Daily Local Dan

It's Free Thought Society Season!

noreply@blogger.com (Dan Kristie) — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 02:08:00 +0000

Yes, that's right. The Free Thought Society of Greater Philadelphia is at it again.

This year, the Free Thought Society has asked West Chester Borough Council for permission to hang above borough streets a banner that reads:

"Happy Holidays from the Free Thought Society of Greater Philadelphia. Please visit our virtual Tree of Knowledge at http://www.fsgp.org/tree-of-knowledge."

If you are not aware, the Free Thought Society is the group of evangelical atheists who are responsible for the controversial Tree of Knowledge displays that for the past two holiday seasons have sat next to the Creche and the Menorah on the Historic Chester County Courthouse lawn.

The point of the tree, I'm told, is to make it known that people who don't believe in the God of Abraham still enjoy celebrating the holidays. The other point of the tree is to get you to read more Richard Dawkins - the tree is decorated with the covers of books that, according to Free Thought Society members, are "classics in the atheist tradition." Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens are, unsurprisingly, top contributors to this particular atheist canon.

Anyway, borough council appears unlikely to grant the Free Thought Society permission to hang the banner. At its work session tonight, borough council members voted unanimously to deny permission. They will, however, discuss the FTS request again at their Wednesday, Nov. 18 regular meeting.

So, if you're concerned about the banner, that's the time to speak up. The meeting starts at 7 p.m.

Borough council members gave the following reason for denying the Free Thought Society permission to hang the banner:

In West Chester, non-profits, church groups, educational organizations, fraternal organizations, and civic associations may hang banners that advertise community events. Borough council members reasoned that the banner's main purpose is to advertise the Free Thought Society's website. The website, council members argued, is not a community event.

Council members said that, if the sign read: "Happy Holidays from the Free Thought Society of Greater Philadelphia," all would be well. The "Holidays" are, after all, a (very loosely defined) community event.

Borough manager Ernie McNeely suggested that, if the sign read: "Happy Holidays from the Free Thought Society of Greater Philadelphia. Check out our Tree of Knowledge display on the courthouse lawn," it would probably be acceptable. The physical Tree of Knowledge display, McNeely said, is a community event of sorts. Or it is, at least, physically in the community.

It will be interesting to see how this turns out. I expect that the Free Thought Society may object to borough council's decision. The county's good Christians and Jews are likely to support the decision.

As far as I can tell, though, borough council's decision is based on a legal technicality rather than on an ideological conviction. At least half of the borough council members said that they are not opposed to the Free Thought Society.

Every holiday season, I celebrate the fact that I work in a town that regularly serves as a battlefield for our country's silly "culture war." I'm waiting for a brave Muslim to ask for permission to put a "Holiday Crescent Display" on the courthouse lawn. However, it appears that the county commissioners are trying to restrict the number and size of the holiday displays. Might there not be room for anyone but the aetheists, Christians, Jews and businessmen?

West Goshen residents will demand library funding

noreply@blogger.com (Dan Kristie) — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 22:00:00 +0000

A group of West Goshen residents will go to the Wednesday, Nov. 18 Board of Supervisors meeting to ask the township to start making annual contributions to the West Chester Public Library.

I'm not sure how much luck they will have. Last month, Supervisor Robert White said that West Goshen would rather support "active recreation." And, he made no promises to a resident who asked that the township reconsider its position.

Here is a link to a library funding petition that, I'm told, is currently circulating in West Goshen.

Bold statement of the week

noreply@blogger.com (Dan Kristie) — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 18:14:00 +0000

This week's award goes to Laura Hunter, a West Goshen resident who lives within earshot of the Major Louis H. Close Pistol Range.

In my Nov. 11 article on the unknown vandals who bulldozed much of the range, I quoted Hunter as saying:

"It's not uncommon for neighbors to hear things and not report them."

Hunter continued (I cut this part of the quote from the final version of my article):

"We live in the armpit of the nation. We pay the same taxes as everyone else in West Goshen, but you would not want to live here."

Hunter was explaining that although she and other neighbors heard noises on the night the pistol range was bulldozed, they did not report these noises to police. She told me that, in her neighborhood, it's not unusual to hear odd noises.

This is because several days a week, local police fire guns at the pistol range. And the sewer plant next to the range generates additional racket. (It was at the sewer plant that the unknown vandals found the bulldozer.)

Anyway, after I talked on the phone to Hunter and several of her neighbors, I drove out to their neighborhood. I was expecting to find the "armpit of the nation." Instead, I found cul-de-sacs lined with relatively large homes. "Aah," I though. "Irresponsible real estate developers are to blame."

That's the same conclusion reached by some of the readers who left comments under my article. Other commentors blamed the residents for not properly researching the neighborhood in which they were about to buy houses. Still others, noting that the range is used solely to train police officers, blamed the neighbors for complaining at all. Their arguement was as follows: The West Goshen police keep you safe. If you lived in Philadelphia, you would be less safe, and you would hear more gunshots.

Observe:

SAM wrote on Nov 12, 2009, at 9:18 AM: " . . . Perhaps these neighbors close to the gun range should move to Philly... Oooo wait, they may complain about the gun noise there also. :-)"

berry8353 wrote on Nov 12, 2009, at 10:01 AM: "Its not a war zone, its a shooting range. It very well could save my life someday. If you want to live in a war zone go to the city. Thats a real war zone. I guess you can say I'm fortunate enough to have a well staffed police department. Thank god . . . "

I have a big problem with comments such as these. I lived in Philadelphia for five years and never heard a gunshot. The one time I had to call the police (my bike got stolen), an officer was at my door in three minutes.

I lived in Philadelphia's Fairmount neighborhood, one of the many safe neighborhoods in the city. My point is this: suburbanites often congratulate themselves for not living in Philadelphia, as if the whole place were a hellhole from which they'd heroically escaped. Due perhaps to the Philly press's habit of sensationalizing gun violence and the prejudice of the white middle class against rowhomes, many lifelong suburbanites consider Philly real estate off-limits. They never discover the advantages of urban living (there are dozens - a topic for another post). Instead, these suburbanites engage in a generations-long search for houses that have fresh coats of vinyl siding. This search has recently led them to the injudiciously placed subdivisions that are destroying Chester County's landscape. The result: Philadelphia, which has many nice, already-built houses, suffers a lack of upper-income residents. And Chester County suffers a glut of tasteless subdivisions (with the attendant traffic clogs and local tax increases).

Many Philadelphia residents have it far better than the unfortunate residents of the homes that surround the Louis H. Close Pistol Range. Pistol reports, endured day after day, creep into the subconscious and begin to fry the mind. If you are subjected constantly to this traumatic noise, it's easy to believe you live in the armpit of the nation.

