How utterly fantabulous! Since we can't see "Sex and the City" in Ardmore when the movie opens because we no longer have a movie theater, we can grab our June issue of Philadelphia Magazine and be entertained while we wait in line at the mall to see the movie....yeppers, that's right, Philadelphia Magazine is in an Ardmore state of mind, and well, after you read it, can it be wondered if Lower Merion township looks silly?

Not that Ardmore is a stranger to the pages of Philadelphia Magazine, as it was a top story in a couple of years ago :

Sharon Eckstein was curious, and concerned. The....attorney and mother of two had read in the local papers about Lower Merion Township’s plan to redevelop Ardmore’s historic main street, Lancaster Avenue, and the notion didn’t sit well with her, right off the bat. To her thinking, the street and its shops were fine just the way they were. Besides, why should a bunch of government officials get involved in reshuffling private businesses and cutting the deck of commerce and redefining what little, laid-back Ardmore should be? And so she went to Lower Merion High School in spring 2004 to see the presentation by the township’s newly hired architectural firm.

It only made her feel worse. The architects offered various plans, but all the renderings showed something big and ambitious — a rebuilt train station, a parking garage, expensive apartments. On the walk home, Eckstein and a couple of neighbors who’d attended the meeting stood in the middle of Simpson Road, one of those small Ardmore streets with Craftsman-style homes owned by lawyers and professors and a few
hanging-on artists. We have to do something, someone said. .....And with that resounding chorus began what must be one of the strangest, fiercest not-in-my-backyard battles in these parts. On the one side: township officials who insist the only way to revitalize Ardmore is to knock down 10 worn buildings and replace them with more fabulous stores and restaurants. On the other: residents like Eckstein who are aghast at the township’s plan and who’ve dubbed themselves the “Save Ardmore Coalition.”

So, what is different now? Oh that's right, "new" commissioners and no eminent domain for private gain. But other than that, well, check out what Philadelphia magazine has to say, and wonder about that $5.8 million of fed funds set to expire in September. The money is for a train station and a parking garage, yet, has anyone seen real vetted plans for such? NO. Is everyone confused by whatever went on last week at the Board of Commissioners meeting before Memorial Day? Does anyone else wonder why Angela Murray had to get up and whisper in the ear of one of Dranoff's team members? Can it be said the populus has more of a comfort level now with Dranoff, but less with government because once again it seems nothing is happening, the planning is like fuzzy new math, and we all wonder whose vision for Ardmore will we see if anything at all in 20 years? (Don't say jaded, it just seems like a whole lot of nothing is going on sometimes) Will Ardmore see a revitilization or will it die on the vine? And if it dies who will be left to hold government accountable? Aren't they or shouldn't they be held accountable?

Anyway on page 54 of Philadelphia Magazine for June is another fun article called "The Gray Revolution". It's about......Joe Manko. Yes, "our" Joe. Talking about his new gig in Philly on the Zoning Board, living in Symphony House (Dranoff building), and on page 58 waxing poetic about some things Ardmore (including doing everything but call the issue in Ardmore at the end of his tenure what it was : an attempt at eminent domain for private gain - revisionist history is a grand, grand thing, so go buy Philadelphia Magazine and read "The Gray Revolution" :

..."only a Joe Manko would consider a Second Act after the way the First Act ended....even worse than that Ardmore fiasco. The board was worried that the center of Ardmore was going to pot, so it came up with a redevelopment plan, part of which called for the demolition of 11 older buildings....people got pissed off....Only Joe would turn that into an impetus for civic engagement. "Don't complain," he says. "Get involved".

Ok, what Ardmore was he invloved in? Did he really cousel people to get involved in Ardmore, or did he do things like complain about blogs at ULI meetings? What does everyone out there recall? Small group of mean spirited individuals, etc?

Anyway, Joe is better suited for an urban environment, and is probably better than Philthadelphia deserves. Could he get them to give back the Barnes? Yeah, Ardmore was a fiasco in those days all righty. But what about today? Is it still looking silly? Check this out:

Chatter: Real Estate: Identity Crisis
Somewhere over the railroad, ­Ardmore tried to reinvent itself with a bold new vision — until the national credit crunch intervened
By Jessica Remo

If all had gone according to plan, downtown Ardmore could have been what industry insiders call “a destination.” Maybe.

It’s a complex backstory: For years, Ardmore’s tony Suburban Square shopping center has thrived, while across the train tracks, stores along Lancaster Avenue sit sucking wind. But when, in 2004, the township board sanctioned an eminent domain takeover that would have demolished several of Lancaster’s mom-and-pop shops, locals rallied against the seizure. After much highly public hand-wringing — and the ousting of pro-takeover township commissioners — a surprising hero emerged: Underdog architect Ed Lipkin lobbied hard and won a revitalization bid with an über-ambitious $300 million proposal.......Lipkin promised to “knit old and new” into an “urban oasis” via a six-story behemoth housing the revamped train station plus a hotel, office and retail space, and a condo building. The structure would straddle the tracks, providing what township board president Bruce Reed called “a continuous retail environment” from Suburban Square to Lancaster Avenue......

....The credit market crashed, and in early March, citing financing concerns, Lipkin ruefully backed out of the project that might have been his legacy.
Now pressure was on the township board to find a new white knight before the project’s $5.8 million federal grant expired in September. In a second-shot call for proposals just two weeks after Lipkin’s withdrawal, Dranoff — riding in on a bulging portfolio and enough cash to build his kingdom up front — handily won the bid he’d previously lost.....Dranoff’s smaller-scale and drastically smaller-dollar ($150 million) plan....a Frank Furness-esque nod to the “Victorian village” dream that many locals had originally clamored for.....
Originally published in Philadelphia magazine, June 2008

errr.....questions once again have questions, eh?