August 16, 2007 Issue
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Classified Chestnut Hill Local Online Editor Don't Miss an Issue, Tell us what you see or Winner of Two |
From our readersNPIHN faces NIMBY This paper has covered community protests on hospital and daycare expansions and complaints on neighbors’ picket fencing. Well, the latest clamoring defeated a program that was going to help get families that have hit hard times to get back on their feet; families with young children, who are trying their best to provide for them but at this time can’t quite make ends meet. This program could have made the difference. Well, thanks to certain people, it’s not going to. Oh, but it’s “not about the program,” they say. Bull. It has everything to do with the program. This is a classic case of NIMBY-ism: it’s a great idea, as long as it’s Not In My Backyard! Your mind is too closed to differentiate between a dwelling for two to three families (each having gone through qualification and approval process) and a “homeless shelter.” And what IF it were a “homeless shelter”? You’re afraid it will lower the value of your home (which you are fortunate enough to own). Just FYI, check out this link: www.habitat.org/how/propertyvalues.aspx. You know, many things lower property value — termites, underground radiation, floods, fires … but hey, you know what else lowers property value? SNOBS! I certainly don’t want to buy a house in a neighborhood full of those. Yet another whiner complained about the “burden” to “put up with” activity from the businesses, Jenks Elementary and a daycare. If these things bother you, move to the desert or Alaska. Either that or we should just build a fence around Chestnut Hill where nothing can get in but more banks, and eventually Tiffany’s, Williams Sonoma and grocery stores where a tomato costs $5, OK? By the way Jen Nagel, Jim Harris and Hugh Gilmore are my favorite columnists, keep keeping it real. Vicky Wong
Chained Pit bulls breeding is bull I read the piece in the paper two weeks ago, about the neighbors in Mt. Airy and their eight pit bull terriers on chains and I was horrified. Understand please, I am into pit bull terrier rescue. I have two rescued pit bulls of my own. I am concerned that we have a potential Michael Vick type of situation here in Mt. Airy. Chaining dogs, especially terriers, who are feisty, high-energy dogs, no matter if they are Jack Russell terriers or pit bull terriers, creates a terrible frustration and as readers have probably read about in the Vick situation, it was one of the ways his “kennel” used to pump up dog-on-dog aggression. I am shocked that Philadelphia Animal Control could think that eight dogs in one person’s yard (of ANY breed) is OK in the city; and the idea that the PACCA officer was asked “not to walk around the yard, for fear that he would bring germs to the dogs” is ludicrous ... and is frankly, very suspicious. I am shocked that a PACCA officer would buy that story and not insist on being allowed into the yard where the dogs are being kept. The Humane Society of the United States (not PACCA) needs to be contacted by the neighbors and perhaps they can bring some pressure to bear on PACCA. Their phone number is 215-426-6300. And to the owners of the folks who are keeping these dogs in a backyard, on chains: if you have these dogs’ best interest at heart, please consider re-homing six of them and bringing the other two (hopefully of the opposite sex) to live in the house with you. Pit bull terriers (normal ones) absolutely adore their people and want to be with them, all the time … not on a chain in a yard. Dina Hitchcock
Support for Gallery Saint Martin There are a few — and important — misrepresentations in the article [“Hill zoning says no to gallery,” Aug. 9] about the LUPZ meeting of Aug. 2 about Gallery Saint Martin that I’d like to clear up. At the DRC meeting, I was asked to present a petition to LUPZ signed by my immediate neighbors within one block of where I live and where the gallery would operate. I went farther — four blocks — to reassure neighbors along the cited streets that traffic would be discouraged from entering the “locals only” byways. The 15 signatures collected represent 15 households. The number of individual supporters that represents would be over 30. Another household has since responded, bringing the total number of supporters to 32-plus. Since the article appeared in the Local last week, several more people (just beyond the petition area) have called to voice their support of the gallery — citing that they believe it would (continue to) be an asset to the community. In actuality then, there are over 200 local residents in support of the Gallery. It is not my intention to cause any strife within the neighborhood. My aim is to creatively adapt and grow my gallery and present work that will be of interest to — and possibly delight — supporters. To that end, I have withdrawn my application for a variance and will pursue Gallery Saint Martin as a home-based business, which requires no variance. In deference to the few people who objected to the Gallery’s sign — there will be no sign. Anyone interested in being placed on a mailing list for future by-invitation-only exhibits, or to make an appointment, should kindly visit the Web site: www.gallerysaintmartin.com (and fill out the guestbook,) or e-mail gallerysaintmartin@comcast.net, or simply call me at 215-247-2503. Monique Seyler
