Hello Changing Germantown Members! There has been some recent talk in both this group and on Living in Germantown: All Together that I would like to address and hopefully put an end to :) It has to do with the development conversation in Germantown generally, and the founding of this group, so if youre interested, read on! (This is a slightly edited version of what I posted earlier on LIG.) As you know, Changing Germantown Facebook group (thank you for joining!) offers a broad view of development activity at play in and around Germantown. Members (now 100+ strong) are invited to freely post photos, articles, comments and opinions related to urban planning and design, community development, and zoning issues in Germantown. The group is not invite-only, anyone can join, and varying points of view on the topics noted above are accepted and will be respected, so invite your friends! As it says in the about section Changing Germantown was created for focused discussion on the topics above, so you cant post about pies, turtles, or New Years Eve parties - all great topics, but the idea is that anyone can scan the page and get a sense of whats happening on the development front without the clutter of off-topic conversation. Members can also post non-Germantown news that adds context to the change and challenges we are facing. I started Changing Germantown on November 17 to be exact after I quit LIG over a rash new policy, which I felt was more akin to censorship, driven by emotion and personal opinion. Note: talking about this isnt bullying, its an explainer. *I also dont think you should quit LIG! The group has real value, and I recently rejoined myself.* But few seem to remember how this actually went down so heres a link to that thread on Living in Germantown: All Together started by Susan Guggenheim back in November about the policy that led me to quit. https://facebook/groups/LivinginGermantown/permalink/802295553171435/ In the same post, then Admin Susan also made a suggestion: I think you all should really start a new group about zoning issues in Germantown, and move those discussions to a group that you all manage. Those issues are getting to be very heated and numerous. What about it? Time to start a Zoning group? And Changing Germantown was born... Moving on to the now... Because of that exchange, I too was surprised to see Susan Guggenheim (and others) come out like crusaders for the YWCA all over LIG. Dont get me wrong, its a perfectly noble cause with neighborhood-wide implications, its just that the sudden wealth of content was noticeable considering that just a few months ago, LIGs administrator deemed similar topics/threads too heated and too numerous for LIG. Thats the hypocrisy that some members of LIG noted over on LIG, even if it was unintended. Remember that there was a group of people who also shared a similar energy about another development on the corridor (yes, 5301 Germantown Avenue) and that conversation was deemed dangerous / distasteful / annoying and arbitrarily shutdown. That was a bogus call to me, especially given that both PlanPhilly and the Philadelphia Daily News (twice!) both managed to find ways to discuss the development (and deemed it important enough to write about). Yes, the sensitive nature of the project complicated matters, but it was still a multimillion dollar mixed-use development ON the business corridor. How we individually feel about it is just that... how we feel... Anyone who heard my comment (and clapped) at the YWCA meeting should understand that my statement there also applies to this discussion. Its disturbing to me that people assume because you question process and motive, that automatically means you dont or wont support a project. Changing HOW we go about things will also be a big part of Germantowns revitalization. Anyway, no hard feelings, but that is the story behind the launch of Changing Germantown. It should also help to explain the sentiment behind some of the more critical comments Ive seen here and on LIG recently. I did launch this page because of the exchange above, so Im happy about that because I love CG. Its also great to see so many people actually interested in talking about zoning, planning and development in Germantown! I am a member of a few other urbanist-focused FB groups and get annoyed when all everyone wants to talk about is Center City! Keep posting! Keep talking! And thanks for reading! Emaleigh PS: This is a photo of a building that was demolished on Berkley Street by Wayne Junction Station and next to Wayne Mills. It will soon become a new parking lot :(
Posted on: Mon, 26 Jan 2015 22:13:42 +0000
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