neighborhoods

At a time when partisans seem to be cherishing antagonisms and keeping wounds open, it's nice to have a reason to celebrate a town treasure in common.  

Rudy Tempesta, our 83-year-old letter-carrier on the Estes-West Coker Hills route (I think we're all the 2413 part of the zipcode), was honored yesterday for not one but two million miles without an accident over 63 years of service to the US Postal Service. 

That's remarkable enough, but as "Rudy's people" have come to learn, there's a lot more to him than putting catalogues and bills in our mailboxes.  At yesterday's ceremony amid the sorting stations at the Estes Dr. post office, Rudy showed off one of the five medals he got for flying missions in WW2, when he was part of the group covering the Tuskegee airmen, and he pointed out the other veterans he now works with.

The CH Herald reports that Somerhill Gallery's lease has been terminated: Owner Joe Rowand received a notice that his lease was being terminated by center owner Federal Realty two weeks ago. "There was no rationale given," Rowand said Tuesday of the notice, which gave him 45 days to vacate the location. "It was a three-paragraph notice of termination. If you dig deeper, there are other merchants here that have been told they are not being renewed."

Is the implication that Federal Realty, having upgraded the mall area, now wants to churn the tenant population to charge higher rent? Anyone know any thing about this? Aside from my own admiration of Somerhill and my feeling that it's an asset to both mall and town, I have to wonder about efforts to change the nature of Eastgate in a volatile and perhaps failing economy. Has Federal Realty not noticed the unoccupied spaces on Franklin St. and University Mall?