Letters to the Editor | Sept. 1, 2023

I work in the water and wastewater industry for both public and private utilities in the tristate area. I have seen water and sewer utility infrastructure that has been very well managed and well maintained with constant reinvestment. I have also seen utility infrastructure that has been starved of necessary investment due to years of inadequate funding and understaffing of management, operations, and maintenance departments. Because of that neglect, when distressed systems are finally sold, the buyer is forced to begin replacing and upgrading many parts of the infrastructure immediately to restore the aging systems to a reliable condition. Rates need to increase substantially to pay for these improvements.

Every water or sewer utility, public or private, must be well funded, operated, and maintained as a business, with careful planning, budgeting, reserve funding, and capital investment on a regular basis to ensure water quality and reliability. Staffing a utility with qualified management, operations, and maintenance personnel is very difficult and expensive. These challenges will cause some public utility owners to decide to exit the utility business. Private water and sewer utility owners are free to sell their assets to any qualified buyer at the highest and best offer. Regardless of what The Inquirer Editorial Board thinks, public water and sewer utility owners who are no longer committed to the demands of running their utility must have an avenue such as Act 12 to allow the sale of their utility assets at the highest and best price as well.

Matthew Mamzic, Malvern

Columnist Jennifer Stefano is absolutely right that Philadelphia’s mayoral candidates should debate each other. Political debates are like job interviews. We voters are being asked to hire a new mayor. We need to learn directly from David Oh and Cherelle Parker why they feel they deserve our vote. We need the candidates to explain how they propose to reduce gun violence and address the tragic illegal open-air drug market in Kensington. How do they propose to stop the dangerous illegal drag racing on our streets? How do they plan to address widespread homelessness? How do they plan to fix the city’s schools and hire more teachers, fix our crumbling streets, and reduce our record automobile, pedestrian, and cyclist deaths?

I am a 62-year-old, born and raised Philadelphian Democratic voter. It is fair to demand that Parker and Oh debate. Unfortunately, Parker has rebuffed several invitations to debate while he has offered to debate her at any time. What will Parker do differently than Mayor Jim Kenney and his many Democratic predecessors to address the city’s long-standing problems? So far, she seems like she would be Kenney 2.0 (although Kenney debated his campaign opponents). In this mayoral election, this famous quote by Albert Einstein seems apropos: “We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”

Stan Horwitz, Philadelphia, stan.horwitz@gmail.com

A feeling of despair crept over me as I read Elizabeth Eisenstadt Evans’ op-ed of her experiences walking through Brandywine Creek and ecological grief. I, myself, have noticed fewer tadpoles, bees, butterflies, and lightning bugs over the last few summers. I remember as a child teasing frogs, tadpoles, and tiny fish at the edge of a stream. Summer nights were lit up with lightning bugs I caught in jars. The summers were so full of life. I cannot tell my grandchildren of these experiences. I don’t want them to realize what has been lost.

Barbara Kaufman, Wayne

Everyone wants to know why gas prices continue to rise, seemingly out of control. People want to blame someone. How about blaming the corporations that control the prices of the goods and services for the price increases? Every summer the price of gasoline goes up because people are driving more for vacations, so the oil and gas industry jacks up the prices. Labor Day is coming, so traveling will be up, so the price of gas will go up. How about the excuse that “refineries are down for service”? Another standard excuse for raising gasoline and diesel prices. In the summer, prices go up; in the winter, gasoline prices go down and heating oil prices go up.

Last year, Big Oil profits were up 300%. If you look at the commodity market prices in the Business section of the newspaper, you’ll find some interesting statistics. The price of a barrel of crude oil is a key number. The price of oil goes up and down, but the price at the pump seems to go up and stay up. A few months ago, crude oil was $120 a barrel and gas prices went up to $4 per gallon. On Aug. 25, oil was $80 a barrel. Did anyone see a price decrease last week? The uncontrolled greed of the oil and gas industry goes unchecked. I don’t begrudge the industry to make a profit, but pure greed at the expense of the American consumer is wrong. It weakens the country and hurts the consumer, the economy, and family budgets. Perhaps Congress should step in.

Susan Thompson, Media, sthompson6793@gmail.com

I have been a Sixers season ticket holder for more than 10 years and a lifelong fan. Disappointing playoff performances and investing in players of questionable character were not enough reason for me to discontinue my seats. Stale (actually, lousy) game entertainment and my initial $40 ticket now costing me more than $80 per seat could not dissuade me from another year of support. But I will not be a season ticket holder next year thanks to their unconscionable season and playoff ticket policies. The Sixers have my ticket resale credit money, and I have been unable to get it for weeks now. The initial policy is a 35-business-day window before payment. They are now proposing another 35-day window (with payment by paper check and snail mail). I am done.

Joe Conti, Riverton

I cherish nothing more than our rights to free speech and assembly. Self-expression is an inherent good. As such, the dozens of demonstrations I see each year make me wonder if we make the best use of those rights today. Protests that changed hearts and minds — the ones that make the history books — saw peaceful demonstrators sprayed with fire hoses, beaten, tear-gassed, pepper sprayed, imprisoned, and even killed. Yet those protests persisted, and progress was made because they sent the message that the status quo was so unbearable, people would rather risk their own lives than allow it to go on that way.

Marches down Broad Street today involve all kinds of movements, and yet they all seem to have two things in common: beautiful weather and people dancing and laughing in the street. The message this sends is that people enjoy strolling with their friends on a cool, sunny day — no matter how many commuters are inconvenienced. It’s a wonder people on both sides of the same issue are willing to make such a brave sacrifice.

While I wholeheartedly support their right, I believe people chanting, “No justice, no peace,” (regardless of what they’re protesting) would win more folks over with organized speeches in public squares, where real discussions can occur. We dishonor those who lost their lives in the name of free assembly and mock what they fought for by not taking advantage of our opportunities to have a robust, engaging back-and-forth today. In any case, I don’t believe the blaring car horns I hear are meant to say, “I support your cause now that I know you don’t care if I get to work on time.”

Danny Buckwalter, Philadelphia

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