The 45th Legislative District

Emotionally it's tough for me to choose between Josh Young and Barry Cassidy. Both men are in the race for state representative in the newly created 45th Pennsylvania House Legislative District. I know and like both of them.

But as a Coatesville resident who would love to see our area prosper there is only one choice. The 45th includes the City of Coatesville, the boroughs of Downingtown, South Coatesville, Parkesburg and Modena. Townships in the 45th are Caln, East Caln, Valley, East Fallowfield and Sadsbury.  Those municipalities make up our local part of the Keystone Corridor; see "Plan the Keystone". Barry Cassidy played a part in the development of the Keystone Corridor as a part of developing “Citizens for the Train” and work on the “Greenline” planned to link Phoenixville to Paoli by rail.  We are getting a new train station in Coatesville and Downingtown and improvements to the Parkesburg station in part because of Barry’s enthusiasm and hard work to develop rail transit.

Back in the 1990s Phoenixville was mostly known as a place to buy drugs.  Barry Cassidy removed the street dealers from Phoenixville one corner at a time. I witnessed Barry Cassidy change Phoenixville from a drug selling town* to what is now one of the most popular and sought after residential, shopping and dining areas in Chester County.

Barry brings years of experience working with PennDOT, Septa and Amtrak on corridor development.  As State Rep. for the 45th district he would continue that work.

One more thing, Barry is a tough manager; if you aren’t producing he will lean on you until you do. He had the emotional toughness to remove the street dealers from Phoenixville. He will need that emotional toughness in the State House. I heard Governor Rendell talk about the PA Statehouse, he said something like; These guys get out of bed every day not thinking about what they can do for their constituents, they think about what they can do to hurt the guy on the other side of the aisle. The ruthlessness of the Republicans in the Statehouse can discourage newcomers but I think Barry can roll with the punches.

*”About 2002, Phoenixville had a higher crime rate than Coatesville, according to Carroll. At that time, the borough began hiring more police officers while the city did not, he said. Now, Phoenixville has a much lower crime rate than the city, Carroll said.‘Adding extra cops is not the only answer to reducing crime, but it certainly helps,’ Carroll said,” 

FROM: 

Daily Local News 

DA warns against cutting city cops 

Published: Sunday, October 30, 2011

Is Stacy Bjorhus the Coatesville whistle blower being fired because she is a whistle blower?

Is Ms. Bjorhus being fired because she uncovered Coatesville City Councilman Marty Eggleston and Coatesville City Councilman Ed Simpson's delinquent trash bills?

Is Ms. Bjorhus being fired because she uncovered that Coatesville City Councilman Jarrell Brazzle allegedly illegally received vacation pay for his part time and summer job working for the city?

Is Ms. Bjorhus being fired because she did her job and traced the missing $162,000 from 2008 to cash payments that were recorded as received but allegedly never made it into the city accounts?

Is Ms. Bjorhus being fired because she "put an emotional strain" on the city employees that allegedly handled that missing cash?

I'm in a hospital bed hooked up to IVs and pumps so it's difficult for me to add links to what is written above.

There is a ton of information on the Coatesville Dems Blog, much of it live recordings. The "Search this Blog" search works well if you are looking for more information.

Municipal Finance Director wanted-Must be able to turn a blind eye to possible criminal activity

Coatesville advertising for Finance Director

http://dailylocal.com/articles/2011/11/22/news/doc4ecb99271f383522791186.txt

If you don’t vote tomorrow, don’t complain about your local government.

Most of the really lousy local government officials we have had were elected by a very, very small number of votes. Sometimes local elections are decided by 1 or 2 votes.  

If you have a lousy local government it’s most likely due to voter apathy.

Why do you think a guy like Pat Sellers wanted Patsy Ray in office?

When Patsy Ray won in the 2005 Coatesville City Council elections Pat Sellers giggled as he said he didn't think she could win. It was plain to me that Sellers was very pleased she did win.

 

But why would someone who reads the American Renaissance (July 2000, see page 2) help to elect Patsy Ray? Warning have a barf bag handy if you read the rest of the issue. 

 

"American Renaissance  

Profiled Leadership:  

 Jared Taylor 

Ideology:  

 White Nationalist 

Founded by Jared Taylor in 1990, the New Century Foundation is a self-styled think tank that promotes pseudo-scientific studies and research that purport to show the inferiority of blacks to whites — although in hifalutin language that avoids open racial slurs and attempts to portray itself as serious scholarship. It is best known for its American Renaissance magazine and website, which regularly feature proponents of eugenics and blatant anti-black racists. The foundation also sponsors American Renaissance conferences every other year where racist "intellectuals" rub shoulders with Klansmen, neo-Nazis and other white supremacists."

More at: 

http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/intelligence-files/groups/american-renaissance

Every Black person in Coatesville should think about why someone who reads American Renaissance was overjoyed to have Patsy Ray in office.

She is running for office again:

Three vying for seat on Coatesville Area School Board

Published: Thursday, November 03, 2011

For more about Pat Sellers just put "Pat Sellers" into SEARCH THIS BLOG.

Could “Create Jobs for USA” include Coatesville?

I believe that someone or some business here, possibly the City of Coatesville itself, could find financial assistance in one of the organizations in the Opportunity Finance Network.

 NPR- National Public Radio

"Starbucks Hopes To Kick-Start Job Creation 

By Wendy Kaufman 

November 01, 2011 

Morning Edition 

Starbucks is teaming up with a network of community-based financial institutions to help create jobs. Beginning Tuesday anyone can make a tax-deductable contribution at a Starbucks store or online to the Create Jobs for USA Fund. The money will go to companies so they can hire or retain American workers.Mark Pinsky heads the Opportunity Finance Network, a group of about 180 mostly nonprofit lenders that work in underserved communities where credit is often hard to get. Over the past couple of years, Pinsky chatted informally with individuals at Starbucks about ways they might collaborate, but he certainly wasn't expecting the communiqué he got from the company a couple of months ago. 

'I got an email late one Monday night saying we are thinking of doing something, can we talk tomorrow morning?" Pinsky recalls. "We talked on Tuesday and by Wednesday we basically had a handshake deal." 

MORE: 

Starbucks Hopes To Kick-Start Job Creation

SEE THE STARBUCKS CREATE JOBS FOR USA WEBSITE:

CREATE JOBS FOR USA

Find a CDFI 

“Community development financial institutions (CDFIs) who are Members of OFN are working in neighborhoods across the United States to provide affordable, responsible credit, create and sustain jobs, and to stabilize communities. CDFIs finance community businesses, including small businesses, microenterprises, nonprofit organizations, commercial real estate, and affordable housing.”

Go to the web page below click “Area (s) served” – “Pennsylvania” for Community Development Financial Institutions in Coatesville’s area. Or put in a different search criteria. 

OpportunityFinance Network Find a CDFI