Pottstown, Pennsylvania
Pottstown is a compact town of 22,000 along the Schuylkill River in southeastern Pennsylvania, about 35 miles northwest of Philadelphia. It is lovely and historic, with tree-lined streets and a distinctive downtown.
Although the town is not as financially healthy as it once was, it has the potential to become one of the most livable communities in Pennsylvania. Pottstown Citizens seeks ways we can best manage our resources for the common good.
Homelessness touches the North End
Pottstown has numerous churches with excess capacity because their congregations have dwindled as parishioners of means moved to thesuburbs in recent decades. Many of these churches have become havens for the poor to receive food,
clothing, and other necessities.
Read more
Open space, covert decision-making
An engineering firm hired by Upper Pottsgrove Township makes a lucid argument for building a $5.5 million municipal complex on the former Smola farm at Evans and Moyer roads.Read more
Excessive compensation stains Tower Health
Quoting a lower court decision, Commonwealth Court stated “[the CEO] and the Board of Tower Health were no more tha[n] corporate health care raiders . ... The goal as evident from the financial documentation offered at trial was simple and direct—drain the juice out of the hospitals until there was nothing left but a dried-out husk and then leave, close the doors, or sell what was left.”Read more
Challenging tax exemptions
The recent Tower Health ruling shows the court’s willingness to rethink which organizations are truly non-profit and which ones have been categorized more by past practices than logic.In an age of increasing income inequality, why is a poor town expected to subsidize a school with a $188 million endowment and lavish facilities that primarily serves the national and international moneyed class?
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Pottstown housing now integrated
Pottstown is one of the most integrated municipalities in Pennsylvania. Pottstown has 20 census blocks, as shown in the map above. The racial demographics of each census block are shown in the chart. It’s clear Pottstown is integrated in all its neighborhoods.Read more
Pottstown area highly segregated
On Tuesday, we published a chart of all 20 census blocks in Pottstown demonstrating that Pottstown is integrated at a neighborhood level. But the Pottstown area, encompassing the borough and its surrounding municipalities, is highly segregated.Read more
Elementary schools desegregate in 1980
In 1978, The Mercury published a 16-
page special edition suggesting the district could desegregate its elementary schools and reduce excess classroom capacity by closing Jefferson School and redistricting the remaining schools.Read more
Demographics have dramatically changed
By far the greatest change in the Pottstown School District in the last 50 years has been a dramaticincrease in the district’s minority enrollment and in student poverty.
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Racial segregation redux, 1963
Nine years after publishing a weeklong series of articles in 1954 about racial discrimination in Pottstown, The Pottstown Mercury ran an even longer series of articles in 1963 about what progress had been made.Read more
Housing strictly segregated in 1963
“Realtors in Pottstown do not talk about segregation and discrimination — except to deny it. But it does exist — sharply, and clearly defined."Read more
Committtee on Human Relations formed
In 1954, following a week-long series of articles in The Pottstown Mercury about racial discrimination
in Pottstown, a group of concerned citizens met at a local restaurant to form a Committee on Human Relations.Read more
Black pioneers
Although de facto racial inequity was the rule in 1950s Pottstown, there were some notable exceptions.Chief among these was the Corum family.
Read more
Mercury confronts segregation in 1954 (2)
BLACK COMMERCIAL graduates of Pottstown High School in the early 1950s. None were sent out for job interviews, but white girls were placed.Read more
Mercury confronts segregation in 1954 (3)
In 1954, ending a week-long series of articles about racial discrimination in Pottstown, The Pottstown Mercury concluded with plea to bring about racial equity in Pottstown.Read more
1954 court ruling leads to Mercury series
One month after the Brown vs. Board of Education decision, The Pottstown Mercury published a week-long series of articles about racial segregation in Pottstown.Read more
Mercury confronts segregation in 1954 (1)
Mercury editor Shandy Hill championed racial equality, and he wasn’t afraid of being unpopular.
The Mercury series highlighted some uncomfortable truths.Read more
Broadening school district's mission
The Pottstown Public Library
would be much more appropriate
for the school district to oversee and financially support than the borough.Read more
The library: education for all
Books, videos, internet resources — everything’s available at the public library. You can go on-line from home and browse the entire collection — not just Pottstown’s, but almost everywhere in PennsylvaniaRead more
Preserving our natural capital
Natural capital is everything nature provides us for free. It is what our economy is built upon.Read more
Where your local taxes go
Together, Pottstown Borough and the Pottstown School District are set to spend more than $118 million this year.
Read more
Thoughts for 2023
Strange is our situation here upon earth. Each ofus comes for a short visit, not knowing why, yet
sometimes seeming to divine a purpose.
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New epoch in world history
By the 1950s, the world’s humans grew so numerous, and started making so much impact on
the planet, that the geologists believe a new epoch is warranted: the Anthropocene.Read more
Snow-Bound!
Let us pause from playing with the latest electronic gadgetry we got for Christmas and contemplate a calmer, simpler time in America.Read more
Transplanting 70 trees
70 saplings planted behind Pottstown High School in 2018 by the Rotary Club grew large enough tobe transplanted last month.
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Borough as bad guy?
For the second time this year, Pottstown Borough Council was roundly condemned for issuing codeviolations to churches trying to help the poor and the homeless.
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Social Services "R" Us
Pottstown desperately need funds to fix up the town and make it attractive to families who will keep us economically viable. Instead, county funds are going to Pottstown's abundance of social service agencies.Read more
Vacant storefronts multiply (1)
Lastick’s joins a growing number of store vacancies on High Street, stretching from York Street to Washington Street.Read more
Vacant storefronts multiply (2)
When VideoRay acquired the old Levitz Furniture building in 2012, right, it housed a state liquor store along High Street. But the lease expired and the store was closed in 2021.Read more
Last downtown anchor store closes
Lastick Furniture, a High Street anchor for nearly 50 years, will hold a pre-auction sale tomorrow andThursday, followed by a three-day auction Saturday through Monday.
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Pottstown's most successful merchant
Levitz Furniture, which operated from 1910 until 2008, was by far Pottstown’s most successful merchant.Read more
Holiday House Tour this Sunday
This year’s Historic Pottstown Holiday Tour, scheduled for 1 to 5 p.m. Sunday, will feature homes in the Rosedale and East End neighborhoods.Online tickets are available at www.pottstowngofourth.com/ tickets. Printed tickets are on sale at Dani Bee Funky, 300 E. High
St., as well as the Pottstown Parks and Recreation Department in Borough Hall.
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When people shopped downtown
Hard to believe, but downtown Pottstown once had a big traffic congestion problem at this time of theyear. Let’s take a peak at two 1971 Mercury articles at the beginning of the Christmas season: "Thousands of shoppers crammed into the downtown area Friday to look and buy."
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Count your blessings
This recent New York Times photo shows members of a Venezuelan family struggling through the Panamanian jungle on their way to the U.S. border, more than 2,000 miles away. They hope, probably in vain, to be admitted.Pottstown citizens should count their blessings.
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Thankful in Pottstown
With historic architecture, a lovely downtown, neighborhood schools, and every destination within walking distance, there are few better places to live than Pottstown. Read more
Sustainable development
For decades, the gospel of growth has put the human race on a collision course with catastrophe. We have too many people consuming too many resources for the earth to support, leading to the collapse of civilization as we know it.Read more
Progress taken for granted
As someone who’s been involved in Pottstown civic matters for nearly 50 years, either as an observer or participant, I find the amount of information available to the public today is mind-boggling.Read more
Our best friend in Harrisburg
Ever since he was first elected in 2018, state Rep. Joe Ciresi has seemingly shown up everywhere, from neighborhood get-togethers to well organizedrallies for fair school funding. ‘Tireless” is an overused accolade, but it does fit Ciresi rather well.
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The man who poisoned politics
“One of the great problems we have in the Republican Party,” Newt Gingrich preached in 1978,
“is that we don’t encourage you to be nasty." In the following decades, Gingrich made his mark.Read more
Hennessey promoted the big lie
When Tim Hennessey promoted the “big lie” two years ago, there was nothing voters could do about it. But now there is. They can vote
Hennessey out of office next week.Read more
Mastriano: threat to democracy
If Republican gubernatorial candidate Doug Mastriano is elected governor, he sayshe will decide who wins future elections.
Read more
Preservation movement begins
In reaction to the demolition of the 1923 Pottstown High School in 1982, a group of civic leaders formed a non-profit to promote historic preservation in Pottstown. Since then, millions of dollars have been invested in restorations. Read more
Paris and Pottstown: same trees
Since 1983, Trees Inc. has planted more than 2,700 new and replacement trees in Pottstown,
and maintained them, at total cost of $1.4 million over 38 years. These trees are the same species found in cities like London, Paris, Rome, and New York.Read more
Church demolishes high school
This month marks the 40th anniversary of the demolition of the 1923 Pottstown High School at Chestnut and Penn streets.Read more
All for a parking lot
At the time of its demolition in 1982, the 1923 Pottstown High School at Chestnut and Penn streets was the most energy efficient school in the district.But it didn't have a parking lot.
