Hello, I'm Zeke and welcome to the Zekely podcast. Let's talk Pennsylvania.

The guest I have today lives in Ardmore, Pennsylvania and takes a special interest in civic engagement and community leadership. When he's not bringing virtual management solutions to school districts, he's working with community leaders to improve accessibility and enjoyment of public spaces. And now he's running to be a commissioner in Ward 8. Thank you so much for being here, Craig Timberlake.

For years, I’ve knocked thousands of doors all over Pennsylvania and poured my heart and soul into supporting candidates and causes that make a difference—from local school board races to national elections. The personal is political, and I take every election in Pennsylvania personally.

Where the mainstream media has failed you, I will give you truth and independence. You’ll hear from Democratic leaders, candidates, and change-makers who are working to improve the health of the Commonwealth, and it won’t be boring as hell.

No matter where you are, I’ll meet you with hope and a plan to make your community better one day at a time. Welcome to the Zekely Podcast. Let’s talk Pennsylvania.

Thanks for having me, Zeke. I'm super excited to be here.

It's so good that you're here. You know, I know that your race is uncontested, but I think that it's important for people to understand local politics because like I've said before, 90 % of what affects you every

by local politicians, but 90 % of people don't know who the local politicians are. And so I think you're a great example of civic engagement and we're going to have a lot of fun learning all about you. So you ready to get started?

Absolutely, let's do it.

All right. So first question, why have you decided to run to be a commissioner

your district?

I mean, I had been working

I guess, as a...

Mm-hmm.

as an activist in the community, trying to accomplish these things that I'd like to get done for the betterment of my community. And I ultimately decided that having ⁓ that platform and being able to influence the public discussion and also being able to influence, hopefully, my hopeful future colleagues on the Lower Merion Board of Commissioners would be.

Yeah.

a great way to kind of ⁓ help advance my goals. And I also felt like I really have a strong read on the pulse of my community. I lead a Strong Towns group here in Ardmore and one of the core Strong Towns principles is just get out there, get out and walk your streets. There's no better way to get to know your community than to just every day get out there and walk.

And I talk to a lot of people. So I feel like I have a really good sense of that. So that's kind of what...

ultimately made me come around to the idea of running.

Yeah, I mean, we're neighbors and I feel like there's a lot that you can do to help our community keep our functional spaces safe for everyone and just keep a close eye on what needs to be done to keep our communities growing.

All right, we're gonna play a game called Commissioner Gordon, okay? You know, and in Batman, you know, when Gotham is in trouble, he turns on the bat signal, okay? So I want you to tell me how you could help people in Lower Merion

Except I'm gonna say them in my best Batman voice, okay? And I don't know how well this...

This is my first time doing this. I know this is going to work, OK?

At an intersection in Wynnewood has 40 % more traffic accidents than any other intersection.

Is that something that Batman could take care of ⁓ as commissioner? Yeah? OK, good. And actually,

Absolutely, Yep, Batman

has

some really good solutions for that problem.

Okay, good. Excellent. And I'm hoping I'm making you uncomfortable because

⁓

this voice... Is that even a good voice? I even know. I didn't practice this ahead of time.

No. It was great. It's

much better than my Batman. I'll tell you that.

Okay good.

Alright, I figured as Commissioner you could help with traffic accidents in our town.

Yeah, so I could hazard a guess at which intersection you have in mind. You said Wynnewood so I can think of probably a dozen or so different intersections in Wynnewood that could greatly benefit from some interventions to make it safer. ⁓

Yes.

Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah, but that's right

in your wheelhouse as Commissioner. There you go.

Yeah,

All right, here's another one. Are you ready? Historical building and when what is at risk of losing funding for upkeep.

Ready.

Historical building in Wynnewood is at risk. Yes, absolutely. That is something ⁓ I was a history major in college that doesn't really track to my interest in historic preservation, but I do have a deep and long-standing interest in historic preservation and in particular, adaptive reuse. I love seeing old buildings.

There you go. OK.

⁓ reused in different ways. Here in Ardmore, there's a church near Linwood Park that was converted into condos probably 10 years ago at this point. And it's just one of my favorite properties in Ardmore. It's gorgeous. So yes, bat signal. Absolutely, yep.

Yeah.

