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7th Police District
is ready to party
As our holiday season begins, the officers of the 7th Police District begin preparations for our annual holiday children’s party. The success of this party is based upon the generosity of all of our community business associations. Your continued support throughout the year helps us to host this festive party. I would like to thank you for all of your support.
Our holiday parties for the last four years were hosted by our good friends of the Knowlton Mansion, located at Rhawn Street and Verree Road. The members of one of our local community groups called Fox Chase Champions continue to be our guests for this fabulous event. This organization consists of many children and adults who very much appreciate the effort and time spent on their behalf every Christmas season.
This year’s party will be held Tuesday, Dec. 16, from 10 a.m. to noon, at the Knowlton Mansion.
Donations can be mailed to:
7th District Holiday Party
C/O Community Relations Officer Rich Simon
1701 Bowler St.
Phila., PA 19115
Once again, thank you for all of your support throughout the year.
Capt. Joseph Zaffino
Commanding officer, 7th Police District
Dismayed by behavior
of our city officials
I agree 100 percent with your editorial A city in crisis that was in the Nov. 13 edition of the Northeast Times.
I am very disappointed in Mayor Nutter and the way he had turned his back on the situation with Councilman Wilson Goode Jr. and his aide, Latrice Bryant. He has remained completely oblivious to the various incidents between Goode and Bryant. As mayor of Philadelphia, he should put a halt to this type of behavior and stop costing the citizens of Philadelphia our hard-earned money that could be put to better use with the city facing all the cutbacks that have been announced.
The same is true with Councilwoman Joan Krajewski. She fought for the Northeast for many years, but has done us dirty in the end. She and City Commissioner Marge Tartaglione should return their DROP money to the city treasury, if they have any feeling for the city of Philadelphia. I am very disappointed by both of their actions, also. The DROP program was not designed for people in their positions.
Since I know that the money will never be returned, the only thing that can get this city back on its feet is to allow the casinos to come to Philadelphia. Maybe we can raise the revenue we need from them rather than cutting all of the things Mayor Nutter is suggesting. Isn’t it a shame that the spending is cut for libraries and swimming pools while the employees of the city line their pockets?
Elizabeth Hanssens
East Torresdale
Pin thief deserves
a lot of misery
I hate thieves! Recently, we found the perfect Charlie Brown pumpkin to place out front of our house. It was only there a few hours before it disappeared. Shortly after, someone stole the ghost ornament out front, also. How pathetic for someone to have to steal such things.
Recently, I attended a 100th birthday party for my dear neighbor at a lovely country club in Upper Dublin for my dear neighbor. It was a lovely affair with a small gathering of friends, neighbors and family.
My coat was placed in the coatroom there. I’ve had a beautiful heart pin on my coat that belonged to my sister Anna when she was alive. She passed away nine years ago after spending many years in St. John Neumann Nursing Home, where her husband had visited her every day.
At that time, their home in Port Richmond was broken into twice by dope fiends in the area. They stole everything of value, including my sister’s jewelry. A few mementos were left undiscovered, and that pin was one of them. I treasured it because I loved my sister so much.
At first I didn’t realize the pin was gone, but soon missed it. Someone took it off my coat in the coatroom, and that broke my heart. I hope that miserable vulture has nothing but misery because of their thievery of that treasure and anything else they may have stolen!
Margaret Hanna
Tacony
Let them
eat at home
I’m in agreement with the United States Department of Agriculture’s ruling about restrictions on food programs to our schools.
For the life of me, I can’t understand why parents can’t be responsible for providing food for their children. Isn’t it basically a parent’s responsibility to provide clothing, nourishment and house for their kids?
I realize that some families have problems and require help, but this shouldn’t be a massive problem. But to charge taxpayers, especially in this economy, to pay en masse for these programs is ridiculous.
If people can’t provide breakfast, lunch and dinner for their children and they show proof of financial difficulties, then by all means we will feed your kids, but no one should have carte blanche to these giveaway programs.
Jack Miller
Rhawnhurst
Overdue books vs.
overdue City Hall cuts
I admit that the city has fallen once again on economically difficult times and that agonizing and unpopular decisions must be made in the short term.
As an example of the city’s wasteful track record, I won’t even reflect how delinquent business taxes have steadily risen throughout the years with apparently no one "watching the store" and/or caring. At a time when we have been focusing on the increase of juvenile criminal behavior, it’s unconscionable that our answer now is to close 68 of 81 city pools, three of five city ice rinks, 11 of 54 libraries, eliminate the DARE program and all of the recently formed curfew centers.
