Letters June 30, 2011

Posted 6/29/11

No loyalty

Mr. Walter Sullivan in his letter to the Local of June 6th, entitled “CHCA remains loyal to residents” has either forgotten the facts, considers them irrelevant, or has chosen to …

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Letters June 30, 2011

Posted

No loyalty

Mr. Walter Sullivan in his letter to the Local of June 6th, entitled “CHCA remains loyal to residents” has either forgotten the facts, considers them irrelevant, or has chosen to ignore them.

He himself, both in the Local and at CHCA board meetings as president, has denigrated the motives, actions and character of those residents who have taken issue with recommendations of CHCA committees and with decisions of the CHCA board.

On controversial zoning and development issues in which nearby residents had concerns, the CHCA has not supported the residents for decades, supporting instead businesses or institutions..

Committees can provide valuable professional expertise, if they do their job. What they cannot do is to determine what quality of life is acceptable to residents.

What is best for the community as a whole is that the quality of life for its residents is maintained or improved. This serves the interest of all elements within the community: businesses, institutions,  visitors  and  residents.

Ann Ward Spaeth

Chestnut Hill

A solution to the raccoon problem

I just heard on the radio this morning (Monday) that City Council's Committee on Public Health and Human Services approved a bill that would order the city's animal control agency to capture raccoons. The raccoons would then be killed by the SPCA. It would make Philadelphia the only big city with an official procedure to capture and kill raccoons.

A spokesman from the SPCA said they do not have the money, time or personnel to carry out this stupid policy since they are already deluged with homeless dogs and cats.

I happen to think raccoons are beautiful animals that have as much right to live as we do, so I have a suggestion to make that would solve the problem. My solution is for the SPCA to trap and euthanize members of City Council. Then they could take all that DROP money from City Council members’ estates and spend it to house homeless animals. It would be a win-win for the animals and the taxpayers.

Gerald Dodson

Chestnut Hill

Conservative finds  Harris ‘witty, witty’

I want to thank Jim Harris for his witty, witty contributions to our local press. My humble apologies for not writing this to you sooner – inexcusably lazy of me – since I have been chuckling for the past few months.

Today, however, I had to write to beseech Jim not to become a "female" (i.e. baking cakes, doing laundry, dusting, etc.) however much he may think this may endear him to the hardened feminists of Mt. Airy and Chestnut Hill.

I am one of the last conservatives in this area (just ask Len Lear; he nearly fell off his chair when he heard my views), and I like men to be men. At least Jim Harris refused to resign (over the exposure of his “cakes” in the June 16 issue). Keep it up, Jim. Your next step: a Robert Bly seminar. And who knows what happens after that? The sky's the limit, man!

Caryl Johnston

Germantown

 

letters, opinion