Norristown Gardens - A Contest and a Non-Contest

My pink roses last year. 

I've said before that N-town in summer is a garden place. Ride down certain streets, and you'll see flowers in front of every house. Even many of our row houses that have no front yards have window boxes or container plantings. A peek into a lot of side and back yards reveals thriving vegetable beds and more flowers. And we've got a whole slew of gardeners tending community plots.

I think we take our gardens for granted, but as I've said many times before, they're an asset to the look of our town. We should all express appreciation to the residents who make them happen each year.

At the Arts Hill Fest last Saturday, I stopped and talked to the ladies at the Norristown Garden Club booth. What attracted me to their table was a display of photos of Marshall Street School kids learning about and doing gardening. I'm a firm believer that one of the best ways to teach kids biology is to get them outside working in a garden early in life--they not only learn botany with the plants, but also about bees and earthworms and eco-systems.

Anyway, the Garden Club told me about this year's contest they're running for Norristown gardens. CASH prizes, folks. 1st prize in each category is $100, 2nd is $50, 3rd is $25, and Honorable Mention is $20. The categories you can enter are Front Yard Garden, Rear Yard Flower Garden, Vegetable Garden, Window Box, Container Garden, and Public Places (Churches, Schools, City Lots, etc.). Any garden within Norristown's limits is eligible. The deadline to enter is June 6th. They'll come to judge your garden on July 9. So you all have plenty of time to get your gardens in tip-top shape.

The Garden Club has a form to fill out for contest entry, but it's not available on their website or facebook page. I have a pdf of it, though no way to pass it on through this blog. Still, if you want to enter, send me an email at this address and I'll send you the pdf. If you don't garden, but see a plot in your neighborhood that you think could win, email me for the form and give it to your neighbor. It's a bilingual form, so we can get the whole community involved.

That said, I have to admit that where any art is concerned (and gardening is most definitely an art), I have an aversion to contests. Art shouldn't be about competition. There's a reason we all can identify with the phrase "Dance like nobody is watching." We don't want to be judged on self-expression. When we aren't judged, we're free to delight in the joy that comes from being creative. And when we all share our creativity with each other without fear of judgment, we all have way more fun.

My day lilies in 2013 

So, I've decided that the Norristown Diary will sponsor a Norristown Gardens Non-Contest this year. Like the rules above, all gardens within town limits are eligible. Simply send me a photo or two of your garden  (jpg, png or gif format) in any or all of the categories above (or add new categories: side yard garden, for instance) to the same email address as above. Tell me where in town the garden is. I'll post the photos I receive on the Diary every now and then. If I get enough photos, I'll even start a Facebook page to show how great our gardens look. Send the photos anytime you've got something pretty or interesting blooming in your garden. Tell me in the email if you want your name mentioned or if you'd just prefer something generic like "a front yard garden on Arch Street."

Please, though, if you send pictures of people, I need permission from each to publish their image or I'll crop them out. And I won't publish photos of children on the internet with any hint of where they live, so keep that in mind.

Let's start being proud of our gardens, Norristown. We're a beautiful place during the growing season.

Democratic Candidates for Governor -- Do Your Homework

McCord, McGinty, Schwartz, Wolf  

The primary election is just 2 weeks away. This week the first negative ads starting showing up on TV for the governor's race--one each from Rob McCord and Allyson Schwartz, and one from Governor Corbett. All the ads attack Tom Wolf, even Corbett's, though he isn't directly running against Wolf, at least not yet.

I researched each ad's claims. McCord's accusation of racism against Wolf seems to be totally baseless (Wolf was a campaign chair (apparently not a hands-on manager) in 2001 for a candidate who'd been accused, and found innocent, of causing a death during a race riot in 1969, over 30 years before). Most top Democrats in PA have asked McCord to take the ad down. Schwartz's accusation against Wolf said he dealt in "questionable business practices." That seems to be baseless as well. The practices she's accusing him of took place after he sold his company, which then fell on bad times because of the recession. Wolf rebought the company and the company recovered. Corbett said taxes went up after Wolf became tax collector. Really? I don't blame Berkheimer when taxes go up. I blame the government officials who voted in the tax raise. So whereas McCord gets the prize for nastiest ad, Corbett gets the prize for stupidest.

