I attended several community meetings and my description is precise. By
law, zoning concerns are restricted to, what is it, people living or
owning property within 1,000 ft of the property? Both you & I fall
outside this line. Most of the big mouths about the 40th & Pine site
were not neighbors as defined by law. (I can name half a dozen who were,
and I tip my hat to them for winning their case.)
As for your nonsense about "my" "outspending" "you", I own one building
in one city and one neighborhood -- right here -- my home -- which I am
struggling to hang onto in the midst of a terrible recession. How many
buildings do you own? How many cities do you own property in? I spent
zip money on zip hotel wars, & yes, I care zip as well. I can't afford
to spend on stuff like real-estate lobbying about something 4 blocks
away & none of my business. How much did you spend, to move this hotel
from Pine St. to Walnut St.? You wanted it, you bought it, for whatever
reason.
But you didn't do it in my name or in the name of our community. Nobody
who cares for their community deliberately lobbies in favor of leaving a
long-term, dilapidated, abandoned building on their block. I lived with
that problem on my block for 10 years, & was so glad when it was finally
solved!
But that's what you lobbied for, & what you've achieved. Every time I
walk past this crumbling monument to misguided radicalism at 40th &
Pine, I wonder how long it'll be until it burns.
--Tony West
On 12/11/2010 9:51 PM, krf...@aol.com wrote:
In a message dated 12/11/2010 7:04:57 P.M. Eastern Standard Time,
anthony_w...@earthlink.net writes:
/All right. How about "A few nearby residents and a large number
of faraway ones expressed concerns, often heatedly. In the end,
their concerns carried the day with the ZBA and the hotel project
moved three blocks north, on another mixed-use corridor street"?/
/But I doubt the DP's readers are interested in reading a history of
disputes among neighbors several years ago. It's a readership which
largely turns over every 4 years, don't forget. They don't need to
measure how concerned the townies were, back when. Surely for them,
the focus is more on what's coming next.
/
No, not at all.
They wrote "In 2009, developers announced they planned to build the
hotel at 40th and Pine streets. They changed locations after nearby
residents expressed concerns that the building would harm the
neighborhood’s identity. The project site was then moved to Walnut
Street to fit in better with the road’s commercial aesthetic."
The truth was that the University and their developer cohorts were
dragged, kicking and screaming, from the deserted Penn-owned site at
40th & Pine by members of the community -- after having engaged one of
the city's top real estate attorneys, spending huge amounts of money,
and lying through their teeth to get the zoning changed so they could
build the hotel there.
And, surely, one of the objectives of what's supposed to be a world
class university should be to inculcate in its students sensibilities
for justice, consideration of others which viewpoints that may differ
from their own, and a realization that you can't have everything your
way simply because you can outspend the people you either disagree
with or don't care about.
And, if you believe your own statement that the objections were
mounted by "A few nearby residents and a large number of faraway
ones," you must not have been at any of the meetings or hearings.
Sorry -- you're way off track on this.
------------------------------------------------------
Alan Krigman
KRF Management
215-349-6500, fax 215-349-6502
www.krf.icodat.com <http://www.iconworldwide.com/krf>
