philly

It was a packed house in the back of the Irish Pub [20/Walnut] last night for the Neighborhood Networks event. Unfortunately, it was not the most accessible venue and at least one very active member of NN was unable to attend this inaugural event. I hope that in the future, the venue will be one which will be accessible to all those who wish to attend. I'd say there were about sixty people there along with a handful of Inky and DN writers and one photog who was shooting with a Nikon D200, a camera I long for. Unfortunately, I was seated diagonally behind where the two speakers were standing so the shot above was the best shot I could get without getting up out of my seat and getting in everyone else's way.

I guess I should start this piece, which will be mostly negative, off with some positives. I'm thankful of Michael Nutter's frankness in that he's actually said he'll be running for mayor – none of the others have the balls to do so. It's sickening to read about them dancing around the issue and I'm glad that Nutter's really committed to the race. Jonathan Saidel seemed like the nice guy he seems to always be portrayed as being.

Saidel is running for mayor, let's get that bullshit fucking straight and crystal fucking clear. He, along with Knox, Evans, Dougherty and Fattah [and maybe Brady], are all dancing like ballerinas around the official declaration in order to skirt campaign finance laws. It was insulting to hear Saidel constantly preface everything he said with "If I were running for Mayor, I'd…" what a crock of fucking shit. I didn't think it was cute or quaint or funny as many of the other people in the roomed seemed to think. Bullshit. I was seeing those union bug emblazoned stickers all over town like a year ago well before I knew who the hell this guy was. Dougherty's stickers too.

Neither candidate spoke with any degree of conviction. Nutter has a serious, monotonous voice sort of sounding like a Kermit the frog impression. I don't mind monotonous too much as long as there's some conviction there, but there wasn't. Saidel was a more jovial, up and down way of talking and sounds a bit like Norm MacDonald. Jovial is great, but once again, no conviction. Instead, it was a night of "ehs" as each candidate took big grandiose whiffs of the questions thrown at them. They both danced around just about every single question asked giving few if any concrete responses.

One question from the room was about the perception of crime in Philadelphia to those looking to potentially live in Philadelphia. What could the citizens do and where should we [the citizens or the City, I'm not sure which he meant] look for money. Saidel stated that we needed more cops on the ground. He didn't address the recent windfall from Gov. Rendell and the ensuing confusion over just how many officers would be added to the force. He said that we had to take back the city, the city he grew up in [which he said over and over and over again], street by street. He said that most of the violence we read in the papers are "target crimes" in that the attacker and the victim know/knew each other and basically that we shouldn't concern ourselves over it [I couldn't believe he actually implied this - what about stray bullets, what about stricter gun laws?]. He promised to never hold a summit nor a blue ribbon panel on crime because he'd rather have people on the ground going after crime and not sitting inside talking about it.

Nutter started off by saying that it's not enough to just dismiss these "target crimes" as there are far too many innocent bystanders [bingo]. He called what we read everyday a black genocide and that if the KKK were to roll through Philly killing 200+ blacks the whole country would be going bonkers, but since it's predominantly black on black crime, it's looked over. He said that the daily murder tallies are tearing the city apart. He said that it doesn't matter if the attacker and the victim knew/know each other, that we have to stop the violence no matter who is behind the gun and who is in front of it.

This exchange on crime was one of two which were worth while in the two hour gathering.

Brendan showed up a few minutes late and took a seat right by our table. He asked a question regarding SEPTA and their broken promised through the years and the ever increasing fares. Nutter's response lost Brendan's vote. Saidel's response had some surprising balls to it. He called for the SEPTA board to be dissolved. That they were all rich suburbanites and didn't understand the demands of the average commuter. No actual answers/solutions though.

The other topic which was worth while was one on affordable housing and the ten-year tax abatements developers currently enjoy. Nutter started off by saying that the abatements were a good thing because they encouraged development in places where nothing was being developed in the first place which he said has lead to more business/commerce within Philadelphia. He said that he wouldn't overturn the ten-year abatement, but that he'd think about possibly reducing it from the full 100% tax exemption. He added that affordable housing could be helped by a push to mandate ten-year abatements towards affordable housing units throughout the city. He said that the city does not currently commit enough money to affordable housing. He also said that the real estate taxation system must be fixed as taxes haven't gone up, but the assessments for houses have causing a potentially drastic imbalance.

