Fresh roasted small batch coffee at the Coatesville Farmers Market

Take home a bag of "Coatesville Community Coffee" and enjoy a cup of  small batch locally roasted gourmet coffee at a regular coffee price. 

It might just be the best coffee that you have had in a very long time.

It’s available at the Coatesville Farmers Market open 9am to 1pm every Saturday at Lincoln Highway and First Avenue in Coatesville, PA. 

Buying a bag supports the Coatesville Farmers Market.

RAINFOREST ALLIANCE CERTIFIED

VIOLENCE-guest post from Marie Hess

  Violence is not a Coatesville problem. It is an urban problem nationwide. It is a problem being magnified by the laws and regulations being placed on municipalities and the school system that can no longer provide services that they once were able to because of the state and federal government.

It is NOT the job of a city government OR a school to raise your kids, YOU have to do that. What they can do is provide alternatives, provide opportunities for families to have fun together. Provide an education for a child to grab his future and run with it!

Families are now facing the worst financial times most of us have seen. What comes of a poor economy? Unemployment and Crime! That fast money is desirable because people have kids to feed and bills to pay. When you get caught up in a life you do not understand or use beyond its necessity, that is when trouble comes looking for you. One cannot be so far gone to think a life on the street will get you anywhere but left on the street!

I cry for my city more than most of you will ever know!

I cry for the people who are lost and can't find their way.

I cry for the ignorance of people who cry out during a tragedy that "Nothing is available for the kids."

I cry when people come into this city and do what they do and leave another family missing a loved one.

This is NOT how this city should or could be. The TIME IS NOW. How much more bloodshed can we tolerate?? How much more will we accept? It isn't until it hits you close to home that people are up in arms calling for change only to fall silent a week or so later!

WHEN ARE WE GOING TO TAKE COATESVILLE BACK AND SHOW THE REST OF THIS COUNTY WE CONTROL OUR STREETS? NOBODY ELSE WILL!!

Marie Hess

Coatesville, PA

6th Avenue and Belmont Shooting Coatesville

It's a sad time.

Two shootings in one week in Coatesville. There was a shooting at 6th and Belmont in Coatesville. That's all that can be said right now.

30 WEST- This is how you do it.

"30 West is a world class commercial office and hotel development located at the leading edge of Chester County, Pennsylvania, on a major highway serving Philadelphia and the fastest-growing, best educated and wealthiest suburbs in the region.

Now, Oliver Tyrone Pulver Corporation, a leading developer of world class commercial properties, is bringing a dramatic new office building and hotel complex to the center of Chester County in Coatesville, at the intersection of Routes U.S. 30 and PA 82."

See:
http://www.30westproperties.com/

This is how you do it:

• It's how world class developer Don Pulver goes about developing commercial property.
• It's how Paul Janssen planned to pay for things like police and firefighters.
• It's how any city manager who is not a bad joke would plan to pay for things that the City of Coatesville desperately needs like police and firefighters.

It's my understanding that Barry Cassidy is available for the Coatesville City Manager position. Former Chief Belizzzie may be available as police chief.

We don't need a nationwide search for a city manager. Remember the last search got us a city manager who planned to lay off 10 police to balance the budget. The last time that many police left, the city nearly burned down.

The very long planned for Redevelopment of Coatesville is finally going forward. The only thing that can screw it up now is more bad decisions by the Coatesville City Council.

Why do some municipalities have residency requirements?

It's fine for a city of 1,526,006 people like the City of Philadelphia to require some top city officials to live within the City limits. It's goofy for a tiny city with a population of 13,000 and maybe recently losing homeowners because of crime to require it's top officials, especially police  to live within the city limits. Philadelphia Police are no longer required to live in the city:

Posted: Wed, Jun. 6, 2012, 3:00 AM

Philadelphia police officers staying put in the city

Monica Yant Kinney, Inquirer Columnist

 "Background
It is helpful to know something about the history of residency requirements to better understand the arguments for and against them. As with many other remaining vestiges of bygone days, there is a reason why many cities created them and in some cases still have residency ordinances. There is no clearly defined beginning of residency requirements.12, 13 The most commonly accepted origin of residency requirements in the United States seems to be that they derived from the spoils system prevalent in large American cities during the mid-1800s. In cities such as Chicago and Boston, the local ward bosses hired public employees, particularly police officers and firefighters. This practice ensured the ward bosses’ continued reelection by employees whose jobs were directly tied to the ward bosses. But it also provided a service to assist the ward bosses in collecting bribes and protection money."

From:
Residency Requirements For First Responders - The Pennsylvania ...

www.house.state.pa.us/CJPS/documents/15/v15_a6.pdf

File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat - Quick View 

Coatesville has a crime problem not a parking problem

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Our downtown business area in Coatesville is from 1^st to 3^rd Avenue along Lincoln Highway. There are usually 60 or more empty metered parking spaces between 3^rd Avenue and 6^th Avenue. Yet people complain saying that there is “not enough parking in downtown Coatesville”.

I lived in Philadelphia for 17 years and the complaints about “not enough parking” are baffling to me. But I think I figured it out:

When riding in someone's car the drivers, who happen to be Black, say lock you’re doors while driving by 8^th Avenue on Lincoln Highway.  This doesn’t make sense to me because I park there and walk to the restaurants or barbershop. I usually park in the lot in back of the stores near Harmony Street. Most people try very hard to find a space right out front of the store they are going to.

The reason they try to find a space out front of the store is that they want to see the path they will follow to their car from the store entrance to the car. They want to be able to see their path because in the back of their minds they’re afraid they might be mugged.

Even if broad daylight they would be afraid of walking a block on Lincoln Highway to get to their car.

All the empty spaces tell me there is not parking problem in Coatesville. But the fact that people will not get out of their cars unless they can park within view of the store they want to go tells me we have a personal safety problem.  We have a crime problem in Coatesville

Muggings are rarely if ever reported as news but from talking to older people who are at risk of a mugging and who live in and near downtown Coatesville it happens often enough to be a a part of walking in Coatesville. A few people are repeatedly mugged. The fear people have is a reasonable fear.  It may not make the Daily Local News but the muggings are talked about.

There is another linked crime problem and that is armed robberies of stores and restaurants in Coatesville. The robberies are seldom reported because the owners don’t want to scare off customers. If you are a shop or restaurant owner in Coatesville it’s not if you will be robbed, it’s if you will survive being robbed.

We desperately need a real parking problem that is caused by a lot of people wanting to shop and dine in downtown Coatesville. But until we solve our crime problem we won’t get more stores and restaurants here.  

And right now our Police Department is FUBAR. Actually it can be repaired with the right police chief. I understand that Dominick Bellizzie might be available.

Lincoln University has several possible parking lots in Coatesville

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There are several parking lot locations to accommodate Lincoln University parking. If it comes here Lincoln University will be located on Kersey Street between 3rd and 4th Avenue.

There are two possibilities for lots on both sides of Maple Avenue near 1st Avenue.  On the north side there is an undeveloped property owned by the City of Coatesville Department of Public Works below;

On the south side of Maple Avenue near 1st Avenue there is a fenced in parking lot that I believe is owned by either the steel company or the Greystone Society, below:

Here is a panoramic view from the corner of 1st Avenue and Maple Avenue. The Public Works property is on the left and the steel company or Greystone property is up the street on the right:

The most logical location parking location for Lincoln University is the lot immediately to the north of the school building at the southeast corner of 3rd Avenue and Harmony Street. I believe that Mr. Skidas owns the property that is now rented to the present occupiers of the school; the Chester County Intermediate Unit. See photos below: