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Faxes Sent to Jannie Blackwell

Letters

From:	MR
To:	Councilwoman Blackwell, Councilman Goode, Councilman Green, Councilman Greenlee, Councilman Kelly, Councilman Kenney, Mayor Nutter, Councilwoman Reynolds Brown, Councilman Rizzo
Date:	Saturday, 11/15/08
Subject:	Do Not Close the Library Branches

While I would like to plead the case that all branches of the
Free Public Library need to remain open, realistically I will
focus on the Kingsessing Branch and the impact that this
closing will have on the children who attend BB Comegy School
and the surrounding community.

The library was built in 1917, and is a Carnegie Library. As a
part of the Carnegie committment, the library has meeting
spaces for the community, open and available stacks of books,
music and video resources, and computers and printers.

For the children, this branch is a safe haven in the critical
hours after school and offers homework help and LEAP. The local
public elementary school, BB Commegy, does not have a school
library and utilizes Kingsessing library to supplement the
student's experiences by making field trips to the library,
participating in the library card drive, and encouraging the
children to read and explore. In addition to the BB Comegy
school, within short walking distance of this library is Wilson
School, Mitchell School, DeSales Catholic and a host of smaller
Christian Academies.

For the community, this branch is also a safe haven. This is a
quiet place to hold community meetings and exchange ideas. This
is a place to look for a job, get resume help, read newspapers
and books, listen to music and borrow videos that range from
documentaries to block busters. This is an underserved
community. Without the Kingsessing Library, thee will no other
place in the community for these resources, at any price. There
are no bookstores, music stores or video stores near this
library. There is no other quiet place for a community group to
meet and exchange ideas.

With the closing of this branch, the next nearest library is
nearly 2 miles away. Once considered one of the finest
neighborhoods in the City, for years, this Kingsessing has
struggled with violence, drugs and poverty. Removal of this
asset from the community will be a tragedy that is counter to
Mayor Nutter's pledge to protect the most vulnerable among us.
I sincerely hope that you will work to remove this library from
the closure list.

I would like to express my extreme displeasure at the prospect of
a halt to Philadelphia's scheduled business tax cuts. If you must
suspend wage tax cuts, fine. They actually have been going on for
over a
decade, however minuscule they have been on a yearly basis. However,
business tax cuts have only just gotten started and, given how
small a
revenue stream they generate and how much it fluctuates with economic
conditions, I think they should continue. I think it was a bad
decision to
discontinue these scheduled cuts, especially such a short time
after they
were enacted.

Dear Mayor Nutter:

I respectfully request that you do not sign into law Bills No.
080741 and 080742, involving respectively, zoning for the
proposed Foxwoods Casino on Market Street between 10th and 11th
Streets, and the creation of a 24 block district in which casino
zoning would be made permissible. The borders of the district are
from 6th Street to Broad Street and from Chestnut to Arch Streets.

I recall when you ran for the Democratic seat for Mayor of
Philadelphia, you gave your full support to the citizen driven
ballot initiative that required a 1,500-foot buffer zone between
casinos and neighborhoods. I also applaud your announcement,
immediately after taking office in January, of the creation of a
city-wide master zoning plan. Philadelphians are hopeful that the
master plan will create the kind of vision for the entire City of
Philadelphia that was created by Penn Praxis for the Delaware
waterfront.

Your support of the buffer between neighborhoods and casinos, and
your initiative to create a master plan, are undermined and
contradicted by the fast track zoning now before City Council
that would put a large-scale slot parlor in the heart of our
historic city - directly between Independence Hall and City Hall.

Without proper planning, a 5,000 machine slot parlor could end up
in Center City Philadelphia --- immediately adjacent to three
thriving city neighborhoods, and at the disposal of tens of
thousands of office, service and government workers, and
commuters --- without any meaningful public debate or independent
economic or social impact studies to determine that this is an
acceptable site for a casino. Experts in planning agree: high
impact development of this magnitude should start with a
comprehensive planning process and then be followed by the zoning
process.

