Do You Read the Local?

Do you read the Local? I do, on line, so it's free. Do you read the quotes from prominent Hillers that are printed in the Local? I do. Here are some.

Concerning variances sought by Richard Snowden's Bowman Properties:
Board member Dina Hitchcock commended Richard Snowden for sticking with his plans for the property "This is a far cry from 2004 when near neighbors of the property wanted to oppose development of that property at any cost." Dina, not a near neighbor, nor a resident of Chestnut Hill or Philadelphia, but of Malvern Pa., should read the Local's reporting of the process, in the August 12 and 26 2004 issues.

Turns out that she's full of shit. Read it yourself. The neighbors were quoted as supporting the project, but had concerns about parking during construction and wanted to know about the tenants and construction duration. L&I had already refused some aspects, and even the rubber stamp DRC had questions.

Katie Worrel reported it all. "Any Cost" was not a metaphor used. Richie withdrew, quoted then as saying he was "waiting for the phone to ring" from the neighbors. And Richie would not agree to a time limit, as proposed by the DRC, not the neighbors. Look it up, Dog Lady, I did.

Richie waited, and now no one asks him anything, cause he owns them.

Dina also doesn't mention when she fought Richie, tooth and nail, over his purchase of the 8431 property. I remember when she and her pal Carol (Smith College and Lithium-Great Together) Cope told ME to not worry about a vote on the subject at a board meeting. They brought up items for discussion that no one had ever thought about before, in order to postpone the sale indefinitely. It was the ONLY time we ever worked together. Convict and CHCA trustee Chip Butler overode their anti-Snowden plans with a Christmas recess property transfer - and who knows what other kind of transfer - against board orders.

After the meeting where Dina thwarted Richie's plans, she told me that Richie was a"sick puppy" and gloated whilst tippling at the bar with Carol.

Now Dina sits next to Richie at the board meetings and defends him in print.

Dina saw what Stewy Graham and others did, a new order coming, but while Stwey and his followers left the board, Dina just couldn't. It's her Life. So she buried the hatchet and now eats Snowden Shit. The price of the unbridled power one can retain as an ex-executive committee member of a community organization in a community she doesn't live in. Huh?

I smell a fat contribution to Dina's Pit Bull Rescue from a certain realty company. If not well, who's the sick puppy now? You mean you didn't do it for the other sick puppies?

Now to Richie's quotes. Get ready for the comedy, kids.

The Local reports, "He did not elaborate on his reasons on halting the project (back in 2004) "Instead , he said the "investment climate was not suitable for the project back then."
Here's where it gets wondrous. If you shake your head in response to that statement, remembering a booming economy and real estate market in 2004, and a depressed one now, I forgive you. That makes Richie's statement sound illogical. But actually, it makes it super logical, and fucked up evil, all at the same time.

Richie is in full control of the board and his projects now BECAUSE of the economy. It's what got the business association and all the bottom feeder merchants to swallow whatever he asked them to swallow, and take the board. You have to be a coal mine leaser to get projects going now, and that's just what Richie is.

It's more wondrous. Richie waited for Hill businesses to be weak enough financially, and the board weak enough organizationally, for him to take over. He didn't have to wait for any moral weakness. That one was always there. But Richie and his family have always preyed on the weak.

Some of them couldn't take it, but Richie thrives on it. His knowledge of Dina's past attitude towards him doesn't anger him, her turnaround is his victory. He waited, and won. He may comfort himself with a metaphor concerning the length of time it takes for coal to become coal, but probably NOT one about how long it takes for a glacier to melt.

But my favorite line from this week's Local is one that will go right next to the Pulitzer prize winner's "Snowden Should Die".

It's Richie saying,"I lose sleep thinking, What if we get it wrong?"

Richie, if you haven't lost sleep over leasing land your ancestors tricked farmers out of for strip mining, destroying their lungs, leaving rubble to contaminate their watershed, and spewing black filth into the blue sky, I think you'll be able to leave the Seconal in the medicine cabinet over the Gravers Lane thing.