PHILADELPHIA
The debate over gentrification is a sign of progress.That there are a growing number of neighborhoods that once were abandoned by the middle class that are now attractive to middle class and upper middle class people is a good sign.We need to support and develop Philadelphia middle class and cut the poverty rate as much as we can. We cannot merely import a middle class; we have to grow a middle class from the ranks of people who now do not qualify as part of it.I am optimistic that Philadelphia can continue to both be a magnet for middle class people outside the city, and can leverage that into specific efforts to get more residents of Philadelphia into the middle class. The bigger the economic boom the more jobs it creates. The more jobs there are, the more the subcultures of crime, poverty, and hopeless can be marginalized.
September 18, 2007
http://www.phillyblog.com/philly/showthread.php?p=580157#post580157
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I have never met anyone anywhere who is totally satisfied with the way things are. But those people who have seen improvements are more likely to believe that further improvements are possible and desirable.Governmental officials are only a part of the drive to build up any neighborhood or the city as a whole. Any neighborhood is the sum total of all the efforts made by individuals, but as Philadelphia city planner Nathaniel Popkin writes his book SONG OF THE CITY, no one or no group of people "owns" Philadelphia; blocks are constantly in flux as new people with new dreams and new ambitions come and others leave.Actions the state government has taken in recent years to build up Philadephia have included the building and expansion of the Pennsylvania Convention Center; the funding of the Kvaerner facility and other projects at the old Philadelphia Naval Yard; the 63% funding of the Philadelphia school district; the creation and funding of charter schools; the partial funding of facilities for professional baseball, football, basketball and hockey; the expansion of prison facilities and criminal sentences; funding of various park improvement projects; funding of many "Little School Houses" to expand the capacity of many public schools; funding of Temple, the University of the Arts, the university of Pennsylvania, Community College of Philadelphia, and other professional schools, private colleges, and individual needy students; aid in developing the Philadelphia waterfront; financing of city programs aimed at stopping first time minor criminals from graduating into career major criminals; funding for both the Constitution Center and the Kimmel Center; funding for many neighborhood groups and non-profits; expansion of the PACE program and property tax rebates for senior citizens, etc.Philadelphia obviously has many existing problems, as would any city with a twenty-five percent poverty rate. Many, many Philadelphia elected officials and other governmental workers are interested in continuing to move our city forward. We welcome the input of all concerned citizens about what should be done in the future.
September 18, 2007
http://www.phillyblog.com/philly/showthread.php?p=580084#post580084
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A Yogi Berra-like statement is that some are strongly prochange, as long as everything stays the same.But everything never stays the same. Every neighborhood has new businesses, and/or new people, new problems, new opportunities each day. If there is not planned change, there will be unplanned change.We need a greater confidence in our abilities to identify and create positive changes that will make Philadelphia a better place to live for ourselves and for future residents.
June 20, 2007
http://www.phillyblog.com/philly/showthread.php?p=513856#post513856
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I am reading John Tagianetti's Shaking Hands With The Devil, an account of his years with Mayor Frank Rizzo and Senator Buddy Cianfrani. I came across a Daily News editorial copied in the book and dated June 19, 1974, a week and two days after I was sworn in as a member of the Pennsylvania House after defeating a Rizzo-backed challenger for the Democratic nomination who also picked up the support of almost all the old-line Camiel organization.I was sworn in an June because I also won a special election against a Republican nominee. The Rizzo organization and the vast majority of the Camiel organization chose not to participate in that election because I was the Democratic nominee allied with the reform wing of the Democratic Party.The editorial is entitled "Goons and Politicians." It reads as follows:Now that the Democratic intramurals are over and Pete (The Polygraph Champ) Camiel remains firmly in control of the party, we've got a few observations on the general state of politics in town: Yauuck. Retch. Groan.To put it less precisely, a careful newspaper reader gets the impression that Philadelphia is back in the days of rip roarin', punchin',stompin' politics.First, we had that jousting at the Jefferson-Jackson Day dinner where Frank Rizzo and a group of labor bully boys tried to intimidate the rest of the party. The big argument, you'll recall, was over where Frank got to sit. Several types of rotten produce were confiscated from "spectators" whose heads must have been softer than the tomatoes.Then came that rash of ugly threatening phone calls to the wives of wardleaders who opposed the mayor's attempted takeover of the party. Neither Rizzo nor Buddy Cianfrani ever bothered to disavow those creeps on the phones.And atest, we've got the Bellevue Brawl where Camiel loyalist Vincent Fumo, chief of patronage, got slapped through the potted plants, allegedly by Mike Wallace, a Rizzo deputy with a heavy case of machismo. Wallace in turn got waffled by a cop as he was hastily exiting the Bellevue. Violence begets violence, Mike.All this latest violence surrounding the mayor reminds us of some earlier fisticuffs--an affair referred to as the Matza Cafe Brawl where it was charged that Rizzo loyalists led by John Taglianetti, then assistant to the Mayor, broke up a 55th Ward meeting, a la stormstrooper.Curious, isn't it, that all of this violence attaches itself to the coattails of the mayor? And he says little about it. He just keeps on trying to "clean up" the Democratic Party here. Seems Washington isn't the only place where folks are "toughing it out." Only in Philadelphia do they tough it out on people's heads.
May 19, 2007
http://www.phillyblog.com/philly/showthread.php?t=37146
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What's over are the games of racial hatred and racial politics.2lst Century Philadelphia is increasingly a prosperous, well educated comeback city that, in the words of Atlanta's old slogan, is "too busy to hate."The Delaware Valley is a big region. The United States is a big country. The world is a big place. There are plenty of high quality places to live other than Philadelphia, and any Philadelphian can probably find some good place to live elsewhere.But those who choose to come to Philadelphia, and those who choose to stay in Philadelphia, are living in a city with vast educational, occupational, recreational, cultural, and economic advantages. Smart Philadelphians will try to take full advatage of our city's many strengths, and find intelligent and constructive ways to seek to correct our city's weaknesses.I am delighted to see more and more Philadelphians recognizing that expressions hatred masked as statements of doom and gloom are not in the best interest of either Philadelphia or Phillyblog. Our futures rest on being able to deal constructively with the problems Philadelphia has, and deal with empathy and insight with minorities, immigrants, and newcomers in general.
http://www.phillyblog.com/philly/showthread.php?t=35311&page=7
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The idea of Northeast Philadelphia being a separate city was first floated after Philadelphia elected its first black mayor, Wilson Goode, in 1983. There was a similarly brief boomlet for the neighborhood of Chestnut Hill separating from the city at the same time.The rapid growth of Center City--and the sprawling gentrification outside of Center City--has shown that it just isn't true that the interests of the middle class are inherently ignored by city government under the current demographic realities dominating city politics.Northeast Philadelphia has a chance to emulate Center City as more and more attention is paid to developing its waterfront, building up its schools, and beefing up its police forces. We ought not to be separating from the rest of city; we ought to be maximinizing the benefits we receive from being part of the city.
