Thanks to the holiday the Northeast Times is already out this week. Best part of Thanksgiving! Let’s take a look at the letters page, which opens with the headline above.
Dismayed by behavior of our city officials
I agree 100 percent with your editorial A city in crisis that was in the Nov. 13 edition of the Northeast Times.
I am very disappointed in Mayor Nutter and the way
I guarantee this will not be the closing of libraries or pools or whatever. It will be something stupid.
he had turned his back on the situation with Councilman Wilson Goode Jr. and his aide, Latrice Bryant.
Ding ding ding! I want you to know that I didn’t look ahead.
Pin thief deserves a lot of misery
I hate thieves! Recently, we found the perfect Charlie Brown pumpkin to place out front of our house. It was only there a few hours before it disappeared. Shortly after, someone stole the ghost ornament out front, also. How pathetic for someone to have to steal such things.
Recently, I attended a 100th birthday party for my dear neighbor at a lovely country club in Upper Dublin for my dear neighbor. It was a lovely affair with a small gathering of friends, neighbors and family.
My coat was placed in the coatroom there. I’ve had a beautiful heart pin on my coat that belonged to my sister Anna when she was alive. She passed away nine years ago after spending many years in St. John Neumann Nursing Home, where her husband had visited her every day.
At that time, their home in Port Richmond was broken into twice by dope fiends in the area. They stole everything of value, including my sister’s jewelry. A few mementos were left undiscovered, and that pin was one of them. I treasured it because I loved my sister so much.
At first I didn’t realize the pin was gone, but soon missed it. Someone took it off my coat in the coatroom, and that broke my heart. I hope that miserable vulture has nothing but misery because of their thievery of that treasure and anything else they may have stolen!
This is historic, people: Someone in the Northeast Times complaining about the suburbs! I’m way past the stage where I question why the NE Times prints any letter, but if you’re still there, this might be a good one to noodle on.
Let them eat at home
I’m in agreement with the United States Department of Agriculture’s ruling about restrictions on food programs to our schools.
For the life of me, I can’t understand why parents can’t be responsible for providing food for their children. Isn’t it basically a parent’s responsibility to provide clothing, nourishment and house for their kids?
I realize that some families have problems and require help, but this shouldn’t be a massive problem. But to charge taxpayers, especially in this economy, to pay en masse for these programs is ridiculous.
If people can’t provide breakfast, lunch and dinner for their children and they show proof of financial difficulties, then by all means we will feed your kids, but no one should have carte blanche to these giveaway programs.
Like our letter writer here, of all the government spending and waste, I believe “feeding children” is the one we really need to cut first.
How to solve parking problem
Rather than just increasing the parking fees at Center City parking meters, why not start enforcing parking violations on non-metered streets in residential areas throughout the city?
On any given day or night on my block, there are at least 10 or more cars parked on the wrong side of the street facing opposing traffic; two parked trucks when NO TRUCK PARKING ANYTIME is clearly posted; one car parked directly in front of the fire hydrant down the corner; another car parked beyond the stop sign up the corner; and sometimes, a car or two double-parked with no flashers on for hours at a time.
Why not have two police officers for an hour or two on each shift in each police district start ticketing these illegally parked vehicles? It’s a no-brainer — end the free-for-all illegal parking epidemic on our residential streets while increasing much-needed revenue.
It’s been about a month since we all decided to forget the name Latrice Bryant, the aide to Councilman Wilson Goode who makes $90,000 a year to call Fox 29 racist during City Council meetings.
Hairston explains how nonsensical the interview is going to be:
“I think on one hand I was able to understand some of her concerns and what she felt,” Hairston said. “But on the other hand I was a little bit confused as far as what she can see from this. What did she learn? Can’t you see how this looks?”
Bryant again cited race as a factor, Hairston added.
“There’s a tone of race in her interview,” he said. “I don’t know why. That didn’t fully come out.”
So it seems like she will continue to act like she is boinking Councilman Goode, surely a good way to bolster denials of a romantic relationship.
There isn’t an election anymore to get peoples’ minds off this whole situation, so it’ll be interesting to see what, if anything, Goode does to get the local media’s attention away from it. My suggestion: A cute wittle itty bitty puppy should do the trick. If not: Geeze, I dunno, drop C4 on a city block?
It’s okay, though: She didn’t apologize to Jeff Cole, just to Wilson Goode (her boss at her $90K-a-year job) and other members of City Council: “I sincerely apologize to you, to City Council President Anna Verna, to all other City Council members and staffers… and especially to all residents and taxpayers of Philadelphia.” Ooh, does that count as Jeff Cole?
Anyway, now she’s going to do what she should have done in the first place, says her lawyer in another letter:
“I agree that my client’s reaction was inappropriate. I explained to her that the appropriate response would have been to do exactly what she later did. And that was to contact an attorney who could determine whether or not Fox29’s relentless paparazzi-like conduct… was libelous and slanderous, thereby warranting the filing of a defamation lawsuit.”
Woo-hoo! Maybe she can file the lawsuit from prison, where she will soon be along with the rest of Philadelphia’s residents.