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Culture can change for the better (1)
The greatest culture change in American history was the abolition of slavery. Slavery is such a horrific blot on civilization it is hard to image any time in human history that it was acceptable.Read more
Culture can change for the better (2)
Next to the abolition of slavery in 1865, the greatest culture change in American history was the 1920 ratification of the 19th amendment, guaranteeing women the right to vote.Read more
Tax exempt degradation
Nearly a quarter of Pottstown’s total land area is used for streets and parking lots. More land is covered with asphalt than with buildings.Read more
Culture change needed for climate change
People are slow to recognize the new reality of climate change if it hasn’t directly
affected their lives. They are simply not ready to change long-established attitudes and lifestyles.Read more
Too much turf
Turf lawns may be attractive, but they’re ecological deserts. Because they are shallow rooted, they don’t absorb stormwater very well. They don’t attract insects and other pollinators.Read more
Nature removed at Riverfront Park
What had been a natural wooded area was thinned out to almost nothing by the Pottstown Parks and Recreation Department. The riparian buffer was replaced with grass that must be constantly mowed.Read more
Thinking solar
Pottstown School District consultants will conducta top-to-bottom assessment of our facilities. One thing we should consider is rooftop solar panels.
Read more
Give up meat?
Eating meat might be tasty, but from the perspective of human and environmental health, it’s
a custom whose time has
passed.Read more
Climate change and school districts
What does public education have to do with climate change? The reality is we are preparing students for jobs they won’t have and very big problems we can’t currently solve.Read more
Climate change problem solving
There are lots of specific actions the Pottstown School District can take to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, engage students, and set a good example for the community.Read more
Drought watch: just a prelude?
It’s been a very dry summer. Last week, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection declared a drought watch for Berks, Montgomery, and 34 other Pennsylvania counties.Read more
Cold slap in the face
"There is now no chance of us avoiding a perilous, all-pervasive climate breakdown. We have passed
the point of no return."Read more
Reinforcing the existing system
It’s wonderful to help those in need. But social service agencies attract an unending flow of low income residents. Pottstown desperately needs funds to fix up the town and make it attractive to families who will keep us economically viable.Read more
Hospital closing? It could happen
Last week, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported that Tower Health has just 54 days of cash to keep running without new revenue.Read more
The new "American dream"
The most dramatic change in how we live and work in recent generations has been the new "American dream."Read more
Flaws in the new "American dream"
On Tuesday we discussed the new “American dream” as analyzed by economist Anthony Downs of the Brookings Institution. It has flaws, however.Read more
Undermining democracy
The Berks County Republican
Committee has decided it doesn’t have to seat candidates who were
legally elected in the May primary.Read more
Everything comes from nature
Steam rises from the cooling towers of the Limerick Nuclear Power Plant. The power plant uses more than ten times as much water daily as the entire borough of Pottstown.Read more
Denuding Franklin Street
PECO plans to cut down virtually every tree on the 800 block of Franklin Street, destroying the leafy ambience of the block. PECO could trim these trees instead, but it’s cheaper and easier just to remove them.Read more
PECO: Easier to cut them down
In the last seven years, Trees Inc.
has planted 120 young shade trees along the streets of Pottstown. Taken together, they barely have the cooling power and environmental benefit of just one of the mature
planes, oaks and maples PECO plans
to cut down in the coming weeks.Read more
Best financial shape ever
Thanks to a substantial infusion of state and federal dollars, and good management, the Pottstown School District is in excellent financial shape — perhaps the best ever.Read more
Salary schedule comparisons
With a declining tax base and among the highest taxes in Pennsylvania, Pottstown could not afford parity with suburban districts. But with higher state subsidies, we're coming closer. Read more
Too much asphalt
Pottstown is pockmarked with parking lots, which are ugly and degrade the environment by eliminating natural vegetation and preventing rainwater from percolating into the ground.Read more
MCCC: From parking lot to park
For the first time in memory, a parking lot is beingremoved and replaced with a park. The new park will face the High Street entrance to the Montgomery County Community College.
Read more
First Presbyterian first to leave
First Presbyterian Church, built in 1889 at High and Evans streets, was replaced in 1963 by a new, spacious building in the North End with plenty of parking.Read more
Buildings demolished for parking
In 1999, First Methodist bought two houses east of the church for more parking.The church promised to maintain the older home in return for a permit to demolish the second house for parking.Read more
Housing patterns isolate the poor
Today, Pottstown is the poorest municipality between Reading and Norristown, with the highest percentage of low income residents in the region.Read more
From church to mission center
The evolution of the former First Methodist Church, 414 High St., into a mission house is an excellent example of the isolation of the poor in Pottstown as the middle class and affluent moved to the suburbs. Read more
37 dead trees removed, 23 planted
Last December, Pottstown Council authorized Trees Inc. to remove dead street trees and replace some of them under the direction of the borough manager.Read more
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Trees Inc. 2022 report
More than two-thirds of Pottstown’s
2,800 streettrees have been planted by Trees Inc., a non-profit corporation established by Pottstown civic leaders in 1984 to plant and maintain street trees.
Read more
Agnes: Pottstown's worst disaster (3)
As night fell on June 22, 1972, the sky was full of noise and lights on the south side of the Schuylkill River.Read more
Agnes: Pottstown's worst disaster (4)
The
oil equivalent of a half-inch rainfall
was deposited in homes, factories,
yards, shrubs, trees, and every other object touched by the flood.It was the worst inland oil spill in U.S. history.
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Agnes: Pottstown's worst disaster (1)
It didn’t rain for 40 days and 40 nights, but for a while it seemed like it might.Read more
Agnes: Pottstown's worst disaster (2)
At times it seemed like power
outages might prevent the Mercury
from printing the biggest story in its
history.Read more
Eerie parallels with Allentown blast
Last week, Borough Manager Justin Keller advised Pottstown Council it may take a long time to pinpoint the cause of the May 26 home explosion on Hale Street that killed five people.Read more
Assessing risks
Dramatic incidents such as mass slayings and gas explosions are widely reported, making it difficult to properly assess all the risks we face in life.Read more
Preserving the best memories
Many of us who have lived a long time have cherished memories of specific times that stick with us over the decades.Read more
Can you go home again?
Novelist Thomas Wolfe famously wrote, “You can’t go home again.” Life is constantly changing, and we can’t return to the happy times and places in the past that we’ve sanctified with nostalgia.Read more
Foundation boosts college- bound
Twelve of the students who will graduate from Pottstown High School Friday have a head start on college, paid in part or in full by the Foundation for Pottstown Education. Read more
Pottstown grads = top colleges
A lot of people don't realize it, but top Pottstowngraduates can — and do — compete with anybody,
anywhere. They are admitted into the nation’s finest colleges and universities, and they excel once they get there.
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Pottstown: A safe place to live
Regardless of the health issue, it’s mighty convenient to have a hospital and a complex of doctors’ offices clustered in one location at the eastend of Pottstown.decades.
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Hereford declares war on dead trees
State foresters estimate there are more than 8 billion trees in Pennsylvania, including 308 million ash trees. Eventually, they will all die.Read more
Crime levels off after years of decline
Despite a slight uptick last year, crime in Pottstown continues to be lower than it’s been in recent decades.Read more
Part 2 crimes remain down in Pottstown
Today’s chart shows that less dangerous crimes, known as Part 2 crimes, are also down from their peak about 15 years ago.Read more
Unresolved blighted properties
Pottstown has lots of neglected properties that need major renovations. Some are so far gone they ought to be demolished.Read more
Private market restoring homes
On Tuesday, we discussed efforts by Pottstown Council to rehabilitate
blighted properties with its Land Bank board. But private
developers are doing a great job on their own initiative.Read more
Spring enlivens High Street
Last weekend’s warm weather brought out scores of diners and social drinkers to enjoy the downtown’s numerous restaurants and pub gardens. People complain about back-in angle parking, but every spot was filled.Read more
Cruising now in rearview mirror
What a contrast from 30 years ago, when High Street was wall-to-wall with young revelers lined up in their hot cars racing up and down High Street making as much commotion as possible.Read more
Volunteers plant trees
Habitat for Humanity recruited more than 40 volunteers to plant 40 trees at Pottstown’s
Edgewood Cemetery Saturday. The next day, local volunteers planted 15 trees at Pottstown’s Riverfront Park.Read more
More parking lot trees needed
The most effective place to add trees is parking lots, where they absorb stormwater and lower ambient
temperatures,
reducing
the
“heat island” effect.
Parking
lots cover
about 15 percent of Pottstown’s land area.Read more
Earth Week: Future looks bleak
This is Earth Week, and our planet has never been in worse shape since the beginning of human civilization.Read more
Remove carbon the natural way
At present, trees remove about a quarter of the world’s carbon emissions.Read more
Finally, court action and a clean-up
In 2015, a Norristown businessman bought the long-vacant Levengood Dairy property, across from
Pottstown’s Chestnut Street park at Washington Street, for $20,000.Read more
When property owners won't clean up junk
On Tuesday, we discussed property owners who are taken to court to clean up their junk. But sometimes the borough has to do it.Read more
Land Bank gets first property
More than four years after it was created by Pottstown Council, the Pottstown Land Bank will facilitate the transfer of its first blighted property
to a non-profit for redevelopment.Read more
Fixing a High Street eyesore
The most visible blighted property in Pottstown — and probably the worst — is 542 High Street, in the
middle of the block that includes the Pottstown Regional Public Library.Read more
Vigil in perspective
Is preserving and protecting the planet and the people who live on it critically important? If so, we should start acting like it.Read more
The ideal teen-ager
Greta Thunberg is the living embodiment ofphilosopher Herbert Spencer’s dictum: “The great aim of education is not knowledge, but action. Wisdom is the right use of knowledge.”