September 26, 2006
http://www.phillyblog.com/philly/showthread.php?p=333685#post333685
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Obviously, attracting more affluent people to Philadelphia will lower the percentage of people living in poverty. We are doing a lot of that today as witnessed by the condo boom and the relentless expansion of center city gentrification to both the north and the south.We also have to fight poverty head on. We need to more aggressively seek to place low-income people in jobs, and to vigorously oppose the subcultures of crime, drugs, resignation, and dependency. We need more accessible training to increase skills, and a greater linkage between skills taught and the demands--current and future--of the job market. We need also to seek policies and conditions that will raise wages so that young people today will not face an erosion of living standards and the middle aged will be able to face a secure retirement.
September 6, 2006
http://www.phillyblog.com/philly/showthread.php?p=320508#post320508
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For Philadelphia to change, there has to be a more widespread belief that change is both possible and desirable. There is no better policy salesperson than Ed Rendell, because he has the capacity to listen, to learn, to adopt proposals that others have come up with, and to come up with innovative new proposals on his own.My constituency has prospered more than some other constituencies because it has shown abilities to both give input and trust. During my tenure in the legislature, major new shopping areas have been built, new parkland has been added, new schools and new school annexes have been built, new restaurants have opened, the number of vacant or abandoned houses has plummetted--and this process of constructive change has been enabled because community leaders have been advocates in a constructive way that has not prevented the absorption of new people and new ideas.There is a value in skepticism, but there is little value in obstructionism as a goal in and of itself. My late father Councilman David Cohen saved the Philadelphia $1.5 billion in trash disposal costs by taking community concerns about a proposed trash to steam (mass incineration) plant and aggressive studying (at a cost of $100,000 or so) all the issues raised. He came up with reams of solid facts, which led not only to the defeat of the mass incineration plant but also the shutdown of the city's two existing incinerators. His goals were the environmental improvement and long-term fiscal stability of the city, and he was able to achieve them because he led the city out of the emotional conflict of differing perceptions and interests and into the world of solid fact. We need more of that mixture of purpose and searching for evidence today.I further agree with you that too much of politics is about power and connections. All too often, the question is whether person A can force person B to do something, and not what the right thing to do is.Beyond the problems of political and community cultures are the much greater problems of criminal subcultures. We have to more aggressively work to end the belief in all too many neighborhoods that prison is a manly rite of passage, that drug dealing is a sensible career choice, that fathering children out of wedlock without the intent to adequately support them is proof of being manly.To change cultures requires being able to communicate with people, which requires both talking and listening. The development of an ever-growing phillyblog community is a step in the right direction here, and I hope it proves to be a turning point in Philadelphia history in the long run.
August 9, 2006
http://www.phillyblog.com/philly/showthread.php?p=300136#post300136
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Philadelphia today is a multiracial society. The fastest growing groups, according the to the U.S. Census, are people of Latino and Asian descent, both American citizens and people seeking to become American citizens. And we also have a growing population of people of American Indian descent.When we discuss questions of race here at phillyblog and elsewhere, it should not be just a matter of people black and white. We need to hear the experiences of people of all races. I believe we are clearly moving towards a society that transcends racial differences, that judges people more on the basis of who they are than who their ancestors were. Open discussion hopefully will move us ever more steadily in this direction.
June 14, 2006
http://www.phillyblog.com/philly/showthread.php?p=265864#post265864
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Market Street East is a disappointment of long standing. It is a place where the synergy that has generally fueled growth in Center City has failed coalesce. I am sure that there are staff members at the City Planning Commission, the Redevelopment Authority, the Mayor's Office, and City Council with more insights than I have on this subject.Real estate development is inherently a field heavily populated by speculators, and I think this is an area where speculators have purchased land and just assumed that without much further investment it was bound to go up in value. Actually, it has been the massive investment in center city that has fueld the dramatic increase in the value of the properties.For the speculators to make a good profit here, the city needs to develop a workable plan for the area that key investors can buy into. Or key investors have to develop a workable plan that the city can buy into. So far, we have had mainly Utopian fantasies like bringing Disney World facilities here, which fell of their own weight.Center City's continuous residential growth makes all the underdeveloped areas more valuable for both residential and commercial purposes. Sooner or later, Market Street East will get the attention and investment it deserves.
June 12, 2006
http://www.phillyblog.com/philly/showthread.php?p=264268#post264268
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The supreme irony of center city residential growth is that it is being pushed by attractions which were sold as a means to attract business. The state and locally funded Convention Center helps provide a floor of business for quality restuarants and cultural attractions, which makes center city more highly desirable for upscale residents.Similarly, people want to move to be near the Kimmel Center, or the Art Museum, or the newly expanded Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts--all of which got significant state funds.Center city's ever increasing residential density sends the message that people want to live in cities which have relevant amenities, and that governmental and private investment can produce these amenities.Hopefully, the ever increasing residential density of center city will make it ultimately more attractive to retail businesses as an important market, and more attractive to business as a place where highly educated employees would like to be able to walk to work.
June 11, 2006
http://www.phillyblog.com/philly/showthread.php?p=264191#post264191
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On Saturday, June 10, 2006--the beginning of my 33rd year in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives--I attended the 6th Annual Community Fair of the 7th Police District of Philadelphia. It was held at the BVM Parish Hall, 9223 Old Bustleton Avenue, from 10 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. Many hurdreds of people--perhaps over a thousand--attended.One of the attendees was an old friend of mine who several years moved to one of the Eastern Montgomery County suburbs to get married and have children. After several years of marriage, which has so far produced a charming two year old daughter, she and her husband are now house-hiunting in Northeast Philadelphia. She hopes, she told me, to persuade her husband to expand the family with three more children. Of the many people I talked to there, not one told me that they had plans to leave Philadelphia. Not one person told me that Philadelphia is terrible and if changes in this or that were not made promptly they would leave Philadelphia.Certainly 10 years ago, and probably five years ago, Iwould have found a good number of people telling me they had left Philadelphia, were planning to leave Philadelphia, or might leave Philadelphia if things continued the way they were. It was extraordinarily rare for to run into any person at any community event looking to move in to Philadelphia. Only by extensive door to door canvassing for new voter registrations was I able to find an occasional new migrant to Philadelphia, and these persons were usually non-white.I remember complaining to friends and family members, with some hyperbole, that everyone I would meet seemed to have a public exit strategy from Philadelphia. I had a large number of conversations with people introducing themselves as follows, "My name is _____________. I live in ______________. I am planning to move to _____________soon." It seemed to me that many people were ashamed to be living in Philadelphia, and felt that if they were going to admit this negative fact about themselves themselves, they had to rehabilitate their reputation by indicating future plans to move.I used to have the year-end habit of tabulating the people I knew who had moved out of Philadelphia, and the people I knew who have moved into Philadelphia. Only in the last few years have the list of move-ins exceeded the list of move-outs.Philadelphia is making a great comeback. Anecdotes don't tell the whole story; legislative hearings are full of complaints that evidence on this or that point is "merely anecdotal." But the anecdotes of the 21st Century are very different from the anecdotes of the late 20th Century.My friend described her ideal house, and I said there was one near me that fit her desciption. "How much does it cost?" she asked. "Probably about $300,000," I said. "I can't go over $330,00," she said. The idea that we would be talking about Philadelphia houses in this price range would have seemed bizarre and hallucinatory not too long ago.We still have a very long way to go, but Philadelphia today is far better than it used to be in many, many respects.
