POTTSTOWN, PA – Did anyone else happen to catch Philadelphia Inquirer Architecture Critic Inga Saffron’s article this week on the completion of Philly’s detailed and focused master plan for reinventing its waterfront?

It’s worth the read.

If you missed it, here it is:

Changing Skyline: Master plan for riverfront nearly ready

While we certainly realize there are vast differences between the City of Brotherly Love and Pottstown, there are some lessons to be learned from how Philly approached the redevelopment of its riverfront.

The fact that presentations on the master plan were made to neighborhood groups (before the plan was finalized) is an idea lost upon the deaf ears of the elected officials of Pottstown.  In fact, the city had ongoing discussions with neighborhood groups (and openly solicited their ideas) during the creation of their riverfront master plan.

We also like this line from the article: “Many of the proposals in the master plan grew out of the ideas formulated by PennPraxis in 2007 after a series of citizen-driven brainstorming sessions.”

Now there’s an idea – using citizen-driven brainstorming sessions to formulate a master plan for a riverfront.

Of course, Philadelphia didn’t solicit (and pay $25,000) to an advisory services panel (from the Urban Land Institute) to come to town and conduct a site visit and issue their findings (we’re sure the city would have heeded the ULI’s advice…and not ignored it).

Is it really that hard for elected borough officials to open lines of communication to create worthwhile projects that everyone in Pottstown can be proud of?  Pottstown School District Superintendent Reed Lindley understands this idea (and is running with it!).

Instead of settling for the first proposal that comes along?

Why are folks in Pottstown so unable to communicate effectively?  Is it something in the water?

It should be a simple process.  Ask for ideas, do a little brainstorming, a little research, write down the findings and create (and stick to) a plan.

Are we missing something here?

Tags: Architecture, architecture critic, city of brotherly love, completion, Inquirer, Neighborhood, philadelphia inquirer, Philly, Pottstown, Pottstown School District, riverfront, school district superintendent, superintendent reed, urban land institute

This entry was posted on Saturday, October 23rd, 2010 at 14:25 and is filed under Borough of Pottstown, Montgomery County. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.