Delco Boroughs Seek Main Street Designation to Uplift Businesses along Chester Pike

Originally published by Gabriel Donahue for WHYY:

Dedicated funding and development opportunities from a main street designation would bring new life to the six boroughs, making them a destination along a busy thoroughfare.

Six days a week, Christiana Ruiz runs between tables and the kitchen at her café that sits in the business corridor of a small Delaware County borough. Her restaurant, Manny Vibez in Norwood, specializes in “all-world cuisine” breakfast and brunch.

Ruiz invested in the community, which sits along Chester Pike 10 miles outside of Philadelphia. She stumbled upon the community when she moved from South Philly roughly five years ago and fell in love. “It’s such a little gem here,” she said on a recent weekday.

An economic development agency in Delaware County has noticed the area’s potential, too, and is investing almost $25,000 to drive economic growth.

That money is being matched by a state grant to pay a third-party consultant to develop a five-year revitalization strategy, which would determine if six boroughs spanning roughly 6 miles of the route qualify for a multi-municipality Keystone Communities main street designation, according to Laura Goodrich Cairns, commerce director for the Delco Commerce Center.

Such a title would be “an opportunity for targeted investment and development” that could uplift small businesses like Ruiz’s and boost the local economy.

Goodrich Cairns said that while the five-year strategy is required for the application process, it also serves as a tangible action plan for the boroughs, regardless of whether they qualify for it.

But, if they do clinch the title, stretches of Chester Pike and the adjacent streets that serve as each community’s main commercial hub would gain funding opportunities for improvement and revitalization.

The designation also involves hiring a full-time county staffer to maintain the business corridors across the municipalities and fill vacancies, offering employment opportunities and increasing tax revenues for the community.

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro recently increased state funding for main street organizations, including the Keystone Communities program, and downtown development.

Chester Pike’s past, present and future

Chester Pike has served as the main thoroughfare for the area for more than 300 years, connecting the Delco suburbs to Philadelphia. From its roots as a dirt road, it went through spurts of development in the 1920s, when it was paved with concrete, and then a commercial boom after World War II.

It is the main commercial corridor for most of the boroughs it runs through, yet development has mostly stagnated, leaving some properties run-down and storefronts vacant.

Ruiz looks to Media, Norwood’s northwest neighbor, as a model for what it could be. Dubbed “everybody’s hometown” with a bustling main street, Media’s quaint State Street has had the designation under a different program for decades.

“Why can’t we have ‘[Dining] Under the Stars’ situations or things going on for the community around us?” Ruiz said, referencing Media’s popular summertime programming.

PJ Dolan is the former co-chair of the Ridley Park Business Association and a third-generation owner of Dolan’s Bar, two blocks off Chester Pike. The association puts on events to focus on Ridley Park’s businesses, rather than outside ones, to foster collaboration rather than competition.

“We really are of the mindset that a rising tide floats all boats,” Dolan said.

Goodrich Cairns said the strategic study will evaluate how to fund that kind of programming across the municipalities, which would be helped by main street–eligible physical improvement and activity grants.

A new vision

Multiple organizations are currently working to bring new life to Chester Pike.

A nonprofit called the Chester Pike Corridor Improvement Partners consists of five Delco municipalities between Ridley Park and Sharon Hill that have set out to revitalize the same 6-mile stretch. Folcroft would be included in the multi-municipal main street designation, but it is not a member of the improvement partners.

They’re looking to attract, retain and grow local businesses, according to the improvement partners’ executive director Mary Bethea.

“We want to have an engaging business community where the residents want to shop and invite their out-of-town guests to walk downtown and see all the wonderful things there are to see and taste all the delicious food and have a little coffee on the sidewalk,” she said.

Having additional, broader visions to utilize Chester Pike to its full potential, the partners created an improvement project for the corridor in conjunction with the county planning department and Transportation Management Association.

A public survey informed the development of a master plan, and residents indicated a disconnect with the road, according to Rebecca Ross, a principal planner for the county.

“They feel like the quality of the communities around Chester Pike isn’t reflected on Chester Pike. Like Chester Pike is not a good billboard for the neighborhoods, that it can look kind of run-down or really uncared for, and then you go a block off and you’re in this really nice neighborhood that has a really strong sense of community to it,” she said.

A multimodal study has been commissioned to identify road condition enhancement opportunities and make Chester Pike more hospitable for all users. Its findings and recommendations will be revealed Aug. 8 at 11 a.m. in Sharon Hill.

As the improvement efforts start up and gain steam, Ruiz plans to stay put, though her business is growing quickly.

“If I have to [move], then I definitely want to stay as close as I can, because this is our community,” she said. “This is where the people are, and they beg me not to go anywhere.”

###