

Did Jarrell Brazzle really say that he is against the Velodrome because his constituents have told him they believe the flats area where the Velodrome will be built is a dangerous place because a train could fall off the bridge and land on the building?

Did he actually say that?

Downingtown District Judge Rita Arnold Charged with misconduct

A district judge in suburban Philadelphia faces judicial misconduct charges alleging that she told her staff not to docket a harassment summary citation against her adult son and lied to court officials investigating the matter.
SEE:

Philly-area district judge charged with misconduct
Feb. 15, 2012, 3:44 p.m. EST
AP

UPDATE:
I think Kathleen Brady Shea's article shines the most light on the arrest of Judge Rita Arnold:

Chesco judge, accused of misconduct, faces prosecution

By Kathleen Brady Shea

Inquirer Staff Writer

UPDATE:

The Daily Local (dailylocal.com), Serving Chester County, PA

News

Downingtown District Judge barred from court during probe

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

By MICHAEL N. PRICE
mprice@dailylocal.com

Marriott Courtyard Coatesville is moving along

Courtyard Coatesville

600 Manor Road · Coatesville, Pennsylvania 19320 USA

Courtyard Marriott Coatesville Management Team Takes Shape

"WATERFORD, CT - February 3, 2012 - Waterford Hotel Group has announced the appointments of Paul Jensen as general manager and Sharlene Lloyd as director of sales of the Courtyard by Marriott in Coatesville, Pennsylvania. The Courtyard by Marriott Coatesville is currently under construction and is slated to open this spring.

The new 125-room Coatesville Courtyard by Marriott is being developed and is owned by an affiliate of Oliver Tyrone Pulver Corporation. The $22 million Courtyard by Marriott is the initial investment of a redevelopment project by Oliver Tyrone Pulver Corporation that will include an 80,000-square-foot office building and a restaurant at Coatesville’s main intersection of Routes 30 Bypass and 82. Once opened, the hotel will employ approximately 31 employees. Waterford Hotel Group, Inc., a national hotel management firm headquartered in Waterford, CT, will professionally manage and operate the hotel."

More at, Hotel Newswire:

http://hotelexecutive.com/newswire/40029/courtyard-marriott-coatesville-management-team-takes-shape

Two of several positions advertised for the Marriott Hotel in Coatesville see the Waterford Hotel Group for more information:

Maintenance Person

Courtyard by Marriott Coatesville - OPENING APRIL 2012

US - PA - Coatesville

 

BISTRO SUPERVISOR

COURTYARD BY MARRIOTT COATESVILLE (OPENING SOON!)

Coatesville, PA 00000

Read more: http://waterfordhotelgroup.com/careers/jobs/c41f5f#ixzz1mHhBCIo1

“Cook Cokeville”

“Coatesville has long been the primary coke supplier for Philly’s western suburbs. Local teens who move the crack bags and act as corner lookouts call their hometown ‘Cook Cokeville.” 

FROM: 

Introducing "Cokeville," the New American Suburb 

“With a collapsed economy and shrinking middle class, Coatesville, Pa., represents small-town America. Now, the cocaine market is the only industry that's booming. Is this our nation's future?”

This is what I have been writing and saying for several years. The primary money maker in Coatesville is not the steel company it’s the drug business.

When he was a Federal Prosecutor Tom Hogan said to me, “Coatesville was ready to turn over and then these new guys (bloc of four) came in.”

If the revitalization of Coatesville went as planned it would nearly end Coatesville’s coke business and present job opportunities for residents other than the drug business. I believe there are powerful politically connected people who do not want Coatesville’s position as the drug depot for Chester County, PA to change and will do anything they can to stop the revitalization of Coatesville.

SEE:

Richard Legree, Save our Farm and the “Too Big to Fail” Chester County Drug business.

SEE:

the fix addiction and recovery straight up

Pit Bull "Radar" found just outside of Coatesville

"Responding to a tip, a Chester County police officer made a grisly discovery this week: A pit bull was lying in a ravine with injuries so severe that a responding animal-control officer was equally stunned."

"Britton said signs of dogfighting may include an inordinate number of pit bulls being kept in one location, dogs who are chained and seem unsocialized; and dogs with scars on their faces, front legs and hind end and thighs."

More at "Pit bull mauled in dogfight found on side of Chesco road"
02/09/2012 10:24 AM
By Kathleen Brady Shea
INQUIRER STAFF WRITER

http://mobile.philly.com/news/?wss=/philly/news/breaking/&id=139010984&deliver=iphone

Keep an eye out for the signs of fighting dogs above.

Put it up on SeeClickFix if it looks like a code violation or animal control violation.
If you are sure they are being trained as fighting dogs call Tom Hogan at the Chester County District Attorney's office.

