Dealin’ Crap
POTTSTOWN, PA – Some folks we know live their lives with their heads in the sand thinking that car accidents pose a greater threat than crime in Pottstown.
We here at SavePottstown!! think there is a bigger danger lurking in our midst.
Crap Dealers.
What is a crap dealer? Unlike those peddling drugs…crap dealers’ bread and butter is…well…crap.
You know the type of person…someone who constantly lies and paints rosy pictures of things that don’t exist.
Take this flyer for instance. An astute SP reader passed this along after discovering it online:
Unfortunately, the unsuspecting folks at the Alabama Communities of Excellence (ACE) were bamboozled when they hired their keynote speaker for their recent September workshop.
Because if the folks at ACE actually did a little background research, they would have realized that the keynote speaker they hired is a well-known in Pottstown for dealing crap…lots of crap.
They hired someone to speak who they were mistakenly led to believe has been successful in revitalizing a community using “innovative zoning”. Which is simply not true. If “innovative zoning” and a “user-friendly” zoning ordinance has been such a boon for Pottstown…where are the results? Where are the new businesses? Where are the middle-class families that this zoning was supposed to attract??
Pottstown’s current zoning ordinance was adopted in September of 2003 – almost ten years ago. What kind of innovative changes has Pottstown experienced since this ordinance went into effect?
In a Mercury article published on September 23, 2002 (eight years to the DAY of the ACE workshop), it was stated that, “The Planning Commission wants to speed up the approval process,” … “People making improvements to our buildings should be treated like valued customers, and time is vitally important to them.”
What a load of crap!
Let’s go back to June of this year, when an enterprising young couple wanted to bring a new business into Pottstown – one where they would operate a viable business on the first floor and live in the upper floors of the building. What happened? They were turned down, due to Pottstown’s “innovative zoning”. Were they treated like “valued customers”…not in the slightest.
In July of this year, Pottstown Borough Council set up a Zoning Ordinance Review Committee to review the disastrous zoning ordinance adopted in 2003. The Committee is currently in the process of determining changes that will help Pottstown embrace the 21st century in a more user-friendly way.
Not a moment too soon!!
ACE got screwed. It would certainly pay to do a little homework when setting up keynote speakers for such vital community topics. A google search gets you past the line up of “Pulitzer Prize whoozy who” straight to Roy’s Rants and from there it is a hop skip and a jump to Code Blue and Save Pottstown. Could’ve saved themselves a bundle of money and done our little town a great big favor by NOT lining the pockets of the “Little Poopy Crap Peddlin’ Elf”.
Somebody dress that man in an elf costume and hand him a wheelbarrow so everybody can see him coming.
This ‘innovative zoning’ seems to have left many streets vacant and lifeless – but for problematic groups of people. It is ashame that some people are allowed to succeed by omitting the ‘whole story’ or stand on ten year old (or more) ‘perceived’ success as their reputation. It would seem to me that if I were arranging an event like this I’d be looking for someone with a current resume of success.
Ah, yes – the lovely couple that wanted to open a By Appointment ONLY Tattoo Parlor & Shoppe and live on the upper floor…their ‘dream’. Well, the ‘innovative zoning’ squashed them like bugs on the windshield and no one in this town administration stepped in to give them VIP service – valued customers, only when their dreams fit this tired old mold!
It is so sad to lose people that want to be a quality anchor in this community!! How many more will come and go? Maybe they will just keep going until some meaningful (outward perception) change occurs.
Key these notes – ACE was robbed and (likely) handed unproven and unsuccessful strategies.