it's what you want to know
Regal Noye talked in gibberish and ran around in circles for years.
Today, he’s a Summa Cum Laude graduate of Radnor High School just starting his freshman year at the University of Tulsa where he’ll study environmental policy.
On a scholarship.
You read that right.
Regal’s journey – from challenged and challenging child on the autism spectrum to standout Radnor student – was so improbable, his mother just wrote a book about it.
The Black Main Line is speaking out. And thousands – including a growing list of private schools – are listening.
Marches on Main Line streets have moved over to social media, none more prominent than the red-hot, hair-raising, holy smokes Instagram account, Black Main Line Speaks.
In less than six weeks, the account has posted hundreds of vignettes from Black alumni and students describing specific instances when they were taunted, tokenized, disrespected or otherwise diminished by teachers, administrators and classmates.
With the yellow light finally flashing, the Main Line emerged from its coranavirus cocoon last week. We walked into stores, we dined outside, and in huge numbers, we marched.
With fists raised, voices lifted, signs hoisted.
Like the R5, a wave of protests chugged through Bala, Narberth, Ardmore, Haverford, Bryn Mawr, Wayne, Devon, Berwyn, Paoli, a fresh march each day.
Ah, the good old days, when SAVVY – and, by extension, you – gorged on new restaurants. From high-concept places like Autograph, Bercy and Enoteca Tredici to neighborhood spots like The Choice, Ripplewood, Goat’s Beard and Sontuosa, we rushed out to try them all.
In the last year, sadly, the gush of new eateries has slowed to a drip.
Now, we fear it will dry up altogether.
Because Covid-19 has come to town. And dining out on the Main Line may never be the same.
Frankly, we weren’t going to publish. This coronavirus crisis is too crazy/awful/unwieldy to even begin to unpack. Plus, we weren’t sure how to handle our loyal advertisers, who have enough bills to worry about.
But we’ve been monitoring the Main Line’s New Normal. And while plenty about it stinks, there’s good news worth sharing.
So we’re going ahead. You’ll see our advertisers’ banners and hear some of their corona-coping stories but they won’t be billed. It’s the least we can do.
After a string of hearings sometimes so raucous with foot stomping and chanting that officials asked police to stand sentry, Easttown’s zoning board has – drum roll – ruled on Berwyn Square.
Both sides claim partial victory – although, arguably, the bigger win went to the developers.
But this one’s far from over.
T/E is in the news again and not for its test scores.
The school district is grappling with its response to a family whose kindergartner with Down Syndrome was reported to Tredyffrin Police.
The six-year-old’s offense? Pointing her finger and saying, “I shoot you” to her special ed teacher at Valley Forge Elementary.
JP Weber clearly remembers the day he died.
“I can’t go back there,” he thought on June 3, 2016. “I’m never going in there again.”
An elite loan originator for PNC Bank, Weber quit his job that late spring morning and walked, blindly, off a cliff. The old JP – people-pleasing, Percocet-popping, life-of-the-party JP – long crumbling, collapsed completely. And ever-so-slowly, canvas by canvas, rose up and pieced himself back together.
Pinstripe-suited Joseph Paul Weber was buried that Friday morning. Ponytailed, self-actualized artist @JohnHamster was born.
What some call a complete mental breakdown, Weber, 43, calls The Undoing.
Remember the “hidden homeless” bus driver Andras Szekely we wrote about in September?
Well, he’s hidden no more.
After our story:
A big-hearted Malvern woman, Nancy Dougherty, has taken him in. (Sadly, she’s moving so Andras has to move out on Jan. 1.)
The Washington Post, Fox 29’s Bill Anderson, Action News, and the Jewish Exponent all ran a followup features on Andras,
And just last Friday, this…
Troubled waters at Life Time Athletic in Tredyffrin.
The entire facility closed for a few days this week after “a loss of water flow” due to “a construction error,” according to the club’s messages to members.
Wait, the building was “constructed” in 2017 and they’re just finding the error now?
Confused, we reached out to corporate.