Dr. White was right

noreply@blogger.com (Dan Kristie) — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 17:49:00 +0000

It's true. West Chester Borough spends more on its library than on its roads.

At least, in 2010 it might.

Robert White, a dentist, West Goshen Supervisor, and frequent utterer of controversial statements, told me last month that his township has no intention of giving an annual contribution to the West Chester Public Library. Then, he delivered this zinger:

"West Goshen decided to spend its money on active recreation and fixing roads. The borough must just spend its money on the library, because its roads are atrocious."

Afterwards, he said something like, "And you can quote me on that."

Well, Dr. White was right about the borough's spending priorities. In its 2010 proposed budget, the borough has set aside $105,000 for the library. However, citing Great Recession-related financial difficulties, borough officials tentatively canceled $99,000 worth of road milling and resurfacing projects. This brings the total money the borough will spend on milling and resurfacing to $0.

I'm not saying the borough is wrong to support the library or to cancel the road repairs. West Chester's roads don't bother me. And, if I had to enumerate the things that give my life meaning, books would make my list. Smooth roads wouldn't. (Rough roads might ... but I'm not sure I can succinctly explain why.)

The borough's 2010 budget contains $156,000 to purchase two dump trucks. These will be used to replace the worn out ones that now collect garbage, plow roads, and, if I'm not mistaken, spread road salt. So it's not as if the borough is spending nothing to make its roads easier to drive on. And if Borough Council President Sue Bayne gets her way, the borough might forgo purchase of one of the trucks and use the money to instead complete a few paving projects.

Re: the library funding, Dr. White said that West Goshen provides to the greater West Chester Area ample parkland and $300,000 a year worth of recreation programs. And, he said, residents already pay to support the county library system. Therefore, he said, no contribution to the West Chester Library is necessary.

The West Chester Public Library asks the municipalities in its service area to contribute a dollar annually for each of their residents. West Chester Borough, which has 18,000 permanent residents, contributes more than $100,000. West Goshen Township, which has 20,000 permanent residents, contributes nothing. The county also assesses a library tax, but revenues from this tax go primarily to the big library in Exton, not to the smaller libraries throughout the county.

Bold Statement of the Week

noreply@blogger.com (Dan Kristie) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 19:16:00 +0000

This week's award goes to Walter Hipple, who sits on West Chester's Planning Commission and Historical Architectural Review Board.

Hipple has been very critical of the West Chester urban forester's recommendation that Tony Stancato line his development at Gay and Everhart streets with Japanese Lilacs. Hipple said he would prefer Zelcovas. At a borough council committee meeting on Nov. 2, he said:

"[Japanese Lilacs] are a spindley, and in my judgement, a contemptable tree. Lots of trees are superior to Japanese Lilacs."

He continued:

"I don't even approve much of their blossoms. Those who like them would say they are creamy. I would say they are dingy."

I applaud Hipple for taking such a strong and uncompromising position on aesthetics. We live in an age of ugly buildings, of computer generated public parks. People seem to care more about functionality than aesthetics. The few people who genuinely care about aesthetics (whether or not their tastes coincide with Hipples) need to speak up. The two most oppressive things in the physical world are strip mines and charmless streets.

Voters of a certain age

noreply@blogger.com (Dan Kristie) — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 17:46:00 +0000

In the West Chester region on Tuesday, old people voted, and young people didn't. Republicans voted, and Democrats didn't. Observe:

Hershey's Mill is a large, age-restricted community in East Goshen Township. Residents of this community vote at two precincts, East Goshen Five and East Goshen Eight.

On Tuesday, turnout at these two precincts was 49 percent. Of the 2,346 registered voters, 1288 came to the polls. Republicans outperformed Democrats in both precincts by about 2.5 to 1.

West Chester Borough is loaded with college students and young professionals and has a strong Democratic majority. Average turnout across the borough was less than 20 percent. Here's a breakdown:

WC's young voters: In the Third, Fourth, Fifth and Sixth precincts, where many students and young professionals live, turnout was 12 percent. Of the 6865 registered voters in these precincts, 828 came to the polls. Democrats outperformed Republicans here by about 2 to 1.

WC's minority and low-income voters: In the Second Precinct, where many of the minority and low-income voters live, turnout was 10 percent. Of the 1,549 registered voters, 150 came to the polls. Democrats outperformed Republicans here by about 3.5 to 1.

WC's older, more affluent voters: The borough's First and Seventh precincts contain the bigger houses, where many settled, financially well-off adults and senior citizens live. Voter turnout was 22 percent. Of the 3,323 registered voters, 729 came to the polls. Democrats outperformed Republicans here by about 2 to 1.

To put a finer point on it, Hershey's Mill has 2645 registered voters, 1288 of whom came to the polls. West Chester Borough has 11,737 registered voters, 1,707 of whom came to the polls.

If the Democratic West Chester Area School Board candidates performed worse than expected, young West Chester Borough voters are to blame.

Perhaps the borough's Democrats are too new to this whole voting thing. Perhaps they are too young. Perhaps they exhibit the existential ADD brought on by too much exposure to Facebook, Twitter, instant messaging, Blackberries, iPhones and Google News. Perhaps they'll only come to the polls if an exciting presidential candidate uses this ADD-inducing media to disseminate to them vaguely optimistic catchphrases.

My concern here - my motive for writing this post - is not partisan. I am really, really angry that people my age don't vote. I want healthcare reform, and I don't care whether it comes through a government-run program or through more effective competition in the private marketplace. I want a decent, affordable policy I can take with me from job to job - I believe that, like auto insurance, health insurance should be mandatory and should not be an employee benefit. Many people my age feel this way. Yet we don't vote. The legislators, therefore, don't care how we feel. They care how the Hershey's Mill voters feel. The Hershey's Mill voters vote in every election, and the Hershey's Mill voters, most of whom already have "socialized medicine" (it's called Medicare), will use whatever twisted logic they can to keep their Medicare intact. Basically, they don't want socialized medicine for young people. And the Democratic majority in Washington doesn't want to try increasing competition in the private healthcare marketplace. Legislators, lacking enough support among the electorate (read: seniors) for Medicare-for-all-ages, and lacking enough support among their own ranks for a private healthcare solution, will come up with some muddled thing or another that does nothing for people my age.

I feel like I'm yelling at a pickett fence. I do not want to hear anyone with Medicare complain about "socialized medicine." Unless, of course, they give up their medicare and join me on the private healthcare market.