Anyway, I thought I'd take a look at each candidate's website and see where they stood on the issues (click on their names below and you can, too). It wasn't as easy as I thought. All the Democrats essentially support the same things, which I'll list first, but some added detailed plans which helped to differentiate them. I've added a link to their issues pages with each candidate below.

On JOBS, all said that they support raises in the minimum wage, protecting the rights of workers, and development of clean energy jobs. EDUCATION: all support reversing Corbett's cuts to education, full-time kindergarten and universal pre-K for 4 year-olds. Also, better access to higher ed within the state. NATURAL GAS: all support a tax on shale drilling to help support education and other programs. All say they would put better environmental protections in place for gas drilling. ENVIRONMENT: All would develop clean energy technology and renewable energy industries. All mentioned green building technologies. HEALTH: All would allow expanded Medicaid. INFRASTRUCTURE: All mentioned fixing PA's many structurally deficient bridges and older water and waste water treatment plants, but also making sure the whole state has access to broadband internet access.

Katie McGinty is hardly ever listed with the other candidates and isn't considered a serious candidate by most. I found her issue page to be rather sparse on details (though she claims to be the only candidate with definite plans for the issues). She does say she'd raise the minimum wage to $9 per hour.

Rob McCord calls for renew support for the state’s two largest industries – agriculture and tourism. He'd leverage Pennsylvania’s leadership in biomedical research to attract word-class talent, investment capital, and innovative start-ups, McCord calls for a 10% drillers’ tax. He says high school students should earn credit for college while still in high school. He calls for "innovative approaches" to health care, but not much else. He does have a "Working Families" section in his issues list, calling for a raise in the minimum wage to $10.70 in 2015, with an increase of .10 each year through 2024. Tipped minimum wage--from $2.83 to $5 in 2015, with .10 increases for the first 10 years, and to preserve a minimum wage of $7.25 per hour for student employees. He wants mandatory paid sick leave for all employees, and daycare that's affordable. He calls for the preservation of farmland and open space, and specifically mentions the development of wind, solar, geothermal and hydroelectricity, rather than just saying "clean energy". His site addresses gun safety laws and police concerns. That said, he gave less detail than Wolf and Schwartz, relying more on generic and vague phrases. And I have to admit, that attack ad turned me off to him. I don't want a governor who's that nasty.

Tom Wolf called for a rebuilding of PA’s manufacturing sector, starting with clean energy technology. He supports increasing the minimum wage to $10.10, plus pension reform. On education -- "Pennsylvania is one of only three states in the entire country that does not use a funding formula for distributing state education dollars to local school districts, and is far below the national average in terms of percentage of state funding -- contributing only 32%." He's the only candidate to mention access to higher ed for high achieving, low-income students and vets (everyone else mentioned the middle-class but not low-income). He wants investments in energy efficiency retrofits of commercial and residential real estate, to require the State to meet green building standards on all state-owned new large building projects, and the development of a public/private green jobs training program. He plans to reform campaign finance rules and institute ethics reforms. In health, he wants to set nurse-to-patient ratios and keep more Pennsylvania-trained primary care doctors in the state.

Allyson Schwartz would like to double the number of worker-trainees enrolled in registered apprenticeship programs, and bring together employers in targeted industries to provide joint training for workers. She'd reinvest in community colleges and in career and technical education. She also mentions making the distribution of school funding fair. She'd restore state support to higher education, freeze tuition at state universities, and relieve the education debt burden on middle-class families (nothing about low income). Her gas drilling tax would be 5%. She wants to require that 30 percent of our electricity comes from Tier I renewable resources by 2030, and to develop alternative transportation options. She'd strengthen Act 129, (which requires Pennsylvania electric distribution companies to conserve electricity), promote green building standards, and fund energy efficiency upgrades. She'd keep a moratorium on gas drilling in the Delaware River Basin to protect the water. She went into a bit more detail about  launching a PA Health Insurance Exchange (as well as expanding Medicaid). Her site covered Voting Rights, LGBT Rights, Gun Violence Prevention in more detail than anyone else's, and she has a separate section dealing with Veterans issues.

