Why Copenhagen Mattered

In a world that demands simple solutions for complex problems, it is easy to look at the Copenhagen climate talks as a disappointment or even a disaster. There was a hope among many, and even an expectation among some, that 193 nations would sign a treaty reconciling a huge list of divided interests: developed versus developing economies, transparency versus sovereignty, existing technology versus emerging technology, and so on… READ MORE

Franklin Field’s New Triple Threat

When John Heisman coached football at Franklin Field in the 1920s (yes, the namesake of the Heisman Trophy played and coached at Penn), it was a single-tier stadium…READ MORE

High Concept

The High Line is a Depression-era elevated rail freight line that runs for almost a mile and a half above street-level and along and through buildings in a part of lower Manhattan that once bustled with factories and warehouses. Active for about 50 years, the steel viaduct was abandoned by the 1980s and became an overgrown secret garden for graffiti artists and urban explorers…READ MORE

The Church of the Transformation

What grade-school boy hasn’t dreamed of dismantling the buildings that imprison him on a beautiful October day? Bob Beaty is living that dream. But for him, it’s an act of respect, not rebellion. Along with his partners, Beaty runs an architectural salvage and deconstruction company called Provenance… READ MORE

Everyone’s a Critic

My family went to Rome this summer, and we spotted the scene in the photo above in front of the Pantheon, which captures the theme of my new Daily News column…READ MORE

‘Mr. Green’ Passes the Baton

Congratulations to Mayor Nutter on naming an invigorating new sustainability director for Philadelphia. Katherine Gajewski is a splendid choice to realize the mayor’s ambition that Philadelphia become “the greenest city in America.”…READ MORE

Sharing Much with the U.S.

I love Bombay — or Mumbai, as most Americans probably know it these days. I have roots in the city through marriage, and I’ve been visiting since 1986, most recently last summer…READ MORE

The Heart of Green-ness

‘The greenest city in America.” That’s the ambitious goal Mayor Nutter has set for Philadelphia. The attention and energy focused by this goal is our opportunity to reposition and repurpose Philadelphia as a city of the future and with a future…READ MORE

Biggest Reason to Vote for Hill

These days, I spend most of my time struggling to keep up with my fellow architecture students at Penn’s School of Design. But on Tuesday afternoons,I walk to the other end of campus and teach my policy students at the Fels Institute of Government…READ MORE

Getting a Fix on the Unfixable

Last week, I argued that our biggest problems are unfixable. But calling a problem unfixable doesn’t mean we should do nothing about it—and any reader who thinks it does was already looking for an excuse…READ MORE

Some of our Problems are Just Unfixable

I may be the last publicly pessimistic person in Philadelphia. It’s the fashion, since the primary election victory of Michael Nutter, to stifle one’s pessimism and berate any hint of it detected in others…READ MORE

Time to Play a Little Politics

This will be my last column for the foreseeable future, and I want you all to know the reason directly from me…READ MORE

Chaka is Right Where We Need Him

With Chaka Fattah’s declaration for mayor, Michael Nutter finally has an official opponent, and we can start talking about choices…READ MORE

Smart Thinking About a Witless Diss

Julia Vitullo-Martin’s opinion column in last Friday’s Wall Street Journal (reprinted Tuesday on this page) was the most public display of feeble thinking I’ve seen since, well, since the last State of the Union address…READ MORE

Private Planning Not a Public Good

A regular reader of this column —at least when I was regularly writing it—wrote last week asking if I was part of Penn Praxis’ new effort to plan for the Delaware waterfront…READ MORE

A Write-In Revolution

“Who chooses?” is a fundamental question in politics. And it’s one that the professionals hate leaving to us ordinary folks. Over the centuries, the pros have trumpeted democracy while devising tricks to narrow “Who chooses ?” to their own purposes…READ MORE

Welfare as We Know It

Ten years ago today, President Bill Clinton signed the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act, commonly known as welfare reform. The law required states to place a large fraction of welfare clients into jobs and put a time limit on how long a person can receive cash assistance…READ MORE

City’s Monumental Decision: What to glorify

Today, it’s often a curse instead of an honor to be the subject of a monument. And no, I’m not thinking of Rocky…READ MORE

Our Zoning Deli: Just take a number

Zoning decisions in Philadelphia are like orders in a deli as imagined by Kafka. Obnoxious customers shout with little regard for who’s next in line and a self-important man behind the counter tells people they can have anything they want, as long as it’s corned beef on rye with a little slaw…READ MORE

A Bigger Game for Olympic Bidders

Back when Philadelphia’s 2016 Olympic bid was flush with possibility, I suggested to the powers involved that Philadelphia was worth their civic efforts with or without the excuse of the Olympics. Even though the bid is history, the dozens of leaders involved in the bid should be feeling their oats after all the appreciative press treatment…READ MORE 

New vs. Old Isn’t Good vs. Bad

The ability to manage the tensions between old and new Philadelphians is the most important quality to evaluate in … Michael Nutter…READ MORE

No More Metaphors in Crime War

A consensus is forming that Philadelphia’s violence epidemic finally demands an extraordinary response. Outrage has covered the pages of both newspaper s for weeks now. And yesterday the collection of reporting and opinion in the Daily News made me chastened but proud to be a Philadelphian…READ MORE 

Violence & the Soul of a City: Morally, it’s the no. 1 issue

The most important quality needed in Philadelphia’s next mayor is the ability to manage the tensions between old and new Philadelphians. This theme for 2007 is about almost everything, from immigration to parking…READ MORE

The Big Deal for 2007

What’s the big theme for the 2007 mayor’s race? Whenever I try to come up with one, it turns into a list of important but (let’s face it) tired issues: crime and taxes and schools and so on. Those issues matter, but we need a theme to organize our priorities and hold our attention…READ MORE

Philly’s Olympic Troops Should Be Redeployed

My kids don’t want me to write this column. When I ran it by them, my 10-year-old daughter mustered all her preteen certainty and exclaimed, “The Olympics is a great idea and everybody thinks so.” Sometimes it’s no fun being the adult in a conversation, but here goes…READ MORE (pg. 1),  (pg. 2)

Sound as a Dollar

Money talks, bull-[bleep] walks. The famous Philadelphia aphorism isn’t just about influence; it’s also about expertise. Dollars define most policy debates, and, if you get stuck in the numbers, you never get to the ideas. So here are my five favorite formulas for framing our fungible friend, the dollar…READ MORE

A Towering Challenge

The proposed Barnes Tower on 21st above the Parkway is the talk of my extended neighborhood. Like all good policy issues, it’s about several things at once. But demagogues like to reduce issues to a single thing, and here that thing is height. It’s kind of like reducing the life of Napoleon to his height…READ MORE

Newspapers: Forget the ‘public trust’ hooey

The “public trust” aspect of newspapers is a bloated, facile and ultimately incoherent basis for running a newspaper. And the new ownership of the Daily News and Inky give us a chance to abandon the idea. In February, I offered some advice to imaginary investors in our papers. The gist: Let the papers compete with each other, prioritize the day’s events for readers and dominate the local market…READ MORE

Our Gun Crisis: Call in the NRA

Mayor Street is rising to the challenge of violence in Philadelphia, and it’s time for all good men to come to the aid of their mayor…READ MORE

Beating the Post-Oil Drum

The “peak oil” debate is populated by a cult of nuts who are easy to dismiss. But with oil prices over $70 a barrel, with no Katrina and no coup in Saudi Arabia, it starts to look plausible…READ MORE

Driven to Distraction

With gas at $3 a gallon, it may seem a strange time to discuss cars and the future of Center City. But it’s the topic later this month at CPDC— forget the acronym, just think Paul Levy. (And by the way, congrats to Levy on winning the Philadelphia Award. He’s so deserving that I thought he’d already won!)…READ MORE

Inherit the Wind

I missed the privilege of knowing Rotan Lee and so have no personal remembrance to add to the eloquent eulogies of many others. His sudden passing, however, leads me to reflect on the recent death of a great man with whom I did have a brief acquaintance…READ MORE

Back to the Drawing Board

Louis Kahn, one of Penn’s greatest teachers of the last century, said, “The city is the place of availabilities. It is the place where a small boy, as he walks through it, may see something that will tell him what he wants to do his whole life.” I remember the exact moment I saw something in a city that made me want to be an architect. I was 16, and my parents were dropping me off at college. On the way, we went to New York to meet my only relatives in the East: my great-great-Aunt Opal and Uncle Lou…READ MORE