Notorious?

noreply@blogger.com (Dan Kristie) — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 19:37:00 +0000

From an e-mail that conservative blogger Bob Guzzardi, of Ardmore, sent out today:

Well run campaign by highly qualified and committed candidates – special thanks to the skilled Marian McGrath and the Gwenne Alexander for their guidance in West Chester School Board race. Good candidates, good ideas, good communication, good campaign. Even Dan Kristie noticed the mindless mantra that Democrats used to demonize common sense candidates. Even the less than sympathetic Dan Kristie reported: “ Democratic voters, as they left their polling places, reported that the school board race was heavy on their minds. They said, as if they
were repeating a set of talking points, that they feared the Republican candidates would bring "extremist views" to the school board.” ( emphasis added).

The results are in

noreply@blogger.com (Dan Kristie) — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 04:45:00 +0000

A quick recap of the West Chester Area's big races:

The four Republicans won the school board race.

Tom Paxson, the endorsed Democrat, won West Chester's Fifth Ward Borough Council race. Write-in candidate David LaLeike, and Independent who claimed to have spent no money but his own on his race, did get a respectable number of votes, but he couldn't beat Paxson.

Steve Soles, the Republican candidate for the West Whiteland Board of Supervisors, beat Democrat Joe Denham.

Republican Carol DeWolf, the chairwoman of the Westtown Board of Supervisors, kept her seat.

And that's it. The rest of the races were uncontested.

These results were way too predictable.

Four Days Till Elections!

noreply@blogger.com (Dan Kristie) — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 03:59:00 +0000

In the last week, the West Chester Area School Board race, already contentious, has heated up. The rest of the races in my beat (West Chester and environs) are quiet. There are, however, murmurs in the borough's fifth ward. Independent Dave LaLeike is running a vigorous write-in campaign for borough council against endorsed Democrat Tom Paxson. And in Westtown, political unknown John Haws, a Democrat, is trying to unseat Republican Board of Supervisors Chair Carol DeWolf.

All week, my inbox filled with political e-mails. Most were from WCASD Democrats. A whole bunch included a link to a YouTube video that features Republican Candidate Sean Carpenter participating in Chester County Victory Movement rallies. Some included links to this column and this column, by Henry Briggs, a former Malvern Borough Council President and Republican Committeeman. The Democrats are also making a huge deal out of the fact that the Dem WCASD candidates brought ad time on cable television.

The Republicans have been really quiet. Few e-mails. No recent rumors of attack ads. No time on second-tier cable TV stations. This is about the only stir they've caused.

Back to the YouTube video. First, it's cheezy. Second, Democrats (and a few Republicans) asked me, "Isn't it shocking? Aren't you shocked by it?"

No, I'm not. I've covered plenty of Victory Movement rallies. The video appears to have been compiled from footage taken by Chester County Peace Movement regular John Beitzel. It is intended to place Carpenter among the more raucous Victory Movement demonstrators. All it does, however, is weave together images of Carpenter participating in Victory Movement rallies and images of other VM demonstrators yelling, screaming, and holding questionable signs. (OK - Carpenter is holding questionable signs too.)

The video tries to make it seem like Carpenter was demonstrating with the Victory Movement on the day when something like 200 motorcyclists came one of its rallies. I covered the rally, and though I looked for Carpenter, I didn't see him. (He rides a motorcycle with A Hero's Welcome and Warrior's Watch.)

(I regret now that my coverage of motorcycle day was so tame. I didn't mention the guy with the jacket that read "Sons of the Confederacy, Mechanized Cavalry Division." Nor did I mention the Confederate flags, perhaps because I found them so disgusting. One biker tried to fight me. I would've lost.)

Anyway, I hear that school district residents are at this moment being bombarded with campaign mailers. Some of them, apparently, feature quotations from my articles. Please, scan and send me whatever nonsense you get in the mail. You can reach me at dailylocaldan@gmail.com. I'll put them on the blog.

(BTW - The most ridiculous Chester County attack ad I've seen so far is this one. It goes after Democratic Tredyffrin Supervisors Candidate Eamon Brazunas for having been married less than two years. He's in his mid-20s.)

Sigh. It's 12:22 a.m. on Saturday morning. I'm still at work. I've filed 2,734 words today. I should be out at Halloween parties.

For your entertainment, here's my 2007 Halloween costume. Only the tattoo is fake.

Here's what I normally look like (late at night on a cell phone camera):

Going home!

Jim Smith's response to our headline

noreply@blogger.com (Dan Kristie) — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 18:57:00 +0000

West Chester Area School Board President Jim Smith took issue with the headline attached to my Oct. 23 article on the school district's potential 2009-2010 Act 1 exemptions.

The headline:

"WCASD'S TAX HIKE MAY EXCEED STATE CAP

"Millage increase could be as high as 5.24, officials say."

Here is a link to the letter in which Smith lays out his objections to the headline. He also outlines the school district's financial situation and refutes some of the claims the Republican school board candidates are making. (Note: In the scanned PDF of Smith's letter, the underline at the beginning of the fourth paragraph is mine, not Smith's.)

At the Daily Local, copy editors write headlines. Reporters do not. This is because copy editors, when putting articles onto pages, can see exactly how much space is available for a headline. And it's their job, not ours, to make the paper look exciting.

Amateur Hour at the Spellman

noreply@blogger.com (Dan Kristie) — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 21:56:00 +0000

Imagine you're sitting in the Spellman Administration Building, watching a West Chester Area School Board Property and Finance Committee meeting. You're listening to District Finance Director Suzanne Moore give a detailed explanation of how the administration arrived at its enrollment projections for the 2011-2012 to 2014-2015 school years. At the end of her explanation, a skinny guy in a baseball cap gets up and, in a tone of forced outrage - a tone that wouldn't seem out of place at an amateur-level theater improv class - demands of the finance committee an answer to this question:

"Is it true that there aren't enough textbooks for the students in the school district?"

"What? Where did that come from?" you wonder. "That has nothing to do with the topic at hand, and it's not even the time for public comment."

A helpful local reporter turns to you and explains: "The Republican candidates for school board sent out a mailer in which they claimed that there are textbook shortages in the school district. The administration has already said publicly that there are not. The guy asking the question is a Democratic committeeman, and he hopes to get the administrators to say again that the Republicans candidates are making false claims. This is somehow supposed to help the Democrats win the school board election."

"Oh," you say. "Why would the Republicans claim there were textbook shortages?"

"Well, the Republican candidates think that, by portraying the current, majority-Republican school board as the party responsible for an imaginary textbook shortage, they can beat the Democrats. For an analysis of why, read the Daily Local Dan blog sometime next week."

Yes, the Oct. 19 property and finance committee meeting (which you, of course, are too interesting to attend) was packed with political operatives. One row - the row I'm interested in - was filled with Democratic committeepeople who were doing a pretty amateurish job of trying to get the administrators to publicly debunk the claims the Republican candidates made in their mailer.

Every once in a while, one of them would interrupt the meeting and ask a question like, "Is it true that the district is in a financial crisis?"

The meeting took on the tone of a late-night infomercial. It was embarrassing.