Here’s your other wake-up call Last week, Dina Hitchcock [“Better Things to Do”] issued the residents of Chestnut Hill a wake up call. Noting the steady erosion in membership, Ms. Hitchcock pleaded for an answer to why the CHCA is losing the interest and support of the community. Ms. Hitchcock, the answer unfortunately is glaringly obvious: We’re abandoning the CHCA because it’s run like a dysfunctional private club. Why would anyone want to get involved with an organization that is about as inclusive as a mafia family? I’ve lived in Chestnut Hill for 17 years, and the same names pop up year after year with tedious regularity. Stewart Graham. Mary Anna Ross Cowper. Carol Cope. Walter Sullivan. Couldn’t we just avoid the strife and just name these people directors for life? It would cost less money and the result would be more or less the same. From the plummeting membership figures, it’s obvious that most long time residents have become hip to the CHCA’s decades-long pattern of inbreeding. Frankly, the only way to bring people back to the CHCA would be to clean house and get an entirely fresh board. Quite honestly, most Hillers just don’t trust you. We don’t trust you at all, and how do you try to maintain our trust? You vote to stop auditing your books! With wonderful public relations like this, it shouldn’t be long before membership drops to triple digits. Lastly, careful readers of the Local notice your efforts to pervert any genuine news function the paper might have in order to serve your own narrow interests. When will you realize that there is more to serving the public interest than the really fascinating observation that Chestnut Hill is absolutely perfect in every conceivable way (especially its quaint shops and markets). And here’s more news you’re unlikely to read on the front page of the Local anytime soon: the CHCA is a self-absorbed clique more concerned with holiday decorations and pretty trash cans than serving the broader community. Ms. Hitchcock, you are absolutely right. The CHCA is facing some real challenges. Challenge number one: its board of directors. William Maudlin
Disappointed It is a disappointment that new CHCA board voted at the June 28 and July 26 meetings to reverse the previous 2007 board’s decision to authorize an independent audit of the CHCA and the CH Fund for 2005 and 2006. They also voted to terminate the Oversight Committee whose yearlong research revealed some mismanagement and financial irregularities during those years. For each vote, only 30 to 35 board members out of a total of 50 were present. Nine of those voting to override the previous 2007 board decision were officers and board members during the fiscal period in question. These nine people should have recused themselves from the vote and any decisions regarding the selection of the independent auditor. They have a conflict of interest due to their management responsibilities during the period under investigation. What the CHCA needs are officers with high enough ethical standards to recognize when they have a conflict of interest and take the appropriate action of recusing themselves. Virginia Mallery
CHCA should learn from the past Being human, as we all are, it’s essentially impossible to present information objectively which runs counter to prior decisions made by others — as in this case, re: a second independent audit. Once again I’d like to observe that the heated discussion that occurred at last month’s board meeting only increased the heat without increasing the light (understanding). The basic issue has nothing to do with personalities but rather the future of Chestnut Hill as a community. I’ve asked the new executive director of the CHHS to send me a copy of the December,1959 bylaws which were approved by hundreds of Chestnut Hillers at that time and comprise the foundations of the present CHCA. I’ve asked the current chair of the bylaws committee and have received from him a draft of the current bylaws. My purpose is to display these two documents, side-by-side and article-by-article to illustrate what has happened over the past 67 years to demonstrate how the community’s best interests have fared. If the association is to regain the respect and authority it once had; if it is to increase its dwindling membership; if it is to enjoy greater financial support from the community as a whole, it must reestablish the 1959 philosophic approach comprising the unique quasi-governmental experiment which flourished until approximately 1980. Fortunately or not there are literally hundreds (if not thousands) of people who have been involved in this history and there is nothing that will erase their memories, particularly if a “forget the past and move on” policy is attempted. The past will continue to haunt the future until what has happened is known, understood and accepted. Accordingly, the future, not only of the CHCA, but of the Chestnut Hill Community is in the hands of those who comprise the current board membership of the CHCA. Lloyd P. Wells