Twilight Zoning

Last Wednesday night, another developer was running another neighborhood gantlet in order to build a project in this town: the proposed 47-story Barnes Tower at 22nd and Spring Garden. I couldn’t make the meeting (my basketball team weathered a close loss in the 15-and-under league at Palumbo Rec Center—I blame the coaching), but our sister paper ran a long account full of juicy quotes…READ MORE 

Housing Reorg: Too little, too late

It took a fight between John Street and John Dougherty to make the mayor look like a thoughtful leader capable of making a forward-looking decision…READ MORE

My Turn at Playing Ward-Heeler

People keep gossiping about the possibility of Bob Brady running for mayor. He, of course, denies it. But the rumor persists. They say Brady is a consummate big-city politician. He makes sure he knows the answer before he ever asks the question. So I’ve been wondering , what kind of deal would leave everyone satisfied and Brady nominated?…READ MORE

Potential Plus for New School Rule

Last week, the School Reform Commission voted to strengthen the connection between schools and neighborhoods by changing the rules on school transfers…READ MORE

How to Save the Newspaper Biz

Discussions about the grim future of newspapers can sound self-serving when journalists do the talking. But I don’t make my living from newspapers— I want them to survive because I’m a reader not a writer…READ MORE

A Way to Drop the Drop Out Rate

Why do kids drop out out of school? Many factors enter the decision, and sometimes it’s not a decision at all but neglect or impulse. I’m an extreme case: I dropped out at 16 and never earned a diploma. The fact that I dropped out to go to college early doesn’t change my place in the official dropout statistics…READ MORE

Destroying City Hall in Order to Save It

Torture camps in Eastern Europe. LNG on the Delaware. NSA wiretaps at home. Photo IDs in City Hall. The debate about securit y versus liberty engrosses every level of government. While it feels new and urgent, it’s really one of our oldest issues…READ MORE

The Coming Storm Over the ‘DaVinci’ Movie

We’re going to have ourselves a devil of a culture war this spring over the film version of “The Da Vinci Code” —perhaps the worst written book ever so widely read. I predict the battle lines will be different than anyone expects…READ MORE

Better Schools: The real-estate connection

No one moves to Philadelphia these days for our public education, and so we rarely think about the connection between houses and schools…READ MORE

The ’07 Mayoral Countdown

This column has been around long enough that I sometimes get deja vu. It seems just yesterday that pundits were talking about the big issues framing the open race to succeed Ed Rendell as mayor. My nominee was the blight resulting from 50 years of depopula tion. Now we’re there again: a widely contested race, at least among Democrats, to succeed John Street…READ MORE

A Liberal Argument for City Tax Cut

City council votes today on cutting various local business taxes. After years of responsible debate, the issue is familiar enough that much of today’s decision hinges on important details about the size and timing of the cuts. But from now through 2007, issues will be cast it terms of the next mayoral election. So I’d like to step back from the important details and address the politics
of tax cuts…READ MORE

The Case for the Park Commission

This week, City Council takes up the merger of the venerable Fairmount Park Commission with the city Recreation Department. Unlike taxes and ethics — issues where the best arguments are all on one side —the merger idea is one where reasonable people can discuss merits on both sides…READ MORE

The Best of Times– at Least for a Murder

In 1729, Jonathan Swift wrote “A Modest Proposal” in which he suggested that the poor Irish should sell their children as food, arguing in detail that “the advantages by the proposal which I have made are obvious and many.” It’s probably the most brilliant satire ever—Swift figuratively flays the English oppressors of Ireland even as he proposes literally to flay the oppressed. I was reminded of the proposal last week while reading a front page story about Mayor Street’s legacy in our sister newspaper…READ MORE

Tough Parking, Tastier Center City

Thomas Hobson owned a stable in Cambridge, England, in the 1600s. He rented horses and offered his customer s a choice: they could rent any horse they wanted as long as it was the one nearest the door. Henry Ford would later offer his Model T in “any color so long as it is black.” Constructing a hidden Hobson’s choice, known today as “issue framing,” is the essence of politics…READ MORE

Trying to Derail CSX’s Arrogance

Steam locomotives used to run right down the middle of several Philadelphia streets. We grew tired of the chaos and eventually forced the trains into the viaducts and trenches that remain in and around Center City…READ MORE

Another Juicy Issue for the Right

Eminent domain will be to 2006-08 as gay marriage was to 2002-04 —an issue stoked to mobilize certain kinds of voters…READ MORE

What They Should’ve Asked John Roberts

Judge John Roberts’ successful strategy of concealing his position on any topic that matters will almost certainly be repeated by the next nominee. Abortion is the obvious turning point around which these hearings dance. Yet no one could craft a question on the subject that the judge felt compelled to answer. How about this…READ MORE

A Nagging New Orleans Question

Many of the plans for rebuilding the Gulf Coast beg the question, who decides? Who pays is also important. And so is who gets paid. But the fundamental “who decides?” question will determine the answers to all the others…READ MORE

Even a Katrina Can Blow Some Good

As several people have pointed out, there’s a big difference between the Chicago fire of 1871 and the San Francisco earthquake of 1906, and the New Orleans flood of 2005. The first two cities were on the rise when their disasters struck and rebuilding was simply the continuation of boom times…READ MORE

What Chicago Has that We Need

I’ve just returned from an end-of-summer family trip to Chicago, and I feel like I understand Philadelphia better than ever. Travel is a risk for Philadelphians because it raises touchy questions like, “Why not here?” The downside risk is that the question leads to resignation. The upside risk is that it leads to inspiration…READ MORE

The End of Grass as We Know It

“South Philly with grass” is our witty local description of New Jersey. Actually, it’s a pretty good description of suburbs in general. My variation is that the suburbs are grass farms…READ MORE

Cash In that Real-Estate Jackpot

A few years ago, I wrote a series of columns about the need to have wealthy residents in a city. The staggering increase in the value of city real estate shows we’ve made huge gains toward this policy goal. We have met the wealthy, and they are us. Now, what are we going to do with all this new wealth?…READ MORE

The Limits of Reforming Philly

Reform will be a big part of the next mayoral election. All serious candidates will wrestle for the reform mantle and the reform vote could be a decisive counterweight to the established powers of race, union, and party machinery…READ MORE

Prof. Hughes’ Property-Tax Primer

Cities levy taxes to meet obligations assigned to them by citizens and other governments. And they rely on the property tax, in particular, because it provides a stable base for public revenues, is easy to administer and is broadly progressive…READ MORE

The Right Stuff for the Next Mayor

With a mayor’s race coming in 2007, discussions are under way in the chattering class about the issues that will or should inform the campaign. I’ve been part of a few conversations already, and I know there are many more going on. Are we just whistling past the graveyard when we debate policy issues? Are we just pretending that ideas matter? What’s the point of talking about ideas when money and race seem to determine every local election?…READ MORE

At Sports Venues, a Painful Last Mile

My nine-year-old daughter loves sports, trying new things and going places. That combination means I spend lots of time in relatively exotic sporting venues. Two of my favorites, in a social observer kind of way, are FDR skate park and arena football…READ MORE

The Calm Before the Reassessment Storm

The Board of Revision of Taxes is easy to hate. Its job is to blow the whistle on the annual value of our property holdings. People who would never hide income from the Internal Revenue Service act like it’s a good thing for the BRT to miss the rising value of their homes. If you don’t like a tax, then lower it. Don’t evade it…READ MORE

A Little Praise… & a Little Prediction

Before we continue our discussion of policy options in the post-NTI world, I want to pause and praise the Street administration on managing the July 2-4 events on the Parkway…READ MORE

Tax-Abatement Sticker Shock

A few years ago, I bought a condo in Old City for my parents because they were looking for an excellent adventure to begin their retirement. After a couple of years of daily walks across the Ben, foreign movies at the Ritz and First Friday gallery-hopping , they’ve settled back into their Midwestern small town to grow old with the friends they’ve known since childhood…READ MORE

Is There a Life After Neighborhood Transition?

