I don’t disagree with you that poverty—of the generational variety—is endemic in Philadelphia, and I don’t disagree that the city should be spending money to try to address it, but at the same time, there are other things that benefit those of us who have chosen to live here and are not in poverty, ourselves, and we do deserve to “have nice things,” too, so to speak.

I’m only pointing out that—in my opinion—it’s not necessarily a zero sum game, so to speak. The city can prioritize funding programs to help the cities poor, but can also try to make intelligent decisions to preserve the things that attract people who aren’t poor to live here. It’s our tax money, in large part, that is helping to pay for these programs for the poor. If there aren’t good things for the non-poor, we won’t live here, and there goes a lot of the money.

I’m not sure how much money we spent for these new barriers, and their installation, but I’m going to guess that it was a surprisingly sizable amount. But if they get destroyed within a month, I view it as a waste of money. I would prefer the city spend a little bit more- even if it means taking a chunk away from some rec center—to protect Fairmount Park.