Philadelphians deserve a true planning process by which all
possible sites in Philadelphia are evaluated for the two casinos
slated for Philadelphia under Act 71, to determine the least
damaging locations. We ask for your leadership in this endeavor
by taking the first step - please veto these two zoning bills.

Sincerely,

Copies to my representatives in City Council

Dear Mayor Nutter:

I respectfully request that you do not sign into law Bills No. 080741 and 080742,
involving respectively, zoning for the proposed Foxwoods Casino on Market Street
between 10th and 11th Streets, and the creation of a 24 block district in which
casino zoning would be made permissible. The borders of the district are from 6th
Street to Broad Street and from Chestnut to Arch Streets.

I recall when you ran for the Democratic seat for Mayor of Philadelphia, you gave
your full support to the citizen driven ballot initiative that required a 1,500-foot
buffer zone between casinos and neighborhoods. I also applaud your
announcement, immediately after taking office in January, of the creation of a city-
wide master zoning plan. Philadelphians are hopeful that the master plan will create
the kind of vision for the entire City of Philadelphia that was created by Penn Praxis
for the Delaware waterfront.

Your support of the buffer between neighborhoods and casinos, and your initiative
to create a master plan, are undermined and contradicted by the fast track zoning
now before City Council that would put a large-scale slot parlor in the heart of our
historic city - directly between Independence Hall and City Hall.

Without proper planning, a 5,000 machine slot parlor could end up in Center City
Philadelphia --- immediately adjacent to three thriving city neighborhoods, and at
the disposal of tens of thousands of office, service and government workers, and
commuters --- without any meaningful public debate or independent economic or
social impact studies to determine that this is an acceptable site for a casino.
Experts in planning agree: high impact development of this magnitude should start
with a comprehensive planning process and then be followed by the zoning process.

Philadelphians deserve a true planning process by which all possible sites in
Philadelphia are evaluated for the two casinos slated for Philadelphia under Act 71,
to determine the least damaging locations. We ask for your leadership in this
endeavor by taking the first step - please veto these two zoning bills.

Sincerely,

Copies to my representatives in City Council

Dear Mayor Nutter:

Casinos will kill the surrounding communities. For example,
Chinatown is a unique cultural community in the City. As a
Philadelphian I'd regret losing such a unique cultural place.
I urge you to use your influence to stop the proposed casinos
in this neighbourhood.

Dear Mayor Nutter:

I respectfully request that you do not sign into law Bills No.
080741 and 080742, involving respectively, zoning for the
proposed Foxwoods Casino on Market Street between 10th and 11th
Streets, and the creation of a 24 block district in which
casino zoning would be made permissible. The borders of the
district are from 6th Street to Broad Street and from Chestnut
to Arch Streets.

I recall when you ran for the Democratic seat for Mayor of
Philadelphia, you gave your full support to the citizen driven
ballot initiative that required a 1,500-foot buffer zone
between casinos and neighborhoods. I also applaud your
announcement, immediately after taking office in January, of
the creation of a city-wide master zoning plan. Philadelphians
are hopeful that the master plan will create the kind of vision
for the entire City of Philadelphia that was created by Penn
Praxis for the Delaware waterfront.

Your support of the buffer between neighborhoods and casinos,
and your initiative to create a master plan, are undermined and
contradicted by the fast track zoning now before City Council
that would put a large-scale slot parlor in the heart of our
historic city - directly between Independence Hall and City
Hall.

Without proper planning, a 5,000 machine slot parlor could end
up in Center City Philadelphia --- immediately adjacent to
three thriving city neighborhoods, and at the disposal of tens
of thousands of office, service and government workers, and
commuters --- without any meaningful public debate or
independent economic or social impact studies to determine that
this is an acceptable site for a casino. Experts in planning
agree: high impact development of this magnitude should start
with a comprehensive planning process and then be followed by
the zoning process.

Philadelphians deserve a true planning process by which all
possible sites in Philadelphia are evaluated for the two
casinos slated for Philadelphia under Act 71, to determine the
least damaging locations. We ask for your leadership in this
endeavor by taking the first step - please veto these two
zoning bills.