Read more
The invasion of Pensylvania
As the Russian Army pummels more and more Ukrainian cities into rubble, it’s worth remembering that cities have arisen from the ashes of war in times past.
Even Pennsylvania has a town that was burned to the ground by the enemy and rebuilt.Read more
Within the realm of possibility
Thousands of people have been killed since the Russian Army invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24. As tragic as that is, it pales in comparison of the worldwide calamity that nuclear war would bring.
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Ukraine: History repeats itself
As the attached chart shows, 130 million people have been killed in senseless carnage since the assassination of an Austrian
duke set off the First World War in 1914.Read more
What does the developing world think?
From a global point of view, it is vitally important the Russo-Ukraine war doesn't escalate into an all-out nuclear war that could kill everybody.Read more
We can all help Ukraine
Anyone can Google “Ukraine relief” to find the websites of numerous creditable non-profits providing help. They all take credit cards. You can do your part at home with just a few computerclicks.
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It's all about physics
As physicist Stephen Hawking said, “It is clear that we are just an advanced breed of primates on a minor planet orbiting around a very average star in the outer suburb of one among a hundred billion galaxies.”Read more
Freedom for the bullies
Last week a group of angry parents shut down a meeting of the Spring-
Ford School Board. The board voted to adjourn the meeting rather than try to conduct business over the din
of people who refused to sit down and listen respectfully.Read more
Mascots caught up in changing norms
In our deeply polarized world, how important is a school mascot? A senior at Twin Valley High School has earned a lot of attention lately in her crusade to get the school district to drop its Indian mascot.Read more
Housing prices increase 5o% in four years
The median price of a
Pottstown home has increased 50 percent in just the last four years.Read more
Wide variety of housing in Pottstown
On Tuesday, we noted that Pottstown housing prices have increased dramatically over the last four years, at more than six times the rate of inflation. Here is a sampling of the 473 houses that sold in Pottstown in 2021:Read more
Pottstown's come a long way
It’s good to remember that for most of Pottstown’s 207-year
existence as a borough, our town wasamazingly primitive by today’s standards.
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Technological progress, yes, but...
Does technology make us better, more virtuous people? It doesn’t appear so.Read more
Too much salt in our lives
The recent ice and snow is mostly gone now, but the salt we’ve poured on our streets and sidewalks is still around.Read more
More hand-wringing in New Hanover
Another revised plan for a massive development in New Hanover Township called the New Hanover Town Center has been submitted.Read more
More school funding coming from state
Gov. Wolf’s No. 1 priority continues to be education,especially leveling up low-income districts like Pottstown.
Read more
The public education labyrinth
Seemingly every special interest group in Pennsylvania has had a hand in creating a byzantine system of rules and regulations with the assumption that public schools can solve every problem in society, if we just spend enough money.Read more
Borough brings in grant dollars
Over the last 20 years, Pottstown has applied for $47 million in grants and been awarded $37.7 million. That’s a lot of money!Read more
Jobs and quality of life
Earlier this month, Pottstown Council approved a 10-acre site plan for a $208 million sustainable
energy facility on Keystone Boulevard that will employ more than 100 people.Read more
Employer listings for 2021
Each year for the last six years, I’ve published a list of Pottstown’s top 25 employers. The list provides a “big picture” look at Pottstown employment.Read more
More transparency than ever
The 2008 Right-to-Know law assumes that all local and state government records are public (with afew exceptions such as personal information).
Read more
Why we can't find teachers
Pottstown and other school districts can’t find teachers, substitutes,
paraprofessionals
and aides.So what‘s it like to be teaching in an overregulated
school?
Read more
'Attention economy' fosters falsities
The internet provides everyone an opportunity toseek your attention, and those who shout the loudest and make the most outrageous claims are the ones who get the most attention.
Read more
Truth and reconciliation
Archbishop Desmond Tutu of Cape Town, who died last week at age 90, was a trailblazer in overcomingapartheid and healing his nation. He set an example of the moderation sorely needed in America.
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Champions of protecting earth
Desmond Tutu and Edward O. Wilson, who both died last week, shared the conviction that, divinely inspired or not, humanity’s greatest challenge is to protect the environment.Read more
Names, names, names
An essential element of your local newspaper 50 years ago, when I first started at the The Mercury, was people’s names. People love to read their ownnames in print.
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Lost Pottstown in last 50 years
Last week we reminisced about the stores that filled High Street at Christmastime five decades ago. Nearly all those stores are gone, but the buildings remain. Unfortunately, Pottstown has also lost some of its most distinctive buildings. (2021-12-30)Read more
Christmas in Pottstown 50 years ago
What I miss most about the Pottstown of yore at Christmastime is its thriving downtown stores.Read more
Redolent Christmas ads
Something else I miss at Christmas is the dozens of small ads for the locally-owned stores and businesses that festooned the newspaper’s pages.Read more
Police officers are expensive
Infrastructure costs a lot to maintain, but the big spending goes for employee salaries and benefits.By far the largest portion of the Pottstown general fund goes to the Pottstown Police Department.
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Salary schedule facts
The Federation of Pottstown Teachers will begin negotiations with the school district in Januaryfor a new contract starting in September 2022.
Read more
Where your local taxes go
Pottstown local government services cost a lot of money: About $111 million will be spent next year,
not including federally funded bus service and grants received.Read more
Long term projects and costs
Earlier this fall, the borough and school district laid out their planned infrastructure spending over the next 10 years. Regrettably, none of it will go for green infrastructure.Read more
It's all unnecessary
When Dr. Jonas Salk developed a polio vaccine in 1953 after six years’ research, millions of parents willingly submitted their children to testing in 1954. Today, polio has been eradicated in the United States.Read more
A better way to hold public meetings
Tonight the Pottstown School Board will conduct its first in-person meeting since a school board workshop in July. But I hope that next week, we’ll go back to virtual meetingsRead more
Volunteers plant trees at park
Pottstown residents Eileen Faust and Ed Walker teamed up with the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society (PHS) and students from the University of Valley Forge Sunday to plant 11 trees at Pottstown’s Riverfront Park.Read more
The Complex better than ever
Three years ago, Pottstown area entrepreneur Charles Gulati rescued the Pottstown YMCA from closing when he bought the 50-year-old Y building on North Adams Street, spent millions renovating it, and created “The Complex.”Read more
They're all over town
Hobart’s Run has recently upped its game and extended its outreach. The ubiquitous trash bins have been its most successful project.Read more
A winning idea
Pottstonians are sick and tired of trash all over town, and the people at Hobart’s Run have galvanized them into action. With a simple little thing like a free trash bin.
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"Improved" land
In John Potts’s
day, Pottstown was
virtually 100 percent forested. Since then we’ve removed nearly all of those trees for buildings, roads, and most egregiously, parking lots.Read more
Green infrastructure lacking
In the last 20 years, the Pottstown School District has spent $78 million on bricks and mortar projects and practically nothing on green infrastructure.
Read more
As talks go on, so do emissions
A U.N. science panel says we must cut greenhouse gas emissions, now, or face irreversible catastrophe.Is everything beyond us, or are there some small steps we can take in Pottstown?
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Drawdown
Climate change is so immense, and the international cooperation needed so
unprecedented, that most people throw up their hands and say,“There’s nothing we can do.” But there’s plenty we can do, including right here in Pottstown.
Read more
Cameras everywhere
Internet-connected home security cameras like Google’s Nest and Amazon’s Ring can be purchasedinexpensively, and their use has soared.
Read more
State of surveillance
With the proliferation of private and government security cameras, it’s safe to say nearly everything in Pottstown is being recorded as people go about their daily lives.
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Electronics revolution
Many technological improvements that affect everybody can’t be measured in dollars. Consider the television, which has transformed American life since the 1950s.Read more
The erosion of trust
The internet has not only diminished broadcast news, it has also crippled local newspapers, which for the most part deal in facts. At a time when people are statistically safer than ever, they are more suspicious and disrespectful than ever.Read more
Dailies and deposit bottles
This month marks 50 years since I was hired by The Mercury as a cub reporter.Read more
1971: a flurry of murders
On Tuesday, I noted that I started as a Mercuryreporter 50 years ago this month. We reported three murders before the end of that year, 1971.
Read more
PECO removes High Street trees
It didn’t take PECO long to remove some of Pottstown’s oldest and loveliest trees on High Street last week.Read more
Pottstown schools to green their parking lots
In keeping with the sustainability plan the Pottstown School Board adopted with Pottstown Council in 2018, the school district plans to plant more than 500 shade trees where they’ve needed most — in and around its 14 parking lots.Read more
The oversimplified message
The best approach in an overcommunicated society, experts advise, is the oversimplified message. But oversimplification is usually misleading. Read more
Fair funding for boroughs
We constantly hear about fair funding for needy school districts, but nothing about fair funding forneedy boroughs.
Read more
Still in denial
Pat Sundstrom Field has flooded three years in a row, and it’s only going to get worse. Inevitably, a new field will be needed on higher ground.Read more
Flooding can't be wished away
Major repairs to the existing stormwater system will cost about $14 million over the next decade or so.Read more
Pottstown's butterfly guru
You don’t have to leave Pottstown to find miraclesof nature. Pottstown butterfly guru Ron Richael recently demonstrated how to tag newly hatched Monarch butterflies (after their wings dry) at the Pottstown FARM market.
