I have worked for years with non-profits that work to serve the community and make Philadelphia a better place, despite how difficult the city makes it. My husband and I own a small business and the city makes that miserable, too, with high taxes (a gross receipts tax!), high insurance and favoritism to businesses that play ball with city politicians and their minions.
A woman who I work with - who has done more public service since moving here 20 plus years than almost anyone I know- once said something like "Philadelphia is a horrible place to try to do good. They don't appreciate it and they'd rather find fault than help you make the city a better place." This is exactly what people are doing to Eli and while everyone is entitled to their opinion , making Eli a subject of public ridicule when he is just trying to make the world a better place is so stupid! It gives no incentive for people to ever try to do anything for the neighborhood- and we wonder why there is a lack of leadership and such stagnation in the city? Usually I ignore all this ranting on this list, but it is so unfair to slam Eli. I know him well and am his neighbor and see how hard he works and know he would never be the puppet of Penn or the city or L& I. He's just one guy trying to make the world a better place and help a few people out. Cut him a break. I'm also sure that if a people died in a fire or from faulty construction at some business on Baltimore Ave, the same people complaining now would say that they city wasn't looking out for them. -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Turner,Kathleen Sent: Friday, October 10, 2003 11:36 AM To: 'Jennifer Rodriguez'; [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: RE: [UC] City Paper Article: Baltimore Avenue Merchants + L&I + UCD I think you're right that this is the message many of the Baltimore Ave. businesses are getting, but my question is who is the "we" who have decided that "we want more sit down restaurants, that they are not upscale enough, that we want coffee houses, bookstores, etc."? I certainly like coffee houses (my daughter thinks it is a MAJOR treat to stop at the Green Line for a cup of tea after an evening walk), and bookstores are wonderful, but even a highly literate/academic neighborhood can only support so many of those (and I'd rather see that business go to Larry's wonderful Last Word). Personally, what I need on Baltimore Avenue is a friendly corner store where my kids and their friends can stop for snacks on the way home from school without being chased out and where I can grab 6 bags of cookies really fast when I need them for a scout meeting, a nice little neighborhood grocery store whose owner drives my mother-in-law home when she stops in to pick up a few things, a place where my son and his friends can hang out and have a pizza . . . and wow! those things have been there for years. Now I could certainly do without auto-body places parking cars on the sidewalks but it's great to be able to drop your car off for repairs and walk home. I'd really love a place to get an ice cream cone or water ice in the summer, without paying B&J prices. Yes, illegal speakeasies should be shut down but most of the neighborhood bars on Baltimore Ave. have existed there quite nicely for years -- only the clientele has changed with the neighborhood. "Upscale" shopping and restaurant areas are really nice, but ask the people who live in Manayunk what development there has done to their neighborhood . . . and where they go to get the things they NEED; the answer will be that they have to get in their cars and drive somewhere else, i.e., the suburbs. Kathleen -----Original Message----- From: Jennifer Rodriguez [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Friday, October 10, 2003 10:39 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [UC] City Paper Article: Baltimore Avenue Merchants + L&I + UCD In my opinion, the fears and concerns of Baltimore Avenue merchants are not unfounded, they are real. They have been informed formally or informally (and there is a corridor survey that shows this) that their businesses don't cater to the surrounding community, that we want more sit down restaurants, that they are not upscale enough, that we want coffee houses, bookstores, etc. and that their businesses don't meet our aesthetic standard. How are they supposed to interpret this, as welcoming news? If I was a merchant I would be very concerned. Their businesses are in jeopardy and as a result their livelihoods are at stake. How are they supposed to react? This is what happens when gentrification is neighborhoods reach the "tipping point". Now, how we mitigate the impact of the new socio-economic dynamics is the difficult task. Jennifer Rodriguez ===== Jennifer Rodriguez [EMAIL PROTECTED] __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? The New Yahoo! 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