Center City

SEPTA plans to spend billions of dollars in the next few years fixing up its buses, trolley lines, bridges and stations. However, SEPTA also plans to cut back on service to Center City in the evenings and on weekends, and to trim back other services across the system. What's the point of spending billions on bricks and mortar and tracks and stations while making it tougher and tougher for people to actually use the system? At this rate, we'll end up with the best transit system in the world.

Just in time for the holiday shopping season, Police Commissioner Willie L. Williams yesterday welcomed a new class of officers into the city's Police Department, assigning 30 of them to special foot beats in Center City. Williams said the rookies would bolster patrols in the city's shopping district during what traditionally is the busiest time of year for police in Center City. They begin work today, covering beats in the afternoon and evening. In the past, Williams said, police have had to borrow heavily from special units and other patrol districts to cover Center City in the holiday rush.

Dr. Victor A. Digilio, 91, an internist and cardiologist who maintained a practice for nearly 60 years at the same location in Center City, died of lung cancer Tuesday at Mount Sinai Hospital. He lived in Center City. Dr. Digilio was born in South Philadelphia and attended Central High School but never graduated from there. One day, as he used to tell the story, he decided to take the day off and play hooky. Shortly after, he was spotted canoeing on the Schuylkill. He was expelled from Central but transferred to Temple Prep - a high school then affiliated with Temple University - and completed his secondary education.

Along Waverly, Naudain and Cypress, the narrow residential streets of Center City, the "for sale" signs are like trees - seemingly permanent, weathering the seasons as recession sets in and the city's dire fiscal condition makes buyers scarce. Along Delancey Place, where the sycamores are beginning to shed, on trash day some residents use clear plastic bags with a little notice to scavengers: "No valuables in trash" - a sign of an unhappy change in even the most fundamental chores of life in Center City.

I LIVE IN Center City, in the Art Museum area. I do quite a bit of driving due to my job and school. It is becoming ever more frustrating to have to share the road with bicyclists. I understand the concept of sharing the road. I am also aware that not everyone has a car, and must seek out alternative methods of transportation. But the road is meant for cars. Driving is a dangerous task alone, why should I have to worry about someone being on a bike two feet away from my car? The little lane on the side of the road is just not enough space from traffic.

A Delaware County man jumped into the Schuylkill yesterday after his car hit two autos, causing a Center City traffic tie-up. Police said that shortly after 8 a.m., a 1994 Plymouth Sundance driven by Mark Fitzwater, 24, of the 3300 block of Chichester Road, Boothwyn, was exiting southbound on I-95 at Callowhill Street. Stopped in traffic in an unmarked car was Inspector Robert Small of the police civil affairs unit. The Sundance rear-ended the unmarked police car, veered to the right and down the shoulder, and took off, police said.

The Quizno's chain wants to open a sub shop on Rittenhouse Row. Man the barricades! Venerable Bookbinders Seafood House on 15th Street is slated to become another Applebee's. Horrors! There is much wailing and gnashing of teeth over chain restaurants' invading hallowed dining turf in Philadelphia. Eateries such as Applebee's, critics say, threaten the vitality of the city's distinctive independent restaurants. Franchises such as Quizno's go one step further by diluting Walnut Street's reputation for fine dining.

THOMAS HOBSON owned a stable in Cambridge, England, in the 1600s. He rented horses and offered his customers a choice: they could rent any horse they wanted as long as it was the one nearest the door. Henry Ford would later offer his Model T in "any color so long as it is black. " Constructing a hidden Hobson's choice, known today as "issue framing," is the essence of politics. The people can't choose something that's not on the agenda. Even the Founders used the device. James Madison, in his famous Federalist No. 10, wrote: "There are two methods of curing the mischiefs of faction: the one, by removing its causes; the other by controlling its effects.