A Philly Tax Cutter

City Journal ^ | Winter 2008 | David Whelan

[a_chronic_whiner]

A Philly Tax Cutter

Can Mayor Nutter cure the city’s cancer?

With 380 homicides recorded already this year, a spate of recent cop shootings, and one particularly gruesome cop killing that led to a nationwide manhunt, Philadelphia is among America’s most dangerous big cities. The crime issue dominated this year’s mayoral race, which Michael Nutter, a blunt and sometimes histrionic former councilman, eventually won. But while crime gets the most attention, Nutter’s success as mayor will ultimately rest on improving the city’s dysfunctional economy. Notwithstanding the glitzy renaissance taking place in its center, Philadelphia is an economic basket case.

The last mayor to tackle economic issues in Philadelphia was Ed Rendell, now starting his second term as Pennsylvania’s governor, who memorably referred to the city as “a cancer patient with a gunshot wound.” The gunshot in Rendell’s metaphor was the threat of bankruptcy that the city faced when he took office in 1992. The cancer was the slow drain of jobs and people from the city. Early on, Rendell believed that the city’s image was its biggest liability. As journalist Buzz Bissinger recounts in his book A Prayer for the City, the mayor focused on splashy projects like a convention center and downtown condos and hotels. When it came to jobs, Rendell thought of Philly as a jigsaw puzzle of employers, each representing a bloc of workers. Rendell’s responsibility, as he saw it, was to keep the biggest pieces from falling off the table. When Breyer’s Ice Cream, for example, threatened to pull up stakes and fire several hundred factory workers, Rendell rushed in with an incentive package to get it to reconsider (Breyer’s left anyway). The most conspicuous example of Rendell’s approach involved preventing the planned closure of a 200-year-old navy shipyard that employed 8,000 workers.

[Peacekeeper357]

I don't know about the ecom. part but if he does not get the killing part taken care of you will be hitting 1,425 by the end of the year. Tell all your guys in Iraqi to stay there were they are safe.

[Spktyr]

Here’s a better idea - issue free guns to all law-abiding citizens along with a get-out-of-jail-free-if-you-shoot-a-criminal cards. Problem will be solved in six weeks after a brief spike in the homicide rate (the “justifiable homicide” category, though).

[DeLaine]

Big cities are becoming more and more like “Escape from New York” the rest of the country financially supports the low lifes, rats and roaches that live there.

Throw in some bug bombs and stand back.