Sincerely,

Copies to my representatives in City Council

Dear Mayor Nutter:

I respectfully request that you do not sign into law Bills No.
080741 and 080742, involving respectively, zoning for the
proposed Foxwoods Casino on Market Street between 10th and 11th
Streets, and the creation of a 24 block district in which casino
zoning would be made permissible. The borders of the district are
from 6th Street to Broad Street and from Chestnut to Arch Streets.

I recall when you ran for the Democratic seat for Mayor of
Philadelphia, you gave your full support to the citizen driven
ballot initiative that required a 1,500-foot buffer zone between
casinos and neighborhoods. I also applaud your announcement,
immediately after taking office in January, of the creation of a
city-wide master zoning plan. Philadelphians are hopeful that the
master plan will create the kind of vision for the entire City of
Philadelphia that was created by Penn Praxis for the Delaware
waterfront.

Your support of the buffer between neighborhoods and casinos, and
your initiative to create a master plan, are undermined and
contradicted by the fast track zoning now before City Council
that would put a large-scale slot parlor in the heart of our
historic city - directly between Independence Hall and City Hall.

Without proper planning, a 5,000 machine slot parlor could end up
in Center City Philadelphia --- immediately adjacent to three
thriving city neighborhoods, and at the disposal of tens of
thousands of office, service and government workers, and
commuters --- without any meaningful public debate or independent
economic or social impact studies to determine that this is an
acceptable site for a casino. Experts in planning agree: high
impact development of this magnitude should start with a
comprehensive planning process and then be followed by the zoning
process.

Philadelphians deserve a true planning process by which all
possible sites in Philadelphia are evaluated for the two casinos
slated for Philadelphia under Act 71, to determine the least
damaging locations. We ask for your leadership in this endeavor
by taking the first step - please veto these two zoning bills.

Sincerely,

Copies to my representatives in City Council

Dear Mayor Nutter:

I respectfully request that you do not sign into law Bills No.
080741 and 080742, involving respectively, zoning for the
proposed Foxwoods Casino on Market Street between 10th and 11th
Streets, and the creation of a 24 block district in which casino
zoning would be made permissible. The borders of the district are
from 6th Street to Broad Street and from Chestnut to Arch Streets.

I recall when you ran for the Democratic seat for Mayor of
Philadelphia, you gave your full support to the citizen driven
ballot initiative that required a 1,500-foot buffer zone between
casinos and neighborhoods. I also applaud your announcement,
immediately after taking office in January, of the creation of a
city-wide master zoning plan. Philadelphians are hopeful that the
master plan will create the kind of vision for the entire City of
Philadelphia that was created by Penn Praxis for the Delaware
waterfront.

Your support of the buffer between neighborhoods and casinos, and
your initiative to create a master plan, are undermined and
contradicted by the fast track zoning now before City Council
that would put a large-scale slot parlor in the heart of our
historic city - directly between Independence Hall and City Hall.

Without proper planning, a 5,000 machine slot parlor could end up
in Center City Philadelphia --- immediately adjacent to three
thriving city neighborhoods, and at the disposal of tens of
thousands of office, service and government workers, and
commuters --- without any meaningful public debate or independent
economic or social impact studies to determine that this is an
acceptable site for a casino. Experts in planning agree: high
impact development of this magnitude should start with a
comprehensive planning process and then be followed by the zoning
process.

Philadelphians deserve a true planning process by which all
possible sites in Philadelphia are evaluated for the two casinos
slated for Philadelphia under Act 71, to determine the least
damaging locations. We ask for your leadership in this endeavor
by taking the first step - please veto these two zoning bills.

Sincerely,

Copies to my representatives in City Council

Dear Mayor Nutter:

I respectfully request that you do not sign into law Bills No.
080741 and 080742, involving respectively, zoning for the
proposed Foxwoods Casino on Market Street between 10th and 11th
Streets, and the creation of a 24 block district in which
casino zoning would be made permissible. The borders of the
district are from 6th Street to Broad Street and from Chestnut
to Arch Streets.

