it's what you want to know
At long last, there is life – and lots of it – at the long-abandoned Chili’s in Wayne.
With murals of native birds and branches inside and out, generous splashes of lush greenery, and teeming crowds at opening-week festivities, the new Burtons is positively buzzing.
Twenty years after the nonprofit Bryn Mawr Film Institute rallied the community to revive an aging movie palace, a similar group has emerged to restore Wayne’s once-shining centerpiece, the historic Anthony Wayne Theater.
No need for Frère Jacques to ring those morning bells – the Main Line is already making its way to Matines.
Talk about a new café hitting the sweet spot.
With her girl-next-door face and bouncy personality, it’s hard to picture Wayne mom Tracy Viola as the duplicitous, defiant drug-addicted teen in her new memoir, Pretty Wrecked.
But maybe that’s the point of this tell-all: looks (and smarts) can be deceptive. Heck, they help you deceive. You can be pretty – and pretty wrecked for years – but you can fool yourself for only so long.
Sooner or later, you’ll crash and burn.
Tracy hit rock bottom seven months after her Agnes Irwin graduation when, strung out and shivering with nowhere to sleep, she crawled inside an empty Toyota parked behind the Devon Acme.
Recession? What Recession? No sign of it here, with so many restaurants, retail and building projects taking root this spring.
We begin in downtown Wayne, where a long-time-coming Blue Elephant has finally made her grand entrance.
Some of our brightest minds aren’t wowing their “Challenge” teachers in T/E, skipping grades in Lower Merion, or acing their APs at Agnes Irwin.
They’ve left our vaunted public and private schools to enroll in a largely unknown startup: The Grayson School, the only independent, non-profit school in PA created specifically for gifted learners in grades Pre-K through 12.
“All Gifted, All Day” is the school’s tagline.
And surprise, surprise: It’s right in Radnor.
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.
Holy Lazarus! A long-stagnant stretch of Tredyffrin has a pulse.
The owner of Swedesford Plaza wants to bulldoze the old HH Gregg and build luxury apartments in its place – 250 of them.
After approaching umpteen stores, fitness chains, health systems and grocers for its two empty anchors, Echo Realty is throwing in the retail towel on one of them. In partnership with Bozzuto, Echo plans to build a four-story, 250-unit apartment building at the old HH Gregg site, a permitted use under zoning code.
With recent school shootings very much on their minds, some Tredyffrin-Easttown Middle School parents are taking aim at T/E’s response to an alleged threat of gun violence and bullying.
They sent e-mails, made phone calls, met with school officials.
Then, scores of them showed up at a school board meeting Monday night.
The district was ready. Message received, loud and clear.
The Superintendent announced the creation of parent focus groups to evaluate T/E’s threat-response policy and suggest changes as needed. He said the district will also explore “best practices” of other districts across the country and review relevant research.
And the day after the meeting, the principal of T/E Middle School sent an extraordinarily detailed e-mail to parents explaining how, as a parent himself, he takes students’ safety personally.
The hubbub started in early February. It simmered, then boiled over last week after a TEMS family, the Nissenbaums, told their story to the AP.
And it ran in newspapers across the country.
Great balls of fire! Wayne’s about to get what Ardmore’s had for years: its own live music hall.
118 North will open on N. Wayne Avenue Feb. 15, adding a touch of Austin/Nashville to our fair town.
To which we say: Rock it to us.
