It’s time to decide whether we want nice places to walk or fast places to drive Last Monday’s Business Zoning, and Redevelopment Committees brought Graham Copeland pitching his services as a business development consultant to Jenkintown Borough. Mr. Graham seemed like an earnest guy and who brought with him at […]
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Not found money, real money, our money.
Jenkintown Government and the “cost of a cup of coffee a day” fallacy Last Monday night, Jenkintown’s Finance Committee and Business Development Committee held their monthly meetings. I attended because I saw an item about a discussion to update the Borough’s sidewalk and street codes on the agenda, but I […]
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Left in the dark by the Right to Know
A cautionary tale for anyone hoping to make a difference A friend of of mine who follows my dealings with Jenkintown Borough recently related his own experience that spoke to the futility of civic engagement. An attorney and a one-time senior official in state government, he’s a guy that possesses […]
Livestream
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Watch the Jenkintown Borough Council Meeting, May 22, 2017
This month’s meeting includes some interesting public comment, and more arrogant, tone-deaf responses from our representatives. Don’t miss hearing Rick Bunker’s fuzzy math as he falsely describes how the new park on Cedar Street will not result in a tax increase for residents. The only thing missing from his assertion […]
Legal Issues
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Jenkintown Council, property boundaries, and the dangers of assumptions
Who owns what? No one knows. That’s the question we keep coming back to in our ongoing campaign to change the sidewalk ordinance. As we have found at the outset of this campaign, the Borough, and especially Rick Bunker, Sean Kilkenny, and Michael Golden continue to believe that the current […]
Policy
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A simple blueprint for a more transparent Jenkintown
What began as an effort to simply change the sidewalk ordinance so that it becomes more equitable and produces superior results has evolved into an investigation into the overall competence of Jenkintown government. The more you know, the less you like, sad to say. Indeed, it seems that at times Council makes things […]
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Did Sean Kilkenny lie to Jenkintown Council?
And if so, why is he still our solicitor? Did you know that Jenkintown Borough Council creates an audio recording of all their meetings to use in the generation of its official minutes? Given that you no longer see anyone at the meeting typing a transcription, this makes sense. Did […]
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Jenkintown Borough Transparency, Sines-Pancoe style
Deborra Sines-Pancoe extolls the virtues of transparency, but her actions drown out her four minute statement. Council President Deborra Sines-Pancoe delivered a rambling four-and-a-half-minute statement last Monday that considered some of the controversies currently swirling around 700 Summit Avenue. Much of this statement sounded like a defense of her and […]
Livestream
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Jenkintown Borough Council, Recorded April 24, 2017
We have annotated this video so that you may fast forward to agenda items if you wish. You may download the agenda in PDF format here. Highlights from this meeting include: A statement from Council President Deborra Sines-Pancoe expressing sentiments regarding civil discourse, the Council’s volunteerism, the ballooning cost of right-to-know-request […]
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Sines-Pancoe discovers the religion of transparency
Jenkintown Borough seeks to sell its properties and our Council president promises an open process On April 20, the Jenkintown Borough website posted an announcement about the possible sale of Borough properties for redevelopment. The announcement made it fairly clear that they were approached by a developer, and that last night’s meeting […]
Policy
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The Myth of Main Street fails to explain Jenkintown’s decline
The New York Times recently published a widely shared article about Main Street and how some believe our new president will prove a boon to it. Louis Hyman lays the blame of for the decline of Main Street solely on its inherent economic inefficiencies. It’s worth noting that the idealized […]
Policy
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The damage of Jenkintown’s $2.4 million lake of parking
The Congress for New Urbanism advocates for sustainable development — the type of development that Jenkintown has enjoyed since its founding. Unfortunately, our powers that be have little clue about the underlying reasons for why residents and visitors find our little borough so charming. Hint: It’s not the parking lots. […]