Dear America: Give Us Your...

Three years ago, Councilman-now-Mayoral-candidate Jim Kenney told Chick-fil-A to take a hike after the fast food chain's CEO, Dan Cathy, made explosive remarks against marriage equality. That same year Mayor Michael Nutter signed legislation that he said he hoped would make Philadelphia "the most LGBT friendly" city in the world.

Both are bold moves, politically speaking. And Nutter's statement is just bold. I mean what about San Francisco? New York? Amsterdam? But all you need to do is take a look around, pick up a newspaper, or listen to our elected officials. We've taken our turn to bask in the rainbow of equality for everyone. This is Philadelphia's time to shine.

Plenty of states and cities have tried the "open for business" tactic as a last resort, but Philadelphia's council members, judges, and mayors - past and future - seem to be using it in earnest. Just this week, every single member of City Council including Mayor Nutter signed an open letter drafted by Councilman Mark Squilla blasting recent "Religious Freedom" legislation that is currently sweeping through the Hate States, asking those afflicted to not just visit Philadelphia, but to move here.

With words echoing The New Colossus, Councilman Squilla appointed Philadelphia the Ellis Island for persecuted Americans. United, each elected Council Member posed with a rainbow flag in hand to welcome internal immigration and offer refuge from politicians who hide their hate behind religion, and legislation that does nothing to protect religious freedom - or freedom from religion - but solely to legalize discrimination.

This summer Philly Pride Presents will be painting the crosswalks in the Gayborhood with the colors of the Pride Flag, reminding visitors and locals that Philadelphia aims to be a safe place, and solidifying the Gayborhood's cultural relevance despite being haphazardly rebranded "Midtown Village."

As tragic as the events of last September were, it's fitting that these crosswalks are being installed a few short blocks from the scene of the brutal beatings of two gay men by a hoard of drunken, suburban brats. Hate happens, but our community came together to put three monsters behind bars, the police responded, and the courts have yet to muster an ounce of sympathy for the accused.

Philadelphia has its problems. All cities do. But recent years have proven that City Hall is dedicated to addressing the matters of the heart first - fighting Harrisburg for education, addressing poverty and crime, and embracing equality for all Philadelphians and our visitors - truly being the City of Love for Brothers, Sisters, and Everyone in Between.

Michael Nutter's Love Letter to Comcast

It's Valentine's Day and Mayor Michael Nutter celebrated by kissing the boots of those who apparently run City Hall. Gushing about Comcast's potential acquisition of TimeWarner Cable, Philebrity posted the mayor's entire letter here, so I'll just list the gems.

"This transaction will provide millions more consumers with increased content and viewing opportunities."

I don't know if you've been to Hulu Plus lately, but I noticed recently that you're now required to log into your cable television provider to watch a bulk of its premium content. I'm no lawyer, but there is something about requiring me to pay for content three times - subscribing to cable television, internet, and Hulu Plus - has to be illegal. It's not surprising that Comcast owns a large stake in Hulu, and that this restriction is applied to Comcast affiliated content owned through NBCUniversal. Acquiring TimeWarner will put the vast majority of television in Comcast's hands, requiring all of us who've cut the cable cord to pay for this triple-dip to watch anything online.

"They deserve our gratitude and the City’s appreciation for pushing this great corporate citizen farther into the areas of technology and communications..."

Now I know Nutter is a politician and not a software engineer, but what - aside from a creative knack for avoiding anti-trust suits - has Comcast actually innovated?

"I am enthusiastically supporting this acquisition as I believe this is the ultimate triple play – great for consumers, great for the company and great for our city."

How do you write a really loud kissing sound?

The Perfect Scapegoat

The wife of Sean Benschop isn't the only one calling the man charged with Market Street's tragic building collapse a scapegoat. I'll call him one right now.

Michael Nutter, who has remained sheepishly quiet during his time as mayor, a puppet so afraid to ruffle feathers of any variety, has decided to come out of his shell in the most un-mayor like fashion possible and declare himself judge and jury over a man who hasn't yet gone to trial.