I encourage you to take a glance through the candidate's sites for issues you're interested in because I've had to really summarize here, especially for Wolf and Schwartz, who had a lot of meaty information on their sites. For me, it's mainly a contest between these two candidates--both seem to fully understand ALL the issues and both have some good solutions in mind. Right now, I'm undecided between them. Though I wish Schwartz hadn't put up that attack ad.

I should mention that on the GOP side, Governor Corbett's opposition, Robert Guzzardi, was taken off the ballot by the PA Supreme Court for not filing a statement of financial interests. He says he's still running a write-in campaign.

Please go do your homework on these candidates. Don't base your vote on things you hear on attack ads, which are almost always, at best, exaggerated, and at worst, bald-faced lies. The attack ad says more about the candidate doing the attacking than about the target. Be an informed voter.

Help Bring Back the DRAGON (and don't forget Restaurant Week)

First, many of you heard that the Dragon Boat Club's boat house was caught in the flood last week and took a little swim down the Schuylkill. It's a large shipping container with a mural of a dragon (named Puff) that was painted by the kids at the ACPPA Community Arts Center on Haws Avenue.  (You can watch a video about its recent sojourn at this link.)

The club keeps apologizing about it, but honestly, no one expected the river to crest that high (21 feet!). The last time it crested over 20 feet was when I was in high school back in the Dark Ages. Even Hurricane Floyd, which was some of our worst flooding before this, wasn't this high. The local news outlets and even the National Weather Service were all predicting 3 inches of rain. I heard one say 4, but that it was a conservative estimate. We actually got more than 5 inches in 24 hours.

Another factor was the poor way riverfront development has been done in Conshohocken. All that concrete so close to the water creates a funnel effect, with anything upstream being the wide part of the funnel. And Norristown is what's upstream. Which is why we absolutely MUST be careful how we do our own river development, or we won't have a Riverfront Park, or even a rvierbank in the West End in the future. It'll all wash away.

But I digress. The point is that the Dragon Boat Club's boat house tumbled over the dam and is right now wedged against a tree in the river, right before the Dekalb Street Bridge. It's not in a spot that will make recovery easy. The boat house contains most of the club's equipment, some or all of which may need to be replaced.

Now, I shouldn't have to remind you how much the DBC has done for Norristown. They've brought Riverfront Park back to life. They've sponsored almost monthly events, especially events for our kids, Riverfest and Winter Wonderland. This year, they've gone a step further and are sponsoring other events around town with the Norristown Business Association, like the Family Feud nights, and the Flea Market at the end of this month (May 24-25) at Airy and Dekalb.

So, since the DBC has been such a good neighbor in Norristown, I'm asking you to do the neighborly thing and help them out. You can do this in few ways:

1. Donate online at http://www.dragonboatclub.org/drupal1/donate

2. Come out to support their events. The next one at Riverfront is a Food, Wine, and Beer Tasting on June 13th from 6:30 to 10:30 pm. For $20 per person (adults only) you get the tastings, hors d'oeuvres, local entertainment, a silent auction, and passport raffle. You can find a full listing of this year's events on their website.

3. Go LIKE their Facebook page. It's simple, it costs you nothing, but it's a tangible show of support. AND you'll be able to keep up on all their events.

The Dragon Boat Club has a dream of one day having a permanent community boat house at Riverfront Park. Help them make it a reality by lending a little aid now, when they need it most.

