Northeast residents discuss medical marijuana dispensaries, adding sidewalks to Oxford Avenue and more.
Revitalizing NE property
This letter is in response to an article in the Northeast Times, “Building a connection,” published on Aug. 1:
It is with great anticipation and profound relief that we welcome the news of the purchase of the historic Lower Dublin Academy property by the Albanian-American Social-Cultural Organization.
AASCO’s announced plan to restore the site as an educational and cultural center is especially gratifying. The historic building’s 20-inch-thick walls of field stone and supporting rough hewn timber joists from local sawmills were joined together 220 years ago by skilled local masons and carpenters.
Their work has held up marvelously well.
May those stones and beams and that workmanship continue to project community pride under the stewardship of AASCO.
A clarification is needed regarding LDA’s historical significance as a school building. It is the oldest-standing structure that was a Philadelphia public school for an extended period of time (80 years, from 1843–1923). Those criteria may also apply to historic Pennsylvania public schools.
Old Germantown Academy (originally the Union School, built 1761) and the Concord School (built 1775), both still standing in Germantown, pre-date the LDA school house.
If we take into account the circa 1723 Log Cabin School, which was replaced by the LDA building in 1798 on the same site, a case could be made for Lower Dublin Academy being the oldest school site in Pennsylvania.
This in no way detracts from the importance or the historical significance of the building as it pertains to Northeast Philadelphia. The building and the process of its creation are extremely important factors in understanding and preserving our history.
Trustees of Lower Dublin Academy
Add sidewalks to Oxford Ave.
Promises can be made, but they certainly can be broken by our city officials.
Over 70 years ago, the Philadelphia Transportation Company, now SEPTA, promised sidewalks along the 7700 block of Oxford Ave.
Over 2,000 people signed a petition in regard to this matter, and still nothing has been done. Another problem is that area is extremely dirty, pulling the neighborhood down.
Our officials need to stop breaking promises.
Marie Patton
Fox Chase
Officials pulled a fast one
When businesses sought marijuana dispensary locations in Northeast Philadelphia, their spokesmen and some elected officials provided assurances to audiences at civic and community meetings that the sale of pot would be limited in a significant way. It would be sold only in the form of pills, creams and oils. Nobody would be allowed to buy dry leaf that could be rolled into joints and smoked in the dispensary parking lot; they would at least have to invest in a vaporizer.
Neighbors of dispensaries may or may not have felt reassured by that limitation. But those who claimed the limitation would apply were blowing smoke.
On Aug. 1, the state Department of Health allowed dispensaries, including the one now located in the Northeast, to sell dry marijuana leaves. The new rule was several months in the making.
Pot businesses advocated the new rules, and politicians whose spokesmen had claimed that dry leaf would not be sold let the new rule take effect. No one discussed the rule change with Northeast residents, who are likely to see more dispensaries seeking to locate in their neighborhoods. The situation reflects badly on everyone who helped to put over the rule-change ruse.
Chris Bordelon
Somerton
High taxes, lousy schools
You can call it what you want and where you want to go, but there was an extremely high tax increase in the city of Philadelphia this year. An increase in a tax assessment is the same as a tax increase.
In the city, we get a graduation rate of 67 percent and keep schools like Strawberry Mansion open (what are just the payroll cost for the teachers, administration and maintenance) with just 245 students.
The difference between the city and the burbs is we can see where the waste is and don’t do anything about it.
Richard Donofry
East Torresdale
