And you are avoiding the issue by focusing on whether or not the
people commenting have children, clean up after their dog, leave their
cubicle, etc. What's your point?
I don't have much knowledge on this issue (Thanks in advance, Tony,
but I know where and how to find it.) and I'm likely not the only one
on the list who can say that. I'm sure I'm also not alone in being
disinclined to listen to the viewpoint of a person who expresses
themselves the way you do when someone disagrees with you.
I'm just sayin'
Frank
On May 28, 2008, at 07:40 AM, Anthony West wrote:
Frank,
Personal insults trouble you when they are made by some people, but
not by others. You yourself are less insulting on line than you used
to be, for which I salute you.
People without children have every right to comment on public
education, which they do pay for via taxes. People who insist on
publicizing the fact they have violated a City trash ordinance,
inevitably expose themselves to public opinion on that subject. I
expressed my opinion. It is negative.
Back to schools and real estate. You comment on the way I make my
point ... but not on the point itself. Whether or not a person has
real estate or children, their opinions will be better formed if
they refer to the world beyond Spruce Hill. Neither the School
District nor the urban real-estate market exists inside a
neighborhood bubble.
Again I say: Middle-class and wealthy folks don't "need" the inner
city; they've shown they can live outside it and without it. It is
chiefly the poor who need to live within a taxing body that includes
the non-poor. Any disagreement with that proposition?
-- Tony West
Personal insults add so much to a discussion, dontcha think?
Aside from that, I honestly don't know why people hang on to the
ridiculous canard that people with no children should have no input
or interest in school district business. It's preposterous.
Frank
On May 27, 2008, at 11:39 PM, Anthony West wrote:
Two useful facts:
1) The boundaries of the Penn Alexander School were drawn by the
School District of Philadelphia. They are deeply integrated into a
longstanding bureaucratic structure that no childless dogwalker
can comprehend. Glenn's competence to comment on Philadelphia
public education is roughly that of his dog. I love dogs myself,
but for Pete's sake: woof! Pay off your trash tickets first,
Glenn, and pick up your dogs' poop; only thereafter should you
advise the rest of us how to educate our children.
2) Ray's interesting map overlays something that does not exist
and probably never will -- the putative Spruce Hill Historic
District -- with something that has long existed -- the catchment
area of the Penn Alexander neighborhood school.
Ray's map demonstrates that any one neighborhood map tends to
overlap any other map of the same neighborhood. Paranoids love
this sort of geometrical toy, because they can use it to prove the
conspiracy theories that get their blood pumping.
However, there is NO EVIDENCE that housing values have run up
inside the PAS catchment area 1% more than they have in Cedar
Park, Powelton Village, Fairmount, Francisville, Ludlow, South
Kensington, Fishtown, Port Richmond, Queen Village, Bella Vista,
Grays Ferry and West Shore. I'm open to reading any such evidence.
But one thing is sure: a commentator who will not stray from his
Locust Walk cubicle will never learn the facts of Philadelphia
real estate.
Until we read cross-neighborhood comparisons between University
City and comparable neighborhoods, UC-list seems doomed to be
smothered in the polemical ruminations of obsolete New-Left
jackasses who apparently can't locate the rest of the city even
with the aid of MapQuest. Personally, I'd rather read about the
real neighborhood we all live in today. Let's move past this bogus
"gentrification" hooey, and talk about a city that is suffering
because too many of its residents are poor people while too few
are middle-class or prosperous people. How can we Philadelphians
make Philadelphia's class demographics look more like those of
America as a whole? Obviously, all Philadelphians need this to
happen.
But poor Philadelphians need it most. Middle-class and wealthy
folks don't "need" the inner city; they've shown they can live
outside it and without it. It is chiefly the poor who need to live
within a taxing body that includes the non-poor.
-- Tony West
UNIVERSITY*CITOYEN wrote:
Glenn wrote:
Philadelphia Weekly has a short interesting article (a
snapshot) about the confluence of education, real estate and
gentrification issues here in our upscale village.
http://www.philadelphiaweekly.com/articles/17058/news
In this short piece, it corroborates a point that was
widely discussed here. The description captures how the Penn
catchment area was drawn around the potential real estate
value of housing stock. The lines aren't drawn logically
around neighborhoods or existing residents, but instead are
obviously based on real estate value projections.
haha here's another 'snapshot':
http://tinyurl.com/3bgtk
..................
UNIVERSITY*CITOYEN
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