While the Daily News laments about how Philadelphia never gets to be number one in sports, Otis White from Civic Strategies, a strategic planning firm that structures public policy solutions for cities, points out that Philadelphia is number one in at least one category: most gerrymandered city in the nation! woo... hoo.
When all that was taken into account, Avencia awarded Philadelphia's council district 7, which twists and turns, dips and darts its way across northeastern Philly, the prize as the most gerrymandered council district in America. (District 5, which is mostly in central Philly but features a large claw reaching into the northeastern parts of the city, was the third-most gerrymandered).
Ah, but sometimes there's a price to pay for blatant political manipulation, even in Philadelphia. As the Philadelphia Inquirer pointed out, when the city council maps were drawn after the 2000 census, the council member representing District 7, Rick Mariano, held out for the district he wanted. The fight over redistricting went on so long that it triggered a city law halting members' paychecks.
Facing a cash crunch, Mariano began accepting bribes during this period, the Inquirer said. In the end, Mariano got the district he wanted but something he didn't: a federal corruption trial, a conviction and a six-and-a-half-year stretch in prison.
Take that, Chicago... and New York... and Boston...