Letters
Why close Winston?
Editor’s note: the following letter was also sent to Councilman Frank Rizzo.
In Chestnut Hill we have a Farmers Market, the Top of the Hill Market, Caruso’s Food Market, SuperFresh, Wawa, and the trucks that park across the street from SuperFresh (on Crittenden Street) that all sell produce.
Why is it necessary to close Winston Road, between Germantown Avenue and Mermaid Lane (already a sometimes congested and busy intersection), between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. on Saturdays so a couple of street vendors can sell their produce?
The street vendors who closed this section of street (with bicycles, baskets and colorful banners) last Saturday tell me they have a permit to do so, from now until December — approved by the city traffic coordinator. It appears to me that this has a negative impact on traffic (already busy on Saturday mornings) as well as our local brick-and-mortar merchants.
Marc R. Donahue
Chestnut Hill
Rail sabotage
Mr. Len Byron’s letter in the June 30 issue of the Local may reflect the attitudes of many who used public transit, particularly during the 1970s, as the system had been seriously downgraded with intentionally deferred maintenance intended to force the city and counties to take it over under the SEPTA umbrella.
The buyout of our public-private transit system (the PTC) by a conglomerate known as National City Lines in the mid-1950s began a process that turned a transportation network into a marketing entity and a conduit for fraud and corruption that continues to this day. National City Lines was a straw corporation owned by Southern California Oil, Firestone Tire and Rubber, and General Motors. As you can see by who the owners were, improving rail transit was not a priority. Every bus bought from that date onward was a GM (no bidding). I think you can guess who supplied the tires and fuel contracts.
Every attempt was made to downgrade public perception of the rail system, as it required the permission of the Public Utility Commission to discontinue. Trolleys that were guaranteed to break down were dispatched and track repair was intentionally deferred, as was power line maintenance. That corporation began the process of buying and destroying urban and suburban rail lines in 1947, and by 1955 systems across the country were bought up and scrapped, with ours one of the last they owned before federal investigations began. Although a couple of executives did federal time, wrist slapping was more the case, as quite a few politicians were a part of the process and were rewarded handsomely.
Most cities in Europe and elsewhere, where fixed destinations and population density restrict development without massive rebuilding, use electric rail systems for some very good reasons, including long-term cost and environmental considerations. Although Mr. Byron may no longer use public transportation, I suggest he observe the diesel exhaust from the 6” diameter pipes on the roof of a Route 23 bus next time he is behind one in traffic; that visible pollution is the least harmful of what is being emitted. Trolleys that are maintained, air conditioned and reliable make sense and have the least negative impact on roadways and air quality.
Jim Foster
Mt. Airy
Dazed and confused
I find that I am dazed and confused and totally unable to grasp how someone who got an insignificant number of votes in the recent CHCA election has been elected president of the association, while the names of those who garnered the greatest number of votes do not appear to have been given any sort of recognition.
I need an explanation. What was the point of the election anyway? It doesn’t speak very well for a government, no matter how small, to hold a general election, throw out the results and have a committee unilaterally seat its choice.
I’d like to see a comprehensive article in the Local detailing just how much the group that’s been in charge for the last two years has done for the community. When I come to the Hill the only improvement I can see is the availability of parking spaces on Germantown Avenue which, while most convenient for me, doesn’t speak well for the viability of the area.
Isabel Coxe
Ambler
Editor’s note: The recent elections conducted by popular ballot were for the CHCA board of directors (36 at-large seats are filled that way). The board itself elects officers and at large-members of the executive (leadership) committee.
True Monopoly
After reading your piece by Jimmy Pack on the game Monopoly (Local Life, June 9), I thought you might be interested in the following:
I have a personal reason to be interested in the game’s story, since as a boy I watched the Atlantic City Friends School teachers play Monopoly on the hand-made oilcloth layout in Ruth Hoskin’s room on the third floor of our house, and my family had a long-standing relationship with the Friends School. Naturally, this is the version I have always believed is the true one.
Some of the Quakers involved have been unhappy over the years that proper credit for developing the game was never given (until recently) and they never got a nickel out of its unbelievable success.
Also, this of course explains the reason for the use of Atlantic City street names and landmarks. Thanks for helping to spread the word.
Paul M. Cope Jr.
Chestnut Hill
Elephants deserve better
The article “Local sculptor honors ‘miracle’ elephant reunion” highlighting an elephant sanctuary (Local Life, June 30) was a welcome flash of light amidst the current kill-the-deer, kill-the-geese, chain-the-elephants groupthink. Elephants, despite their gargantuan size and strength, are among the most exploited and abused animals by zoos and circuses.
