Letters: State College park in danger; Applauding Osaka’s strength
State College park in danger
Preservation is, and has not been, part of the agenda of the State College Borough Council. As historic buildings are razed downtown to build towering high-rises, the destruction continues. However, this time the lack of concern with preservation impacts a neighborhood park. Nittany Village Park, in the Tusseyview neighborhood, may soon be gone. HFL corporation has proposed to lease the park from the borough in order to put a 4 1/2 story apartment house along with parking on part of the park. Mature trees will be destroyed, and basically whatever green space is left will belong to the developer, not the community. The park will be ensconced in the development.
The building will be along South Atherton Street. There is already a four story apartment building on the corner of South Atherton Street and Pugh Street, and a tall apartment building is planned for the former Autoport property. If the proposed building along the park were to be approved, there would be three box-like apartment buildings very close together, all of which abut several established neighborhoods. Some of our council members ran for office on the promise to protect State College neighborhoods and our local environment. However, giving up this neighborhood park establishes the precedent that borough parkland is for sale.
If you are concerned about preserving parks and green space in State College, please tune into the online Council meeting on Monday, June 7, at 7 p.m. and express your opinion.
Applauding Osaka’s strength
Shameful – ill treatment of Naomi Osaka, 23-year-old professional tennis player. Once again, as usual, an individual with mental health issues is chastised and shunned rather than being shown compassion.
Because I have battled mental illnesses for over 35 years, I laud the strength shown by Ms. Osaka in publicizing her plight. I know very well the stigma our country continues to engender in its attitude toward someone battling mental illness(es).
The piecemeal efforts to address mental illness in our country are atrocious. Until a concerted effort is made to bring together into one unit the many scattered mental health organizations, our country will continue to treat those with mental health illnesses as failures.
Again, I applaud Naomi Osaka for her bravery in divulging her mental health illness.
Pennsylvania should join the RGGI
As a student who moved to Pennsylvania for college, I was first amazed by the sight of the Susquehanna and all of the factories sitting on its banks. In the beginning, I was almost entranced by the combination of nature and industrialization. But, after hearing more about how polluted Pennsylvania’s air is, I quickly realized just how detrimental everything being pushed out of those factories was. Those factories out my window weren’t the only ones causing more air pollution; in fact, they were lower on the harm scale compared to a lot of other regions within the state.
Recently, 11 other states within the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions have joined the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) and Pennsylvania should be the 12th. To curtail continued large amounts of pollution within America, RGGI is a program designed to gradually cut the emissions of power plants by setting caps on their pollution amounts, essentially creating cleaner and cleaner air as time passes. In participating RGGI states, carbon pollution has decreased 47% in just 10 years.
Joining RGGI is a key step in tackling air pollution within Pennsylvania. I’d like to thank state Rep. Scott Conklin for his support for RGGI last session. I hope that Sen. Jake Corman will stop attacking key climate progress and instead vote NO on legislation that would prevent Pennsylvania from joining RGGI, such as HB637 and SB119.