Category: Politics

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Our breakfast with Congressman Brady

  By Philadelphia, Progressive Politics, Ward politics

News that a group of progressive activists (and some bloggers) from Neighborhood Networks, Philly for Change, the African American Heritage Coalition, the Latino community and Philadelphians Against Santorum, met with Congressman Bob Brady on Friday is beginning to appear on some blogs. I considered the meeting off the record, so I’m not going to report on it in detail. But I do think I can give my general impressions of the meeting without violating any confidences, on either side. The first thing to be said is that, in a different kind of setting, Congressman Brady’s performance would have received a standing ovation. Over the last few years I have met most of the leading politicians in the city. There are politicians in this city who can give a better speech, politicians who are better organizers of issue movements, and politicians who have more visionary ideas about public policy. But there… Continue reading

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Neighborhood Networks at fifteen months

  By Progressive Politics

The NN annual conference is also a good time to look back at what we have and have not accomplished in the last fifteen months. I, of course, am not an objective observer, having been a member of the committee of seven or eight people who developed the idea of Neighborhood Networks, and having been a member of the Steering and Executive Committees for the last fifteen months. (I just resigned from the Executive Committee because of my race for City Council.) But perhaps my familiarity with the organization makes my remarks worthwhile none the less. Continue reading

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I'm in

  By A political memoir, About me, My 2007 Campaign, Philadelphia

My absence from the blogosphere has been noticed far and wide—my mother called me the other day to ask if I’m feeling well. Actually I’ve been surprised by how many people have asked me about what happened to my blog in the last few weeks. The explanation is quite simple. After I got back from a brief vacation at the end of August, and got my classes rolling at Temple, I was first distracted from the blog by the effort to get Neighborhood Defense.org off the ground. And then, I did some speaking on public transit issues both in general, and as they affect the proposed casinos. I’ll be blogging about this very soon. But the main distraction is my nascent campaign for City Council. Continue reading

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Take action to repeal Act 193

  By Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Urbanism, Zoning

About two months ago I blogged about Act 193. Now is the time to take action to repeal it. Act 193 threatens the rights of Philadelphia community groups to protect our neighborhoods from harmful development. Community associations—and city-wide groups like SCRUB and the Preservation Alliance—rely on zoning to prevent bad development that undermines our quality of life. We fight zoning variances that would allow new developments that is out of character with our communities. And, if we lose at the Zoning Board of Adjustment, we appeal their decisions to the courts and win there. Continue reading

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Neighborhood Defense.org kickoff

  By Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Urbanism

Press Release Neighborhood Defense.org kicked off its effort to repeal Act 193 today at a press conference at City Hall. Neighborhood Defense.org is an alliance of Philadelphia community associations and civic groups working to protect their longstanding rights to appeal decisions of the Zoning Board and other city agencies that regulate land use. On Monday, Neighborhood Defense.org launched a website where individuals and community organizations can register their support for the repeal of Act 193. The website will be used to fax and email state representatives and senators and create local networks of community activists who will contact and lobby their legislators. Continue reading

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Mad dogs and Democrats

  By Pennsylvania, Progressive Politics

Some of the folks who commented on my post endorsing Casey for Senate made interesting arguments to which I want to res pond here. Albert pointed out that the process that gave us Casey will go on if we don’t stop it. And Liz said that the first rule of dog training is don’t reward behaviors you don’t want. These are arguments well worth reading and considering. But I think they both miss a key point about how our party works. Ask yourself, who is in control of this process we want to stop? Whose behavior do we want to stop rewarding? Continue reading

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Against Independence

  By Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Political Organizing, Politics

This post is occasioned by the entry of Michael Nutter into the Mayor’s race. But it is not meant to be a critique of Nutter, who is someone I like in many ways despite my doubts about his ideas on taxation. (I’ll write about him and other Mayoral candidates soon.) It is, however, a critique of a style of politics that Michael Nutter, more than any other Mayoral candidate, exemplifies. You might call it the politics of independence. It is a style of politics that I grew up with, and that is important for some people in Neighborhood Networks. But it is a style of politics that I have come to distrust and that I hope will play less and less a role in Neighborhood Networks and other progressive circles in future. The politics of independence has an ideal for candidates and an ideal for voters. Continue reading

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Political disaster strikes city neighborhoods

  By Philadelphia, Urbanism, Zoning

The City of Philadelphia suffered a disaster this week. It was not a natural disaster or an act of terrorism, but a disaster created by our political leaders. Recent rulings by Philadelphia Common Pleas Judges have undermined the right of community organizations and neighborhood groups to appeal variances granted by the Zoning Board of Adjustment (ZBA). As a result, the right of these organizations and groups to even appear in front of the Zoning Board has been called into question. Continue reading

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The Politics of Hope

  By Philadelphia, Political Organizing, Progressive Politics

This is the third in a series of efforts to articulate in broad terms what it means to be a progressive or liberal in Pennsylvanian and Philadelphia today Hope is Brewing In the little over a year since Neighborhood Networks was founded, I have been asked again and again by reporters how I account for the growing movement for progressive reform in Philadelphia. What, they want to know, explains the development of our organization, the growth of Philly for Change, the Anne Dicker campaign, the two Ethics Reform charter changes that have been overwhelmingly approved by the voters, and the hundred or so new committee people that have come out of our organizations? One answer, that people are frustrated by corruption and poor government, is clearly mistaken. People have been frustrated by the corruption and incompetence of our government for years, perhaps since the day Richardson Dilworth resigned as Mayor.… Continue reading