Where do you see Philly in 5 years? (Philadelphia, Harrisburg: city hall, high crime)

[bridge12]

Domb is fine but I like Rhynhart much more. I've had enough of City councilmembers as Mayors after Kenney. Rhynhart also feels like she can bridge the moderate and progressive gap which Domb cannot.

[Redddog]

Progessives are killing the Democratic party right now. And I say this as a progressive.

Maybe I'm just a PINO.

[Duderino]

Originally Posted by Redddog

Progessives are killing the Democratic party right now. And I say this as a progressive.

Maybe I'm just a PINO.

Agreed. I consider myself moderately liberal/left-of-center, but I do see left-wing extremism as just as much of a threat to our democracy as militant right-wingers.

The truth is and will always be that democracy cannot function without pragmatic and willing-to-compromise people in power. And people who put policy solutions over party.

Unfortunately, with the rise of ideological purity and tribalism, those ideals have gone completely out the window. But it's time to bring them back in full force.

[Muinteoir]

Originally Posted by Redddog

Progessives are killing the Democratic party right now. And I say this as a progressive.

Maybe I'm just a PINO.

Originally Posted by Duderino

Agreed. I consider myself moderately liberal/left-of-center, but I do see left-wing extremism as just as much of a threat to our democracy as militant right-wingers.

The truth is and will always be that democracy cannot function without pragmatic and willing-to-compromise people in power. And people who put policy solutions over party.

Unfortunately, with the rise of ideological purity and tribalism, those ideals have gone completely out the window. But it's time to bring them back in full force.

If you're talking about specific politicians, well, I'm not really going to argue about the intraparty politics right now, because it's kind of a mess across the board. Both Democrats and Republicans have some pretty bad in-fighting, but the dynamic is even worse between the two parties. And even more broadly, among the electorate, politics are incredibly toxic at the moment.

But what are all of these progressive or far left ideas that are so toxic? I can agree that all of the talk around "defund the police" was toxic, because it took the momentum from Black Lives Matter and twisted into a slogan that, rightfully, scared many people. We can talk about police reform and shifting city budgets without isolating many people, including many Black people themselves.

I know this site is right-leaning, and even on the Philadelphia forum the Democrat-identifying people typically identify as something closer to "centrists," but really, what other ideas at a national level are killing the party? Why can't we achieve what other "developed" nations have in regards to universal healthcare, paid family leave, affordable/free education, etc.? These ideas are far left only if you live a country like the USA where our idea of "center" is in fact somewhere on the right. This country has lost so many opportunities to increase quality of life for average Americans since last ~quarter of the 20th century, when people were misled by the idea of trickle down economics.

And I won't get into city politics as much, because left-leaning or centrist, it's kind of a mess. And when issues need to be tackled at a national level (or even global level, such as the new corporate baseline tax that I was very happy to see), it doesn't make sense for our city to try to take it upon ourselves to "tax the rich," for instance, when the rich can just move to, say, Atlanta. Our city needs to focus on making itself competitive on a national level and leave (many of) the ambitious progressive policies for national politics --- now there's an idea my progressive friends would disagree with!

I'm not one for ideological purism. Although I lean much farther left than most people here, I consider myself pretty open-minded, and my ideas change as I age and make further observations of the world. I do agree there are too many "progressives" in the younger generations, Millennials and Gen Z'ers, who partake in this politics of "woke" purity where anyone who disagrees with them is automatically a racist, capitalist pig, etc. which is wrong. These people are misguided by the echo-chambers in which they comfortably spew inflammatory garbage, and most of them have spent about 0 time trying to understand and engage with how people come to different conclusions than their own. But despite this immature approach, I don't think this part of the electorate is nearly as dangerous to our democracy as the politicians who continue to spread misinformation about election fraud. These are two very different issues that are not really comparable, and the lies surrounding the 2020 election + the number of people who believe the lie are clearly the biggest threat to our democracy in this day.

[Muinteoir]

Originally Posted by JamesJay64

Just wondering what direction you see the city going for a few reasons. On one hand, there is a ton of development going on, and the 2020 census numbers indicated significant growth.

On the other hand, the census numbers were pre-COVID, and violent crime is getting worse, though Center City and many other neighborhoods seem to be thriving.

I bought a house here and love living in the city, but what do you think? Will the city continue growing? Will crime decline again once we're past COVID and further past George Floyd and other incidents?

Thanks!

And to answer the question more directly, I think we are presently living in a kind of volatile time. Rising inflation, crime rates, a pandemic whose conclusion is yet to be realized, and toxic national politics make things way too hard to predict.

My guess is real estate prices will keep increasing in presently hot neighborhoods, crime will remain too high --- but disagreement on how to fix it will prevent any drastic and long-lasting fixes, and our net gains from cities like NYC will continue. Even with all of our problems, Philadelphia's got great urban bones, and institutions that provide a baseline of prosperity that will endure any swing in the economy --- which I think gives us great long-term viability compared to some of the "hot" economies out West and down South. But in five years, it's kind of hard to say where we'll be.

