In a message dated 12/31/2007 8:26:37 AM Eastern Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
Has our neighborhood stood up to several years of this same type of contemptuous anti-democratic process; these corporate bullying tactics, by Penn and their cronies? West Philly is going down to plutocratic rule with only a murmer from a few "hotheads" Actually, the neighborhood is standing up to the anointed (both of the self-righteous and the bullying variety) quite well, when you think about it. One of the elitists' main tactics is to call the opponents to their dreams of hedgemony hotheads, NIMBYs, "the usual cranks," "people who oppose everything," and so on. But the fact of the matter is that a huge majority of the affected parties -- owners, renters, and business operators -- stand against the UCD mentality and all it connotes. Not always vociferously because many people are simply disinclined to "go public." Think about it. The pretentious historic designation nomination went down the tubes despite all the attempts at intimidation by the small clique of proponents. The deceitful (or do you still believe it was really about a small price to pay for cleaner and safer streets?) NID proposal is in its death throes. And the slap-in-the-face to the community by a few greedy bush-league developers and their gravy-train cohorts in the Penn Real Estate Dept, blithely labeled the "Campus Inn," has little-to-no chance of getting through a zoning change now that we know Brandywine Realty Trust is planning a hotel in the Walnut Street Tower of Cira Center South (I predict that even the Spruce Hill Commuinity Association Zoning Committee, after a public meeting in which the residents of the area get to express their views, will be hesitate to endorse this ill-conceived project because it will further erode their claim to be 'representative' of the community at large). What's interesting is that the anointed have so little going for them that they have to keep falling back on the cheap trick of insulting the people who point out the flaws in their grandiose schemes ... despite the fact that this tactic has failed in the past and is doomed to fail in the future. Yes, it's annoying to be personally insulted by people who have nothing substantial to say in trying to make their cases. But think how annoyed they must be at the thought of having their bubbles burst by what they consider the great unwashed masses. Al Krigman (A new years' resolution suggestion: Non Illigitemus carborundum est ... yeah, I know it's not really the Latin of Cato or Tacitus.) **************************************See AOL's top rated recipes (http://food.aol.com/top-rated-recipes?NCID=aoltop00030000000004)
