Category: Public Policy

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Towards a Beautiful Politics: The Next Great City Initiative

  By Philadelphia, Progressive Politics, Urbanism

Neighborhood Networks, the organization I helped found, was one of the early supporters of the Next Great City initiative. So I was there last week when its ten point program to provide “renewed energy and strength to our neighborhoods and city” was unveiled. I was also one of the folks who, from time to time, criticized the initiative for not being bold enough. Sure, we need to improve transit stops as the Next Great City suggests. But we need much more dramatic improvements in our transit system. Yes we need to adopt modern zoning. But, even more we need a bottom up process by which neighborhoods can adapt a reformed zoning code to their own circumstances. Of course we need public access to our waterfronts. But, to do that, we need to stop the casinos and develop a plan that finds space along the waterfront for everything that belongs there—parks,… Continue reading

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An open letter to Jim Kenny

  By Campaign Finance Reform, My 2007 Campaign, Philadelphia

Jim, I have agreed with you that democracy is undermined when, due to a misguided interpretation of the US Constitution, millionaires can spend unlimited sums of money in support of their own political campaign. That is not the issue here. The issue is how to deal with this problem. Continue reading

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Don't break it again. Fix it!

  By Campaign Finance Reform, My 2007 Campaign, Philadelphia

Campaign finance reform is only one, limited way, of fixing our broken politics. But it is one we have to save. If, however, we look at all the goals of campaign finance reform, we will see that the folks concerned about Tom Knox’s ability to spend much more out of his own pocket than other candidates can raise and spend is a serious problem. But there are ways of fixing that problem now that would improve our campaign financing system rather than taking us back to the dark ages. Campaign finance reform has a number of goals. One goal of campaign finance reform is to limit pay to play—the practice of big campaign contributors getting benefits from the city in return for their contributions. That is the prime reason that Jim Kenny’s proposal to eliminate all limits on campaign contributions in the Mayoral race is a really terrible idea. (And… Continue reading

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Finally, people are noticing the bank closings in Philadelphia

  By Banking and Finance, Philadelphia

Last month Wachovia silently closed one its North Philadelphia bank at Front and Alleghany.  It was a bank closing, like many of this city’s bank closings, that went unnoticed by much of Philadelphia and came unexpectedly to the citizens around it.  It marks a trend: the rapid closing of banks in low income neighborhoods. To add insult to injury, across the street from the vacant Wachovia bank a check cashing place opened up.  Such places are notorious for overcharging people to get their checks chased.  “Grand Reopening – Current 1 Check Cashing” read the sign. Continue reading

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A Regional Tax swap?

  By Economic Development, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Taxation

One of the major problems with politics in Philadelphia is that it is focused just on Philadelphia. However many of the most important problems we face are regional in nature. Our public transit system is clearly a regional problem. So is economic development and job growth. It is not just Philadelphia but the whole region that has been growing slowly. And many environmental problems, especially the loss of open land, are regional as well. Continue reading

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Just as we thought: It was broken politics all the way down.

  By Casinos

I have been writing for months about how politics is broken in this city including the politics of casinos. As if we needed on more example, the PA Gaming Control Board today selected the Foxwoods and Sugarhouse casino sites. This decision was made not because of what’s best for the city, but because of insider politics. Continue reading

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Let’s Support a Vital Public Resource: Our Newspapers

  By Media Justice, Philadelphia

Reposted from Young Philly Politics In a world where it is getting harder to make a buck with ink and a printing press, isn’t it time we think about providing some public support for this vital resource? Everyone who is interested in the future of our city knows how important the Inquirer and Daily News are to us. We activists complain about them—especially when they don’t cover us as we would like by reporting every single word we say every day . But we know that without them, we would not know what is going on in the city without them, and no one would know what we do, either. The papers are not important just for the information we get from them. There is also the depth of knowledge—and evident love of the city—that makes reading long term reporters and columnists like Dave Davies, Tom Ferrick, Chris Brennan, Larry… Continue reading

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

  By Casinos, Philadelphia

For the last few months, I’ve been running around the city, giving a speech to any group of three or more people who will listen that begins with the following words: “Politics in Philadelphia is Broken.” I have another five and a half months to go giving that speech…and maybe it won’t stop then because fixing politics in Philadelphia is probably going to take the progressive movement the better part of the next ten or fifteen years. It is, of course, an easy case to make. Sometimes, people shout out examples of our broken politics before I get three minutes into my speech. And no example comes up more than the ridiculous path by which our political system has taken us to the verge of bringing casinos to Philadelphia. How does this process exemplify the broken character of our politics? Let us count the ways. Continue reading

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The transit crises continues and the PTC is back.

  By Pennsylvania, Transportation

The Money Is Running Out In the spring of 2005, thanks in large part to the efforts of everyone who worked with the Pennsylvania Transit Coalition, Governor Rendell transferred (or, in transit-speak) flexed, hundreds of millions of dollars of federal highway funds to save public transit in Pennsylvania. The money runs out in December 2006. Continue reading

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Can anyone make sense of Wilson Goode, Jr?

  By Health Care

Over the last week, Councilman Goode has 1. Defended his original campaign finance bill that guts our campaign finance laws by defining a candidate in a way that creates, as I have explained below, massive loopholes in the contribution limits. 2. Said both publicly and privately, that he would put forward an amendment that would define a candidate as anyone who is raising money for a political campaign. This was a major improvement although not quite as good as it might have been. 3. Failed to introduce the amendment at Council Continue reading