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Doing our part to preserve nature
Pottstown resident Ron Richael is one of our region’s top environmentalists. He’s demonstrated you don’tneed millions of dollars or huge swathes of land to preserve and protect our natural world.
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School board reneges on deal
In 1990, the school board unilaterally walked away from a deal it had made in 1962 with the borough. “We shouldn’t be in the recreation business,” the school board said. "Either the borough can take over the parks and recreation department or there won’t be one."Read more
The library: education for all
Thanks to the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund passed by
Congress, the school district has received a one-time windfallof nearly $14 million. Can we use some of those funds to support the library?
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Pottstown Library 100 years old
The Pottstown Regional Public Library, now celebrating its 100th anniversary, had its origins with a women’s civic organization called the Century Club.Read more
School board, borough make a deal
Pottstown Council and the Pottstown School Board passed resolutions supporting the Pottstown LibraryBoard’s quest for the post office building. But the feds wanted more:
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First Beech St., now High St.
Having denuded parts of
Beech Street, PECO willnow move to High Street, Pottstown’s showcase
street, to remove venerable old trees between Keim
Street and Rosedale Drive as it installs new poles.
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PECO to remove more trees
PECO’s insistence on removing decades-old treeson High Street, our showcase street, shows no regard for Pottstown’s environment, appearance and quality of life
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Traffic calming installations needed
A fatal car crash on Queen Street near Madison Street Aug. 3 weighed heavily on Pottstown Council members at their meeting last week.Read more
Time to tame speeders
Discussing a recent traffic fatality caused by speeding earlier this month, Pottstown Council President Dan Weand has called for installing speed
bumps on residential streets as they do in Jenkintown and other progressive towns.Read more
There's no going back
A 1969 fire in the heavily polluted Cuyahoga River, which bisects Cleveland on its way to Lake Erie, led to a major cleanup of the waterway. Climate change is different. The flooding, heat waves, wildfires and
droughts such as we’ve seen in recent weeks are now baked in the climate.Read more
Putting words into action
At the upcoming meeting of Pottstown Council and the Pottstown School Board, I hope we will focus on the joint Sustainability Plan, which Council and the School Board passed in 2018. With the impactsof climate change becoming more evident every
day, the plan is our roadmap to help preserve our part of the planet.
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3 billion birds lost since 1970
A mysterious illness is killing birds in southeastern Pennsylvania. This is the latest manifestation of a troubling trend: According to a 2019 study by Cornell University, the U.S. and Canada have lost 3 billion birds since 1970 — that’s one quarter of the total bird population.Read more
The road less traveled
Pennsylvanian Rachel Carson's warnings about pesticides poisoning the planet inspired a grassroots environmental movement that led to the creation of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in 1970. Her warnings are more relevant today than ever.Read more
Basic education
My wife attended John the Baptist Parochial School in upper Bucks County for grades 1 through 8. The school had just four classrooms, which meant grade levels were merged: 1-2; 3-
4; 5-6; and 7-8. For all eight years, my wife had at least 50 classmates in her classroom, taught by one nun.Read more
Top Pottstown school retirees
With the current teacher shortage, the possibility of hiring retired teachers has been discussed, which is difficult because of legal issues.
But getting retirees back in
the classroom would be virtually
impossible in any case because their pensions are so generous.Read more
Students: Play at life, or live it?
Millennials and Generation Z’ers are especially concerned about climate change, which makes sense since they will bear the brunt of it. However, it’s one thing to theorize about climate change. It’s another to do something about it.Read more
The woman who planted trees
Wangari Maathai successfully preached “self-help” and by 2004, when she won the Nobel Peace Prize, Kenyan women had planted more than 30 million trees. That figure is now up to 51 million trees. We can all learn from her example in Pottstown.Read more
Some ash trees have been saved
HIGH STREET ASH TREES treated by Trees Inc. are thriving. MIDDLE SCHOOL ASH TREES treated by the school district are thriving. But the Pottstown Parks Department has cut down some 80 ash trees in Riverfront Park as a “preventative” measure.Read more
Why not a meadow?
Why are we spending taxpayer dollars for a park that's closed to the public? Why isn’t this land being converted into a meadow? Meadows are more cost effective and
environmentally sound than
grass.Read more
The No. 1 issue
The district recently conducted a three-day planning exercise at Sunnybrook Ballroom with about 60 members of the Pottstown school community. The greatest issue in our lifetimes was not mentioned. Read more
Our moral obligation to Pottstown
We can no longer take the well-being of the planet for granted. We need to promote the narrative of human beings as stewards of the earth.
And a sense of responsibility for
the planet begins with the buildings
and streets that are our home.Read more
Pottstown teen enjoys unique education
Laighna Will lives just a block from the Pottstown High School—Middle School complex, but she’s spent the last four years boarding at the Milton Hershey School in Dauphin County, the nation’s wealthiest private school.Read more
Hershey school fosters relationships
The Pottstown School District doesn't have anywhere near the resources of the Milton Hershey School. But one thing Pottstown
can model from MHS is relationship-
building. The more students are together in small groups, the more they gel as a
family.Read more
Foundation boosts college-bound
Thirteen of the students who graduated from Pottstown High School June 2 have a head start on
college, paid in part or in full by the Foundation for Pottstown Education.Read more
PHS grad issues tour de force
Aside from marriage and child birth, Beth Ann Kersten’s most rewarding experience has been her recent publication, “The Essentials of Anatomy and Physiology Laboratory Manual,” which she hopes will be adopted by colleges nationwide.Read more
$1/2 million house on High St.
Pottstown home renovators Robert and Paula Bickelman are continuing to raise housing standards in Pottstown.Read more
Habitat's first new house
For more than 20 years, Genesis Housing Corp. andHabitat for Humanity have been renovating houses in Pottstown for low income residents.
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Learning thwarted by bureaucracy
What's the most important thing young children learn when they begin school? According to educational psychologist Sylvia Diggory, it's to forget -- forget about the personal learning programs they developed as they figured out how to walk, talk and understand their world -- and assume the role of pupil in the school bureaucracy.Read more
Students first, subjects second
There’s a saying in education, “Elementary school teachers teach children. Secondary school teachersteach subjects.”
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Too much specialization
The most important aspect of education (or almost every other enterprise) is relationship building.Read more
Public education: cost no object
School districts must submit voluminous plans to the Pennsylvania Department of Education covering more than 80 topics. School costs is not one of them.Read more
Pandemic is changing paradigms
The last day of school is only a week away, and Pottstown administrators are still not sure what classes will look like next fall.Read more
The academic impact of schools
As long as conventional academic performance is the metric for judging public school districts, many of them — especially those with a predominately low-income student population — will fail.Read more
Rich man's epiphany
LONG AGO, I WAS captivated by a seductively intuitive idea, one many of my wealthy friends still subscribe to: that both poverty and rising inequality are largely consequences of America’s failing education system.
Fix that, I believed, and we could
cure much of what ails America.Read more
Grist for the bureaucratic mill
The Pennsylvania Department of Education likes to keep close tabs on the state’s 500 public school districts. In addition to a score of data sets submitted annually to the state, Pottstown is now developing a three-year comprehensive plan that will go into voluminous detail to demonstrate the school district is complying with all state regulations.Read more
School districts will do it all!
The Pottstown School District is beginning a year-long process to develop a three-year comprehensive plan to ensure all students succeed. Every district in Pennsylvania is required to do such plans, which are enormously complicated and loaded with educational jargon. These detailed plans assume that no matter the students’ circumstances or backgrounds, the school district can solve their social, emotional and academic problems so they can all achieve to state standards.
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High quality leadership
By far the most important government officials are the superintendent of schools and the boroughmanager, because they control the spending.
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Take a seat at the Pottstown library
Visit the Pottstown Regional Public Library 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. this Saturday for a used book sale and to view antique wooden chairs decorated by
local artists.Read more
Annual benefit of trees: $300,000
This is the time of year trees and greenery are most appreciated. Streets and parks fill with walkers,joggers and bicyclists enjoying the outdoor transformation from brown to green.
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PECO mutilates, removes trees
Providing electricity to densely populated townslike Pottstown is far less expensive, per capita, than
servicing the low density suburbs. Considering all the money PECO saves, PECO should protect our
trees, not mutilate or remove them.
Read more
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Converted factory fully leased
The conversion of the 19th century Meyerhoff Shirt Factory at Charlotte and Cherry streets, part of the Hanover Square housing development, is now complete, and all 27 of the 2-
bedroom apartments created have been leased.Read more
Bringhurst homes are sold
For more than 130 years, the Bringhurst Trust provided affordable housing to needy families in 16 brick half double homes built on Laurel Street in
1877 with funds left in the will of Wright Bringhurst, who died in 1876.Read more
Fire fatalities down sharply
Since 1979, fire fatalities nationally have dropped by two-thirds, from 35 deaths per million people in 1979 to 12 deaths per million in 2007.Read more
A leap forward in human health
Here’s another leap forward in human health that is taken for granted today: Adult cigarette smoking has dropped by nearly two-thirds since 1964.Read more
Education spending perspective
As measured
on a global scale, a national scale, or a state scale, Pottstown is spending more per pupil than the vast majority of public schools anywhere.Read more
The Myth
There’s a myth that underlies discussion about Pennsylvania school districts serving low incomepopulations. The myth is that K-12 schools alone can pull substantial numbers of students out of poverty, if they just spend enough money.