June 11, 2006
http://www.phillyblog.com/philly/showthread.php?p=264013#post264013
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Too much of the time, Philadelphia has leadership that takes the present state of affairs as a given, and fails to see how the present can be improved.Meeting the remaining requirements for the Olympics will give Philadelphia a reason to seek to meet higher standards, and to seek to rise to an entirely new level.Winning the 2016 Olympics will be quite an achievement itself. And then, winning from the 2016 Olympics--being the center of attention for much of the world for the weeks of the competition and the weeks before the competition, and being able to have the cachet of being an Olympic city site for many years afterwards--will be great for our collective spirits and should attract people and businesses here for the long term.Getting new stadiums for soccer and other sports, improving Philadelphia's mass transportation system, creating new temporary and permanent jobs: all these would be long-term plusses for our city.And then there is the important question of identification with us from the rest of the state. The state legislature and the state's attentive citizenry are of two minds about Philadelphia. They strongly identify with the Philadelphia that is one of the leaders of world commerce, world education, and world athletic competition, but are turned off by the Philadelphia that is mired in poverty and social pathologies.Having the Olympics in Philadelphia will give us a chance to put forward the face that the rest of the state admires: Philadelphia a world class attention and economic magnet. By competing in this arena, Philadelphia builds up fans all over Pennsylvania, and gains potential support for dealing with our most serious problems.
May 30, 2006
http://www.phillyblog.com/philly/showthread.php?p=257663#post257663
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The Whitaker Mansion is gone (do you remember its address?), but Hill Creek housing, the bowling alley (with a new name), and Stokes still remain.I believe it was the Exide Plant that was torn down to become a shopping center across from Hill Creek; I attended the dedication of that shopping center in the early 1980's, and it is always mobbed today.That is part of the general fate of old industrial buildings; they seem to yield inexorably to shopping centers. Two other major shopping centers also have replaced old industrial centers: the old Sears on the Boulevard, and the defense contractor at Front & Olney have also become major shopping areas.This is a paradoxical outcome: Philadelphia is losing hundreds of thousands of good paying industrial jobs over time, lowering the average income of city residents, but we never have had more places to shop, or more convenient shopping.
May 30, 2006
http://www.phillyblog.com/philly/showthread.php?p=257729#post257729
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Market size is the key Philadelphia advantage. Other advantages include a large population of potential employees, ready access to suppliers, a good mass transit system, and a convenience in location to much of both the metropolitan area and the east coast. There is also an excellent academic infrastructure which can supply student interns ,faculty business advisers with expertise in small business formation to help small businesses get off the ground, and people and research familiar with the latest innovations in techonology, marketing, and human resource management.The downside is higher business and wage taxes, although there are lower property taxes here than in many suburbs and many places with lower rents than in many suburbs. There also are various enterprise zones here, which provide considerable tax savings.The conventional wisdom is that Philadelphia is better as a place to start a business than as a place to maintain a business. A typical start-up begins by generating little revenue, paying low salaries, and making little profits. During this gestation period, the owner is paying little Philadelphia business or wage taxes, and reaping the benefits of a Philadelphia location.
May 29, 2006
http://www.phillyblog.com/philly/showthread.php?p=257002#post257002
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The figures for new restuarants, investments made, new housing units created are all far behind the comparable figures for Philadelphia, at least on a total basis and quite possibly on a per capita basis as well.It's great that St. Louis--a city where I have some family roots--is making a comeback. But we should realize that our comeback is the bigger one. Of course, we should look at what St. Louis has done and seek to copy anything of value--such as improving our mass transit systems.
May 12, 2006
http://www.phillyblog.com/philly/showthread.php?p=248739#post248739
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Philadelphia has come a long way since Mayor Rizzo scared almost everyone from coming to Philadelphia in 1976 on the basis of erroneous reports of violent radicals.Positive new things seem to be happening in Philadelphia virtually every day, and this year's fourth of July celebrations were another high.The traditional fourth of July activities aren't even finished: this year's Liberty Bell Medal will be presented on September 17 to the President of Ukraine.
July 5, 2005
http://64.233.161.104/search?q=cache:sY2Thxvoej4J:youngphillypolitics.blogspot.com/2005/07/kudos-to-john-street.html+%22mark+b+cohen%22&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=257
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The figure of 40,000 votes need to win an at-large seat is based on the 2003 elections, when there was no contested mayoral primary.In 2007, there is likely to be a wide open field for Mayor, and total media expenditures in the vicinity of $10 million to $20 million are quite likely.Under these circumstances, turnout should greatly increase, and the likelihood is that it will take somewhere between 65,000 and 80,000 votes to come in 5th place.The votes needed to get in the higher places will likely be much higher.The all-time record for the most votes for Councilman at Large in a Democratic Primary was set by Councilman David Cohen during the contested Rendell-Goode primary in 1987: 154,000 votes.
June 29, 2005
http://64.233.161.104/search?q=cache:hh49hz_mDnoJ:youngphillypolitics.blogspot.com/2005/06/slouching-towards-20000.html+%22mark+b+cohen%22&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=332
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Much later information is available now--up to the 2005 primary--but the general pattern is still the same. The Republican registration has falled to about 16.4%, and Democrats have made corresponding gains.
How low can the Republicans fall in Philadelphia? My guess is that it has not yet bottomed out, and that it will continue to fall in the direction of 10% of the city total. Ultimately, all the state legislative seats and the Brian O'Neill City Council seat will be held by Democrats.
