Category: Public Policy

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Natural Childbirth is Medicated Childbirth

  By Love and Sex, Sexual and gender equality

An article in the Times has finally gotten me to write on a subject that has bugged me for a long time: our sexist denial of the pain of childbirth. The Times reports that some advanced thinkers are suggesting that not only should women be able to have relatively pain-free natural childbirth but that they should be able to have orgasms during childbirth. You see, if putting something into a woman’s vagina in the right circumstances—soft lights, relaxation, appropriate other forms of stimulation—cause orgasms, then why shouldn’t something coming out of the vagina do as well? Considering that it has only been in the last thirty years that we have gotten over the sexist notion that the only “mature” orgasm is one that results from vaginal stimulation, I am already suspicious of the notion that child birth should be a source of pleasure for women But not only does this… Continue reading

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Be there for health care at Obama house parties

  By Health Care

The movement for health Care reform is moving forward now. And it has to because defeating the insurance companies is going to take a massive effort. . President-elect Obama has a mandate for reform having made the issue central to his campaign. Obama spent over $100 million in health care television advertising and, in October, 86 percent of his total ad budget was spent on advertisements that mentioned the issue. And in case anyone was wondering whether the financial and economic crises are going to delay health care reform, the answer is “no.” As President-elect Obama said time and time again, reforming health care is critical to fixing our economy. That’s why the Obama team and Health Care For America Now is moving forward to build our movement now. President-elect Obama is asking people to hold house parties to discuss health care reform in the next two weeks. I’m holding… Continue reading

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FDR, Obama, and the Path to Health Care Reform in 2009

  By Health Care, US

I’ve been giving these remarks at talks around the state in the last few weeks, most recently at the Neighborhood Networks conference last week. My aim is to bring people up to date on the state of health care reform and inspire them to join our movement, In a day or so, Health Care For America Now is going to announce the next stage in our effort to build a powerful movement for reform. So this is a good moment to let you all know where things stand. Continue reading

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You Want to See Broken Politics: Just Look at the Casinos Revisited

  By Casinos, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia

I wrote this post on December 5, 2006 when a series of bad decisions on the part of our Mayor and Council had reinforced the even worse decisions of our Governor and General Assembly and created a steamroller bringing casinos to our waterfront. Now, almost two years later, we have a steamroller bringing one of those casinos to the Gallery. I could analyze this shift more thorougly.  But it seems much simpler now to just repost this. For the new day, new way has not brought anything very much new in the casino siting process. Continue reading

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How much does this have to do with the new central library?

  By Libraries, Philadelphia

My understanding is that the library addition will costs around $130 million of which $100 million has been raised. Some of that came from the city’s capital funds. Some came from the state and some came from foundations. And some has come from major donors. But capital costs for the building are one thing. Paying the operating costs are another. I imagine that this high-tech library will be expensive to operate. Is that why library administration wants to get library operating costs down now? Is that why the library is taking a 20% hit when other agencies are taking no more than a 10% hit? Don’t get me wrong. The central library addition looks like it will be wonderful. It is being designed by Moshe Safdie who is a brilliant civic architect. (His City of Quebec museum is a wonderful public space as well as a wonderful museum.) But I’m… Continue reading

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City council is not powerless to save the libraries

  By Health Care

Members of City Council were quick to point out last Wednesday that Mayor Nutter has the power to cut the city budget without their approval. That is true. But what they didn’t point out is that Council can mandate that the city provide certain services. And that decision constrains the Mayor’s budget authority. A few years ago Mayor Street announced that the city could not afford to pick up trash from condos and would stop doing so. He claimed that under his budget authority he could cut back this service. City Council passed an ordinance requiring the city to pick up trash at Condos. Here my memory gets a little hazy. But I believe the Mayor said he would ignore it, Council sued, and won. Trash pickup at condos continues to this day. So if Council wants to mandate that the Free Library have branches at, say 54 particular locations… Continue reading

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My first trip to the public library

  By Libraries

Perhaps we can use this space to tell our stories about libraries and what they mean to us. The public library in my hometown was, when I first visited at abot 6 six years old, in a little corner of the municipal building / fire house/ courthouse. (With a population of 5000, you can kind of put everything in one place.) It had a distinctive smell, of course, of books. It’s a small I love to this day. The librarian gave us all a little talk about how the library works. When she said we could actually take books home, I looked around in wonder at all the books and felt a sense of ownership. I blurted out, “You mean any of them? We can take them home?” So then I had to find one…and there were lots of choices. That was the day I learned the pleasure of browsing… Continue reading

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An Alternative To The Decoupling Strategy

  By Economic Development, Social Justice

I’m not going to respond Hughes’ vision in any detail here as it would take a small book. Everything I’ve written on city politics and policy in the last four years—which amounts to s small book–is a response. I’m just going to sum up those arguments. (I’ll put in links from this summary essay to the essays where I discuss ideas in detail as I rebuild this blog.) Continue reading

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Mark Alan Hughes, The Decoupling Strategy, and The Nutter Administration

  By Economic Development, Philadelphia, Social Justice

I have had really high hopes for Michael Nutter as Mayor since the primary in May 2007. But along with those hopes, I’ve had a nagging worry since October 2007. That’s when Mark Alan Hughes, who once served as a policy advisor to the Nutter campaign and is now the sustainability director, published two deeply disturbing columns about his vision for the future of the city. You can read them here and here. At the time he published those columns Hughes did not work for Michael Nutter. And I had heard Nutter speak enough during the campaign to feel confident that the then future Mayor did not share the ideas found in those columns. But, in the last few weeks, I’ve started to worry that maybe what Hughes wrote reflects the policy of this administration. I’ll explain why in a moment. First I have to present Hughes’s vision for the… Continue reading

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How To Save The City Part II: An Inclusive, Transparent Budget Process?

  By Philadelphia, Philadelphia Budget, Politics

Submitted by Marc Reposted from YPP What would an inclusive, transparent budget process look like? I once took part in such a process and maybe that experience can shed some light on what we might do here in Philadelphia. Continue reading