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Taking trash pick-up to the next level
Trash pick up in Pottstown has improved greatly with the introduction of wheeled bins. Now it’s time to go a step further and use professionals with the right equipment to clean up the street trash thataccumulates on our major streets.
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Encouraging historic restoration
One of Pottstown’s greatest assets is its historic architecture, most dating to the Victorian era, with ornate gables, eaves, spires, porches, and windows of all sizes and configurations.
These buildings are charming but costly to maintain. Read more
Crime continued to decrease in 2020
Crime was down in Pottstown last year, for the seventh year in a row. In fact, serious crimes are half what they were in 1997, the year crime peaked in Pottstown, and the lowest they’ve been overall since 1973.Read more
Part 2 crimes are also down
On Tuesday, we reported that Part 1 crimes weredown last year for the seventh year in a row. Today’s chart shows that less dangerous crimes, known as Part 2 crimes, are also down.
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Which violation is the worst?
Pottstown code officers have a lot of discretion when it comes to interpreting and enforcing the buildingand property maintenance codes used in Pottstown.
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It wasn't a code issue
The existing building code gives code officers discretion to determine how the intent, if not the letter, of the code will be achieved, especially for historic buildings.Read more
A good reason for zoning
Next week, a request to open a gun repair and sales shop in a residential neighborhood of Lower Pottsgrove Township will be heard by the townshipZoning Hearing Board.
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What we can control
At a recent Zoom meeting sponsored by Pottstown Area Industrial Development Inc. (PAID), various initiatives to encourage economic developmentin Pottstown were discussed.
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Could it happen?
Pottstown Hospital is arguably the borough's greatest asset, providing full medical services within minutes of every Pottstown home.Could it close?
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Employer, employee listings for 2020
Each year for the last five years, I've published a lsit of Pottstown's top 25 employers. Unfortunately, the lists have shown a lot of turnover in employers and obvious inaccuracies.Read more
It's not that easy
PennDOT regulations make it almost impossible to install pull-in angle parking on a state road. Pottstown's pull-in parking was banned in 1948.Read more
PennDOT would nix pull-in parking
PennDOT has become a strong proponent of back-in angle parking.Read more
Housing prices continue dramatic rise
More people are discovering Pottstown’s merits. The median price of a Pottstown home has increasednearly 50 percent in just the last four years.
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Wide variety of housing in Pottstown
Here is a sampling of the 429 houses that sold in Pottstown last year:Read more
Charter school boondoggle
Now that all school districts have developed their own virtual programs, and have experience running them, is there any justification left for cyber charter schools?Read more
Big Brother wants plans
The Pennsylvania Department of Education is insistent on plans of all sorts. One thing is clear. With each passing year, public education has become more bureaucratic, cumbersome, and costly, with very little to show for it.Read more
Special ed enrollment soars
Special education enrollments and costs have been steadily increasing for decades, beginning in 1975, when landmark federal special education legislation revolutionized the education system.Read more
20 students=$2+ million
There is no “cap” on how much money a school district must spend to meet an individual student’s needs.Read more
Staying virtual into the spring
Last week, the Pottstown School Board voted 6-2 to extend virtual learning at all grade levels through the third marking period in April.Read more
Virtues of virtual
Even after the pandemic ends, more and more work will be conducted virtually, both in education and the business world. We’d better learn to master it.Read more
District expands meadows
Last fall, Applied Ecological Services planted meadows at the high school and at Barth, Lincoln and Rupert elementary schools. A rain garden will be planted at the Franklin School this spring.Read more
Removing nature at Riverfront Park
Pottstown Parks Department has systematicallyremoved the natural woods and understory at Riverfront Park, at a cost of thousands of taxpayer
dollars, to be replaced with grass.
Read more
Rep. Dean eloquent on PBS
We could all be proud of our congresswoman, Madeleine Dean, who appeared on National Public Television the day after the riot at the Capitol.Read more
Return on investment?
Pottstown spends more on public school education than all other local government services combined.In Pottstown, school-aged children and youth comprise less than 20 percent of our residents.
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Most exciting era in history
This month begins the most exciting and important decade in the history of civilization. That’s no exaggeration.Read more
Topics for 2021
Here are some issues we need to address in 2021 for Pottstown to best manage its resources for the common good.Read more
Subverting democracy
On Dec. 4, state Rep. Tim Hennessey, who represents about half of Pottstown, degraded himself in a way I would never have thought possible.Read more
Do we have a 'great man' for 2021?
The 19th century philosopher and historian Thomas Carlyle gained fame for his “great man” theory of history.Read more
Community champion
Last week, we discussed the enormous impact a few resourceful citizens could have on Pottstown’s quality of life by investing in our town. No one has set a better example than Charles Gulati, the president and CEO of SunnyBrook Ballroom.Read more
Pottstown haven for poor
Only the Grinch would have turned down a request by the TriCounty Network and partner organizations to
use the former St. Aloysius Elementary School on North Hanover Street to house up to 20 homeless people from 8 p.m. to 8
a.m. daily through
April 30.Read more
How much wealth is enough?
It is mind-boggling that the top 1 percent of Americans own 40 percent of the country’s wealth. Or that the richest 20 percent of American households own 85 percent of the country’s wealth.
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Private philanthropy needed
There’s plenty of private money around — especially among older citizens. If just a handful of these folks were willing to use some of their excess wealth to fix up Pottstown buildings, they could transform our town for the better.Read more
Middle class shrinking
Middle class prosperity boomed from the end of World War II through the 1970s. Since then, however, incomes have grown much more slowly, except for the rich.Read more
Money and quality of life
On Tuesday, we discussed the diminishing size of the American middle class and the increasing extremes of wealth and poverty in the United States. However, income isn’t the only way to measure our quality of life.Read more
Lots of government priorities
Pottstown has the seventh highest tax effort in the state — higher than 95 percent of the 500 school districts in the Commonwealth. Education shouldn't be our only priority. Read more
Where your local taxes go
Pottstown local government services cost a lot of money: About $109 million will be spent next year, not including federally funded bus service and grants received.Read more
Penn rolls over in his grave
William Penn’s warning was never more apt than now, three centuries later, when a shameless president and his lackeys attempt to overturn theelection of Joseph R. Biden as president.
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Truth under assault
Since the Civil War, despite many bitter disputes, the Republican and Democratic parties followedbasic norms of behavior and played by the rules.
That came to an end on Jan. 20, 2017, when Donald Trump was inaugurated president.
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Schools closed in the fall of 1918
Virtual education was not an option in October 1918, when the Pottstown Board of Health, following state guidance, ordered the closure of all Pottstown schools from Oct. 4 until Nov. 4. Even The Hill School closed and sent all its students home.Read more
Virtual Ed: few employees furloughed
The Pottstown School Board voted last summer to offer only virtual education to its students for the first semester of this school year, which ends Jan. 14, 2021. Few employees were furloughed.Read more
Science and plastic pollution
Let us step back from our election turmoil and consider two important initiatives for the future well-being of the planet that can largely be done by the private sector.Read more
Carbon neutral colleges
In 2015, scores of colleges and universities (including Montgomery County Community College) signed a pledge to become carbon neutral, that is, to eliminate greenhouse gas emissions from their campuses.Read more
The most important election
Today’s presidential election is the most important in 80 years. Just as in November 1940, it’s no exaggeration to say today’s candidates hold the
destiny of the world in their hands.Read more
Pandemic barely changes enrollment
The Pottstown School District has been providing eleven weeks of virtual education. The board will discuss the current situation at a committee meeting 6:30 tonight which will be posted live on the district’s Facebook page.Read more
Trees need trimming, not removal
PECO recently announced it will be removing about 40 street trees, mostly flowering pear trees along Beech Street, as part of a $5 million project to replace utility poles in central Pottstown and add more.Read more
Canopy trees and wires can co-exist
Street trees share the public right of way with other infrastructure. Water, sewer and gas pipes are all buried underground. In most of Pottstown, electric wires are hanging from utility poles. But thoughtful pruning can allow trees and wires to safely co-exist.Read more
Koury lauded by Council
At its October meeting, Pottstown Council passed a resolution honoring Pottstown attorney John A. Koury Jr. of O’Donnell, Weiss & Mattei for outstanding service to the borough.Read more
Historic factory to housing
The restoration of the 19th century Meyerhoff Shirt Factory at Charlotte and Cherry streets into 27 condominiums and market rate apartments isalmost done.
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Technological revolution
Everyone agrees remote learning is inferior to in-person classrooms, but without the technological revolution in recent decades, many schools might not be open at all.Read more
Decades of social distancing
The pandemic is just the most dramatic instance of social distancing -- a trend that’s been going on for the last six decades.Read more
GOP Gov. Ridge endorses Biden
Tom Ridge is a former Republican governor of Pennsylvania and the first U.S. secretary of Homeland Security. I will cast my vote for Joe Biden on
Nov. 3. It will be my first vote for a Democratic candidate for president of the United States. Read more
Trump bad for the economy
Mark Zandi is the chief economist for Moody’s Analytics. It is decision time. If you are wrestling over whom to vote for in the presidential race and how the next president will handle the economy, then former Vice President Joe Biden should be your choice.Read more
Edgewood Meadow growing
In 2017, the Pottstown School Board voted to convert three acres of grassy swale next to the former Edgewood Elementary School into a meadow. Three years later, the meadow is flourishing.Read more
District to expand meadows
Encouraged by the success of the Edgewood School Meadow, the Pottstown School Board voted lastmonth to plant meadows, rain gardens, and low mow areas next spring at its high school-middle school campus and all four elementary schools totaling 8 acres.