June 19, 2005
http://72.14.209.104/search?q=cache:AQOwNb4mEdcJ:www.politicsphilly.com/node/41+%22mark+b+cohen%22&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=367
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North Philadelphia was once Philadelphia's major Jewish center. My mother in law grew up in North Philadelphia, and still tries to stay in touch with people she knew there. She is always interested in meeting new people who grew up in her neighborhood of Strawberry Mansion.Gradually, African-Americans replaced the Jewish population and other white ethnic populations of North Philadelphia. But the large Jewish population there--it must have at its peak exceeded 100,000 people--stands as a stark rebuttal to the belief of vast Jewish wealth.My father City Councilman David Cohen grew up on the 3300 block of Germantown Avenue; Germantown avenue was a thriving business center dominated by Jewish business people. His bar mitzvah was at a North Philadelphia synagogue. The neighborhood in which he grew up overwhelmingly supported his initial candidacy for Councilman from the 8th District in 1967, but few Jews remained at that time.The most enduring political figure elected from North Philadelphia was Charles Weiner, who served as a state senator from 1954 through 1967, and then was a federal judge from 1967 through his death in 2005.Another enduring political product of North Philadelphia was Max Weiner,as far as I know not related to the Judge, the perennial Consumer Party candidate for public office who gained public support by his tenacious opposition to utility rate increases. Wiener went from being a leader of the Communist Party to being a leader of the Progressive Party to being the founder, guru and most frequent candidate of the Consumer Party. North Philadelphia was initially popular among Jews because it was inexpensive. A lot of people got capital for business and college education for their children because they lived in inexpensive housing. The inexpensiveness of the housing of course led to instability, as more and Jews eventually gained the financial self-confidence to invest more family resources in housing. The black migration into Philadelphia after World WarII created another market for inexpensive housing, and their inmigration led to an acceleration of Jewish outmigration.Congregation Rodeph Shalom--across the street from Benjamin Franklin High School--is the most visbile current reminder of the vibrant Jewish community once based in North Philadelphia. Anyone doing research on the Jewish community in North Philadelphia should probably visit it, Temple University's Urban Archives, and Temple University Jewish Archives to get a handle on the scope of Jewish life there.There will be more Jews living in North Philadelphia in the future as the boundaries of what is perceived of as Center City continue to march northward. I have heard that Rodeph Shalom is shutting down its suburban synagogue, and putting all its resources into its North Philadelpha/Center City one. My guess is that that ultimately other synagogues will be formed there as well someday.Jewish institutions such Dropsie University, the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, Goldstein's funeral home, Levine's funeral home, Reform Congregation Keneseth Israel, and other synagogues all once were located in or near the Temple University area. Many of the old synagogues still stand and are used for other purposes. The Jewish Exponent archives should have a great deal of information about Jewish institutions in North Philadelphia.Neighborhood demographic change is a permanent fact of life in Philadelphia and other cities. But the communities that are formed are long-term and enduring, even after people move out of the neighborhood. North Philadelphia sixty to eighty years ago--perhaps the peak of Jewish population there--is obviously not the North Philadelphia of today, but it may be a demographic forerunner of new and much smaller North Philadelphia communities of the mid-21st century.
Philadelphia tomorrow can be much more than it is today. We can get our variegated neighborhoods together with governmental and economic interests to create a future that will grow our city and enrich our lives.
July 3, 2006
http://www.phillyblog.com/philly/showthread.php?p=275306#post275306
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The only way knowledge of the many treasures of Northeast Philadelphia will become more common is for those who have such knowledge to share it widely. People need reasons to come to Northeast Philadelphia and stay here, and the Ryerss Library and Burholme Park are two of the many, many reasons to do just that.
July 2, 2006
http://www.phillyblog.com/philly/showthread.php?t=20551
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On Wednesday, June 14, the Pennsylvania House of Representatives unanimously passed a resolution supporting Philadelphia's bid for the 2016 Olympics. This is a good sign that the coalition of legislators who supported the Convention Center, the Kimmel Center, the Constitution Center, the Wachovia Center, and other state funded improvements of Philadelphia's tourism-friendly infrastructure is still intact.
June 15, 2006
http://www.phillyblog.com/philly/showthread.php?p=266029#post266029
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Philadelphia today is a multiracial society. The fastest growing groups, according the to the U.S. Census, are people of Latino and Asian descent, both American citizens and people seeking to become American citizens. And we also have a growing population of people of American Indian descent.When we discuss questions of race here at phillyblog and elsewhere, it should not be just a matter of people black and white. We need to hear the experiences of people of all races. I believe we are clearly moving towards a society that transcends racial differences, that judges people more on the basis of who they are than who their ancestors were. Open discussion hopefully will move us ever more steadily in this direction.
June 14, 2006
http://www.phillyblog.com/philly/showthread.php?p=265864#post265864
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Spreading the message of fear in Northeast Philadelphia is totally counterproductive towards maintaining it as a series of series of stable, attractive neighborhoods. And making dramatic progress towards solving Northeast Philadelphia's problems--with the aid of all city government agencies, including the police department--would undercut dramatically the emotions displayed in letter after letter in the Northeast Times.The Northeast Times views itself as a forum for all residents of the greater Northeast. I would urge those with a more positive vision of the future of Northeast Philadelphia to write letters to the Northeast Times to help drown out the weekly voices of despair and hopelessness. The real estate market certainly tells a different story from these angry voices, as prices continue to rise to record levels concurrently with demographic changes.
May 8, 2006
http://www.phillyblog.com/philly/showthread.php?p=246605#post246605
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The early responses in this thread (through Tuesday night, June 20, 2006) demonstrate Philadelphia's magnetism over many people. No responder had only lived in one house or apartment in the course of his her lifetime; many had moved repeatedly. Each act of looking for a new place to live can lead to a move outside of Philadelphia, but in the vast majority of cases reported here, it did not.Numerous people moved out of Philadelphia, and then came back, an excellent sign for the future of our city. They include icupg (left Philly in 1999, returning in 2006), mja (left Philly for college in in 1994, returned in 1998),(left Philly for the U.S. Navy in 1992, returned in 1996), Winston (left Philly in 1994, returned in 2006), paul737 (left Philly for the military 1999, returned in 2003), (left Philly around 1999, returned in 2002), wysong (left Philly in 1994, returned in 2003), brenda_skarr (left Philly in 1986, returned in 1997), KByrd (left Philly in 1954, returned in 1995), MLTimes (left Philadelphia in 1991, returned in 2000), reds5 (left Philly for London in 1988, then returned), and niel (left Philly 1997, returned in 1998).Of course, others left Philly, and did not return. It is a tribute to their enduring identification with our city that they participate in phillyblog. They include emerald&arizona (left Philadelphia around 1960), sam731 (left Philadelphia in 1976), and exphillboy (probably left Philadelphia in 1980's or early 1990's), tbear (no information as to date left Philadelphia), DavidR ("proud to be a Philly boy," left Philadelphia in 1974), Those who moved to Philadelphia, even as toddlers, include Mark B. Cohen (1952, did not report this in original post), ACE (1961), jnherman (probably 1990's), D-Man (1992), Marburgkid (1979), EastChestnut (yearly information not reported), niel (1991), JillyS (2005), and seand (2000). Those who reported only living in Philadelphia include Dave (three locations), rip08 (three locations), cheriev (five locations), logannews (five locations), kit1966 (four locations), Malloy (six locations), madgirl (four locations), Metro (seven locations), jdw1970 (five locations), Swift Lyons (six locations), ChiefSalsa (temporarily living in Logan, Utah, eight locations), and PaulG (four locations).Keep the responses coming. The more we know, the more useful the information can be. Feel free to do your own analysis as more people respond.Clearly, some good things are happening in Philadelphia, and many people want to be a part of it.Thanks to all who have participated so far.
