Category: Public Policy

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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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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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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

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Academic Freedom at Temple

  By Education, Higher Education

David Horowitz, the leftist turned rightist who made a fortune as a best selling biographer of Kennedys and Fords, and who has recently been criticizing left wing radicals in our universities, turned up at a State House of Representatives hearing held at Temple last month. He has been pushing an “academic bill of rights” that would, among other things, prohibit professors from using their classrooms “to advocate for their political and partisan views on controversial matter that are irrelevant to their field of expertise” or “pressure students into adopting their personal opinions;” and that would also prohibit them from “grading students on the basis of their political, social or religious opinions.” I had thought that Horowitz’s campaign had some merit. I have learned however, that Horowitz is about as interested in fair and balanced teaching as Fox News is interested in fair and balanced reporting. Continue reading

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Gambling and Its Alternatives at Wissahickon and Hunting Park

  By Casinos, Philadelphia

The Budd Company site, at the corner of Wissahickon and Hunting Park Avenues, is one of four potential sites in the city for a gambling casino. Residents from the immediately adjoining neighborhoods, Nicetown and East Falls, have joined together to oppose gambling at this location. I believe that residents and community associations throughout the Northwest ought to join our neighbors in this fight. Continue reading

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A Proposal to Ban Smoking

  By Health Care, Philadelphia, Smoking

Thank You Councilwoman Marian Tasco It is time to ban smoking in restaurants and bars in Philadelphia. The health consequences for both patrons and staff are well-documented. And there is a better chance for this to happen soon, now that Marian Tasco has introduced smoking-ban legislation to Council. Councilwoman Tasco’s relationship with Mayor Street is not much more warm and fuzzy than Councilman Nutter’s. But getting the smoking issue out from under the ongoing tension between Street and Nutter has to be a help. Continue reading