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Street work: tangible progress
This year, the borough will pave nearly five milesof streets at a cost of $807,729.
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How bad does it have to get?
As bad as the pandemic is, it doesn’t pack nearly thepunch of climate change, which if left unchecked could destroy civilization as we know it.
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Ignoring all the warning signs
“I have failed to make the people here realize what is at stake. I am not strong enough, I suppose.”Read more
America is constantly changing
One of the things I like best about Pottstown is its diversity. Black, white, working people, everybody gets along. But there are lots of Americans who are afraid of diversity, and President Trump, as usual, is selling exclusion and fear.Read more
Demographics transforming the world
Countries like Spain, Italy, Japan and South Korea are projected to have half the population in 2100that they have today.
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When $600K is a drop in the bucket
Pottstown’s streets and homes and businesses are sitting on miles and miles of underground pipes, a lot of them a hundred years old or more.Read more
Rethinking Memorial Park
Two summers in a row, flooding has caused hundreds of thousands of dollars in damage. Before rebuilding, serious consideration should be given to flood protection or moving facilities to another park.Read more
Big changes in public education
This week commences the most unusual school year in the Pottstown School District’s 182-year history:For the first time, education is being delivered remotely to students in their homes instead of physical school buildings.
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Pottstown School Board oversight
Last week the Pottstown School Board gave carte blanche to our administrators to furlough employees as they see fit.Read more
Huge challenge ahead
No one believes on-line learning is an adequate substitute for in-person classes, but with all the uncertainty of the pandemic, it’s the least bad option.Read more
Best practices for virtual education
Sal Khan is a pioneer in virtual education. He recently offered his perspectives in The New York Times, as follows:Read more
Flu hardly noted in PHS yearbook
In the Pottstown High School yearbooks of 1918 and 1919, the Spanish flu pandemic is barely mentioned. Classes, athletics, the school play, the senior trip to Washington, D.C., and commencement proceeded normally.Read more
Big changes, and more to come
Just like our students of today, the 68 graduates of Pottstown High School, Class of 1919, had no ideawhat was coming -- The Great Depression, World War II, the postwar loss of residents and manufacturing plants to the suburbs.We cannot imagine what lies ahead in our lives, either.
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Mixed message
Dr. Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control, recently said America could get the coronavirus "under control" within four to six weeks if everyone wore a face mask. But millions are unemployed, and schools can’t open, because many
people just won’t wear face masks.Read more
Pottstown teachers' perspective
We are writing on behalf of the teachers to adamantly request the adoption of full virtual distance learning for the fall of the 20-21 school year. A hybrid schedule as well as a full time classroom model is simply not safe and literally could cost the lives of any of our kids or staff.Read more
Foundation boosts college-bound
Fifteen of the students who graduated from Pottstown High School last month have a head start on college, paid in part or in full by the Foundationfor Pottstown Education.
Read more
Community college: a great start
Community colleges like the Montgomery County Community College are the best bargain in higher education,with more than 100 associate's degree and certification programs.Read more
It's all up in the air
It’s hard to believe we are just five weeks away from the scheduled opening of Pottstown schools, and we still don’t know what that will look like.Read more
It's the culture
There is a substantial portion of the population that hates being told what to do, even if it’s for their own good.Read more
Dead trees removed, 16 planted
In January, Pottstown Council authorized Trees Inc. to remove 55 dead trees and replace someof them under the direction of the borough manager.
Read more
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Trees Inc. 2020 report
The borough’s shade tree ordinance makes adjacent property owners responsible for street tree maintenance. That rarely happens. So non-profit Trees Inc. does the best it can. Here is our annual report.Read more
Planet has lost half its trees
By the time the human race evolved 200,000 years ago, there were 5.6 trillion trees worldwide,
according to researchers at the Yale School of Forestry. Since then, humans have removed nearly
half of them. Read more
Trees Inc. protects 131 ash trees
In 2002, an insect called the emerald ash borer wasdiscovered in Michigan, probably hitchhiking on some imported wood packing material from China.
Since then the borer has spread in all directions,
killing tens of millions of ash trees.
Read more
5,000 years of civilization
Lining a wall in my study is the Wall Chart of World History — 12 feet long. It captures in linear form about 5,000 years of recorded history.Read more
A scientific prediction ignored
Human beings have done some magnificent things and some atrocities — lots of them, in fact — but civilization has survived. It’s far from certain that we will survive climate change.Read more
A unique graduation
The Pottstown High School’s 140th graduation is now posted on the school district’s Facebook page.If you didn’t know better, you might be excused for
thinking this was a normal graduation.
Read more
Edgewood misconceptions
There are so many misconceptions about the former Edgewood Elementary School it’s hard to know where to begin correcting them. Contrary to a misleading headline that appeared recently, the use of Edgewood is not changing.Read more
Facing up to the inevitable
"Being Mortal," by surgeon Atul Gawande, provides a cold slap in the face about aging. Because societyhas become so medically sophisticated, we find it ever harder to accept that as people age, they wear out and die.
Read more
Demographics to bring change
Already home to one of the nation’s oldest populations, Pennsylvania will see its elderly — age 65 and older — grow to almost 24 percent of the population in the next five years while the working-age population will actually decrease slightly.Read more
Why I hope to die at 75 - Part 1
The following column by Penn ethicist Ezekiel Emanuel, M.D., aroused quite a controversy when it was first published in The Atlantic magazine in 2016. It is particularly noteworthy during the pandemic of 2020.Read more
Why I hope to die at 75 - Part 2
The following column by Penn ethicist Ezekiel Emanuel, M.D., aroused quite a controversy when it was first published in The Atlantic magazine in 2016. It is particularly noteworthy during the pandemic of 2020.Read more
Time has come to vote by mail
For the first time in nearly 50 years of voting, my wife and I will not be visiting the polls today.Read more
Finding peace with our dogs
We seek wisdom everywhere and it is at our feet, teaching without even knowing it, if only we will listen, closely and carefully.Read more
Middle School transformed
The
following essay by a New York City eighth grader, recently published in The New York Times, offers a great perspective on how distance learning can improve public education.Read more
New way to engage students
Like most school districts nationwide, Pottstown was forced into remote learning March 13 when thepandemic forced school buildings to close.
Read more
Unsustainable spending
The Pottstown School Board is likely Thursday night to pass a preliminary 2020-2021 budget of$65,721,174 with no tax increase.
Read more
Last of the modulars gone
Four old, deteriorating modulars were removed last week from the former Edgewood Elementary School.Read more
Who's responsible?
To procreate a child and become a parent, one of thegreatest responsibilities in life, no training is required. No financial means testing
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Peerless educators
My jaw dropped at a class reunion as a classmate told me how he and his wife homeschooled their 13 biological children. Eight are now physicians.Read more
Education won't be the same
We have yet to capitalize on the potential that technology offers to make learning more accessible to everyone. The pandemic is forcing us to speed things up.Read more
Been there. Done that.
While Pottstown teachers, students and parents are scrambling to adapt to distance learning, othershave been doing it for years.
Read more
No time for school tax increase
Nearly 1.5 million Pennsylvanians have lost their jobs during the last five weeks, nearly a quarter of the state’s workforce.
This is no time for the Pottstown School District to increase taxes.Read more
Strictly business
Here we are in the beginning of the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression, and the school board has approved a three-year contract with business administrator Maureen Jampo, raising her compensation 33 percent by the end of her contract. What could we be thinking?Read more
It could be worse
We’re all cooped up in our dwellings. The stress is showing.
To match the shocking suddenness and privations of the pandemic, you’d have to go back to World War II.Read more
Looking for meaning in suffering
There’s a lot of fear and suffering out there.No one knew more about human suffering and despair than Viktor Frankl.
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A better way to hold meetings?
Last week, after participating in a virtual Pottstown School Board meeting (executive session) and observing a virtual Pottstown Council meeting on my home computer, I had to ask myself, is this better than in-person meetings?Read more
When only a few sacrificed
The pandemic has left us all worried about the future. But for my generation, fear of the future was limited to a few — young men of draft age. The most awesome power government can exercise is killing its citizens. For many young men during the Vietnam war, the draft amounted to a death sentence.Read more
Borough fully functional
Despite the pandemic, the essential functions of borough government continue, although some employees have been furloughed.Read more
New era in education
With the pandemic, distance learning is Pottstown’sbest option. Of course, it requires all students
to have a computer and an internet connection.
Read more
Gates warned of pandemic
In April 2015, Microsoft co-founder and billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates gave a TED (Technology, Entertainment and Design) talk at its annualconference about the dangers of a worldwide pandemic.
Read more
Crisis: A preview of the Big One
The pandemic's trajectory is a truly horrific scenario. But the coronavirus doesn’t present the existential threat to humanity that climate change does.Read more
Take a walk! Ride your bike!