While each of the mayor’s proposed cutbacks is a disappointment, I feel the need to especially ask our elected officials to reconsider the decision to close the libraries in this city. As a Holme Circle resident, I am particularly upset with the proposed demise of the Holmesburg Library, whose land was donated by the trustees of Lower Dublin Academy and its building rose from donated funds by industrialist and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie. Not only did this library celebrate its 100th anniversary last year, it was given a $5,000 state grant just this past August from state Sen. Mike Stack.
Has the city even considered the legal implications of trying to sell this building, whose agreement between the trustees and Free Library of Philadelphia maintains it must remain a library or the building will revert back to the trustees for their disposition?
This library has served the neighborhood for over 100 years, nurturing young (and mature) minds who have absorbed the attained knowledge like a sponge. This branch is an important asset to our neighborhood — not only for its books and media, but as a center to access technology, hear various guest speakers, and as a meeting place for local groups.
I personally have had my library card for more than 52 years and was certain that my daughter and grandsons also obtained theirs, since the library has been not only a source of knowledge and inspiration but an after-school safe haven as well.
Instead of depriving the city’s youth of these important services and after successfully balancing my own checkbook for decades, I suggest some personal recommendations to "trim the fat" from City Hall. They are:
1) Look first in your own backyard — eliminate the over bloated municipal payrolls. No councilman’s aide deserves a $17,000 pay raise in one year, totaling $90,000 annually.
2) Eliminate 500 vehicles from the city’s 6,000 fleet/increase car sharing.
3) Aggressively collect the $527 million in overdue property taxes. Why are some neighborhoods allowed to have double-digit percentages of non-paying owners, while other areas of the city are in the small single digits? Some ZIP codes show that half of all properties owe taxes.
4) Make 10 percent of the city’s $1.1 billion in contracts non-union.
5) Aggressive $$$ collections of bail jumpers.
6) Implementing City Hall inter-office mail delivery vs. USPS.
Mayor Nutter, while I applaud your decision to take a personal pay cut along with your cabinet, I ask that you save our libraries from closure, for such a hasty economic decision now will have dire and irreversible consequences for the future of our community. We Philadelphians would rather see our youths in a library than hanging on the corner. After all, a mind is a terrible thing to waste.
Elsie Stevens
Holme Circle
Closing is
no solution
If it seems like we have been through this before, we have, just three years ago! As a library supervisor who lived through the "express branch" idea of the last library director and mayor, I understand that administrators do not always make sound decisions.
For those of us who have dedicated our professional lives to serving the communities of the 11 branches slated to be closed, it is very hard to understand why the children and teens will no longer have easy access to after-school programs or help with homework or use of computers for research. What child in Holmesburg is going to want to travel after school all the way to Torresdale, Tacony or Cottman Avenue? In fact, what parent would allow a child to travel that far alone? Parents still call the librarians to check that their kids make it several blocks to the library. Are they even going to consider a two-mile trip to be safe?? And don’t think that in these economic times that one parent will always be available to take that child to the library. Not only are mom and dad both working, one or the other may be working a second job!
Then there are the nursery schools and day cares in our neighborhoods. Just a few months ago our mayor advocated that every preschool or daycare should be guaranteed a visit at the library within four to six weeks of contacting the library. What preschool is going to truck five to 25 little kids two miles or more to the library? Now they will no longer be able to hop the Route 66 bus up or down Frankford Avenue and reach this library, let alone be able to walk to the library.
Another service Holmesburg provides is Internet access. Adults need this advantage in order to apply for jobs. Many businesses require that applicants fill out their applications online and no longer accept in-person applications. In fact, Holmesburg’s number of computer users this past fiscal year was fifth highest in the library system.
It has been suggested by the administration that bookmobiles might be reinstated for those areas without library buildings. Thirty years ago Philly had bookmobiles, which were disbanded as fiscally unfeasible. Does it make sense to re-employ them when gasoline is so costly? In addition, there are limitations to the service they provide. This is still a city of have-nots when it comes to computers and Internet access; a bookmobile will not be able to provide six computers like a building does. Furthermore, restricting access to library services to the few hours a bookmobile would be actually present in a neighborhood is potentially discriminatory.
Another limitation is in the quantity of materials that would be available through a mobile service. It is physically impossible for a bookmobile to support the needs of students when a whole class or a whole grade gets an assignment like African-American history or science fair projects.
The 11 branches are in their neighborhoods for good reason; the public actively uses and needs each branch. The fact that the administration has suggested deploying bookmobiles is an admission that a library is needed in those communities. Some neighborhoods like Holmesburg recognized the need more than 100 years ago. Some like Ogontz petitioned the city for 30 years to get a branch built. Now that Ogontz has celebrated 10 years of service and Holmesburg has celebrated 101 years, they are going to close — permanently.