June 20, 2006
http://www.phillyblog.com/philly/showthread.php?p=269203#post269203
September 18, 2007
http://www.phillyblog.com/philly/showthread.php?p=580157#post580157
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I have never met anyone anywhere who is totally satisfied with the way things are. But those people who have seen improvements are more likely to believe that further improvements are possible and desirable.Governmental officials are only a part of the drive to build up any neighborhood or the city as a whole. Any neighborhood is the sum total of all the efforts made by individuals, but as Philadelphia city planner Nathaniel Popkin writes his book SONG OF THE CITY, no one or no group of people "owns" Philadelphia; blocks are constantly in flux as new people with new dreams and new ambitions come and others leave.Actions the state government has taken in recent years to build up Philadephia have included the building and expansion of the Pennsylvania Convention Center; the funding of the Kvaerner facility and other projects at the old Philadelphia Naval Yard; the 63% funding of the Philadelphia school district; the creation and funding of charter schools; the partial funding of facilities for professional baseball, football, basketball and hockey; the expansion of prison facilities and criminal sentences; funding of various park improvement projects; funding of many "Little School Houses" to expand the capacity of many public schools; funding of Temple, the University of the Arts, the university of Pennsylvania, Community College of Philadelphia, and other professional schools, private colleges, and individual needy students; aid in developing the Philadelphia waterfront; financing of city programs aimed at stopping first time minor criminals from graduating into career major criminals; funding for both the Constitution Center and the Kimmel Center; funding for many neighborhood groups and non-profits; expansion of the PACE program and property tax rebates for senior citizens, etc.Philadelphia obviously has many existing problems, as would any city with a twenty-five percent poverty rate. Many, many Philadelphia elected officials and other governmental workers are interested in continuing to move our city forward. We welcome the input of all concerned citizens about what should be done in the future.
September 18, 2007
http://www.phillyblog.com/philly/showthread.php?p=580084#post580084
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A Yogi Berra-like statement is that some are strongly prochange, as long as everything stays the same.But everything never stays the same. Every neighborhood has new businesses, and/or new people, new problems, new opportunities each day. If there is not planned change, there will be unplanned change.We need a greater confidence in our abilities to identify and create positive changes that will make Philadelphia a better place to live for ourselves and for future residents.
June 20, 2007
http://www.phillyblog.com/philly/showthread.php?p=513856#post513856
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I am reading John Tagianetti's Shaking Hands With The Devil, an account of his years with Mayor Frank Rizzo and Senator Buddy Cianfrani. I came across a Daily News editorial copied in the book and dated June 19, 1974, a week and two days after I was sworn in as a member of the Pennsylvania House after defeating a Rizzo-backed challenger for the Democratic nomination who also picked up the support of almost all the old-line Camiel organization.I was sworn in an June because I also won a special election against a Republican nominee. The Rizzo organization and the vast majority of the Camiel organization chose not to participate in that election because I was the Democratic nominee allied with the reform wing of the Democratic Party.The editorial is entitled "Goons and Politicians." It reads as follows:Now that the Democratic intramurals are over and Pete (The Polygraph Champ) Camiel remains firmly in control of the party, we've got a few observations on the general state of politics in town: Yauuck. Retch. Groan.To put it less precisely, a careful newspaper reader gets the impression that Philadelphia is back in the days of rip roarin', punchin',stompin' politics.First, we had that jousting at the Jefferson-Jackson Day dinner where Frank Rizzo and a group of labor bully boys tried to intimidate the rest of the party. The big argument, you'll recall, was over where Frank got to sit. Several types of rotten produce were confiscated from "spectators" whose heads must have been softer than the tomatoes.Then came that rash of ugly threatening phone calls to the wives of wardleaders who opposed the mayor's attempted takeover of the party. Neither Rizzo nor Buddy Cianfrani ever bothered to disavow those creeps on the phones.And atest, we've got the Bellevue Brawl where Camiel loyalist Vincent Fumo, chief of patronage, got slapped through the potted plants, allegedly by Mike Wallace, a Rizzo deputy with a heavy case of machismo. Wallace in turn got waffled by a cop as he was hastily exiting the Bellevue. Violence begets violence, Mike.All this latest violence surrounding the mayor reminds us of some earlier fisticuffs--an affair referred to as the Matza Cafe Brawl where it was charged that Rizzo loyalists led by John Taglianetti, then assistant to the Mayor, broke up a 55th Ward meeting, a la stormstrooper.Curious, isn't it, that all of this violence attaches itself to the coattails of the mayor? And he says little about it. He just keeps on trying to "clean up" the Democratic Party here. Seems Washington isn't the only place where folks are "toughing it out." Only in Philadelphia do they tough it out on people's heads.
May 19, 2007
http://www.phillyblog.com/philly/showthread.php?t=37146
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What's over are the games of racial hatred and racial politics.2lst Century Philadelphia is increasingly a prosperous, well educated comeback city that, in the words of Atlanta's old slogan, is "too busy to hate."The Delaware Valley is a big region. The United States is a big country. The world is a big place. There are plenty of high quality places to live other than Philadelphia, and any Philadelphian can probably find some good place to live elsewhere.But those who choose to come to Philadelphia, and those who choose to stay in Philadelphia, are living in a city with vast educational, occupational, recreational, cultural, and economic advantages. Smart Philadelphians will try to take full advatage of our city's many strengths, and find intelligent and constructive ways to seek to correct our city's weaknesses.I am delighted to see more and more Philadelphians recognizing that expressions hatred masked as statements of doom and gloom are not in the best interest of either Philadelphia or Phillyblog. Our futures rest on being able to deal constructively with the problems Philadelphia has, and deal with empathy and insight with minorities, immigrants, and newcomers in general.
http://www.phillyblog.com/philly/showthread.php?t=35311&page=7
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The idea of Northeast Philadelphia being a separate city was first floated after Philadelphia elected its first black mayor, Wilson Goode, in 1983. There was a similarly brief boomlet for the neighborhood of Chestnut Hill separating from the city at the same time.The rapid growth of Center City--and the sprawling gentrification outside of Center City--has shown that it just isn't true that the interests of the middle class are inherently ignored by city government under the current demographic realities dominating city politics.Northeast Philadelphia has a chance to emulate Center City as more and more attention is paid to developing its waterfront, building up its schools, and beefing up its police forces. We ought not to be separating from the rest of city; we ought to be maximinizing the benefits we receive from being part of the city.
