Worth saving
Witness after witness at the recent City Council meeting on the closure of the Academy of Natural Sciences museum attested to the enormous value of the Academy to education and community engagement. That value is incontrovertible. What I want to call out is the arrogance, ignorance, and shortsightedness of the powers that are allowing the Academy to slip away. Even the hasty action to close the Academy to the public after a 30-day period (ended on Sept. 27) has created harm.
Drexel University: If I were a bright biology or environmental sciences student contemplating attending Drexel, don’t you know that I would now think twice about that, given your sloppy handling of your own finances and educational mission?
Mayor Cherelle L. Parker’s office: Aren’t you watching out for the heritage of a 200-year-old, globally recognized institution in your own city? Is having your deputy mayor (Trish Wellenbach) blowing off the City Council meeting an appropriate measure of concern?
Philly-area corporations (especially in life sciences): The value of the Academy’s archival collections has been documented more than once for basic research in biology, earth sciences, and more. Wouldn’t the opportunity for affiliating with the Academy have tremendous branding value?
One thing I’m sure of: The Academy has the near-universal support of Philly residents — families, students, and others who want to maintain a cultural and scientific institution with a rich history. The public only lacks the mechanisms to put support into action through its elected leaders.
Nicholas Basta, Philadelphia
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I am still waiting for Drexel University, David L. Cohen, and the chair of the Academy of Natural Sciences board to explain why they did not embrace the offer from the William Penn Foundation to keep the Academy operating for a year while figuring out its path forward. It’s bad enough to botch an institution’s finances, but to look a gift horse in the mouth verges on unforgivable.
Debra Weiner, Quakertown
Amnesty for recklessness
It is a lawless jungle out here for pedestrians on Philadelphia’s streets. So what do some City Council members want to do about it? A parking ticket amnesty? We know that the number of traffic citations issued by the police is down 91% compared with the 1980s, and now this? As Daniel Pearson so excellently stated in a recent Shackamaxon column, paying for citations is not an affordability issue; breaking laws is discretionary. The amnesty proposal comes after another piece of legislation was introduced that would lower the fines for speed cameras. Does City Council want to promote pedestrian and biking deaths? That will be the takeaway message: Those who willingly, willfully go faster than the speed limit would be off the hook. And yet, research shows that for the majority of people getting speed-camera tickets, that behavior stops after they receive their first. But instead of working to create a place of safety, City Council looks like it wants to promote lawbreaking.
Liese Sadler, Philadelphia