We need look no further than the Philadelphia Zoo to know that zoos are essentially prisons for animals. Elephants in the antiquated pachyderm house have endured long winters behind bars in a small Depression-era facility with concrete floors. Even though the Philadelphia Zoo is planning to replace the elephant exhibit with a 2.5-acre $20 million enclosure, the exhibit will still be woefully insufficient. Elephants are genetically designed for almost constant movement, and wild elephant herds can easily travel over 30 miles a day on soft soil and varied terrain. The Philadelphia Zoo, like most urban zoos, is incapable of providing the vast acreage necessary to accommodate elephants’ need to move over varied natural surfaces, which is essential for proper foot, joint and digestive health.
Elephants in circuses are deprived of freedom as they are separated from family groups and travel the circus circuit in blazing heat and freezing cold, most often chained by two feet, unable to take even one step forward or back. They are forced to perform unnatural tricks by the use of the bull hook. Elephants find balancing acts physically stressful because of their great weight. However, when the trainer pierces the sensitive skin of the elephant to make it scream, the pitiful performing pawn has no recourse but to obey. Trainers use a gray powder called Wonder Dust to conceal bloody bull hook wounds from the public.
The elephant sanctuary noted by Diane ‘Standing Wolf’ Collins offers Web cam tours for classrooms using teleconferencing equipment. Cameras set up around the sanctuary’s grounds provide live video of the elephants freely engaging in natural behaviors while an on-site tour guide talks about the elephants and their care.
It is imperative to realize that elephants are sentient beings, not movable exhibits. We need to become Ele-friends and retire these deserving animals to sanctuaries that can provide a humane, naturalistic environment and better care. The hundreds of acres of grassy hills and meadows, sanctuaries give elephants a chance to recover from decades of forced immobility and physical and mental abuse.
Gloria S. Feldscher
Plymouth Meeting
Deserving sanctuary
I was pleased as punch with the elephant reunion story in the Local on June 30.
The Elephant Sanctuary is now 10 years old. Its 2,700 acres of natural habitat is situated 85 miles southwest of Nashville, Tenn. It’s the first of its kind in this country for elephants. Its residents are free to be elephants, the way life is supposed to be for them.
Elephants are highly intelligent, profoundly social and deeply emotional beings. Sanctuary staff have noted positive behavioral changes, the animals’ incredible capacity for acceptance, depth of compassion and support for one another in their pain, joy, self-discovery and death.
Cynthia Moss, a champion for elephants, visited the sanctuary late last year. She was overjoyed to know that the resident elephants were at last with kind and caring people as they lived out their final days in peace.
Besides providing a safe haven for needy elephants, the sanctuary raises awareness about the very real plight of captive elephants. Future plans call for the development of an institute of health and welfare where diseases are researched and humane diagnostics and treatment are developed. A public education center is also in the works.
Life in captivity impacts an elephant’s ability to maintain a healthy body and sound mind. Osteomyelytis, a bone infection, is the number one killer of captive elephants. Some zoos hide the pain of foot rot, arthritis and other maladies by using antibiotics, painkillers and anti-inflammatory drugs. Neurotic behaviors are endemic among captives, resulting from boredom, frustration, depression and anxiety. Their needs cannot be met in any zoo environment, no matter how much they may expand and provide.
Regarding circus captives, Vance Lehmkuhl, online editor of the Philadelphia Daily News, suggested that Philadelphia should be the first major metropolis in the United States to ban circus elephant performances. Their lives are pure hell, chained as long as 23 hours a day, according to government reports.
A striking example of an elephant’s amazing capacities can be seen during the tsunami disaster. About 20 minutes before the first wave hit, four unchained elephants helped five chained elephants break free. They all then climbed a hill and started bellowing. People followed them. The wave hit. When the wave retreated, the elephants charged down the hill and began picking up children, running them back up the hill. After rescuing all the children, they then helped adults to safety, saving 42 people.
The sanctuary is now home to 12 elephants. So many more deserve a better life.
Bridget Irons
Chestnut Hill
Too much line
The Bush administration has proposed allowing the very fishing corporations responsible for depleting our oceans to determine how much fish they can catch. By giving this power away, the Bush administration is letting the fox guard the henhouse.
When these corporations have been given this kind of decision-making power in the past, they’ve consistently put short-term profit before the long-term ecological and economic health of the oceans. The results: disastrous declines in fish populations like tuna, swordfish and sharks, all of which have been reduced to 10 percent of their original population.
Not only does this mean that whales, dolphins and otters are without the food they need to survive, it also means that local fishermen are driven out of business and Americans pay higher prices for increasingly scarce seafood.
Fortunately, the administration proposal is not final; citizens of Pennsylvania still have the opportunity to ask the administration to give America’s oceans back to the public.
Kimberly Borkowski
Blue Bel
