howrman
join:2000-07-08
Philadelphia, PA
edit:
December 16th, @01:29PM
| reply to pnh102
Re: Philadelphia WiFi Proved the Obvious
said by pnh102  :Crime is literally out of control. Murder is at record levels. The schools are a joke. The city government on the other hand seems to be more pre-occupied with routing the Boy Scouts out of town and punishing legitimate businessmen for insisting their clientele speak English. While I'm no apologist for the Street administration, some of your facts are a bit off.
With regard to Wi-fi, Philadelphia has gotten Earthlink to spend $20 million to build a substantial part of the system. While Earthink may not complete the job, if there is a default, the system belongs to the City. And, the whole thing hasn't cost the City a penny. All in all, a very smart deal.
Your statements that crime is "literally out of control" and that murder is "at record levels" are patently false. The Inquirer reported on Thursday that the murder rate is down slightly compared to last year (which was no where near a record). Other violent crime rates are down significantly. »www.philly.com/philly/news/homep···096.html Many people forget that the record murder rate was set during Rizzo's tenure in the 70s. (Other violent crime was probably at record levels then too, but Rizzo fudged the numbers. At the time, folks studying Philadelphia's crime numbers commented that Rizzo couldn't hide the bodies.)
Standardized test scores suggest that Philadelphia's schools are slowly improving. However, since the state has taken control of the schools, the credit or blame for that does not really belong to the City.
A City that is trying to attract foreign tourists does not benefit from having businesses hang signs in their windows telling those visitors that they are not welcome unless they can speak English. Neither does the City benefit from giving free rent to organizations that discriminate against gays and atheists. |
