Time to copy off the smart kids (The Next Mayor)

I wrote yesterday that I was leaving to attend the Central Philadelphia Development Corporation/Center City District annual meeting, featuring a mayoral forum during which the candidates were to be asked to respond to CPDC's newest plan for Center City.

I know I promised to report back last night with what I heard but once I got there and saw the Inquirer's Larry Eichel, the Daily News's Bob Warner, the Metro's Josh Cornfield and KYW 1060's Steve Tawa, I figured I could just sit back and tape the event and let them to the reporting. If anything, I could just fill in the holes.

The Inquirer and Great Expectation Project's Chris Satullo was also there and I'm hoping he'll expand further on the parts of the evening that weren't covered in today's news - a little of which I'll share below.

I'm in the process of rendering the video so I can upload it to our Google Video account. Then all of you will be able to view the Knox-Fattah exchange that was so thoroughly chronicled by the journalists in attendance. Trust me, it reads a lot cooler and snappier then it actually was. In person, the exchange was kind of awkward and uncomfortable with Fattah pretty much acting like the students I used to teach who would ask their rivals to "bet five" about every dispute and Knox using comebacks (at least I have a million dollars) that wouldn't have even passed muster in the halls of my former employer. Fattah came across as someone who hasn't really been questioned during his long career in politics, which I guess happens when no one ever poses a serious challenge, and Knox reminded me of someone who's comebacks always come just a beat too late to be effective.

Anyway, I figured I could just fill in some of the things that the others didn't cover. My own journalistic instincts must be improving (did I mention the last time I was a "journalist" before this project was when I wrote one newspaper article for the "Hawklet" in high school?) because I knew that the Fattah-Knox exchange was the only real "news" to come out of the event. That's not a dig on the journalists, by any stretch. If anything, it's because everything else the candidates said has already been written about. In fact, the only other news that could have been generated would have been if any one of them had actually responded to CPDC's plan.

Knox paid it a little lip service when, after over an hour, he was the first candidate to mention any of the parts of the plan. He used his two-minute closing statement to offer a vision for what his greatest accomplisments would be one year hence (after four months in office). Knox proceeded to run down the whole list of CPDC suggestions - light rail connecting 30th Street to City Hall, street level beautification, and conversion of Dilworth Plaza into green space - though he disagreed with putting a "movie theater" there. He prefers a performance space for the more high-falutin' things like orchestra's and performing arts. (I'm more of a movie theater guy, myself). Aside from that, and like I said, it was crammed into his closing statement, none of the candidates offered any real vision or "grand plan."

Of course the issue of taxes came up. Specifically, what are the candidates' proposals for changing the tax structure so that businesses would seek to relocate in Center City. For all the debate going on at YPP between Fattah supporters and Nutter supporters over their positions on taxes, I didn't get a sense that there was a real deep contrast in what Nutter and Fattah say they want to do with taxes. They both seem to want to reduce wage and business taxes. They also both seem to want to continue the tax abatement program in one way or another. Sometimes I have a feeling that the debate between their respective supporters happens because everyone believes that Fattah talks about cutting taxes because he has to in order to satisfy the business types but he won't actually do it and that Nutter talks about fighting poverty because he has to satisfy the ultra-libs but he won't actually do it.

If there was a contrast on the tax issue, it occurred when Knox basically disagreed with the notion that businesses aren't relocating or starting in Philadelphia because of the tax structure. According to Knox, businesses don't locate here because we don't have a skilled workforce. Definitely a bold position to take in a room full of business owners and proprietors. Knox used the tax question to pivot to his usual rant about vocational education, etc.

I, of course, think that none of them will be able to do any of those things given the impending pension and healthcare crisis - a question which, not unlike the debate this past weekend - they dodged again last night.

There was more, but I'll let you catch it on the video when Google gets done processing it. Link to come soon.

As for attendance...

Dwight Evans must have had a scheduling conflict because the folks at CPDC said earlier yesterday that he wasn't expected. Bob Brady was a no-show after saying that he would be arriving late. How do you stand up a guy like Paul Levy? He's pretty much the mayor of Center City. Even if he doesn't have any political juice, any candidate for mayor should at least be there to learn a little something about how to turn around an entire area using just a few very targeted investments in street lighting, beautification and other small infrastructure improvements.

End result of all of this... my soul is not yet stirred. None has inspired me to think that he can be any more than a manager of continued decline. Will Philadelphia ever be Paris or New York? No. Probably not. But it doesn't mean we can't be something better than we are. It doesn't mean we can't have nice things. Did I see that vision from anyone yesterday? That vision invoked by Daniel Burnham (who was invoked by Michael Nutter who was invoked by Chris Satullo)? That vision that doesn't make little plans? Have I seen it from anyone yet, whether in their television ads, stump speeches, forum appearance? Have I seen anything visionary, attainable, sincere and believable enough to move even the sternest cynic?

Unfortunately... no.