I recall when you ran for the Democratic seat for Mayor of
Philadelphia, you gave your full support to the citizen driven
ballot initiative that required a 1,500-foot buffer zone
between casinos and neighborhoods. I also applaud your
announcement, immediately after taking office in January, of
the creation of a city-wide master zoning plan. Philadelphians
are hopeful that the master plan will create the kind of vision
for the entire City of Philadelphia that was created by Penn
Praxis for the Delaware waterfront.

Your support of the buffer between neighborhoods and casinos,
and your initiative to create a master plan, are undermined and
contradicted by the fast track zoning now before City Council
that would put a large-scale slot parlor in the heart of our
historic city - directly between Independence Hall and City
Hall.

Without proper planning, a 5,000 machine slot parlor could end
up in Center City Philadelphia --- immediately adjacent to
three thriving city neighborhoods, and at the disposal of tens
of thousands of office, service and government workers, and
commuters --- without any meaningful public debate or
independent economic or social impact studies to determine that
this is an acceptable site for a casino. Experts in planning
agree: high impact development of this magnitude should start
with a comprehensive planning process and then be followed by
the zoning process.

Philadelphians deserve a true planning process by which all
possible sites in Philadelphia are evaluated for the two
casinos slated for Philadelphia under Act 71, to determine the
least damaging locations. We ask for your leadership in this
endeavor by taking the first step - please veto these two
zoning bills.

Sincerely,

Copies to my representatives in City Council

Dear Mayor Nutter:

I respectfully request that you do not sign into law Bills No.
080741 and 080742, involving respectively, zoning for the
proposed Foxwoods Casino on Market Street between 10th and 11th
Streets, and the creation of a 24 block district in which casino
zoning would be made permissible. The borders of the district are
from 6th Street to Broad Street and from Chestnut to Arch Streets.

I recall when you ran for the Democratic seat for Mayor of
Philadelphia, you gave your full support to the citizen driven
ballot initiative that required a 1,500-foot buffer zone between
casinos and neighborhoods. I also applaud your announcement,
immediately after taking office in January, of the creation of a
city-wide master zoning plan. Philadelphians are hopeful that the
master plan will create the kind of vision for the entire City of
Philadelphia that was created by Penn Praxis for the Delaware
waterfront.

Your support of the buffer between neighborhoods and casinos, and
your initiative to create a master plan, are undermined and
contradicted by the fast track zoning now before City Council
that would put a large-scale slot parlor in the heart of our
historic city - directly between Independence Hall and City Hall.

Without proper planning, a 5,000 machine slot parlor could end up
in Center City Philadelphia --- immediately adjacent to three
thriving city neighborhoods, and at the disposal of tens of
thousands of office, service and government workers, and
commuters --- without any meaningful public debate or independent
economic or social impact studies to determine that this is an
acceptable site for a casino. Experts in planning agree: high
impact development of this magnitude should start with a
comprehensive planning process and then be followed by the zoning
process.

Philadelphians deserve a true planning process by which all
possible sites in Philadelphia are evaluated for the two casinos
slated for Philadelphia under Act 71, to determine the least
damaging locations. We ask for your leadership in this endeavor
by taking the first step - please veto these two zoning bills.

Sincerely,

Copies to my representatives in City Council

Dear Mayor Nutter:

Keeping central Philadelphia / Chinatown casino-free is an
important way to take a stand for the value of community and to
keep gambling addiction out of our city.

I respectfully request that you do not sign into law Bills No.
080741 and 080742, involving respectively, zoning for the
proposed Foxwoods Casino on Market Street between 10th and 11th
Streets, and the creation of a 24 block district in which
casino zoning would be made permissible. The borders of the
district are from 6th Street to Broad Street and from Chestnut
to Arch Streets.

I recall when you ran for the Democratic seat for Mayor of
Philadelphia, you gave your full support to the citizen driven
ballot initiative that required a 1,500-foot buffer zone
between casinos and neighborhoods. I also applaud your
announcement, immediately after taking office in January, of
the creation of a city-wide master zoning plan. Philadelphians
are hopeful that the master plan will create the kind of vision
for the entire City of Philadelphia that was created by Penn
Praxis for the Delaware waterfront.

