February 7, 2008 Issue
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Classified Chestnut Hill Local Don't Miss an Issue, Tell us what you see or Winner of Two |
Opinion
Help is on the way Not surprising, the 14th police district was listed among the nine patrol districts that account for most of the city’s murders, shootings, aggravated assaults and robberies. While most of the violent crime that occurs in the 14th is limited to Germantown, many Hillers and Mt. Airyites have experienced an increase in criminal activity on and off the Avenue. The good news is that the commissioner’s plan calls for more uniformed police officers on the streets by redistributing the department’s current resources, extending shifts and changing assignments. Ramsey intends to add 200 additional officers by May 1. The even better news came less than a week later when Governor Rendell announced funding for 100 new hires for the police department and additional dollars to help pay for the 105 new hires the city was planning previously. According to the plan, the vast majority of the new recruits will be assigned to the nine targeted districts. These announcements temper the bad news that we are on the list of “hot” patrol districts. The designation means that the 14th is likely to receive its share and more of the additional resources, and yes, we are going to have more cops on the street. Capt. Winton Singletary of the 14th district said he expects to have more officers on the street. And that means residents can expect better response times from the police; after all it’s a numbers game. “If we have more officers to handle the major stuff, we will have more people available to respond quicker to the smaller stuff.” One of the most encouraging dynamics when listening to Commissioner Ramsey or reading through his crime plan, is his ability to address all levels of crime. Not only will more officers allow the police department more coverage but also the style of policing in Philadelphia is about to change – or revert. As Singletary put it, “We are going to do police work the way we are supposed to do police work. The way we used to do it.” According to the captain, residents can expect to see officers out and about, not just when they call 911. “They will be out there getting to know people again,” he said. Singletary referred to the change as “proactive” policing versus the “reactive” style of the previous administration. “Now we’re not going to just show up when there’s a bank robbery, but we can do security checks like we are supposed to.” While Singletary said he is not sure just how many new officers the 14th is likely to receive, there is a good chance residents will have more bike teams to count on. The Hill’s bike cops are set to return in a couple of months and perhaps they will be joined by another set or two throughout the district. Currently there are five teams, but with Ramsey’s return to community policing, Singletary said it is entirely possible that we will see more officers on two wheels. Another key component of Ramsey’s plan is an increased emphasis on communication. Under the plan, each district’s top brass will hold open, monthly meetings with residents, district officials from the most violent sectors will hold a minimum of three weekly briefings within the department and the Homicide Unit is to hold regular “next of kin” meetings with victim’s families. From increasing warrant service (there are currently 2,810 outstanding warrants) to collaborating with other city services and departments, what is clear is that nothing is off the table in Ramsey’s vision for how to fight crime in the city. He mentions the controversial stop and frisk policy and sky rocketing truancy rate amongst teens are all part of his laundry list of issues that the department, he says, will tackle head on. The news lately has done little to herald the shift in the police department with another half dozen or so homicides in the last week alone. The good news is that someone is watching and help is finally on the way.
Opinion: Let’s not sugar coat the truth I am writing in response to an article written by Lizza Robb dated Jan. 31. She states it is important to emphasize that the Germantown Avenue Reconstruction Project is not about trolley tracks. Lizza states that right now there is no plan to reinstate the trolley tracks. I would like to refer her to WMAN e-mails, dated 11-9-07 and 11-16-07, stating, “When the entire project is completed the Belgian blocks will be restored along with a pad in the middle to hold the trolley tracks.” Are the trolley tracks being put in for their looks? I don’t think so. The trolley car buffs, The Trolley Car Diner and Ken Weinstein will petition the mayor and governor to force Septa to restore the trolley. Don’t the residents of Mt. Airy remember the many accidents caused by slippery tracks on the avenue near the bend around McPherson Street? Do you remember the Belgian blocks being loosened by the rain, ice and snow over the years causing potholes to form which damaged cars? Has Lizza Robb ever driven in Chestnut Hill between Hartwell Lane and Bethlehem Pike, where it takes a day and a half to drive through between the heavy traffic, delivery trucks double parked, and trash pick-up? When the trolley is put back in service, it will take two and a half days. When the trolley breaks down, it has to be pushed out of there, and if a car is parked in the way of the trolley it can’t go anywhere, nor can the traffic that is backed up behind it because a trolley can’t pull over to the curb. We need trolleys running again like we need holes in our heads. The drive between Gowen Avenue and Cresheim Valley Road has never been smoother since the tracks were blacktopped over. Lizza Robb encourages the residents to use their garages as much as possible to free up parking for our neighbors. The last time each home had one car in the family was back in 1950. Maybe the residents can wave a magic wand and all of our cars could disappear, so that contractors, the dentist office and Cresheim Cottage staff can park. I guess the unsightly construction pipes and trash that have been sitting on Gowen Avenue since September, taking up at least four parking spaces, isn’t sacrifice enough. Lizza Robb has pushed for increased police patrolling, but does police patrolling include red flagging for C. Abbonizio, including two police cars sitting from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. with their lights flashing. Maybe the new police commissioner will have them fight crime, not stand and watch contractors put new pipes in Germantown Avenue. In closing, Lizza Robb wants the neighbors to make sure that we are all still here in 2009 to enjoy the newly redone Germantown Avenue. With the help of God, I will be. Will Lizza Robb? I believe the Robb’s have had the Cresheim Cottage up for sale for months. Don Cameron lives on Gowen Avenue in Mt. Airy.
