Do you want to hear how it took neighbors FOREVER to get Haverford Township to get someone to look at the pedestrian crossing signal at Penn Street and Lancaster Ave? It wasn't until some neighbors met Andy Lewis the commissioner in HT that anything got done....and in the end, it was a friggin' light bulb that needed changing.

And as for other things, let's take the basics like snow removal, HT does a stinky job. Lower Merion ends up picking up the pieces. The boundaries start around Old Buck somewhere - Wilke Lexus (old Al E Gators) is Haverford Twp. Across Lancaster, the old Pizzi Garage, now Wilke's repair garage is Haverford Township. On Lancaster the Haverford Township stretches up on both sides to Old Lancaster Road and Lancaster, or where Rite Aid/Eckerd is on one side and the Pizza place on the other (BM PIzza)....it may or may not go a little bit farther - we aren't sure. On that turn on Old Lancaster, one side seems to be Haverford Twp for a while, and one side Lower Merion. Behind the Acme (which is Haverford Twp), San Marino is partially in Haverford Township. Part of the Our Mother of Good Counsel property is Haverford Township, which is why there was issue over bingo many moons ago - small games of chance weren't allowed in Lower Merion, but were in Haverford Township.

It is not as simple as mere political boundaries, you don't live right here, ok? When Lower Merion residents call about an issue on the boundary we NEVER get a response back unless we also ask our own township. If we call Haverford Twp even about something as benign as a pothole or an accumulation of trash around where FoodSource is also using the old gas station for storage, we get the "where you live isn't in Haverford Twp" response.

Haverford Township, for example, ignored everyone's concerns about building that Eckerd Drug now Rite Aid so close to the curb and Food Source tight on top of residential. And some of the concerns on that came from Lower Merion RESIDENTS also affected. So as a result, we look at a concrete bunker perched on Lancaster Ave (not that Lower Merion is much better - look at Blockbuster in Ardmore at the edge of the ever unattractive Ardmore West Shopping Center).

The joke about living on the border is that except for when they wish to bust underage cigarette sales at the Acme, or are being paid extra during the holidays to park in front of FoodSource with their lights on, you never see much of Haverford Twp Police. As a matter of fact, neighbors who can think back to when the now defunct Bryn Maw Pub wasn't Marita's, but Spada's the boob bar will tell you that even back THEN when the bars caused issue, Lower Merion was always the one that paid more attention, because even then, Haverford Twp treated this boundary like an outpost.

For example, those bars. There is NO parking, there is NO municipal lot. Why keep approving businesses that need great swaths of parking? Why didn't Haverford Twp get smart years ago when the gas station that was in between the old Silo/Storehouse and the Old Bryn Mawr Pub/Maritas closed and the land went up for sale? Why wasn't Haverford Twp smart enough to buy that property when land was cheap and parking already tight and turn the site into a small municipal parking lot? Why aren't they smart enough to do that today, so people that patronize that strip of businesses don't park, say on Penn Street?

And speaking of Penn Street and those streets back there, why doesn't Haverford Township do more to control those off campus student houses? On Penn, that street beyond - Old Railroad maybe, parts of Martin Ave and others, why are there so many student houses in that area? Is it a question of housing enforcement (because they all are filled to the gills with tons of cars year after year)or a question of needing to emulate the zoning established and refreshed by both Radnor and Lower Merion Townships?

And the stores along Lancaster that are in HT in Haverford and Bryn Mawr? Couldn't the strip stand sprucing up? Even nicer sidewalks would help. But it's only us asking, non residents.

Another example? Recently a vehicle was abandoned (yes utterly tagless)and it took DAYS before it even got tagged as abandoned....and this wasn't parked just anywhere, it was parked at a Haverford Twp parking meter on Lancaster Ave next to Our Mother of Good Counsel Gym.

As for your issues near County Line Road, don't a lot of the issues there seem to stem from the bars and private clubs on Haverford Township's side?

The ultimate frustration is THIS: private citizens from both townships and counties want things to improve, but we are the ones that have to live with the fact that often when there is an issue both townships point the finger at each other and say "it's their responsibility".

Government needs to meet government. Like a peace summit. But if they won't do it and each township won't own issues, nothing happens.

You can post photos here. If you have photos of blight and graffiti and whatever, why not post them? Especially if we're talking stuff that should be considered in Lower Merion, as many towns are being tagged to the max - here in Haverford, we're going to start taking photos again, because it is cropping up everywhere.

As for our immediate area in Haverford, we are going to work with our township and talk to businesses that are in Haverford Township and see if they can help too - we don't want anymore accidents like this, or the ones we see all too often at Penn and Lancaster (there was an accident a few months back where an older person ended up losing a foot or something because they jaywalked from in between cars parked on the paralell spots on Lancaster out front of the Acme. He got picked off by someone, who wasn't even going fast, they apparently didn't have enough reaction time in a congested area to stop. That never even made our papers for some reason (or nothing we could find)

thx