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Philadelphia's civic summit on recycling

  By Health Care

The leaders of the Recycling Alliance of Philadelphia and its affiliate RecycleNow will be talking about a new grassroots political effort to bring the RecycleBank program to all of Philadelphia in the next few years. RecycleBank is a brilliant program that has been a tremendous success in the two neighborhoods where it has been tested, Chestnut Hill and West Oak Lane. RecycleBank is a private enterprise that works with the Streets Department to collect a much wider range of recyclables than is collected by the city now. They all go into one big container that is provided to each household. Under RecycleBank, the same folks who now pick up your recycling will pick up and weight the container. And then households can claim coupons worth up to $400 per year, based upon the weight of all the material they recycle. The coupons are mostly for locally owned businesses. Continue reading

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What progressives can learn from Governor Rendell’s failures: the future of progressive politics in PA, part 2

  By Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Progressive Politics

Governor Rendell went to Harrisburg hoping to follow his path to success in Philadelphia. As Mayor of this left of center city with its strong labor unions, Rendell governed from the center. He took on the municipal unions, forcing them to make significant concessions. He cut taxes. He used city funds and tax breaks to create the public facilities and to encourage the private initiative that spurred development, mostly in center city. He was neither a rightist who minimized the role of government nor a leftist who attempted to use government to pursue social justice. Continue reading

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The real problem at Temple

  By Education

A week or so ago I defended myself, and Temple, against David Horowitz’s charges that left-wing political correctness undermines the education we give our students. Today I want to address a real problem at Temple. Two years ago I walked into my first class of the semester and found that I had only two African American students in my class. (My classes had typically been over fifty percent African American when I started teaching at Temple eight years ago.) After the class was over I complained to an higher level administrator. His response has been repeated as the company line for the last few years. Given the increase in the number of students, and especially students from the suburbs, the percentage of African American students at Temple was dropping. You can see that this is true from the following data from the recently released Temple Factbook which can be found… Continue reading

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Success and failure in Harrisburg: the future of progressive politics in PA, part 1

  By Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Progressive Politics

The Future of Progressive Politics in Pennsylvania, Part 1 This has been a good week for progressives in the state. Governor Rendell has announced that he will veto HB 1318, a bill that would have been most aptly named the Voter Suppression Act of 2006. I was very proud to work with wonderful Protect Our Vote Coalition in opposing the bill and was pleased that Neighborhood Networks officially joined the coalition as well. Jeanine Miller in Philadelphia and Celeste Taylor in Pittsburgh did a great job leading the coalition and Larry Frankel of the ACLU in Harrisburg was immensely important to our efforts as he tracked every twist and turn of the legislative process and gave us strategic advice about what to do at each moment. Any victory by the left is a good one and stopping this awful bill is an important accomplishment. However, before we get too pleased… Continue reading

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Single Moo Milk

  By Humor

Blogging here will be a little light for a few days as I take a little trip north. And that reminds me of a story I heard during my last trip. In an effort to spur their economy, Vermont farmers are taking a leaf from makers of Scotch. They are soon going to start marketing high-end milk and cheese products from particular farms that, they claim, have distinctive tastes as a result of the grass and water eaten by their cows. The marketing firms have not decided what to call this designer milk. My suggestion is in the title to this post. Note: when I first posted this, ACM commented: heh, not sure that people want to be reminded of the biological specificity of their milk, but who knows. I distinctly remember as a kid (when you’re drinking a lot of milk straight), noticing the change of taste when the… Continue reading

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The first time as tragedy, the second time as farce.

  By Humor, Politics, US

When was the last time a Vice President shot a man? First correct answer gets a free, lifetime subscription to Marc Stier at Large. Thanks to Karl Marx for the title. In the 18th Brumaire of Louis Napolean he writes “Hegel says that history repeats itself. He forgot to add the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce.” And no, David Horowitz, knowing this quotation does not make me a Marxist. PS Does anyone know what a Brumaire is? 7 Responses to “The first time as tragedy, the second time as farce” acm Says: February 16th, 2006 at 11:25 am e hint: it involved a duel, not a hunt… Matthew Flaschen Says: February 16th, 2006 at 7:53 pm e Alexander Hamilton shot rival Aaron Burr in a duel. Matthew Flaschen Says: February 16th, 2006 at 9:05 pm e Err, other way around. TRAY Says: February 16th, 2006 at… Continue reading

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How to Keep the Promise of Gentrification

  By Economic Development, Neighborhoods, Philadelphia

This post is a follow up to the previous one, The Potential and Danger of Gentrification How do we realize the promise of gentrification by not displacing people in growing neighborhoods? There are a number of prescriptions. Here is a tentative list of ideas that seem plausible to me. Continue reading

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The Politics of HB 1318

  By Elections and Voting

Some folks think that the Republicans in Harrisburg are in a win-win situation. They would like to enact policies to reduce the number of voters. But they know that for strictly political reasons, if no other, Governor Rendell has to veto HB1318. So they hope to embarrass the Governor by tying him to “voter fraud” and by reminding people of the controversy during the 2004 election when some Republicans accused the Rendell administration of not giving enough time for military ballots to be counted. So let us make sure that we remind everyone that there is no evidence of serious, widespread voter fraud in Pennsylvania. If the Republican controlled legislature wants to be concerned with political reform, they can begin by regulating lobbying in Harrisburg. Continue reading

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Response to David Horowitz

  By Education, Higher Education, Philosophy

I want to respond to David Horowitz’s criticisms of my teaching of Marx. Horowitz points to my web page, The Failure of Revolution, which, he says “faces the fact that Marx’s predictions about revolution have been refuted by history.” But he criticizes me because I go on to say “We can understand the failure of a revolution to occur as Marx predicted in Marx’s terms. The conditions that Marx expected to bring about a revolution did not arise. And we can give a powerful social class based explanation of the failure of those conditions to arise.” Thus Horowitz concludes that my point is that “In other words, even though Marx was wrong, he was right, and we can all be Marxists – or neo-Marxists – now.” To say that this is my point is both to take one sentence entirely out of  context and to hold an absurd view of… Continue reading