Happy New Year from Haverford! We are struggling still as 2008 opens with maintaining a cordial relationship with our institutional neighbor, an elite private school undergoing renovation and construction.

That makes for messy living for us, unfortunately. In the New Year we would be most appreciative if the institution would ask it's construction workers to NOT litter and to NOT take all of our on street parking in zoned and non-zoned areas.

The institution has vacant lots it owns behind what fronts Lancaster Avenue on a street where it owns all but one property anyway. Why not put small gravel down on these vacant lots temporarily and put all the construction workers on their OWN property?

And we further request that this institution do something to ease the burden of our friends on the neighborhing Haverford Township streets , as well as the Acme parking lot for customers- they are dealing with what we usually deal with: an overabundance of student parking. We know the Acme said they could use a few spaces, but surely not as many taken up as people usually see?

When this institution was approved for their expansion these issues were not supposed to exist.

A permanent solution must be found, and they need to start thinking now about what happend when their construction is complete? Where will their students be parking? Still all over our neighborhood, or on campus? Maybe those vacant lots could get lots of good use until this institution can build a proper garage?

Final thought? Lancaster Avenue is so crazy with traffic that even the experienced police cyclists ride on the sidewalk instead of the road: