October 25, 2007 Issue                                       

©2007 The Chestnut Hill Local

From our readers

The problem isn’t with speeding

I read with great curiosity of the trials and tribulations of the poor residents of Norwood Avenue. The street has such a lovely out in the country feel. It must be truly terrible to be living in a beautiful home, set back from the road, on a spacious lot, with a large lawn and in many cases a fence, separating your dwelling from the wide road, with few, if any cars parked on it. It seems that there is so much speeding traffic that it is not safe to push a baby carriage down the middle of the street! Unbelievable! I find this amazing because whenever I have happened to drive down this road, unless there is a church service or school is letting out, more than half the time I encounter no other cars.

This is a public road in a major city. The street department study indicates that 85 percent of the traffic is traveling at 35 mph or less. It would seem that the speeding problem is one of perception rather than fact. The human eye is, apparently, a poor judge of just how fast a car is going.

Thanks to the speeding study, it is becoming apparent that the real complaint behind the actions of the Norwood Avenue residents is not the speed, but the fact that other neighborhood residents disturb their rarified existence by using the public road to bypass traffic on Germantown Avenue. I guess the driving for us common folk should be restricted to the major traffic arteries so that you can blissfully walk your dogs or push your strollers down the center of the street.

There are many roads in Philadelphia that really do have a dangerous speeding problem. All this attention focused on Norwood Avenue takes precious resources away from other streets with real problems. For example, in Chestnut Hill, Winston Road had a terrible problem. It has lots of row and twin houses, which are close to the street. There are many cars parked on each side, and there were too few stop signs. This added up to a situation that truly was dangerous. Hopefully the addition of stop signs and better crosswalks has helped this area.

Another area that still has a truly dangerous situation is all of Germantown Avenue. Cars constantly run lights and do not stop for people at crosswalks.

These are just two local examples; there are countless others all across the city. To try to reduce speeding city wide would be very noble. But to simply try to divert an apparently minimal amount of it away from your own property is merely selfish.

Here are two suggestions: If you are walking down Norwood Avenue and a car is coming, do what people on real country roads do — get over to the side of the road or ruin the bucolic, country charm of the road and install sidewalks. Your choice.

Steven B. Erisoty
Chestnut Hill

No way one-way

Whoa! Hold your horses. Norwood Avenue one-way? No way!

To be sure, vehicles speed on Norwood Avenue. But it is not a Norwood Avenue problem, it is an enforcement problem, as I’m sure 95 percent of all drivers speed anytime, anywhere (try going 25 mph on Lincoln Drive). Making Norwood one-way will only serve to limit speeding to one direction.

After having to digest the effect of a one-way Bell’s Mill Road, let’s maintain some driving “freedom of choice” for Norwood Avenue residents.

William F. O’Keefe, Jr.
Chestnut Hill

Warning to neighbors

This letter serves more as a warning and a notice rather than this reader’s commentary on the Springfield Township Zoning Board’s decision to grant all of the variances requested by 9425 Stenton Partners at the board’s meeting held Oct. 15.

The warning goes out to all Springfield Township residents who live adjacent to or close to a commercial property. By the Zoning Board’s decision, anyone who owns a commercial property can now completely ignore the zoning code as long as they redevelop it into a residential property. Legal argument is not required. Burden of proof? Who needs it! Impact on the neighbors? Who cares!  Developers are now allowed to more than triple the allowable density so long as the project is converted from commercial to residential. As board member Edward Fox stated, he was “sold on the luxury condos.” He wasn’t sold on the legal argument; it was the pretty pictures that did it for him. He also stated that the neighbors did not demonstrate any hardships that would be imposed by this proposed development. Perhaps he neglected to read the three-page letter and accompanying signatures representing close to 50 households describing the losses incurred should this development be permitted. 

To all owners of commercial properties in Springfield Township — your ship has come in! Want to make lots of money developing large high density residential structures in a township with close proximity to center city and great schools? The Zoning Board is at your disposal to assist you in avoiding those cumbersome zoning codes that would prohibit you from such attractive profits in other townships. Don’t worry about the neighbors, they don’t matter.

I suppose we, the residents of Springfield Township, were naïve in thinking that the Zoning Board was there to protect the sanctity of our neighborhood. Now we know that they are merely a tool for developers to utilize in maximizing their profits.

Stephen Steinbrook
Springfield Township

Ferry just another Colbert

In Ferry’s hatchet-job on former President Carter in last week’s Local, he took umbrage with Carter’s characterization of Vice President Cheney’s tenure as a “disaster.” He also suggested that Carter should have been executed by a firing squad. Notice that Ferry did not once address the validity of Carter’s statement. Instead, he resorted to a tactic of the desperate and intellectually lazy — attacking the messenger with vile hate-speech. One must sympathize with Ferry’s predicament to some degree — defending the indefensible Cheney is indeed a losing proposition.

