Mayors, rain outs and primary results

Posted 5/4/16

Ask the Mayor For the last two to three weeks, we’ve solicited our readers for questions that we’ll send to Mayor Jim Kenney, which he will then answer in a piece published in this paper mid-May. …

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Mayors, rain outs and primary results

Posted

Arnie.050516

Ask the Mayor

For the last two to three weeks, we’ve solicited our readers for questions that we’ll send to Mayor Jim Kenney, which he will then answer in a piece published in this paper mid-May.

The goal is to send as many as 15 questions to the mayor for his consideration. The questions, however, have not been coming in at the pace I would have expected. So far we have 10 good questions, the subjects of which range from the legality of backyard chicken coops to restoration of the Route 23 trolley on Germantown Avenue.

This week is the last week we can accept questions, so be sure to email us at askthemayor@chestnuthilllocal.com. As it stands now, there’s a very good chance your question will get a response.

Rained Out

To many of us, following the weather forecast before last Sunday’s scheduled Garden Festival, it was no surprise to learn on Thursday evening that the festival had been postponed until May 15.

Putting on the festival is an enormous task for the Chestnut Hill Business Association and Business District, and pushing it back is not easy either, but the same festival the neighborhood would have thrown on Sunday May 1 will take place on May 15, with the same vendors, entertainment, food, games and more.

The festival, set to mark its 20th run since it was first launched in the spring of 1997, is an event no one should miss.

About that election

By the time anyone reads this, more than a week will have passed since Pennsylvanians voted in the April 26 primary. And Donald Trump will likely have sealed the Republican nomination with a victory in Indiana, the polls of which were opening as I began typing this piece.

Not much interesting happened in Pennsylvania, and 9th Ward voters in Chestnut Hill largely stuck by national and regional trends.

One big exception to that is the win for Mt. Airy resident Chris Rabb, who soundly beat the party favorite, Tonyelle Cook-Artis, to win the Democratic nomination to represent the 200th District of the Pennsylvania General Assembly. Be sure to see Brendan Sample’s interview with Rabb that begins on page 1.

Looking at the results from the 9th Ward revealed some other interesting nonconformities with the larger electorate. For one, Hill Republicans favored Ohio Governor John Kasich to front-runner Donald Trump, 52 to 30 percent. Kasich’s campaign might be as Quixotic as they come, but it’s nice to know that local Republicans are (mostly) sensible.

-- Pete Mazzaccaro

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