Letters to the Editor:


March 31, 2005 edition


She’s thankful for

Fox Chase Cancer Center

I am tired of hearing people bad-mouthing Fox Chase Cancer Center. Without this hospital, many lives would be lost prematurely. I know of no other hospital in the city with a reputation such as Fox Chase’s.
What is more important — a piece of land or someone’s life? If it was your family member, which one would you pick? I am pretty sure it wouldn’t be a piece of land. One bad experience does not speak for all people, I being one of them. I am thankful Fox Chase was there when the doctor discovered my father’s skin cancer.
Question for the park savers: If it was your family member, would you rather have Fox Chase Cancer Center or take your family member for a walk in the park? If it’s a choice between a squirrel or saving a life, sorry, little squirrel, you lose.
Remember — life, like time, is precious, so choose your battles wisely.
Patty Watson
Bridesburg




This real estate is hot property

What is wrong with this picture? Fox Chase Cancer Center will lease 19.4 acres from the 60-acre Burholme Park for $7.75 million.
In addition, Fox Chase has agreed to give to the Fairmount Park Commission a 15-acre parcel of ground on Laurel Road near Tookany Creek Parkway in Cheltenham.
In 2003, the state decided to sell 22 acres of the 46-acre parcel along the Delaware River in Fishtown to two companies: Beach Street Corp. and Dyott Corp for $100,000.
Once appraised at $1.5 million, Ameristar Casino Inc. has offered to buy the entire 46-acre property for $40 million.
Helen McDonough
Holmesburg




Library patrons get a raw deal

I would like to thank library advocates Amy Dougherty and Karen Lash for their efforts in organizing recent rallies at the Central, Wyoming and Holmesburg libraries protesting the drastic, and devastating, cuts in service to the Free Library of Philadelphia.
Thanks also to state Sens. Shirley Kitchen and Michael Stack, state Rep. Mike McGeehan, and Councilmen Juan Ramos, Michael Nutter, Frank DiCicco, Frank Rizzo and David Cohen in standing with us in this effort. Most of all, I’d like to commend those members of our community who are taking the time to write, make phone calls, and attend rallies in the effort to restore full library services to this city.
I am the children’s librarian at the Welsh Road branch of the Free Library. Welsh Road will remain a full-time branch, at least for now. However, the reduced hours at nearby libraries such as Holmesburg and Torresdale will have a negative impact on our ability to provide quality service. For example, Welsh Road has only seven Internet-accessible computers for patron use. These computers are full all day long as it is.
Increased patronage will put more demand on this limited resource, a demand that we will not be able to meet. We will no longer be able to spend as long helping patrons with time-consuming research questions, as the lines at the reference desks grow longer with patrons who used to frequent librarian-less part-time facilities.
For patrons of express branches, the losses in service are staggering. No more preschool story times. No more school class visits. No more morning hours for senior citizens. No more evening hours for families and working people. No more computer help. This is just plain wrong!
To those who have already spoken out, thank you and keep up the great work! To everyone else, please fight alongside us as we try to bring our library administration and political leaders to their senses.
Library employees and you, the public we strive to serve, deserve better than this.
Ann Hornbach
Children’s librarian, and union steward at AFSCME D.C. 47





Three cheers for the kids

It was refreshing to read a letter to the editor from the perspective of a 12-year-old, Mike Kress of Mayfair, who wrote about the smoking ban.
I think the Northeast Times should include a new section in the paper with letters from the younger age group.
I am 54 years old and I enjoy William Feldman’s Kids Stuff column. He should have more space in the newspaper; perhaps he could print, in his section, letters sent to him by kids.
Joanne C. Hutton
Upper Holmesburg




Permits don’t kill . . . or do they?

So the great Mayor Street is going to stop all of this killing in Philly.
Too many gun carry permits! I would sure like to know how many folks were killed by the good folks who had carry permits. Oh-hum! What a joke. I am glad I moved.
Anthony "Tony Irish" Porta
Sebring, Fla.




What’s with the focus

on evil girl’s religion?

To say Justina Morley is a product of Catholic schools is unfair and ignorant. Is she evil? Yes. Does she deserve punishment? Absolutely. Why do we continue to read in article after article covering this terrible tragedy that this girl is Catholic? Why is that so critical to the article?
It seems as though some writers and editors are focusing on that one piece of background information to take shots at Catholicism. What religion was the Center City rapist? What religion are those men in Quakertown who patronized the massage parlor? What religion are those involved in the Philadelphia city government corruption scandal? Get my point!
Drew Burns
Fox Chase