September 26, 2006
http://www.phillyblog.com/philly/showthread.php?p=333685#post333685
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Obviously, attracting more affluent people to Philadelphia will lower the percentage of people living in poverty. We are doing a lot of that today as witnessed by the condo boom and the relentless expansion of center city gentrification to both the north and the south.We also have to fight poverty head on. We need to more aggressively seek to place low-income people in jobs, and to vigorously oppose the subcultures of crime, drugs, resignation, and dependency. We need more accessible training to increase skills, and a greater linkage between skills taught and the demands--current and future--of the job market. We need also to seek policies and conditions that will raise wages so that young people today will not face an erosion of living standards and the middle aged will be able to face a secure retirement.
September 6, 2006
http://www.phillyblog.com/philly/showthread.php?p=320508#post320508
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For Philadelphia to change, there has to be a more widespread belief that change is both possible and desirable. There is no better policy salesperson than Ed Rendell, because he has the capacity to listen, to learn, to adopt proposals that others have come up with, and to come up with innovative new proposals on his own.My constituency has prospered more than some other constituencies because it has shown abilities to both give input and trust. During my tenure in the legislature, major new shopping areas have been built, new parkland has been added, new schools and new school annexes have been built, new restaurants have opened, the number of vacant or abandoned houses has plummetted--and this process of constructive change has been enabled because community leaders have been advocates in a constructive way that has not prevented the absorption of new people and new ideas.There is a value in skepticism, but there is little value in obstructionism as a goal in and of itself. My late father Councilman David Cohen saved the Philadelphia $1.5 billion in trash disposal costs by taking community concerns about a proposed trash to steam (mass incineration) plant and aggressive studying (at a cost of $100,000 or so) all the issues raised. He came up with reams of solid facts, which led not only to the defeat of the mass incineration plant but also the shutdown of the city's two existing incinerators. His goals were the environmental improvement and long-term fiscal stability of the city, and he was able to achieve them because he led the city out of the emotional conflict of differing perceptions and interests and into the world of solid fact. We need more of that mixture of purpose and searching for evidence today.I further agree with you that too much of politics is about power and connections. All too often, the question is whether person A can force person B to do something, and not what the right thing to do is.Beyond the problems of political and community cultures are the much greater problems of criminal subcultures. We have to more aggressively work to end the belief in all too many neighborhoods that prison is a manly rite of passage, that drug dealing is a sensible career choice, that fathering children out of wedlock without the intent to adequately support them is proof of being manly.To change cultures requires being able to communicate with people, which requires both talking and listening. The development of an ever-growing phillyblog community is a step in the right direction here, and I hope it proves to be a turning point in Philadelphia history in the long run.
August 9, 2006
http://www.phillyblog.com/philly/showthread.php?p=300136#post300136
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Philadelphia today is a multiracial society. The fastest growing groups, according the to the U.S. Census, are people of Latino and Asian descent, both American citizens and people seeking to become American citizens. And we also have a growing population of people of American Indian descent.When we discuss questions of race here at phillyblog and elsewhere, it should not be just a matter of people black and white. We need to hear the experiences of people of all races. I believe we are clearly moving towards a society that transcends racial differences, that judges people more on the basis of who they are than who their ancestors were. Open discussion hopefully will move us ever more steadily in this direction.
June 14, 2006
http://www.phillyblog.com/philly/showthread.php?p=265864#post265864
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Market Street East is a disappointment of long standing. It is a place where the synergy that has generally fueled growth in Center City has failed coalesce. I am sure that there are staff members at the City Planning Commission, the Redevelopment Authority, the Mayor's Office, and City Council with more insights than I have on this subject.Real estate development is inherently a field heavily populated by speculators, and I think this is an area where speculators have purchased land and just assumed that without much further investment it was bound to go up in value. Actually, it has been the massive investment in center city that has fueld the dramatic increase in the value of the properties.For the speculators to make a good profit here, the city needs to develop a workable plan for the area that key investors can buy into. Or key investors have to develop a workable plan that the city can buy into. So far, we have had mainly Utopian fantasies like bringing Disney World facilities here, which fell of their own weight.Center City's continuous residential growth makes all the underdeveloped areas more valuable for both residential and commercial purposes. Sooner or later, Market Street East will get the attention and investment it deserves.
June 12, 2006
http://www.phillyblog.com/philly/showthread.php?p=264268#post264268
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The supreme irony of center city residential growth is that it is being pushed by attractions which were sold as a means to attract business. The state and locally funded Convention Center helps provide a floor of business for quality restuarants and cultural attractions, which makes center city more highly desirable for upscale residents.Similarly, people want to move to be near the Kimmel Center, or the Art Museum, or the newly expanded Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts--all of which got significant state funds.Center city's ever increasing residential density sends the message that people want to live in cities which have relevant amenities, and that governmental and private investment can produce these amenities.Hopefully, the ever increasing residential density of center city will make it ultimately more attractive to retail businesses as an important market, and more attractive to business as a place where highly educated employees would like to be able to walk to work.
June 11, 2006
http://www.phillyblog.com/philly/showthread.php?p=264191#post264191
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On Saturday, June 10, 2006--the beginning of my 33rd year in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives--I attended the 6th Annual Community Fair of the 7th Police District of Philadelphia. It was held at the BVM Parish Hall, 9223 Old Bustleton Avenue, from 10 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. Many hurdreds of people--perhaps over a thousand--attended.One of the attendees was an old friend of mine who several years moved to one of the Eastern Montgomery County suburbs to get married and have children. After several years of marriage, which has so far produced a charming two year old daughter, she and her husband are now house-hiunting in Northeast Philadelphia. She hopes, she told me, to persuade her husband to expand the family with three more children. Of the many people I talked to there, not one told me that they had plans to leave Philadelphia. Not one person told me that Philadelphia is terrible and if changes in this or that were not made promptly they would leave Philadelphia.Certainly 10 years ago, and probably five years ago, Iwould have found a good number of people telling me they had left Philadelphia, were planning to leave Philadelphia, or might leave Philadelphia if things continued the way they were. It was extraordinarily rare for to run into any person at any community event looking to move in to Philadelphia. Only by extensive door to door canvassing for new voter registrations was I able to find an occasional new migrant to Philadelphia, and these persons were usually non-white.I remember complaining to friends and family members, with some hyperbole, that everyone I would meet seemed to have a public exit strategy from Philadelphia. I had a large number of conversations with people introducing themselves as follows, "My name is _____________. I live in ______________. I am planning to move to _____________soon." It seemed to me that many people were ashamed to be living in Philadelphia, and felt that if they were going to admit this negative fact about themselves themselves, they had to rehabilitate their reputation by indicating future plans to move.I used to have the year-end habit of tabulating the people I knew who had moved out of Philadelphia, and the people I knew who have moved into Philadelphia. Only in the last few years have the list of move-ins exceeded the list of move-outs.Philadelphia is making a great comeback. Anecdotes don't tell the whole story; legislative hearings are full of complaints that evidence on this or that point is "merely anecdotal." But the anecdotes of the 21st Century are very different from the anecdotes of the late 20th Century.My friend described her ideal house, and I said there was one near me that fit her desciption. "How much does it cost?" she asked. "Probably about $300,000," I said. "I can't go over $330,00," she said. The idea that we would be talking about Philadelphia houses in this price range would have seemed bizarre and hallucinatory not too long ago.We still have a very long way to go, but Philadelphia today is far better than it used to be in many, many respects.