"Justice will only be served if Sean Benschop receives a sentence that buries him in a jailhouse forever." Mayor Michael Nutter

There are certain evils that come with being a politician, the least of which being the fact that most people will never, ever like you.

If Nutter's rabid pre-trial prosecution was an attempt to relate to a city that has repeatedly called for him and his bureaucrats to account for an ounce of responsibility in this tragedy, he doesn't just come across as someone transparently trying to scapegoat a guy who looks like the perfect scapegoat, he comes across as a First Class Dick.

Nutter's perfect scapegoat

Benschop was one of several employees on the site that day, a site he in no way was responsible for securing. Nutter's own city's 311 received calls regarding the safety of the site, calls that were ignored. L&I granted demolition permits despite the fact that a neighboring property that shared a wall was and would continue to be occupied.

Benschop had pot in his system at the time of the accident, a crime that he should be fired for and charged for. But aside from the safety of other employees insured to work at the site, Benschop was a mere employee demolishing a building.

Were pot not in his system, would he be on trial? As far as the judge and jury in Nutter's head is concerned, Benschop was wholly in charge of securing the vicinity, high or not. Accidents happen, and ones like these are very sad. But it's our leader's jobs to lead us to the most responsible way to deal with the aftermath of tragedy.

The fact that the building was able to collapse on a building full of shoppers and employees means that any demolition crew, whether under the influence of an illegal drug or not, could have made the exact same mistake. If Mayor Nutter should be doing anything he should be discouraging vigilantes from casting stones at a man convicted of nothing, not casting the first.

Shame on you, Michael Nutter. In your years of service as my elected leader I had written off your quiet demeanor off as that of an inexperienced lame duck, not as a man willing to throw his sworn duties under the bus of popular opinion.

Dust Settles at 22nd and Market and the Storm Begins

As the dust settles at 22nd and Market, the fallout is spreading through Center City. Sean Benschop was the crane operator at the site and tested positive for marijuana and pain killers at the time of the accident, and will likely be charged with six counts of involuntary manslaughter.

The straight dope is that Benschop shouldn't have been driving a crane at the time. But Philadelphia's seemingly run by as many unfit criminals as it employs, and every city agency remotely tied to this disaster is doing everything in their power to deflect the spotlight from their own role in the collapse.

L&I has been on damage control shutting down Rosewood, a new bar all the way across town near 13th and Walnut because it employed Griffin Campbell Construction, the same contractor demolishing 22nd and Market. It's a cheap way for L&I to say, "look, we're doing our jobs," despite the fact that they not only granted Griffin Campbell a demolition permit on West Market Street, but didn't shut down the site after calls about the unsafe conditions were placed to Philadelphia's 311 non-emergency service.

L&I made various claims regarding the 311 calls, from confusion over the address reported to simply verifying that the site did indeed hold the permits that they themselves granted. Philadelphia's big, but it's not as if a misplaced digit in the 2100 block of West Market Street could cause confusion over the location of the site. So many demolition projects aren't taking place on Market Street that those in charge of safeguarding our addresses would be scratching their heads and saying, "Huh?" In fact, it's the only demolition project actively taking place on Center City's Market Street anywhere.

That's obvious, of course, which is likely why as soon as people starting pointing their fingers at L&I, L&I swooped in and shut down a loosely connected business. Of course, let's not forget that L&I is the sole organization that licensed these creeps in the first place. Maybe it's time to shut down L&I, a difficult endeavor when they're responsible for shutting things down. After five years in office, have Nutter's balls drops?

Not likely. City Hall is doing it's own damage control, and it's perhaps even more opportunistic than L&I's. After all, L&I is just covering their ass. But City Hall is full of politicians, more callous and criminal that any pot smoking crane operator. 

