Letters

NEWS AND OPINION

Add Comment | Comments: 0 | Posted Aug. 3, 2005

Shopping for Centers

To Kia Gregory on her essay about rec centers in the last issue:

I really enjoyed your piece on the city's recreation centers. I live around the corner from the Marian Anderson, which offers many sports programs directed by Steve Bandura. The pool is an awesome refuge for neighborhood children, and the meal programs are vital to many, as you mentioned. I hope to see more of your life-in-the-city articles, and will check out your archives as well.

Lori Heyman
Center City South

Building Blocks

To Gwen Shaffer on her recent story about the School District's plans to sell an old building:

Alas, Paul Vallas isn't really a powerful big-city school district CEO. No, he's but a mere weakling. He's just too nice, and that explains the District's reversal of its decision concerning the disposition of the former Durham School property.

I attended the earlier meeting. Vallas is a very clear speaker, and he unequivocally stated not once but several times that the District would do what the community wanted. In the last instance he said, and I quote, "You have my promise."

I realize the District adopted its current budget effective May 31, 2005, after the earlier meeting, but its plans for the "costly educational reforms underway ... reducing class size and improving technology" mentioned by the District's Ellen Savitz doubtless didn't materially change in the interim.

Looking at it from another perspective, the several million dollars that could be realized from the sale of the Durham property in a public bid represents about two-tenths of one percent of the District's budgeted $1.8 billion of revenue. Two-tenths.

No, it seems clear that the District simply changed its mind, and now it's giving the community bullshit to cover it. In retrospect, it was probably naive to believe that the words "credibility" and "accounting" meant something to the School District of Philadelphia.

Bill Faust
Center City

Daily Spews

To Liz Spikol on her column last week about the portrayal of the mentally ill in the Daily News:

Hmm. The Daily News published a sensationalistic, poorly researched, thoughtless and shallow article on a serious topic. I suppose you also go to Burger King in search of organic free-range meats, and tune into
The View hoping for an insightful and enlightening discussion of reproductive rights and workplace
equality. Next time just follow your instincts and read the Daily News solely for juicy gossip.

Richard Golden
Burlington, N.J.

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