Letters to the Editor | Sept. 4, 2024

Opponents of 76 Place, the Sixers’ planned $1.55 billion arena on Market East, are the same myopic people whose lack of vision prevents Philadelphia from becoming world-class. Why are we reluctant to dare? 76 Place represents Philadelphia’s biggest economic development project in half a century. To Mayor Cherelle L. Parker’s credit, the city released four independent impact studies. They revealed significant reasons to build the venue, including no cost to taxpayers, thousands of jobs during and after construction, hundreds of millions in annual economic output (including massive tax revenue over 30 years for our school district), and more.

IBEW Local 98 supports 76 Place because our members construct buildings for a living. 76 Place will create 9,100 direct union construction jobs that will last a decade. But our support runs deeper. Philadelphia needs 76 Place for its global positioning. Eighteen of the top 20 markets have downtown arenas — not Philly. The loyal 76ers fan base deserves a dazzling downtown arena that will attract the NBA’s best free agents here. Proponents of the project are fortunate to have levelheaded officials like Mayor Parker, City Council President Kenyatta Johnson, and Councilmember Mark Squilla involved in the decision-making. Prove we are a world-class city — build 76 Place.

Mark Lynch Jr., business manager, IBEW Local 98, Philadelphia

I’m not particularly an ice hockey fan, but I am a sister of three brothers, a mother to a son and his sisters, and a grandmother to three grandsons and one great-grandson. Reporter Mike Sielski’s succinct article on the deaths of Johnny and Matty Gaudreau told the whole story and brought tears to my eyes and an ache to my heart. Let’s stop drunk driving.

Anne Slater, Ardmore

Gov. Josh Shapiro said in his speech at the 2024 Democratic National Convention: “We are the party of real freedom … The kind of real freedom that comes when that child has a great public school with an awesome teacher because we believe in her future.” I hope Shapiro will abandon his support for vouchers touted by billionaires as the solution to our educational needs, and that he will stop accepting money from them, as well.

Great public schools come from an adequate and equitable funding system, free from earmarks and political manipulation of funds that benefit only certain constituents instead of doing what is fair for all of Pennsylvania’s children. As Georgia Sen. Raphael Warnock said in his speech at the DNC: “I need my neighbor’s children to be OK so that my children will be OK. I need all of my neighbor’s children to be OK. Poor inner-city children in Atlanta and poor children of Appalachia. I need the poor children of Israel and the poor children of Gaza. I need Israelis and Palestinians. I need those in the Congo, those in Haiti, those in Ukraine. I need American children on both sides of the track to be OK, because we’re all God’s children.” Let’s live by that creed so we can all experience real freedom.

Beth Logue, POWER Interfaith Statewide Education Justice Team, Philadelphia, elizabeth.logue44@gmail.com

The recent Inquirer editorial after the board’s interview with Superintendent Tony B. Watlington Sr. was cautiously optimistic. I also hope, as I’m sure all Philadelphians do, for success. I do so for the good of the district, its principals, teachers, administrators, and most of all, the 200,000 students who cannot afford another school year of failure looking for a new solution. After all, an option was available this year but was politically abandoned, again.

With a $4.5 billion budget and nearly 200,000 students, taxpayer funding is about $22,500 per student. Yet, the educational results have been a disgrace for years. Gov. Josh Shapiro campaigned on providing Lifeline Scholarships as a choice option for parents. After Election Day and negotiations with Republican legislators, a budget to include his campaign promise was formed but immediately abandoned after persuasion (threats?) from his Democratic members and the teachers’ union. I guess national ambition trumps education.

The parochial school system in the same struggling city neighborhoods provides another opportunity. Grade school tuition is about $7,000 and high school about $11,000 annually, with very different aggregate results. How about a break for taxpayers (parents) and students? Give parents some of their tax money to choose the best school for their children, just like former Mayors Jim Kenney and Michael Nutter, Democratic Party Chairman Bob Brady, and Gov. Shapiro’s parents did for them. City children can’t afford another failed experiment.

Daniel P. McCartney, Richboro

Last week, I called the Dunbar Elementary School near 12th Street and Cecil B. Moore Avenue in North Philadelphia to see if the school would be interested in the children’s books I have accumulated for use in the school’s library. The principal there explained that the school had no library, but if I wanted to bring the books to the school, the individual teachers would probably select some for their classrooms.

I had read that some Philadelphia public schools did not have libraries, but hearing a principal explain that there are only two school buildings in the entire district that have libraries was jarring. My children attended the Dunbar school in the mid-’60s, when Marcus Foster was the principal and there was a library and at least two librarians. When I attended the Logan Demonstration School in the mid-1940s, there was a fully stocked library, and at least twice a year, there were book sales, and parents were invited to purchase books for their children.

How could a school named after the renowned African American poet and writer born to formerly enslaved parents in 1872 not have a library? How can a school built in the early 1930s that is on the National Register of Historic Places and located just steps from Temple University not have a library? How can a district with a $4.5 billion budget not have school libraries when Philadelphia is in a literacy crisis that is affecting both children and adults? According to the National Center for Education Statistics, nearly a third of the city’s adult population lacks basic literacy skills. And the advocacy group Achieve Now says that 52% of adults in Philadelphia are functionally illiterate.

I’m dropping off my books at Dunbar this week, but the problem is way bigger than my contribution. This is a crisis with far-reaching consequences.

Karen Warrington, Philadelphia

Am I the only person who is terrified that Donald Trump may become, once again, president of this wonderful country? Without doubt and with proof aplenty, he is a lecher, liar, wannabe dictator, and convicted felon. It had never occurred to me, until I read the recent Inquirer editorial on his 24-hour meltdown, that he might be mentally ill. As a World War II veteran, an endangered species, I have never viewed the United States of America as anything but great, although subject to error as we all are.

We have engaged in wars, not of our making, to protect our friends and humanity in general, regardless of which political party was in power. To not vote or write in a vote is cowardly and serves no purpose. I cannot believe the Republican Party of Abraham Lincoln, who stated that a House divided against itself cannot stand, now fully endorses someone like Trump. If there is anyone who deserves the title of “The Great Divider,” it is him. Trump is not immoral; he is amoral, thinking only of himself without regard to consequences. And you are undecided?

Ralph D. Bloch, Jenkintown, ralphdbloch@yahoo.com

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