The fix is in for another project. Mike Speck visited the Community Garden today bringing tidings from the Borough Council of Phoenixville. It appears they are poised to give the thumbs up to the Pennrose Properties plan. What does that mean (aside from a reduced garden area)? That would be public housing out the wazoo on the North Side. 48 units total and to make it even juicier . . . . . . . . Council will change the zoning to allow for more units than the current zoning allows by more than 50%. How nice. Of course the way this usually works is that there is public meetings and other quaint formalities. Mike and Henry really feel that it would be below them to do this. One might remember the love affair Mike Speck has had with Jim Evans and the Holy Ghost project. He couldn't do anymore for the developer than he did without getting a marriage license.
I really think that Mike Speck has no clue. He is only out to stick it to the community while giving big handouts to developers. Tell him how you feel at mspeck@phoenixville.org
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Isn't Speck the one who proclaimed the library and Reeves Park have been courting each other for years and by building over Second Avenue it would be a "marriage"?
Don't you wonder what the people think who voted for him rather than for Karen Johns?
My letter to Mike Speck:
Mr. Speck,
Why support a project before it makes sense to better a community? There's enough blight on the north side, we don't need more.
These projects become ghettos by their own design, through no fault of the neighborhood other than that they didn't pressure representatives like yourself to challenge the developers to create a plan that brings the community together.
It's a great idea to redevelop the Fairview Projects, but the north side desperately needs this project to be redeveloped in a way that effectively meshes it with the existing neighborhood.
I tell people on the north side about the beautiful garden all the way up Fairview St. The response is always the same: "Up by the drugies? I won't go."
You and your fellow council members have an opportunity to make something that is so wrong right. Pressure the developers to mesh their project with the neighborhood.
When I go to sell my house in the French Creek development some time and prospective buyers go knocking on doors to ask about the neighborhood I want the Fairview project to be a shining example of progress, and gentrification, not a reason for them to consider property elsewhere.
I am firmly asking you to use the power you've been given to force the developers to do what's right for Phoenixville and the north side. They can, they should...but they won't without you making them.
Thank you for listening, and I’ll thank you again many times over if you take my concerns as sincerely.
Best,
Joe Rooney
Speck is not up for re-election. Henry Wagner is which is why every time there is a sensitve development issues, Speck appears to do the "dirty work."
It's the Speck and Wagner show where developers get whatever they want and the community gets the shaft. If the Middle Ward wants it to change, they need to vote for the Republician, rather than Wagner for the Middle Ward in November.
Speck is not up for replacement until 2011, so he gets to do the BOHICA to the borough residents until then.
What Kool-aid were they drinking in the East Ward that they would elect Speck and Ciruelos? That's embarrassing.
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