The Democrats' shoddy acting does not excuse the Republicans for resorting to scare tactics. Their campaign mailer made the following claims:

- The recent school tax increase, combined with the economic downturn, has forced parents to take their kids out of private school and send them to public school. (Enrollment rose by about 200 more students than administrators had expected. District officials have speculated that this is because some parents can no longer afford private school.)

- The enrollment spike has led to overcrowding in classrooms and buses. (The district says this is not true.)

- The resultant overcrowding has led to textbook shortages. (The district says this is not true)

- The teachers salary hike has prevented the district from being able to afford to hire new teachers to relieve the overcrowding. (The district says this is not true, and points to the fact that it has hired more teachers to handle the unexpected influx of students.)

I believe the district. Here's why:

If there were textbook shortages, classroom overcrowding, or bus overcrowding, the Daily Local would have gotten at least a few calls and emails from outraged parents. And we would have gotten these calls in September. Yet, we've heard nothing. Until, that is, we got a look at the Republican mailer.

I shared this argument with Republican school board candiate Sean Carpenter.

"Maybe you aren't talking to the same people we're talking to," he said.

"It's possible, but we're a local paper," I said. "We don't usually have to wait to hear about things like this. People call us all the time about problems at schools, and so far, we've heard nothing."

"Maybe people are afraid to call the paper because they believe they won't be treated fairly," Carpenter said.

I told Carpenter that, based on past experience, I know that not much will stop an angry parent from calling us.

School Board News!

noreply@blogger.com (Dan Kristie) — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 21:10:00 +0000

Here's a link to the controversial mailer sent out by the Republican West Chester Area School Board candidates. It has created a stir at the school board's last two committee meetings.

SchoolBoardNews.PDF

In case you don't want to download it, here are the two paragraphs that got School Board President Jim Smith riled up.

"You are probably painfully aware of the 5.9% property tax increase that the current school board voted upon [sic] in May. Combined with last year's increase, the taxpayers have had to absorb almost 13% in tax increases over the last two years. Delaware County residents were hit even harder, with a 9.4% tax increase this year and a 9.0% tax increase last year, a whopping total of over 18% in two years.

"Adding insult to injury, the current board also voted to raise teachers' salaries almost 9% over the next two years. That just didn't make sense in these perilous economic times, with unemployment rising, employees being laid off, and businesses downsizing or closing. It also proved to be extremely short sited [sic]: May parents can no longer afford the tuition for private/parochial school and have enrolled their children in our public schools, resulting in overcrowded classes and buses, with shortages of textbooks. Because of the teachers' salary hike, there is now no money to hire more teachers to relieve the overcrowding in the classroom."

Selene Raynor's death

noreply@blogger.com (Dan Kristie) — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 19:30:00 +0000

The two articles I wrote on the murder of West Chester University student Selene Raynor (Oct. 16, Oct. 17) attracted a variety of reader comments. Some were sympathetic, some were misinformed, and some were alarmingly ugly. We've done our best to delete the ugly ones, and I won't dwell on them.

What I'm interested in is this: When, on Thursday, Oct. 15, at 10 p.m., I filed the first of the two stories on Raynor's death, neither the police nor the university had released her address. We would later find out that she lived in Philadelphia, on North 28th Street, a few blocks from where she was shot. My first story lacked this information. This led a few commentators to either question or try to find some justification for Raynor's presence in Philly. Judging from their comments, it was inconceivable to them that a West Chester University student might actually live in Philadelphia.

Observe:

SQUABBIT wrote: "The article doesn't say why she was in the Strawberry Mansion section of the city, NOT one of the better sections of Philly to be sure!"

my 2 cents wrote: "What a beautiful young lady. I am so sick to death of what I think is racism. If she were white, this would be NATIONAL news. I never even heard this WCU student was missing! A West Chester student KILLED, this is terrible. Also, who cares where she found. Philadelphia is one big college campus, she could have been meeting one of her friends at one of the colleges there. I am glad Daily Local reported the story and showed her picture. My thoughts and prayers go to her family. I'll tell you, It seems like a lot of bad things happen to kids that go to West Chester U. That college has bad luck or something."

There are plenty of West Chester students who come from Philadelphia's poorer neighborhoods. But suburbanites tend towards provincialism: they think of Philadelphia as a foreign land, dangerous and incomprehensible. This provincialism, of course, is caused by economic segregation. The paths of people from affluent suburbs and people from Philadelphia's poorer neighborhoods rarely cross. When an event like Raynor's murder occurs, some suburbanites, who instinctively want to sympathize, must first try to make Raynor more familiar: she must be one of us. She must live in a nice suburban neighborhood. She can't be from a poor neighborhood in Philadelphia, because... then we couldn't sympathize as much?

my 2 cents is correct: the murder of Annie Le will get far more national coverage than the murder of Selene Raynor. This is deeply unjust. The national media is protecting it's predominantly white audience from having to admit the humanity of people who live in poor urban neighborhoods. If you can label a neighborhood "the ghetto," you can ignore it.

The normal-shaped pyramid

noreply@blogger.com (Dan Kristie) — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 20:47:00 +0000

Newspaper journalists write (or claim to write) their articles in a format called the "inverted pyramid."

I once told a Jung scholar this. He got excited. He thought the inverted pyramid was some sort of mystical concept.

He was disappointed when I told him that, when you write in the inverted pyramid, you simply put what you believe to be the most pertinent facts first, and then work your way down in order of decreasing importance and/or urgency.

I and a few of my colleagues were in a Friday mood today. We wondered what would happen if we composed an article in the inverted pyramid format and then rearranged it so that the last paragraph would come first, the second to last paragraph would come second, and so on. I tried the experiment with my recent article on the Exton Barnes and Noble Glenn Beck book signing. Here, for your weekend reading enjoyment, is the result: an article in the "normal shaped pyramid" format. It's kind of funny, and surprisingly readable.

“This was a once in a lifetime chance to meet Glenn Beck,” Goodman said. “I don’t watch his show all the time, but I’m a fan. He puts politics in a way that I can understand, and then I can agree with him. Or I can disagree with him.”

The line went fast, he said.

After getting his book signed, Ben Goodman, a Sophomore Pastoral Ministries major at Valley Forge Christian College, sat at a table on the second floor, telling his friend about the experience.

The book store had a holiday feel, as if it were Christmas Eve and the fans were excited, last-minute shoppers. But among them were customers who, either unaware of or unconcerned with Beck, shopped as if it were any other day.

At 7:30 p.m., hundreds of fans lined the perimeter of the Barnes and Noble while Beck stood at a table, greeting them and signing their books.

“I feel his fans are ill-informed, or uninformed, about what Glenn Beck is really advocating,” Kivlin said. “He is using the media to advance his own career through divisive political tactics such as hate speech. And that’s what sells.”

