The Suburbs: Pottstown Is Worried Over Tax Credit Housing Developer Who Answers Few Questions

Location of Pottstown in Montgomery County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Editor’s note:  It appears others are closely watching what Pottstown Borough Council decides regarding this low-income tax credit project and we are pleased!

Up in Pottstown (that’s in MontCo for you folks who don’t know what lies beyond the City’s limits) is a blightfighter who runs Golden Cockroach, an activist fighting against substandard rental living conditions in rental apartments, vacancy and urban (yes, urban!) blight up in Pottstown.

A boro of only 22,000 people, Pottstown occupies a small 5 square mile area of the western corner of Montgomery County, bested by Norristown and Conshohocken in urban density.  Most of the town is middle income at the high end and lower end working class.  As an older PA boro with an industrial past, it has its share of rusty buildings and older housing stock.  Ranchers on large plots are few.  Twin porchfront rowhomes with postage stamp front yards, many.

Since the housing bubble burst 5 years ago Pottstown has seen an increase in cash buyer investors seeking to grab deeds and insert renters into properties as has happened in other PA towns like Bensalem where subprime mortgages existed.  Many of those investors are absentee, maintenance is less than spectacular, and residents are worried that if left unchecked, and combined with urban-industrial decay within the town, that could put Pottstown’s viability as a desirable place to live under fire if quality of life worsens.  No one wants to see Pottstown decay into Chester or see its tax base erode or flee.

Read more:  http://www.philadelinquency.com/?p=2866

Dick’s Sporting Goods To Expand Findlay Headquarters

Map of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States with township and municipal boundaries (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Six weeks ago, one of the region’s newest corporate players — Chevron — announced agreements to acquire land for a potential regional headquarters. Now one of the more established local players — Dick’s Sporting Goods — is gearing up to expand its own corporate footprint.

Dick’s has reached an agreement with the Allegheny County Airport Authority to lease about 73 acres at the Northfield Commerce Park near Pittsburgh International Airport “for possible expansion of our corporate campus.”

The Findlay-based retailer’s deal is the latest example of an upsurge of interest in the Parkway West office market, which is benefiting from the need for space by energy companies involved in Marcellus Shale drilling.

But the Dick’s deal shows there are other factors at work as well.

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/business/news/dicks-sporting-goods-to-expand-findlay-headquarters-691353/#ixzz2WCGzzLWy

Urban Outfitters Eyes $105 Million Expansion In Gap

Map of Pennsylvania highlighting Lancaster County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Urban Outfitters, with sales rising rapidly, figures it must add to its merchandise-distribution network to keep up.

And as part of its strategy to meet that need across North America, the firm wants another distribution center in this region.

Not just any old distribution center, though.

Urban Outfitters calculates that it has to be huge — a million square feet, or nearly the size of Park City Center — and state of the art.

What Urban Outfitters hasn’t yet determined is where to put the $105 million facility.

But among four sites under consideration is a farm across the street from an existing Urban Outfitters distribution center in Gap.

Read more: http://lancasteronline.com/article/local/861181_Urban-Outfitters-eyes–105M-expansion-in-Gap.html#ixzz2WCCoQp2H

Expanding Suburbia: Route 39 In West Hanover Township Primed To Grow Over Next Several Years

Map of Pennsylvania highlighting Dauphin County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

It’s hard to miss the signs pointing to Route 39‘s future north of Hershey in West Hanover Township.

Some of them are quite large and aligned toward the road.

While the names are all different — High Associates, Brownstone, Landmark Commercial Reality, among them — the message is pretty standard: “Available.”

In West Hanover Township, Route 39, also known as Hershey Road, is open for business.

What used to be rural farmland and rolling green hills is once again quickly becoming dotted with new developments and “For Sale” signs as two lines of force converge along Route 39.

Read more:  http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2013/06/expanding_suburbia_route_39_in.html#incart_river_default

Wilkes-Barre Council Urged To Counter Crime

Map of Pennsylvania highlighting Luzerne County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

WILKES-BARRE — While Mayor Tom Leighton told residents at a city council meeting Thursday night crime was down in the city, police found a car on Carey Avenue reportedly connected to a strong-armed robbery.

His comment drew a response of “Oh please,” and pleas from residents for help in removing drug dealers from their neighborhoods.

After quickly voting to put $185,600 in Liquid Fuels Tax funds toward construction of a new $3.7 million bridge on Sidney Street and remount an ambulance on new chassis for $114,688, city council spent the next 90 minutes hearing from the public on issues of crime, pit bulls and prayer.

Councilman George Brown asked for cooperation from the administration to address a resident’s concerns about prostitution and people openly dealing drugs on the street near his house.

Read more: http://www.timesleader.com/news/local-news/598570/W-B-council-urged-to-counter-crime

Ex-Pottstown Merchant Convicted Of Selling K2

NORRISTOWN — A former Pottstown store operator is the first merchant in Montgomery County to be convicted at trial under a recently enacted law of distributing synthetic marijuana from a business.

Rafie L. Ali, 35, who previously lived in an apartment above the Achi Store he helped operate at 315 E. High Street between February and May 2012, appeared stone-faced Thursday as a county jury convicted him of charges of corrupt organizations, possession with intent to deliver a controlled substance and drug paraphernalia and conspiring with another man to commit those crimes.  The jury deliberated about 2½ hours before reaching its verdict.

The arrest and trial of Ali marked the first time that a store operator was charged in the county with selling synthetic marijuana, known as K2, under a state law that went into effect in August 2011 and criminalized such activity.

“After that law went into effect it was publicized heavily that synthetic cannabinoids are illegal.  In this case these individuals decided to get around that by hiding the K2 substances behind the counter and selling it.  It’s a matter of greed, trying to make money off of…a toxic substance,” said First Assistant District Attorney Kevin R. Steele.

Read more:  http://www.pottsmerc.com/article/20130614/NEWS01/130619553/ex-pottstown-merchant-convicted-of-selling-k2#full_story

Celebrate Our Flag

English: The Flag of the United States at the near . (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Today is Flag Day, a holiday to celebrate the adoption of the American flag and the birth of the U.S. Army.

Flag Day has been celebrated in some form since the 1800s, but did not become a permanent national holiday until 1949.

To observe the day properly, here are 10 things you might not know about Old Glory and its history:

Read more:  http://readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=484632

Program Profiles Reading Redevelopment Efforts

A 1947 topographic map of the Reading, Pennsylvania area. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Efforts to revitalize Reading’s economy were highlighted Thursday in a live national round-table online discussion that included panelists from California and Georgia.

“Albert Boscov is very good at shaking money trees, and I collect the bills,” said Adam Mukerji, executive director of the Reading Redevelopment Authority, who sat in for the retailer Boscov, a key figure with Our City Reading, a group committed to helping first-time buyers purchase refurbished city homes.

Mukerji described the retailer “as one of the most charitable persons I have ever worked with.”

Conversation Starters, a national nonprofit based in College Station, Texas, hosted the third in a series focusing on nationwide ideas for community building and economic development.

Read more:  http://readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=484645