Green Light

TO THOSE IN THE CITY who oppose the red lit logo that Unisys wants to erect on Liberty Place as a condition of moving 225 of its executive jobs to Center City, we have just one word: Kvaerner. A decade ago, the European shipbuilder got $430 million in public subsidies and tax breaks based on a promise of creating 1,000 jobs -over 15 years. Not long after pocketing the dough, Kvaerner decided to get out of the shipbuilding business. The point is, using the same tortured math that state officials used on Kvaerner, Unisys would be eligble for $100 million in public subsidies; in fact, some might argue that since the Unisys jobs would be highly compensated executive positions, that might equal 500 shipbuilding jobs and double that to $200 million.

The New Garden Township supervisors have favorably reviewed plans for three houses at Penn Green and Laurel Heights Roads. The preliminary plans call for a three-lot subdivision for the houses, which would be built, rented and managed by Anne Fields of Landenberg. Gregory Fields, representing his wife at a meeting of the supervisors on Monday, said final plans for the 4.4-acre project would be submitted at the next supervisors' meeting, on Sept. 13. In other business: Developers of the proposed 19.9-acre Pusey-Brosius Business Center at Baltimore Pike and Scarlett Road presented a new traffic plan, eliminating an entrance on Scarlett while keeping two exits and entrances on eastbound Baltimore Pike.

When green-haired Dennis Rodman roared up to the Alamodome in his white jeep, a few dozen waiting fans cheered him on. When he stepped onto the basketball court, a few thousand admirers did the same. The controversial forward stole the show last night as the host San Antonio Spurs defeated the Washington Bullets, 122-101. Rodman played in his first regular-season game after two suspensions and a leave of absence. "I add spice, so people like to see somebody different," Rodman said before the game.

If he can withstand the pain, he can play in the Olympics. That was the verdict on the Flyers' Jiri Dopita, a center from the Czech Republic who missed his fifth consecutive game last night because of a strained neck. "Our doctors said he can play if he can withstand the soreness," Flyers general manager Bob Clarke said. "You know he's tough. He'd play if he could. . . . Our doctors won't stop him from playing. " Clarke said he asked his medical staff to notify Czech officials that Dopita's pain had kept him sidelined.

How many bureaucrats does it take to put up a traffic light? Too many, if you ask Gloucester Township Mayor Ann Mullen. "The red tape is enough to make you scream and want to clutch someone's throat," said the mayor. Fourteen years after the township first dreamed of stringing traffic signals across the intersection of Hickstown and Erial Roads, the state Department of Transportation (DOT) last month gave the project a green light. The roads cross at the southeast corner of the 60-acre GEMS landfill, and each is a major artery through nearby housing developments.

The comment that haunted Tyler Green was deceptive, like a changeup. It started out looking like a compliment and then, whoops, it wasn't quite what it seemed. "There's never been any question that Tyler Green has the stuff to be a winning big-league pitcher," Phillies manager Jim Fregosi would say. "There's never been any question that he has the arm. " But, of course, the Phillies' No. 1 draft choice in the June 1991 draft had never been a winning big-league pitcher. Had never, in fact, won a big-league game.

Catholic League athletes fearing that their fall seasons would be lost may be able to put their worries to rest. With the Philadelphia Archdiocese reaching a tentative agreement with its lay teachers yesterday, practices are allowed to resume today and games could begin again as soon as the agreement is ratified. Conwell-Egan athletic director Chuck Knowles, the Catholic League football chairman, said that league athletic directors likely will meet on Monday to discuss how to handle games that had been called off because of the strike, how to rearrange schedules and to determine whether teams have had enough practice time to begin playing.

The township gave up its fight against a proposed Route 1 car wash after the first round in court, agreeing Tuesday not to appeal a judge's order to grant the developer a conditional use permit. The decision, handed down in Bucks County Court by Judge Susan Devlin Scott on March 14, gives Francis T. Theuer the go-ahead to build a car wash on an old used-car lot just east of Woodbourne Road. The supervisors cited traffic and safety concerns in denying Theuer's conditional use application after a public hearing in 1993.

MAYOR NUTTER signed an agreement with the Environmental Protection Agency Tuesday that gives the green light to a $2 billion investment in the city's infrastructure. The "Green City, Clean Waters" partnership will, over the next 25 years, upgrade streets, parking lots and other paved surfaces to better manage storm-water runoff. The current "gray" surfaces are nonporous and allow excess rainwater to flood the sewers, which leads to industrial and human waste being discharged into natural waterways.

