Letters: The real snow job came from the city

Re: "Region's snow job continues," Tuesday:

Thank you for reporting on the snow job the city of Philadelphia gave us. I could imagine Streets Commissioner Clarena Tolson's comments:

"To be in this sort of shape 48 hours after the snow stopped, it's almost a miracle. I mean, given that the Board of Revision of Taxes and the Department of Revenue are complete failures for not collecting the millions in back property taxes the city is owed. That is, I mean, we could have salted, plowed, and carted the bulk of the snow for maybe $13 million to $20 million and still had plenty left over to fund libraries, parks, pools, schools, fire, and police.

"In fact, and don't quote me, if the mayor and City Council would actually accomplish real tax reform and tax-collection enforcement, we could actually afford to run the city the way it should be. Oh, ha, and can you imagine what savings we would have had if we had done early salting and plowing? With no new cavernous potholes in spring? Wow, those are expensive to fix! Ah, but we will make a few bucks here and there fining people $300 for not shoveling their sidewalks; that is, if we can actually collect those fines. But don't quote me."

Ames Adamson

Philadelphia