Coatesville's drug business is near dead. Long live redeveloping legal business in Coatesville.

There was a decade long battle over government funding between the “landlord/drug business” and legitimate business interests in the City of Coatesville, PA.

Rep. Lewis secures $5.9 million in grants for Coatesville revitalization

The last time Coatesville got $6 million it went to the “landlord/drug business” side:

“What's different this time is the county is not putting $6 M into a Section 8 remodeling project at Roymar Hall at 10th & Lincoln Highway to benefit political cronies. The Chester County government is 100% on board with Coatesville's downtown development and new train station.” 

Barry Cassidy and others changed Phoenixville from a place to buy drugs to a nationally recognized center for commerce, community and culture.  During about the same time the City of Coatesville came close to changing Coatesville from a place to buy drugs and then the drug dealers made a big comeback. That is basically the reason I began this blog.

See: 

Sunday, October 2, 2016 

The former editors of the Daily Local News now know what they did-But no public apology to the citizens of Coatesville.

The entire paradigm for selling drugs in Chester County has changed. And this time Coatesville will change, really change to a vibrant town again. 


Legal marijuana & Mexican cartels have ruined the business model of Coatesville as the hub of western Chester County’s illegal drug business.

In the past, if you wanted to operate an illegal drug business in Chester County the only public officials you could talk to make police look away were Republican public officials. Democrats don’t control politics in Chester County. They never did. Chester County was Republican before Lincoln was a Republican.

The way it was:

• Richard Legree was chair of Area 14 of the Chester County Republican Committee.  Area 14 includes the City of Coatesville, PA.
• Richard Jr. sold heroin & cocaine in front of St. Cecilia Elementary School in Coatesville.
• PA State Representative Tim Hennessey's Business Manager at his Coatesville Office had a crack cocaine manufacturing and distribution business.

Friday, October 14, 2011

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

Saturday, January 11, 2014

“Nothin will ever happen to me, I can’t go to prison.”

Friday, October 1, 2010

State Rep. Tim Hennessey's Office Manager Lisa Johnson pleas GUILTY in crack trial.

QUICK HISTORY OF THE ILLEGAL DRUG BUSINESS 

After Prohibition the Italian Mafia controlled most of the illegal drug business. 

Then the FBI destroyed the Italian Mafia. 

Motorcycle gangs operating without the Mafia’s centuries long traditional centrally controlled and easy to trace business structure took over drug distribution.  SEE:

Friday, October 19, 2012

STREET GANGS AND OUTLAW MOTORCYCLE GANGS

That’s how the drug business went in 2012.

Marijuana was the traditional illegal drug business for the Mexican Cartels. That began to change when marijuana became legal:

THE WAY THE DRUG BUSINESS IS NOW:

Suburban kids no longer flock to Coatesville to get cocaine and heroin.  It’s delivered from Mexico to their doorstep, anywhere they live.  

And marijuana mostly comes from Mexican cartels that grow it in California, at least for now.  Soon legalization will completely wipe out the Mexican marijuana business.  

Marijuana never killed anyone, ever, and should never been called a narcotic drug.  Where marijuana is legal, legal and illegal narcotic pain reliever drug use goes down.  

The Mexicans don't even need to pay off local public officials. They won the "War on Drugs."

Narconomics: How to Run a Drug Cartel 

by Tom Wainwright  (Author)

“The most significant drug trafficking organizations operating in the United States today are the dangerous and highly sophisticated Mexican transnational criminal organizations (TCOs) that continue to be the principal suppliers of cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine, and marijuana. These organizations are responsible for the extreme violence seen in Mexico, as these groups battle for turf and attack public officials and innocent civilians. Domestically, affiliated and violent gangs are increasingly a threat to the safety and security of our communities. They profit primarily by putting drugs on the street and have become crucial to the Mexican cartels.” 

MORE AT:

Just as Walmart drove smaller retail businesses out. Mexican Cartels are driving smaller illegal drug sellers out of business. Selling illegal drugs is no longer a sure thing long-term business investment. And the money to pay off public officials is drying up. 

The whole "West Chester slumlord owned Section 8 apartment in Coatesville, girlfriend moves out temporarily and stash house moves in business model,"  isn’t working anymore. 