The bat signal would attract you to this. Excellent, okay.

Let's try this again. Mail-in ballots and Wynnewood are missing their secrecy envelopes and need to be given out to voters.

Oh man, this sounds like a county issue. Yeah.

There you go. I would say the county commissioner would have to put up the

bat signal for that one, not our local commissioner.

Yeah, have to

correct.

All right, here's another one.

Multiple potholes have developed in the township causing eyesores and dangerous traffic patterns.

That is absolutely right in my wheelhouse as a commissioner. I would respond to that bat signal and I would not only would I encourage filling up the potholes, but while we're at it, let's narrow the street while we're doing it. Since we've got the trucks out there anyways.

That's your wheelhouse. You would respond to that bat signal. Excellent.

There you go, okay.

All right, here's the last one to stop

beating this horse.

A high school district requires major maintenance on the bleachers surrounding its football field.

I have to refer you to my friends at Lower Merion School District for that particular problem. Yeah.

There you go. The school board. Yeah, the superintendent. You got it. All right. Well, you got

it. Well, thanks for playing Commissioner Gordon with me. All right.

At any time, that was a blast.

All right, Craig, what makes a town good to live in?

That's a great

So my first.

probably five years living in Ardmore. I knew I loved it, but I couldn't quite put my finger on what it was that made it so special to me. And then it dawned on me when I went to visit, shortly after I went to visit my brother who lives in Greenwood, Indiana, which is an absolute suburban hellscape. It's cul-de-sacs and all the houses look the same.

And if you want to go anywhere whatsoever, you need to get in a car. Most people pull into their driveways, open their garage doors, pull in their garage, never talk to their neighbors. They've got these very wide streets, which encourages people to go to speed very fast and beautiful sidewalks that virtually no one uses.

Mm-hmm

Contrasting that with here, where we have narrow streets, we have lots of sidewalks, virtually no one has garages. If they do, they're in the backyards, kind of off the street, which makes space for people to have front porches. that was it. I realized that the built environment, the way our neighborhood is built encourages community connections and just fosters that, people getting out on the streets and...

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

walking around or even if they never leave their yard, right? You got like wave from their porch or their stoop. And I think that that to me is what makes certainly my community very special is that the strength of the community bonds, which I think is a direct result of the way we built our place.

back before the dominance of cars kind of overtook ⁓ everyone's brains in the United States.

Mm-hmm.

Got it.

Makes perfect sense.

Well, Craig, are there any specific qualifications to become a commissioner?

Other than living

ward that you intend to run for, as I discovered, there's not really any formal

like just reading your CV, I got a sense that you were meant for this position because you care very much about the community you live in. You're very hands-on with improving public spaces. And I just got a real feel for this made sense for you. I think some people, get put in a position, you're like, how did they get there? They're not qualified, they don't care about what they're doing. They're just kind of pigeonholed into that position, but it makes sense for

Yeah, absolutely. And that's where I, you know, when you asked the question, my brain immediately went to the, you know, the formal kind of requirements,

Yeah.

Yeah, you're absolutely right. I think I agree. I feel that my background and my activities in my community have set me up very well to

a very effective

representative for my future constituents here in Ward 8. And I very much look forward to doing that. I really enjoy service and ⁓ giving back to my community. And I've always viewed ⁓ local government as kind of the highest form of local collaboration.

Yeah.

⁓ which is another kind of core strong towns idea. And I'm just very thankful and excited to have the opportunity to act

Yeah, I mean, it makes sense. Again, I'm glad that you are endorsed by the local Democratic Party. I think that speaks volumes about why you're getting into this position because it is largely a volunteer position. You know, know, is there some compensation, like a little bit of compensation for what you're doing, but not like substantial compensation? You know, this isn't like a full-time job type of position. It's mostly volunteer.

There is.

think it's around $4,000 a year, which on an hourly basis, kind of breaks that to be pretty low pay. So I'm definitely not in it for the money.

Right, yeah.

right.

Yeah,

you're not doing it for the money, you're doing it because you want to make your community better. Yeah.

Yeah, absolutely.

Okay.

⁓ good Lord. ⁓

40,000 acres per acre.

Yep.

What were we using for currency then?