(As an aside, in Ferry’s impressive enumeration of anti-liberal insults — he includes this gem: “Vietnam-draft-dodger.” Let the record show that Cheney received five draft deferments during the Vietnam era and when asked about the subject, Cheney replied, “I had other priorities …”)

Ferry’s cliché-ridden diatribe distracts from the real issue: Cheney’s legacy of secrecy, incompetence and torture. Ferry’s thinly veiled attempt to categorize Cheney’s critics as leftwing extremists flies in the face of reality. With Cheney’s approval rating in the low 20s, it is Ferry and his dwindling number of Kool-Aid drinkers who are on the political fringe.

Furthermore, several leading conservatives have voiced sentiments similar to those of President Carter. Earlier this year, Senator John McCain placed blame on Cheney for the mishandling of the war: “The president listened too much to the VP … he was very badly served by [Cheney]…”

Another ex-president also had harsh words for Cheney. President Gerald Ford said that, “Rumsfeld and Cheney and the president made a big mistake in justifying going into the war in Iraq.” Whether Ferry chooses to acknowledge it or not, dissatisfaction with Cheney is widespread and not limited to the political extreme.

It is apparent that Ferry fancies himself an enlightened defender of conservatism. His amusingly shrill tone and proclivity for bombastic, re-hashed liberal stereotypes (“left-of-Castro,” “anti-American”) left me wondering if perhaps he would be better suited as a comedy writer for “The Colbert Report” instead of his current status as that of an irrelevant neighborhood wannabe-pundit. Ferry and Colbert’s TV persona seem to abide by the same guiding principle — never let facts stand in the way of a strongly held opinion.

Andrew Sharp
Chestnut Hill

Alternate view of Carter

I want to offer an alternative view to the derisive comments by Joseph Ferry in his letter [“Carter should have been executed,” Oct. 18] about former President Jimmy Carter.

In 2004, the Nobel Prize for Peace was awarded to Carter for “his decades of untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social developments.”

The Nobel committee said a lot more about Carter’s work for peace and justice at that time and I think they would have re-affirmed the choice of Carter today in light of his courageous advocacy for a truly just settlement to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as embodied in his recent book on the Middle East, Peace not Apartheid.

Jack Malinowski
Mt. Airy

Herbicide use raises questions

The “Opinion: Are herbicides killing us, too?” by Dr. Kassell [Local, Oct. 18] raises major concerns about the dangers inherent in herbicides and other toxic chemicals.

I also have seen the swaths of dead plants in Fairmount Park and along the railroad tracks. At minimum, warnings should be posted about the chemicals used, and the use of the deadly chemicals should be challenged.

The question, of course, is how to challenge effectively the usage.

I was acquainted with her late husband when he was a student, and I sympathize with her loss.

Raymond Tumarkin
Wyndmoor

Toxic food for thought

The October opinion “Are herbicides killing us, too?” by Dr. Natasha Kassell gives us toxic food for thought.

Fairmount Park causes the ongoing death of deer by the activities of the bang-bang, twang-twang boys. Is this park now covertly killing people by their use of herbicides? Valley Green may eventually be considered The Valley of Death.

How sad that this natural city oasis cannot solve its alleged problems in a non-lethal way.

Gloria S. Feldscher
Plymouth Meeting

Thanks for info on Bipolar Disorder

I appreciate the information on Bipolar Disorder that’s been in the Local lately. My wife has this devastating illness. Bipolar Disorder has ruined me beyond what anyone can imagine.

I have found that talking with other spouses whose partners have Bipolar Disorder was the missing link to my recovery.

I insist that more articles with information on Bipolar Disorder be written for caretakers who are left picking up all the pieces and holding all the bags after the storm. I feel like spouses are the lost commodity in this equation. With respect to Bipolars, I also see that there is a big need of support for caretakers.

Tony Rodriguez
Chestnut Hill (work)
Northeast Phila. (home)

Bipolar disorder deserves attention

Ed note: This letter refers to an ad for “Bipolar Awareness Day” that ran in the Oct. 11 Local.

Thank you for all of the information on bipolar disorder. My father has this disease. We lost everything to this lifelong illness. It took our family home, as well as those who love his stability.

Could you please put something in the paper about the caretakers of bipolar people? My mother has lost herself; it’s taken such a toll on her. I was happy to finally see a place for spousal support — there is help for families but spouses end up being the main caretakers and take the hardest knocks. They have different issues like trust, intimacy, should they have children, infidelity, spending sprees, etc.