Folks, it’s perfectly okay to take a walk or ride yourbike if you keep your distance from others. You’ll be much better off physically and spiritually, and you
might get to see parts of Pottstown you never saw before.
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Coronavirus in context
Last week the New York Times published an estimate of how many people could die from the coronavirus in comparison to other top causes of death. I’ve extrapolated estimates for Pennsylvania and Montgomery County from national estimates.Read more
An illuminating moment of peace
It is two o'clock on a Saturday afternoon in June. All I can see is the brilliant green of sunlit leaves and the deep blue of the sky.Read more
Respect for the planet the beginning of wisdom
Mother Nature is using us once again as her tools, using the love of trees which she implanted in us long ago as the means to keep herself alive.Read more
Assets waiting to be tapped
While High Street’s first floors are attracting restaurants, the upper floors have the potential tobring residents who can further energize the downtown.
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Sprucing up the 400 block
There's a new initiative to improve the appearanceof the 400 block of High Street, between Franklin
and Washington Streets.
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Quality rental market growing
Pottstown has lots of mid-sized buildings, once used for retail, offices, and light manufacturing, that areideal for conversion into rental units.
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Creating homes for renters
Keith and Christa Costello represent a new breed of landlords that have found ways to economicallyrenovate derelict houses and provide nice homes.
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It's all over town
It’s hard to walk anywhere in Pottstown withoutseeing signs for Seussical, the all-district musical opening tonight at Pottstown High School.
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America's income inequality
There are mind-boggling disparities in the distribution of wealth among the people of the world and in America.Read more
Housing market improves
More people are discovering Pottstown’s merits.A comparison of home sales over the last two years shows median sales prices are increasing -- nearly 18 percent!
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Bickelmans show how it's done
Many people who have the money to renovate older housing buy new instead. They don’t want the hassles and uncertainties of renovations.The Bickelmans show how it's done.
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Where your local taxes go
The traditional media focus most of their attention on federal issues, but many vitally important decisions are made right here in our back yard.Read more
Increasing Pottstown's tax base
At next week's joint Council-School Board meeting will be a summary of the report on Pottstownby the Urban Land Institute, whose experts visited the borough for six days last October, sponsored by the Pottstown Area Health and Wellness Foundation.
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Employer, employee listings for 2019
Nine years ago, when PAID reorganized, it adopted by-laws requiring PAID’s director to submit an annual progress report that included an inventory of all borough businesses.Read more
Borough traffic flow gets a lot better
Have you noticed? As you drive down High Street, especially in the evening, the traffic lights all turn green. That’s because the $13 million “closed loop system,” funded and installed by PennDOT, is up and running.Read more
Mustard Seed Malawi
Shortly after Pottstown finance director Janice Lee retires next month, she’ll be flying to Africa to visit her daughter, Angela, and son-in-law, Alex Ishmael, at a free pre-school they operate in Malawi, one of the world’s most undeveloped countries.Read more
All over but the shoutin'
About 100 concerned citizens attended a three-hour meeting last week to discuss the latest iteration of the proposed “New Hanover Town Center,” an agglomeration of housing and commercial space to be built on 209 acres at the former New Hanover Airport.Read more
Integrated schools are the best
As a Pottstown school director and spouse of a retired Pottstown teacher, I have never doubted that for any child, the benefits of integrated schools far outweigh the “advantages” of homogeneous suburban schools.Read more
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Pottstown's special burden
Over the last 50 years, the middle class and the affluent have either abandoned or simply avoided traditional cities and towns, leaving an increasingly poor population behind.Read more
Our memory isn't failing, after all
Good news, fellow Boomers!According to Daniel Levitin, a PhD in neuroscience, most of us are not suffering from cognitive memory decline. We’re just a little slower with our short-term memories.
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Hill School maintains standards
Unlike peers such as Lawrenceville and Peddie — and elite New England prep schools like Andover, Exeter, and Hotchkiss — The Hill School maintains a dress code: blazers, dress shirts and ties for males; blazers and collared shirts for females.Read more
Removing nature at Riverfront Park
Pottstown parks department has engaged in a systematic effort to remove the natural woods and understory at a cost of thousands of taxpayer dollars to be replaced with a wide grass buffer which must then be regularly mowed with heavyequipment.
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Years later, park sign still not fixed
Riverfront Park has a kiosk with a map of Pottstown showing the locations of restaurants, shops, restrooms, and services. Over time the information became outdated. And then the sign started peeling. At least three years ago, it became obvious the sign needed to be replaced.But nothing has been done.
Note: the sign was replaced after the attached article appeared in The Mercury.
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Sad. Was it necessary?
Some 70 ash trees have been removed at Riverfront Park by the Pottstown Parks and Recreation Department. They were cut down as “preventative maintenance” because they might be killed by emerald ash borer in the future.Read more
Ash trees can be treated, saved
Pottstown has 159 ash trees in the public right of way (street trees) that have been inventoried by Trees Inc., a private non-profit. All but 15 have been treated with an insecticide starting in 2014, and thus far only five have been infected.Read more
Season of giving?
This is the time of year when people give the most to charities. We’ve paid the annual householdbills, and now we decide how much we have to spare for others.
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Effective altruism
On Tuesday, we discussed donating to charity, focused on Pottstown. But the neediest people don’t live here. 583 (2020-1-2)Read more
A memorable Christmas trip
My earliest Christmas memory dates to December 1953, when I first saw America’s most beautiful store — John Wanamaker’s, across the street from Philadelphia City Hall.Read more
Stores that uplift and inspire
Interestingly, Wanamaker’s Department Store advertised heavily in Pottstown newspapers in the early 1900s, so a lot of Pottstonians must have shopped there by taking the train, a faster and easier trip than driving today.Read more
The rise of charter schools
Rallies were held simultaneously Dec. 5 at 17 school districts statewide to protest the way Pennsylvania funds its public schools. District officials called for full implementation of a “fair funding” formula. Protesters also
sought reforms in the way publiccharter schools are established and funded.
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Charters undermine communities
Charter schools undermine struggling communities like Pottstown. Thanks to charter schools, motivated parents in urban areas can remove their children from regular public schools, further concentrating the poor left behind.Read more
Life as we know it coming to an end
After 30 years of pollyanna talk from scientists optimistically hoping humanity will come together and reduce greenhouse gas emissions sufficiently to avert dramatic climate change, a United Nations panel conceded last month that it’s probably too late. Read more
The closest analogy
On Tuesday, we discussed the latest United Nations global warming report, which conceded that theworld’s nations were highly unlikely to reduce emissions sufficiently to avoid disastrous climate change.
The easiest and most common way to deal with unpleasant truths is to deny them.
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New school director picks Pottstown
Steven and Judith Kline moved to Pottstown’sNorth End two years ago from increasingly developed New Hanover Township. Steven, retired principal of Lower Merion's Harriton High School, will join the Pottstown School Board Thursday.
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Holiday House Tour this Sunday
Twelve of Pottstown’s most historic homes, somenever before opened to the public, will be on the Historic Pottstown Holiday Tour 1 to 5 p.m. this Sunday. Tickets are available ahead of time and on the day of the tour at Studio 36 Bead Shop and Artisan Gallery, 105 E. High Street.
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1807 gem is a home once more
It’s been 10 years since an American Federal-style house at 548 Manatawny Street, built in 1807 by farmer Jacob Levengood, was first threatened with demolition.Read more
Roller Mill renovation almost done
The historic 1725 Pottstown Roller Mill, just west of Hanover Street, is set to open in the next few weeks after a complete renovation by the Zimrick Group, a partnership of Ken Zimmerman and Greg Emrick.Read more
Rich man's epiphany
While Pottstown schools have individual success stories, it has not come close to eradicating generational poverty. Nor has any other American
school district serving substantial numbers of children in poverty.Read more
Rich man's epiphany (part 2)
On Tuesday we published excerpts from a multi-millionaire’s essay in The Nation magazine regarding public schools and children in poverty. He made (to him) the startling discovery that schools can’t solve inequality in America.Read more
Pottstown's grim finances
Next month, Pottstown Council is expected to increase real estate taxes 4.25 percent for 2020.That’s on top of a 12 percent tax increase in 2018 and a 9 percent tax increase this year.
Even with these tax increases, however, Pottstown will face a yawning gulf between revenues and expenses in future years.
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Schools take lion's share of taxes
Most of Pottstown’s real estate taxes — 73 percent — are levied by the Pottstown School District, which serves the same taxpayers as the borough.Read more
Recycling: It's a big deal
It’s great to be first in the nation for something positive. Pottstown is now America’s first community to have curbside recycling of flexible plastic packaging materials such as grocery bags, food pouches, and bubble wrap.Read more
Recycling and clean streets
The following essay by Julia Ross, a former U.S. Fulbright scholar in Taiwan, shows how much our culture needs to change to protect the environmentby eliminating waste.
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ULI themes still a work in progress
The most recent ULI report — presented by panel members Friday to about 70 stakeholders at theSteel River Playhouse — continued many of the same themes as a third ULI report in 2009.
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ULI 2019 plan: smorgasbord of ideas
Seven community development experts from all over the country have now returned home after spending six days in Pottstown last week crafting a plan to invigorate our borough.Read more
ULI makes another visit to Pottstown
This week, a panel of nationwide experts from ULI — the Urban Land Institute — is visiting Pottstownto evaluate the community’s strengths and weaknesses and suggest ways we can promote economic development and enhance our quality of life.
