Council's New Agenda

Tonight, Council meets at 7:30 pm at Municipal Hall. You can view the agenda at this link.

First, I'd like to welcome our new Council-at-Large rep, Suanne Gardiner, who will fill the vacancy left by Marlon Millner.

At last Friday's special meeting, there was a discussion (egged on my me) about transparency in Council affairs. I actually never said the word transparency in my remarks. What I said was that they needed better communication with the public. This isn't really the same thing. But I did say that lack of communication was leading to rumors flying around that Council was being secretive. I gave agendas as an example ~ frequently they listed no explanations of the motions being voted on. If Council doesn't discuss the issue and no one asks questions, they might vote without telling even the residents present what the motion was for. Intelligent Public Comments were impossible.

I'm happy to report that this week's agenda has an explanation of each item. So thank you, Council, for making an attempt to address that problem.

Derrick Perry stated that residents should feel free to contact any of the council reps for info on any issue. So let's say you read tonight's agenda and come to the item that reads "Recommendation to Council to approve Resolution 16-144 of 2016 Requiring Council's certification of market rate - owner occupied - housing projects as necessary to be eligible for a reduced sewer system tapping fee offered by the NMWA." And you think "What's this about reduced sewer rates for owner-occupied housing? Is that for everyone, or only new housing projects? And if it isn't for everyone, why not?" You can email or call any council rep right now, and they'll give you the answer, hopefully before the meeting tonight, so you can make your views known before the vote.

You can find all the council reps' contact info (at least phone numbers, except for Suanne, who isn't on the list yet) at http://www.norristown.org/municipal-council.html. I'm not sure why only President and Vice President have email addresses. They all used to have them. It would help communication if they still did.

One last tidbit, Municipal Administrator Crandall Jones said they're installing new software that will allow for annotation of the agendas after the meetings, to explain the votes and any discussion, and also to make any documents public that pertain to the issues. Legally, though, the documents can't be made public before the meetings.

So there you have it, Council's plans for keeping us better informed. If you have trouble getting information about any issue, or understanding the agendas, or communicating with any council rep, let me know.

Norristown Police on Nextdoor.com

Tonight from 6 pm to about 7:30 at the Norristown Public Library, the Norristown Police Dept will hold their monthly  Community Meeting. At tonight's meeting, they'll be introducing their newest community engagement tool: Nextdoor, a FREE online social network.

Nextdoor is different from other social networks you might already use, like Facebook, in that Nextdoor is ONLY local residents, and you can choose just how local you want your posts to be.

I joined Nextdoor about 2 years ago when the only people on it were a small group who lived up around the Sandy Hill/New Hope area, and Shae Ashe, who was starting a neighborhood group in the West End. He suggested I start a group in the North End, so I did. An East End neighborhood joined us, and another in Halford Tract (West Norriton) and Coleston (East Norriton). Now we number 212 residents, and cover most of Norristown except for Town Center.

What do we talk about on this network? All kinds of things. Upcoming events, recommendations for everything from handymen to plumbers to auto mechanics to pet groomers, warnings about con men going door-to-door, pot-hole alerts, the new trash cans, etc. If you've got questions about things going on in N-town, you can probably get answers on Nextdoor. You only talk to local residents on Nextdoor, so no one outside the area can get access to the things we post. It's MUCH more secure than Facebook and other networks.

The exciting thing is that the Norristown Police Department will now use Nextdoor to send out alerts and community information. The NPD staff will only be able to see replies to their own posts, and they will NOT be able to view any other content that we post. But it will be great to get firsthand info.

If you can, go to the meeting tonight for all the details about how to join Nextdoor. If you can't go, but you want to join, go to Nextdoor.com. When you type in your address information, it will assign you to one of our neighborhood groups (or ask you if you want to form another group, if you live somewhere not currently within a Nextdoor neighborhood).

I'm looking forward to seeing not only the NPD on Nextdoor, but a lot of Norristown's other residents as well. We've been saying that Norristown needs better communication. Well, here's a good tool. Let's use it.