Clarke is playing politics the old fashioned way, one voters in this city seem to routinely ignore. He's proposed a 10% tax on vacant property owners. If you don't know anything about Councilman Clarke you might be thinking, "Great!" But if you're reading this, you're likely familiar with the fact that Clarke presides over one of the most blighted wards full of property hoarding slumlords, and it's a common perception that he does everything in his power to keep it that way, including allowing the Divine Lorraine to be all but sold for scrap.

So why would Clarke want to slap a 10% tax on his most powerful constituents? Well he already proposed the idea more than a decade ago and it was never enforced because (for reasons I can't figure out) it's not legal. In other words, Clarke knows the proposed tax will fail and so do his cronies, so he sit back and tell his voters, "Hey, I tried, blame bureaucracy."

It's a cheap political tactic that City Hall has been peddling since the beginning of time and for some reason it still works here. Street did the same thing when he openly opposed the smoking ban, telling business owners and the lingering smokers he was looking out for them while everyone knew it was inevitable.

We expect these games when we're talking about unions or business licenses, but when politicians use the tragic death of six people for their own gain, it's beyond disrespectful. It's detached and sick.

Meanwhile City Council hasn't said one word about L&I's role in the tragedy, and likely won't, at least not yet. That doesn't mean the aftershock won't find its way to all responsible. L&I's infrastructure is about as stable as 22nd and Market and City Hall still operates under the delusion that its voters still buy print journalism.

The whole story is surfacing and those responsible don't even see it. L&I will have to do a little more than shut down one bar and City Hall will have to do more than charge one crane operator with the whole disaster to save face, they're going to have to step up and admit their roles, and the administration will have no choice but to act.

Divine Mess

Mayor Nutter has been discussing the renovation of the Divine Lorraine on North Broad Street with Daryl Clark. Unfortunately, in the hotel's long bizarre history, none has been more detrimental to the architectural and cultural landmark as its last ten years.
After a Dutch developer gutted the habitable structure preparing it for luxury condos, the economy tanked. Instead of converting it into affordable apartments, a simple task after it was sold by the International Peace Movement Mission, the Dutch company ripped it apart with vague plans, and ultimately wound up in a battle with the district's Councilman, Daryl Clark over the topic of affordable housing.

Nutter said nothing of the financial situation surrounding the property that is now little more than a shell other than "it's complicated." He failed to address the owner's current property tax situation or whether the city would consider putting a lien on the property. As it stands, the property owner seems content to let it sit vacant until the city intervenes.

Clarke is doubtful that anything can be done to the property without funding from the city or state. Considering the current condition of the building, he's absolutely correct. What Clarke doesn't mention is that he directly created the current situation by crushing the developer's plan to convert the Divine Lorraine into condos, after the building had already been gutted.

As it stands, it looks like the best hope for the landmark would be subsidized housing or assisted living. It's true that something is better than nothing when it comes to such an astonishing building so close to demise, however if history shows us anything, if this becomes city operated property there is little hope that it will ever meet its full potential.

Welcome to PA, that'll be 50 cents

Being from the South, it's taken me a while to adjust to taxes, tolls, and political cash grabs. It's not that Red states are any stranger to fees and corruption, but they look you in the face when they f*ck you.

A lot of people got worked up over a 2 cent per ounce tax on soda. I hate Nanny Laws, so I'm one of them. But there was a much darker demon waiting in the shadows so the quest to save my afternoon Big Gulp quickly expired. 

It's surprising how well City Hall played us this time. The soda tax was a brilliant wedge issue to throw to the dogs while the city worked on a 3.5% property tax increase that seems a lot more viable. 

If soda is that important, you can always buy your groceries in NJ. But unless you plan on living on a houseboat or parking your RV on North Broad, you're going to have a hard time avoiding property taxes.  

And with BRT in limbo deciding what to become, it's hard to say what will happen when they decide to reassess some of these homes that haven't been appraised since Truman was President. 

I like a level playing field. How about lowering taxes and reassessing the city's housing stock to their current market value? I know the home I rent is worth more than $1, but I'm pretty sure that's how it's taxed.