Neighborhoods have

the MARC of excellence

As the president of the Major Artery Revitalization Committee (MARC), I applaud the efforts of state Rep. Michael McGeehan for his help in securing state funds to improve the quality of life in many neighborhoods.
MARC was created to improve our neighborhood’s appearance through cleaning and beautification efforts. For far too long, our elected officials have provided funding to non-profit groups to research, study and plan on how to solve problems that plague our communities, leaving very little or no money to actually implement a plan. MARC has focused on achieving results and improving the quality of your life in our neighborhoods.
As deputy managing director for the City of Philadelphia, I routinely review neighborhood strategic plans from throughout the region. I have found that most target the same physical improvements required to improve the quality of life in a community: trees, cleaner streets, planters, lighting, signage, sidewalk improvements and safer roadways.
I thank Rep. McGeehan, state Sen. Mike Stack and City Councilwoman Joan Krajewski for using our tax dollars wisely by supporting the MARC and Community Life Improvement Program (CLIP).
By working together on a regular basis, we have been able to produce tremendous results in a very short period of time. More than 100 wooden flower boxes and 150 tree beds have been installed along Torresdale Avenue.
CLIP partnered with the Mayfair CDC to install tree beds along Frankford Avenue as well. Five neighborhood-themed gateway trestles have been painted. Eight murals have been completed along our major arteries.
More than 200 American and sports team flags have been placed in the community. In addition, 50 new trees have been planted, with more on the way.
We created a program to employ 20 youths to help clean and beautify our neighborhood. Four mechanical brooms were purchased to help clean our streets.
A variety of attractive fencing has been placed along Cottman Avenue with new trees, flowers and shrubs planted to enhance the appearance.
Four family-movie nights with free pretzels and water ice were enjoyed by hundreds of residents. Forty non-profit organizations received funds for a variety of projects through MARC.
Looking ahead, we will sponsor 10 community cleanups to be held every Saturday beginning April 2. Look in the local papers to see our advertisement and come out and help to keep our neighborhoods clean.
Three additional neighborhood gateway trestles will be completed. Two community murals will be completed; one has been started inside Holmesburg Boys and Girls Club already!
We will bring back the very popular youth program, a program designed to create a sense of pride for our neighborhood youths as well as clean and beautify our community.
New flowers, plants and shrubs will be planted and maintained throughout the spring and summer. We will once again bring out the mechanical brooms to sweep Torresdale Avenue and residential streets. Replacement of American and sports team flags along our major arteries will continue. We will also hold more family movie nights.
None of this could have been accomplished without the support and guidance of our elected officials who are voted into office to represent all of us.
I would also like to thank the MARC board, especially Chris Creelman, for volunteering their time and devotion to our community.
I look forward to another great year improving the quality of life in our communities through combined efforts with other non-profits.
Thomas Conway
Mayfair




Let’s shed some

light on the land deal

Sunshine is the best disinfectant.
I have been thinking about that phrase recently since the revelations that a Pennsylvania state senator owns a piece of land in Fishtown.
As pointed out in reporter Tom Waring’s article in the March 17 edition of the Northeast Times, this elected official was "gifted" a 4 percent piece of property many years ago. Now it seems that this land someday could be sold to a casino for anywhere between $37 million and $40 million. Wow. That’s a lot of money.
While the elected official in question has stated that he has no intention of running or owning any future gaming interests, that really is not the whole story.
No one believes that our incumbent state senator has any secret plot to operate a casino. Many of us question, though, why this same senator did not loudly and very publicly recuse himself from the legislation that allowed Beach Street Corp. to buy this land from the commonwealth for the bargain basement price of $100,000 (a good day’s work if you can get it.)
Selling this piece of land in the future for a sizable profit would be a big problem for many of the decent, hard-working citizens of Philadelphia.
Many residents of the Northeast are already against any form of legalized gaming coming to the Philadelphia area. I have been an outspoken supporter of gambling. I believe there to be many positive benefits in bringing casino gambling to Philadelphia. However, we will only see those benefits if the gaming industry is owned and operated by law-abiding citizens.
No organized crime (and no politicians) should ever profit from our hard-earned tax dollars. This gaming revenue belongs to us. It should go into our schools, our neighborhoods, our kids, our rec centers, and to help benefit our seniors. This is OUR MONEY!
All gambling must be run cleanly and above board. Only then would there be a positive benefit to the many taxpayers and residents of this region.
All gaming must be run with absolute transparency. No exceptions to the rules or to the law. NO EXCEPTIONS! Not for anyone, no matter who you know.
Everything must be completely honest, up front, and out in the open. EVERYTHING!
Everyone must abide by the same set of rules. EVERYBODY!
When a state senator intentionally "skips" a vote that benefits him and his family, that is not transparency. In fact, it is unethical and flat out wrong.
Federal prosecutor Nora Dannehy recently said: "Honest government matters. It has to matter. Send that message. Send it loud and clear. Without that rule of law, we are all lost."
I couldn’t agree more, Ms. Dannehy.
Sen. Stack, give up your share of this potential gaming site in Fishtown. Apologize to the people of your district for not being crystal-clear on your prior ownership of this land. Remember, senator, transparency is a good thing.
As the song says, let the sunshine in.
John Farley
Somerton
Editor’s note: Mr. Farley’s City Council candidacy in 2003 was derailed when his nominating petitions were found to have been forged, allegedly by local Democratic Party operatives. Sen. Stack’s father, Michael Stack Jr., and two 58th Ward committee people are charged with forgery, perjury and other counts.