Council's Nearly Useless Agenda

1029 W. Main St. 

The agenda is available for the Council Meeting, which will be on Wednesday night at 7:30 pm. You can view it at this link. I've read it through and I still have very little idea what's going to happen Wednesday night. Here's the gist:

Okay to be fair, the first item is fairly straight forward -- "Motion to award the contract for the Main & Marshall Street Lighting Improvement Project to AJM Electric of Chester, PA for a not to exceed price of $98,804." And the HARB certificates near the end are pretty standard.

But the rest is anyone's guess. Take the next 3 motions on the agenda, all listed under the vague sub-header "Council." The first is "Motion to approve the Waiver of Conflict regarding 1029 West Main Street." Like most reisdents of Norristown, I'm no lawyer. I'm not sure what a waiver of conflict is, let alone how it can apply to a place. 1029 West Main is owned by L & M Partners, a Philadelphia development firm. It's the only property they own in Norristown. The house is listed as about 3333 square feet of dwelling, 787 s.f. office, and the rest unfinished basement. Would it have been that difficult to put an extra sentence on the agenda explaining what residents need to know about this item? For instance, what is the conflict that's being waived? What if anything is L & M proposing to do with the property?

Next item: "Motion to approve the Waiver of Conflict regarding Laborers' Local 135." I DO know this union local is headquartered on Sandy Street in Norristown and they seem to be involved with the building trades. Otherwise, I have no idea what this item means.

Next: "Motion to approve Resolution 14-139--participate in the Borough Elected Officials Program (BEOP)." I tried googling "Norristown Resolution 14-139" and "Norristown Borough Elected Officials Program" and "Norristown BEOP" and came up blank each time.

Next, under the sub-heading "Public Safety," the item "Motion to advertise a proposed Ordinance regarding House Bill 80/Lost and Stolen Firearms." Now, you can read PA House Bill 80 at this link, but the language isn't particularly easy to understand. Like I said, only a very small percentage of residents are lawyers. Unlike Council, we can't turn to the borough solicitor sitting next to us and ask for a summary of what it means. Even if we did understand the bill, there's nothing in this agenda item that explains what Norristown's ordinance regarding the bill would be.

And lastly, my favorite item on the whole agenda--under the sub-heading "Code"--which merely reads "Contractor's License." That's it. No other explanation.

And yet, the Public Comment for Council Meetings is still BEFORE any of these items come up on the agenda. How is anyone supposed to make an informed comment when information is impossible to obtain before the meeting? As I said above, would it be so difficult to add ONE sentence to each agenda item, to explain the context and meaning as it applies to the average taxpayer?

I really appreciate that this Council seems to have fixed the problem of agendas that were being published too late, but if these new early agendas don't communicate anything, why have them at all? Council reps keep saying they want us to participate in our government, yet won't tell us what that government intends to do in time for us to participate. Some people in this town would say that's intentional--that our elected officials are trying to keep us in the dark. I hope not. Though, even if it's just indicative of our town-wide communication crisis, it's got to stop.

Last Night's Council Meeting

It's been a while since I attended a Council Meeting. I went last night to hear the presentation by Temple University about their food assessment of Norristown. Mood-wise, the meeting was for the most part positive and not depressing, as Council meetings had tended to be last year.

The Temple presentation had a lot of information and recommendations which I'll cover next week in a separate blog. Today I'll just cover the other items on the agenda.

"Agenda" was the first issue. During the public comment period, a resident asked why the agenda for last night's meeting hadn't been published on the website. Furthermore, she said, the Town Hall meeting with Chief Talbot on Monday night hadn't been publicized in any way. Another resident attested that no one in her neighborhood had heard about the Town Hall. Chief Talbot claimed that he'd had 5 town hall meetings so far. Even Representative Christian said she'd only heard about 2 of them--the one at the American Legion Lodge (which was publicized well in advance and had a good attendance of about 75 people) and Monday's meeting. These are the only 2 that I knew about as well. If there were 3 other meetings, they were completely off the radar.

I received an email from the borough secretary late Monday telling me about the Town Hall and asking me to spread the word. I didn't see the email until Tuesday morning. But the email said the reason word hadn't gotten out was that "Our information employee is on vacation."