But that's not how we do things in PA. I remember when I lived in Portland, OR, the government had an unofficial motto: "We do things differently here." So do we, but we sure don't yield the same results. What's really amusing is while City Hall and Harrisburg screw us time and time again, they still have the courtesy to leave a note on the nightstand. Their rationale is often more amusing than the tax.

Soda tax is aimed at the "please think of the children" crowd, but isn't even remotely designed to have any affect on the consumer. If the tax isn't applied at the register it will be diluted throughout the store. Consumers won't even know they're paying the tax and obese children will still get their bottle of diabetes. 

How stupid does Mayor Nutter think we are? He's like a junkie with a sob story. I'll give a bum money if he tells me it's for weed, but if you're going to piss on my leg and tell me it's raining, screw off, I'll vote for Karen Brown.

None of this nonsense is new, and it's certainly not unique to Pennsylvania. But it brings up the classic story of the Johnstown Flood Tax. After the Johnstown Flood of 1936, the state imposed an emergency - and allegedly temporary - 10% tax on alcohol. Today, 75 years later, that tax is at 18%. 

It's not surprising that former New Orleans Mayor, Ray Nagin, on a trip to Philadelphia following Hurricane Katrina researching ways to address flight and abandonment, commented that New Orleans was bad, but not as bad as us...after Katrina!  

It's hard to take pride in a city and state when your elected officials act like they don't want you here.

Primary Election Results

In what the Inquirer is proclaiming an easy defeat, Mayor Michael Nutter snagged almost 76% of the Democratic primary votes. Milton Street, brother of former Mayor and social pariah, John Street, still managed to sway more than 24% of voters. That's significant. 

I'm not sure what it says of Nutter that one in four people voted for this tax dodging, former inmate. It certainly says something of Philadelphians that more than 35000 of us voted for this joke.

The good news is City Commission Chairwoman Marge Tartaglione and City Councilman Frank Rizzo are both out, perhaps a sign that new Philadelphians are starting to have an impact on an aging institution, or that seasoned Philadelphians are have finally had enough of the cronies.

Christmakwanzaakah Village

After three days of polls and blogsters painted Managing Director Richard Negrin Grinch-green for doing his job, Mayor Nutter has stepped in to save the day (and a slice of fresh baked popularity) decreeing that the word "Christmas" can be returned to the illuminated marker at Dilworth Plaza's yearly Christmas Village.

How many people would have really noticed if the sign had said "Holiday Village" in the first place? Or perhaps "Santa's Village"? As a lapsed Christian who closely abides by the philosophy, "What Would Ellen Do," I can't personally sympathize with the 3% who found the word offensive. Nonetheless, I think we could have made the village more festive and inclusive for everyone, without humbugedly leaving a void where the word "Christmas" once stood.

Hanukkah started last night. Kwanzaa starts on the 26th. A multitude of festivities could be represented at the Christmakwanzaakah Village without letting a politically correct 3% dictate a spiritless season, or believing a struggling politician's sensitivity and salvation is anything more than a vote-grab.

Is it 1930?

In 2010, especially at a time when the city is considering a tax on soda, a fee on trash pick up, and a 10% increase on real estate tax just to milk us for a few pennies to keep this city from sinking into the Delaware, one would think that the city and state would be watching our money like Ebenezer Scrooge. Instead, somehow lawyer Jeffrey B. Rotwitt has managed to work both sides of the system, naming himself the development czar of the new, $200M Family Court Building at 15th and Arch. Chief Justice Ronald D. Castille agreed to Rotwitt's fees, allowing Rotwitt to write himself a check from the city for $55,000 a month as a retainer and ultimately $3.9M, without a contract to build anything.

The reaction from Rendell, "we're looking into this," while Mayor Nutter and City Council merely remarked that this was a "gray area". Great job guys, way to keep those palms greased. Maybe you can make up for it by taxing the people who elected you every time they shit.