Norristown, PA

[russotto]

The Philadelphia Inquirer is running a series of articles about down-on-their-luck downtowns in the area, pushing their New Urbanist agenda.

For those who don't know, "New Urbanism" is the idea of forcing people out of the suburbs and back into the hellholes they left generations ago, and also not coincidentally back under the thumbs of the incompetent and corrupt politicians which run those hellholes. The idea is that in doing so, they will provide a tax base for the revival of these hellholes. It will also leave more land undeveloped, and, since New Urbanism puts heavy emphasis on screwing up traffic and taking away parking, drive people out of their cars and into public transportation. Well, a New Urbanist might disagree with this characterization, but they would be wrong.

Anyway, Tuesday's article is "After decades of distress, can Norristown be revived?". I could write this article with one word, "No". But no doubt the Inquirer will conclude otherwise, provided massive amounts of taxes are sucked in from non-distressed areas of Montgomery County and handed over to the borough.

But this poll isn't about New Urbanism or the Inky article. It's about a couple of friends of mine, who are moving to Norristown. (Why? Because she works in Allentown and he in King of Prussia). But, they say, it's the "good part" of Norristown. I say there IS no good part of Norristown in the borough. Hence the poll.