There's our problem in a nutshell: Norristown employs ONE person in charge of disseminating information. The job is too big for one person in the first place. If she gets sick or takes a vacation or needs a personal day for a family emergency, a town of 34,000 residents experiences a total information blackout. Come on, Council, if you're serious about improving communication, you can start by giving us an Information DEPARTMENT. At least give Gabriela an assistant or intern or a couple of part-timers. Let's get those agendas posted on time, make sure the calendar is correct, and put more timely information out on Facebook and Twitter. Plus, maybe they could come up with other ways to get the word out to our residents.

Another interesting item was that Council passed a resolution removing competitive testing for the positions of Police Captain and Lieutenant, leaving the promotions to these positions at the sole discretion of the Police Chief. I'm of 2 minds about this. As Chief Talbot stated, the usual procedure in most police forces is to promote positions above lieutenant without testing (I know this because of my research for my mystery novels). It makes sense, because if a cop is capable enough to be a lieutenant, he ought to be able to handle captain with no trouble, and there's usually only one lieutenant in the department to promote to captain. Still, I wonder about giving that much power to the Chief without some kind of objective assessment for the position of lieutenant. I'd be interested to know how wide the field of potential candidates is for that.

Councilman Millner asked about the latest crime statistics which apparently showed crime had decreased in Norristown. His question had to do with the way data was collected. We, the public, were not given the statistics, nor told where we could go to find them. They might have been presented at the town meeting Monday, but only 10 residents attended that (because the rest of us didn't have adequate notice). I'd suggest a presentation of crime statistics at least once a quarter at a Council Meeting that's filmed, so the public has regular ongoing access to the information.

An easement was requested for 1202 Dekalb St. (the 24 townhouses on 2/3 acre project). Something to do with sidewalks on Green St. and a relaxation of requirements for the disabled. Again, not well-defined for us eavesdroppers in the audience. A resident asked during public comment that this be explained and another public comment period be allowed after the explanation and before voting. She was totally ignored.

As I said, this wasn't as depressing a meeting as last years' were, and business moved along fairly quickly. For a few items, though, it felt a little too quick--I wish Mr. Caldwell or someone would have provided a bit more detail, acknowledging that those of us who took time to attend the meeting might not be aware of all the inside info known to council members for each issue.

Communication--The Ongoing Stumbling Block

In our never-ending debate about whether Norristown's a city or a small town (with me always saying neither and no one else seeming to believe there's an in between possible because we'd rather have something to argue about), I'd have to say our communication problems prove we're not a small town In a small town, everyone knows everyone else's business. In places like that, word of mouth is an art form. Information gets passed around.

In a city, though, communication is more difficult, so the city compensates by having more than one type of media--at least one newspaper, and commercial radio and TV stations that concentrate mainly on news for that city. Being so close to Philly, Norristown is at a disadvantage. The commercial stations listened to or watched by most of our residents focus on Philly and we hardly ever get a mention, unless it's negative news. State College only has about 10,000 more residents than we do, but they have their own commercial TV and radio stations. Same for Wilkes-Barre.

Back in the '60s and early '70s, everyone in N-town seemed to listen to 3 radio stations: WNAR, WFIL, and WIP. They carried weekly announcements about things happening in Norristown. Now the stations have all moved or been turned into Christian radio stations. They might be great about broadcasting the Good News, but none of them seem to help spread Norristown news. Even if they did, their audience is a lot smaller now. We have local access cable stations, but really, how many of you ever watch them?

I've been thinking about this problem we have with publicizing Norristown events for the last month. When the Dragon Boat Club and Norristown Business Association did their Flea Market, many people come only because they saw us there as they drove by, or as one woman said, "I came over to Pizza King for lunch and saw you here." They wanted to know why it wasn't in the paper. Well, it WAS, and not just in the back under "Happenings." The Times Herald ran an article on page 3 a few days before the event. They put it online, too--links made the rounds on Facebook and Twitter. Yet it wasn't until the day after, when the Times Herald ran an article on page 1 with photos from the Flea Market and the cleanup afterward at Riverfront, that people came out of the woodwork asking why they hadn't been told about it.

Honestly, do our groups have to go door-to-door? Or hire a skywriter?