NTI is over. The money is largely gone and most participants are in the same basic place they were five years ago: Many residents still live amid derelict property, developers without political connections still find it hard to get ready land and timely approvals, and government still hasn’t delivered a consolidated land bank or a streamlined administrative apparatus…READ MORE

The Web of Time in the Life of a City

“Cities make Time visible and release us from the tyranny of a single present.” A famous guy named Lewis Mumford used that phrase to describe one value of cities. Over time, they become layers, literally, of style and technology and ways of living…READ MORE

Studying Black History is Good for All of Us

The new African and African-American history requirement in Philadelphia public high schools will almost certainly end up on “The Daily Show.” The effort lends itself to parody and bears the burden of foolish precedents. But at the risk of being parodied myself in all the obvious ways, I’m for the requirement…READ MORE

The Naked Truth About NTI

Mayor Street has been celebrating the fourth anniversary of the Neighborhood Transformation Initiative. His fifth and last budget for NTI has been submitted and the long-time director is retiring. All the back-patting is causing me a problem. People keep asking for my assessment of NTI, knowing I’ve been a constant critic…READ MORE

Of Lame Ducks & Goosing Tax Reform

Mayor Street is quite an obstacle to progress. Here we are, ready to move on from business tax reform to improving property tax abatements. But the lame duck threatens to veto tax cuts hammered out last week…READ MORE

Going ‘John Brown’ on Pay-to-Play

It would be unfair to say City Council can’t walk and chew gum at the same time. Don’t get me wrong: They can’t. But it would be unfair to say so, because no one asks them to walk and chew gum at the same time —so who cares if they can’t do it?…READ MORE

My John Street Problem– and Ours

What is my problem with the mayor? Glancing over my columns of the past few years, my outrage seems out of proportion to the man and his record. Then I remember: It’s not about him, it’s about us. While it may have appear ed otherwise, John Street arouses no passions in me either way —it’s Philadelphia I feel strongly about…READ MORE

Contingency Plan

Sometimes life throws us a curve. That’s when you gotta be creative. And the fates are no match for determined Philadelphians. So here’s a what-if scenario: What happens if the FBI bugging causes a groundswell of support for Mayor Street that ensures his re-election and then a felony indictment of the mayor soon after the election so hurts his ability to govern that he’s forced to resign?…READ MORE

Like It or Not, a Clarifying Moment

I sure never expected to write this, but the bugging may be the most important issue in this election. And this time, I mean it. No one is well-served by this roiling controversy. It may well be a fatal distraction from more important aspects of this election…READ MORE

Blight: Managed– and mismanaged

The most important issue in the mayor’s race might be the blight of Philadelphia’s enormous inventory of derelict property. This blight has many causes and many effects…READ MORE

The Candidate Who Isn’t Really There

The national fallout might be the most important issue in this mayoral race. Folks, even I, with my enormous capacity for bull, can’t discuss this one with a straight face. Crime and taxes, the subjects of my previous two columns, are at least worthy of discussion. Maybe neither is the single most important issue, but each is certainly on almost everyone’s short list...READ MORE

Ed Schwartz Spices Up the Mayor’s Race

Each week, until time runs out, I’ll be discussing an important mayoral issue. Eventually I’ll tell you what I think is the MOST important issue in this race. Tax reform might be the most important policy debate in this election…READ MORE

How to Have Even Safer Streets

Safe streets might be the most important policy debate in this election. But so far that debate has been unsatisfying. To borrow a metaphor from my colleague Elmer Smith, neither candidate can land a solid blow, and most of the time it feels like Street and Katz aren’t even in the same ring…READ MORE

Tough Guys Need Not Apply

HOW TOUGH do you have to be to be mayor of Philadelphia? Last month, Mayor Street doubted Sam Katz’s toughness in a very public statement. But is toughness a personal quality that voters should care about? I don’t think so…READ MORE

What the Left Hand Giveth…

It’s twenty years ago to the month that I moved to Philadelphia to find my future. I’ve become enough of a Philadelphian during that time to be flattered by this month’s issue of Travel+ Leisure magazine. It has a glowing feature on our fair city, full of raves about Center City neighborhoods, restaurants and shops, and museums and galleries. But the author, Francine Maroukian, has done more than write a well-informed guide to goings on here…READ MORE

The Parkway’s Lessons for the Blight Fight

My 1908- 15 city tax map is back from the framers. Several times over the past week or so, I’ve shown the map to neighbors—and everyone loves to see what their surrounding blocks were like 100 years ago…READ MORE

The Rich Living on a Fixed Income

I’ve always grudgingly admired the Republicans’ ability to smear any argument against tax cuts for the rich as “class warfare.”…READ MORE

SEPTA’s Brilliant/Dumb Strategy

The introduction of New Coke a few years back is the classic example of a disaster that nevertheless turns out well. The fiasco resulted in everyone declaring their undying love for original Coke —the kind of marketing money can’t buy. Analysts at the time assumed it was not manipulation because the Coke execs “aren’t that smart and they aren’t that dumb.” I’m having the same reaction to the SEPTA budget crisis of the last few months…READ MORE

The Pedestrian Preservation Act

Last month, we established Philadelphia’s place as the nation’s largest walking community, as defined by walking to work. Because that column got posted on a Web site read by city planner s around the world, the fact is attracting considerable attention. I’ve had to fend off friendly counter- claims by rival cities, such as Boston and Vancouver. It’s nice to be number one at something that city lovers around the world care about…READ MORE

Corrupt & Contented, 100 Years Later

It’s my delightful privilege to be spending this summer in the Rare Book Library at Penn. I’m turning the aged pages of Philadelphia newspapers from the 1850s for a book on the 1854 consolidation of the city and county of Philadelphia. My goal is to learn how Philadelphia was able to unite around the idea of consolidation and elect a delegation to the state legislature at the end of 1853 devoted to making it happen…READ MORE

Saidel Ledger-Demain in Aid of the City

Boies Penrose was a powerful U.S. senator from 1897 until his death in 1921. But his first political love was Philadelphia, the city of his birth. The Senate was something of a consolation prize after Penrose was defeated in the 1895 mayor’s race. Imagine a day when mayor was more important than senator…READ MORE

MLK, NTI & Re-election Politics

Last month, I praised the revitalization of MLK Plaza being led by Kenneth Gamble’s Universal Cos. The project is part of the federal HOPE VI program, begun under President Clinton and devoted to the radical reinvention of public housing sites…READ MORE

Turning Politics Into a Spectator Sport

Last month, I wrote a column that was very critical of a radio ad run by Local 98, the electricians union. The column generated lots of reaction, pro and con. But the biggest reaction came from members of the local, which led to a number of conversations, on the phone , through e-mail and in person...READ MORE

Philadelphia’s Value Foot Fetish

Center City Philadelphia has the nation’s largest concentration of people who walk to work. This quality is Center City’s biggest comparative advantage in the region and, by extension,
one of Philadelphia’s greatest assets. Center City embodies the values that New Urbanists across the country can only dream about…READ MORE

‘Smart Growth’ Right in Our Own Backyard

I’m often asked why there’s so little “smart growth” in the state. You know smart growth (aka new urbanism): that combination of state infrastructure investment, regional land-use regulation, traditional housing design, pedestrian- friendly street design and increased densities packaged as an alternative to sprawl. Smart growth has been so successfully promoted in stateslike Maryland, California and New Jersey that it’s generating something of a backlash…READ MORE

Who ‘Deserves’ to be the Next Mayor?

