Letters
Won’t you be my neighbor?
No offense intended to the CHBA, the Local or Urban Partners, but I know I’m not the only one in NW Philly who read “Empty Promise” in last week’s issue and was less than stunned by the news. I could shake a squirrel out of a nearby ginkgo tree and it could tell me corner vacancies are a big problem on Germantown Avenue.
It’s a shame really. The Local has been beating this drum since I moved to the area some eight years ago. Dozens of hard-working business people in the neighborhood have been saying the same thing, over and over. I’m glad they’re still drumming away. Maybe someone will actually listen. It’s too bad a firm had to be hired to confirm what many in Chestnut Hill have been saying for years now.
And what a joke the landlords are. No interviews? What? Are they hiding WMDs? What’s so hard about explaining to folks why they can’t seem to find someone to fill a storefront? People who are looking to get some much needed life on the Avenue need to wake up and stop tip-toeing around landlords like Bowman Properties and hold them accountable for the harm they cause the neighborhood.
They’re not being very neighborly.
Pete Mazzaccaro
Mt. Airy
Judged worthy
I am writing to encourage voters of Springfield Township to vote for Caroline Reeves in the primary election on May 17. Her many years of experience in the practice of law has given her an in-depth knowledge of the Pennsylvania Rules of Court. She regularly drafts opinions as chair for the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania’s Attorney Disciplinary Board hearing committee. As the mother of five and former PTA president, Caroline has long demonstrated her commitment to the community. I enthusiastically support her candidacy and encourage other residents of Springfield Township to do so.
John O’Brien
Oreland
Keep Social Security
It is inconceivable to me that President Bush thinks we the people are so naïve as to fall for his predictions on Social Security. The fact is that these predictions are a pure guessing game of the economists.
Just look at Wall Street; they can’t even predict with any assurance what will happen next week. So who dares predict the state of the economy over 40 years from now? Could anyone in 1925 have predicted what would happen by 1930 when the country faced the devastating economic crisis? Despite that crisis, it was in that decade that we first got passage of Social Security. President Bush can’t keep reassuring us of a glowing economy on the one hand and a decrease in Social Security funds on the other. More workers, fewer unemployed, means more Social Security income.
Since we are told the fund is assured for the next 40 years, and it has been the most stable of all our programs, why privatize now? This is especially questionable when our experience tells us that workers who had work-related private retirement funds invested, such as the steel industry, have suffered terrible losses, leaving many of them completely impoverished. Or look at Enron, which had major investments of retirees’ monies that were swallowed up. If anything is unsure, it is Wall Street and the stock market. To put the welfare of American workers in private hands is criminal.
Americans need to speak out now to defend Social Security and call upon our legislators to stop using Social Security as a buffer in the general fund.
Frances Gabow
Germantown
A great festival
The weather gods were certainly smiling upon Chestnut Hill on Sunday as the rain clouds vanished just as the ninth annual Home & Garden Festival got underway. Thousands of people took advantage of the abundant sunshine to come out and celebrate spring on Germantown Avenue. They were rewarded with terrific items for sale, delicious food, fun dance performances and fabulous live music. Dogs had their day too thanks to the Bones-n-Bonnets Pooch Parade. Certainly we were all reminded why we love living in Chestnut Hill and why we are so proud of our neighborhood.
The Garden Festival is truly a group effort and would never be so successful without the hard work of so many people. I would like to extend a special thanks to the following individuals and groups:
Frank “Stretch” Hendrie, Donnie Thomas, Alford Fonville IV, Thomas Walsh, the 14th Police District, the City of Philadelphia Streets Department, the many Chestnut Hill store and restaurant owners who participated in the festival, Joe Magarity of Magarity Ford, the Thomas Family, Jacob Ruth Funeral Home, Bart’s Mobil and the Venetian Club, which sponsored live music in the 8000 block throughout the day.
Our corporate and media sponsors were Ray Glanzman Subaru, B101, Eichler & Moffly, Stoneyfield Yoghurt, Fit Life, and Bone Appetité K9 Bakery.
I also wish to thank Dottie Sheffield and the other Merchant Window Contest judges: Maryl Hitchings, Lisa Howe, Bright Judson, Barbara Morgan, Ginny Simonin, Margaret Stallings and Ann Stookey Waz. The Pooch Parade’s fabulous judges were: Dom Giordano, Dawn Stensland and Kathy Orr
Finally, I’d like to single out the three women who make all the magic happen: Peggy Miller and Kate O’Neill of the Chestnut Hill Business Association, and Peggy Hendrie of the Parking Foundation. Without them, the festival would neither run so smoothly nor be so much fun. They never stop thinking of new ways for us all to enjoy the first Sunday in May and were a constant source of encouragement and wisdom throughout the weekend. Chestnut Hill’s shop owners would be lost without them, and so would I!
Suzanne Biemiller
Executive Director, Chestnut Hill Business Association
Decisive action needed
It was with pleasure that I read the recent letter from Mr. Tarantino, decrying the sad state of the business environment in our Chestnut Hill community and heartily agree with his concerns. I would liken it to a cancer that will in short order kill our community, business and residential alike, a loss none of us must allow.
It is indeed unfortunate that a community like Chestnut Hill, with its history of civic leadership and strong homeowner pride, can find itself now held hostage by a few greedy landlords whose goal is self-enrichment and whose behavior is disrespectful to our community traditions. Storefront after storefront has remained closed and many more businesses worry that their continuing rent escalations will force their closure. It hurts to see a business that we have come to enjoy forced to relocate to another community for their economic survival. It is also obvious that new businesses are reluctant to locate here. And so, the Perfect Storm!
A solution might be for our civic and business associations to form a community development arm that could buy up business properties as they become available and then lease them to new businesses at affordable rates. Then our civic leadership could bring the businesses we want and not just continue seeing one new coffee shop after another locate here. We might fund this effort by selling shares to community residents, offering a nominal return after time from the proceeds of our leasing arrangements. We might also consider setting up a not-for-profit development arm and solicit tax-deductible charitable contributions from local citizens. While this won’t help us fill the empty stores we see today with the businesses we want, those held by the community robber barons, it might over time gain back the control and enhancement of the Chestnut Hill business community. We have then the opportunity to once again see a vibrant avenue of thriving stores.
The bottom line is that as long as our community is held captive by self-serving and economically egregious landlords, the quicker and more certain the economic and civic death of Chestnut Hill as we have known it. We need only look back to the earlier days of Chestnut Hill and the dramatic positive contributions of the Woodward family for a model. But, quick and decisive action is required of our leadership.
John C. McMeekin
Chestnut Hill |