The same thing happened Friday night for the Family Feud at Caffe Galileo. Very low turnout, yet the next day when photos of the event hit Facebook, people were saying they didn't know anything about it. Yet, notices for it had been around Facebook for the last week. How did they see the photos, but miss the pre-event posts?

On the bright side, we've gotten better in the last year on posting notices. A year ago, half the time you wouldn't see a notice for an event until the day before or the day of. Now you see online flyers at least a month before most events. But people still don't seem to be reading them. I try to spread news of events I hear about here on the Diary each Friday. Shea Ashe posts events he hears about on the OIC community calendar. Still, we can't force people to go to our sites and read them.

I don't know the solution to spreading the word about Norristown's events. This week I'll be doing press releases for the History Day Fest at Selma Mansion on June 28th. I'll send them to the Times Herald, Montgomery News, the Lansdale Reporter, King of Prussia Courier, Main Line Times, the Plymouth Colonial and the Phoenixville Phoenix. I'll post it to 4 online community calendar besides the OIC calendar and our Municipal calendar. We've already begun spreading it around Facebook and Twitter. I'll put notices on Next Door. Regardless, after the fact, people will say they knew nothing about it.

How do you usually hear about Norristown events? How do you WANT to hear about them? Please don't ignore these questions. Communication is too important to our continued growth. What are your ideas?

Norristown.org is AWOL

Norristown.org went down this weekend, with not even a message saying "We're undergoing maintenance." Yesterday I got the kind of screen you get when someone forgets to pay the website or domain bill (I don't KNOW that that's what happened, but that's the kind of screen I got). Today there are dire warnings that say "Access Denied." Maybe we've been hacked (but I can't think who would want to). So either we haven't paid the bill, or some programmer tried to fix the calendar and screwed up the whole site instead (possibly we got him cheap after he was fired for having programmed Healthcare.gov last fall).

Last week, when I tried to find out the planning agenda because it wasn't on the website, I was told that even if the agenda isn't on the website that "these meetings are advertised in the local paper, posted throughout municipal hall."  The message I got from that is: That's what our government is required to do by law, so we taxpayers shouldn't ask for more.

Yet, even in good weather, I can't see all our citizens stopping by Municipal Hall to read meeting notices, especially since most of our citizens are at their own jobs the hours that Municipal Hall is open. I can't even get my car up my alley with all the ice (despite the fact that my alley is marked as a "Fire Lane"), let alone drive down to 235 E Airy ever day to check out the notices. This may explain why most of the people you see at meetings are those who work in Muni.Hall.

The Times Herald never puts meeting notices on their website, and rarely says anything about meeting agendas. I remember a time when practically every house in town got the paper delivered to them every day. That was when the law made sense. Now, if I see a paper on the sidewalk in front of a house on my block, it's usually the Inquirer. I stopped delivery of all newspapers after my parents died because the papers never made it onto my front porch, no matter how often I called. When we had winters like this, I'd fish the copies out from under bushes after the spring thaw. I do still buy the Sunday Times Herald, though Norristown news seems more and more infrequent . This isn't to say no one reads the Times Herald--I personally know dozens of people who do, but like me, they read it mainly online.

No one at Municipal Hall seems to think that making the agendas public ahead of time is important. For me, the agenda determines whether I'm going to cancel everything else and go out on a cold night to get to a meeting. Our Planning staff seems to think only the people within 300 feet of a development proposal should care about the issue. For me, everything that goes on in Norristown is important--the development at 1202 Dekalb, say, can set a precedent for future overcrowded housing, and one of those projects may come to my block someday. The Montgomery Hospital site is so close to me that if that neighborhood goes downhill, mine could very well be next. And we'll all end up paying more in taxes to fix disasters like Logan Square. Even if residents can't get to meetings, the agendas gives them summaries of what's going on in town.

On that topic, it would be wonderful, assuming the website ever comes back up, if the minutes of meetings could once again be posted there.

If Norristown's going to prosper again, communication between residents, government, and existing and potential businesses is vital. We need a good, working website, with abundant, accessible information. Otherwise, it's like having a front door that won't open. Residents will give up knocking and leave town. Businesses will head for the next community down the road.

Council, officials, please, don't do the MINIMUM the law requires you to do in this regard. Do what's best for Norristown.