Saidel went right at Nutter saying that there is no empirical evidence that the ten-year tax abatements have resulted in additional business/commerce within the city. He said that the abatements were predominantly being used in favorable geographic locations and not in areas like 23/Diamond Sts where a large development by a corporation would benefit the neighboring community better than at 17/JFK where Comcast received a $45M tax break [his number]. He said that the people writing/enforcing the real estate tax laws and assessors just plain didn't care and that things are overly complicated as a result. The myriad tax codes going up and down a single block with similar if not identical houses was a prime example. He wants to implement a Land Tax, but didn't explain further what exactly that entailed [or I missed it]. In pointing out the differences between two school districts, he said that we need to fund education with real dollars and not tie it to the collection of real estate taxes.

A familiar face to NN members and to anyone concerned with gun violence here in Philly, Hal Rosenthal, got up to ask a question in regards to handgun restrictions and city-specific bans. I was surprised to hear that neither Nutter nor Saidel were for a Philadelphia specific set of stricter handgun laws. Nutter said that the restrictions should alternatively be statewide as city-only restrictions don't do enough. Saidel said that Harrisburg will never pass limits on gun laws anywhere in the state because they're all gun nuts and tied to the NRA's money line. He said that the people in Harrisburg couldn't care less about gun violence going on in Philadelphia. He said that a city-only restriction would just make people go across the city line to get guns and then come right back.

Addressing one of the final questions of the night, Saidel said "I am running for Mayor because…" and just about everyone in the room took a breath as we noticed that he had finally slipped and said it. But I guess it doesn't really matter unless he actually files the paperwork. He could say he was running for the bronze in female gymnastics; he could still go money grubbing outside of campaign finance laws until he fills out the paperwork. The only candidate acting both within the spirit and the letter of the law is Michael Nutter and I applaud him for that once again.

After it was all over, Nutter, who was standing about two feet away from the table, turned and shook hands with everyone as a way to say thank you for coming out I guess. I wasn't going to say anything to him about how neither he nor his opponent bothered to really answer any of the questions asked of them, but since he stuck his hand in my face, I just went for it.

"You didn't answer most of the people's questions" I said as I pumped his hand a couple times. He leaned in closer and cupped his ear as the din of the crowd which had been sitting down for the last two hours was up and filing out of the already noisy bar. "You did a lot of dancing around the questions" I added, "so did he [Saidel]." He asked me for an example and I opened up my notebook which had two pages of notes. I started to scan through my notes and grew frustrated as I had stopped writing down his answers when they meandered off topic. Kim, seated next to me, piped in with a few examples and Nutter went back and forth. He asked if we'd be happy if he said that he'd demand $100M for project X [I think he said for the police department] as Mayor. I just stared at him blankly and I couldn't think of the phrase I wanted to tell him which I can say now – I wanted him to say something he believed in with some kind of conviction as he said it. It's clear that he's thought about these various things in the last decade and a half. And it's clear that he doesn't want to commit to anything eight months before the election either.

I have admittedly not done much research on the race and the candidates involved, the race is a long ways away. But I came away from the event wholly unimpressed with either candidate. And sadly, these are the two who are supposed to be the best for the office in 2007. I can't imagine the shit that the other four [un]announced candidates have to say. Things like "We must improve Philadelphia" and "Violence is a problem that needs strong answers" and "I understand the problems of the people as I've served them for x years in x office" and well, you get it.

Saidel got out of the pub pretty quickly afterwards. I didn't see him in the room after the post-event chat with Nutter which lasted about five minutes. Saidel annoyingly told anecdotes and meandered about before answering questions all night. He annoyingly interjected hurrahs for Rendell's re-election and the ousting of Man on Dog and said that he wouldn't formally announce his candidacy, if he chooses to run, until after the 2006 midterm elections. He seemed to be looking for some pro-Rendell and anti-Man on Dog sentiment to build upon within the room. He got some, but probably not what he was looking for.

I'm happy that Nutter's got the balls to announce that he's really running and not pussyfooting around it like the others are. I did see a bit of the know-it-all attitude he's been known to have, but I must say that I did come on strong [purposefully so] and that I was prepared to get a good dose of attitude in return. I think he handled it well and I think I like him more as a result. But nobody has my vote yet nor has anyone lost it yet. Too much time between now and the vote and too many things can change.

I had a few questions I wrote down, but I was in such a shitty spot that it was impossible for me to get the MC's [NN Chairperson Gloria Gilman] attention when one candidate was finished with his answer and handing the mic back to her to call on the next person. Oh well.

I'm very curious to see what the Inky and the DN have to say about the event because they sure as hell were there seeing what I saw.

***Saidel is no longer running for Mayor in 2007***

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