LETTERS: Stop the vending ordinance

To the Editor: We are witnessing an orgy of multimillion-dollar deals designed to create investment ventures on Penn property, while academic departments are being shut down, and commitment to our human resources is being scaled back "aggressively" -- to borrow a term from the aggressors. It clearly doesn't suit the orchestrators to accommodate the lively culture of relatively unregulated vending that presently serves us so well. The areas around the proposed Sansom Commons and Perelman Quadrangle are to be purged of the blight of small-scale operators who might compete for the student market, and perhaps more importantly, spoil the vibe for prospective customers from afar who are to flock to the renaissance of upscale consumption. The Penn community has not been consulted, and we have been deliberately misled about the details of the plan until the very last moment, when actual drafts were circulated two days before the first intended submission to Council. That our councilwoman was moved to submit this ordinance, particularly under the present circumstances, is disgraceful if not atypical. A major change to the community is being imposed unilaterally by vested interests at a time when many of us are not in town, and we are not well placed to discuss it and respond collectively. This victimizes hundreds of people working hard every day in essential and evolved roles. It has turned from very bad to worse as resistance to the ordinance has been met with divisive and duplicitous machinations. At the time of printing, we may know when public hearings will commence, and before which City Council committee. We can stop the madness, at least for the summer, if in the next few days we can convince City Hall to back off a fast-track approach. We should speak up while we can, before one more chance is lost to assert a community's right to responsive consultation. The newsgroup upenn.food-trucks has basic informational posts and various levels of discussion. The Graduate and Professional Students Assembly will be circulating updates. Alex Welte Physics graduate student GAPSA chairperson, 1996-97