Well, it’s begun. The mayoral campaigns are in full swing. How the heck are we supposed to pick between Street and Katz?…READ MORE

Just Call Him Sen. Know-Nothing

How many times in the past week have you heard someone account for Sen. Rick Santorum’s homophobia by referring to his Catholicism? If I were a Roman Catholic, I’d be offended by all this casual analysis of my faith…READ MORE

Electrician Union’s Ad Gave Me a Jolt

It’s stupid to say, “But you don’t look Jewish” or “Funny, you don’t sound black” because individuals are not defined by group averages. Individuals are unique and are often free of what is true, on average, for any group they may belong to…READ MORE

Shutting Up Protest: The coward’s way out

People have a right to say or write that anti-war protester s should be silent or leave the country. But people who write or say such things are cowards —indeed, the only cowardly Americans to be found these days…READ MORE

Dead Heat Means a Very Lively Race

The city’s voters, regardless of whom they support, got the best possible news in last week’s Keystone Poll, co-sponsored by the Daily News, showing Mayor Street and contender Sam Katz in a dead heat…READ MORE

How a Rec Center Can Enhance Civilization

Anyone who wants to understand Aristotle’s “Politics” (and that’s everyone who cares about living the good life) need only spend some time at the Palumbo Recreation Center…READ MORE

Shooting is the Easy Part

The Bush administration: Not a bad team for conventional wars. First Afghanistan, now Iraq. Corporate personnel for a corpor ate mission…READ MORE

Sit Down, Turn On, Tune In

One nice thing about uncontested mayoral primaries: the spring remains largely free of high-volume campaigning. A voter appeal at this point is like a sprint at the start of a marathon —it looks good at the time, but doesn’t help much at the finish line. So while Street and Katz insiders talk to each other, we outsiders can talk “pure” ideas for a few more months…READ MORE

A Win-Win Fantasy for Memorial Hall

I love the Please Touch Museum. My two children have lived their whole lives within a stone’s throw of the place, and my first child went to the museum almost every day until he was about three. They’ve both grown up with the staff and are in the background of more than their share of photos in the museum newsletter…READ MORE

The Real Lessons of Chestnut St. & SUVs

The local papers have gloated over recent wins in several public debates that newspapers remain uniquely suited to lead. Let’s examine two —the Chestnut Street reopening and the SUV wars —whose ultimate lessons are yet to come…READ MORE

How Not to Deal with Section 8

Of all current policy debates—including affirmative action and a military draft—Section 8 housing assistance is the simmering pot most likely to boil over with racial and class resentment. But a proposed seven-year time limit on eligibility for the program is the rotten apple in an otherwise fine barrel of Section 8 reforms being proposed by the Philadelphia Housing Authority, as reported recently in the Inquirer…READ MORE

Michael Nutter Hit by White Flight

White liberals like me always say we want to talk about race. And when I do, it’s always on my own terms: some abstract example from a policy debate or some anecdote drawn from my privileged personal experience. That’s hardly avoidable, since all I have is my own terms…READ MORE

The Gesture that All SUV Drivers Deserve

I’m at my worst when I’m driving. Behind the wheel, my amiable Dr. Jekyll turns into a profane and aggressive Mr. Hyde. After 20 years, my wife’s civilizing influence and the presence of two observant children in the back seat have finally stifled most of my bad behavior, though the impulses still simmer. But with all that stifled simmering, I’m doubly alert to bad behavior by others. And no one’s worse than a driver of a sport utility vehicle…READ MORE

The Mayor, the Blight Fight, & the Election

The mayor’s blight thing, NTI, will be a major touchstone in this year’s inevitable election- year debate over the city’s future. Citizens can use NTI to draw conclusions about the mayor’s priorities, performance, personality and prospects…READ MORE

Mayor’s Math Comes Up Short

If New York is the city that never sleeps, Philadelphia must be the city the never wakes. What passes for convincing political argument in this town would get laughed off the podium anywhere else…READ MORE

Not All Population Numbers Created Equal

The Daily News’ Urban Warrior, Carla Ander son, has done a remarkable job during the past weeks in concentrating public attention on a single, powerful goal for the city: population growth…READ MORE

Nov. 2003: It’s Not About Street– It’s About Us

A few weeks ago, a leader of Philadelphia Interfaith Action was interviewed about the mayor’s blight thing, NTI. The leader announced that PIA’s emerging concerns over NTI had been placated by a series of holiday-season announcements by the mayor…READ MORE

A Billion Dollar Transportation Fantasy

The Pennsylvania Economy League knows how to have fun. Later this week, they’re hosting a panel of seven idea-mongers on the topic “If you had a billion dollars to invest in the Philadelphia region, what would you do?” I doubt it’ll become the next Trivial Pursuit, but it should be an enjoyable evening. And since they didn’t ask me to join in, I’ll just have to play along at home…READ MORE

Chestnut Street Closing a Blow to Freedom

The planned closing of Chestnut Street at Independence Hall illustrates a commonconfusion over the relationship between our post-9 /11 security and our post-1776 freedoms. I’m one of those liberals who are hawkish on fighting terror, and I recognize the new challenges it poses for our life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness…READ MORE

Politics 2003: Ready to Rumble

It is almost the new year, and the coming elections— primary and general, mayoral and council —promise to be the most important in memory. This election cycle is not about any of several crises, not about the city approaching some point of no return in its long decline , not even really about a struggle over competing policy ideas...READ MORE

There’s Hope Yet for Ebenezer Street

When I sat down last Friday morning , as is my routine, to write my column, I intended to praise and defend the mayor (yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus) for his recent proposal to accelerate spending under his much maligned antiblight program, NTI…READ MORE

When Saving Buildings Means Saving Souls

Churches and former synagogues are an unforgettable part of my regular walks in North Philadelphia. There they stand, like the Rock in old hymns, while so much else around them crumbles. Sacred places found in a neighborhood like Strawberry Mansion make several points to all who have eyes to see…READ MORE

Street’s Endgame on Property Tax Reform

Mayor Street enjoys a good game of legislative chess. A couple weeks ago, he released his controlled votes on Council to approve three competing property tax bills…READ MORE

Why Tolerance Needs Law and Order

Rich and poor, black and white, and all the classes and colors in between, are out of touch with one another. That’s an all-too-obvious reality, though one that polite conversation tends to avoid…READ MORE

Let’s Play ‘Mayoral Make Believe’

Mayor Street’s speech to City Council last week is widely viewed as the kick-off to his reelection campaign. The first good thing to come from the campaign is that Frank Keel has finally been given the appropriate job title: Street’s campaign media consultant. Score one for good government…READ MORE

Tricky Property-Tax Politics

The property-tax debate grows more complicated, but, and this is important, it also makes more sense with each new piece of evidence. Unlike the wage-tax revolt, this debate creates different winners and losers depending on which piece of the issue we’re talking about…READ MORE

How the Dems Can Sell Themselves

One of my favorite economists,Harold Hotelling , analyzed the way competitor s useposition to win customers. Think of two ice-cream vendors on a boardwalk. The vendors are free to move their carts anywhere to attract the most buyers…READ MORE

If Ed Rendell Wins

The Daily News is not the only media outlet assuming that Ed Rendell will win today’s gubernatorial race, although it was the only one to say so out loud, which should surprise no one…READ MORE

3 Rules for Any New Blight Czar

Last week, I predicted that, with election season approaching, we’d begin to see some action to make up for three years of mayoral dithering . This week, I predict that the mayor will soon announce a new blight czar. Of course, many of us have been calling for someone to fill that post for years…READ MORE

The Blight Fight: 3 years & counting…

Last month, I gave a talk at Baltimore’s Johns Hopkins University for which I’d been asked to compare Baltimore Mayor Martin O’Malley’s anti-blight plan with Mayor Street’s Neighborhood Transformation Initiative. It’s easy to talk about NTI: No plan, no progress, and no person in the country willing to run it for Street. But during the discussion following the talk, I was struck by the huge difference in civic expectations between Baltimore and Philadelphia…READ MORE

Making a Do-Good Transportation Decision

Two nifty ideas drifting out of the Washington think-tank scene into the real world illustrate the importance of looking at who wins and who loses in a proposal…READ MORE

The Big Convention Center Question

The expansion of the Convention Center has a nifty design (a Broad Street entrance would be cool), strong backers (it’s the apple-pie issue of Center City political interests) and even a compelling logic (as far as it goes). The current proposal envisions a $464 million cost that would be split equally by the state and the city. There is considerable pressure right now to get the state legislature to approve its half of the money…READ MORE

A Golden Opportunity for the Land Tax…

One of the fascinating things about policy proposals is the way in which changing circumstances can turn yesterday’s nonstarter into tomorrow’s no-brainer. The uproar over property reassessments is having exactly that effect on the land-tax proposal made last year by City Controller Jonathan Saidel…READ MORE

Reassessment Politics: Winners & losers

Politics is about who gets what when —especially the politics of property taxes. To illustrate who wins and loses in the current property-tax debate, I’ve analyzed the changes proposed for my very own street…READ MORE

