Letters

Thanks to all

A lot of hard work went into making Sunday’s Fall for the Arts Festival such a success. More than 240 artists, restaurants, community organizations, stores and musicians lined Germantown Avenue — more than any previous year. The crowd saw Chestnut Hill at its finest, especially after the afternoon sun appeared. The Chestnut Hill Business Association would like to thank the following people for helping to put the festival together:

• Frank “ Stretch” Hendrie and Donny Thomas;
• Myles Menardi for supplying electricity to all those who needed it;
• Joe Bird, Tom Gack, Sergeant Kevin Long and all of the other police officers who helped keep the Avenue free from traffic and pitched in in so many other jobs that needed to get done
• Mickey Valinis and Marjory Spiegle who staffed the CHBA office;
• Tom Walsh, who made sure the streets stayed litter-free throughout the day;
• Carol Haussermann, Teresa Vesey and Jack Gann, who hawked Chestnut Hill coupon books with style and determination;
• The Thomas family, owners of Jacob Ruth, who loaned us space to store equipment;
• Tim Feeney from the City of Philadelphia Streets Department, who coordinates the post-festival street cleaning;
• Our terrific corporate sponsors — Subaru, Janney Montgomery Scott and Cabot Creamery.
Finally, the Chestnut Hill community owes a very special thanks to Peggy Hendrie, Peggy Miller and Kate O’Neill. They worked long hours to put together a festival that people of all ages would enjoy and that would present Chestnut Hill in the best light possible. When you see them, let them know how much you appreciate their efforts.

Suzanne Biemiller
Executive director
Chestnut Hill Business Association

Slow growth of older trees

Barbara Sherf's article [Local, September 25] concerning protecting our trees during the construction process was informative and timely, especially as "suburban sprawl" has become so rampant throughout the country. As I thoroughly enjoy and appreciate any article about trees and their care, I feel a greater, and often overlooked, concern in our community should have less to do with construction, and more to do with the pruning techniques used in preserving our old trees (oaks, sycamores, tulip poplars and ashes in particular).

As Hurricane Isabel and the tornados that followed showed us, these trees with their massive sizes can cause serious and expensive damage. Pruning techniques are of the utmost importance. We see plenty of old trees that have had their inner canopy "stripped" out for so many years all of the weight is out on the ends; thus compromising the integral strength of the branch. We are focusing on the reduction of these large trees by laterally reducing the weight of the larger limbs, especially over houses or other "targets.” We are also utilizing a relatively new technique in the industry using growth regulators to dramatically slow the annual growing process. These 100+-year-old trees are large enough already. Let's reduce them, slow their growth and make them safer, so they can be enjoyed for many, many years to come.

John Cummings
Certified Arborist
McFarland Tree Service

Why John Street

Regardless of imperfections, John Street has been a refreshing change. In 1999, he campaigned as a “neighborhood-centered” candidate. Astonishingly, with programs such as Operation Sunrise, Safe Streets, NTI, abandoned car removal and jawboning the auto insurance companies to lower rates (while Katz was getting close to $50,000 a year from Erie Insurance Co.), Street has remained true to the central theme of his campaign.

Contrary to Jim Gleason’s letter (Local, October 9), party does make a difference. In the recent past, we’ve had the homophobia of GOP senator Santorum, the racism of GOP mouthpiece Limbaugh, and now the dirty tricks of GOP attorney general Ashcroft bugging the mayor’s office during a hotly contested election. It would be the ultimate irony for Philadelphia, the home of the Liberty Bell, Independence Hall and the Constitution Center, to vote the GOP, as it now exists, into power.

Mr. Katz proposes to cut the wage tax and “create” 60,000 jobs. This sounds suspiciously like George Bush’s policy, so let’s examine how that has worked. Under Bush, over three million jobs have been lost, the deficit has exploded, key areas such as the TSA and Homeland Security and “No Child Left Behind” have been underfunded. Of course, folks like Ken Lay and Halliburton have made out quite well. It looks to me like the Katz “plan” is either fuzzy math or voodoo economics.
Does Katz have clean hands when criticizing the so-called “pay to play” culture? Certainly not at the same time as he accepts a $210,000 “severance” check from the corporately sponsored nonprofit Greater Philadelphia First while an active candidate for mayor. Isn’t it telling that the Katz 2002 tax return has yet (as of October 8) to be made public?

On education there is no comparison. The GOP wanted to turn the whole thing over to their buddies at Edison. Street successfully transformed that into a minimal, competitive privatization initiative with a lot of local control. Under his watch, we have obtained Paul Vallas, who at this point, seems to be a gem. The city will also be benefiting from a massive initiative being spearheaded by Bill Gates, and the recently announced college scholarship initiative can only be a positive program, and one that arguably should be implemented for qualifying non-public students. Regarding Katz on education, his 70 percent attendance record when on the Board of Education speaks for itself.

Richard Saunders
Mt. Airy