Lastly, one quick unrelated note -- don't forget that this is Restaurant Week, 5 to 10 pm every night through May 11. Go to http://norristownrestaurantweek.com/ for a list of participating restaurants. I'm planning to try 3 new-to-me restaurants this week and visit some old favorites. Maybe I'll see you there (just don't get between me and food)

ARTS, FOOD, Open Mics, and a Carnival

The big event this weekend is the Arts Hill Festival, but pace yourselves. Lots of other activities happening around town, too. And don't forget, this is Restaurant Week!

Today is the deadline for "Walk a Mile in Her Shoes" -- the International Men's March to Stop Rape, Sexual Assault, & Gender Violence. The Walk will take place on Saturday, May 10th at 9 am at the Farm Park (2500 Upper Farm Rd., West Norriton). Men: high heels will be provided the day of the walk at check-in. Ladies, bring your flats. To register for the walk go to this link. Send questions to philly.wam.girls@gmail.com

The Montgomery County Police Memorial Service will be held on Friday May 2nd starting at noon, commemorating law enforcement personnel who have been killed in the line of duty. The ceremony will take place at the Fallen Soldiers monument, located on the grounds of the Montgomery County Courthouse at the corner of Main and Swede streets. Main Street will be closed from about 10:30 am to 1:30 pm between DeKalb and Swede streets. Questions regarding the ceremony may be directed to LT Rich Clowser at rclowser@norristown.org .

Friday at 7 pm is Acoustic Open Mic Night at Jus' Java,  1601 Dekalb Street. This is a weekly event, hosted by Vanida Gail. For more details, email jusjava@gmail.com .

Saturday, of course, is the Norristown Arts Hill Festival, 10 am to 5 pm. I posted the full performance schedule and other info yesterday. Click here to see it.

Saturday night at 7 pm, Caffe Galileo (317 Swede) will host an Open Mic. No cover charge - lots of parking. As of now, they plan to continue it every Saturday.


Also Saturday, 7 to 11 pm, The Montgomery County OIC will host their Fantastic Voyage banquet at The Empress Room at St Helena's, 1489 Dekalb Pike; Blue Bell. Tickets $60 includes dinner, vendors and dancing to the sounds of Norristown's own Half Moon Band. For ticket information, contact Aariann Vaughn or Kathy Stewart at 610-279-9700. Or visit website for PayPal purchase

This Sunday (and the first Sunday of each month) Coffee Talk Artists Coop at 507 W. Marshall presents an Open Mic from 10 am to 1 pm.  Musicians, writers, poets and art lovers are welcome. $5 at the door.

Sunday is also First Sunday at Elmwood Park Zoo, meaning Norristown residents get in FREE starting at 2 pm.

Restaurant Week in Norristown begins on Monday and goes until Sunday the 11th, every night from 5 to 10 pm. Sponsored by the Norristown Business Association. For a list of participating restaurants, go to http://norristownrestaurantweek.com/restaurants.html or see the NRW facebook page. For more info, email edward@turnerconcepts.com.

Tuesday at 7:30 pm, Municipal Council Meeting. No agenda yet.

Thursday at 5 pm, Elmwood Park Zoo kicks off their new season with a full-blown CARNIVAL! Rides, games, food and fun right in the Zoo's parking lot. The carnival will be open from 5 to 10 pm each night through Sunday the 11th.

I have on my calendar that the next Family Feud night will be Friday, May 9th at Caffe Galileo (317 Swede) at 7 pm, though I haven't seen it listed on the community calendars or Facebook. Norristown Council are the reigning champions. Not sure who the next challenger will be. If I hear more information this week, I'll let you know.

As always, remember to check the calendar links in the right column for the rest of this weeks' activities.

Starting May With The Arts

Today is May 1st. May Day started as a Celtic holiday, but spread through western Europe, and eventually much of the Northern hemisphere--a day when everyone took time off from their farming and other work to sing, play instruments, dance, and act out short plays. In other words, a day not only to welcome the coming of warm weather, but to enjoy the arts.

