Also this issue: Filmmaker on a Mission -Bruce Schimmel Murder Most Fowl -Howard Altman Primary Care Nurses don’t play second fiddle when it comes to your health. -Jenn Carbin

April 24-30, 2003

mailbag

Letters to the Editor

by the Readers

Joke on the Water

Regarding the "Bloathouse" article about the St. Joseph's boathouse along the Schuylkill River (CitySpace, Harris Steinberg, April 17, 2003): I'm not a big fan of the design either, but as someone who followed the progress of the project, I know that the design was approved by the Fairmount Park Commission and the City's Historical and Architectural Commissions. That process took about eight years with public meetings, comments and design changes along the way. City Council then approved the final package. After all that, the first shovel of dirt was moved.

I was surprised that Mr. Steinberg didn't mention the real aberration along the river, Lloyd Hall. Too big for its site, Lloyd Hall meshes with neither the Victorian character of Boathouse Row nor the more classical Art Museum and Waterworks. Its architecture can be described only as indescribable.

Mike Bowers
Philadelphia

Homeland Insecurity

The Department of Homeland Security's decision not to include Philadelphia as one of the first cities to receive federal government funding for increased anti-terror aid raises an interesting question for Secretary (and former Pennsylvania Governor) Tom Ridge (War Path, Daniel Brook, April 17, 2003).

Just a few weeks ago, Ridge was encouraging Mayor Street to reconsider his decision to open Chestnut Street in front of Independence Hall. Yet we now see that protecting Independence Hall wasn't important enough to the department he heads to merit Philadelphia's receipt of the first available funds.

Apparently, Independence Hall wasn't one of the "high threat areas" most in need of protection. So, why was opening a one-block stretch of Chestnut considered so important to Tom Ridge? Either he was wrong three weeks ago or he's wrong now.

Let's hope this isn't some petty vendetta to withhold federal assistance from a city that wouldn't blindly obey his requests.

Dale Cooke
Via e-mail

Critical Morass

I am extremely disappointed that a piece of writing like Toby Zinman's "War Is Hell" (April 17, 2003) is allowed to appear in your paper. This review is so full of unnecessary stabs at Robert Smythe that it was almost painful to read. The job of a critic is to tell what she or he saw and provide a thoughtful analysis based on those observations. Ms. Zinman is certainly entitled to dislike Smythe's production and tell us why she thought so. I agree with some of her complaints. But is it necessary to ask, for instance, "whoever told Smythe that he is an Irish tenor?" Remarks like these clutter the article and go beyond thoughtful analysis into petty derisiveness. I don't think anyone benefits from reading that.

Kay Schwinn
via e-mail