Letters to the Editor

What You Say

	print	email	reply	rss feed

Published: Jul 2, 2008

Conspiracy Theory

Good to see Howard Zinn's A People's History of American Empire and Salman Rushdie's The Enchantress of Florence recommended in the Book Quarterly [Cover Story, "Fiction Reviews," "Graphic Jam," June 26, 2008]. But what would those two authors think about the omission of Patrick O'Connor's The Framing of Mumia Abu-Jamal? Both Zinn and Rushdie (and many other serious and notable figures) have gone on record and have spoken in support of Mumia's case and in condemnation of his frame-up.

There's a million books that can't make it into such compilations, but it's hard to think of a current book that has more relevance to the city, more topical interest to City Paper readers and many others.

The appearance here is that the book is getting the Philly treatment, not ignored for any quality or interest factor, but because the scary D.A., the police union, Gov. Rendell and some cheesesteak vendors don't want to see anything that contradicts the official face-saving cover-up of cover-ups upon cover-ups of Mumia's framing.

John Jonik
Philadelphia

This just in: The Eagles are targeting five-win seasons for the next three years and, according to Andy Reid, "when we get to that point, we'll reassess where we are and see if we need to go beyond there." WIP blows up and Philadelphia slips into a collective state of depression.

Luckily, Andy Reid has made no such statement, but that's essentially what the Philadelphia recycling coordinator said about improving recycling in the city in "Breaking the Cycle" [News, Katherine Silkaitis, June 12, 2008].

At the press conference to announce Philadelphia's first director of sustainability, Mayor Nutter stated his goal of making Philadelphia the nation's greenest city. It appears the first step is aiming to go from awful to merely poor when it comes to recycling.

In the 2006 sustainability rankings of the 50 largest U.S. cities done by SustainLane, Philadelphia finished a respectable eighth. Cities were ranked 1 to 50 in 15 different sustainability areas like public transit, LEED buildings and local food. The sector "weighing down" Philadelphia's ranking the most? Recycling. We finished in a tie for dead last and rated "Sustainability in Danger." Now the aim is for recycling that is "Sustainably Challenged."

And that RecycleBank program that "could" improve recycling? Wilmington, Cherry Hill and other municipalities have joined with very good results. Wilmington went from 0 percent recycling to 35 percent recycling diversion rate in two years with RecycleBank. Thiry-five percent doesn't even appear to be on Philadelphia's radar, even though it is what is required by the law that the city itself continues to break.

I am tired of Philadelphia merely trying to play catch-up and settling for good enough. On the campaign trail, Nutter promised incentive-based, weekly, single-stream recycling and urged residents to hold him to his word. I am holding him accountable. Philadelphia deserves better.

Ben Ditzler

RecycleNOW West Philly
Philadelphia

A word came to mind as I read this article [Cover Story, "Locked Down," Tom Namako, June 19, 2008]: Pulitzer!

Evangelia Biddy
Wynnewood

You reported that roosters were seized in Kensington [News, "Bell Curve," June 26, 2008]. They were not. The incident happened at Second and Diamond which is ZIP code 19122 (North Philly). Kensington is 19134. Please be accurate about what neighborhood you're in.

Barbara Tarvydas
Via CityPaper.net

All reader comments are subject to our Terms of Use. By clicking Post Comment, you acknowledge that you have reviewed and agree to these Terms.

Name	please enter your name
Email (will not be published)	please enter a valid email
Comment	please enter a comment
Enter the security code on the right in the textbox below.
Security Code	please enter the code
	Join the City Paper Mailing List

The Stuff of Legend
Consider it Brought
Generous Scoundrels