Your support of the buffer between neighborhoods and casinos,
and your initiative to create a master plan, are undermined and
contradicted by the fast track zoning now before City Council
that would put a large-scale slot parlor in the heart of our
historic city - directly between Independence Hall and City
Hall.

Without proper planning, a 5,000 machine slot parlor could end
up in Center City Philadelphia --- immediately adjacent to
three thriving city neighborhoods, and at the disposal of tens
of thousands of office, service and government workers, and
commuters --- without any meaningful public debate or
independent economic or social impact studies to determine that
this is an acceptable site for a casino. Experts in planning
agree: high impact development of this magnitude should start
with a comprehensive planning process and then be followed by
the zoning process.

Philadelphians deserve a true planning process by which all
possible sites in Philadelphia are evaluated for the two
casinos slated for Philadelphia under Act 71, to determine the
least damaging locations. We ask for your leadership in this
endeavor by taking the first step - please veto these two
zoning bills.

Sincerely,

Julian Brelsford

Copies to my representatives in City Council

I am not happy at all that the Chinatown I know and love is
about to become a part of town that I will want to avoid. I
feel for the people who live there. I'm curious to know
whether the anticipated financial windfall from turning
Philadelphia into a casino town will be great enough for us to
keep open the libraries and swimming pools that are scheduled
for closing? My worst scenario imaginings are of teenagers
prosituting themselves in the streets around the casinos. I
really fear what is happening to the city where I've lived since
I was 14 years old. I'm now 71 and I have never before wanted
so much to be somewhere else. I gave some time and a little bit
of money to Mayor Nutter's campaign and remain hopeful that he
will do everything he can to save our city, but I fear that
things won't get better in my lifetime. Please do whatever is
possible to sort things out so that the troubles that casinos
inevitably bring with them are minimized. I gather that it's a
done deal that they be put in Chinatown.

Dear Mayor Nutter and Councilpeople,

I'm very unhappy to learn that the city has decided to cut
fundamental services to our poorest communities in order to
save money. The libraries of our city provide essential safe
space, internet access, and community meeting places for
thousands of Philadelphians, young and old. Please find a way
to keep our libraries open, by raising taxes, and reducing
hours at branches rather than destroying essential community
hubs.

I'm writing to express my dissatisfaction with the progress made
in the city. We have people running the streets who are more than
willing to shoot police, people who have come close to shooting
police being released on house arrest. Council members and their
staff are behaving in an unethical manner (not that that's
anything new in Philadelphia, but we're supposed to be turning a
new leaf). The city is still uncompetitive when it comes to
attracting employers, and yet I'm sure many elected officials
will view rolling back scheduled tax reductions as the solution
to the budget deficit. While it won't erase the deficit by
itself, you should start working on doing so by rolling back the
increases in funding for your personal staff that you approved
with the last budget. You're all still getting re-elected, and
I'm back to an hour-long commute to the suburbs for work, but I'm
not going to stop working to improve this city as long as I live
here.

Just as a reminder, below are my new year's resolutions for the
city, which also closely match Mayor Nutter's proposals during
his election campaign, as well as those of many council members.
Some progress has been made, but there's still plenty of work to do.

1) Eliminate the BPT. Don't lower it, eliminate it.

2) Pass legislation allowing the city to hire non-residents.

3) Create a contract for city unions that brings their
compensation and benefits in line with those provided to the
city's taxpayers by their employers.

4) Pass the necessary legislation to give the police commissioner
more control over hires and promotions within the department,
including any applicable voter-approved charter changes.

5) Come up with a taxation system for Philadelphia that provides
adequate funding for the school district, without increasing the
burden on city residents.

6) Re-write the city's zoning code to encourage commercial
activity, rather than stifling it.

7) Take action to move the city's violent/mentally ill homeless
from the streets to a more appropriate environment, and other
homeless individuals into the shelter system.

8) Work with state and federal elected officials to appoint
people with experience running a successful public transportation
system to SEPTA's board of directors, as well as initiating a
comprehensive plan for the construction of new rapid transit
lines to serve parts of the city that don't currently have one.

