According to a Channel 6 news report a man was murdered in 6600 Block of Ross Street near Hortter in East Mt. Airy at 2:00 a.m. Saturday Morning. This immediate neighborhood has long been impacted with more than its share of crime and violence, but combined with a recent noticible increase in nightime and daytime holdups with weapons, daytime home break-ins and burglary of all types nearby in East and West Mt. Airy it is time to do a reality check.

I have long contended that the Philadelphia press downplays crime in Northwest Philadelhia, particulary north of Washington Lane, in order to keep the image alive that all is well in the homogenous multicultural Northwest. Certainly the Realtors want to keep that image alive and my view is that the press folks (some of whom live in the area) are cooperative.

I find it interesting that the last two postings I made to this blog have disappeared immediately after they were posted.

They were on widely varying subjects. One was a comment on a thread regarding the widening gap between workers and executive compensation where I made two points about how statistics can be misleading and changes in ownership might account for new phenomena.

The other was requesting information about how many vistors can to this site, with a comment that I thought some of the postings trivial.

Could it be that censorship has triumphed over democracy here.

Jim Foster
Independent Candidate
8th District City Council

It is time for a reality check and putting an end to worthless pontificating about reform govenment from those who only want reform lite. Reform lite is what Neighborhood Networks and other ideologues spout, but never have the courage to separate themselves from the political machine that runs Philadelphia much like Tammany Hall or Huey Long.

You are not a reformer if you keep the lines of communication open with the worst of the machine politicians "just in case your candidate does not make it" in the primary. You are not a reformer if you cannot or will not define just how pervasive the corruption and double dealing is in your district when you know full well just how is done and has been done for years.

Meet Candidate Jim Foster Friday at 5:45 p.m. at HCFD Reception room 5547 Germantown Avenue adjacent to Dahlak Restaurant.

See today's CH Local, Mt. Airy Times and Gtn Courier for expanded platform data.

Topics of city and local interest will be discussed. Questions and comments are encouraged.

Jim Foster
Independent Candidate
8th District City Council
Tioga, Nicetown, Logan Germantown, Mt. Airy, West Oak Lane and Chestnut Hill

Yesterday's report of an armed shakedown and shooting of a dog at Wayne ave and Westview Sts. in West Mt Airy is probably the fifth report I have heard with the exact same M O in the last three weeks. Usually young men with drawn weapons approach a single individual on the street and demand the money. Some have taken place in daylight hours, others in late evening. The locations: East and West Mt. Airy and Upper Germantown. There very well may be others that have gone unreported.

As a lifetime member of this community I have recollections that many crimes in these Northwest neighborhoods go unreported in the press (and to the police as well) for some folks think denial trumps the value of negative impact on the neighborhood image.

Change never comes until we admit where the problems are.

Jim Foster
Independent Candidate, 8th Distict City Council
215-438-4330
cadillac 81@verizon.net

An overflow crowd of 150-200 Germantown residents surprised the City Planning Commission when their neighborhood forum on the proposed rebulding of the 6 SEPTA stations in Germantown was held last Thursday. These stations are by far the most neglected on the entire SEPTA rail network, but the community left a substantially expaned message.

After 25 years of studies that went nowhere, failed and bankrupt projects, and general neglect from the city and the Council Person, Donna Reed Miller, these residents from all sections of Germantown made it very clear they were dissatisfied and tired of waiting. When Miller's office does not respond, they took this opportuity to tell another city department of their outrage.

If I could sum up their perspective in one sentence it would be this: "What good are rebuilt stations when the community is still too dangerous to walk to them?"

Jim Foster, Independent Candidate 8th District Council

As an Independent candidate on the ballot for the November general election, it is time to take the race against Donna Reed Miller and the Miller Machine to the level which it should have visited during the primary. Softball platforms and avoidance of controvery will not get the job done, as the results of that primary has proven. It was no secrect that Miller has not ever generated a majority of votes in her disrict, yet the reasons for that lack of broad-based respect for this councilperson were never really discussed in the primary.