December 4, 2008 Issue
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Classified Chestnut Hill Local Don't Miss an Issue, Tell us what you see or Winner of Two |
From our readersIrony in advertising In today’s mail, I received a packet of advertising from Chestnut Hill stores and businesses. Among this mailing was an ad for Reese Pharmacy containing the following promotion: “Service You Can Trust.” I found this to be the comic irony of the year worthy of any award recognizing such. For some years.now I have trusted Reese Pharmacy. My trust was rewarded recently by Reese closing its doors with three-days notice to me. My prescriptions were sold to a local CVS Pharmacy. I had the same experience years ago when Allen’s Lane Pharmacy abruptly terminated all customers similarly dumping us on a larger pharmacy chain. These nasty experiences lead me to question if, in fact, pharmacy is a profession like doctors, nurses and other medical care givers. I think that at least two pharmacists in my experience are only business people making choices solely on the balance sheet. It’s obvious they do not take any professional responsibility for those who patronize their services. Please don’t let me hear any cant about pharmacy as a profession! Jack Nolan
Psst! Don’t tell Forbes Magazine but Chestnut Hill is now a lot less livable than when it was named one of the Top Urban Enclaves in the country last year. Without a single convenience store, grocery store, simple bistro, or neighborhood pharmacy, Chestnut Hill is now an inhospitable address for those who are not able or willing to drive miles to take care of the needs of daily living. How many banks and “antique” stores does a community need to make it livable? Maybe one or two of each — not dozens! That translates into acres of dead commercial space of little of no use to average citizens. Not to mention empty stores, where merchants were driven out by avaricious rents or dodgy deals occasioned by pie in the sky real estate prices. And what will become of Magarity’s? The site would be a terrific location for a Trader Joe’s or Whole Foods store. What if it becomes an antiques mall, dotted with vacant restaurants (e.g. tax write-offs)? It is astounding that the proprietors of essential businesses that local residents have supported for years did not keep the basic needs of the community in mind when they sold out to redundant banks, a CVS that already had an unmanageable number of pharmacy customers, and the ever-rapacious Bowman Properties. Joan Forde
Ad hoc-ing it West Coast correspondent Ed Feldman here… Ms/Mr Chestnut Hill and all the ships at sea (I know many of you aspire to be yachtsmen), let’s go to press … Item: The latest CHCA ad-hoc committee formed by Dina Hitchcock and Tolis Vardakis will change its name to the “let’s turn the Local into our lapdog.” Point man is named Rob Remus. He has been throwing his weight around at the Local like a newly appointed capo, though his group’s combined newspaper experience approximates Tony Soprano’s daily amble to the end of the driveway to retrieve the Bergen Record. Maybe this ad hoc committee can have lunch with the surviving members of the “Let’s Beg Richard Snowden’s Forgiveness” committee and get some pointers. Item: Rob does have a job. He works for (or with) Sanjiv Jains’ Legacy Real Estate. Another Legacy employee, Tapan Patel, resigned from the board last fall when he was connected to the CHCA election everyone admitted was fixed but that no one did anything about, (you brave Hillers!) Item: I called Rob and asked him to explain his recent actions. He was incredulous about how I could have gotten his phone number. I told him about the phone number you can dial to get such information: 411. Sorry Rob, everyone knows now. He said I should hold the line will he got the police on conference call. While I waited, I wondered how the laws of extradition would work in this particular case. After a while I realized he had just hung up. I looked into the receiver to detect the glint from a badge but … nothing. I’ll call back. Ed Feldman
Uncle Remus The Nov. 20 move by Rob Remus, Mark Keintz and Dina Hitchcock to disembowel the editorial and advertising departments of the Local recalls actions by anti-democratic factions of the CHCA in the past: the Oct. 6th, 2005 coup in which Maxine Dornemann and Nancy Berger tried to dictate policy to then-editor Jim Sturdevant, and then busted him, in effect, from editor to staff writer — without prior discussion. The keelhauling of Lawrence Walsh from the CHCA board in January ‘06 for having advised a reporter to quit the paper rather than agree to write what he was told, again without discussion. The set of rules for how to edit the Local thrust on John Lombardi on Feb. 6, 2001 by Janine Dwyer and the “phone mafia” faction of the CHCA — two weeks after a vote of confidence by the full Executive Committee . . . The excuse this time is that the paper is performing poorly editorially, and in its advertising capacity. I’d like to pose some relevant questions: 1) How much money will the suggested ad commission cuts actually save the CHCA? (The proposal is to drop from 17.5 percent to 13 percent on new accounts, and to eight percent (more than half) on established accounts. Although these reductions would be painful to low-salaried Local ad employees, their benefits to the CHCA are questionable. 2) How much money will the proposed cessation of photos and artwork currently offered for sale online by low-earning Local employees like Jimmy Pack Jr. save for ownership? 3) At a time of fiscal tightness, what value is there in purchasing new digital cameras to insure “the intellectual property” (photographs ) of the paper? What will they cost? 4) How does Mr. Remus, who’s been “studying” the matter since September, propose to sell “national” and “regional” ads to Local customers? 5) Given the present shaky fiscal situation, why must a $32,000 loan from the CHCF to purchase the Baseview software unit (used by the Local’s ad and sales staff ) be repaid now? 6) Finally, what are Remus’s qualifications — aside from having interviewed a number of other weekly papers — to judge performance by the Local’s editorial and business staff? Al Scansey, Jr. Ed note: See correction, page 5 regarding the $32,000 loan.