Cleaning Up the Reassessment Mess

I never said that the real-estate tax couldn’t be improved. And I admire the energy being generated by the controversial reassessments more than I loathe the unclear thinking about them. I’ll even make a concession. I’ll support nullifying the effect of recent reassessments in return for comprehensive tax reform that attempts to improve our whole system of local taxation…READ MORE

Civic Virtue & the Bottom Line

The question of what we owe one another is at the core of religion, politics and, even more literally, economics. It informs most of the issues debated in this column —and in bars and on buses everywhere. It appears ferociously in the current property-tax tempest over rising assessments…READ MORE

Property-Tax Hikes: A blessing in disguise

OK, summer’s over, school’s about to start —and the big story is property-tax reassessment…READ MORE

Reparations: Just make out the check

I’ve earned my props criticizing white liberals recently. But my colleague Michael Smerconish’s column on reparations last week begs for some liberal counter spin…READ MORE

The Mayor, the Center and Richard Nixon

The phrase “Nixon goes to China” is used to describe an event in which a leader plays against type, using his unassailable record on an issue to change course in a dramatic yet politically protected fashion. Nixon could go to Communist China and establish diplomatic relations because he had always been a staunch anti-communist…READ MORE

What I Learned from Last Week’s Column

Column-writing veterans say that writing about last week’s column is a sign that you’re lazy or out of ideas. Well, at the risk of a smirk from the pros, that’s exactly what I’m going to do —because I’ve never gotten more or better feedback than I received after last week’s “racial fire” column. The e-mails came from readers white and black. They were supportive and critical. But before we start drawing a bunch of lessons from this experience, let’s recall the problem of selection bias. If I wanted to talk about…READ MORE

Is the Mayor Playing with Racial Fire?

The mayor is setting us up for a long hot summer. It’s about race, and it will take all our civic character to avoid the trap. The press continues to question the mayor over the costs of his Operation Safe Streets. But Mayor Street has resolutely refused to answer questions about its cost…READ MORE

How Would You Label City Hall’s Portals?

It’s too hot to argue. So, let’s discuss a topic suitable for summer reading. Have you ever noticed the inscription above the City Hall portal facing South Broad? It says, carved in stone , “Justice.” The other three portals are blank. If we had the confidence of our forebears, what words would we carve in stone to record our principles for generations to come?…READ MORE

A Clash of Colors– and of Values

After all the fuss over the skateboarders, the new JFK Plaza has reopened. The place is downright ugly. I can think of no better emblem of the low standards and bad taste of the Street administration than the “civic space” they’ve created with almost a million dollars at JFK Plaza, a/k/a LOVE Park…READ MORE

The Mayor & the City’s White Liberals

Will the city’s white liberals support Mayor Street’s re-election? It’s a topic of much discus sion because of the public defection of some longtime Street supporters like Carl Singley, the “catch me if you can” attitude of Street regarding campaign contributions from people who do busines s with the city and the simple fact that we’re now only months away from the next mayoral primaries…READ MORE

Hubris & the Mayor’s Achilles’ Heel

I don’t mind power: As a citizen, I recognize that it’s essential to getting good things done. And I don’t mind stupidity: As a teacher, I’ve developed a tolerance for temporary ignorance. But what makes me mad as hell is hubris: The exaggerated self-confidence that leads people to do whatever they damn well please…READ MORE

Protecting the American Way of Life

The current debate over the word “homeland” —as in homeland defense or security—is instructive. Aristotle said that if you can’t say it, then you don’t understand it (sounds smarter in Greek). And the debate over “homeland security” illustrates our confusion over what we’re trying to achieve…READ MORE

Good Ideas that Play Out of Town

It’s hard being an “idea guy” in Pennsylvania. Some of the best ideas I’ve tried to peddle are considered too crazy, which means that other places end up doing them, and we remain stuck in our status quo…READ MORE

Philadelphia, in Three Easy Pieces

Most advocates of the “regional agenda” strike me as goofy. Usually, they’re harmless supporters of the obvious. But, at their worst, they can be a Trojan Horse for alliances that undermine cities like Philadelphia…READ MORE

What Safe Streets Can Teach the Blight Fight

The obvious joke about Operation Safe Streets is that it should really be named Operation Save Street —from losing re-election. (I’m not above making an obvious joke.) Actually, I’m a believer in the mayor’s program to suppress outdoor drug-dealing in neighborhoods throughout the city. It meets my three criteria for good policy…READ MORE

The Mass-Transit Project that Could Make Our Day

Regular readers know that I enjoy admitting when I’m wrong —my only regret is that it happens so rarely. Last week, a third-grader sent an e-mail pointing out two errors in my anecdote about Ed Rendell at a Penn basketball game: I had written that college games have four quarters (in fact, they have two halves) and I mixed up the Brown and Columbia games. (Thank you, Emily.) A couple of years ago, I got something else wrong. I called the Schuylkill Valley Metro a waste of money that would hurt the city…READ MORE

The Cohen Bill Proves Tax-Reform Lives

Your tax-reform City Council took a giant stride last week in its diligent effort to lead this city into a brighter future…READ MORE

The Force is with Him

I’ll never forget the statement by one of my many sisters- in-law that she was voting for Ronald Reagan because she “just likes the way he and Nancy look when they dance together.” At first blush, such a statement might make you think that the job of analyzing voter behavior is just impossible. (I certainly remember feeling that way.) But, in fact, a statement like that illustrates the way that issues and values and candidates get processed in the heads of real people leading normal lives who reasonably devote only a few minutes in any given year to the subject of elections…READ MORE

Earthquake in L.A.

Los Angeles is the most interesting city in the world right now. I never thought I’d write those words, but let me tell you why…READ MORE

Life After Graffiti

How do policy-makers sustain success? This is not a challenge that often faces our benighted bunch in City Hall. But it is a real dilemma…READ MORE

Love Park & the Art of Governing

What’s happening at Love Park crystallizes much of what’s good and bad in the Street administration. The bad stuff has nothing to do with the mayor’s malice or greed,or —the explanation being offered a lot these days —his race-baiting or even racism. I think the problems stem from his limited view of both politics and what it means to be mayor…READ MORE

The Real Man Behind the Curtain

After last week’s wage-tax showdown, everyone’s asking, “How did it happen?” and “What happens next?” Let no one doubt that John F. Street is the key to answering both questions…READ MORE

Cutting Taxes (and Maybe Services): Let the debate begin!

It must  have been quite a disappointment. The mayor travels to the Rivera Recreation Center at 5th and Allegheny to stage a media event designed to quell the tax revolt. But instead of quelling it or even creating a more two-sided public debate, the days following Rivera have been dominated by new voices calling for tax reform. Witness state House members John Perzel and Dwight Evans endor sing the possibility of state intervention on the wage tax, first proposed in legislation
by State Sen. Vincent Fumo…READ MORE

The Prodigal Son Returns

I’ve always been a little defensive about being a “new Philadelphian” when I’m around people who can claim to be from here. Well, in a strange turn of events, I’m more of a “returned Philadelphian” — which is probably an even smaller category, so let me share a little piece of personal karma…READ MORE

What’s Behind the ‘Tax Revolt’

A policy debate is a confusing thing. No one is in charge, there are shifting alliances and competing agendas. A really lively policy debate like Philadelphia’s wage-tax revolt is all that — and more. In times like these, judgment is more important than knowledge…READ MORE

Ed Schwartz Is Wrong On the Wage Tax

Last week, Ed Schwartz raised a lonely voice in defense of the wage tax on these pages. Rhetoric is the essence of public life, and I respect anyone who tries to defend the weaker side of an argument…READ MORE

Blackwell ‘Tax Cut’: A dead-end street

“Protect the general fund” is a fitting epitaph for the tombstone of old Philadelphia politics. Let’s carve it in stone and give the bad old days a decent—and permanent —burial…READ MORE

Saving Our Civil War Legacy

Philadelphia is the cradle of American liberty, but we’re also the attic of the American Civil War. The old city we see around us is a legacy of the Civil War period. Philadelphia was center stage during the years before and after the Civil War.The Underground Railroad, the war economy, Lincoln’s Republican Party, the tragedies of Reconstruction —these issues and events were all played out right here…READ MORE

Blight Plan: Worth the cost?