It was, was, ⁓

we'll make it dollars and cents, you know, it's, we'll just, we'll just go there.

Okay, let's go with. ⁓

I'm gonna guess a very low amount

So let's go with $10 an acre.

$0.10 an acre. Wow. ⁓ man. How prices have risen. Yeah.

It's not old Haverford meeting house, is it? Merion, friends, mates. I had the right, I was on with the Quakers, just not the right, yeah. I should have guessed a place that's actually in lower Merion, given the topic here.

not it's the Merion Friends Meeting House yeah yeah yeah yeah you were on the right track yeah crazy crazy it's okay there

that has to be one of the original Seven Sisters, Bryn Mawr, Bryn Mawr College, all right.

Bryn Mawr, you got it, very good,

, Lankenau ? Hospital?

So it took control of

milk pasteurization and distribution to the community. Yeah.

so

Salmonella typhi is what causes typhoid. And before the development of vaccines and antibiotics, typhoid fever was a common and often deadly disease with a case fatality rate between 10 and 20%. So it was high, it was really high. So the Lower Merion Board of Health took it upon themselves to oversee milk pasteurization, significantly decreased the disease. There you go. Local politics.

Oof. Yeah.

very interesting.

Craig, what are some major issues you would like to address in Lower Merion , as Commissioner?

So we've touched on a few already, pedestrian safety is a big

Yep.

And that was motivated, again, by me walking around. But what really got me is ⁓ when my kids started walking to Lower Merion High School.

from our house in Ardmore and walking through the intersection of Church and Lancaster, which is just an absolute nightmare. And everyone recognizes that. No one will argue that intersection is not dangerous.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yet we've been saying that for my entire tenure here in Lower Merion which is now 15 years.

Another issue that I care lot about is transparency in government. know that

am one who pays very close attention to what the township is doing.

I go to lots of public meetings and it's still very, it can be challenging for me to keep up with things. So, you know, for people who, you know, might have young children or for whatever reason can't go to a public meeting on a Wednesday night,

I would really like to find some ways to make government much more accessible and just to make it much easier for people to stay informed on what's going on.

And I think that there are some interventions that we could do as a township that would not drastically alter the physical, like what the character of our place, right?

I mean, Lower Merion is very special and a lot of what makes it special is the physical look of it. And a lot of people understandably don't want to dramatically alter that. But by looking at options like allowing people to convert their garages, for example, ⁓ into small accessory dwelling units.

would go a long way to increasing the density. without dramatically altering the physical layout of our place. A friend of mine who did live on my street, a single mother, recently had to move.

because her landlord jacked her rent up

$600 higher than she was paying.

just her and her daughter. And there are very, very few good options, like right-sized options for her in Lower Merion.

And then thinking about like my son, is my older son is a junior in college right now. There is zero chance that when he finishes college or even finishes grad school that he's going to be able to come back to lower Merion

live here. It's just not going to be ⁓ affordable for

That makes a lot of sense.

I just like the fact that there are people like you out there who think about these things on a local level

Yeah, thank you.

Well, Craig, how could someone be a bad commissioner?

How could someone be a bad

so a bad commissioner would not, listen

their constituents. a bad commissioner would not, do their homework, would, you know, show up to, the, meetings unprepared.

a bad

would not communicate with their constituents, keep them informed on what is happening in their ward.

development is always a hot topic around here and that people don't like the idea of building large ⁓ new developments. And I understand that. I can sympathize with that. While I think we need lots of housing, as we touched on earlier,

I also would like to see not massive block long apartment developments. I would much rather see, instead of the Piazza development, example, here in Ardmore, 12 smaller developments on the same footprint. Much more kind of bottom up and therefore much more in character with the town and the way it's developed.

So it sounds like you really as a commission have a lot of influence over how development occurs in our communities. And if you have members on a commission who don't care about the footprint of that community and don't care if you have these massive buildings right next to suburban areas, which will increase traffic and make it a more difficult commute, make it more congested, then they're going to do that. They'll just steamroll that right through and you won't have any

really much say over it until the next commissioners get elected in. So again, that's a good explanation as to why it actually does matter that you have good commissioners elected who care about the community and don't allow unchecked growth, know, where you live.

So how long again did you live in Maine before moving to Pennsylvania?

