SAVVY MAINLINE

it's what you want to know

Main Line apartment boom: Why so many? 118 North and Amis 2.0; New Cocoon wellness pod & non-surgical neck fix; Devon migrant-shelter update; Plank Studio & more

/ By Caroline O'Halloran / /

Townhomes and McMansions are so 20 years ago.

Seems everywhere we turn, there’s an apartment complex just waiting to be built.

From Narberth to Ardmore to Berwyn and beyond, developers are teeing up hefty rental projects. 2,000 new units are in the pipeline in Lower Merion alone.

So many, in fact, they’re beginning to blur: mid-rise buildings with flat-roofs, mixed-material facades, pristine kitchens and baths and smallish living quarters. What you lose in personal square footage, you gain in amenities and walk-to-town/train/trail convenience.

Or so the pitch goes.

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Homeless, talented & driving a bus in T/E; Another redo for ‘downtown’ Devon; La Cabra’s new Bodega fires up Bryn Mawr; Nova’s new digs; Fall’s best fests; Ellie MAIN Line, Silver Linings, CJE wellness retreat & lots more

/ By Caroline O'Halloran / /

To the Tredyffrin kids who ride his school bus each day, he’s their polite and punctual bus driver. Notable, perhaps, for his Hungarian accent and nothing more.

Ah, but looks can deceive.

Beneath his spotless polo shirt and chipper demeanor, Andras Szekely is, in fact, struggling to survive. He leads a life of carefully hidden homelessness, made bearable only by his art, his far-off family, and his hope for a better tomorrow.

Until now, Andras has kept his living situation secret.

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Devon Anthropologie to swap out deceptive ‘skinny’ mirrors; Plus, Casablanca spices up Bryn Mawr; The Simple Greek feeds Wayne; F45 trains Paoli; Catwalk for Wings & lots more

/ By Caroline O'Halloran / /

Hey, Mirror, Mirror: Who’s the slimmest of them all? Shoppers trying on clothes at the new Devon Anthropologie.

Readers have been telling us for months that Anthro’s dressing-room mirrors make them look a tad taller and a smidge thinner than they actually are.

Thanks for the flattering image, the women told us, but, uh, no thanks.

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Development déjà vu in Devon; Look who’s coming to Bryn Mawr, St. David’s & Malvern; Amazing lashes in Wayne; Everyone Reads T/E; Montessori memory care in Paoli; Student suicides & more

/ By Caroline O'Halloran / /

Remember those ever-evolving plans for Devon Yard? How they once included a hotel, apartment building and parking garage near the old Waterloo site? And how, after a series of skirmishes, feisty neighbors thwarted all three.

Well, never say never.

The same developer – Eli Kahn, in partnership with Wade McDevitt – is back with new versions of each, all sited within spitting distance of Devon Yard and the Devon Horse Show.

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Remembering Radnor’s Heidi Diskin: a life of caring, cut short by depression. Plus, Paoli’s billboard battle, Target fever, Kindred Collective Bryn Mawr, Ardmore murder news, Retail roundup, Etcetera & more

/ By Caroline O'Halloran / /

On Sept. 7, three days after her sons started the new school year at Radnor Elementary, Heidi Diskin ended her life.

She was 44.

We share this with you because Heidi would want us to.

“One hundred percent, she would want her story told,” said her husband, J.D., in a phone interview. “My hope is that what happened to Heidi can be a teachable moment. As terrible as this situation is, it’s an even worse tragedy if it doesn’t help others.”

To family and close friends, Heidi’s suicide was a sucker punch – a heart-wrenching coda to 20 years of pain.

To those less close, it seemed, well, inexplicable.

Because Heidi had made mental health advocacy and suicide prevention her life’s work. She’d started a brain health foundation, she’d spoken to countless groups, she’d even hosted a cable TV show about mental health. How could Heidi Diskin – of all people – have succumbed herself?

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Lucky us! Swell new Stoneleigh public garden in Villanova, The Bercy Ardmore, Imbibe in Conshy, Argyle & MovementRx Studio; Plus, KingsHaven, Devon hats & more

/ By Caroline O'Halloran / /

The Main Line has a new treasure. Dusted off, spruced up, and ready for our viewing pleasure. 42 glorious green acres.

“Stoneleigh: A Natural Garden” makes its public debut on Mother’s Day.

Join the lawn games or pick a quieter day to meander its paths and soak in its charms.

There’s no rush; the garden’s not going anywhere.

It’s ours. Forever.

And it’s free.

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Democrats win big in T/E & beyond; Longtime Main Line ob-gyn arrested; Stoga, Devon Yard, Ardmore Target & Aronimink updates; Dine local; Shop w/ purpose & more

/ By Caroline O'Halloran / /

Local Democrats are still pinching themselves – perhaps nowhere more so than in Tredyffrin, where the party’s candidates went 12 for 12 last Tuesday.

A sweep.

Three Democrats ran for township supervisor seats: incumbent Murph Wysocki plus Matt Holt and Kevin O’Nell. ­

All three won.

Four Democrats ran for T/E school board: incumbent Scott Dorsey plus Kyle Boyer, Tina Whitlow and Heather Ward.

All four won. (Whitlow and Ward ousted current board president Doug Carlson and Virginia Lastner.)

So, for the first time in township history, three of seven supes and seven of nine school board directors will be Democrats.

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Devon Yard beckons brides & mitzvahs; Saving sex-trafficked girls; Flamingos trending; Shopping scoops; A SAVVY Save the Date & more

/ By Caroline O'Halloran / /

The dirt is flying and the bulldozers are busy at the old Waterloo Gardens, now a bustling construction site for Devon Yard.

Good thing, too.

Because URBN is already booking weddings and mitzvahs – from Sept. 1, 2018 onward – at the Yard’s splashy event venue, Terrain Gardens.

Never mind that the project took more than four years to get OK’d; URBN’s confident it can have the whole shebang up and running in less than 12 months.

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Movie theatre to Tredyffrin (?!); Devon pot dispensary’s surprising CEO; New frat suit; True Food Kitchen & new Wayne BYOB; Pun’s to Ardmore; Devon Yard & more

/ By Caroline O'Halloran / /

Dim the lights and pass the popcorn: The Main Line might get its first luxury movie house.

The owner of the Swedesford Plaza Shopping Center in Tredyffrin is in serious talks with an upscale theater company to turn the dowdy old Pathmark into a state-of-the-art cinema experience.

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La Cabra Brewing & other hot new spots, L. Merion’s PR problems, a fond farewell & more

/ By Caroline O'Halloran / /

In a word: wow.

We’re blown away by what a bunch of brewpub newbies just pulled off in downtown Berwyn.

They took a drab old furniture store across from the train station (RIP Pearl of the East), gutted it, and turned it into rustic-chic La Cabra Brewing, suddenly the hippest spot in town.

OK. Not so suddenly.

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