Letters to the Editor

What You Say

Nutter = Hamlet?

How about Nutter the Tragic Figure [Cover Story, Doron Taussig, "The Nutters," Dec. 11, 2008]? Nutter has admitted in the past that he's stubborn when he thinks he's right. Because he always thinks he's right, since, of course, he and his Penn bureaucrats are smarter than everyone else, he consistently fails to include stakeholders in the decision-making process. Unfortunately, this one tragic and fatal personality flaw is turning out to be the theme running through his administration. It has already set him back several times (remember the Gillison dustup?), and is now threatening to exhaust all of his good will.

Looking at the library closings (and the Gallery Casino), it's become quite obvious that Nutter has decided that it's is easier to apologize than ask permission, which is not so surprising given the lack of pushback he received from Council and the press early on for his often innocent but usually intentional failures to communicate. However, the citizens of Philadelphia should disabuse him of this notion as soon as possible. With the current economic crisis growing worse by the day, Nutter will need to make a lot of tough decisions and he has already shown he's willing to throw whole segments of the community under a bus if need be. If we're not careful, we'll find ourselves looking around wondering who's next.

Anonymous
Via citypaper.net

So essentially, all of the fuss is over some libraries? Yeah, it stinks, but Philly isn't that big of a city. So, some people might have to travel five minutes further on the train to watch their music videos on YouTube. I've been to a few of the closing libraries and they were pretty poor. Terrible selection of books, mostly trash and supermarket paperbacks that few people seem interested in. Mainly, the only draw of the libraries was the free Internet.

City pools? Come on, with everything going on, people are this concerned over city freaking pools and people from different blocks getting along?! So, my tax dollars have to go toward keeping a balance between one group of punk kids and another from 10 minutes down the street?! 

HALF OFF DEPOT

Why live life at full price?

God, I hate Philadelphians, there's no winning with them. Bunch of whiny assholes for which a bunch of overpaid, wife-beating assholes throwing and catching balls well is an important and historical event. Oh, and of course, if something good happens to the city, people have to riot and then wonder why we can't have nice things.

thankgodIdon'tliveinphilly anymore
Via citypaper.net

District 4 is a joke and the joker running it was Nutter. How could anyone actually think he could run the city of Philadelphia? Mayor Nutter is not unlucky. He is the most lucky man in Philadelphia who should have never won the seat in the first place. Philadelphia needs a strong and capable leader not some jester making things worse. Philadelphia deserves much better.

Missing Philly
Via citypaper.net

It was disappointing to see David Faris trot out that old myth about there being no atheists in foxholes [Slant, "The Blackest Friday," Dec. 4, 2008]. There are plenty of atheists around who've been in foxholes and can testify otherwise. I'm optimistic that, once this is brought to his attention, Faris will realize how insulting this saying is.

Eric Hamel
Via e-mail

Great stuff. The financial apocalypse has done wonders for the metaphor business.

Jackbellis
Via citypaper.net

In "Very Merry" [Agenda, Andrew Thompson, Dec. 11, 2008], the article said that New Kensington Development Corp. sponsored a Very Kensington Christmas. While the NKCDC marketed and publicized the festival, the businesses themselves independently organized and ran the events. City Paper regrets the error.