So I lived in Maine for ⁓ most of my adult life. I was born in Nebraska, because my dad was in the Air Force. But ⁓ I was in Maine until

about 35. And

we moved here to Lower Merion.

Yeah, anything you miss about living in Maine?

I do. I very much miss summers in Maine. It's a glorious place to be in the summer if you've ever been or never been. But the flip side of that is the winters are very harsh. Although getting less so with climate change, unfortunately.

Yeah, I'm sure they're brutal. Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, winters are ultimately what drove us to leave. We had a couple of

bad winters in a row. Just nor'easter after nor'easter that ⁓ made us finally decide to relocate closer to my wife's family. So that's how we ended up in Pennsylvania.

Yeah.

Yeah,

I went to residency in Albany, New York. And so it's not Maine necessarily, but it was cold. We had short summers and the winters were rough. So I can relate.

OK. Yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, it's not that far off climate wise than interior main. So it's pretty close.

Yeah. Well,

we're happy to have you here in Pennsylvania.

Well, we're going to play another game called Maine Rumors. Okay. It's a true or false game. I want to see how well you know Maine. Okay. So true or false. Maine is the only state in the United States with a one syllable name. That is true. Very good. True or false. The official state animal of Maine is the lobster. What is it?

false.

The moose.

You got it. Wow, you're crushing this one. True or false, Maine produces 90 % of the country's toothpicks. That is true. Very good. Here's the last one. True or false, there are more lighthouses in Maine than Dunkin' Donuts.

⁓ true. False. wow. Yeah, I was on the fence. I was on the fence. Yeah.

It's actually false. There are many more Dunkin' Donuts. a lot more Dunkin' Donuts.

I'm sure you frequented with them quite often when you're in Maine

Indeed. Yes.

There are a number of committees that not only oversee various aspects of the community here in Lower Merion, but also report to you to help guide various projects. So some of these are the Zoning Board, the Health Advisory Council, the Police Pension Fund. So even though you'll be making decisions in a lot of these areas, are there any committees that you are interested in getting involved with?

Yeah, so this will probably come as no surprise, but I am very interested in the traffic safety committee.

Okay.

There's an ad hoc traffic calming committee that I am really hoping to be on. I am very interested in the affordable housing committee.

yeah, those would probably be the major ones, but I'm really interested in all of it. And that might sound like just a cop-out, but it's true. It's a blessing and a curse. I've sat in on, I think at this point, most of the citizen advisory committees, like the sustainability, the health advisory council, and I'm just

humbled and amazed at the willingness of private citizens who are experts in their fields willing to give up that time to devote to advising the Township Board of Commissioners. It's truly remarkable and I'm so grateful for that.

I mean, again, you you pay attention. Yeah, you

again, you go to the meetings, you pay attention and that's why you want to get involved. So that'll be great.

Craig, why are you a Democrat?

I am a democrat because the party's values very much align with my personal values. I was actually independent for most of my life coming from Maine. We have a very strong tradition of political independence there. And I was...

frankly turned off by party politics for a very long time. Honestly, I still am to a certain extent, ⁓ but the first Trump administration really made me, so I read a book by the political scientist, Eitan Hirsch called, Politics is for Power.

The thesis was that you,

you being me, spend all of your time on Facebook arguing with people about all of the crimes of the Trump administration. you consider yourself to be very informed on current events and you can name all of the cabinet members and.

but you're really just a hobbyist. You're not actually doing anything. And that to me was ⁓ just a gut punch. It felt as if he were writing directly to me that he was absolutely right. I was a hobbyist. And I decided that I was going to pay a lot closer attention to what was happening locally and that I was going to try to align

my actions with my beliefs a lot more. And for me, that meant finally ⁓ joining the Democratic Party.

Just I fully support democratic ⁓ values, democratic candidates, democratic principles. I think that ⁓ the Republican Party has become a very dangerous shell of itself and has been

very extreme and dangerous movement. And I just hope our country can survive that.

Well, I'm glad that you'll be bringing those values to your position as commissioner in ward eight. And as long as we have good people like you waking up every day at the local level, then from a bottom up perspective, we will, we will get things back on track. I do believe that.

I agree.