Mary Kivlin, of West Whiteland, said she believes Beck is willfully misleading his fans in order to advance his own career.

“I’m here because I want Beck and others to know that his message of misinformation and hatred is not acceptable and is un-American,” said Fran Pierce, of West Pikeland.

Fifteen minutes before the signing was to start, only 8 protesters were present.

The signing attracted a small group of liberal protestors. They stood on a small concrete island at the exit to Main Street and held signs that read “Glenn Beck has no respect,” “Hate Speech is bad news,” and “Hatred is anti-American.”

Beck was promoting his book “Arguing with Idiots: How to Stop Small Minds and Big Government.” The book, which is illustrated and printed on colored paper, is intended to provide readers with arguments they can use to counter supporters of liberal policies.

She said she has been following on the radio and on television for two years. She came to see him, she said, because he is “quite a patriot.”

“I’ve never done anything like this in my life,” Weber said. “I’ve never seen a politician. I’ve never waited to see anyone.”

Helen Weber, of East Goshen, stood near the front of the line. She had been at the store since 2 p.m., though the signing wasn’t to start until 7 p.m. Near her was a folded up lawn chair.

Many of the Beck fans said they are concerned about the way their opponents have labeled them. A few even mockingly referred to themselves as “the angry mob.”

“I challenge you to find one person in this line who is ignorant and uneducated,” Reber said. “Glenn Beck speaks for us. We’re not mad boobs. We know what we’re talking about, and we care.”

Reber said he believes Beck offers intelligent and devastating criticism of liberals and the Obama Administration. He added that he takes issue with critics who try to brand Beck fans as irresponsible and sub-par thinkers.

“I’m tired of big government, high taxes, politicians stabbing me in the back, a media that lies, Nancy Pelosi calling us maniacs; I’m tired of being told evolution is the only way to think, because there are other ways; I’m tired of government-run education, of homeschoolers being mocked,” said Jonathan C. Reber, Sr., of East Lampeter Township, Lancaster County. “You want me to keep going?”

As they waited, they praised Beck, echoed his criticisms of liberals and President Obama, and added some of their own.

An hour before the signing started, nearly 500 stood in a line that wrapped around the book store and continued all the way down one of the blocks of Main Street at Exton.

The book signing that conservative television and radio host Glenn Beck held at the Barnes and Noble on Wednesday evening attracted throngs of outspoken fans.

The Crown Victoria Police Interceptor is not an undercover vehicle

noreply@blogger.com (Dan Kristie) — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 00:13:00 +0000

This month, West Chester Borough Council is reviewing departmental budget requests. Todd Schaeffer, the guy who manages the borough's "fleet" of vehicles, told borough council on Monday that the police department wants money to buy a few new undercover vehicles.

Schaeffer said the detectives told him that the unmarked Crown Victoria is not really the ideal car for undercover work.

Schaeffer was referring to the Crown Victoria Police Interceptor, a car that Ford only sells to police departments and cab companies. While you or I could buy one used, it would be fairly difficult to get a new one.

That's why, if I saw a black Police Interceptor parked across the street from my house, I'd do a quick examination of my conscience.

Perhaps police should use rental cars for undercover work. The VW Bug, the Toyota Matrix, the Dodge Stratus, the occasional Jeep. They should get creative. I wouldn't be worried at all if I saw a Minicooper parked out front.

The state police might also want to consider getting creative with their unmarked highway patrol vehicles. Imagine getting pulled over by a supercharged 1996 Dodge Caravan.

The mood of the County Democratic Committee

noreply@blogger.com (Dan Kristie) — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 19:39:00 +0000

This post comes a week late.

On the 4th, I attended the Chester County Democratic Committee's annual fundraising banquet and listened to three hours of speeches given by everyone from former West Chester Borough Councilman Bill Scott to U.S. Senator Arlen Specter. Here are my impressions of the current mood of the Chester County Democrats:

2009 municipal and school board races: hopeful and on-message

The only smaller race Party Chair Michele Vaughn mentioned was the one for the four available West Chester Area School Board seats. The Democrats have done some opposition research on the Republican candidates and have come up with interesting nuggets about candidates John Wingerter and Sean Carpenter (if you are unfamiliar with these nuggets, read the footnote at the end of this blog post). Vaughn, without mentioning Carpenter or Wingerter by name, rehashed these nuggets. Extrapolating, she portrayed all municipal, school board and row office races not as battles between Democrats and Republicans but as battles between between socially moderate, fiscally conservative candidates, and members of Chester County ACTION (Americans for Christian Traditions in our Nation). This branding is inaccurate, but clever. We'll see if it sticks.

2010 statewide races: apprehensive

We have no idea yet whether President Obama's policies will be successful. He just hasn't been in office long enough. But Republicans have pretty successfully branded him a failure. Democrats here and everywhere are nervous about 2010. During the cocktail hour before the banquet, Sen. Specter told me, "At the beginning of the year, it looked like the [Pennsylvania] Democratic Senate seat would be a slam dunk. Now, nationally, we could lose six Democratic seats in the Senate and 20 in the House." Specter is, of course, trying to brand himself as the only Democratic Senate candidate with enough campaign experience and crossover appeal to win Pennsylvania. Sestak, during his banquet speech, criticized the Democrats for rolling over and playing dead when the Republicans launched their August attack on healthcare reform. At least half of the other speakers included in their speeches the following sentiment, which I will pariphrase: "2010 could be tough. Really tough. Toughest year since 1994. But you know what? I think we just might be able, maybe, to do it."

2009 row office races: cheerful, but resigned

Though the gap is closing, there are still more registered Republicans than registered Democrats in the county. Again and again the speakers said: "And this will finally be the year we take row office seats." But you could hear the resignation in (some of) their voices: It's unlikely that enough registered Independents will vote for the Democratic candidates. Row office races just aren't that exciting. Also, Democratic County Controller Candidate Jim Reilly began his speech: Who has ever seen The Sound of Music? Raise your hand if you've seen The Sound of Music. Because I'll tell you what. There's trouble in River City. (Note, this is a paraphrase. The original was more lengthy, and, in my notes, I didn't capture Reilly's exact phrasing).

(The nuggets: Pictures of Sean Carpenter holding an "I love Gitmo" sign and a sign that reads "Compared to be-headings, waterboarding is just good, clean, fun!!!" A John Wingerter quote - during a WCASB candidates' forum earlier this year, Wingerter was recorded saying he believes students should know that research is being done into Intelligent Design.)

