I have more reason than most people to want Jim Kenney put in a bad light, as I’m running for a position he holds, Council at Large. And I strongly disagree with the legislation he proposed, to eliminate all spending limitations in the Mayoral election when one candidate spends a large amount from his own resources. But I think we ought to be fair to Councilman Kenney in two respects. Continue reading
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
On Sunday, Chris Satullo, the editor of the Inquirer’s editorial page, announced a project that might help transform politics in this city: Great Expectations: Citizen Voices on Philadelphia’s Future. As I explain in this blog post, this is a project that has the potential to radically improve politics in the city. Please can find out more, and sign up to take part in the project here. A joint project of The Inquirer Editorial Board’s Citizen Voices project and the University of Pennsylvania’s Project on Civic Engagement, Great Expectations will have a number of key components. One is to engage community leaders and citizens from around the region in a series of dialogues that identify the key problems we need to solve in the next ten years if Philadelphia is to become the next great city. A second is to send editorial board writers to others cities to find the best… Continue reading
One of the themes of my political work over the last few years, and of my campaign for a council at large seat, has been that we Philadelphians have consistently failed to look outside the city limits to learn about innovative public policies adopted in other cities in the US and around the world. Some recent posts by progressive on crime—including Ray Murphy’s harsh critique of Michael Nutter’s crime proposals—show that this is a problem of the left as much as the right. Continue reading
Some people who read my entry praising Bob Brady wondered whether I was giving up on my efforts to change politics in Philadelphia. Nothing could be further from the truth. It is important to distinguish between individuals and political systems. As I pointed out, many of us who met with Congressman Brady were impressed with him. (I met him a few years ago and have been talking to him from time to time since the Neighborhood Networks organizing conference, so I’ve been impressed for a while.) But that doesn’t mean I’m impressed with the Democratic Party he chairs or the government that is controlled by members of the Democratic Party. I begin my campaign speeches by saying that politics in Philadelphia is broken. I’m not going to stop saying that just because I happen to like Congressman Brady. And I’m not afraid to say that at ward meetings. There is… Continue reading
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
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
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
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
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