Neighbors Get No Say

Okay. It's official. If a business wants to put in a sidewalk cafe, they don't need to ask the neighbors. There is no hearing. The business just needs to give a diagram of the sidewalk they want to set up the cafe on to the streets department. The cafe can't be more than 5 feet wide. There has to be room on the sidewalk for people to pass (which there is in most of Philadelphia. The sidewalks in my residential neighborhood are 12 feet wide -- our front doors open directly onto the sidewalks) they get the permit. That's it.

There is talk of revamping the zoning laws. If something really happens, I'll be sending the committee my input. But it's too late for my neighborhood.

Now I can only hope that the thing my neighborhood bar does need a license for -- serving liquor on the sidewalk -- is denied.

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Meanwhile, the head of trauma at the hospital where they mixed up my x-rays and took duplicate x-rays is now claiming that the duplicates were because I was sick. I was never sick. I was hit by a car. We're still trying to arrange a meeting with him. The hospital also claims they don't show x-rays on laptops to patients. This is clearly a case of a hospital administration that does not know what is really going on. I will pursue this and keep you posted.