(Video of the event to follow)

Comments (9)

Dave

The biggest problem I have with Fattah is that I don't know what he wants to do about taxes. His policy paper says he wants to eliminate the gross receipts tax and make up for the lost revenue by taxing the net income of organizations currently not taxed (banks, etc). At one forum he said this, but failed to mention that he wants to make up for the lost income. At the Same of a City screening, he said he wanted to get rid of the BPT altogether (or that's what I heard, at least -- it was a little unorganized). Fattah needs to get more consistent with his message (other than "I'm going to spend money on social programs") before I'll take him seriously.

Posted by Dave | April 17, 2007 5:06 PM

Jill:

Chaka has no interest in reducing taxes. The City will be barely able, if at all, to pay for the programs he has proposed.

If you are interested in the economic future of this City, vote for someone other than Fattah.

Posted by Jill | April 17, 2007 5:15 PM

Actually, I'm listening to Fattah's video on Philadelphia Forward's website and he says "I want to eliminate the business privilege tax completely... as we know it."

So there you go.

Posted by Dave | April 17, 2007 5:33 PM

The Key part there is, "as we know it". He has already stated that he wants any reduction in the BPT to be revenue neutral. So that means an increase in net profits portion, or an increase in taxes somewhere else.

He simply cannot pay for everything he has proposed without a tax increase.

Furthermore, his plan to lease the airport is a sham.

We simply cannot afford a mayor whose core agenda is centered around poverty reduction. We need new jobs, not new programs.

Posted by Jill | April 17, 2007 5:38 PM

Patricio:

What is with that last paragraph? Why even be a contributing writer to a site dedicated to making this great city even greater with such little faith?

Maybe the cynical local journalism permeates into the residents then into those politicans. A vicious cycle you help to feed.

I sincerely hope you're aware of your contradictions.

You discuss Burnhams disdain for little plans yet say "I, of course, think that none of them will be able to do any of those things given the impending pension and healthcare crisis".

Hmm...

Posted by Patricio | April 17, 2007 7:02 PM

Wendy:

Make sure you also check out Nutter's budget plan.

Posted by Wendy | April 17, 2007 9:42 PM

mdcphilly:

I beg to differ with Dan P.'s take that Nutter is for tax cuts and Fattah is for poverty reduction. It is one of my greatest disappointments of this campaign that Nutter's work has been boiled down to tax cutting by opponents.

As someone who worked for city government agencies and was involved in community organizing during the past decade, it is blatantly obvious that Fattah has unjustified faith in his ability to allieviate poverty and fails to dispay an understanding of the systemic factors that will undermine the programs he proposes. Some iniatives like the college scholarships and the after school programs are worthwhile while much of the rest is fluff. It is possible to spend 1/5th as much as Fattah proposes and have a greater impact than he will if he is elected.

Nutter's support of Community College, just to cite one example, is a key poverty reduction initiative, even if CCP has issues. The current administration's inability to coordinate city services means that funding to support after school programs and open libraries is used inefficiently. A dime wasted is a dime wasted. Just because Fattah wants to build an expensive treadmill that'll probably break rather than grooming the existing walking trails that actually leading some place doesn't mean he'll do a better job of reducing poverty.

I have no illusions that the choices the city faces are easy or that we'll be debating differently different issues in five or ten years than we are debating today. If in four years, we are still talking about a government that can't pick up the trash, curtail violence or invest substantially in a public transit line (a great poverty public works job), all things that are more likely to happen under a Nutter watch, Philadelphian's will have really missed an opportunity to improve the city for everyone and especially the poor.

Posted by mdcphilly | April 17, 2007 10:02 PM

sj:

I disagree that none of the candidates have a vision for improving Philadelphia. It seems like some folk are more interested in a cheerleading personality than actual ideas that will make the city more competitive. Rendell was a great representative for the city but only an average mayor when it comes to actual initiatives. I think talking about decreasing taxes, reforming the zoning code, increasing funding to CCP, making goverment more accountable, etc. are ways to move the city forward. What would any of these guys have to say to show they have "vision"? I think journalists are far more disappointed by this field than the average citizen.

Posted by sj | April 18, 2007 8:22 AM

One thing Fattah fails to point out is that the city already spends almost a quarter of its general fund budget (over $700 million) on social programs. Has it occurred to him that (as I'm pretty sure is the case) a huge part of this money is being misspent or outright wasted? Instead of funding new social service organizations for people politically connected to the mayor and/or district council people, the city should be isolating the organizations that actually deliver results (Habitat for Humanity, which has had a lot of trouble getting houses/lots through NTI, and the Youth Violence Prevention program, to name a couple) and giving them more funding and cutting it for the useless organizations that don't amount to much more than back-door city employment for people who, in many cases, wouldn't be legally allowed to work for the city.

The fact that Fattah seems willing to take the see-no-evil approach to all the corruption and inefficiency in our government is probably reason enough not to vote for him.

Posted by Dave | April 18, 2007 8:51 AM

Comments (9)

Post a comment