Sunday, 1/25/2009

Today's Topic: Arsons in Coatesville, PA

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090126/ap_on_re_us/coatesville_arsons

I used to live in a small town called Thorndale that bordered Coatesville - literally 2 miles down the road. The long and short of the story is that more than 30 arsons have been started in this small city in decline since the beginning of last year. More than half of them have occurred just in the past 3 weeks, and last night's fire spread down a block of rowhomes to claim 15.

Coatesville used to be home to a steel mill that built up the city. The small town where I lived and the small town on the other side, Downingtown, were little towns built up as employees of the steel mill prospered and were able to afford homes. Since the steel mill closed in the '80s, the town of Coatesville had been in decline. But it was starting to look up shortly before I moved a year ago, since it had received some community redevelopment grants. This situation however, will put it back into decline, as millions will be needed to clear up the burnt residences and rebuild.

It's a sad statement on society that first of all, people would do something like this and be so cavalier about the lives of people they never met. And second of all, that a city that worked so hard to pull itself out of decline could be forced back into it by such disrespectful individuals.