Today's issue of the Philadelphia Inquirer has two articles as part of the Great Expectations Project, a joint project of the Inquirer and the University of Pennsylvania which is supported by the Lenfest and Knight Foundations. They "Let's drop Us vs. Them attitudes" by former Inquirer editorial page director Chris Satullo (see http://www.philly.com/... and "Move Philly forward via optimism" by former Inquirer metro columnist (and long ago state capitol reporter) Tom Ferrick (see http://www.philly.com/...
This is a vital issue for the Inquirer institutionally as well as for the city and suburbs: Inquirer readership is being eroded on both fronts. The sixth largesst city in the country now has the tenth largest circulation newspaper. In what may foretell an eventual move of its main office to the suburbs, the Inquirer's headquarters a few blocks north of City Hall is now up for sale.
Satullo says "Philadelphia and the rest of the state do seem like hostile, alien powers. Each clutches a litany of ancient grievances." In my view, this is a statement that is either true or not true depending on what aspect of city-state and city-suburbs relationship one is talking about.
Individual Philadelphians are increasingly winning statewide and regional support. Two long-time Philadelphians who now have suburban residences, Allyson Schwartz and Patrick Murphy, now represent predominantly suburban districts in Congress. Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell has lived in Philadelphia since the early 1960's, is well-identified with the city by the rest of the state.
House Speaker Dennis O'Brien represents Far Northeast Philadelphia, and House Appropriations Committee Chairman Dwight Evans, elected by the Democratic caucus, represents neighborhoods from West Oak Lane to Summerdale. My position of House Democratic Caucus Chairman is also elected by the Democratic caucus; I represent a mainly Northeast Philadelphia district that comes to the border of Central High School and LaSalle University.
On January 1, former Philadelphia District Attorney Ron Castille will replace Ralph Cappy of Allegheny County as Chief Justice of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.
Further, state programs supporting Philadelphia institutions with solid middle class constituencies are increasingly well-funded by the state. In this category, I include the Pennsylvania Convention Center; the University of Pennsylvania; Temple University; the University of the Arts; the sports stadia for baseball, football, basketball, and ice hockey; the Avenue of the Arts; the conversion of the former Philadelphia Naval Yard property to productive civilian uses.
Aid to state prisons also disproportionately affects Philadelphians, as almost half the prisoners at any given time are from Philadelphia, which has only about 12% of the state population.
But programs to aid the poor are not popular, and Philadelphia, with a 25% poverty rate, has disproportionately suffered from that fact as welfare expenditures have been both cut and eroded. Further Pennsylvania's basic policy of funding school districts through property taxes hurts Philadelphia even though the state spends almost as much on the Philadelphia district as it does on Pennsylvania State University. Philadelphia's anemic taxable property base means that virtually every suburban Philadelphia school district spends far more per student than Philadelphia does.
Ferrrick calls for leadership "to take the pessimism of the times and turn it into optimism." But like Satullo, he is vague about what should actually be done to resolve the many problems now facing Philadelphia and its suburbs.
One generally ignored fact is that cities are a much lower percentage of Pennsylvania than they are of many other states. For instance, Lincoln and Omaha are a much higher percentage of Nebraska than Philadelphia and all other substantial cities are of Pennylvania in terms of population. More importantly for the purposes of comparison, this is also true for three of Philadelphia's nearby states: New York, New Jersey, and Delaware.
The Inquirer's Great Expectations Page refers to the Chicago-area Metropolitan Mayors Caucus, the Denver-area Metro Mayors Caucus, and the Philadelphia-based Alliance for Regional Stewardship, http://www.regionalstewardship.org/... (The first two have web sites, but I was unable to produce a functioning link to them.) Certainly, more can be done in the mutual interest of both city and suburbs, but it takes both will and a common vision of what is popular and desirable.
I would certainly welcome thoughts from the Daily Kos membership about city-suburban initiatives that they are familiar with, and any advice about what works well and what does not. Satullo's column sees the growing blueness of Philadelphia suburbs as the removal of the partisan barrier to greater cooperation, but many other barriers clearly remain.
Even greater ideological harmony is not always of unlimited benefit. Lower Merion Township, on the Philadelphia border, when it was governed by Republican yahoos, were appalled to find that they had a world-class art collection--the Barnes collection, adminstered by the Barnes Foundation--in their midst, generating a lot of noisy traffic from tourists. Their viewing this jewel as a form of community nuisance created the opportunity for it to move to Philadelphia, which aggressively markets itself to tourists. Philadelphia strongly encouraged and planned for this move in a partnership with the city government, leading foundations and civic groups.
Then enlightened, forward-thinking Democrats took over Lower Merion Township after more than a century of Republican rule. These dynamic, progressive folks--many with deep Philadelphia roots--are now actively fighting to keep the art collection in Lower Merion. Like Philadelphians, they appreciate the value of art and are willing to make some sacrifices to keep it there. However this battle between urban and suburban friends ends, its existence indicates the complexity of the problems that have to be faced.
No one benefits from poverty and the crime it helps spawn. No one benefits from many Philadelphians from the homes of blue collar and unemployed people having an education without art and music instruction, without school librarians, in buildings that are often antiquated and somewhat dangerous.
No one benefits from the massive traffic congestion enroute to downtown Philadelphia and many suburban areas. No one benefits from the stubborn persistence of air pollution.
Hopefully, the 21st Century will be an era of solutions more than slogans, of new hopes replacing old hostilities. Your comments about how city/suburban efforts have worked in areas you are most familiar with would be quite helpful.