While reading Elmer Smith’s terrific series last week on Mayor Street’s blight program, known as NTI, I was struck by a simile: the $300 million blight program is like a CDBG federal grant that we have to pay back…READ MORE

Tax Revolt: Building a critical mass

The Nutter-DiCic co-Tasco legislation calling for aggressive cuts in the wage tax will go down as a founding document of the city’s Tax Revolt of 2002. Banner headlines, letters to the editor and thunderous support from editorial boards are evidence of what’s happening here: a referendum on the city’s future, our political leadership and Mayor Street’s legacy…READ MORE

Tax Revolt: What’s in it for the poor

OK, so we’ve got a tax revolt on our hands. I gotta admit, it got started a little faster than I expected. But things seem to be well under way…READ MORE

Let the Tax Revolt Begin

Regular readers know my fondness for the phrase “corrupt and contented” in describing Philadelphians. It was coined by muckraker Lincoln Steffens in an essay written about our city and later published as a chapter in his 1904 book, “The Shame of the Cities.” I’m not going to use it anymore. Frankly, we no longer rate the insult…READ MORE

City Taxes: Welcome to the bad old days

Mayor Street wants to raise your taxes. I feel bad about “outing” the mayor on this. Since I’m a liberal, I’m all for getting enough revenue to pay for the good things government can do for ordinary Americans. But the mayor’s budget announced last week contains a retreat on tax reform that will only further weaken this city and what remains of its faltering government. It is, in fact, a return to the bad old days of municipal spending. Let’s try and straighten out some of the spin…READ MORE

Wanted: A qualified blight-meister

Welcome to Mayor Street’s City Hall Arcade. This joint has the best policy pinball machines anywhere. Ring-a-ding-ding. “Schools” costs $45 million a game, but you gotta pay somebody else to play for you. Even though you’re free to choose anybody, Edison has all the pinballs. “PGW” costs the same. But if you bat the pinball down the wrong holes, the whole city goes up in a ball of flames…READ MORE

A Simple Way to Cut City Taxes

Tomorrow, City Council holds hearings on tax reform. There’s been a concerted attempt to stoke some interest in the event: e-mails, phone calls, opinion columns asking people to turn out and express their support. We’ll see how many people show up, who can stifle their yawns during the testimony, what might be said by someone to breathe a little life into this issue…READ MORE

The Magic of the Earned-Income Credit

A few weeks ago, I urged the city to pursue rich folks as a strategy for surviving the many challenges we face and promised some clever ideas of how to do it. Let’s start with taxes…READ MORE

Once Again, It’s Back to the Future

It is a cliche that Philadelphia has lousy leadership. The absence of direction from our corporate and political big men is blamed for all kinds of things: from our often spectacular corruption and incompetence to our enduring loss of population and prosperity. I’d like to begin the new year with a challenge to that cliche…READ MORE

Traffic Enforcement: Let’s get serious

It raises lots of tough issues to impound the cars of moving violators found to be without a driver’s license or insurance. But with the expansion of Live Stop to the Boulevard, we’re actually dealing with those issues. And we’re already seeing the immediate benefit of reduced speed, less recklessness, fewer accidents…READ MORE

Why It’s Wrong, Wrong, Wrong

Naomi Post is intelligent, ambitious and dedicated to improving the future of Philadelphia’s neediest children. She is an outstanding candidate to serve as the head of social services in the city. If her husband were not the mayor, her candidacy for the job would be cause for vocal support and civic pride. But her husband is the mayor —and it is wrong for her to be even considered for the job…READ MORE

Willard Rouse, Master Builder

With the opening of the Sid, it’s time to thank the man who built what our grandchildren will remember in their old age as turn-of-the-century Philadelphia…READ MORE

The City Trusts Need Busting

Lifetime appointments are usually reserved for things like the Supreme Court. I know of only one job in all of American local government that’s for life: a seat on the Board of Directors of City Trusts in Philadelphia. And the big difference between being a Supreme Court justice and being on the board of City Trusts is that the latter has a $400 million portfolio to control during that lifetime, with virtually no one watching…READ MORE

Blight Bill Same Old Song and Dance?

City council is an opera in which the audience has three or four different libretti. Everyone hears the same music, but each part of the chamber hears different words. The issue being debated at great length this week in Council is control over the blight initiative. Everyone has given up on content…READ MORE

The Best L’il Blight Legislation in Philly

Last week, City Council President Anna Verna introduced the best blight legislation Philadelphia will ever get. If that sounds like guarded praise, you’re right. The proposed legislation raises some concerns…READ MORE

The Good News About Saidel’s Tax Plan

The “Tax Structure Analysis Report” issued yesterday by City Controller Jonathan Saidel is the best policy statement from any city government in my 20 years of policy analysis and research. In fact, about the only negative in the document is that cumbersome name…READ MORE

Virtue Not Enough to Foot the Bills

Who needs a think tank when a city has a newspaper? Last week’s replies to my “rich folks” column —by Bob O’Donnell and Eli Massar (Nov. 15) —were invigorating, and each advances the discussion of Philadelphia’s future in important ways…READ MORE

In Pursuit of Rich Folks

Philadelphia has one really big problem: There aren’t enough rich folks here. There is no important issue that doesn’t hinge in some significant way on our lack of wealthy neighbors: Schools, blight, crime , jobs, taxes, corruption, innovation…READ MORE

The Ultimate ‘Blowback’

A deliberate release of smallpox in the U.S. would ultimately kill more Muslims in the developing world than Americans. Call it the ultimate “blowback” on terrorism…READ MORE

Our Secret Weapon Against Terror

In the wake of Sept. 11, several pundits have defended cities from the argument that, in effect, sprawl can actually save lives. Two op-ed columnists, Clarence Page and Neal Pierce, have noted the resilience of cities throughout history and have rallied people not to give in to fear by abandoning urban density and thereby disrupting the city revival of the past decade…READ MORE

Is Mayor Holding City Blight Hostage?

Politics is one of the few games where being outnumbered can help. One mayor versus 17 City Council members, for example…READ MORE

Mayor’s Blight Plan: Let’s get the show on the road

When someone asked Will Rogers what to do about the U-boat menace during World War I, he said, “Boil the oceans. That’ll force all the subs to the surface.” Asked just exactly how to boil oceans, Rogers dismissed that as mere detail. John Street right now is our Will Rogers. Without the wit. Especially when it comes to the blight plan…READ MORE

The French Connection

THE 1973 movie “The Day of the Jackal” provides a useful sparring partner for thoughts and feelings after Sept. 11. Set in early-’60s Europe, the movie fictionalizes the true story of a plot to assassinate French President Charles de Gaulle . I’ve always seen the movie through the prism of the JFK assassination. But after Sept. 11, I understand it clearly as a story about European counterterrorism. And that’s where the lessons begin…READ MORE

City’s Stuck in the Mire of Blight

Mayor Street’s Neighborhood Transformation Initiative is a lot like President Clinton’s health- care plan of 1993. Consider the similarities…READ MORE

Is this the End of ‘Wall St.’?

