I'm intrigued by companies that follow this blog. This week Pretzel Crisps jumped onboard and is now a follower of ATM on Twitter. Why would company like this follow a local blog about community related items; I have no idea. However they do have over 250,000 likes on Facebook, so what do I know.
Welcome Pretzel Crisps!
New Development on Baltimore Ave.
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| 400 Block of E. Balt Ave. |
Media Rotary Makes It Happen
I was unable to attend last week's Media Rotary event hosted at Generations Restaurant, but I hear it was a great success. The effort was put together to raise money for a bike rack in Media. Great to see the community come together to support and help make Media a bike friendly town!
Congratulations to the Media Girls Softball Team!
Ladies, Great Job at becoming Media's latest CHAMPIONS!
Media's Pool Hall
I never get tired of hearing about the history of Media. Recently I spoke to a life long resident who told me Media had a very popular pool hall called Louie's located at the corner of Baltimore Ave. and Orange Street. Not only could you play pool and arcade games, but they also had a hat cleaning service. Hard to imagine in these days with the nano second attention span most of us have. He went on to tell me they would put match books underneath the legs of the pinball machines to slow the game down in order to rack up free plays.
The Challenge of a Hotel in Media!
It's not clear what will happen with Media's proposed Hampton Inn. Financing has been the biggest hold-up, but a Wall Street Journal article pointed out that often times local government assistance is needed to make these developments successful. The help usually comes in the form of tax abatements. One person in the article even said, "These things are largely uneconomical without significant public incentive." This is my point: After seven years, what has Media Borough Council done to understand what it will, or won't take to have a hotel built in town? With a brand new hotel that's opening up in Springfield, having one in Media may not be as feasible as initially thought seven years ago.
Springfield's new hotel and restaurant area.
Closure of N. Orange raises questions,
With this week's closure of N. Orange Street, people felt the vulnerability of not having access to and from Media. Even thought the road closure was only a few days, there was a lot of anxiety towards the inconvenience and safety issues this created. This again, illustrates the point of how important it is to fix the Third Street bridge and open the roadway to two-way traffic. Had N. Orange Street been closed for any extended length of time, it really would have caused a noticeable disruption on other streets due to increased traffic.A lot of organizations could use $20,000
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| $20k for a video, but ZILCH for Fire Dept. |
I've asked the Mayor about this a few times, even wrote a letter on behalf of taxpayers who contacted me about this spending. Bob McMahon never replied to my letter and has told me in person he had other issues to deal with. For a Mayor, that's not right either!
Fire Dept should take precident over infomeshial.
ReplyDeleteWhile the Mayor has done a lot of good things over the years I agree that it's time for a change. However, TM, the numbers are simply working against you. Short-sighted, two-party politics will prevail. Don't take it personally.
ReplyDeleteTed, get a real job!
Deletewe dont need more apartments. too much space is dedicated to old apartments as it is. that's why it is hard to find a house to buy.
ReplyDeleteSo what is the Wall Street Journal purporting, that corporate welfare is the way to go? Puh-lease. If these greedy companies can't make enough profit and threaten to leave, got one thing to say: 'don't let the door hit you in the butt on the way out.' The Eagles tried this move a few years back when they were threatening to move to LA. Now they're worth over a billion dollars. Then they had the audacity to give Temple are hard way to go on rent in spite of the fact that the stadium was substantially subsidized. Pfft. Are you kidding me.
ReplyDeleteTedman, why don't you look at the budget for the borough
ReplyDeleteAnd let us know what fire safety does get!
Tedman,I thought Media,s contribution for the video was$5000?
ReplyDeleteLois like the fire company is budgeted to receive 17,500 in 2013, with about 35,000 set aside fire fuel and additional funds for insurance. Wow... 17,500.... less than the cost of a video.
ReplyDeleteTake a look at the turnout gear our volunteers wear. These people could be called upon to risk their lives any time of day or night. Shouldn't they have gear that meets today's standards? $17k!?? Really?
ReplyDeleteOK so the budget is posted online. In 2012 the created a new category of expense... "Economic & Cultural Committee"... giving them $7,000. Yet, we already give the "Media Business Authority" $75,000 and the Media Arts Council $11,200 and the Media Theater $1,000 and the Fair Trade Committee $3,500 ... does anyone see the redundancy. Why did we create a new committee in 2012 to do the same thing all these other committees do? And why do we only give the fire company $17,500. Nice priorities. No wonder the volunteers are fading away.
ReplyDeleteAnd what is the fire co budget?
DeleteThe REAL question here is why we spend so much on our Police department. The as-yet unrealized cost of of all the pensions we will have to pay for decades to come is never accounted for in their already bloated budget. We need to either cut that force in half or 'pony up' and raise taxes now. Not on the Mayor's of Council's radar, but that's gonna be the #1 problem for the borough in the future. The damn dam doesn't even come close.
DeleteThat's a good point, but the unfunded liability isn't as bad as all that. It's in the notes to the financial statements.
Delete@anon 11:24AM: How can you possibly be for real with your nonsensical rant about Media's police department? The unfunded liability numbers are completely and totally inflated. Paul Krugman put that lie to bed a few days ago. Our police department does a phenomenal job here in Media and there is no reason to cut their jobs. Put the tea down.
DeleteMM - Agreed, but the unfunded liability is still a concern. Also, not sure anon 1124 is tea pay. If they were, they wouldn't even hint at increasing taxes. Still, the PD (including the Chief) negotiated the CBA and ought to participate in the sacrifices that will be necessary to pay for it.
DeleteIs there something diffferent about police and fire pensions - like they don't qualify for Social Security? Keep an eye on Detroit bankrupcty before deciding ...
DeleteLooks like we have some pretty intelligent folks who ought to participate in the long-term financial planning for the Borough.
DeleteKrugman - champion of Keynesian economics, or as I like to put it, putting the cart before the horse. If we're buying into Krugman's nonsense we're in trouble.
Delete@Steve:
DeleteI'll take Krugman / Keynesian / Demand Side economic theories every day of the week over the Supply Side / Chicago School / Milton Friedman / Reganomics / Robert Rubin garbage that has slowly destroyed the middle class in this nation from 1981-present.
It looks like they're locally run, but I'd guess Pretzel Crisps are either confused by "Media" in your name, or are looking to glean more insight on a market that consumes 12 times the national average amount of pretzels. Maybe looking for the right event to display at?
ReplyDelete