As I read Zitcer's column, it wasn't presented as reportage but as opinion.
And it certainly read as though Zitcer was a resident of University City,
expressing his thoughts and feelings and reactions to a controversy in his
neighborhood. Columnists shouldn't lie, but their mission is not measured by
how many people they interviewed; that's more what you want from a reporter.
And I thought his column was brilliant, because I agreed with it. I was only
troubled by his name, "Zitcer," which looks funny. But then, every once in a
while one of my friends hints I look funny, so I guess we all have our
flaws.
Is it true all the stickers are gone? Ray, you're good with computer
graphics. Can you please whip off a few for us and post at least one on the
FOCP Clark Park bulletin kiosk on Chester Ave.? That's why we neighbors
organized to put it up there: so rude and lively political discourse would
always find a friendly thumbtack-foothold in University City's favorite
public square.
If I ever run across a not-so-public park group, I'll give them a piece of
my mind, I promise you. To their face, not in some goofy "current
interactive/online horizontal model of exchange." I'm not Penn enough for
that, I guess. Fortunately, all park support groups that I know of in West
Philadelphia are admirably open to all community members, no matter what
condition they're in. That's the way it should be. They welcomed you as a
member before, exactly as you are, and they would welcome you again any
time. A group that would have Ray Rorke as a member -- maybe Groucho Marx
would turn up his nose at such, but I can assure everybody that neither
Clark Park nor Cedar Park nor Barkan Park nor Malcolm X Park nor Saunders
Park activists would erect the slightest bar to his participation. It's
entirely up to Ray.
Ray, you talk of "our identity that's at stake." I assume you mean "our
elitist Penn identity." Wait a minute: there are lots of us here who aren't
Penn-affiliated like you. We're mostly fine with the U-name, but we didn't
appoint you or pay you personally to speak for us at large. If you want to
speak for us -- learn how to look us in the eye first.
Instead you can just write opinion pieces, like this Zitcer fellow. Then you
can use the columnar "we" all you want. But people will still note whom you
work for. Until you change the facts of your life, buffing your rhetoric all
by itself will only take you so far.
-- Tony West
Sharrieff wrote:
Quite frankly Ray, I thought some of the same things after reading it.
No photos, examples of the stickers in question or photos of the
"Welcome to University City" bridge etc.
The writer didn't interview members of the community to get opinions.
Ray wrote:
what struck me odd about the article was how it seemed so
'second hand' -- as if the author didn't actually encounter
any of the stickers himself, and was only retelling a
selection of opinions that had already been aired here. for
one thing, he gets the words of the stickers wrong (they
don't say "university city is just a marketing scheme", they
say "university city is a marketing scheme"). and we've all
read how similar his speculations were to ones made here a
while ago. and where does one even see these stickers
anymore? they all seem to be gone.
the article reads like belated 'damage control' or post
spin, as though it was placed, for the record, rather than
written as a spontaneous timely reaction to something
actually ongoing and visible, and which readers could
respond to. it feels more like an old skool, top-down pr
approach to community engagement, not like any of our
current interactive/online horizontal models of exchange.
in the absense of any local gazebo [ROSS!], we'd do well to
look more closely into our available public squares -- where
they're located, whose participation means sharing, whose
participation means controlling. meanwhile, we'll be dealing
with stickers and big painted bridges, with listservs and pr
machines, with public parks and not-so-public park groups...
does anyone know who actually painted the bridge? who asked
for it? who designed it? who approved it? who paid for it?
until we do, it's just as anonymous as the stickers. and
after all, it's our identity that's at stake.
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