Local’s role in free speech Last night I watched a program on Edward R. Murrow and was left pondering the vitality, or lack of it, of our most important American privilege, our First Amendment protection of freedom of the press — and how Chestnut Hill is attentive to it. As a former editor of the Local (1960-72), I have, although I now live in Maine, carefully followed the struggles and successes of Chestnut Hill’s paper and its impact on the community for nearly 50 years. I’m not saying editor Pete Mazzaccaro is another Murrow, but he’s in the admirable tradition set by Murrow of treading the fine line between offering his independent opinions and setting out those of his bosses: in this case the executive branch of CHCA. Since the latter changes with the times and elections, the editor’s voice should allow for continuity of thought as free as possible of political pressures and machinations by one party or another. An editor is as good as the degree of discomfort he/she causes with his/her weekly essays. The old adage, “afflict the comfortable,” is to be encouraged in an editor even if one happens to be personally afflicted. I was surprised to find that none other than Herbert Hoover defended free speech eloquently when he said: “absolute freedom of the press to discuss public questions is a foundation stone of American liberty.” In a recent column in the New Yorker on Rupert Murdoch’s acquisition of the Wall Street Journal, essayist Steve Coll writes: “The tenets and the traditions of unfettered journalism are marrow in our constitutional system.” We can’t quit without a word from Mr. Jefferson: “It is error alone which needs the support of government. Truth can stand by itself.” Ellen V. P, Wells, Maine
Check your guns at the door Councilwoman Miller is suing the state legislature over gun legislation? I advocate a ban on personal possession of guns within the city limits and a confiscation program to enforce the ban. Gun-violence is a public health epidemic; let’s start treating it like the disease it is, akin to cholera and typhoid: search and destroy. At the gateways to the city we should post signs reading “Welcome to Philadelphia. Please check your firearms at the nearest shooting range.” If the state has problems with this self-preservation program, let them sue City Council. Brian Rudnick
Thanks for airmen article Thank you for the wonderful article on Tuskegee Airmen receiving the Congressional Gold Medal [Aug. 2]. Myself, friends and other Tuskegee Airmen were much impressed with the quality and style of your writing in your article. The page layout was creatively eye catching and effective. It is very helpful to our cause that you gave recognition to our achievement. In telling our story, we try to motivate young people to their potential for success as we did. We see education and self-discipline as key factors. We visit schools, churches and youth gatherings wherever they may be in hopes of lighting a spark. We appreciate your interest in our efforts. Dr. Eugene J. Richardson Jr.
Disaster in waiting Sometimes it takes a disaster to get our attention. Be it a terrorism attack, tsunami, hurricane or a bridge collapse, the pattern is the same: after the disaster there is a hurry-up to attend to problems that were there all along. Unfortunately, repair is always more costly than prevention, both in terms of dollars and human suffering. Alzheimer’s Disease is a disaster waiting to happen. Unless investment is made now in medical research to treat and prevent this terrible disease, our families and healthcare systems will be depleted by the surge of new cases that will come when the Baby Boom generation reaches 65 in just 5 years. Unfortunately, funding for research is diminishing at the same time that scientific breakthroughs are within reach. Since 2003, federal funding for research at National Institute of Health (NIH) has steadily declined in both real dollars and in keeping pace with medical research inflation. Our leaders must vote yes for $125 million in additional funding to restore momentum and pursue the most promising research. Senator Arlen Spector, a champion in the past, can make a difference by rallying Senator Bob Casey and Representatives Chaka Fattah and Allyson Swartz to join him in taking preventative action to avert this healthcare disaster. The nearly 500,000 affected families in Pennsylvania (300,000 of them in the Delaware Valley) thank you for taking notice. Elsie Buyers Viehman
‘Hilarious’ columnists I can’t say enough about the “new” Chestnut Hill Local. You really have some very funny and clever columnists, particularly Jen Nagel, Jim Harris and Chestnut Tim. I really look forward to their articles every week. I only wish Chestnut Tim wrote more because he has not been in much lately. Tell him to get on the stick. What is his problem? Tell him that if you want to have a following as a columnist, you can’t just write one every so often when the mood strikes you. Remember that good writing is two percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration. Gloria Bergman
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