On the Glenn Beck numbers

noreply@blogger.com (Dan Kristie) — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 23:12:00 +0000

From the comments on my article on the Oct. 1 Glenn Beck book signing:

"For the record: I went to the glorious Glenn Beck book signing at Main Street in Exton. The thousands of people were wrapped all around the streets of Main Street. All were true Democrats, Republicans, Independents and more importantly Americans who believe in the Constitution. The writer of the article, Dan Kristie, is a known liberal, and said there were 500 people in the store and dwon the block. If he had walked around the blocks he would have seen the thousands waiting in line to get their booked signed by a truely patriotic American, Glenn Beck. We Americans have seen that the main stream media and Dan Kristie have a real problem when counting true Americans."

-americaneagle

"Known liberal?" Sounds kind of like "known communist." Nostalgic for McCarthyism?

Anyway, a few people have questioned my crowd count. I stand by it. Here's why.

I wrote:

"An hour before the signing started, nearly 500 [Glenn Beck fans] stood in a line that wrapped around the bookstore and continued all the way down one of the blocks of Main Street at Exton."

This is true. At 6 p.m., I walked from the front of the line to the back and counted 441 people. I added 50 to my count, because right before I started counting Barnes and Noble let the first 50 fans into the store.

From 6 p.m. until around 8, when the book signing ended, a lot more people showed up. There may have been a thousand. There may have been more. I didn't do another count. Because the line was continually moving, I wouldn't have trusted a second count.

When I filed the story, I used the figure I had, and I made sure to note the time at which got it. Five hundred in line an hour before a book signing starts isn't bad, especially for a weekday.

Americaneagle is probably still angry about my article on the April 4 West Chester Tea Party. I admit that my crowd count for that event was on the low side. Which is why I was so scrupulous this time. Liberal protestors have also taken issue with my crowd counts.

Chester County Rants: Misattributions and irresponsible blogging

noreply@blogger.com (Dan Kristie) — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 18:43:00 +0000

A few people have recently called my attention to Chester County Rants, a blog that, they say, is beating the Daily Local when it comes to covering the West Chester Area School Board race.

A clarification: Chester County Rants is not actually covering the school board race. Rather, it is engaging in highly partisan attacks against the Republican candidates. Many of these attacks use my articles and blog posts as sources.

My work was intended to expose an interesting rift in the Chester County Republican Party. The Rants blogger or bloggers apparently wish I had taken a different approach. One post even attributes to me two paragraphs that I did not write.

My February 24, 2009 entry , which treats the American Sheepdogs' opposition to the West Chester East High School Gay-Straight Alliance Day of Silence, ends:

"Other criticisms aside, I don't think it's only the radical left that believes "being gay is acceptable behavior.""

On Chester County Rants, my Feb. 24 entry is quoted in full. But, in the Rants version, my post ends:

"Other criticisms aside, I don’t think it’s only the radical left that believes “being gay is acceptable behavior.”

"Ask yourself this question, do you want your child to be attacked for being who they are?

"Adsett, Carpenter, Pimley, and Wingerter are so Right Wing, So Wrong for our schools!"

This addition is highly irresponsible and suggests that those who run Chester County Rants are short on integrity.

In fact, Rants engages in borderline plagiarism. The post that this misquotation is from makes my writing appear, at first, as if it is the work of one of the Rants bloggers.

The Rants post does not begin with: "Here's an interesting blog post written by Dan Kristie." Rather, it launches, without quotation marks, directly into my post.

The only indication that the text of the post was not written by the Rants contributor is this "citation," which appears at its end:

(DailyLocal.com, Daily Local News blog: Tuesday, February 24, 2009)

This is barely a citation. It does not contain my name or the name of my blog. And, though it is not required to do so, it does not contain a link to my blog.

Yet, it quotes my post in full and sneakily adds two paragraphs.

I invite Chester County Rants to respond.

Bold Statement of the Week

noreply@blogger.com (Dan Kristie) — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 17:45:00 +0000

This week, the Bold Statement of the Week Award goes to West Chester Planning Commission Member Matthew Adams.

His statement?

"These meetings really need to be a little more efficient."

He said this at Tuesday evening's planning commission meeting.

OK - this statement might not seem bold to those of you who have never felt the ache of spirit that comes from sitting through a meandering, three hour municipal meeting. I have. And I agree. West Chester's planning commission meetings could be a bit shorter and more focused.

At the same time, I wouldn't want West Chester planning commission meetings, or any of the municipal meetings I cover, to be too short and focused. If they were, it would mean the board or commission that is holding the meeting has done most of its negotiating in the dark, out of the public's eye.

The terminology of the abortion debate

noreply@blogger.com (Dan Kristie) — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 17:12:00 +0000

I noticed today that my story on the 40 Days For Life demonstration is the second most commented article on our website. (An anti-abortion group is holding a 40 day "vigil" outside of the West Chester Planned Parenthood.) As of1:45 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 29, my article had 67 comments.

If it were up to me, that wouldn't be my most popular article. I wrote it quickly, in a dry style. Although I spent about an hour with the protesters, I used only their least challenging quotes. Their most challenging quotes fell outside of my scope. For example, Pat Carnevale, of East Nottingham, told me a story that would suggest he is against abortion, even when the life of the mother is at risk.

Carnevale: When I was out here last year or the year before, a young girl drove by a few times. I looked at her, and I knew she wanted to talk to me. She stopped, and I went over to her. She told me that when her mother found out she was pregnant, the doctor told her that she would be too ill to have the baby. The doctor told her to have an abortion. The mother was living in Europe at the time, and she got a second opinion. The other doctor said, "You don't want to have an abortion. You don't know what your child could turn out to be. Who knows? Your child could turn out to be a doctor." So I asked the girl what she was. She showed me her business car and said, "I'm a doctor." She was healthy and doing well. She was driving a BMW, I think. Was it a BMW? It was a nice car. And she said her mother is still alive, and healthy too.

Carnevale then said that he believes everything is in God's hands. If a pregnant mother is sick, he said, it's not up to humans to intervene. If it is God's will, the mother will live. If it is His will, she will die.

Carnivale was my best interview subject that day. Because he was so good, he didn't make the article. The paraphrasing that you must do to write a 400 word story would not have allowed a fully accurate representation of his quote. And introducing God into a 400 word news article on abortion issues is inadvisable. Mention of God outside of a direct quote might lead the reader to believe the reporter is in the "pro-life" camp. It's best that your news copy stand as far away as it can from the partisans of the abortion debate. To see why, read the often nasty comments left under my article.

I like to stand as far away as possible from the partisans of the abortion debate. This is not just because I'm a reporter. "Pro-life" and "pro-choice" are overly simplistic terms, as are their opposites, "anti-choice" and "pro-death" (a favorite at my Catholic grade school). In college, I tried to write an op-ed article on my opinion of abortion. I abandoned the project: I got myself wedged between materialism and spirituality. It's a scientific fact that the female body automatically aborts many zygotes and early-stage embryos. But to say that an embryo is merely a collection of cells is to say, by extension, that human life is nothing more than a biochemical process.

