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My friend and community activist Katy Jackson wrote this piece regarding what’s going on in the “core neighborhood”… Katy and her husband live in the “core neighborhood” where all this crap is going on so she speaks from first-hand knowledge!
Katy writes:
“An aggressive neighborhood stabilization partnership among Montgomery County, the code enforcement department and the police department should be established immediately. This partnership can ensure the strict compliance with requirements of units using Section 8 and other federal and state housing vouchers.”
From the pages of last year’s Urban Land Institute Report, (note their use of the word, “aggressive”). In the short time they were here, at the Pottstown Partnerships request, the ULI understood that our neighborhoods are in crisis, and that their stability is vital to revitalization. This is not rocket science people, but the borough still doesn’t get it.
We pay our taxes, we take care of our properties, we clean up after the deadbeat landlords and their criminal tenants. We pick up the drug baggies, the needles, the spent casings and the trash left carelessly on our streets and sidewalks. We do our best to protect our properties and our families from the feuding gangs, the misguided gun shots that ring out day and night…and we call the cops. More often than not, when we contact the borough for answers, we are “treated” to the dismissive, uninformed attitude of borough employees and the ineffective, clandestine efforts of our police department.
We recently learned that the county is pushing even more subsidized housing on our community while we are literally drowning under the weight of the existing housing. Borough leaders have demonstrated that they cannot get control of the problems that are leading to the complete degradation of our neighborhoods and ultimately the town. Why would they even consider more of the same?
What kind of a deal has the borough made with the county?Why won’t the county step up to the plate to work with the borough to clean up our neighborhoods, get control of the subsidized housing problems, repair our sidewalks, our streets, our infrastructure and help make Pottstown attractive to new businesses that can create jobs and homeowners who will increase our revenue?
Are we earmarked, as some would suggest, to become Montgomery County’s dumping ground for Section 8 and other subsidized housing? Is this Borough really going to “roll-over and play dead” in the name of turning a quick buck without due consideration for the future ramifications of their decision?
Who is going to support this town when all the decent taxpayers have gone and subsidized housing, non-profit service agencies and churches are all that remain? THINK ABOUT IT. We are being systematically diminished.
The taxpayers are mad as hell and we are going to hold this borough accountable for taking “right action” to protect the best interests of the homeowners, the conscientious investors, and all of the responsible residents of Pottstown. This includes enforcement of ALL of their existing ordinances including the Nuisance Ordinance.
Join us, Tuesday night, at Borough Hall to speak your truth and let your voices be heard, loud and clear.
Power to the Pottstown People!
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