with Christina Michaels and Daniel Hunter<\/p>\n
Ever turned onto a highway only to find yourself driving the wrong way?\u00a0 The road goes on for miles without a turn, taking you further and further away from the right path.\u00a0 Suddenly, up ahead, there\u2019s a u-turn \u2013 your chance to finally head back in the right direction.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s what the May primaries will be about.\u00a0 Our City government leadership has been heading the wrong direction.\u00a0 And up ahead, is the possibility of a u-turn and the chance to get back on course.<\/p>\n
Already in the fight against slots parlors and campaign \u201cun-finance\u201d reform we are seeing some glimmers of the u-turn to come.<\/p>\n
Council Inaction<\/strong><\/p>\n It\u2019s no secret there are problems with our city. In the recent Economy League of Greater Philadelphia poll, seventy-six percent said city government was “pretty much run by a few big interests looking out for themselves.”\u00a0 Most think city officials are corrupt and waste a lot of money.<\/p>\n The Mayor has gotten a lot of that heat, with forty-two percent rating him negatively.\u00a0 And since this May 15th<\/sup> is a Mayor\u2019s primary, due attention is being placed on that opportunity for of our city.<\/p>\n But the problems of our city should not only be laid at the Mayor\u2019s doorstep.\u00a0 Council, too, has too often excluded city residents\u2019 voices, refused to address fundamental problems in how the city runs, and grown accustomed to corruption.<\/p>\n When we talk about problems like jobs, education, and crime \u2013 we can lay many of these on a City Council that has refused to come up with innovative policies or stand up for our city.<\/p>\n But help is on the way \u2013 the May 15th<\/sup> election is for Council, too.<\/p>\n The U-Turn In Action<\/strong><\/p>\n Election seasons are fun to watch because, so it seems, that\u2019s when politicians begin working for the people, performing their own kind of u-turn.\u00a0 Politicians go door-to-door and again ask people what they think; or others at least hire other people to do that for them.\u00a0 Sometimes even innovative policies get written down (though rarely implemented).<\/p>\n This election season, we\u2019re seeing even more substantial u-turning.<\/p>\n Already we\u2019ve seen the shooting down of the most inappropriately named \u201ccampaign finance reform\u201d bill.\u00a0 That bill would have taken a step back by increasing<\/em> the amount individual donors could give, giving them more power and influence in government.\u00a0 Councilman Kenny did the right thing by withdrawing it, but the wrong thing by ever introducing it.<\/p>\n And now Council is finally addressing casinos.\u00a0 Just last week a Council committee voted six-to-zero to move a citizen-initiated referendum onto the ballot.<\/p>\n But with a few exceptions, most councilmembers have up until now refused to come anywhere close to the issue.\u00a0 Only with the signatures of 27,254 voters pressuring for a referendum \u2013which I helped design and initially came up with \u2013 are they starting to address the two riverfront proposals for slots parlors.<\/p>\n Now that council has been made<\/em> to address the issue, through this citizen-initiated referendum, they have strong words to say about \u201cdefending democracy\u201d and \u201cprotecting the people.\u201d\u00a0 But where were they four months ago when citizens were getting arrested trying to battle the PA Gaming Control Board?\u00a0 (I was there, by the way.)\u00a0 Or eight months ago when people were testifying at hearings?\u00a0 (I was there, too.)<\/p>\n Soon Council will be voting on this referendum, which would potentially place casinos at least 1,500 feet away from residential neighborhoods, schools, and places of worship.\u00a0 And that\u2019s a good thing for all of us who care about a strong city with safer neighborhoods and strong neighborhoods.<\/p>\n But the real cause of the u-turn is a thoughtful movement of neighborhood defenders, citywide activists, and union members.\u00a0 The same thing with the defeat take-a-step-backwards campaign finance reform bill \u2013 an active movement stopped it from becoming reality.<\/p>\n Both movements and others supporting a u-turn in city government are movements I am proud to be both part of and represent.\u00a0 They represent the hope for this city in people getting more involved in politics and refusing to act out of the fear that said \u201cdone deal\u201d and you can\u2019t win.<\/p>\n So, this May, let\u2019s complete the u-turn already beginning and get our city back on track<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" with Christina Michaels and Daniel Hunter Ever turned onto a highway only to find yourself driving the wrong way?\u00a0 The road goes on for miles without a turn, taking you further and further away from the right path.\u00a0 Suddenly, up ahead, there\u2019s a u-turn \u2013 your chance to finally head back in the right direction. That\u2019s what the May primaries will be about.\u00a0 Our City government leadership has been heading the wrong direction.\u00a0 And up ahead, is the possibility of a u-turn and the chance to get back on course. Already in the fight against slots parlors and campaign \u201cun-finance\u201d reform we are seeing some glimmers of the u-turn to come. Continue reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[36,57,59],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p35YuU-qm","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcstier.com\/blog2\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1634"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcstier.com\/blog2\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcstier.com\/blog2\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcstier.com\/blog2\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcstier.com\/blog2\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1634"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/marcstier.com\/blog2\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1634\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5978,"href":"https:\/\/marcstier.com\/blog2\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1634\/revisions\/5978"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcstier.com\/blog2\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1634"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcstier.com\/blog2\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1634"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcstier.com\/blog2\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1634"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}