If Only Everyone Did Their Jobs Very Well…

We are homeowners, businesses, moms and dads, some of us are public employees, (past and present), and social service providers, we represent churches and other non-profit organizations and you will find us on Facebook.

Facebook has become a “town hall” of sorts, for residents and public employees, past and present.  It is there, on multiple pages and timelines, (or in private messages to one another), that people discuss declining conditions in the borough and, increasingly, the low morale that is shared by people from all walks of life in Pottstown.

Facebook is a barometer of the inexplicable inability of local government to address the very serious problems each of us face on a daily basis.  The problems have only worsened over the past 17 years of  Steve Toroney’s presence on counil and….

The decline has accelerated since council chose Mark Flanders, the former Police Chief, to become Borough Manager in November, 2012.

We may not understand the reasons for the systemic failure of our borough to make a course correction but, we are seeking answers, unprejudiced by politics and friendships and cronysim.  We are looking outside of the confines of our predicatment to quantify the disconnect between borough hall and conditions in the community that are worsening by the day, (save for crime and the PPD’s recent efforts).

Good residents express the feeling of  “being held hostage” to the negligence of the local government.

We know that some officials of the borough keep an eye on Facebook and that sometimes residents posts and photo’s are mysteriously removed and that has caused added consternation for residents who want to know who is censoring them.  Then there’s a question of  “malfeasance”, (as a commenter on facebook put it), among some officials in Pottstown and Montgomery County.  

Slumlords and their tenants have been on my radar for many years.  People report that they are harassed and threatened by income property owners when they are told, by neighbors, of the problems on their properties.   Or, neighbors are harassed when their tenants whine to the landlord that the homeowners (and other good neighbors) keep calling police on them.

There are some people in Pottstown who fear speaking up because of retribution not only from slumlords and renters but from the borough itself.  These folks can evidence such behavior.

The issues of slumlords, blighted properties and nasty renters or renters who are marginalized, (living in slum properties) are foremost in our day to day existance. Time and again, year upon year, we watch as officials back away from taking strong measures to hold income property owners responsible.  We continue to pay for their abuse of municipal services  while we go without the bare essential services > and even those are in decline.

We find no logic in the borough’s *seeming* impotence in this troubling pattern of abuse that we experience on a daily basis.  NO AMOUNT of communication with officials, on our parts, makes one hell of a difference.  Mostly, we never get responses from them at all.

Borough officials recently negotiated a new trash contract and YET a permanent solution to the profound occurances of illegal dumping was not on their radar???  Why??   Along with that the firing to two employees, known as the Clean and Lien guys, who at least kept somewhat of a lid on the trash and neglect is, at best, perplexing  given that they were highly visible in the community and….

THEY DID THEIR JOBS VERY VERY WELL.

If you drive by  – today –  377 N. Charlotte St., (owned by slumlord, Essam Schedid of Pottstown), you can see these conditions.   The tenant, Tracey Accor, moved 1/2 block away to 455 N. Charlotte St. owned by absentee landlady, Marie Matichak of Blandon, Pa who has neglected to have an inspection and obtain a rental license, according to the results of a Right to Know that was submitted to the borough.  Neighbors report on FB that Tracey, and her band of misfits, have already broken out the front door window, in only a few short weeks of living there. (They broke the big plate glass front window at 377 which sported a carboard box for months).  But it was work as usual in borough hall, not one person ever noticed???

 On Facebook, yesterday, a nearby neighbor of this property asks:

“How would you like to live here? This is the trash the landlord next door has been putting out over the last two weeks. He’s upset that they didn’t take the large pile of broken furniture because it wasn’t bundled. He bought a sticker and everything! Sorry, Sam, but I’ve only seen one sticker, a week ago. It was for the couch. They took it, but not the love seat he put on top. He called the borough and Mascaro came back and took that too, without a sticker. The wood pile is from this week. The chair that is in today’s photo was put out by the tenants back in July. The pictures are all dated. I reported the chair (and mattress) and Sam made the tenants take it back inside. Mascaro took the mattress and also another one recently. Now, Sam expects it to be taken again for free. There is still a giant TV and other stuff on the upstairs back porch. Seems a dumpster should have been ordered!”

Neighbors and a previous landlord can evidence piles of police calls, arrests of people found in her rental (s), constant nuisance calls, and overcrowding by people who should not have been living in her voucher housing.  At long last, Tracey has lost her voucher which took over 2.5 years of monumental efforts by neighbors and a landlord that I began to chronicle ON MY BLOG IN APRIL, 2013 and again in March, 2014

You can learn more about the plight of Tracey’s neighbors, (our shared plight in Pottstown), in this blog post by historian and author of  The More Things Change, Michael Tolle, who put this new post up on Facebook last week.  Our problems are calling the attention of people as far away as California and STILL we have no recognition or communication or help from local officials and reluctantly from MontCo Voucher Housing.

Former councilman in the 6th Ward, Jody Rhoads, has been outspoken about the tribulations of residents in Pottstown, for many, many years.   Now, he and his wife are experiencing, first hand, the horror of an abandoned, disintegrating home, attached to their own home of 35 years.

The Rhoads’ maintain and take good care of their home, as most homeowners here do, but the declining conditions of the house next door, 166 S. Roland, is taking a toll on their own home, their sanity and their property value.  There are far too many circumstances like this in Pottstown.


The simplest of things, like clearing a walkway so elder neighbors, (and others) can safely walk down their blocks are epidemic – ignored by the borough.  Overcrowded homes chopped into multiple badly managed rentals and a lack of parking makes it impossible to avoid walking to or from your home after a snow storm.

Email after email after email with the License and Inspections Dept., that Jody shared with me, have netted him little attention to the problems and NO RESOLUTION.   He has taken responsibility and contacted the property management company for the bank, Safeguard Properties, to no avail.

Then there’s Shanicqua Suber and her children.  Shanicqua is a strong woman, a mother who cares about the safety and well-being of her family.  She’s stranded, according to her comment that I posted on this recent article on Golden Cockroach:  Slumlord Kenneth Kaufman

Shanicqua said it best at last June’s council meeting, (as did every other resident who spoke).   She arrived at the meeting of her own voliton, unaware of other community members reasons for being there:

Far too many women and children in our community are victims of negligent property owners… yet, we see officals back away.

We have no advocacy from our officials, even when it would seem that getting on the horn to contact these negligent banks, like Bank of America, that own 166 S. Roland St., or – better yet  – advocate for an  ordinance as has been written by officials of  Youngstown, Ohio.

A New Strategy To Make the Banks Pay

“In early 2013, the city passed legislation requiring any entity initiating a foreclosure process—be it a bank, mortgage servicer, lender or individual—to post a $10,000 bond the moment the house becomes vacant (or immediately, if the house is already vacant).”

People here are weary of being ignored and lacking communication from the very people we NEED to hear from, borough officials, I guarnatee the people of Pottstown are done beating their heads against a brick wall.