The key words in the Fox News post below are “at his home”. 

Notice that Ronald Smith owns the home where “large amounts of cocaine -- both crack and powder -- heroin, crystal methamphetamine, prescription pills, and marijuana.” And “Officers found and seized numerous firearms including: a long rifle with a scope, a revolver with an obliterated serial number, a .357 magnum revolver with an extended barrel, a Tec-9 semiautomatic firearm, and a Colt .380 caliber semiautomatic firearm with high capacity magazines.”: 

 Fox News 

Coatesville man wanted after large quanities of drugs, firearms, and cash found at his home

In 2007 I would encounter up to 5 stash houses just driving around Coatesville on a single day. They were easy to spot, lookouts on corners a car stopped while someone came from a house and sat in the passenger seat for a while, went back to the house and returned to the car.  I was forced to witness the entire sequence several times because I couldn't go around the car in the transaction. This went on for decades.

But now the "drug house" is drug dealer owned:

Ronald Smith owns that home on Valley Road in Coatesville. It was not owned by a slumlord from West Chester and occupied by a drug dealer's girlfriend that moved out for a few days.

The decades long model for Coatesville stash houses has collapsed due to the  Mexican Cartels Walmart style business model.  

• There’s no big money and big payoffs coming from Coatesville’s drug entrepreneurs.
• There’s no money to be made from the Section 8 slumlord / stash house combo.
• Public corruption from drug money in Chester County is waning.
• Now, for the most part, the only way to make money from Coatesville is legally.

For the first time talk from Chester County officials about redeveloping Coatesville isn’t all talk. Chester County Public officials are finally actually in favor of redeveloping Coatesville.

Chester County has an economy that's vibrant and steady, not boom & bust. Coatesville's the only poor community in Chester County, PA.

 I'm not worried about "gentrification" in Coatesville. Coatesville is not a typical rust belt community. We're surrounded by millionaires & billionaires. There is nowhere for poor people to go. Would Mary Alice Dorrance Malone take them in?

Coatesville has the infrastructure for 20,000 people that's about 7,000 additional residents.

We're a walkable city perfect for empty nesters and entrepreneurial young professionals. 2 hours by train to New York & an airport with 60 + business aircraft that will soon have direct international flights.

Coatesville’s redevelopment was planned many years ago, when the top moneymaker here was selling drugs. That drug business that began during the Vietnam War and included the City of Coatesville has been mostly put out of business by the Mexican cartels. 

Last Harvest” is about Chester County and New Daleville in Londonderry Township in particular.

You will find Tom Comitta the City of Coatesville’s Town Planning Architect mentioned in “Last Harvest”. 

Architect Tim Cassidy also did some work for the City of Coatesville. Mr. Cassidy lives in Londonderry Township and is on the Planning Commission of Londonderry Township.

Mr. Comitta is a member of the “Congress for the New Urbanism”.

One of the authors of “Suburban Nation” is Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk the former Dean of the University of the Miami School of Architecture.  

Ms. Plater-Zyberk is also one of the founders of the “Congress for the New Urbanism”.

The University of Miami School of Architecture’s Knight Program in Community Building chose the City of Coatesville for its 2003 Charrette.

Most areas of the USA look the same.  You almost need a GPS unit to know where you are. But the City of Coatesville is bounded by hills on three sides. You can always tell that you are in Coatesville. Ms. Plater-Zyberk was the person who stood at one meeting and said that Coatesville has a “sense of place, it’s to die for”.

This report was presented at Andy Dinniman's train station meeting August 19, 2010 at the Methodist Church: 



I recorded Robert Gibbs's presentation. The recording isn't very good. But if you're interested:

During the time of the arson fires when a plain clothes state trooper or ATF agents were all over Coatesville and any young white man driving in Coatesville was stopped by police, a man who had a street business said he had to pay salaries for extra lookouts. He was having so much trouble making ends meet that he got a legitimate job. 

It looks like something similar is happening now in Coatesville but for different reasons. And the drop in the illegal drug business might be permanent. 

The good thing is the legitimate jobs might be here soon.

The only unknown is how our new president could affect us.