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ULI sparks Pottstown's 'town center'
Few people remember, but Pottstown’s borough hall and Smith Family Plaza on High Street were first conceived in 1989 by a panel for ULI — the Urban Land Institute.Read more
Pottstown students aid Africans
Having won a nationwide
“innovators” competition sponsored by the Dow Chemical Co., Pottstown pre-engineering students Jacob Eames
and David Hicks joined their teacher, Andy Bachman, on a
10-day mission last summer to Kenya to
help enlarge a K-8public school sponsored by WE.org, an international commun i t y - b u i l d i n g charity.
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What's your consumption factor?
On Tuesday, we wrote about a mission two Pottstown students and their teacher took to Kenya, where they encountered extreme poverty. Our students are budding innovators, tasked with solving big problems in the coming decades. The following essay by renowned anthropologist Jared Diamond provides a broad look at what they face:Read more
Farm field's last crop: houses
Bulldozers have scraped away much of what used to be 143 acres of farm fields at Bleim Road and North Pleasantview Road to build 178 homes, some of which have already been completed.Read more
Townships losing virgin land
From Upper Pottsgrove to New Hanover to Lower Frederick, more sprawling development is coming to a site near you. Sprawling developments fragment the landscape and erode native habitats.Read more
Great Gateway
Today, nearly 20 years after the Mrs. Smith’s Pie Co. complex was demolished, two new mixed-usebuildings have been completed on the most visible part of the site, forming a handsome entryway to Pottstown.
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Shirt factory project underway
Two million dollars in renovations have begun at the 19th century Meyerhoff shirt factory at Charlotte and Cherry streets, which was last used in the 1990s as a Mrs. Smith’s Pie Co. laboratory.Read more
Dismal Theorem coming true?
One thing we know for sure is that a greater than 10 percent chance of the earth’s eventual warming of 11 degrees Fahrenheit or more — the end of the human adventure on the planet as we know it — istoo high -- Dismal Theorem.
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How the other half lives
Recently, in a campaign speech at a re-election rally for Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin, Donald Trump Jr. brought up his time in Pottstown without specifically mentioning the Hill School.Read more
Trash man cometh with good deal
Last week, Pottstown Council awarded a three-year trash pick-up contract to J.P. Mascaro for $8 million. Our trash collectors have one of the most difficult and dangerous jobs in the borough.Read more
Before the bins
It’s easy to forget how terrible our downtown streets looked prior to 2009, when curbside trash was stuffed in a variety of beat-up trash cans (often missing lids) cardboard boxes and plastic bags that were often ripped open by animals, leaving a trail of garbage on the sidewalk.Read more
Pottstown's first LERTA project
Three years after LERTA was passed, involving lots of hype and hand-wringing, just one propertyowner has applied. Daniel Helwig was accepted into LERTA last year and enjoys reduced taxes for improvements he has made to his property.
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Land bank inching forward
Land banks are a great concept, and they have done well in other Pennsylvania municipalities. After nearly two years, it’s time for Pottstown’s Land bank board to advance from “talking” to “doing.”Read more
Sold!
Back in 2015, Kimberton Waldorf senior Hannah Wolfram bought a vacant house at 121 King Street with an investor to renovate as her senior project.Read more
Pottstown bed and breakfast
There is no better evidence that Pottstown has “arrived” than the opening of the Three Daughters Inn, a bed and breakfast at 1016 High Street, owned and operated by Tracy and Jay Purdy.Read more
Glad they're gone
It's easy to forget that before renovations were completed five years ago , Pottstown’s elementary schools were degraded by 23 cheap, ugly modulars. Some of them had been there for 15 years.Read more
Hospital: huge revenue loss
Tax revenues from recently refurbished propertiesare chump change compared to the plunge in Pottstown’s tax base when Tower Health obtained
tax-exempt status for Pottstown Hospital in 2017.
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Pottstown's floral displays
One of the great things about a traditional town like Pottstown is its residents’ ability to share their flowers and gardens with others.Read more
More parking lot trees needed
To fight climate change and manage stormwater, our municipalities need abundant trees. The most effective place to add trees is parking lots.Read more
Of quarterbacks and teachers
As best-selling author Malcolm Gladwell points out, teaching is a profession where it’s almost impossible to predict how a novice will do until he or she actually tries it.Read more
Education: Winners and losers?
School begins in two weeks. Time for school districts to start teaching to the state test, with the results published by the State Department of Education so the public can “tsk-tsk” and rank schools.Read more
Too much asphalt
Most of Pottstown's
impervious surface is dedicated to cars. More of our town is covered with parking lots than with buildings — 14% for buildings and 15% for parking lots. Another 9% of Pottstown’s surface is used for streets.Read more
Sidewalk rain garden thriving
In 2015, as a demonstration project, Trees Inc. installed Pottstown’s first sidewalk rain garden along Walnut Street next to the Pottstown School District administration building. Four years later, it’s flourishing.Read more
We need green infrastructure
Pottstown has a stormwater management plan written in 2016. Unfortunately, the plan gives short shrift to the most promising method of stormwater management, called green infrastructure.
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Edgewood Meadow growing
In 2017, the Pottstown School Board agreed to convert 3 acres of grassy swale next to the former Edgewood Elementary School into a meadow, which is better for the environment and less costly to maintain.Read more
Who pays for stormwater?
The most common source of local government revenue is the real estate tax, based on the value of a property. But there’s no correlation between the value of real estate and the amount of runoff it causes.Read more
Non-profits would pay also
An additional feature of a stormwater runoff fee would be its application to tax-exempt properties. Because a stormwater runoff fee is not a tax, tax-exempt properties would have to pay it.Read more
Flooding: the new normal?
The last four years have been the wettest on record in Pennsylvania, going back to 1895, when recordswere first kept..
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Facing up to hard truths
Back in 2016, an engineering consultant delivered a 57-page stormwater master plan to the PottstownWater and Sewer Authority.
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You need a town for a parade
Thousands flocked to Pottstown last week for the annual Fourth of July Parade, which has been conducted on High Street for more than a century (in recent years, sponsored by the Pottstown Rotary
Club). You won’t find such parades in the Pottsgroves, the Coventries, or any of the other auto-oriented suburbs surrounding Pottstown.Read more
Iacocca molded by school teachers
Automotive giant Lee Iacocca died last week at 94.Iacocca was the most famous graduate of my alma mater, William Allen High School in Allentown, and spoke at the commencement of my graduating class in 1966.
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Five years, 93 replacement trees
As people gather for Thursday’s Fourth of JulyParade, they will find 16 newly planted trees on High Street and nearby Pottstown thoroughfares, replacing trees that died. Some of the new trees are pictured below. In the last five years, 93 such replacement trees have been planted.
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Trees: modest cost, big benefits
Today is the day Pottstown’s street trees are most appreciated, as people seek shady spots on High Street to watch the Fourth of July Parade.More than two-thirds of Pottstown’s 3,000 street have been planted by Trees Inc., a non-profit corporation established by Pottstown civic leaders in 1984 to plant and maintain street trees in the borough..
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Police compensation soars
State-approved economic consultants have concluded that unless Pottstown can rein in police personnel costs — including pensions and health benefits — it will need major tax increases annually to cover a growing budget deficit.Read more
Retiree benefits No. 1 budget problem
Last December, Pottstown Council voted to increase real estate taxes 9.5 percent for 2019, on top of a 12 percent tax increase for 2018. All the extra money — and then some — has been gobbled up by boroughemployee pensions and health benefits.
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School pension costs skyrocket
State subsidies have increased twice as much asthe school budget has risen — more than triple the rate of inflation. Where’s all that extra money going?
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Top Pottstown School District retirees
As of 2018, the Pottstown School District has 402 former employees receiving pensions. There are more than four retirees for every five employees still working.Read more
Foundation boosts college-bound
Nine of the students who graduated from Pottstown High School last week have a head start on college, paid in part or in full by the Foundation for
Pottstown Education.Read more
Foundation helps local education
The best way for private donors to increase the quality of public education in Pottstown isthrough the non-profit Foundation for Pottstown Education.
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Bond issue for streets?
When our streets are full of ruts and potholes, it affects everyone and presents a negative image ofour town. Perhaps the borough should make an investment in our streets.
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Hill fundraising falls short
The biggest economic story of our era is the increasing disparity of incomes among Americans. The most affluent 20 percent control 85 percent of the nation's wealth. Very few share it.Read more
School district draining reserves
Instead of making a decision to not replace a retiring teacher, the school board decided to further drain Pottstown's reserves instead. This is not sustainable.Read more
Not ready for prime time?
There's no question the new ParkMobile on-street parking system using a smart phone app is the wave of the future. We may not be ready for it yet.Read more
Democracy is more than voting
Democracy is a lot more than voting, which is one way of several that that citizens can make their government accountable.Read more
Pottstown people value their town
Negative talk about Pottstown is one thing. The reality as experienced by people who actually live here may be different.Read more
Rupert pilots bicycling program
You can’t walk or ride your bike to schoolin most Pennsylvania school districts, but in
Pottstown you can.
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Crossing guards help us feel safe
Pottstown deploys 25 crossing guards every schoolday to watch over children at intersections throughout town.
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