An ambulance transporting an 80-year-old patient overturned in a three-vehicle crash in the city's Logan section Sunday that sent five people to hospitals, Philadelphia police said. The victims were taken to Temple University Hospital and Einstein Medical Center. Their injuries were described as not life-threatening. The Ford ambulance had its lights and sirens on as it headed east on West Olney Avenue near La Salle University. As the ambulance approached a red traffic light around 9:34 a.m., it hit a Mercury Sable, which had the green light and was traveling north on 20th Street, police said.

An ambulance transporting an 80-year-old patient overturned in a three-vehicle crash Sunday that sent five people to hospitals, Philadelphia police said. The victims were taken to Temple University Hospital and Einstein Medical Center. Their injuries were not described as life threatening. The Ford ambulance had its lights and sirens on as it headed east on West Olney Avenue, near La Salle University. As the ambulance approached a red traffic light around 9:34 a.m., it hit a Mercury Sable, which had the green light and was traveling north on 20th Street, police said.

A taxicab hit a pedestrian and then crashed into a shoe store Thursday in Roxborough, police said. The taxi was traveling west on Leverington Avenue and turning left onto Ridge on a green light at 2:31 p.m. when it hit a 64-year-old man. Medics took him to Temple University Hospital, where he was listed in stable condition. The taxi crashed into the front of Sneakertown at 6188 Ridge Ave., but no other injuries were reported. - Robert Moran

Sesame Street , the long-running PBS educational program for children, used to have a segment in which it showed four items, one of which had absolutely nothing in common with the other three, and it was up to viewers to determine which didn't belong. The same distinction can be made about 76ers guard Lou Williams, the No. 11 scorer in the NBA but the only nonstarter among that group. Coming off the bench for the Sixers through the first four games of the season, Williams is averaging 20.3 points per game while averaging just 27.3 minutes.

Adapted from a recent online discussion. Dear Carolyn: I've just learned that my fiance, a 28-year-old up-and-coming associate at a major law firm, has been driving on a suspended license. If he's stopped or is involved in an accident, he could be arrested or jailed! I think it could also get him fired. He says this is "no big deal"; all his violations were speeding tickets and this is a "rite of passage" for many men his age. I am thinking of ending the engagement. While I don't plan to report him to the authorities, I also won't let him drive my car, nor will I be a passenger in his when he is driving.

IMAGINE SPRING GARDEN Street as a green, park-like corridor comparable to the Ben Franklin Parkway. Al Girard, treasurer and a board member of the Spring Garden Civic Association, said he expects the Spring Garden Street Greenway project, now being developed by the Pennsylvania Environmental Council, to turn that idea into reality. "It will really be beautiful," said Girard, who describes Spring Garden as a "utility street. " "At the end of this project there will be two very beautiful streets, very close to each other.

Playing a team on a three-game losing streak has its upside and downside: You're expected to win, but things could always go horribly wrong. Temple hopes to avoid that worst-case scenario on Saturday in a Mid-American Conference East Division game at Bowling Green. The Owls (5-2, 3-1 Mid-American) are facing a Falcons squad (3-4, 1-2) whose last victory was Sept. 24 against Miami of Ohio. Since then, Bowling Green has lost to West Virginia, Western Michigan, and Toledo - all of whom, like Temple this week, were heavy favorites in those games.

A 45-year-old man was hit and killed by a pickup truck Wednesday morning as he crossed a busy Chester County thoroughfare, police said. Gerald Bernstein, who lived at the Golf Club Apartments complex in West Goshen Township, was trying to cross West Chester Pike near the complex at 6:20 a.m. against the light when he was hit, police said. He was pronounced dead at the scene, they said. The driver of the pickup stopped and was distraught, police said. Statements from witnesses who stopped indicated the driver had a green light when Bernstein stepped into the road, police said.

A 45-year-old man was hit and killed by a pickup truck this morning as he crossed a busy Chester County thoroughfare, said police. Gerald Bernstein, who lived at the Golf Club Apartments complex in West Goshen Township, was attempting to cross West Chester Pike near the complex at 6:20 a.m. against the light when he was struck. He was pronounced dead at the scene, police said. The driver of the pickup, who is not being identified, stopped and was extremely distraught, police said.