Day: March 7, 2006

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What we progressives can learn from our own failures: the future of progressive politics in PA, part 3

  By Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Political Organizing, Progressive Politics

In the last post in this series I wrote about the limitations of Governor Rendell’s centrist strategy in dealing with a Republican legislature that is tilting very far to the right. Today I want to point to some of the failures of activists in dealing with the same barrier to progressive politics. Let me make clear that this is mostly an exercise in self-criticism. (Yo, David Horowitz, note that suspiciously Maoist turn of phrase.) I am going to write about some of the campaigns on which I have worked and point to three ways in which I think we might have made them, or might now make them, more effective. Continue reading

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Alternate Paths to Economic Growth

  By Economic Development, Philadelphia, Public Policy, Social Justice, Taxation, Urbanism

Last week there was another go round about the Business Privilege Tax (BPT) at a City Council hearing at which I testified on behalf of One Philadelphia. Most of the people who testified had done so before. They, and the council members who were there, seemed to know each other’s lines so well that they could repeat them in their sleep. But it has taken me a while to get my head around the various issues concerning taxation and it was my first time attending this particular circus. I thought it might be enlightening. After all, as the ad goes, if you haven’t seen it before, it is new to you. Unfortunately, it wasn’t really new to me or terribly enlightening. The problem with these hearings about the BPT, and with the whole debate about taxes in the city, is that it is terribly one dimensional. Taxes after all are… Continue reading