We used to have a beautiful home in Chestnut Hill, but it had to be sold. We now live in the Chestnut Hill Village Apts. (six of us) in a one bedroom apartment. A close relative is gone again (disappeared) for two months now. He won’t stay on his meds. He got the “Summer Mania” that Bipolars get, and he went psychotic. From May to July he spent over $150,000.

Please, please, Chestnut Hill Local, educate the public about this illness that is all over this community.

The wealthy call it eccentric behavior, genius. The poor call it crazy, psycho. Bipolar people engage in strange behaviors, they are very charming and manipulative, and it is terribly difficult to get them to admit or acknowledge they are sick. The erratic behavior often causes such confusion for those around the Bipolar. It usually takes a full psychotic break before a Bipolar gets it — sometimes three or four and sobriety doesn’t always equal stability.

Thank you NAMI, thank you Spouses of Partners with Bipolar. Thank you Mrs. Rochester (Kim) for starting a support group three years ago for spouses. Thank you, Chestnut Hill Local, for acknowledging the importance of educating the Chestnut Hill community about this horrible disease, called bipolar disorder. Those around a bipolar person suffer the most (the caretakers).

Jorden Tate
Chestnut Hill

Funny columnists

I must say you really have some very funny columnists these days. I get a big kick out of Mike Todd and Jim Harris in particular.  I love their irreverent, take-no-prisoners way of looking at the world. This week’s columns — on watching models on TV and watching “The War” on Channel 12 — both had me laughing out loud. I am sending these columns to my friends who do not live in this area, and if they want to remain my friends, they better like them as much as I do.

Alan Flicker
Wyndmoor

Paula Riley is terrific

I would just like to agree with Betsy Otter Thompson, who wrote the letter praising Paula Riley [Local, Oct. 18]. I love Paula Riley’s column, “Your Neighbors.” She writes sensitively about wonderful people who are contributing so much to make Chestnut Hill a great community to live in.

With all of the articles about the backbiting and name calling within the Chestnut Hill Community Association, which most of us are not the least bit interested in, it is a pleasure to read about the inspirational, talented and caring people Paula Riley finds. I am proud to have them as my neighbors. We have so many volunteers in our community who spend so many hours helping with projects that make life better for all of us. I am glad to see Paula Riley (and Richard S. Lee as well) shine the spotlight on them.

Gloria N. Mitchum
Chestnut Hill

My neighbor Brian

I noticed on the Internet last week that they are looking for the country’s best neighborhood. I thought, “Well that has to be Chestnut Hill.” Despite all our controversies, we do shine both for our concerns for each other and our willingness to make our town better.

Now to Brian. Last week I was the designated babysitter for my three grandsons and one of their friends. My oldest guy will be celebrating his birthday this week so we went to the sports shop at the top of the Hill and bought a football. Then we went to Pastorius Park to “throw it around.” Long story short, the ball was lost. I advertised in the Local’s Lost and Found and two days later Brian called to tell me he had the football and would deliver it to me … he remembered his own childhood days … and wanted my grandson to have his football back. Where else but in our neighborhood could that happen? Thanks, Brian. Owen will be pleased!

Phyllis Sunberg
Chestnut Hill

Illegal parking On W. Meade St.

The 100 blocks of West Meade Street and West Gravers Lane have shared deeded access to a common driveway/alley since 1860.  (It should be noted that due to the age of this passageway, several portions are only 9 feet wide.)  In violation of the below mentioned code, multiple vehicles park at all hours in this alley. One audacious neighbor has begun constructing a parking space with a cinder block wall extending into the middle of the alley. If there is a fire, medical or police emergency, their wanton disregard for the law puts all of us at risk.

Philadelphia City Code section 10-823 clearly states that the parking or standing of motor vehicles upon ANY driveway “obstructs the movement of police patrol vehicles and fire and emergency apparatus” and “is prohibited conduct”. Alleys are considered driveways if they function as a “minor vehicular right -of -way providing secondary access to the rear of three or more lots, parcels, or properties”. Section 12-2405.1 enables property owners of record to remove   illegally parked vehicles if the towing company is authorized under section 9-605 (11).

We obtained copies of the deeds and zoning files of those abutting the alley. No covenant or permit grants legal parking spaces or authorizes construction beyond the deeded property lines which ALL end at said alley. Letters containing the applicable ordinances were hand delivered to residents, detailing our concerns. It is unconscionable that neighbors continue to park and build illegally in the alley that is deeded with the  “free and common use, right and privilege” of  said 20’ wide alley as “a passageway and watercourse forever”. A false sense of entitlement and the knowledge that these regulations have not been enforced enable them to continue their unlawful actions.

Carolyn Todd and Cheryl McCarthy
Chestnut Hill