If I can get hold of an agenda for tonight's meeting, I'll post it later..

Meeting with Chief Talbot - Too Short Notice

Tomorrow night, January 22nd, from 6:30 to 8 pm, the Norristown Police Department will host a town meeting to give the public an opportunity to meet Norristown’s new police chief, Mark Talbot, Sr. and members of the department’s command staff. The meeting will be held at Theatre Horizon, located at 401 Dekalb Street.

Of course, if we get the amount of snow predicted, and the streets are cleared at the same rate as the last smaller storm, no one will be able to get to the meeting.

But let's imagine that a major blizzard isn't in the forecast. The Norristown Patch article that announced this meeting was dated Friday afternoon. If you're on Facebook, you know the chances of missing a post are good. If your friends see it and share or tag your name, you have a much better chance. However, most people who are active in Norristown were in some way participating in the MLK events this weekend, and not on Facebook every minute sharing things. I didn't see it until this morning and only because Derrick Perry posted it last night.

If you're not on Facebook, and not in the habit of checking the Patch website, or even if you are, if you don't know where to look, chances are you haven't seen this announcement at all.

Why wasn't this posted in other places? Especially, why not on the town calendar? Was it in the Times Herald? Besides these sources, I get a lot of my info through Linda Christian, Shae Ashe and The Norristown Project Community Calendar, Viviann Schorle of the Norristown Violence Prevention Initiative, and the Norristown Facebook pages, like the Business/Events page. It wasn't even on the Theatre Horizon page. The Norristown Nudge page did post something on Saturday, but like I said, Facebook is iffy--people have to share the post, and no one did, probably because Norristown was busy volunteering this weekend.

But the bigger question is, why was this announced at the last minute? This is the kind of thing that ought to be planned at least a month in advance, to give word time to spread. Instead, the first announcement came out, as far as I could tell, with the Patch announcement on Friday. 5 days. And no regard to the fact that it conflicts with the Strengthening Families Program at Eisenhower the same night.

So, given the fact that the snow will likely cancel the meeting with Chief Talbot, or at least, make it poorly attended, I suggest another meeting be scheduled immediately, for at least a month from now, and this time, put it on the town calendar, and send it to the other reliable outlets mentioned above. Let ME know and I'll give it plenty of public notice here on the Diary. But please Council, or whoever set this meeting up, quit keeping these events a secret until the last minute.

Communication Keeps Getting Worse

This blog is being posted late today for one simple reason. The agenda for tonight's council meeting wasn't available on Norristown.org until about 9:30 this morning, only 10 hours before the meeting is set to begin.

I don't know what's going on with the calendar on the website, but for more than a month, things that need to be posted -- council agendas, zoning and planning meetings and agendas -- aren't showing up until the very last minute, often on the day the event is supposed to take place.

I've noticed that other events aren't being posted either. Over a week ago, I submitted a notice for the Christmas event at Selma Mansion and it still hasn't shown up. I resubmitted it this morning. I can only assume that if one person has the job of updating the calendar, that person either isn't working for the borough anymore, or he/she has been given so much other work that the calendar is no longer considered to be a priority.

But it IS a priority. I know residents use the calendar because, for the last event at Selma, I asked people who came how they heard about the event. Many saw it on the town calendar.

I know I use the calendar each week to check for meetings and agendas. Other residents have told me the same.

What's on tonight's agenda? First, an "Executive Session Announcement." That could mean anything from the fate of our financial director to anything I've already read about on Facebook, like the tree lighting at the zoo this weekend. These "Executive Session Announcement" listings on the agenda need a bit more description, so residents know if it's worth their time to go to the meeting.

Also on the agenda, a motion to introduce the proposed budget ordinance for 2014. The ordinance is NOT available for taxpayers to review before the meeting.

J.P. Mascaro's trash hauling contract is up for extension. There's no motion associated with it, but the word "discussion" is written next to it.

There's a motion to lease purchase 3 new police cars. I hope that means more police presence on the streets.

And there's a motion to introduce an ordinance to adopt the 2012 International Property Maintenance Code. This, I think, is to follow standards for property maintenance used around America. You can read it here, but it's long. You probably won't have enough time before the meeting.

