Letters to the Editor | Dec. 6, 2024

David Karen’s op-ed about treating bicyclists like traffic made some good points. Seeing bikes and cars as all parts of the same traffic flow would be better than seeing us as completely separate entities in dense city traffic. The support expected for all three modes of travel on city streets in Europe is admirable, and I have seen bikes and cars intermingling successfully in dense London traffic. But Karen also needs to realize that many European cities have a high percentage of bikes and a small number of cars because they don’t have sprawling suburbs like American cities, meaning rules restricting cars are much more acceptable.

When steamships began to end the age of sail, there was no reason for an engine-powered ship to sail behind a sailing ship when the wind was sparse. In a similar vein, it makes no sense on streets and roads where there is room for speeds well above what can be maintained on a bike for cars to have to follow bikes for a long distance. Bike riders need to pull over to allow cars to pass when there is much oncoming traffic, just as slower drivers need to vacate the left lane on highways for faster traffic to pass.

John Baxter, Toano, Va., jmbaxt@aol.com

A festive holiday cocktail can help make the season merry and bright, but only if consumed responsibly. For more than 30 years, the U.S. Dietary Guidelines have defined moderate drinking as up to one drink per day for women and up to two drinks per day for men based on decades of scientific research. However, beer, wine, and spirits come in a range of alcohol contents and container sizes, so it’s important to know the alcohol by volume (ABV). An easy tool to determine how many drinks are in a container is the drink calculator at standarddrinks.org. Whether you’re enjoying an Irish coffee after caroling through your neighborhood or enjoying a glass of poinsettia punch at the office party, it’s important to remember the ABCs of ABVs: alcohol is alcohol, be mindful of alcohol content, and consume in moderation. Here’s to the holidays. Stay safe, drink responsibly, and let’s make it one to remember.

Kathleen Zelman, nutrition expert and former director of nutrition at WebMD

The writer serves as an adviser to the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States.

We were recently notified that retired higher education teachers in Pennsylvania will see their current state health-care plan replaced by Highmark Blue Shield’s Freedom Blue as of Jan. 1. We are grateful for our union-negotiated health-care Medicare supplement plan, but hope for more accuracy and honesty from the new providers. Freedom Blue has repeatedly said that its plan will give members access to all medical facilities and doctors who accept Medicare and that we will be unaffected by the change. It sent charts saying the same. But Main Line Health hospitals and doctors say they will not accept Freedom Blue. We called them and the same story was repeated. With a deadline of Dec. 7, Freedom Blue sent an update that it has just come to its attention (ha ha) that a few facilities will not accept Medicare Advantage plans. That is inaccurate also, since Main Line will accept several Advantage plans, but not Freedom Blue. Potential members, check if your usual doctors and hospitals are included.

Janet Kestenberg Amighi, West Chester

Sunday’s Opinion section — “An Arena for All” — at first appears to be an advertisement for supporting the legislation currently before City Council. However, it actually shows why Philadelphia is in no way ready to take such a consequential vote. The very first paragraph states that “Great planning grows from a thoughtful and respectful conversation between a people and their elected representatives.” Instead, what we face is a rush to judgment pushed by billionaire developers who use sometimes contradictory and incomplete data to demand a rushed schedule that prevents such conversation. Every piece in the section’s six pages makes clear the current proposal meets none of the standards of good planning.

That planning should start with some fundamental discussion of whether the project is the best use of the proposed space. However, there has been little discussion of how an alternative proposed by Comcast Spectacor might provide more value to the city and to the development of Market East. There has also been no discussion of the impact on the substantial health complex that exists immediately south of Market Street between Seventh and 11th Streets, which includes a major trauma center and depends on ready access in emergency situations.

Finally, this development does little to rethink retail opportunities. Those of us fortunate enough to remember Wanamaker’s, Lits, and Strawbridge all enjoyed the old Market Street, but the changes in consumer preferences and the economics of department stores seem irreversible. Yet, any significant development must include a strategy that would put retail amid foot traffic, and that might include pop-up stores, open workshops, and theme-based hubs that create a reason for wanting to walk through. The only rational conclusion to this analysis is to say to the mayor, Council, the Sixers, and other arena proponents that this idea is not ready for prime time, let alone for a vote.

Robert J. Brand, Philadelphia

In reaction to the excesses of the Gilded Age of the 1890s, the progressive movement of the early 20th-century reformers sought, as Theodore Roosevelt said, to return to “an economic system under which each man shall be guaranteed the opportunity to show the best that there is in him.” Much has been said by supporters of Donald Trump about restoring individual freedoms, which they claim an oppressive government has taken away. In this way, America can return to a greatness that has been stolen by liberals. But what good is that individual freedom if it is not coupled with opportunity?

To grant freedom on the one hand and suppress opportunity on the other is as cruel as leading a starving person into a banquet hall and then preventing that person from dining on anything but the crumbs that fall to the floor. Freedom coupled with opportunity is the promise of America, but this promise is incomplete and unfulfilled for many. That includes people of all races and cultures and education, who live in cities and towns across the country; invisible people who can be ignored. Government for the people is meant to be the guarantor of freedom of opportunity for all, not the protector of the few. This is the American dream and its promise to individuals. We forget this at our peril.

Joe Sundeen, Yardley

Join the conversation: Send letters to letters@inquirer.com. Limit length to 200 words and include home address and day and evening phone number. Letters run in The Inquirer six days a week on the editorial pages and online.