So it's appropriate that Norristown will celebrate our 5th annual Arts Hill Festival this Saturday on Dekalb Street between Lafayette and Airy Sts, from 10 am to 5 pm.

I've heard that the festival will have A LOT of music this year. You know how sometimes you hear about a new performer or band playing locally and you're not sure you want to pay the admission or cover charge to go hear them, in case you don't like them. Well, Saturday, you can hear a variety of groups for FREE. Jazz, blues, classical, rock, reggae, country, funk, rap, hip-hop, folk, childrens' music, you name it.

Can't get enough of our great live theaters? Or maybe you've never tried one of their plays? Saturday you'll be able to view our own and other local theater groups in action, again for FREE. You might even see some drama or comedy in the middle of the street. And a few magicians.

Usually you have to go to Philly to see dance performances. We do have several local dance companies, but unlike music in town, you can't go out and see dance each weekend. Saturday these troupes come to Norristown to perform all kinds of dancing.

The Arts Hill Festival is advertising film as well. When was the last time you saw a good film in Norristown? (We really do need a return to summer film nights.)

We've had a renaissance in town of spoken word performances this past year, so it makes sense that you'll find some of our local poets on the Saturday's schedule.

Besides that, the festival will have food vendors. Food is definitely an art in Norristown. I'd go for Willis Brothers Barbecue alone, but this year I hear there will be all sorts of cultural foods offered, plus the usual festival fare.

Other arts to be represented--face painting, art jewelry, painters, sculptors, and other craft vendors. Plus a kids area with activities for children.

The festival will go on, rain or shine. Right now there's only a slight chance of rain in the afternoon, and the high will be around 70 F. Take some time off and come downtown for a few hours to enjoy the arts. Find out what Arts Hill has to offer our community and how it can be a big part of the revitalization of our town.

Traditionally, May Day celebrations kicked off the summer season. Appropriately, our Arts Hill Festival kicks off Norristown's summer season--which means more festivals to come!  

Something New For Our "Look"

Are we all REALLY hating the Markley Street Project yet? All the more so because we still have to endure it for YEARS? Half the time these last couple of months, my street has been closed at Markley, so I've gotten very creative about how to get around it. At least, with traffic going one-way, it's a bit easier crossing Markley at one of the smaller cross streets, assuming PennDOT workers don't back over you with piece of heavy equipment while you're waiting at a stop sign (beware of Poplar St--they treat it like an unused alley).

But I saw something new last night that gave me a glimpse of what our improved streetscape was going to look like. Oh, I've noticed the nice, clean new sidewalks, which can't help but spiff up the older neighborhoods. I've noted the new cut-out parking configuration, which I'm not sure I like yet. I'm waiting to see how they work when traffic returns to normal. But last night, between James and Elm Streets, I saw brand new, black, VERY Victorian-looking street lamps. They're sort of like the ones on Dekalb that hang over the street, but a nicer design.

I didn't expect to see them in a non-historic district that's mostly residential, yet in my opinion, they completely transform the look of Markley Street. They're classy. They say "Come into Norristown--we're quaint and historic--we're not like every other community around. We have a unique personality. You're going to like it here." They FIT our historical architecture and the "look" our Comprehensive Plan talks about. They're an accessory that can help redefine us.

When they improve the sidewalks on that lower stretch of Markley between Elm and Main, I'd love it if they put those lamps all the way down to the Dannehower Bridge, so as people enter town, the first impression they get of us isn't only McDonalds and billboards and parking lots. I'm hoping they'll show up at the Logan Square end of Markley, maybe even up Johnson Highway, to help give that retail area the perk it desperately needs, and to welcome drivers coming in from the north end of town. I'd love it if they put those lamps at every major entry into Norristown eventually--West Main and East Main, at least.

I do, of course, also hope the new fixtures are more efficient than the old and use less electricity, saving us money in the long run.

