• The Philadelphia Inquirer, Tuesday, October 31, 2006 12:30 PM

The Greater Philadelphia Hotel Association is worried that reading about the city's high murder rate could spook visitors, and has urged hotels to think twice before providing guests with copies of November's Philadelphia magazine, whose cover story spotlights the city's bloodletting.

Normally, some 6,000 copies of the monthly would go to local hotel rooms. But the GPHA argues that it makes the city look unsafe for the visitors who flock to those rooms. Wrote Ed Grose, executive director of the group: "I feel that sensationalizing the murder rate in our city will have a negative effect on our customers."

But Larry Platt, the magazine's editor, says the story is anything but sensationalistic, and ignoring a problem because it might make the city look bad is a classic example of "Philadelphia insecurity."

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