February 22, 2006 Issue                                               

©2005 The Chestnut Hill Local

Opinion

Chestnut Hill bike cops are the best.

Chestnut Hill or Mob Hill?

The other day a woman, quite prominent in Chestnut Hill, came into my office holding an invisible veiled threat in her hand. She said she was here as a friend and mentioned she heard I was writing an article about the executive session which was held on Jan. 26.

I told her I was not writing about the executive session, but rather the outcome of it, which is public knowledge by now thanks to a new blog, which is written by people who are so cowardly they won’t sign their own name. It is vicious toward some residents, defaming their good names, their good intentions and their good community spirit. It does contain grains of truth, but so distorted and convoluted it borders on libel.

But, back to my experience.

The woman said, “For your own good, I wouldn’t write anything about it.”

I asked her if I would be shot as I left the building. “Oh, no,” she replied. “But it’s just for your own good not to write a word of it.”

I wonder if this same woman ever reads what is being said about her on the blog?

Now this woman and others like her have been the backbone of Chestnut Hill for years. They have forged a new frontier as it were between the community and a then brand new concept for a newspaper, the Chestnut Hill Local. It was a bold idea with a lofty goal of a Forum inside its pages for community members to share their visions about government issues. It would be a debate among themselves, in the pages of the Local.

Remember that word, “issues.”

And, it worked, for a very long time.

And, then it got nasty. Downright nasty.

One neighbor besmirching another’s character, integrity and sincerity.

Ideas thrown to the wind.

Issues? The Chestnut Hill vocabulary book for some did not even include that word.

It no longer was about issues. It was personal and it was ugly.

Some people had an idea that they could bully and control the Local staff.

So, in this tiny hamlet tucked away in a city of violence, corruption and decline, this placid, proper, caring and gentle community, suddenly became a mockery of its civility.

It was stripped naked on the pages of the Philadelphia Inquirer.

We had our faces rubbed in a toxic blend of hypocrisy and rumor, combined with a touch of TA-DA . Some in the city knew someday Chestnut Hill’s façade would crack, and it did

And it wasn’t pretty.

The community wants a newspaper, but some only want it when it’s convenient … only when good things happen. God forbid some “dirt” gets out. Unfortunately, the dirt did surface and restoring the Hill’s good name will be long in coming.

To those men and women who had the vision to start this newspaper, let me say it is in good hands. Times have changed. It’s that simple.

There is a younger generation out there willing to throw away the expensive baggage of their parents and grandparents and take up the values and good intentions once valued so highly.

Many of them, however, are so dismayed, so disgusted with what’s going on, they say they don’t want to get involved in an association such as the CHCA has become.

And these young men and women have careers, families and the future to think about. They are no longer interested in the fighting, disrespect and nastiness of their fellow Hillers.

There are many, many good people in the community whose voices are muffled by a raucous and determined few.

Yet, if we are to survive, carry on as it were, we need desperately this younger generation.

We implore them to stand up, take control of an uncontrollable situation, and make things right again.

Carole Boynton
Interim Editor