South Philly Review

To the Editor:

Growing up in South Philly was filled with happy memories of seeing the Mummers’ Parade on New Year’s Day. I was taken to see the parade from 1 year old to my last parade in 1964. Only once in all these years did I see part of the parade on TV. I do not remember what channel it came through on, but there should be some way to show the country what an amazing parade it is.

I keep telling my children how wonderful it is to stand on Broad Street in the cold and watch the parade. Only once in all these years did a relative send me a tape of it.

We have the Rose Parade here in California and that too is an amazing fete in itself. I use to work just a block from the parade route in Pasadena, but have never been there in person to see it. We use to go and see the floats after the parade, but we watched it from beginning to end on TV.

My wish is to see the Mummers’ Parade again before I leave this world.

Happy New Year to all my friends in South Philly. I love my South Philly.

Used and abused

To the Editor:

This is to express our displeasure with the law that allows anyone with a Police Department tag or license plate to park in any handicapped space.

My wife has been disabled for about 17 years, so we first obtained a PD license plate and then PD signs in front of our home. Since then, she has been diagnosed with lung cancer once again.

Our PD spot has to be the most abused in South Philly. Why is it we would never think of parking in the space of another person, yet our space is used by others multiple times on a daily basis? We are in an area with two restaurants and a highly busy retail food establishment. Whenever we leave the spot, it is usually filled with cars and trucks using those establishments. To add insult to injury, even a worker at one of those businesses used it for about six hours one day while at work.

In Baltimore, the PD signs state they are for the use of the resident. Why not here? Workers representing local politicians are no help and one actually said, “You will get over it,” after one of my wife’s two hip surgeries some years ago.

Are we the only ones that get abused? Are there any suggestions on how to resolve this issue? We have finally resorted to putting out a big plastic drum, so we’ll see how that works.

Another angle

To the Editor:

I am an avid F.O.P. supporter and I know being a police officer is an extremely difficult, dangerous and thankless job, but I received a parking ticket for $41 for angle parking up my street, despite the fact I placed my address and the reason why I am parking that way on the front dashboard for all to read. I understand angle parking is not permitted, neither is parking more than 3 feet from the curb. However, it is done every single day on my street. Now all of a sudden I receive a ticket?

If tickets are going to be issued for such parking, it should be done on a consistent basis, not just on a whim from a police officer. If the officer took 10 seconds and knocked on my door, I would have happily moved it. Trying to live and park in South Philly is hard enough without having to deal with receiving a ticket when I am not blocking or interfering with the flow of traffic.

In the hard economic times we are facing, it would have been a nice gesture for the officer to give me an opportunity to remedy this situation instead of enforcing a law that is never enforced. “To Protect and Serve” is the creed of law enforcement. Maybe one day “compassion” could be added to that motto.

Time for a recount