Still, I couldn't help thinking when I saw those lamps yesterday, here we are, using street lamps to emphasize the historical assets of Norristown, yet, when someone comes along wanting to level one of our historic buildings, like Montgomery Hospital, there's no huge public outcry against it. Frankly, the same thing happened when the Norris Theater was destroyed--and City Hall, and the YWCA, and all the other buildings we've lost in the last 50 years. If the community had banded together to fight for any one of those buildings, they would have been saved.

What would Norristown look like, our streets lined with classy Victorian street lamps, but our blocks filled with ugly, uninteresting, new construction like the buildings Elon proposes for the hospital site? My opinion? We'd look pretty foolish.

Join Norristown's Action Team

What you need to know most about today's topic is VOLUNTEERS ARE NEEDED - specifically, Norristown residents or business folks. For what? The Norristown Schuylkill River Action Team.

The PA Environmental Council launched a "Rivertown Program" to help revitalize distressed communities along the state's rivers by using the river itself as an economic stimulus. If you check their website, it doesn't even mention the Schuylkill, but our river is included. Four Action Teams have been set up at different towns along our river and Norristown is one of them.

Our Team has 2 specific goals. First, to get cyclists and hikers who use the Schuylkill River Trail through Norristown to take detours into town, to visit our restaurants, or take a cycling tour of our architecture (then visit our restaurants), or to come into town for our festivals (and leave some money here). Second, to give our residents more recreational opportunities along the river--let them know the Trail is there for them, too, as well as have places they can canoe and kayak and swim on a hot summer's day.

Schuylkill River Trail at the train station

What kind of an impact could this have? 800,000 people use the Schuylkill River Trail . That's for the entire length; not all of them come through Norristown. Still, the part of it that goes from Phoenixville through Norristown and Conshy into Philly is the longest completed stretch (26 miles), and therefore it's one of the busiest, especially on weekends. We keep talking about how a slip ramp will revitalize the town, yet we have an expressway of bikers coming through town NOW, and we don't need as much infrastructure put in place to connect those trail users with our businesses. Best of all, because the state and other groups are involved, there's grant money available to actually get stuff DONE.

Some of the easy things that are already in the works: signs are being placed on the trail for the Arts Festival this weekend, to let cyclists know there's an event going on only a block away. This could be done for ALL of our festivals. Permanent signage and information kiosks are also being planned, to let bikers know WHY they should come into town.

The Dragon Boat Club is involved with connecting the trail users to Riverfront Park. Right now, because of the tall brush along the trail, you can't even see the river or the park from the trail. Feed The Burbs has agreed to help clear the view and design a nice, low-maintenance landscape for that hillside (possibly even a community garden), which will give great views of the river, create a safer, more open feel for the area, and improve Norristown's look. Our Dragon Boaters will also be doing more to get the community down to the river--more events, a renovation of the approach to the park, water sport education, kids' programs, and a floating dock that everyone can use.

I've been going to Norristown Action Team meetings since the beginning of the year, but honestly, I'm about the only N-town resident there. (Bill Caldwell also comes on occasion.) They want more of the community involved, and we SHOULD be. Up to now, the team's been meeting once a month in the afternoon, but the time of the meeting can be changed to accommodate more residents and business owners. I'd love to see members of the Norristown Business Association and all of our youth organizations get involved with this.

We keep waiting for someone to come along to revitalize our town. Well, now someone has. If we lazily sit back and hope someone else comes up with all the ideas and does all the work, at best, there will always be a disconnect between trail and town. At worst, the work might never get done. Remember, other towns on the river have teams as well. Let's not let Phoenixville and Conshy leave Norristown in the dust.

If you're interested in joining the Norristown Action Team (or at least, coming to find out what it's about), email Lizzie Hessmiller of the PA Environmental Council at lhessmiller@pecpa.org . Say that you're from Norristown, and tell her the best times for you to attend a meeting.

If you want to keep up on what's happening with the Schuylkill River Towns project, LIKE their Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/Schuylkillrivertowns . Right now, most of the news is about the other towns. Let's make Norristown just as active.