I can't make the meeting tonight, but would someone who goes please ask council to fix the problem with the calendar postings being so late? And ask that they post ordinances in advance of the meetings so we can be informed when asked to give public comment.

Then again, "Public Comment" ISN'T listed on this agenda. I guess that shows what they think of our opinions.

Communication Goes Downhill. On Purpose?

Who's going to come to town when storefronts look like this?  

If you check the Town Calendar at Norristown.org today, you'd think our zoning board and planning commission had dropped off the face of the earth. No meetings are scheduled for them through the end of the year. Council meetings are listed, but no board hearings.

Usually the Planning Commission meets the 2nd Tuesday of the month and the Zoning Board, the 4th Tuesday. Is there a Planning meeting tomorrow? I've asked a bunch of people and no one seems to know. With the holiday today, it's unlikely that anything will be posted to the calendar until tomorrow if a meeting is to take place. Is less than 24 hours notice acceptable?

With issues of public concern coming up, like Gaudenzia's proposed downtown drug rehab, I have to wonder WHY these meetings aren't listed on the calendar. It isn't hard to think of ulterior motives for bad communication. Council wants that drug rehab place on Main St. in the worst way, because through totally backward thinking, they believe it will save Main Street. They can't see that it would chase all other business and consumers away from downtown--that even courthouse workers and jurors on their lunch hour will likely start avoiding those blocks if there are Gaudenzia client (ie, drug users) on the streets.

But if you don't put meetings or agendas on the calendar, citizens can't show up to protest. We saw this happen last week at the council meeting--the agenda went up only two days before, with election day to help distract us from the meeting. No one had time to think about what exactly "Fire Service Billing Program" might mean. Council rushed it through before most of the public was even aware it was on the agenda.

As for zoning, the majority of the residents I've heard from want no more drug rehab places in Norristown, period. They'd rather see Gaundenzia leave town completely, taking all their administrative employees with them, than allow one more drug rehab clinic anywhere within our borders.

It should be noted that Gaudenzia is non-profit and therefore pays Norristown ZILCH in taxes. The ONLY thing we get from that company (according to Bill Caldwell) is a handful of employees occasionally eating lunch at Almaz and Banh Mi. I'm tempted to go down there at lunchtime and actually take a poll of diners at those restaurants, to see if any Gaudenzia employees really are present.

I've come to agree with the taxpayers who think Gaudenzia should leave. Norristown is already fighting a bad reputation. Development of our downtown and Logan Square are hard enough from that perspective. If you're selling a house, what do you do? You clean it stem to stern, make repairs, give it a fresh coat of paint, make sure the landscaping looks like Better Homes and Gardens, and make sure any messy pets are out of the house when prospective buyers show up. We need to be doing the same thing downtown. Make those streets squeaky clean, help landlords fix anything that looks bad, make those blocks look inviting. And get drug users and anyone else projecting a negative image OFF THE STREETS.

But possibly we'll never get a chance to express this opinion, because no one will tell us when the hearings are.

Looking Up

I'm feeling optimistic about Norristown today. Of course, I haven't been to a council meeting in 6 days, and I still have 3 days before the next zoning workshop, but it's more than that, really. Something amazing has begun in our town and you all need to sit up and take notice.

We have a lot of volunteer organizations in the borough. Some have been around a while, but many are less than a year old. It's as if Norristown residents have finally decided to take matters into their own hands. We want safe, clean streets, and a future for our kids, and government isn't helping. Enter the Men of Excellence, the Norristown Project, Town Watch, Norristown Nudge, Norristown Area CTC and Violence Prevention Initiative, ACPPA Community Arts Center, the Dragon Boat Club of Norristown, any many others.

But what's really neat is that, lately, these groups are beginning to hook up and do great things together. The Dragon Boat Club of Norristown teamed up with The Norristown Project to clean up Riverfront Park (it looked great on Saturday!). The boat club also teamed up with ACPPA Community Arts Center to produce a mural on the boat house. You can't go onto Facebook anymore without seeing all these groups sharing each others' announcements and events, supporting each others' efforts, cheering each other on. If you go to any town event, no matter who sponsors it, you'll likely see representatives of many of these groups, just because they WANT to be there.

