A lot has changed since the “Save our Farm” thing is over and the “Bloc of Four” is gone. Among all the municipal governments in Chester County Coatesville may now have what could be the most open government in the county. And Chester County may as a whole have the most open municipal governments in Pennsylvania. Even with the “Right to Know” laws many Commonwealth municipal governments do their business in secrecy. They only vote in public. The attempted revitalization of Coatesville may seem dissimilar to building the Perkiomen Trail but I think there are parallels to both.
If you we among the people like me who helped to make the Perkiomen Trail a reality you may be familiar with the tactics of property rights groups. People who witnessed the activities of the Saha supporters at the Coatesville City Council meetings saw a mirror image of the harassing and threatening atmosphere that was created by property rights activists at public meetings concerning the Perkiomen Trail. Before the trail was built someone even allegedly strung wires along usable portions of the Perkiomen Trail to snag a horse back rider’s or bicyclist’s head.
Just as in Chester County we also had Skinheads (now called Keystone United) and KKK in Northwestern Montgomery County. I was a planning commissioner in Lower Fredrick Township but I did what I could to move a group of skinheads out of a townhouse development in Schwenksville that harassed the families living nearby. A present day resident told me that skinheads and KKK still have their “ceremonies” along the Perkiomen Creek. I think the Skinheads and KKK are not happy with people and State Troopers on the Perkiomen Trail near their “ceremony” areas. I also think the people that allegedly grow their own marijuana are not happy with the people and State Troopers on the Perkiomen Trail. I was already familiar with those kinds of issues when I moved back to Coatesville. Some property owners along the Perkiomen Trail were allegedly growing their own and didn’t want more eyes on them. I believe a there was a somewhat parallel opposition to the Revitalization of Coatesville among the drug dealer community here in Coatesville. Just as in Phoenixville revitalization in Coatesville would move the drug dealers off the streets. If Coatesville attracted new businesses and grew its population back to 20,000 residents, those 8,000 new residents most likely would not have extended families in the area. The “newcomers” could not be easily intimated by the “don’t snitch” culture in Coatesville. Drugs would probably sold elsewhere but I think that revitalizing Coatesville would be a major blow to the drug business in Chester County. I believe that the USDoJ agrees.
At one of the first Coatesville City Council meetings that I came to I asked Mr. Saha a question about why he wasn’t negotiating with the Administration. I was immediately surrounded by a group of about 10 people shouting Communist at me. I saw almost the same thing at Perkiomen Trail meetings. I immediately started gathering information about extremists, the drug business, organized crime and public corruption in Chester County. From my time in Montgomery County I knew about what to look for I just needed who.
At some of the meetings during the Janssen Administration we had 5 or more Coatesville Police, some in plain clothes, for security at Coatesville City Council meetings.
As I see it the biggest change at the Coatesville City Council meetings is that City Council members and the general public no longer feel threatened. The extensive public participation at City Council meetings that you now see was a rare event during the Janssen Administration and “Bloc of Four” Walker Administration. I believe that Coatesville now has everything in place to move forward.
