Friday, October 14, 2016

Norristown Rising Roundtable to focus on safety and cleanliness

Revitalization hasn't come easy for Norristown. It's a struggle I've had a front row seat to for the past two decades while sitting in the editor's chair at The Times Herald. After years of frustration, and not for lack of trying I might add, I thought about a different approach. One of our responsibilities here at The Times Herald is to lead public discourse. We are the watchdogs of the community, but we also need to ask questions when things just don't seem right. So almost exactly two years ago the idea for Norristown Rising was born. We mapped out a series of stories that would run during 2015, asking questions about crime, housing, infrastructure and multiple other issues that never seem to make any progress toward the goal of revitalizing what was once a very proud place to live and work, and visit on a Friday or Saturday night. From that series, we launched the Norristown Rising Roundtable panel discussions in late 2015. We'll be hosting the third roundtable discussion later this month at the Centre Theater, where they've all been held, in the heart of Norristown. Last week's column outlined the next discussion pretty well, so give it a read and hopefully, we'll see you at the theater on October 24.