Yeah, that's I think that people pay way too much attention and devote way too much emotional energy to what happens at the national level. And, you know, it's it's obviously very, very important. But the the amount of impact that any individual can have at the local level is just tremendous when it comes to when you compare it to to

what you can do at the national level.

Absolutely. That every election is the most important election.

Indeed, yes.

Well, Craig, you successfully applied for a grant from Better Block Foundation to make improvements to the plaza in Ardmore, which includes a ground mural, which is beautiful, by the way, new planters and benches built by you. So I feel like I already know the answer to this, but what inspired you to pursue this initiative?

Well, felt very strongly that Ardmore, downtown Ardmore deserved a vibrant public space and that it was lacking that. I look at suburban square and with a little bit of jealousy, they have, you know, for as much ⁓ grief as suburban square might take from

you know, fans of downtown Ardmore because it's a very, you know, kind of sterile environment. It's very, you know, there's lots of national chains. There's not much ⁓ independent, you know, local retailers there, but they've figured out how to make people want to be there, right? It's comfortable. They've calm traffic. They have lots of seating.

Yeah.

they've got just pleasant places for people to be. And they've realized that bringing people in, attracting them there with those kind of amenities ⁓ is good for business. So

very strongly that Ardmore both needed and deserved a space like

say I, but this was not just me. and many of my neighbors had the same feeling.

So we joined together last fall and formed a Friends of Shuffle Plaza group with the goal to activate that space and to make it more welcoming and inviting. And then the Better Block Foundation, which is an organization that I've been ⁓ a fan of for years. They do amazing things all over the country. They will go into a community, obviously at the community's invitation and take an underutilized ⁓ space.

like an empty parking lot or something like that and convert it into ⁓ an active civic space. And so I applied, I had about 15 different ideas in my pocket and I was accepted and got the grant and

knew right away that, you know, that Shuffle Plaza would be a fantastic candidate for place making project.

And I just have to say like that this even though I led the project, there were so many members of the community that have been extremely helpful and deeply involved in this whole process truly been a bottom up community project. And I'm very humbled and grateful for the community for stepping up.

It's a great initiative.

Thank you.

Craig, what gives you hope?

so that hope can be hard to find if you're looking at the headlines these days, but ⁓ really what gives me hope is the other members of my community. There's so many people out there just not only willing but excited to do good things in the community. And this

Better Block Project has really ⁓ proven that. It's really remarkable to see and just so humbling and I'm just so grateful. So that gives me hope. If nothing else, I have just an outstanding, extremely engaged and strong community here that I can rely on.

We all need to protect that. That is going to carry us through.

Yeah.

Yep.

my last question for you is, what plans do you have to get yourself through these next few years?

I'm just gonna keep doing what I've been doing. Just roll up my sleeves and put in the work.

what's gotten me through certainly the last nine months and I would say really my entire life just doing the work. ⁓

One day

at a time. One day at

One day at a time, ⁓

keeping positive. know for me, it's been very good for my mental health to get off Facebook and pay attention to what's going on IRL rather than what's going on online. Having real conversations with real people face to

That's what's kept me going and I think that's what's gonna get me through the next three or four years and beyond.

Yeah.

and

sticking together as a community as you said.

Yeah,

it's more important than ever right now.

Yeah,

I agree. Well, Craig, thank you so much for coming on to The Zekely Podcast. I really think it's important to showcase local politics and there are going to be a lot of positions on the ballot this November 4th. And it's just gonna be great for you to get involved in our community and to see what you're going to do for Lower Merion in the future.

I am very excited and Zeke, thank you very much for having me. This has been an absolute pleasure. I really appreciate what you

Your enthusiasm is infectious and I just wish we could clone you.

You know, this is my contribution to Pennsylvania. really, as you said earlier, you're part of the Democratic Party because it has the values that you have within yourself. And I think we need to showcase that more. You're a good person, willing to do good things for your community, stand up and volunteer. And if every single person in Pennsylvania did that, we would progress in ways that would be unstoppable. So.

Absolutely, would be

unstoppable is perfect, yeah.

Yes,

exactly. And you're doing your part. So thank you very much.

And likewise.

Absolutely.

Well thank you so much for joining me here on The Zekely Podcast. Stay hopeful and get involved and until next time let's keep building a stronger Pennsylvania together.