A vast right-wing conspiracy?

Regarding the Northeast Times’ recent editorial about the sneaky tactics of deadbeat politicians in Harrisburg: Stuff like this goes on at all levels of government (especially federal) all the time, and it will continue unabated as long as people sit back and allow it to happen.
The only reason why politicians get away with taking loads of vacation time, voting themselves unreal "cost of living" pay increases (while the little person’s paycheck continues to shrink and the price of everything keeps rising) and tacking special-interest back-door amendments to useful bills (a specialty of right-wing Republicans) is because Americans are more preoccupied with sports or who Paris Hilton’s with this week or with what’s happening this week on Desperate Housewives.
Translation: People’s priorities are screwed.
And the American media (owned by right-wing Republican conglomerates) help keep the status quo in place. They want people to be more concerned about the local weatherwoman’s engagement and other useless stories than have attention focused on what politicians are doing (or, more appropriately, not doing) in office.
The system is beyond broke and the majority of people just don’t care to fix it or put a better one in place.
If anyone else took the amount of down time that George Bush and the rest of the politicians took, we would have been fired from our jobs long ago.
It’s time to fire the deadbeat politicians and care about the work habits (or lack thereof) of the people who make the laws that affect your everyday life.
Donna Di Giacomo
Germantown




Mariano: Ethics bill

had too many flaws

Your March 24 editorial (So much for integrity) displayed a lack of understanding about why I and four of my colleagues on City Council voted against Councilman Nutter’s ethics bill.
You fell into the same trap as many of your media counterparts in believing that "something" — even legislation as flawed as this ethics bill — was better than nothing. It’s an understandable knee-jerk reaction to the criticism our beloved city is receiving from the national press as details of the "pay-to-play" trial continue to unfold in federal court.
But accepting this compromised ethics bill would have served only to ease our collective conscience and accomplish little in changing the way our government conducts business. My rejection of this watered-down bill was actually a vote for real ethics reform.
City Council has one chance to do this right. Media pressure should not alter our commitment to establishing a new code of ethics that will be beyond reproach. This bill wasn’t it.
Though well-intentioned, this bill was not well written or thought out. The most glaring example was the catastrophic impact the bill would have had on non-profits — forcing them to compete for contracts and barring them from receiving city contracts if any of their board members or any members of their immediate families gave more that $5,000 to any political candidate or elected official.
When informed of the problem, Councilman Nutter hastily introduced an amendment to exempt non-profits, but only for a period of one year. Councilman Nutter’s bill also excluded quasi-governmental agencies (like the Convention Center, the board of which he chairs) from the provisions of the ethics code. Is that right or fair?
Finally, the omission of the creation of an ethics board was a huge problem for me and others. Without an empowered Board of Ethics, who will monitor compliance?
Philadelphia needs meaningful ethics reform and independent oversight that will permanently fix the problems. I and my Council colleagues look forward to continuing to work diligently and collaboratively to fulfill that objective as expeditiously as possible.
Richard T. Mariano
Councilman – 7th District




Ban on public smoking

is a win-win proposition

The proposed smoking ban should be passed by City Council. This is an issue that conservatives and liberals, Republicans and Democrats, can be united on.
Banning smoking in public places will discourage smokers from lighting up, and make them less able to. It will also protect the people around the smoker and create a better environment in general.
For those who are addicted, smoking is a problem.
This bill would help smokers to quit and protect them from the addiction that puts immediate pleasure above long-term health. It will teach them to enjoy life and have a good time without destroying their lungs.
Liberals believe that a government’s job is to bring out the best in each person and protect people from big business, like tobacco companies, and a smoking ban accomplishes both of these things.
Conservatives believe a government’s job is to protect individual rights.
This ban will protect the rights of the victims of smokers — the secondhand smokers. These people deserve to be able to breathe clean air, and they include bartenders, servers and everyone else in the public space.
I ask those who are smokers and are against the ban: Do you really like that you need to destroy your lungs, rotten your teeth, and stink up your clothes in order to feel 10 minutes of pleasure?
Do you think that other people should have to be involuntarily exposed to the same?
I want the city government to help me help myself, and impede me from harming others.
Scott Schmidt
Northeast Philadelphia Young Democrats


Share your opinion by e-mail

Return to this week’s editorial . . .