IN THE COMMUNITY
. . . e h t s i t Wha
by Dean Rohrbach, Elm Street Manager
T
he definition of blight is to spoil, ruin, and destroy. It causes urban areas to become run-down and neglected. As recently as the late ‘90s, the West Reading business district was showing its age. Deteriorated curbs, traffic bottlenecks and stagnant businesses were telling a tale and it didn’t have a happy ending. In 1997, the Borough Council recognized revitalization was needed to stem the tide of urban blight and decline. The nonprofit West Reading Community Revitalization Foundation (WRCRF) organization was incorporated in 1997 “to promote the economic rejuvenation of
property and commerce” in the borough. WRCRF is committed to advance the vitality of commercial areas and livability of residential areas in West Reading. It is a partnership of residents, business leaders and government officials – it has a nine-member board with 3 resident seats, 3 government seats and 3 business seats. It is organized around five committees: Executive; Planning & Design; Business Promotion; and the Neighborhood Advisory’s Safe, Clean & Green Committees. Between 2001 and 2009, the Main Street program invested over $6.3 million in streetscape and property improvements to Penn Avenue using a number of private-sector and government funding sources. The West Reading Elm Street program was created in 2007 to protect borough taxpayers’ investment in Penn Avenue by revitalizing the older residential neighborhoods that share a contiguous border with Main Street. The rational is regardless of the amount of funds invested in Penn Avenue, if blight and crime from the surrounding neighborhood infect the business district, no one will want to go there and it will go downhill. Elm Street has invested another $2.5 million in an eight-square block residential area through programs that create homeowners, improve the housing stock, beautify the streetscape, increase safety and involve residents. All economic indicators for West Reading improve with each passing year. By focusing on both the business district and residential neighborhoods, West Reading has not just halted blight but reversed it.
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Avenues Winter 2016