Letters to the Editor | May 13, 2024

Jonathan Zimmerman has a point in his May 12 column, “Here’s what’s missing from today’s student protests that you could hear loud and clear in the ‘60s”: The constant debate, discussion, and even changing of minds that I remember from Columbia in 1968, when I was a junior on Morningside Heights, seems to be missing from today’s campus protests. I want to add something that Zimmerman may not have known: classes, and the education that happens in them, went on through the spring of 1968. Columbia undergraduates (or, at least, those who weren’t occupying university buildings) and faculty of all political opinions or none gathered in “liberation classes” organized by Students for a Democratic Society. Bulletin boards at the center of campus told us where our philosophy or Latin or mathematics classes would meet — in professors’ apartments, at tables in the back of the West End bar, on the lawn of South Field; in fact, any place where the essential mission of the university, which most of us believed had something to do with ideas and education, could happen. We disrupted the administration of the university and deprived it of the use of its buildings, but we knew better than to interfere with the university itself: its students and faculty, doing what they were there for.

Lee Pearcy, Bryn Mawr

Shaking my head over Judge Juan Merchan telling Donald Trump he doesn’t want to have to put Trump in jail for flouting Merchan’s orders (for the 10th time) not to disparage the jury and the court in his public comments because, in his words, “You are the former president of the United States and possibly the next president ... I do not want to impose a jail sanction.” Here’s the deal: We’re either a nation of laws or we aren’t. It’s either true that no one is above the law or it’s not. All of these sayings that we hold so dear have no meaning whatsoever unless they’re enforced. The fact that Trump was a former president, or might be president again, should have absolutely no relevance if, in fact, we’re a nation of laws and he broke them. The longer he gets treated more favorably and leniently because of his status or the jobs he’s held, the clearer it is that we no longer live in what we thought was America. Hypocrisy is an ugly look.

Linda P. Falcao, North Wales

To protect low-income homeowners from the effects of gentrification and rising property tax bills, Community Legal Services urges Philadelphia City Council to enact the pending Low-Income Tax Freeze bill into law, extending the Senior Citizen Real Estate Tax Freeze protections to all low-income homeowners. Many homeowners, especially those in low-income and majority-Black neighborhoods, have seen huge increases in their tax bills, leaving many worried they will lose their homes.

Through City Council’s work, Philadelphia is a national leader in offering property tax protections to those at risk of losing their homes. However, many homeowners fall through the cracks because they are too young to qualify for the senior citizen tax freeze, or have not owned their homes long enough to qualify for the Longtime Owner Occupants Program (LOOP). This especially impacts those who have inherited their homes, or who obtained mortgages through first-time homeowner programs, but cannot keep up with skyrocketing assessments, and may also be at risk of mortgage foreclosure as these higher tax bills will cause their monthly payments to go up.

Under the Low-Income Tax Freeze, homeowners would still have to pay their property taxes each year. The program would simply protect the lowest-income homeowners from unaffordable year-to-year increases in their bills as Philadelphia property values rise.

In a city that values diversity, fairness, and equity, no one should lose their home because their income is outpaced by rapid development.

Montgomery L. Wilson, Kate Dugan, and Jonathan Sgro, attorneys, Community Legal Services of Philadelphia

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