And that is the crux of the issue; this time we are not talking about a temporary fix for budgetary reasons. This time they want to sell the building, the materials will go to other neighborhoods, and until a buyer takes over the building will sit vacant. Closed buildings encourage urban blight. Imagine the condition of the grounds and building. Trash and graffiti appear just on long holiday weekends; what will happen when there is no municipal guard to clean up each week? What an eyesore you will have at a prime commercial location and in your residential neighborhood.
There have been bad economic conditions in the past 35 years that I worked for the library, and we worked together to keep all the libraries open at least part of each week. This time a quick solution was chosen in order to save $8 million with as little redeployment and schedule changing as possible. There are other ways of making up the library deficit, not the least is returning to the benefactors of the NEW Central library expansion project and requesting the freeing of funds to save the branches as well as the over 100 staff chosen for layoffs.
As a recent library retiree, I am saddened by the new emphasis on the library as a "system." Every Philadelphia neighborhood is different and has different information needs. FLP is headed toward a homogenized system that does not recognize the differences in our constituents or the fact that many do not or cannot travel far from their communities.
The Free Library and the mayor have certainly moved far from the concept touted during the bicentennial: Philly is a city of neighborhoods, all different and contributing to the richness of the whole. A democracy only works when each member is fully informed, and libraries have historically provided the free distribution of that information regardless of geography and economic status.
Catherine Huntzberry
Former librarian and library supervisor at Holmesburg Library
Short-term bike partner
will miss Sgt. Simpson
I am a police officer and I had the privilege of knowing Sgt. Timothy Simpson, even if it was for one short week.
He and I were in bike training together a couple of months ago, and for that one week I could tell he was a special person. He came off as a very funny individual, yet he was very focused on the training at hand. He made me laugh more then once that week. That laughter came in handy, because the training that week was very tough. He and I rode threw Pennypack Park together during our training and pushed each other verbally because it wasn’t an easy ride.
When we had almost completed one of the rides and were out of breath, his son and a friend were walking through the park on their way home. Out of breath and tired, he still found the time to stop and say hello to his son.
Like I said, he was a special person. From the police department and my family, our condolences go out to your family. He will be sadly missed.
Officer Thomas Berry
9th Police District
The people have spoken,
says losing candidate
Now that the campaign season is finally over I would like to say a big "thank you" to many, many people.
For the more than 2,000 citizens who signed my petitions to place my name on the ballot, thank you.
For the 6,000 people who voted for me in the April primary, thank you.
For the 26,900 voters who gave me their support and their votes in the November general election, thank you.
To the dozens of volunteers who worked to knock on doors, talk to voters and collected signatures in the name of my campaign, thank you.
Most importantly, to the incredible Northeast residents and concerned taxpayers who talked to me and expressed their opinions, hopes, and fears during the past year, thank you.
We have elected a new president. We have elected a new state representative in the 170th district. We have re-elected our state senators in the 3rd and the 5th districts. The people have spoken and now the governing can begin.
I am sorry that I was not given the opportunity to serve you in Harrisburg in the Pennsylvania State Senate. However, I am eternally grateful to the many people who allowed me the opportunity to talk and listen to the voices of Northeast Philadelphia over the past year. It is truly a great honor, a privilege and a pleasure to listen to neighbors, supporters and even those who do not support me or my candidacy.
We live in the greatest nation in the world, and while our electoral process is not perfect, it is still a model for all countries around the world.
Finally, to my wife and kids, thank you for sharing me over the past year. I will be home for dinner and we can all start to share what a wonderful journey this last year has meant to our family.
To all of the families across the Delaware Valley, may God truly bless you and your family this holiday season and may God always bless the United States of America. Thank you.
John Farley
Somerton
How to solve
parking problem
Rather than just increasing the parking fees at Center City parking meters, why not start enforcing parking violations on non-metered streets in residential areas throughout the city?
On any given day or night on my block, there are at least 10 or more cars parked on the wrong side of the street facing opposing traffic; two parked trucks when NO TRUCK PARKING ANYTIME is clearly posted; one car parked directly in front of the fire hydrant down the corner; another car parked beyond the stop sign up the corner; and sometimes, a car or two double-parked with no flashers on for hours at a time.
Why not have two police officers for an hour or two on each shift in each police district start ticketing these illegally parked vehicles? It’s a no-brainer — end the free-for-all illegal parking epidemic on our residential streets while increasing much-needed revenue.
Joanne Kinkaid
Wissinoming
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