Latest in a series of posts about Neighborhoods & the Southside
When Gadfly was 9 years old his father took him fishing for carp in the pond at Glen Providence Park, Media, Pa. His father had a new rod and reel. His father was a patient man. We waited for what seemed to be hours for a nibble from what he knew was the “Big One” nosing in the mud at the bottom of the pond. Finally, nature called. He fashioned a “Y” from nearby twigs, propped his new rod and reel in the notch, and headed to the pavilion rest room. During his brief absence, Little Gadfly witnessed that new rod and reel shoot into the middle of the pond. Gadfly will never forget his father’s face. Little Gadfly should have learned a lesson: never leave your post.
Gadfly Diaries, vol. 1, The Larval Years
Last night.
We were about 2hrs./20 minutes into the City Council meeting. And that’s after an hour of a Committee of the Whole meeting before the Council meeting.
Gadfly thought to take advantage of a string of seemingly innocuous resolutions on the agenda just prior to adjournment to answer nature’s call.
And the bureaucratic equivalent of a rod and reel shooting into the Glen Providence pond occurred.
The subject was resolution 10.i, approval of a $47,000 contract to URDC ($22,000 of which were grant funds) for a South Bethlehem Planning Study: “to review current planning and zoning policies and ordinances in South Bethlehem and provide recommendations for revisions to address compatibility between new development and historic district ordinances and policies.”
Gadfly returned to find Councilman Callahan and the City Planning Director butting heads, not like two rams atop an Alpine mountainside, mind you, but butting heads nonetheless.
Gadfly was not prepared to do his usual crack self-reliant audio-visual work, so this is a handy opportunity to refer you to the City archiving of these meetings. For he needed this great resource to fill himself in this morning.
Please view mins. 1:01:22 – 1:30:35 here below for what for several reasons Gadfly thinks you will find much of interest and relevance.
As usual, Gadfly suggests you visit the primary source on your own before he comments.
Back soon for reflection on what happened here.
Overall, this was a very good Council meeting. Several important things happened that Gadfly will eventually report on (damn final preposition).
But he chooses to start here.
Your comments welcome at any time.
So the City goes for $47K for another study of SS, although they ignored many of the most important recommendations from the Sasaki group just after the turn of the century — and they still haven’t (to the best of my knowledge) awarded a contract or funded a climate action plan.