Anyway, here's what the Daily Local's stylebook has to say about how reporters should handle articles on abortion issues:

abortion - This is one of the most divisive issues in American society today. As newspapermen and newspaperwomen we must be very careful not to allow the partisans of the issue to drag us into the issue. We do not use the public relations-loaded terms pro choice or pro life to describe partisans of this debate. At the Daily Local News, our style is to refer to partisans as anti-abortion activists and abortion rights activists. "Choice" or some other word might be nice and short for a headline, but not here. Reporters may only use pro choice or pro life in direct quotes.

On Powerpoint Presentations

noreply@blogger.com (Dan Kristie) — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 17:25:00 +0000

This is kind of crazy: towards the end of a seemingly endless Wednesday night meeting, members of West Chester Borough Council voted unanimously to subject themselves to an hour of Powerpoint presentations. These presentations will take place next month and will supposedly help council members decide which architect to hire to design the $3.3 million police station expansion (hasn't anyone heard of, you know, quietly studying site concept plans?)

Who votes to watch Powerpoint presentations? They're awful. They induce sleep, or worse, the desire to see how far you can stick your finger up your nostril before you do yourself permanent damage. But Powerpoint presentations happen on computers, and people think that everything that happens on computers is good.

Remember overhead projector transparencies? They were pretty hard to make. Powerpoint slides are way too easy to make. They sponsor excessive slidemaking, just as keyboards sponsor excessive writing.

Back to my point: Borough council members, knowingly, willingly, and unanimously voted to subject themselves to an hour of Powerpoint presentations.

To be fair, this wasn't plan A.

Borough council had just voted to build a $3.3 million police station expansion, and they were now trying to select an architet to design said expansion. It was past 10 p.m. In the audience were three architects, a police chief, and a local reporter (Joe Norely, I think, had left). The architects were from two firms: Kimmel Bogrette and the Spiezel Group. The architects wanted to know which firm would get the job. So did the local reporter, who had to write about it, and the police chief, who would have to live with the results.

Now, borough council's public safety committee met earlier this month to watch powerpoint presentations given by four architectural firms (I was there, contemplating the nostril experiment). Of these four firms' presentations, the committee liked the Kimmel and Spiezel presentations the best. At a later meeting, the public safety committee voted 2 to 1 to recommend that borough council hire Spiezel (Note, when I say "borough council's public safety committee" I am referring to the three borough council members - Carolyn Comitta, Holly Brown and Chuck Christy - who make up this committee. West Chester's committees are subgroups of borough council - they are not independent of borough council).

The public safety committee's meeting, though, didn't seem to carry much weight. At the lengthy meeting borough council inflicted last Wednesday night on architects, the press, and law enforcement, council members just could not decide which firm to hire.

Seeing where things were going, they made a motion to table architect selection until next month. This motion failed. Then they made a motion to hire Kimmel Bogrette. This motion also failed. Then they made a motion to hire Spiezel. Again, this motion failed. Their fourth motion was to to table the discussion - and to make all council members watch the Powerpoint presentations that thus far only half of them had seen. This motion passed unanimously.

So, next month, late in the month, borough council members will again watch the Spiezel and Bogrette presentations. As will Police Chief Scott Bohn, Daily Local News Reporter Dan Kristie, and dutiful member of the public Joe Norely (I'm sure he'll be there). A half hour has been allotted to each presentation.

Why should the public care about all this?

Because some borough council members and borough administrators recognize that construction costs are currently very low. If the police station expansion goes out to bid while the economy is still in a slump, the borough is likely to get a pretty good deal. By waiting a month to select an architect, borough council is delaying construction by at least a month and running the risk of getting a less favorable deal. If this happens, taxes could go up.

(The fiscal conservative: They shouldn't be spending all that money anyway! The realist: Face it - they're building that police expansion, one way or another. Let's see how.)

Here's Council President Sue Bayne on what the borough should do (Note, Bayne said this at 10:45 at night. Hence the spirited tone):

"We have a construction economy now that allows us to do what we want to do the way we want to do it. We can get these projects ready now and really hope like hell the bids start coming lower than expected ... we fell on our tushes when the the Mosteller bids came in, and I think we need to do that again. If the bids come in too expensive, we can always say no."

(Note: the Mosteller Replacement Garage was expected to cost $17 million. The bids have put the price around $12 million. The bad economy is responsible for this $5 million discount.)

"I disagree with everything you said"

noreply@blogger.com (Dan Kristie) — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 23:14:00 +0000

My blog needs a gimmick.

How about this?

The Bold Statement of the Week Award.

This week, it goes to Jim Smith, the president of the West Chester Area School Board.

At Monday night's meeting of the school board's property and finance committee, the following transpired:

School Board Member Rogers Vaughn said that distance learning could be a solution to the school district's budgetary woes. His argument: teachers who deliver instructive and insightful lectures are rare. Why not set those teachers in front of a camera and beam their lectures into all classrooms? Facilitators (who would presumably be paid less than traditional teachers) would be in the classrooms to oversee the process of lecture absorption.

Smith, after hearing this, responded, in raised voice, "Rod, I disagree with everything you said."

Smith said that West Chester East was designed so that teachers could preside over large lectures. This, Smith said, was supposed to have been a new, innovative way to educate high schoolers. However, he said, the program was scrapped after five years.

"The kids did not like it and did not accept it," Smith said.

Smith, a former History and Social Studies teacher, said that the lecture model (especially the remote lecture model) is inappropriate for high school students - it does not give them enough access to teachers. Teachers need to be there to answer students' questions, to wake students when they are sleepy, to inspire students when they have lost the will to keep studying.

Assuming an oratorical tone, Smith concluded, "We have tried the lecture model. Did we try it long enough? Maybe not. Was it successful? No. ... I understand the way colleges go. Will it work in a High School? No."

To that, I say, "Huzzah."

Allow me, for just a moment, to be unobjective.

I distrust remote learning. My instinct tells me that face-to-face instruction conveys knowledge in a way that remote learning cannot fully replicate. Being in school with other people - learning to interact with other people - is just as important - if not more important - than academic learning.

That's not to say that Vaughn is full of nonsense. He is right about many things. Here are two:

1) Teachers who deliver inspired, engaging lectures are rare. Students would benefit from more access to them.

2) The cost of salaries and benefits is rising quickly. The current system may be unsustainable. Bold action is needed.

Vaughn's argument contains a third, perhaps unintended implication:

Many students would rather watch TV than listen to their teachers. Could students be tricked into watching teachers on TV? Would they pay more attention to TV teachers than to in-person teachers?

I'm serious.

Best Places to Live

noreply@blogger.com (Dan Kristie) — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 22:40:00 +0000

West Goshen Township made Money Magazine's 2009 list of best places to live. Since I became sentient, "best" lists have puzzled me.

