Category: Politics

No comments

We’re all in this together in Philadelphia, too.

  By Philadelphia, Politics, Progressive Politics

This is the second in a series of efforts to articulate in broad terms what it means to be a progressive or liberal in Pennsylvanian and Philadelphia today. In the last post, I tried to show how the idea that “We’re All In This Together” enframes many of our aspirations as liberals and progressives in general. Here I want to say a more about this idea applies to politics in Philadelphia. To say that we are all in this together, is to say we have common problems and that can only be solved if our government recognizes and act on our common interest. In some ways, this claim is just obvious. But, quite often I think, Philadelphians don’t recognize the commonality of our concerns. If we don’t suffer directly from some problem, and don’t imagine we will, we may not recognize how much we suffer from it indirectly. So we… Continue reading

No comments

What we progressives want

  By Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Progressive Politics, US

Some time ago I started a series on the future of progressive politics in Pennsylvania. In the first post in the series I pointed out that we increasingly face a Republican majority in the General Assembly that is controlled by the radical right wing. In parts two and three of this series, I lambasted Governor Rendell and progressives like myself for, among other things, trying to govern from a non-existent center instead of defending a liberal / progressive vision of a good political community. What I haven’t done yet is try to suggest how we liberals and progressives should define and defend that vision of a good political community. I have been working on it. And today and in the next few days, I am going to lay out three themes that, I think, can define the provide a thematic sythesis of the goals progressives in Pennsylvania and in Philadelphia.… Continue reading

No comments

Learning from the minimum wage campaign

  By Pennsylvania, Political Organizing, Social Justice

I am very glad that I got back from my vacation in time for the ceremony yesterday at Sharon Baptist Church to celebrate Governor Rendell’s signing of the minimum wage bill. The Governor spoke passionately about helping the working poor. The sponsors of the bill Senator Tina Tartaglione and Representative Mark Cohen spoke as did Bill George the head of the state AFL-CIO and John Dodds, the leader of the Minimum Wage Coalition. There is an important lesson for all of us in this tremendous achievement. When I joined the Raise the Minimum Wage Coalition at one of its first meetings in April 2005¸ very few people outside of the room thought we had much chance of getting an increase in the minimum wage through a Republican General Assembly in 2006. Indeed, at the time, Governor Rendell did not even support an increase in the minimum wage. Many people thought… Continue reading

No comments

Gar Alperovitz and the next left

  By Economic Development, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Progressive Politics, Urbanism, US

In April I had the pleasure of introducing the noted political economist Gar Alperovitz at an event sponsored by the Weavers Way Cooperative in Mt. Airy. The following essay is an expanded version of my introduction. They to point to the lessons we can learn from Alperovitz and how those lessons are already being put to work in my own community, Mt. Airy. During the Carter presidency people began to notice that liberals were running of out ideas for making our country more just and democratic. Carter may have been wrong to attribute the difficulties of his presidency to a nationwide “malaise” but as a description of liberal political thought, the term seemed appropriate. At the time, my teacher Michael Walzer wrote an article in the New Republic that explained this phenomenon. He pointed out that liberals, in fact, rarely had ideas of their own. Their ideas were borrowed from… Continue reading

No comments

Learning from Jane Jacobs

  By Philadelphia, Urbanism, Zoning

Vern Anastasio is sponsoring another in a series of meetings on zoning and land use planning issues tonight at the Fleischer Art Memorial at 719 Catherine Street. I am still out of town so I won’t be able to make it. I had a family emergency in the middle of the first one and had to leave early. But it was interesting and useful. And, at one moment, it turned scary. The whole issue of zoning is quite complicated and I want to write about it at length. I very much think we need to reform the way we make land use decisions in the city. But I don’t want to see us go from a system that is already problematic to one that is disastrous. And this exactly what will happen if, as some folks suggested at the previous meeting, we return to the days when Philadelphia had an… Continue reading

No comments

Saving the housing trust fund

  By Philadelphia

Last week I wrote here about the fight to save the Housing Trust Fund. I’ve meant to write about our success, but have been busy with preparing for the next round of Affordable Housing Issues. In case you haven’t seen the results: here is a brief recap. The Transfer Ordinance Passes First, the all important transfer ordinance, which is necessary to put Trust Fund money back into the account from which it can be spent on affordable housing projects, was unanimously voted out of committee. We expect it to be adopted this Thursday. The Other Bills Fail Second, Councilwoman Blackwell withdrew both her bill to divided Trust Fund resources equally among each of the ten council districts and her bill to kill the Trust Fund entirely. As we had suspected, these two bills were Councilwoman Blackwell’s way of creating a crisis atmosphere around housing issues, and allowing her to hold… Continue reading

No comments

Coming attractions: inclusionary housing

  By Housing, Philadelphia, Social Justice

One of the most interesting ideas for neighborhood development is coming to Philadelphia—Inclusionary Housing. It is being brought to you by a new alliance, the Campaign for Housing Justice. You can be there for the premiere if you come to a Rally for Housing Justice Tomorrow, Thursday, June 14, 9:30 at the Clothespin (15th and Market). Inclusionary Housing is a policy that requires residential developers who are getting a tax break, zoning variance or other benefit from the government to provide affordable housing in return. Developers of large projects are required to set aside a certain percentage of their units for affordable housing. Developers of small projects are required to contribute to a fund for affordable housing, such as our Housing Trust Fund. (The policy is called inclusionary zoning in other places, but for reasons we don’t need to go into here, we have adopted another name in Philadelphia.) The… Continue reading

No comments

Housing trust fund testimony 2: the power of Council

  By Housing, Philadelphia

This is the second part of my testimony on the Housing Trust Fund. During the course of the hearings Councilwoman Blackwell complained about how district Council members did not have enough control over housing project in their district. This issue will definitely come up again, as Councilwoman Blackwell has proposed an ordinance that would require the Trust Fund advisory board to report to Council as well as the Administration. This might not be a bad idea as the advisory committee does make recommendations about how Housing Trust Fund money should be distributed between, for example, new construction and the rehabilitation of existing housing units. As Councilwoman Tasco pointed out during I interchange I had with her in the hearing, this does seem to be a role for Council. However whether Council should approve each project is, I think, a different matter as I explain below. Continue reading

No comments

Housing trust fund testimony 1: don't divide the fund

  By Housing, Philadelphia

This is the first part of my testimony before City Council on the Housing Trust Fund. My argument here is against Councilwoman Blackwell’s proposed ordinance to divide the Housing Trust Fund money equally among the ten council districts. While this idea died in committee, it may come back again. So I thought it might be a good idea to post it. Chairwoman Blackwell, Members of the Committee Thank you for giving me an opportunity to testify about this ordinance. Continue reading

One Comment

Why and how we should make voting easier

  By Elections and Voting, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia

Yesterday I joined a group of political activists who met with the leadership of the Committee of Seventy to urge the group to take the lead in pushing some new efforts to make it easier for people to vote. We hope a number of new initiatives will come out of our conversations, including greater efforts on the part of our city and state government and public and private businesses organizations like PGW, the Water Department, Comcast, and Verizon to inform citizens about when and how to register to vote and about when and where to vote. Continue reading