Letters: Tasco proposes bill to control absentee landlords

IN RESPONSE to "Are Absentee Landlords Killing Once-Good NE Philadelphia Neighborhoods?":

Over the years, I have received numerous complaints from constituents regarding unresolved tenant and maintenance issues at properties with absentee landlords. I recognized this as a problem all across the city. That is why I introduced bill No. 090834, which amended the city's property-maintenance code by requiring property owners who do not live in the city or a surrounding county, under specific terms and conditions, to designate a local property manager and provide the full contact information to the proper city department. This bill helps to address the issues of safety, health and the welfare of existing buildings by establishing minimum requirements for safe and sanitary maintenance. This includes proper lighting, ventilation, heating and protection from the elements, and safety from fire and other hazards. This legislation allows the proper city department to then serve the responsible party with proper written notice describing any conditions that are unsafe or unfit, and identifies a stipulated amount of time to take corrective measures. Enforcement is needed now so that the city can properly address the issues that arise with properties that fall into this category.

Marian B. Tasco

9th District Councilwoman

Wrong education?

I constantly read op-ed pieces and news reports that decry the "defunding" of education and the lack of employment opportunities that result. I suggest that the real problem is not the defunding of education as much as it is pushing too many kids into the wrong kind of education. While hordes of communications and political-science majors are running around jobless, skilled manufacturing jobs (and plumbing and other skilled blue-collar jobs) go unfilled.

Where is it written that every kid needs to go to college and waste thousands of his or her parents' (or the government's) dollars in the process? Our skilled-labor force is aging while too many of the young waste their educational opportunity on trendy majors that lead nowhere but debt. Let's hope that high-school guidance people get the message and stop dancing to the tune that the colleges play them.

Kyran Connelly

Bensalem

Running from, not for