June 11, 2006
http://www.phillyblog.com/philly/showthread.php?p=264013#post264013
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Too much of the time, Philadelphia has leadership that takes the present state of affairs as a given, and fails to see how the present can be improved.Meeting the remaining requirements for the Olympics will give Philadelphia a reason to seek to meet higher standards, and to seek to rise to an entirely new level.Winning the 2016 Olympics will be quite an achievement itself. And then, winning from the 2016 Olympics--being the center of attention for much of the world for the weeks of the competition and the weeks before the competition, and being able to have the cachet of being an Olympic city site for many years afterwards--will be great for our collective spirits and should attract people and businesses here for the long term.Getting new stadiums for soccer and other sports, improving Philadelphia's mass transportation system, creating new temporary and permanent jobs: all these would be long-term plusses for our city.And then there is the important question of identification with us from the rest of the state. The state legislature and the state's attentive citizenry are of two minds about Philadelphia. They strongly identify with the Philadelphia that is one of the leaders of world commerce, world education, and world athletic competition, but are turned off by the Philadelphia that is mired in poverty and social pathologies.Having the Olympics in Philadelphia will give us a chance to put forward the face that the rest of the state admires: Philadelphia a world class attention and economic magnet. By competing in this arena, Philadelphia builds up fans all over Pennsylvania, and gains potential support for dealing with our most serious problems.
May 30, 2006
http://www.phillyblog.com/philly/showthread.php?p=257663#post257663
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The Whitaker Mansion is gone (do you remember its address?), but Hill Creek housing, the bowling alley (with a new name), and Stokes still remain.I believe it was the Exide Plant that was torn down to become a shopping center across from Hill Creek; I attended the dedication of that shopping center in the early 1980's, and it is always mobbed today.That is part of the general fate of old industrial buildings; they seem to yield inexorably to shopping centers. Two other major shopping centers also have replaced old industrial centers: the old Sears on the Boulevard, and the defense contractor at Front & Olney have also become major shopping areas.This is a paradoxical outcome: Philadelphia is losing hundreds of thousands of good paying industrial jobs over time, lowering the average income of city residents, but we never have had more places to shop, or more convenient shopping.
May 30, 2006
http://www.phillyblog.com/philly/showthread.php?p=257729#post257729
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Market size is the key Philadelphia advantage. Other advantages include a large population of potential employees, ready access to suppliers, a good mass transit system, and a convenience in location to much of both the metropolitan area and the east coast. There is also an excellent academic infrastructure which can supply student interns ,faculty business advisers with expertise in small business formation to help small businesses get off the ground, and people and research familiar with the latest innovations in techonology, marketing, and human resource management.The downside is higher business and wage taxes, although there are lower property taxes here than in many suburbs and many places with lower rents than in many suburbs. There also are various enterprise zones here, which provide considerable tax savings.The conventional wisdom is that Philadelphia is better as a place to start a business than as a place to maintain a business. A typical start-up begins by generating little revenue, paying low salaries, and making little profits. During this gestation period, the owner is paying little Philadelphia business or wage taxes, and reaping the benefits of a Philadelphia location.
May 29, 2006
http://www.phillyblog.com/philly/showthread.php?p=257002#post257002
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The figures for new restuarants, investments made, new housing units created are all far behind the comparable figures for Philadelphia, at least on a total basis and quite possibly on a per capita basis as well.It's great that St. Louis--a city where I have some family roots--is making a comeback. But we should realize that our comeback is the bigger one. Of course, we should look at what St. Louis has done and seek to copy anything of value--such as improving our mass transit systems.
May 12, 2006
http://www.phillyblog.com/philly/showthread.php?p=248739#post248739
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Philadelphia has come a long way since Mayor Rizzo scared almost everyone from coming to Philadelphia in 1976 on the basis of erroneous reports of violent radicals.Positive new things seem to be happening in Philadelphia virtually every day, and this year's fourth of July celebrations were another high.The traditional fourth of July activities aren't even finished: this year's Liberty Bell Medal will be presented on September 17 to the President of Ukraine.
July 5, 2005
http://64.233.161.104/search?q=cache:sY2Thxvoej4J:youngphillypolitics.blogspot.com/2005/07/kudos-to-john-street.html+%22mark+b+cohen%22&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=257
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The figure of 40,000 votes need to win an at-large seat is based on the 2003 elections, when there was no contested mayoral primary.In 2007, there is likely to be a wide open field for Mayor, and total media expenditures in the vicinity of $10 million to $20 million are quite likely.Under these circumstances, turnout should greatly increase, and the likelihood is that it will take somewhere between 65,000 and 80,000 votes to come in 5th place.The votes needed to get in the higher places will likely be much higher.The all-time record for the most votes for Councilman at Large in a Democratic Primary was set by Councilman David Cohen during the contested Rendell-Goode primary in 1987: 154,000 votes.
June 29, 2005
http://64.233.161.104/search?q=cache:hh49hz_mDnoJ:youngphillypolitics.blogspot.com/2005/06/slouching-towards-20000.html+%22mark+b+cohen%22&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=332
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Much later information is available now--up to the 2005 primary--but the general pattern is still the same. The Republican registration has falled to about 16.4%, and Democrats have made corresponding gains.
How low can the Republicans fall in Philadelphia? My guess is that it has not yet bottomed out, and that it will continue to fall in the direction of 10% of the city total. Ultimately, all the state legislative seats and the Brian O'Neill City Council seat will be held by Democrats.