Why? Because though they are usually compiled by uninformed and overworked hacks, the general public treats them like scripture.

Witness:

According to Money, West Goshen has a population of 8,800. According to the 2000 census, its population is around 20,000. (The 2010 number will be higher.)

According to Money, West Goshen's virtues are: quiet suburban feel, nearby shopping centers, an hour's proximity to Philadelphia, four parks (one with an ampitheater), a fitness boot camp for women, field trips for teens, and a summer bicycle parade.

Which means, it sounds like all upper middle class suburban towns. It also sounds like almost every town on Money's list.

The giveaway that Money's list should be taken with a grain of salt is not the population count error; rather, it is that Money overlooked West Goshen's proximity to West Chester Borough - West Goshen surrounds the borough on three sides! The borough is unique enough, I think, to merit mention. It has a university, it is the county seat, it has a ton of historic buildings, and it has one of the best downtowns in the Philadelphia suburbs ... certainly its downtown is more attractive than the nearby shopping centers? And, hey, isn't a pretty big chunk of the university in West Goshen?

West Goshen Township is a nice enough place. I have no qualms. The problem is "best" lists - fortune cookies are more informative.

I write this post because, during yesterday's meeting of the West Goshen supervisors, a woman who was unhappy about the township's plan to take a park and make it into a public works garage used the Money ranking as ammunition. I got to the meeting just as she was launching into:

"Money said we are one of the top ten best places to live in the country. They said it was because of our parks. If we lose one of our parks ..."

And so began a heated discussion between the resident (whose name I did not get) and the township officials.

Where does Welch live?

noreply@blogger.com (Dan Kristie) — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 17:14:00 +0000

Republican Steve Welch, who would probably like me to describe him as a "Phoenixville businessman" (or better, a "Phoenixville entrepreneur" ... but this is a blog, and I don't like such easy descriptors) did something unusual on Saturday. He was going to run for congress in the 7th District, where he lives. But, probably because of pressure from Pat Meehan's people, he decided that he would instead run in the 6th District. (Meehan, a GOP favorite, announced his candidacy for the 7th District today)

Now, Welch does not live in the 6th District, but he believes he lives close enough to it to successfully represent it. (You do not have to live in a congressional district to run in it - you merely have to live in the state.) He told me during an interview on Saturday that he lives in Phoenixville, and that his property borders the 6th District. It's true that his property is really, really close to the 6th District line. But he lives in Upper Providence Township, Montgomery County, across the river from Phoenixville Borough, Chester County. Welch has a Phoenixville mailing address but does not, by the Daily Local's standards, live in Phonenixville.

Allow me to briefly explain the Daily Local's obsession with municipal boundaries. Local reporters spend half their working lives at municipal meetings. West Chester, to most people around here, includes any place that has a West Chester zip code. To a local reporter such as myself, "West Chester" is West Chester Borough. Period. People who live in West Goshen claim that they, too, live in West Chester, and 95 percent of the population will be satisfied with this claim. I'm not. I've been to West Chester Borough meetings, and I've been to West Goshen meetings. They are two different municipalities, with two different land use patterns and two vastly different governing styles. If your house is in West Goshen Township, the Daily Local believes you live in West Goshen.

Anyway, we should be talking about congressional district boundaries, not municipal boundaries. (The two are quite different - for example, Ridley Township, where I currently reside, is in two congressional districts, and, like, half a dozen state house districts). Steve Welch lives in the 7th District but is running in the 6th District - this matters a little bit, but it probably doesn't matter as much as, say, Curt Schroder's people would like it to. The 6th District is badly gerrymandered. Welch lives in an odd appendage to the 7th District that seems as if it should have been included in the 6th District. If Welch lived farther inside the 7th District (in Media, for example), I suppose there'd be more call for suspicion.

Anyway, I found a fun tool. At www.govtrack.us, you can get Google maps of any congressional district you like.

Check out the 6th District here.

And, while you're at it, take a look at the 7th District.

And the 16th District, where West Chester Borough is located. Notice how the district reaches it's bloblike arm up to capture the borough. I hear there's county daily in that borough. (Ha - technically, our office is in East Bradford (southwest corner of Bradford Ave. and Strasburg Rd.), just inside the 6th District. If I lived at the office and ran in the 16th District, I'd be in Welch's shoes.)

Reviving Daily Local Dan

noreply@blogger.com (Dan Kristie) — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 20:45:00 +0000

A few people have come up to me in recent weeks and asked me, "What happened to your blog?"

My response, "You read it?"

"Yeah," they say. "There's a link to it right on the Daily Local News's homepage."

"You're right," I say. "Do you like the picture that goes with it?"

"No," they say.

"Neither do I," I say.

So, they're right. I ought to be keeping up with this thing.

Today's topic: word choice.

I recently wrote a story about the "local reaction" to Ted Kennedy's death. Local reaction stories are difficult. Man on the street interviews sometimes work, but in this case I thought they would not. Instead, I decided to call politically active Chester County residents - specifically, ones who do not currently hold elected office. I talked to a bunch of folks, and ended up using pieces of my interviews with former Chester County GOP Chairman Bill Lamb, Chester County Young Democrats President Dan Tyman, and former U.S. Senator Harris Wofford. Wofford was an excellent source, because he had known Kennedy for nearly half a century.

When casting about for a phrase to describe my subjects, I settled on this somewhat unconventional choice: "Members of Chester County's political class."

Today, I read the reader responses to my article. This one struck me:

"I've not read the article -- probably won't. The phrase "political class" is vile. Not that it is inaccurate, I suspect that it is accurate. Being hit in the face with a description that the people who run our beloved county are different from the rest of us is just plain sad. "

-tacitus

Tacitus is being too idealistic. I challenge him to provide a workable definition of "the rest of us." And it better not be "Sarah Palin."

Then there's this highly entertaining response:

"To the Editor:
"Your reporter’s ramblings about the sadness of a political “class” over the death of U.S. Sen. Ted Kennedy displays a shocking lack of understanding of American democracy and perhaps a pathetic mewing for the end of the Cold War and for the Marxist thinking he self-evidentially espouses.
"His examples of this “class” could hardly be more hapless. Bill Lamb was a crime-busting DA back in the 1970s fearlessly busting up volunteer firehouses to confiscate illegal nickel slots. Harris Wofford was a U.S. senator from the Main Line who had his butt thrown out of office after the Commonwealth realized that he was what a tweedy-snot.
"One is shocked that the Daily Local News could manufacture and publish such unsophisticated rubbish. What next? A campaign for fluorinated water?"

Sandy Flash
Penn Green Road
Landenberg

Anyway, I promise that from now on I'll stay up to date with this blog.