[cpomp]

Originally Posted by Muinteoir

And to answer the question more directly, I think we are presently living in a kind of volatile time. Rising inflation, crime rates, a pandemic whose conclusion is yet to be realized, and toxic national politics make things way too hard to predict.

My guess is real estate prices will keep increasing in presently hot neighborhoods, crime will remain too high --- but disagreement on how to fix it will prevent any drastic and long-lasting fixes, and our net gains from cities like NYC will continue. Even with all of our problems, Philadelphia's got great urban bones, and institutions that provide a baseline of prosperity that will endure any swing in the economy --- which I think gives us great long-term viability compared to some of the "hot" economies out West and down South. But in five years, it's kind of hard to say where we'll be.

I meant to add in my first post that Philadelphia will likely follow the "tale of two cities" trend. Increasing affluence, amenities, development, etc. in certain areas but major issues with crime and poverty in other areas. Similar to what we see in Chicago and DC.

[Duderino]

Originally Posted by Muinteoir

I'm not one for ideological purism. Although I lean much farther left than most people here, I consider myself pretty open-minded, and my ideas change as I age and make further observations of the world. I do agree there are too many "progressives" in the younger generations, Millennials and Gen Z'ers, who partake in this politics of "woke" purity where anyone who disagrees with them is automatically a racist, capitalist pig, etc. which is wrong. These people are misguided by the echo-chambers in which they comfortably spew inflammatory garbage, and most of them have spent about 0 time trying to understand and engage with how people come to different conclusions than their own. But despite this immature approach, I don't think this part of the electorate is nearly as dangerous to our democracy as the politicians who continue to spread misinformation about election fraud. These are two very different issues that are not really comparable, and the lies surrounding the 2020 election + the number of people who believe the lie are clearly the biggest threat to our democracy in this day.

All well said. I certainly agree with you that the progressive policy intent is all very admirable. No reasonable person should be against ending racism, protecting the environment, basic human dignity, or free and fair elections. It's frankly depressing that so much time and effort has to be put towards advocating for these types of causes politically.

I was using a bit of hyperbole in claiming that hardcore progressives are as big of a threat as militant right-wingers, but you've already gotten to the crux of the thought I intended to convey. It's not about being against the policy; it's being concerned about the approach in implementing that policy. As you allude to, the armchair warrior approach of online "shaming" is really not doing anyone any good, and it's certainly not leading to any changes in behaviors or public opinion. There has to be a better way.

Don't get me wrong, the vast majority of progressive causes are fights worth fighting, but the tactics have to be much more sophisticated and convincing to truly win over hearts and minds (I personally like to point out hypocritical ways of thinking, which with right-wingers, is not terribly hard, lol).

But I don't think you need to be convinced of that, so the good news is that I don't think we have any real disagreement.

[JamesJay64]

Originally Posted by cpomp

I meant to add in my first post that Philadelphia will likely follow the "tale of two cities" trend. Increasing affluence, amenities, development, etc. in certain areas but major issues with crime and poverty in other areas. Similar to what we see in Chicago and DC.

This is still a recipe for overall decline in my opinion. When you have such a contrast of good and bad, inevitably there will be a certain number of high-profile incidents in the affluent areas that make national headlines, and give the city a bad reputation. Philly and Chicago have these now, and Chicago has been slowly/steadily losing population for awhile. DC has high crime areas but they are mostly isolated and there's not a whole lot of spillover into the safe areas. It also has the unique position with Federal and other jobs that will always be there no matter what.

What I fear is us going the route of Baltimore, which is also in a "two cities" situation but the wealthy areas have been bleeding population, losing businesses, etc. for about 60 years while the homicide rate has remained consistent/mostly gone up. I enjoyed my time there but pray Philly doesn't go down a similar path, as its vibrancy is leagues above all but a few American cities and after living in DC and Baltimore, this is the place I plan to stick around long term.

[Tweb66]

For all the doom and gloom, what we are seeing that we haven't really before is significant development outside of Center City. NW Philly is going through a mini construction boom, and while many center city adjacent neighborhoods have been doing well, it keeps spreading, spreading and spreading. Parts of North Philly (like actual North Philly) are booming with construction whereas 10 years ago the only reason to go there was to buy drugs.

[PHL10]

Originally Posted by Tweb66

For all the doom and gloom, what we are seeing that we haven't really before is significant development outside of Center City. NW Philly is going through a mini construction boom, and while many center city adjacent neighborhoods have been doing well, it keeps spreading, spreading and spreading. Parts of North Philly (like actual North Philly) are booming with construction whereas 10 years ago the only reason to go there was to buy drugs.

Exactly. Considering we are coming through a global pandemic, the amount of development activity is pretty incredible. We aren't out of the woods but "doom and gloom" is really hard to justify based on what's happening on the ground.