9) Work with state and federal officials to include capping of
(at least) the downtown portion of I-95 (or bridging it like
I-670 in Columbus, OH), when work is done on that highway in the
near future, in order to enhance accessibility to the waterfront.
The same should be done for I-676 at some point.

10) Start legislating the agenda described in the policy papers
drafted by Mayor Nutter during the primary. This includes new
ethics legislation and setting budget priorities that fund basic
city services, first and foremost (this will require making cuts
in other less important areas of the budget).

11) Take action to revive industry in the city, in order to
create jobs for its residents (this is related to resolution #1).

12) Provide better funding and management to the Fairmount Park
system.

Dear Mayor Nutter and City Council Members,

I am writing about the Philadelphia Department of Public Health's
open bid for the animal control contract, whose request for a new
vendor explicitly defines animal control responsibilities as
"accepting and humanely disposing of up to 30,000 unwanted pets
per year."

I am appalled by this proposal. The animals that are homeless are
not at fault. This problem lies with us; we have failed them.
Therefore, we should take responsibility for their welfare. To
simply pick up and kill any stray animal like garbage without an
attempt to find it a home or to ensure it's not someone's beloved
pet that could have simply escaped, is reckless, heartless, and
not demonstrative of a society of intelligent, forward-thinking
people. If we want our world to improve, we must do the things
that will improve it -- including the treatment of our animals --
and that means this proposal must be rejected.

Employing such a practice will NOT curb stray animal problems in
the long run, it may, in fact, make it worse by enforcing ideas
of apathy and irresponsibility (i.e. "if I don't want my pet,
I'll just put it outside where someone will pick it up and get
rid of it for me"), but also the idea that we can dispose of what
we do not want without regard to the implications of our actions
-- whether they be animals, other humans, garbage (think
recycling), pollution, media, and more. We need innovation,
education, and to act as stewards of the vision we have for a
newer, better world.

Again, I implore you to reject this proposal. Let's work on this
problem ethically, not from our wallets but from our hearts.

Sincerely,

Tristan Gaucher

This is wrong.

Dear Mayor Nutter and City Council Members,

I am writing to ask for your support in renewing the PACCA
contract with the city. We need an organization that is going to
try to deal with the animal overpopulation in a proactive way
versus euthanizing the animals that don't have homes.

I have been proud of the work that Philadelphia is doing and the
progress we've made. Please help ensure we are moving forward,
not backwards, on this issue.

I am outraged and appalled that the Philadelphia Department of
Public Health is signing a death sentence for thousands of
animals. The lifesaving achievements of the last three years are
to celebrated and furthered, not abandoned. We will not go back
to a time when most homeless animals are killed. Classifying them
simply as objects to be collected and disposed of like garbage is
unacceptable. We demand that the Health Department rescind its
current request for proposal for animal control services and
rewrite it to require lifesaving. The agency that holds this
contract must achieve progressive save rates – with a starting
place of 60%, the current level – so Philadelphia continues
moving closer to the goal of guaranteeing a home for every
healthy and treatable pet. We will not allow this city to turn
its back on Philadelphia's animals.

Hey guys,
Long story short- PACCA, who currently holds the bid for the
city's animal control, has turned the city's animal control
system from a system that destroys thousands of animals yearly to
one that rehomes and adopts out the majority of animals that come
through the shelter. Their contract is up, and the city is
taking bids for new vendors, and the new contract states that the
vendor must capture and DESTROY 30,000 animals a year with no
emphasis on rehoming. Please send a fax to the mayor and your
city council members to register your protest !

Roxy

I am writing to let you know of my outrage at the Health
Department’s recently announced RFP for animal services. I am
horrified at the focus of the RFP on “disposal” and not on
“placement." I am more than a Philadelphia citizen and an animal
lover – I am someone who does their part. My husband and I have
single handedly rescued and fostered more than our fair share of
stray dogs in the city, and found homes for every single one of
them without using city resources. We do our part, but we need
the city to do its part. I understand the need to cut costs, but
it is unconscionable to cut expenses by issuing a death sentence
for animals whose only crime was that they were abandoned. “The
Next Great City” can do better than that.

I urge you to withdraw this flawed RFP.

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