Then a newspaper columnist suggested imprisonment for a protest sign; the responses to her column are more art than commentary. thelastRepublicaninPhilly: “I can see it now; if we make the tragic mistake of electing Obama; he’ll take some advice from Goode and hire goons to keep away those pesty reporters (’just one second sweetie’). He’ll have his goons rooming around in press conferences just to make sure they ask the right questions. I know a few other countries that have socialized health care, high taxes and and restricted freedom of speech.” Djata: “It’s even funnier how this paper censors legitimate intellectual ideas.” And, finally, Philly Guy: “You can put nice suits on thugs, give them (they really don’t have to earn them) decent jobs, expect nothing from them, pay them an extremely nice salary, allow them to act like they are respectable in respectable surroundings and at the end they are what we all know they are ….. thugs. There has been this double standard where black behavior can sink to any level they want and there are no recriminations.” Comment number two, Philly Guy; that’s an impressive dedication to nonsensical racism.
Today, more developments: Councilman Goode both defended and bashed the media, Chris Brennan reports. His buzzword: Media diversity — rather, the lack thereof. While he loves freedom of speech, he also didn’t like being followed around by Jeff Cole.
“For the last week, it appears as if the press doesn’t care about my mission either. But I care about my mission. I believe in freedom of the press, even with its lack of diversity. Many black elected officials would never admit it but the lack of diversity in the press is a major issue for us. In fact, many don’t feel that the freedom of speech applies equally to them.”
Councilman Goode probably has quite a few insightful things to say about being a black politician covered largely by an all-white press. Could be a fascinating conversation. Of course, though, none of this would have gotten the publicity it did had his aide not held up a sign that read, “Fox 29 are racist.” Jeff Cole goes out and annoys local powerful people almost every week. “Fox 29 Investigates” saying a Philadelphia politician and his aide are screwing the public trust isn’t going to land on the front page of the Metro section. Hell, a timesheet problem is more notable.
Jeff Cole is apparently spending his time recording awesome promos; Claudia Gomez covered Goode in City Hall today. She seems a dogged enough reporter who appears to get bumped quite easily. There’s video on Fox’s site, but the real treasure is the photo gallery, which I’ve excerpted above. Larger (~1MB) version after the jump. Deinterlace your video before taking screenshots next time, guys!
There’s so much in this little promo from yesterday for Jeff Cole’s report about the woman who called the station racist that it might be the best 20 second promo ever. First, the awesome sign that reads, “Fox 29 are racist.” Then, Cole’s insinuation that there’s no way people could be racist against this woman — she makes $90,000 a year! Then the case of beer, the shots of her washing her car, the classic Philly rowhome she’s walking out of. Man, can Tuesday at 10 come fast enough?
Do you know who Latrice Bryant is? Right. Apparently, she’s an aide to Councilman Wilson Goode. And Jeff Cole and his team of crack Fox 29 reporters have been following Bryant around for some report about “city employees slacking off on the job” or something.
Cole confronted Goode after Council’s session wrapped up, asking if he thought Fox29’s reporting was racist. Goode didn’t break stride as reporters rushed after him.
Cole’s questions involved videotape he says Fox29 has of Bryant, while listed as working in City Hall: a) working out in the gym and b) walking with Goode into his house with a case of beer and c) leaving Goode’s house looking as if she had spent the night there.
Goode responded that a) his employees had not been filling out their work time sheets daily, which led to mistakes that have been corrected and b) who he goes to his house with is his business and c) Cole’s question was disrespectful.
Jeff Cole is following Wilson Goode all the way to his house and seeing who he kicks back and gets drunk with? Man, this is the best thing this station has done since May.
And don’t think I didn’t notice Wilson Goode’s clever strategy: Have an aide hold up signs calling Jeff Cole racist, then when questioned about it by Cole himself, call him disrespectful. That’s a rhetorical strategy usually reserved for a blog! I am impressed.
In the race for the second minority party seat in City Council, the battle could drag on for, well, ever. As of this morning, David Oh was up 12 votes on Jack Kelly.
The stakes are high. If Kelly loses, Philadelphia’s animal population will be devastated. Foy grass will never be banned.
• A recap and a look ahead at everything building related in our fair city. If there’s a Planet Hollywood (with slots!) at Penn’s Landing I bet the city has its “Next Great American City” title revoked. [phillyskyline]
• Somehow, that whole Sony fake graffiti marketing thing has turned into a debate about graffiti glorifying murderers. I can settle this: We paint over everything with drawings of Ben Franklin! See: Everyone can agree with that. [Classical Values]
• Councilman Wilson Goode says goodbye to Young Philly Politics. Hey, a politician can only blog for so long. [Young Philly Politics]
Thursday, there’s a big ol’ vote in City Council on a bill sponsored by Michael Nutter. The bill would eventually eliminated the business-privilege tax, which brings in $350 million in revenues to the city each year, but also might drive business out of the city.
People in favor of eliminating the BPT include the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce.
Why does all of this matter? Well, City Councilman Wilson Goode gave Young Philly Politics a scan of a check for $1,000 given to him by the Chamber of Commerce on Dec. 1. (Goode says he’s not going to deposit it.)
The check in question:
So, basically, the Chamber (which supports Nutter’s bill) gives out $1K checks a few days before the vote on Nutter’s bill. Hmm.
I really don’t think you can buy this kind of entertainment from the private sector. But it really seems like you can buy some politicians. Which, you know, might be the American way. All in all, everybody wins! Or, you know, loses.
Editor’s Note: Yeah. I did this whole post just because I came up with a headline I thought was good. So what?
It’s been about a month since we all decided to forget the name Latrice Bryant, the aide to Councilman Wilson Goode who makes $90,000 a year to 
Yes, as expected, the 
Do you know who Latrice Bryant is? Right. Apparently, she’s an aide to Councilman Wilson Goode. And Jeff Cole and his team of crack Fox 29 reporters have been following Bryant around for some report about “city employees slacking off on the job” or something.