After the unifying horror of Sept. 11, there’s only one genuinely two-sided debate going on. Characteristically, it’s going on among New Yorkers: whether or not to rebuild the World Trade Towers. There are good arguments on both sides. And while they sort it out, I’d like to raise a related but broader question. Can we expect to see a place called “Wall Street” again?…READ MORE

Aligning Ourselves with the Rest of the World

In the last week, we’ve watched a huge crowd of Brits singing the “Star-Spang led Banner,” seen hundreds of thousands of Berliners rally in our support, heard government after government declare their alliance with the United States. The Japanese set aside a reasonable discomfort with the Pearl Harbor analogy, Islamic governments displayed a deep faith in our ability to see beyond guilt by association, and Russia and China have deferred their own ambitions for leadership. These are extraordinary events in their own right…READ MORE

Privatization: Watch the contract

I’ve stayed out of the school debate because I can’t figure out who the bad guys are —although everyone else seems to know that. One side treats the private sector, competition and choice as sacred —and damns public education as the opposite . The other side treats the common good, cooper ation and equity as sacred and damns any alternative to public education as betrayal…READ MORE

Blight Plan: Looking back– and forward

The dust has finally settled since my blight plan was printed in the Daily News. But with City Council returning to work this week, it’s time for a recap of the guns of August. The funniest e-mail I received captures the sad state of honest, vigorous debate these days. The writer asked, “Who have you hired to start your car in the morning?” (Don’t worry—I walk to work!)…READ MORE

Unions Need to be More Constructive

There is no arrangement so screwed up that someone doesn’t benefit. Translated into Latin, that would make a fine motto for Philadelphia…READ MORE

A Modest Proposal for Philly Politics

It’s zero-gravity time in electoral politics, that period when no one quite knows which way is up.  Nationally, the disorientation comes from the uncertainties over control of the Senate and emergence of a Democratic front-runner for president in 2004.  In Pennsylvania, with no Senate seat up for re-election, our attention is on the race for Gov. Ridge’s successor, especially the Democratic primary between ex-Mayor Ed Rendell of Philadelphia and Auditor General Bob Casey Jr. of Lackawanna County…READ MORE

Serious Blight Plan, Serious Response

Well, it didn’t work. I’d hoped that posing my blight plan as a decoy (July 31) would draw enough fire from the city that we’d be able to determine its position, to finally learn something about its own plan. Instead, the mayor’s staff spent two pages (Aug. 1) attacking my unauthorized plan rather than offering one of their own. It’s too nutty to continue to debate my plan in the absence of the mayor’s alternative. So I’ll wait….READ MORE

A Sweeping Proposal: How to fix Philadelphia’s blight problem

You know that Japanese TV show on the food channel called “Iron Chef”? The one where the soothing, semi-monotonous activity of cooking is hyped into a goofy frenzy of spectacle and competition? Well after the last two weeks — two weeks in which I’ve spoken to more people than I usually do in an entire year — I feel like I’m on “Iron Planner.” Two weeks ago, I issued a challenge to Mayor Street, stating that it was possible to meet City Council President Anna Verna’s request for a concrete plan before her deadline tomorrow, and that to prove it I would present a plan on these pages. Here it is…READ MORE (pg. 1),  (pg. 2 ), (pg. 3), (pg.4)

Our Blight Plan is About to See the Light of Day

It’s finished. The blight plan is in the deft hands of editors and graphic artists at the Daily News being prepared for your consideration on Tuesday…READ MORE

Challenge to the Mayor: Top our blight plan

“A righteous crusade” is how my friends on the editorial page described Mayor Street’s blight fight back in April. And a great metropolitan newspaper— as a guru of mine put it—can truly be “generous of spirit and noble of purpose.” So, with those virtues clearly in mind, I offer the following civic challenge…READ MORE

Earned-Income Credit: A success story

What federal program raises more children out of poverty than any other? Not cash benefits. Not food stamps or housing assistance. Not even Social Security….READ MORE

Why Those Little Yellow Tags Matter

The new yellow registration stickers the state now makes us put on our car windows are endlessly fascinating. Cities are, by definition, full of strangers. Acquiring ways to deal with them is the start of urban culture, which differs from life in the village (where everyone is known) and on the farm (where everyone is related)…READ MORE

How Dismantling the School District Could Save Philadelphia

With fireworks exploding over the state takeover of the Parking Authority, it’s easy to miss some important changes occurring in the school district…READ MORE

The Other Blight Fight

Hoping to relive the glory of their abandoned-car crusade, Mayor Street’s team is now marching through the city with a one-time cleaning of 31,000 vacant lots. I like it…READ MORE

Sixers vs. Lakers: The colosseum lives!

I didn’t want to write about the Sixers, but the other morning, as the city basked in the glory of Game 1, a nice little moment forced me to write about what everyone else is writing and talking about…READ MORE

What We Can Learn from the School System

Is there anything useful left to say about the Philadelphia public schools? So much reform is under way, it’s doubtful that another proposal would help. So much rhetoric has been deployed, it’s unlikely that a snappy sentence will change anyone’s mind. And so many well-known factions face each other across the trench lines of well-defined arguments, it seems there’s little hope that any side will suddenly yield ground. Here’s what I think I’ve learned about Philadelphia public schools…READ MORE

Our Parks: Where’s the vision?

Fairmount Park: How can something so big be so hard to picture? The enormous park system is like a bunch of blank spots in our mental map of the city. Maybe you think of one or two beloved places in the park (like the wooden slide at Smith Playground or the snack bar at Valley Green Inn), or maybe you think of a route through or along the park (like Kelly Drive or Henry Avenue). But the startling thing about Fairmount Park in urban terms is the way it plays almost no role in our overall image of Philadelphia as a city…READ MORE

Why We’re in Philly and Not Paris

I’m just back from a trip to Paris, and I find myself unable to resist asking the question posed by many returning tourists:“Why can’t our cities be like that?” It’s the kind of blunt question posed by people who otherwise might never think twice about cities. The question illustrates the perspective-changing power of travel: In this case, making suburbanized American tourists into urban policy analysts, if only for a few minutes…READ MORE

Don’t Let Traffic Put Philly in a Jam

For all my celebration of walking to work, every weekday morning, I spend about 20 minutes in
the car. School is too close for the bus and a little too far for my 8-year old to walk in the morning…READ MORE

The Genius of John Street

I was going to let it rest for a week on the subject of blight. But, if you’ll bear with a fairly complicated build-up, I promise to deliver a worthy punch line: Mayor Street IS a genius…READ MORE

Blight Plan Caught Mapping

Mayor Street describes his blight plan as “market-oriented.” Well, In a market when the price of something falls, more of that something usually gets bought. Over the past few years, the price of making colorful maps has fallen dramatically. Cheaper maps mean more maps. And the mayor’s blight plan is full of them…READ MORE

Focus Blight Fight on Worst Spots

For the past year and a half, the biggest faith-based program in Philadelphia has been Mayor Street’s blight plan. Finally, the $250 million kingdom of God is at hand: the planning process is coming to an end…READ MORE

Fight Traffic Jams (and Win High-Tech Biz!)

The ongoing debate about the future of the Philadelphia regional economy is raising many important issues. People are talking about workers: Increasing immigration, improving public education, investing in work force development. And about employers: Energizing our strong sectors of health care and life sciences, expanding the number of specialized buildings used by new-economy firms, enlarging the pool of investment capital available for new ventures…READ MORE

The Surprising Lessons of Center City

There is much to celebrate and many lessons to be drawn after a decade of achievements by the Center City District. Under executive director Paul Levy, the district has demonstrated the capacity to attend them to the basics– and innovate beyond them…READ MORE

Ball’s In Your Court, Mr. Mayor

No more important task faces Mayor Street than managing the effects of 50 years of depopulation and the resulting blight of derelict property. While more a symptom than cause of our troubles, vacant land and buildings are now such a problem that they interfere with everything else we do, on taxes and schools and all the rest…READ MORE

Center City Parking: There are lots to be done

Building parking facilities to serve visitors to Center City attractions is like killing the goose that laid the golden eggs. Parking, poorly done, destroys the very attractions that generate the demand for parking in the first place. Of course, the rub is knowing the difference between parking done poorly and parking done well…READ MORE

Being Right about the Christian White

I don’t often get to enjoy saying ‘I told you so.” It’s not that I mind being right so much of the time. It’s just that when I’m right, it’s usually about things turning out badly. (Watch this space over the coming months for a thoroughly UN-enjoyable I-told-you-so on the mayor’s blight plan!)…READ MORE

The City that Makes Me Love it Back

There are three things I hate to love about Philadelphia: that it’s not New York, that it contains genuine thugs and — believe it or not — SEPTA. This isn’t a conventional “top three” list. It’s not three things I love, or three I hate, or even things I love to hate…READ MORE

…And the Charisma to be Mayor if he Can Correct his Mistakes

There was lots of buzz recently about Bill Clinton running for mayor of New York. I’ve heard a few man-in-the-street interviews and some off-hand comments by TV pundits. But no one seems willing to treat his wacky idea seriously, so let’s see how far I can go with it…READ MORE

Blight: Let’s take a regional approach

On March 5, the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society is sponsoring a big meeting on the Mayor’s Neighborhood Transformation Initiative. It’s a chance for city officials to present the latest version of their plan and for Philadelphians to hear from experts across the country…READ MORE

Welfare Reform’s ‘Other Side’