June 19, 2005
http://72.14.209.104/search?q=cache:AQOwNb4mEdcJ:www.politicsphilly.com/node/41+%22mark+b+cohen%22&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=367
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North Philadelphia was once Philadelphia's major Jewish center. My mother in law grew up in North Philadelphia, and still tries to stay in touch with people she knew there. She is always interested in meeting new people who grew up in her neighborhood of Strawberry Mansion.Gradually, African-Americans replaced the Jewish population and other white ethnic populations of North Philadelphia. But the large Jewish population there--it must have at its peak exceeded 100,000 people--stands as a stark rebuttal to the belief of vast Jewish wealth.My father City Councilman David Cohen grew up on the 3300 block of Germantown Avenue; Germantown avenue was a thriving business center dominated by Jewish business people. His bar mitzvah was at a North Philadelphia synagogue. The neighborhood in which he grew up overwhelmingly supported his initial candidacy for Councilman from the 8th District in 1967, but few Jews remained at that time.The most enduring political figure elected from North Philadelphia was Charles Weiner, who served as a state senator from 1954 through 1967, and then was a federal judge from 1967 through his death in 2005.Another enduring political product of North Philadelphia was Max Weiner,as far as I know not related to the Judge, the perennial Consumer Party candidate for public office who gained public support by his tenacious opposition to utility rate increases. Wiener went from being a leader of the Communist Party to being a leader of the Progressive Party to being the founder, guru and most frequent candidate of the Consumer Party. North Philadelphia was initially popular among Jews because it was inexpensive. A lot of people got capital for business and college education for their children because they lived in inexpensive housing. The inexpensiveness of the housing of course led to instability, as more and Jews eventually gained the financial self-confidence to invest more family resources in housing. The black migration into Philadelphia after World WarII created another market for inexpensive housing, and their inmigration led to an acceleration of Jewish outmigration.Congregation Rodeph Shalom--across the street from Benjamin Franklin High School--is the most visbile current reminder of the vibrant Jewish community once based in North Philadelphia. Anyone doing research on the Jewish community in North Philadelphia should probably visit it, Temple University's Urban Archives, and Temple University Jewish Archives to get a handle on the scope of Jewish life there.There will be more Jews living in North Philadelphia in the future as the boundaries of what is perceived of as Center City continue to march northward. I have heard that Rodeph Shalom is shutting down its suburban synagogue, and putting all its resources into its North Philadelpha/Center City one. My guess is that that ultimately other synagogues will be formed there as well someday.Jewish institutions such Dropsie University, the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, Goldstein's funeral home, Levine's funeral home, Reform Congregation Keneseth Israel, and other synagogues all once were located in or near the Temple University area. Many of the old synagogues still stand and are used for other purposes. The Jewish Exponent archives should have a great deal of information about Jewish institutions in North Philadelphia.Neighborhood demographic change is a permanent fact of life in Philadelphia and other cities. But the communities that are formed are long-term and enduring, even after people move out of the neighborhood. North Philadelphia sixty to eighty years ago--perhaps the peak of Jewish population there--is obviously not the North Philadelphia of today, but it may be a demographic forerunner of new and much smaller North Philadelphia communities of the mid-21st century.
Philadelphia tomorrow can be much more than it is today. We can get our variegated neighborhoods together with governmental and economic interests to create a future that will grow our city and enrich our lives.
July 3, 2006
http://www.phillyblog.com/philly/showthread.php?p=275306#post275306
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The only way knowledge of the many treasures of Northeast Philadelphia will become more common is for those who have such knowledge to share it widely. People need reasons to come to Northeast Philadelphia and stay here, and the Ryerss Library and Burholme Park are two of the many, many reasons to do just that.
July 2, 2006
http://www.phillyblog.com/philly/showthread.php?t=20551
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On Wednesday, June 14, the Pennsylvania House of Representatives unanimously passed a resolution supporting Philadelphia's bid for the 2016 Olympics. This is a good sign that the coalition of legislators who supported the Convention Center, the Kimmel Center, the Constitution Center, the Wachovia Center, and other state funded improvements of Philadelphia's tourism-friendly infrastructure is still intact.
June 15, 2006
http://www.phillyblog.com/philly/showthread.php?p=266029#post266029
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Philadelphia today is a multiracial society. The fastest growing groups, according the to the U.S. Census, are people of Latino and Asian descent, both American citizens and people seeking to become American citizens. And we also have a growing population of people of American Indian descent.When we discuss questions of race here at phillyblog and elsewhere, it should not be just a matter of people black and white. We need to hear the experiences of people of all races. I believe we are clearly moving towards a society that transcends racial differences, that judges people more on the basis of who they are than who their ancestors were. Open discussion hopefully will move us ever more steadily in this direction.
June 14, 2006
http://www.phillyblog.com/philly/showthread.php?p=265864#post265864
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Spreading the message of fear in Northeast Philadelphia is totally counterproductive towards maintaining it as a series of series of stable, attractive neighborhoods. And making dramatic progress towards solving Northeast Philadelphia's problems--with the aid of all city government agencies, including the police department--would undercut dramatically the emotions displayed in letter after letter in the Northeast Times.The Northeast Times views itself as a forum for all residents of the greater Northeast. I would urge those with a more positive vision of the future of Northeast Philadelphia to write letters to the Northeast Times to help drown out the weekly voices of despair and hopelessness. The real estate market certainly tells a different story from these angry voices, as prices continue to rise to record levels concurrently with demographic changes.
May 8, 2006
http://www.phillyblog.com/philly/showthread.php?p=246605#post246605
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The early responses in this thread (through Tuesday night, June 20, 2006) demonstrate Philadelphia's magnetism over many people. No responder had only lived in one house or apartment in the course of his her lifetime; many had moved repeatedly. Each act of looking for a new place to live can lead to a move outside of Philadelphia, but in the vast majority of cases reported here, it did not.Numerous people moved out of Philadelphia, and then came back, an excellent sign for the future of our city. They include icupg (left Philly in 1999, returning in 2006), mja (left Philly for college in in 1994, returned in 1998),(left Philly for the U.S. Navy in 1992, returned in 1996), Winston (left Philly in 1994, returned in 2006), paul737 (left Philly for the military 1999, returned in 2003), (left Philly around 1999, returned in 2002), wysong (left Philly in 1994, returned in 2003), brenda_skarr (left Philly in 1986, returned in 1997), KByrd (left Philly in 1954, returned in 1995), MLTimes (left Philadelphia in 1991, returned in 2000), reds5 (left Philly for London in 1988, then returned), and niel (left Philly 1997, returned in 1998).Of course, others left Philly, and did not return. It is a tribute to their enduring identification with our city that they participate in phillyblog. They include emerald&arizona (left Philadelphia around 1960), sam731 (left Philadelphia in 1976), and exphillboy (probably left Philadelphia in 1980's or early 1990's), tbear (no information as to date left Philadelphia), DavidR ("proud to be a Philly boy," left Philadelphia in 1974), Those who moved to Philadelphia, even as toddlers, include Mark B. Cohen (1952, did not report this in original post), ACE (1961), jnherman (probably 1990's), D-Man (1992), Marburgkid (1979), EastChestnut (yearly information not reported), niel (1991), JillyS (2005), and seand (2000). Those who reported only living in Philadelphia include Dave (three locations), rip08 (three locations), cheriev (five locations), logannews (five locations), kit1966 (four locations), Malloy (six locations), madgirl (four locations), Metro (seven locations), jdw1970 (five locations), Swift Lyons (six locations), ChiefSalsa (temporarily living in Logan, Utah, eight locations), and PaulG (four locations).Keep the responses coming. The more we know, the more useful the information can be. Feel free to do your own analysis as more people respond.Clearly, some good things are happening in Philadelphia, and many people want to be a part of it.Thanks to all who have participated so far.
June 20, 2006
http://www.phillyblog.com/philly/showthread.php?p=269203#post269203
posted by Comment on Pennsylvania Legislation at 10:53 AM
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