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Where’d ya get your
license, at Pep Boys?
How hard is it to follow one simple rule, one simple law? How hard is it to read five simples words over two signs? What do the two words "ONE WAY" and the three words "DO NOT ENTER" mean to people?
I live on a one-way street. In fact, there is a bank at the top of the street, and one of the exits leads onto the street I live on.
I appreciate how PNC Bank put up a sign, and I believe even had words painted on the ground at the exit. It says "NO RIGHT TURNS," because turning right would be going the wrong way. In fact, if people make a right turn at the exit, other cars may just be coming onto the block and may not see you, because there are tow trucks parked at the top of the street, because there is a car repair shop there. There is not enough reaction time there. I have almost been hit several times.
Even with all of these signs, people — no, morons — still drive the wrong way. Thank you PNC Bank, but your efforts have gone unnoticed by so many people. One moron even parked the wrong way this week, driving onto the street in plain daylight.
Please, if a sign says "DO NOT ENTER" and another says "ONE WAY," do not drive the wrong way. With almost all of my neighbors, having private driveways, we cannot necessarily see you coming the wrong way if we are already committed to backing up.
Luckily, there have not been any accidents in the three years I lived here. But that is just one of the many reasons that my young family and I are moving from Lawndale.
Please, just pick up a good book this summer, and practice reading.
Bob Lendzinski
Lawndale
Lisa is exactly right . . . there’s
plenty of trouble on the streets
We could not agree more with Lisa Henry of Mayfair, who wrote the letter entitled If you see evil, you need to report it in the June 7 edition.
We’ve called the 15th Police District, but they never responded no matter what the complaint was. The D.A.’s office gave no answers to concerns. They said to call the police. CLIP is very good and usually responds. Constant loud dog barking in the early morning and all day late at night disturbs everyone seven days a week. Nothing ever really gets resolved. It’s a poor system. There needs to be more strict enforcement. Loud blaring boom boxes day and night on front porches.
Certain people do what they want no matter how disruptive it is to others, especially, as Lisa said, working-class heroes who have to get up to go to work to pay all those taxes and mortgages and keep our property in good shape, many with beautiful gardens.
We should all teach our children to be respectful of their neighbors and their property. We just want to live in clean, safe neighborhoods without excessive, unnecessary noise. It’s not about race, it’s about people and the quality of life they want for their families and what they will do to have it. Hiding and not making necessary calls will not do a thing but make sure conditions deteriorate. What we can do as working-class heroes is organize within our neighborhoods and turn it around. There is no power greater than the power of the American working-class heroes — organized.
Joan Dahlberg
Tacony
• • •
I know exactly where Lisa Henry is coming from. I live at Cottman Avenue and Marsden Street across from Boston Market and you would not believe the drug deals that I see go on from car to car even when the police are in Boston Market’s parking lot. I’ve seen the drugs change hands. That is nothing but a drug haven and a ring for fights from the after-hours club. I know, because they wake me up every weekend.
Call the cops? Big joke. I’m not saying that the police aren’t doing their jobs but we used to have bike cops, which we don’t have anymore, and we have gotten a really disruptive group of teenagers hanging on the corners. A few years ago I wasn’t afraid to walk in the park with my dog when it started to get dark. Now I am, because I no longer feel safe.
Phyllis Wildonger
Tacony
Thanks for telling
Alessa’s story
A big thank you goes to staff writer Tom Waring for his touching article last week about Alessa Abruzzo (Hope for a cure). She is the young Northeast woman who is afflicted with a rare pain condition called Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy. She will need an expensive treatment that, apparently, is only available in Germany.
There will be fund-raising events to raise the funds for this treatment. It would be great if Mr. Waring could follow Alessa’s progress. Thank you for bringing this RSD condition to the attention of your readers.
Sheryl Kalick
Bustleton
Thank you
from MARC
The Major Artery Revitalization Committee (MARC) thanks all those that contributed to the Ed Costello Fund. Your remarkable generosity raised more than $5,000 to help Ed Costello in his fight against cancer.
MARC also wants to thank those that contributed to our fund-raiser on May 24. The amazing support of the neighborhood provided additional funding for improvement initiatives like the Torresdale Avenue Project (TAP). Thank you, Northeast Philadelphia.
MARC’s board of directors
Blame playground woes
on immigrants
Regarding Jeanne Dearden’s letter about Rhawnhurst Playground (Rhawnhurst has been waiting long enough, May 24 edition):
As a lifelong friend of both Tom and Ernie Bock, I take great offense at her assertion that they care nothing about kids. Jeanne, do you know what Tom and the Bock Foundation do for kids at Bishop McDevitt and Cardinal Dougherty high schools? I guess not. You beef isn’t about the kids, it’s about union labor and the Building Trades Council of Philadelphia.
Jeanne, your anger should be directed at the federal government, your union leaders and our three congresspersons who represent us in Washington. Why? Because the reason your husband and hundreds of his union brothers are "riding the bench" is that illegal immigrants are streaming across the border and doing your union jobs for peanuts!
Our congressperson Allyson Schwartz and her two cohorts continually vote against legislation that would stop or curtail illegal immigration. Your union leaders continue to support and throw tons of cash at these so-called leaders. Jeanne, did you and your union families vote for Schwartz? If so, shame on you.