So I appreciated that, at Riverfest, Norristown actually formally recognized a lot of these groups for their work, pointing out that they're all volunteers. The only motive for their work is to make Norristown better--safer, cleaner, healthier, more creative, and a great place to raise families.

One other note, in the interest of communication: While I was writing up this post, Shae Ashe of The Norristown Project contacted me. He found an online app called Nextdoor.com. It's sort of a social network specifically for neighborhoods. You can post events, crime and safety info, traffic alerts, etc., and share the posts with other nearby neighborhoods. The Police Dept. or Council members can join their neighborhoods and disseminate information.

Shae set up a neighborhood called "Norristown Farm Park," for most the West End, I set up one for about half the North End called "Elmwood Park." We can share posts with each other and cover much of Norristown. If you join, you need to enter your address, but you can change the setting to keep your house number private. If your address doesn't fit into an existing neighborhood, you can set one up yourself (and help us reach more residents). The program will send alerts to your mobile phone or email.

So volunteer if you can. If you do, team up with and support other organizations--we get more done that way. If you can't, support the volunteers by helping to spread news about our great organizations. At the very least, stay informed through something like Nextdoor.com or Facebook or by checking the norristown.org calendar (but, remember, they don't post everything there).

If we can improve communication, and support our incredible volunteer network, nothing can stop Norristown from changing for the better. Not even our government.

Ignorance Is NOT Bliss

I was going to write a blog on the lack of communication in Norristown, but I realize it's so big of an ongoing problem, I'm going to have to approach in steps. So today, installment #1.

The only reason I went to last Saturday's Mexican Independence Day Festival was that I attended a Norristown Nudge meeting at Coffee Talk on West Marshall that morning. Otherwise I wouldn't have known about the festival at all. When I got home and posted to Facebook about the amazing chicken quesadillas I had, people posted back saying they wished they'd known--they would have gone, too. Not just Norristown residents, but friends from other surrounding communities.

So why was this festival such a secret? Why no publicity? If there's one thing Norristown does well, it's throw a party. Our festivals could go a long way to changing the bad opinions of our town, toward bringing in outsiders, and toward uniting us as a community.

Council claims they post everything on their website, but this weekend, for instance, while they list Riverfest, they don't list the other festival that's taking place at Elmwood Park. The first I heard about that was an announcment at the Council Meeting Tuesday night. Like West Marshall residents last week, no one in the Elmwood Park area (including me) seems to know anything about it. It would be nice to be able to plan for things like parking and extra noise. Then again, maybe no one will come because it's a secret.

In the interest of communicating, our first RIVERFEST will be held this Saturday at Riverfront Park, 1 Haws Avenue, from 11 am to 4 pm. Kids activities, Dragon Boat Rides and Races, food, music, etc. You may not hear this anywhere else, so spread the news.

