Now that the furor has abated, surely there are appropriate ways to approach what's admittedly a difficult situation on Baltimore Avenue. Maybe some things have been tried and haven't worked, but none were mentioned in the discussion.
A lot of what people are upset about seems to involve some of the businesses -- cars blocking the sidewalk because of the auto shops, litter resulting from take-out food stores, etc. Have the responsible people been approached individually in an open neighborly non-confrontational way? Has an ad-hoc group or representatives of the relevant Community Association (I'm not sure on which side of the boundaries the businesses fall) written to or met with the Baltimore Avenue Business Assn.? Has the problem been brought to the attention of Councilwoman Blackwell's office? Has anybody discussed this with Lieutenant Carbonara of the UC police substation? This particular individual -- I can tell you from both observation and personal experience (the latter a tale for another time) -- has a way of being persuasive without wearing police power on his chest. Bringing him in via a direct phone call isn't like calling 911 and waiting for sirens to come roaring in from all directions. In the case of the auto parking, has anybody determined the actual city codes governing parking on sidewalks in front of this type of business (or in general) so they can back their claims of inconvenience or other subjective complaints with chapter and verse of the law? Assuming that actual Code violations exist, what existing city agencies have the appropriate responsibility (L&I, the Police Department, the Parking Authority, the Streets Dept., etc.)? What mechanisms does or do the responsible agency or agencies have for dealing with complaints of this type? And if this avenue has been taken to no avail, what procedures are there to get them to be more responsive? --- No, I'm not even hinting that when confronted with situations of this type, I've always handled it properly in the past. Yes, I've blown my top at some hapless neighbor who put out trash on Tuesday afternoon after the Streets Dept. trucks had gone by. Yes, I've called L&I about some hazardous condition caused by an irresponsible property owner next door to one of my perfectly maintained West Philly simulacra of the Palace of Versailles without first attempting first to contact the responsible party and alerting him or her to the condition. But, when I put my mind in gear before doing anything stupid -- surprise! surprise! -- I have a good history of success. (It's the "movie theory" of life. If I were the "good guy" in a movie in which everything worked out perfectly for everyone, despite the seeming impossibility of the situation, how would I handle it? For anyone my age or older, Archie's father on the Archie Andrews radio show -- who always came in at the end and said "This situation has gone far enough. Too far, in fact." And then laid out the solution that should have been obvious in the first place.) And, at the risk of opening yesterday's sores, the successes have been mainly on a person to person basis and occasionally by going through legitimate government channels, but never by vigilantism or by attempting to empower an individual or organization outside the stream of "due process." Al Krigman ---- You are receiving this because you are subscribed to the list named "UnivCity." To unsubscribe or for archive information, see <http://www.purple.com/list.html>.
