"An air of "mad as hell and not going to take it anymore" pervaded at Montgomery County Community College Thursday night in a public meeting of the First Suburbs project.

Three hundred people representing communities from Yeadon, Delaware County, to Coatesville to Norristown to Pottstown filled the community college meeting room with presence and a sense of purpose.

Speaker after speaker described the hardships their towns are facing as the "first suburbs" — the oldest, most deteriorating, economically distressed and poorest of the towns and townships surrounding cities." For the complete Pottstown Mercury opinion article, please click here.