Traffic at a crawl on I-95 near Penn's Landing.
Letters to the Editor
Need an 'earthquake'
to cover I-95?
Re: "Deep six for I-95 by Penn's Landing?", Tuesday:
Removing the Penn's Landing section of I-95 represents a unique opportunity to revive the riverfront and deliver economic benefits to the city and the region.
San Francisco offers a parallel story. For decades, the unpopular Embarcadero Freeway, a two-deck, elevated eyesore, separated that city's financial district from its waterfront. When the 1989 earthquake rendered the freeway dangerous and irreparable, it was demolished for implementation of a long-shelved proposal to reimagine the waterfront.
A new cityscape emerged, with street-level traffic and an expanded light-rail line running alongside a wide esplanade to accommodate bicyclists, runners, and walkers. With easy waterfront access and a more human-scaled traffic pattern, commercial and residential development followed.
This could be Philadelphia's future. Our earthquake could be the Obama administration's focus on cities and the likelihood that federal funds could come our way.
Karen Gelman
Wynnewood
Rendell must cut
more spending
I understand the concern about the state budget. Instead of looking only at tax increases, how about a proposal like this: Gov. Rendell proposes a 16.5 percent tax increase coupled with a 16.5 percent decrease in state spending.
The cuts would include everything: bloated bureaucracy, the Turnpike Commission, all the pension increases given over the last few years to state employees - everything! Maybe then I could feel better about paying more into the system.
Bryan Richardson
Villanova
Governments
spend too much
I work hard, I save my money, I spend responsibly. Why is it that government, state or federal, is not held to the same standard? Why is it that if I cannot afford to buy an item, I don't, but if the state wants to fund a "pet project," or some sort of unnecessary social program, and there's no money to do so, it thinks it can just raise our taxes?
It is becoming very clear that it does not pay to work hard when the government comes along and just takes more, because of reckless and unnecessary spending. What is going to happen when people like me get tired of carrying the burden of this government?