How to get books cheaply and easily, even for free I’ve had some success lately weeding unneeded books out of my collection to make room for new purchases. The process is painful when I’m saying goodbye to books that have personal associations with my past, but easy if they’re reference books. I’m not recommending what I’m about to suggest to people who have managed to live without a computer. For the rest of us, however, the Internet has made owning certain kinds of reference books unnecessary. For example, books of the following kinds: opera plots, “on this date in history,” brief biographies, encyclopedias, church doctrines, glossaries of terms used in most trades, visual dictionaries, grammar and usage books, some bibliographies, discographies, many histories and much more. I must have discarded 50 such books this year — giving them to charities of course. In-depth biographies are another matter, I kept those I enjoyed and want to read again. But books I kept just to see who was vice-president under Polk, or where Lucille Ball was born, or what year Roger Tory Peterson died, or did Fat’s Waller appear in the film Stormy Weather, books like that, I’ve released to gain more shelf space. A quick Google would settle those questions. Home pages exist for nearly every president, top-40 singer, and Civil War general. The Internet doesn’t have everything (yet) but certain kinds of canasta-table arguments are easily settled with a few quick taps of the computer keyboard, freeing your shelves for new books. Getting New Books Cheap If you compared local telephone yellow pages listings for used bookshops today with the number of listings from fifty years ago, you’d see a dramatic decrease in the number of used bookshops serving the city. The Internet has decimated their numbers and only a very few of those that have survived have done so without adding Internet trade. There are good reasons for the Internet’s surge, beginning with the fact that, if you know where to look, 95 percent of the used books one might be looking for can be found — usually in multiple copies. Second, prices are posted and visible, making comparison shopping easy. Third, the process of getting in your car and driving around to 10 shops which may, or may not, have your book can be quite time consuming. I can usually order a book I want to purchase from the Internet in less that five minutes. What are some of these internet sites? Well, Amazon sells used books, so there’s a start. I usually use AddAll.com since it scans about 15 used book sites (such as Alibris, AbeBooks, Half.com, etc). I also use Bookfinder.com. I’m not afraid to pay by credit card. Maybe one out of a hundred times a used book has been misdescribed, but if I’ve wanted to return the book there’s been no problem. I do acknowledge that some people have had problems, but repeat that in my personal experience problems are rare and fixable. Locally, two terrific stores that allow browsing and also sell on the Internet are: Walk A Crooked Mile Books in Mt. Airy and Harvest Books in Fort Washington. Both stores offer booksearches, if you are not comfortable purchasing Internet books yourself. For a small additional fee, they’ll order the book for you and even arrange to have it shipped directly to your home if you want to save a trip. I’d never be one to discourage browsing, but I must say the odds are against walking into a bookshop and finding some specific title you must acquire right away. But the Internet search business makes it 95 percent possible for you to have that book within a few days. Usually the only obstacle is price: the book you remember as a $15 book from 20 years ago may now be fairly scarce. You were hoping because you were looking for a “used” copy to pay less than $5. But the booksearch seller wants $40 because he found a copy for you priced at $28 plus $5 shipping, plus his small profit for his time, trouble and expertise. That’s why they call it the “Free” Library Libraries used to charge a subscription fee to their members, but the emergence of the Free Library system democratized the availability of books for even the humblest of purses. Once you are a member of the Free Library, if you want to browse online, you must set up an ID and password. Then every library book in the world that circulates is now available to you. Even many of the non-circulating ones are available as xeroxes. Additionally, Google intends to put all the world’s books online and available for reading. At least 60 percent of what I read in a year is browsed and ordered from from the Philadelphia Free Library while I sit at my computer at home. When the book is available, it awaits me at the desk of whichever branch I’d asked that it be sent to. Book Mooching If you want to own a book, not borrow it, and don’t want to buy the book, there is an online group dedicated to the free exchange of books among members — BookMooch.com. The rules are simple. Browse the catalog and “mooch” a book. It will be sent to you free. The sender pays the postage. You must have earned “points” in order to mooch. Points are acquired by listing your moochable books, getting mooched from, and sending books to your fellow mooches. My wife uses this system and loves it. She says the drawbacks are: First, you must process, pack and ship the orders (which she doesn’t mind). Second, the sender pays the postage, which sometimes can be pricey. Mailing one “free” paperback to France cost my wife $15 postage. She’s not accepting foreign mooches anymore. The system seems to work best domestically where the sender’s cost probably averages $2 per book. Which brings us right back to Harvest Books and Walk A Crooked Mile Books, our local jewels. They sell used paperbacks, and some hardbacks, for the same price. The real problem lies in wanting, or needing, a specific title and wanting it now. Other matters: (1) Reading count for 2008 is 10, on pace for another 100 book year. (2) My novel doth grow, now at 40,000 words plus. The plot thickens.—
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