SURVEY RESULTS: Besides violent crime, what do you Hate Most about Chester?

You were asked to pick three. Your top three issues are Vacant Lots/Abandoned Buildings, Lack of Jobs, and the Schools.

Vacant Lots/Abandoned Buildings (69%)

Although abandoned buildings are an eye sore, vacant lots don’t have to be...but many of them are. A lot of abandons have being razed in the past few years but I’m sure we’d all love to see an army of bulldozers come in and take out a lot of them all at once. But, bulldozers aren’t free so the number of abandons cleared away is determined by the money available to knock them down. It appears the city has an ordinance in the works that gives them more teeth to get this process moving a little faster. 

Lack of Jobs (55%)

Jobs are a nationwide issue. You could argue that the jobs are there but the companies aren’t hiring. Chester folks are fortunate to live in one of the most populous areas of the country where thousands of companies exist. However, if you expect to work in Chester, your options aren’t great, but they are still better than most towns our size. We have a hospital, university, casino, stadium, city government and school district, and a lot of small manufacturing and service related business in the city limits. Wouldn’t it be great if all those small companies were required to hire at lease one Chester person as a requirement to do business here?

The Schools (38%)

Are there any school districts that are doing well in any low income black community in this country? Chester-Upland School District’s problems are not unique. Unfortunately, students are just not learning as they should in our schools.

Burglaries (26%)

Because the papers would rather report on 8 murders than the hundreds of burglaries in Chester, we don’t see the problem (unless you’ve been robbed). There are a lot of desperate people stealing nearly worthless stuff just to get by for the day.

City Government (22%)

This issue can fix itself when we get more than 2000 coming out to vote.

The Police (11%)

I’d say that 11% proves that we’re happy with the Chester police.

Trash to Steam Plant (10%)

If someone would convince me how that plant got placed so close to so many households, I may begin to change my mind about the rubbish incinerator. You can’t burn thousands of tons of trash and not think it’s not making us sick. I can’t imagine The Wharf at Rivertown expects people to buy expensive housing near PPL Park with that stinking albatross down the block. That thing has to go.

Harrah’s & PPL Park (5%)

Good to see that these two entertainment bookends aren’t on the top of the hate list. They are great magnets of other things to come.

Widener University (2%)

All the hate Widener receives on this blog didn’t show itself in this survey. How can you hate having a growing university in your city? The campus is, by far, the best looking part of our city.