[UC] Fwd: FOUND, [plump] Black Cat
Begin forwarded message: From: Richard Cardona rcard...@asc.upenn.edu Date: May 13, 2011 10:22:43 PM EDT To: ucneighb...@googlegroups.com ucneighb...@googlegroups.com Subject: [UCNeighbors] FOUND, Black Cat I live on the 200 block of S. St. Bernard St. (between Locust and Spruce) and there is a plump kitty who is obviously someone’s pet hanging out outside. He’s well fed, very affectionate, and home sick. Is he yours?
Re: [UC] FW: In catchment or not, Penn Alexander will be forced to turn new ...
In a message dated 5/13/2011 6:25:15 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time, wil.p...@comcast.net writes: Ostensibly, any public school who receives funding from taxpayers should never be able to turn away applicants who reside within the school's neighborhood boundaries. Of course, economic reality rears its ugly head. And one of the sad economic realities in Philadelphia (probably lots of other places, too) is that the management of the school district is, er, profligate might be a polite term although I can think of others. Dr Ackermann and her cohorts spend other people's money like it's, well, other people's money. And even by cutting the numbers reportedly being laid off from the central administration of the school district (ostensibly without any negative (and likely positive) impact in whatever passes for productivity up there, I understand it will still be top-heavy. Further firing people who sit at their computers and play solitaire and battleships all day for lack of any real work doesn't affect the culture of entitlement at the higher levels. The school district may not have some of the personality problems that afflicted the Housing Authority, but there are obvious strong parallels. I wish I were able to propose a practical solution. Certainly putting more control in the hands of City Council would be -- if not a step from the frying pan into the fire, than from the fire into the frying plan. Cynically yours, Al Krigman
[UC] Al Krigman, Jasmine, Preconceptions
Al Krigman wrote, When Jasmine (four-going-on-twenty) didn't .. blah, blah, blah. (No offense to Jasmine, just not relevant to my point, and why create a longer digital trail for a 4 year old, even if she is going on 20.) Funny how we develop whole stories about and images of people we only know a bit about, and through digital media (or any written communication, I suppose.) I should've caught myself earlier in this mental process but I'd already painted you / him as someone who wouldn't currently have a 4 year old child. Maybe grown children. Or maybe Jasmine is your / his grand daughter? And, then again, why do I assume the father of a 4 year old has to be younger than the age I imagine Al is from the little I've read from you / him on this listserv? (And I even feel uncomfortable calling you / him Al, as opposed to Mr Krigman.) Maybe it's your / his being a many-unit landlord? But there's an assumption or two built in there as well. And, though I didn't initially make this connection when I apologized to her above, I suppose all this also furthers my point about not wanting to extend Jasmine's digital trail. (It's scary what I've purposefully and accidentally been able to find online about people. We might want to watch how we paint ourselves - and others - online.) Anyway, a lesson or two (about assumptions, written communication, digital footprints, declining invitations to the occasional, real world, face-to-face gatherings of folks on the listserv) for me and maybe others of us on this list. (Not that I imagined you, Al, as an ass - maybe a bit on the older side of childrearing - but not an ass, in making my assumptions, just made one out of myself.) - Ricky (still using a boyish derivative of my real name, Richard, at 46 and 364/365th years old.)
Re: [UC] FW: In catchment or not, Penn Alexander will be forced to turn new ...
Thanks for your post Al. While I agree with your observations about the CEO of our school district I also feel we are choking on a gnat and swallowing a camel. The bloated bureaucracy of centralized school districts was supposed to be relieved by the corporate/educational accountability movement and the further entrenchment of charter schools in public districts. Instead we have reaped a bitter harvest of get-rich quick political schemers and the selling of the the districts assets to the highest bidder with nothing to show for it. For instance what happened to the Art Collection that was sold? Now buildings are being targeted for sale as schools consolidate under rightsizing. Ackerman et.al. are carrying out a much larger agenda which will result in the destruction of public schools in the US for poor, inner-city children. They are but small players on a huge stage built by right-wing entities such as The Broad Foundation, The Walton Foundation, The Philanthropy Roundtable, Americans for Prosperity and the 30 year-old Freedom of Choice movement. These big shots are seeking to control more public money and institutions for their private gain. Talk about spending other people's money ow about appropriating other people's money as one's own and giving nothing in return or any opportunity for redress. We are now in the final stages of this corporate fascism and it will expand to exclude anyone who is not a member of that very small exclusive club. From: krf...@aol.com krf...@aol.com Reply-To: krf...@aol.com krf...@aol.com Date: Sat, 14 May 2011 08:14:55 -0400 (EDT) To: UnivCity listserv UnivCity@list.purple.com Subject: Re: [UC] FW: In catchment or not, Penn Alexander will be forced to turn new ... In a message dated 5/13/2011 6:25:15 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time, wil.p...@comcast.net writes: Ostensibly, any public school who receives funding from taxpayers should never be able to turn away applicants who reside within the school's neighborhood boundaries. Of course, economic reality rears its ugly head. And one of the sad economic realities in Philadelphia (probably lots of other places, too) is that the management of the school district is, er, profligate might be a polite term although I can think of others. Dr Ackermann and her cohorts spend other people's money like it's, well, other people's money. And even by cutting the numbers reportedly being laid off from the central administration of the school district (ostensibly without any negative (and likely positive) impact in whatever passes for productivity up there, I understand it will still be top-heavy. Further firing people who sit at their computers and play solitaire and battleships all day for lack of any real work doesn't affect the culture of entitlement at the higher levels. The school district may not have some of the personality problems that afflicted the Housing Authority, but there are obvious strong parallels. I wish I were able to propose a practical solution. Certainly putting more control in the hands of City Council would be -- if not a step from the frying pan into the fire, than from the fire into the frying plan. Cynically yours, Al Krigman
