Letters to the Editor

by the Readers

No Re-Vets

Thank you for the nice bit on the Vet [Dust To Dust, Howard Altman, Pretzel Logic, Oct. 2, 2003]. It helped me to realize that the animosity I have felt for years about her is very much entwined with wonderful memories, such as the 22-inning battle with the Cubs, three homers in a row against the Mets, my only chance at a foul ball off the bat of Larry Bowa, Ruthven's first game and on and on. I will remember the tears as well. You gotta believe!

Jim Savana
Via E-mail

Misguided Love

It should be obvious why skaters love Love Park [Love Love, Andrew Hohns and Job Itzkowitz, Slant, Oct. 2, 2003]. It's perfect in so many ways for all of the cool things that they can do. Personally, I love to watch them in action and they mesmerize my 8- and 4-year-old sons, who will doubtless have skates at some point. I had a poor excuse for a skateboard when I was young and I would want to skate Love Park too if I wasn't old and decrepit. The problem is that the skates slowly destroy the park when they are used to do the cool stuff -- even just the standard stuff for skaters who suck. Anyone can go into the park (or Dilworth Plaza, Rittenhouse Fountain, et al.) and see for themselves the chipped and broken edges. A cafeteria in the former Visitors Center is not going to generate money to replace expensive broken granite. The bottom line is that Love Park, if sanctioned for use by skaters, will remain dilapidated because the city is not going to replace what has been and will be repeatedly further broken.

Freeing Love Park to skating means that we'll have a dumpy park. Take a seat on a broken-up granite bench (the ones John took). Perhaps that's the ticket, having a great skating park in Center City in the shadow of City Hall.

If not, however, the city should accept that Love Park was a disaster from the start. It's a crappy design that isn't very welcoming or even park-like and the only good thing about it is the fountain area. It looks like a Soviet-era monument to dead soldiers that I saw in the former East Berlin in 1988. John Street's pink furniture is just the coup de grâce. The park should be demolished as soon as possible to put it out of its misery and it should be rebuilt under a new design for a real park that would actually attract people.

Bill Faust
Center City

Melting Ice

As usual, I had that real empty feeling inside when people try to go in-depth on the life and times of Philly's sports great ones [The Ice Man, Brian Hickey, Oct. 2, 2003]. No matter what has been said, I feel as though no hockey fan gets that our older heroes are like us after 30 or so. There were young and had the times of their lives, but now they are old and the light has gone away mostly.

Without Clarke, we surely would not be the lucky hockey fans that we are today, believe it or not. And I know those skates are getting heavy but I'm sure he hasn't lost hope. After all, he's got family and friends and his true fans supporting him.

Jeremy Brivic
VIA E-MAIL

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