What brings more value ALL of Jenkintown? A well-built pedestrian infrastructure for all the Borough or a pocket park on Cedar? Like it or not, I probably know more about sidewalks and pedestrian policy than at least 95% of the population. That and a couple of bucks will get me […]
Another clear sign most Americans are broke – CBS News
Our last “unexpected expense” was a requirement by the Borough to spend $3000 to fix their sidewalk. “Fifty-seven percent of Americans don’t have enough cash to cover a $500 unexpected expense, according to a new survey from Bankrate, which interviewed 1,003 adults earlier this month.” https://apple.news/AFjZswNehT-KbMuUJc-VSww
The nuclear arms race and how we live today
Nuclear weapons did destroy our cities. Just not in the way we expected. We Jenkintonians are fortunate that the great wave of urban renewal mostly passed us by. We had a close call, though. Most people don’t know that the state had planned an expressway that would have run roughly […]
Gauntlet retrieved, I ran for Jenkintown Borough Council
I took up the gauntlet. Since starting this campaign almost two years ago, more than a few people have asked why I don’t just run for Borough Council. A few, such as our neighbor Daniel Gans, have all-but-dared me to do it. I never had any political ambitions and had […]
Happy Holidays from Walkable Jenkintown and the Garbin family
Louise, Cecelia, and myself (plus our cats Alice and Brini) wish the best for all our neighbors this holiday season and well into the new year. Good luck to the new councilors. We look forward to working with them!
Blowing gold into the street
Jenkintown budgets $14,000 each year to remove nutrients from your yard Rick Bunker’s pompous bloviating aside, you do not own the sidewalk in front of your house, but Jenkintown Borough requires you to fix it. You do own all the leaves that fall on your property, and yet Jenkintown Borough will come […]
Who pays? Does it matter?
In a recent post by our friends at StrongTowns, Kevin Posey compares sidewalk funding mechanisms in various communities against their WalkScores. Using this tool, let’s check a few cities to see how high their walk scores are under the following two conditions: The city spreads the cost of building and […]
Jenkintown’s permit application data: The story so far
We have so far reviewed more than 150 permit applications out of about 250, and there are a few immediate take-aways: Some residents may have gotten badly fleeced. We’ve found several instances where contractors — often the same one — provided vastly different estimates for roughly the same work. Almost everyone paid more — sometimes […]
Exercising my rights
I just spent an hour up at Borough Hall reviewing the copies of all the sidewalk permit applications between April 2015 and September 26, 2016. Rick Ware, our Right-to-Know officer was most accommodating, particularly when I showed him the ruling that does allow me to photograph the records, despite his […]
There Will Never Be “Enough” Parking
Parking: The more you have, the less you need. As convoluted as that might sound to the uninformed, it simply means that the more actual infrastructure you clear to build it, the less demand you’ll ultimately have for it. It’s a devil’s bargain. Jenkintown does not have a parking problem. […]
The price of Jenkintown’s volunteer governance
Jenkintown’s 12-member Council works for nothing. What’s that cost us? It always raises eyebrows when I mention to outsiders that Jenkintown’s Borough Council has 12 members representing a mere 4400 people. Each of the four wards has three members, and no, none of them receive a salary. While some might […]
My month with Jenkintown’s Right-to-Know Process
Most residents might not know this, but Jenkintown has a “Right to Know” officer, and his name is Rick Ware. We’ve exchanged several emails with Mr. Ware in the past few weeks, because we want to determine what Jenkintown residents have spent on their sidewalk repairs since the Borough’s paving program […]
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