Letters to the Editor | July 7, 2023

I read a recent Inquirer article on heat islands with interest. As a tree tender — a volunteer who works with the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society to plant trees in the Overbrook neighborhood — I frequently hear opposition from neighbors who do not want trees on their streets. They don’t want to sweep up leaves, they complain that roots will get into their pipes (a myth), and they don’t want birds soiling their cars. Despite that, we have planted more than 500 trees in Overbrook. I would like to see the same thing happen in Hunting Park, but I wonder whether many neighbors voice the same opposition. Nature is not our enemy. The shade, greenery, and oxygen that trees provide are worth it, even if it means sweeping leaves and tolerating birds. Unfortunately, negative attitudes have contributed to the development of heat islands. Let’s be grateful for everything trees give us and support planting them.

Pauline Rosenberg, Philadelphia

As a previous Catholic school administrator, I’ve experienced a school closing. I believe these closings, including that of Cabrini University, can be avoided if schools prepare, collaborate, and implement the successful characteristics of thriving schools. Presently, closings and decreasing enrollment are inevitable for many Catholic higher education institutions due to a trickle-down effect from Catholic elementary and secondary school closings since the 1990s.

Higher educational institutions such as the University of Notre Dame and St. Joseph’s University became aware of these enrollment problems and participated in organizations such as the Alliance for Catholic Education. This allowed universities to create partnerships with secondary schools to address the challenges Catholic universities are currently experiencing. The alliance includes professional development, academic programs, and financial support for teachers and students, which eventually developed networking for future enrollment. Struggling higher education institutions need to collaborate with thriving schools and find out how they successfully sustain themselves.

Diane Tucker, Pittsgrove, N.J.

The state Senate has blocked gun control measures despite the increase in mass shootings. Instead, we have an op-ed by State Sen. Cris Dush with his excuse for governmental inaction, recommending that we “protect the right to self-defense.” This will not increase public safety and will only make a bad situation worse. A successful gun control law was the federal ban on assault weapons from 1994 to 2004. There were about six gun massacres a year in that decade. After the ban, from 2005 to 2017, the number of mass shootings per year averaged 25. The ban was a success in reducing incidents.

The Second Amendment intended to help states raise a militia to defend themselves against the federal government. In 2008, the U.S. Supreme Court in District of Columbia v. Heller suggested that the right to bear arms was an individual right to self-defense. But unregulated gun ownership is not a fundamental human right. Dush, a proponent of the Second Amendment as an individual right, offers his solution: buy a gun and arm yourself. He believes that a good guy with a gun is the best defense against a bad guy with a gun. We don’t need more guns.

Gerry Givnish, Philadelphia

I share Josh Kruger’s misgivings about Wawa and other retailers vacating Center City locations. However, I’m confused by his analysis of the problem and proposed solution. It sounded like Kruger expects retailers to incur ever higher loss rates as thievery goes unpunished, run ever higher risk of lawsuits from employees who find the conditions in and around stores unsafe, and knowingly operate stores that consistently attract groups whose sole goal is to create trouble for the retailer, its employees, and its customers.

Well, not quite, because he proposes a fix: Wawa should invest its revenue in “protecting Philly stores.” It is the role of government and law enforcement to set and enforce the rules that frame how citizens and businesses must conduct themselves. Asking private companies to stand in for law enforcement in America’s cities would be a huge mistake (perhaps Kruger should revisit the dystopian film Robocop). He also suggests the police might be to blame for not arresting the troublemakers. Law enforcement is a partnership between police and prosecutors. Citations and arrests do not deter crime if the district attorney does not bring charges. It is the threat of jail and fines that keep offenders from committing crimes, not the inconvenience of being briefly detained, knowing they’ll be let go with no consequences.

This is Wawa’s home market. The strategists at Wawa corporate headquarters surely know how bad it looks to cut bait in their hometown. In doing so, they’re sending a clear message to Philly and anyone else paying attention: It has become too risky and expensive to run a heavily trafficked retail location in formerly thriving parts of the city. So let’s learn from the beloved company’s actions: soft-on-crime policies (which I supported at first, and which I believe were a genuinely well-intentioned attempt to right structural injustices in our society) are failing Philadelphia. More specifically, the decision by the District Attorney’s Office (with support from many corners of city government) not to prosecute “harmless” forms of theft and nuisance is a root cause of the uptick in crime over the last few years.

It is absurd to expect tax-paying businesses to invest in places that do not offer safe and predictable conditions in which to operate.

Aaron Flack, Philadelphia

Someone might want to inform op-ed writer Josh Kruger that 7-Elevens are franchises, and Wawa outlets are all owned by the parent company. If you invested in a franchise, you have to make it work or lose your investment. Wawa can pick up and leave with little or no losses. Who does Kruger think will foot the bill for the Fourth of July celebrations? Not 7-Eleven franchise owners and not the city. We are lucky to have Wawa, regardless of what you think about its food.

Ed McAdoo, Collegeville

As reported by The Inquirer, Moms for Liberty cofounder Tina Descovich opened the group’s Philadelphia convention last week likening members to Revolutionary wartime patriots. “You are the courage in America right now. You are the Thomas Paines, the Ben Franklins, the Margaret Corbins,” she said. “We are in a fight for liberty, we are in a fight for the future of this country.” Well, Paine was an atheist, Franklin advocated for inoculations, and Corbin dressed as a man. Where’s the common sense?

Barry Berg, Langhorne

What can we possibly make of Jennifer Stefano’s recent column (What LGBTQ Republicans wish you understood)? What I wish LGBTQ Republicans understood is that some in their party wish them dead. How do they interpret the wave of state laws against LGBTQ children in red states? What about the efforts of groups such as Moms for Liberty to ban books and courses on gender and sexuality in schools? What do they think of the most recent U.S. Supreme Court decision that enables businesses to refuse service to LGBTQ people?

Help me understand what would motivate any LGBTQ person to be a Republican today, in this hateful environment. When learning of the pyre of books the Nazis were burning, Sigmund Freud said that at least they were burning books and not people. We all know what came next. It’s one thing to be horrified by what Stefano’s colleagues are doing to our country; it’s another to have one’s intelligence insulted in the pages of the free press.

Elaine P. Zickler, Moorestown

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