If you don't yet use SeeClickFix, go to:
"City of Coatesville Joins SeeClickFix Family"
http://seeclickfix.blogspot.com/2011/12/city-of-coatesville-joins-seeclickfix.html?m=1

I’ve seen the “White Underclass” in Chester and Montgomery County.

I believe that Chester County’s Drug Courts have been very successful in helping the mostly young white people that go through the system get out of addiction and back to the land of the living. But there is a never ending influx of new young people to replace those that graduated in the drug court system.

At the top 1% we are creating a permanent superwealthy class. Most of the 1% has businesses whose product is money that makes more money. At the same time our great middle class that built our roads, railroads and great manufacturing industries is falling into what could be a permanent underclass.

Young white people see their slightly older friends that went into debt to get college degree so they can work as a temp in a dead end job. So why bother with college. Many times they look for answers with drugs.

The only difference in drug use between more affluent all white communities in Chester and Montgomery Counties and in mostly black communities is the type of drugs used, the frequency of use and frequency of addiction is the same.

Things like Governor Corbett’s war on education will surely create more unemployed white drug addicts. The economy is turning around but we are still locked into a service economy where making money in an electronic “cloud” is the product. We don’t make usable stuff anymore. Our auto industry came back, but they are mostly assembly factories. Apple is supposed to be an American success story but the iPhone is made in China by slave labor.

In the 1960s we were almost assured that we would make a better life for ourselves than our parents did. The American Dream that we all believed in is stagnant.  Income inequality is probably the primary reason for it’s morbidity.  But as Nicholas Kristof writes in the New York Times income inequality may not be only reason the American Dream has gone away.

There are no answers to the problem here. But the first step in solving a problem is admitting that there is a problem.

“Persistent poverty is America’s great moral challenge, but it’s far more than that. 

As a practical matter, we can’t solve educational problems, health care costs, government spending or economic competitiveness so long as a chunk of our population is locked in an underclass. Historically, “underclass” has often been considered to be a euphemism for race, but increasingly it includes elements of the white working class as well.” 

FROM 

February 8, 2012 

The White Underclass 

By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF

The fox that guards the PA construction codes

Pennsylvania Uniform Construction Code Review and Advisory Council’s (RAC) decided not to adopt 2012 International Code. In a Daily Local News article a builder called it a “win for consumers”.

DAILY LOCAL NEWS

Builder: No new Pa. codes a win for consumers

Published: Monday, February 06, 2012

THURSDAY, JANUARY 26, 2012

When it comes to Pennsylvania’s energy codes, the fox is incharge of the hen house

PennFuture

Also SEE:

Sprinklers on a new home or not?

Sprinklers on a new home or not?

DAILY LOCAL NEWS

Builder: No new Pa. codes a win for consumers

Published: Monday, February 06, 2012

I think this is "win for consumers" is just the usual closed mind stupor that builders with political clout sink into when some kind change is suggested. You can't blame the collapse of the home building market entirely on the economy. In my opinion it takes about 5 years of fighting with builders to get a new home up to what it was supposed to be when you first walked in the door.


If you opt out of a sprinkler system on a new truss built home you have less than 3 minutes to get out of the burning structure.

 This video compares a truss built home collapse with a frame built home collapse

 The truss build home collapsed in 5 minutes.

 The frame build home stood up 20 minutes.

Consider how long it takes your fire department to come out. Once the roof framing is involved in a truss roof home you have less than 5 minutes to get out before the house totally collapses.

Check what your fire insurance would be with or without a sprinkler system

If you are looking for a new home try to find a builder that builds older style stick built homes or a home with masonry walls.

 "The Florida Legislature in 1993 passed a law requiring all new buildings three stories and above to be built with fire sprinklers installed.  While it took some developers time to adjust their construction plans and specifications to include fire sprinklers and take advantage of these building code allowed tradeoffs, today this progressive law meets with little opposition because the construction cost savings far out weigh the added expense of installing the fire sprinkler.  In most cases, the building can be built at a much lower cost per square foot with the fire sprinkler
system and taking advantage of the code allowed tradeoffs, and often the dollar cost
savings per square foot of construction is substantial (Advantage, 1997).   

"What has the fire services so mystified is the reality that these fire deaths can
be reduced by an estimated 82% if new technology residential fire sprinklers were
installed along with the smoke detectors (Ruegg, 1984).  Using the 10-year average
of U.S. fire deaths from 1985-1994 of 5,770 fire deaths per year, an 82% reduction
means that over 4,700 people a year during this period would have survived the fire
(Fire, 1997)."   

FROM: 

RESIDENTIAL FIRE SPRINKLERS FOR LIFE SAFETY