Here are some excerpts from a Norristown Nudge Facebook posting. I can't say it better than they did:

~~~~~~~~~
On Saturday, September 14th, West Marshall Street was the scene of a wonderful festival commemorating Mexican Independence Day. Unfortunately, most of the non-Latino community, including some long time West Marshall merchants, had no idea this was happening until Friday, September 13th, when "no parking" and street closure signs were posted along the street. Some claim they knew nothing of the activity until the actual day of the festival.

Calling this a profound lack of communication is like saying the Mojave Desert gets a little warm at times.

A festival of this size was not approved and pulled together in a day or two. The wheels had to have been turning for at least several weeks prior to the festival. Once the permit was issued by the municipality we feel the festival organizers had an obligation to inform ALL the merchants on West Marshall Street of the impending activity. In fact, the two gentlemen who staff the West Marshall State Store claim this has happened on more than one occasion.

This was not a backyard soiree or a vacant lot carnival. It was a decent-sized affair that impacted parking, transit, and in some cases, economics. More courtesy should have been extended.

Some blame must be leveled at the Municipality as well. After issuing the permit they should have insisted on some forms of timely advertising, be it banners, posters, or even word of mouth. Their diligence regarding such matters is often mercurial or offhand at best. They, along with the festival organizers, will simply have to do better.
. . .

This was a wonderful, colorful, vibrant , festive affair with authentically amazing cuisine and great music--a cultural, sensory overload. Did the municipality reach out to other communities, inviting them to partake in the festivities? Most local and Philly papers have Weekend Happenings sections. Were blurbs placed in any of them? Were there any posters placed on supermarket bulletin boards?? If so, no one we know saw them. We do know Norristown Patch posted something, 2 hours prior to the start of the festival. One of our Nudge members actually met her dentist there. He and his family happened on it by accident. They loved it. They live on the Main Line.

Enticing outsiders to experience little gems like this festival should be a priority of the Municipality. This is how we change the perception that keeps non-residents away. This is how baby steps become leaps towards sustainable revitalization.

If Norristown is going to proclaim and profess strength in diversity, then it's going to have to beat its drum just a little louder.

Fighting Discouragement

The biggest wall between what Norristown is and what it can become is discouragement.

I've been hearing residents and business people talking about how they're discouraged by crime and trash. Lately, community groups like The Norristown Project, The Greater Norristown Ministerium, the Men of Excellence, and the Norristown Area CTC have come forward to work on these problems. They have to, because Council and other officials down at 235 East Airy don't seem to be doing a thing about them.

I say "don't seem" because when anyone tries to find out what's going on, we're faced with a black hole of communication.

The thing that discourages many of us most is Council's attitude. Let me say right up front that Linda Christian, the councilwoman in my district, does answer emails. She sends out newsletters and holds 3rd district meetings. I believe she does her best to keep us informed. She encourages her constituents to express their concerns, not only to her, but to the rest of council. This is how representation SHOULD be done.

So when issues have come up, I've emailed other councilpeople, too, yet have never received a reply. Never. I've heard the same from other residents. The only other councilman who ever seems to reply is Gary Simpson, almost as if the others have all agreed to let Gary be their spokesman. The problem with that is that the tone of Gary's communications aren't "I understand your concern as a taxpayer. Let me explain it the best I can..." but "You shouldn't concern yourself with this because we know best, and by the way, everything you believe is wrong." Gary's tone discourages further questions and inquiries.

On top of that, Council's been holding a lot of "Executive Sessions" in the last year. Translation: non-public meetings. They've rushed through, or tried to rush through, decisions that, in the opinion of many of us, should have been open to public comment and review.

Council, this isn't the way to win voters, and NO WAY to treat the taxpayers who are your EMPLOYERS.

I've been taking a poll of residents and business people in the last few weeks. Not one person I've spoken to trusts Council to act in Norristown's best interest. That isn't saying Council ISN'T acting in the town's best interest, just that the perception is that they can't be trusted to do so. Open, CIVIL, communication would go a long way toward changing that perception.

We have enough discouragement in this town. We don't need more from our elected and appointed officials.

Thank You, Councilman Simpson

Two days ago, I posted an opinion piece about whether or not Norristown was a city . Over 150 people read it and it kicked off a lot of interesting and intelligent discussion.

Yesterday, I posted facts from a forensic audit of East Point, Georgia (http://norristowndiary.blogspot.com/2013/08/why-care-about-east-point-ga.html), the prior employer of Crandall Jones, who Norristown Council intends to appoint as our new municipal administrator. As of this morning, only 26 people had read it, a handful of people shared it, and no one commented on it anywhere. No discussion, no interest, nada. Norristonians seemed more concerned with comparing opinions than acting on facts.

That is, until about an hour ago, when our Council President Gary Simpson posted 4 links and a comment to Facebook   The comments are "public" so if you're on Facebook, you can read them. Click on the links and read them, too. The more informed you are, the better.

As I pointed out to Mr. Simpson, my post was about Mr. Jones as overseer of East Point's finances, and not about any political controversies. The mayor of East Point and the Jackson County commissioners can't be blamed for errors and inconsistencies in the city's everyday accounting.

But, as a result of Mr. Simpson's posts, the number of people who've read yesterday's Diary doubled in the last hour. So thanks, Gary, for helping to stir up the taxpayers' interest.

Have a good weekend all. Maybe I'll see you at the MSS Feast on Sunday afternoon, at the old Holy Saviour cafeteria on Airy near Walnut.