The first of the open letters from "two West Philadelphia Political Leaders" to ZBA chair Susan Jaffe opposing the Campus Inn zoning variance was written by Representative Jim Roebuck (somehow, his name was omitted from the print edition). The second letter in opposition was, as I mentioned in an earlier posting, from Councilwoman Blackwell. Also, I did not mean to imply, as one follow-up posting noted, that the comments in my posting about unwillingness to compromise by proponents of proposals that have been relegated to the scrap heap in this neighborhood were those of the Councilwoman. They were my own takes on ideas that had underlying merit but serious flaws in the means being advocated for implementation. Flaws that might have been overcome had the initiators been receptive to inputs from the people who would have been affected by them, and been genuinely interested in alternatives that would have been more broadly acceptable. I don't mean to imply that anyone's personal business is subject to democratic approval. In fact, my position is quite to the contrary. People have individual rights. But they should realize that when these rights have serious impact on others, these rights should be exercised in a responsible way that does not cause damage to those others. The three examples I used -- the Historic District nomination, the NID, and the Campus Inn -- are all in this category. They damage others so the "others" have a right to become involved. In this instance, maybe an extended stay to accommodate visitors to hospital patients is a great idea. And, maybe it has to have some minimum number of rooms to be economically viable (after all, neither Campus Apts, Tom Lussenhop, or Hersha Hospitality is or should be required to act as a great philanthropic trust). But, if this is the case, then they should be looking for a suitable place to build it, and not try to make it a "square peg in a round hole" situation -- just because they can get a land lease at 40th & Pine on the cheap from those wonderful folks in the Penn real Estate Dept.
Remember, you first read it here on the popu-list Alan Krigman **************Need a job? Find an employment agency near you. (http://yellowpages.aol.com/search?query=employment_agencies&ncid=emlcntusyelp00000003)