No domestic policy achievement was more celebrated during the 1990s than welfare reform. While recent headlines have focused on new Bush initiatives regarding the role of faith-based organizations in social services, ongoing welfare reform remains by far the larger policy issue…READ MORE

The Right Guy for God Czar

President Bush has announced a new position: Washington now has a God czar. Philadelphia’s own John J. Dilulio Jr., a Penn faculty colleague who’s been my good friend since our youthful assistant professor days at Princeton, is now director of the Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives…READ MORE

An Antidote for Our Wage-Tax Woes

People have an inclination to call the difficult impossible. They also tend to overlook the obvious on the assumption that the truth is always complicated. There’s no better example than the Philadelphia wage tax. Everyone insists that certain obvious reforms are impossible…READ MORE

Where City Outpaces ‘Burbs: Walking to work is an urban advantage

The world is divided into city dwellers and car dwellers. City dwellers can drive cars and often do. But car dwellers (otherwise known as suburbanites) must drive their cars, every day, to do anything outside their houses…READ MORE

When the Winners Are Really the Losers

The “winners” in Tuesday night’s Supreme Court decision are losers, both of their principles and eventually of their politics. And the biggest loser is (small-R) republicanism. As a liberal, I pause a moment to offer this eulogy…READ MORE

What a President Can’t Do

Presidents make virtually no difference to the education of our kids. After all the photo ops in classrooms and, in George W. Bush’s case, all the stammering and blinking about “improvin’ our schools,” the fact is presidents can’t do much about primary and secondary education…READ MORE

The Real Section 8 Bad Guys

Read the words “Section 8 housing” and you probably think of a white neighbor confronting a black tenant in a battle for the neighborhood. Where you stand on the subject is likely to depend on where you sit– or in this case, where you sleep…READ MORE

2004: A Clinton Odd-yssey

OK. So, it appears that a deeply hamstrung George W. Bush will probably become president of the United States. When offered a candidate of dim wit and folksy manner– like Ronald Reagan in 1980– the American people seemed to have again said, “We’ll take one of those, please.” And while Bush’s limitations always provided us with plenty to worry about, the taint of the election mess only makes his prospects bleaker…READ MORE

Redefining ‘Urban’ and the Value of Cities

Earlier this month, the state House urban affairs committee held three days of hearing on the “future of Pennsylvania’s cities.” The testimony included that from people like the brilliant Joanne Denworth of 10,000 Friends of Pennsylvania, which just won a major legislative victory with the passage of new state land-use laws…READ MORE

Why Chinatown Doesn’t Matter

Strong words can make the ideas behind them appear strong, too. Opinion writers rely, more or less, on that literary illusion every week. With confident language, they can create the comforting impression that a question has been settled. But the most important policy questions are the ones that don’t take an expert to answer. In other words, the most important questions have lots of answers and not just one brainy solution...READ MORE

Why Chinatown Matters

What, if anything, allows an ethnic group to lay claim to a neighborhood? That’s a provocative question, one that gets less comfortable the more you think about it…READ MORE

How to Save a Congressman for Philly

While the election is too close to call, there’s one count that’s certain: the 2000 Census will move yet another U.S. House seat– possibly two– from Pennsylvania to some Sunbelt boom state…READ MORE

The Ugly Business of Funding Mass Transit

At the start of the 20th century, our city fathers planned a modern transit system for Philadelphia, one that would augment the system of streetcars being out run by the growth of the great industrial city. What became the Broad Street Subway and the Market Frankford Elevated crossed, of course, as City Hall. Where else?…READ MORE 

Big Pretzel, Meet Big Apple

Many decades ago, Philadelphia visionary (how often does one see those words combined?) Ed Bacon drew a map showing two lines: the Broad Street of William Penn and the New York Line of the Pennsylvania Railroad. He argued that Broad Street had been the city’s key corridor for 300 years but that the scale of things was changing dramatically. In the future, the city’s “main street” would become the line drawn from Washington to New York on the Metroliner train…READ MORE

Blight Fight Needs Someone with Bite

The recent collapse of several older buildings has ignited a debate about the city’s blight policy. To plan or to act– that is the question, or appears to be…READ MORE

Why Welfare Reform is Working Here

Four years ago, President Clinton signed into law the legislation known as welfare reform. That anniversary is being noted with events and analysis across the country, At the time, I wrote an opinion piece for the Washington Post titled “Welfare Dust Bowl,” warning of the dire consequences we could expect in big cities from the law’s combination of work requirements and time limits on assistance. I won’t quibble: I was way off…READ MORE

Do Cities REALLY Matter? Yes, because they are NEEDED

Discussions about the future of cities are burdened by words like viability and should. Are cities viable today? Should civic leaders try to save them?…READ MORE

Let Philadelphia Go

In 1854, a group of civic leaders won a 10-year effort to consolidate the city of Philadelphia with the surrounding Philadelphia County. That consolidation, led by the extraordinary Eli K. Price, is the single greatest reform effort in the city’s history. But it’s time to follow their example of daring leadership. It’s time to undo their achievement, which has outlived its usefulness…READ MORE

Want to Grow Philadelphia? A plan would help

Connecting the dots is all the rage in city planning these days. The idea is that older cities like Philadelphia present a legacy of forgotten assets that need to be connected in order to market them to visitors and investors…READ MORE

Expectations, Not Mayors, Make a Great City

I’ve been away, so you’ll have to forgive me for being a little out of touch. I could follow the baseball stadium story, what with the newspapers available on the Web and all. But I missed the little flap between Buzz Bissinger and Paul Levy until a pal pointed it out to me. In case you missed it too, these guys, the famous author and the respected Center City District director, are dueling in print over Mayor Street’s start and, therefore, over former Mayor Rendell’s end…READ MORE

New Stadium: Hit or an error?

The argument for a new baseball stadium in Center City rather than South Philadelphia is simple to state but hard to settle. A Sports Complex site is about baseball. A Center City site is about baseball and economic spinoff…READ MORE

The City Needs a Fresh Approach to Dealing with Vacant Property

The future of Philadelphia rests on our ability to manage decline. The single best measure of that decline is the city’s depopulation since 1950. Managing the effects of 50 years of depopulation largely defines the job facing either Sam Katz or John Street…READ MORE

Vital Signs of a Healthy Center City

Philadelphia has a well-kept secret that’s worth studying closely. Let us walk you through this. The advantages of the American downtown as a place to live and work can be hard to measure or substantiate. Urban analysts, who are often urban boosters, can talk long and loud about ”downtown vitality,” point to dramatic new (well, fairly new anyway) office towers, and celebrate the recent rise in downtown population figures…READ MORE

Harbingers of Hope for the Inner Cities

Our region’s oldest religious buildings represent an enduring connection between people divided into suburb and city, white and black, rich and poor. After two generations of suburbanization and population loss, many congregations in the city have dissolved or moved to the suburban counties. Yet the buildings endure in older neighborhoods like North Philadelphia. And, in many cases, new congregations with different denominations inherit the historic properties of earlier residents…READ MORE

Philadelphia Must Seize Reins of its Runaway Decline

Population decline is like the weather. Everyone talks about it, but nobody does anything about it. Philadelphia’s population will end the century about where it began, with roughly 1.3 million residents. But between that beginning and end was a booming middle: The population peaked in 1950 at 2.1 million. By then, the city also had built housing stock for almost 2.5 million people, a water system to serve 3 million, and more…READ MORE

Dont Reverse the Course: Let employers pick up the cost of commuting

Helping city residents get to suburban jobs has become an urban policy goal in Washington and in cities across the nation. Now we have both local strategies (such as that promoted by Mayor Rendell) and new federal initiatives (such as the $600 million Clinton administration proposal now before Congress)…READ MORE

Philadelphia, State Should Strike Deal to Make Welfare Reform Work

Welfare policy is not antipoverty policy. The goal of federal welfare reform is that welfare recipients work, not that their earnings raise them out of poverty or even that their earnings rise at all. In general, cash benefits provide less than half the income that defines poverty – the average cash grant is just $4,800 per year. Given this harsh fact, those debating welfare reform in Pennsylvania have two choices…READ MORE

Facing the Welfare Reform Storm

What does welfare reform really mean for Philadelphia, without indulging in therapeutic nonsense?  That question has a three-part answer…READ MORE