So, before you bash a couple of good men who have employed thousands of workers in this region, including a lot of my friends and family, I suggest you tell your union friends to call their leaders, and tell them to get their collective heads out of their sphincters and address this problem of illegal immigration and stop supporting people like Schwartz who want these illegals here!
By the way, Jeanne, have you ever stepped foot in a Wal-Mart? I bet you have. Enough said.
Mike Cosgrove
Burholme
Ransom notes fine,
with one exception
I am an eighth-grade homeschooler. I would like to give all of the students from Our Lady of Ransom a pat on the back for expressing their opinions so well (Letters to the Editor, June 7 edition.)
I agreed with almost everything they said, but I think there are other important issues such as preserving our rights (even those of the unborn).
One student said, "I believe secondhand smoke unfairly affects the people who choose not to smoke." What about the smokers’ choice? Don’t they have the right to harm their lungs if they choose? My 87-year-old grandfather is a World War II veteran and has been smoking for more than 70 years. Shouldn’t he be entitled to the freedom that he fought for?
I was also disappointed that there were five entries on animal abuse, and not even one on abortion. I have pets and I’m all for stopping animal abuse, too, but think about how much more abortion there is than animal abuse. Isn’t human life even more precious?
As for the environment issue, I like clean air, too, but if we got rid of our factories, wouldn’t that affect our economy? Besides, our factories have government-enforced air regulations.
I want to thank the Northeast Times for giving us young people the privilege of expressing our thoughts.
Lisa Hanratty
Fox Chase
Cut the trans-fat ban
down to size
The city thinks that the citizens of Philadelphia are too fat and stupid to decide what to eat and feed our families. The trans-fat law represents another effort to "protect" us by taking away another of our freedoms. This law hurts small businesses, gives unfair advantage to large corporations and is another example of how government has too much control in our personal lives. Why are we trying to be like the People’s Republic of New York, anyway?
Do you really want the city telling you what is and isn’t healthy for you and what you can and can’t eat? Tell your representative that you can think and make these decisions for yourself without their help!
Laura Walton
Lexington Park
Is Perzel the best they
could come up with?
"The Public Record is proud to announce to our readers the selection of John M. Perzel as ‘Philadelphia’s Public Servant of the Year’ for the year 2007."
I thought it was a joke until I saw a lot of his cronies taking out ads in the same section of that newspaper.
According to the Public Record, "he’s expected to return as Speaker in the next General Assembly..." No way. He is lucky he was elected to his current job.
They gave him credit for bringing in money to the School District of Philadelphia. A lot of it seemed to go right out again for charter schools. Didn’t his wife Sheryl have something to do with one of them?
How about all the money he promised when he took over the Philadelphia Parking Authority? If they had all that money they wouldn’t have a $190 million deficit and be cutting teachers and services. They would have a surplus.
One great big headline was Perzel made schools safer.
Who really believes that? Do they mean it could have been worse?
One of the ads was from Empke Manufacturing. That is the funniest of all, because an owner of that company is his wife Sheryl’s nephew, who got "strategic grant funding" from our tax dollars. Empke got money from the state but SEPTA didn’t.
Remember when John Perzel’s office staff turned protesters away? Now we are going to pay sizable SEPTA fare increases and do away with services. Way to go, John.
If Perzel is the public servant of the year, what should we think about the also-rans?
Mayer Krain
Modena Park
Make lawmakers do the
right thing for working families
This month, members of the Pennsylvania General Assembly have an opportunity to do right by mothers like Jane Smith.
After three years of struggling to get back on her feet following her divorce, Smith has a good job as an administrative assistant in Trevose. Jane finally found a quality child care program that meets her needs for care for her daughters Suzy and Kate, who are almost 3 and 4-1/2.
It was clean and bright, the teachers took a real interest in the children, and it met and exceeded all licensing requirements. At first she didn’t think she’d be able to afford it: the owner told her it would cost $1,260 a month for each of her girls. That’s more than $16,000 a year, almost half her salary!
She quickly abandoned that idea and began looking at other programs. A less expensive center also nearby had virtually no outside play space. The owner of another seemed disorganized and took almost three weeks to return her phone calls. At a third, the television created a constant din in the background.
Then a friend told her subsidies are available to working parents who don’t earn enough to pay for child care themselves, as long as their income is less than 200 percent above the federal poverty level. Without a college degree, this subsidy was an essential key to her family’s security: it would enable her to work to feed and clothe her children, while they were cared for in a safe and nurturing environment. She decided to apply. Because there aren’t enough subsidies to meet the need in our community, Jane had to wait five months before Suzy and Kate were able to start child care.
This year, Gov. Rendell has proposed a new investment of nearly $180 million in state funding for early care and education. Some of this money would be used to improve the quality of child care programs. A portion would be used to increase the number of subsidized child care spaces so parents don’t have to be placed on long wait lists before their kids can attend child care, and to improve the wages of child care teachers ever so slightly.
The proposed budget increase would also be used to establish a high-quality pre-kindergarten program, so that working families who earn up to 300 percent above the poverty level have another option for their 3- and 4-year-olds, one that research shows prepares them to succeed in school and in life.
The General Assembly has an extraordinary opportunity to do the right thing this month by voting for policies that support working families and prepare young children to succeed in school. But they will only do that if they hear from other members of our community.
Please contact your elected representatives in Harrisburg at www.legis.state.pa.us/ and ask them to support the governor’s early care and education budget.
Maddy Malis
President and CEO Federation Early Learning Services
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