In last week’s edition, your reporter made two errors that contributed to a misleading impression of what was said (and not said) during discussion of the policies in the Local’s non-editorial departments. What was reported but NOT said was that a $32,000 debt would be repaid in six months. The plan is, in six months, “to create a surplus” to begin paying down the line-of-credit, not to pay it off. Your report also said that Eileen Jacobs’ request for how much would be saved by the proposed commission changes was not answered. If that were true, my failure to do so should be widely reported. In fact, after intervening comments by a couple of other board members, I did answer that question. My estimate was that the initial savings, if there were no changes in our customer base, and no first-time customers would be about $50,000. I understand that this is an emotional issue, even for your reporter, as I learned in a subsequent private conversation with him. And I fully expect to take my turn as an object of objective criticism in our community paper. I only ask that the Local try for a little more self-examination in its coverage, especially when its own operations are the issue. Mark Keintz
We got lit Congratulations to Bonnie Greenberg, president of the Business Improvement District, and her energetic BID committee for the outstanding Avenue light show they have provided our community. Bonnie’s leadership, commitment and energy insured success. It’s such a pleasure to realize what this community can accomplish when it works together. Much work went into this holiday tree lighting. Plans were started in March in the hope that the 100-plus trees, as well as architectural outlining of buildings, would be completed before Thanksgiving. The early evening turnout this past Friday to light the last section of trees at Highland Avenue exceeded everyone’s expectations. Thanks to Cashman Associates’ marketing, Chestnut Hill’s holiday lights were featured throughout the region on all the local TV stations. Citibank kindly provided cookies and warm cider. In addition to funds provided by the BID, trees were adopted (at $500 each) by families, neighbors, merchants and commercial property owners — special thanks to Bowman Properties. The ‘Let’s Get Lit’ block party in July was a successful start to this year’s effort. Merchants’ gifts for the ‘Let’s Get Lit’ raffle gave everyone an opportunity to contribute toward the lights (plus win some great prizes). The extraordinary planning, time and effort by Peg Miller, Peg Hendrie and Kate O’Neill from the Business Association kept everything together and moving forward. Our Main Street Manager, Fran O’Donnell, not only labored for months but provided emergency musical entertainment Friday evening until the Mummers arrived. Thanks to Jane Piotrowski from the CHCA for her thoughtful and always creative energy. We can thank Ron Miller for the clever design idea for the tree plaques and Bob Markowski for installation. Of course, nothing would have happened without the suggestions and efforts of our electrician John Cairns and his crew, who did a marvelous job. Special thanks to State Representative Cherelle Parker, The Merchant Fund’s Patricia Blakely and State Senator LeAnne Washington for the grants they helped us secure for this lighting project. Thanks to the collaborative efforts of the BID, C.H. Business Association, CHCA, C.H. Parking Foundation, commercial property owners and local neighbors, we can all enjoy a festive, welcoming scene along the Avenue. Greg Welsh, president
Thanks to the Hospital Having recently been treated for a nasty bout of atrial fibrillation, I want to take the opportunity to both thank the staff and inform Hillers about what a wonderful resource we have in our Chestnut Hill Hospital. To insure satisfactory outcomes, a hospital needs staff who are both competent and caring. The professionals at every level were outstanding! From Dr. Ray Rodriguez — the world class attending cardiologist — to the nurses, residents, orderlies and others, an unusual level of skill, caring and empathy was apparent. Another point: the staff represented a multiculturalism that we should all celebrate. White, black, Hispanic and Asian personnel, at all levels in the hospital hierarchy, treated me as a person — not simply a patient. As today’s kids like to say: A “shout out” to Dr. Ray, Dr. Langenese and his resident “posse,” Lisa, Ginny, John, K.C., the lovely Cecelia and Sean — who can maneuver a gurney through crowded halls like a NASCAR driver — thank you all! James B. Johnston
Thanks for review and ‘late feeding’ Thank you for the recent good review of the Tavern on the Hill. Last week my granddaughter’s arrival at the Philadelphia Airport was a delayed flight from Midway and didn’t land until 10:45 p.m. No food on the plane, of course. Without your review, I’d have taken her to Center City to find a place that was open. But, armed with knowledge from you that Tavern on the Hill is feeding customers late, we marched in there at 11:30 p.m. and were well fed and looked after. The Chestnut Hill Business Association needs to hear that the Local’s editors are snatching customers for them from other neighborhoods. James E. Barrett
I was reminded again who is an American as my Iris recently became a naturalized citizen of the United States of America with 59 people from 30 other countries. And as often as I entertain in the streets of Chestnut Hill with my organ-grinding machine, I look into the faces of Americans with Thanksgiving! An American may be English or French or Italian, Irish, German, Spanish, Polish, Russian or Greek. An American may also be Canadian, Mexican, African, Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Australian, Iranian, Asian or Arab or Pakistani or Afghani. An American may also be a Comanche, Cherokee, Osage, Blackfoot, Navaho, Apache, Seminole or one of the many other tribes known as native Americans. An American may be Christian or he could be Jewish or Buddhist or Muslim. An American lives in the most prosperous land in the history of the world. The root of that prosperity can be found in the Declaration of Independence, which recognizes the God-given right of each person in pursuit of his or her own happiness. An American is generous; Americans have helped out just about every other nation in the world in their time of need. Americans welcome the best of everything … the best products, the best books, the best music, the best food, the best services. But they also welcome the least. The national symbol of America, the Statue of Liberty, welcomes your tired and poor, the wretched refuse of your teeming shores, the homeless, tempest tossed. These in fact are the people of America. Some of them were working in the Twin Towers on 11 September 2001 earning a better life for their families. It’s been told that the World Trade Center victims were from at least 30 different countries, cultures and first languages. We, Americans are the embodiment of the human spirit of freedom. Thank you America, to enjoy and participate in endless opportunities. Orgelius Wolff
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