What do you really or want expect from your city government and officials, services, responsibilities, etc?

[FindingZen]

Originally Posted by Patmcpsu

What separates New York City from Philly and Baltimore is that they occasionally dabble with Republican mayors. New York has long been a liberal stronghold, and had a string of Democrats running the city until Giuliani. At which point, there was enough low hanging fruit for him to pluck and put the city back on track. This was followed by Democrat/Independent Bloomberg who was elected as a Republican, and now unquestionable-Democrat DeBlasio.

It's hard to keep government accountable in a one party system, and Philadelphia's politics are a de facto one party system. As others mentioned, the only current semblance of accountability in Philadelphia's government is when the feds swoop in.

I agree that one-party rule is not good for accountability. Just look at the state legislature and economies in Alabama and Mississippi, for example.

The problem with Philly is that the alternative usually has such palpable contempt for people who are poor and/or of color that it is difficult at best to extract support from those significant voting blocs. Sam Katz IMO was the last Republican Mayoral candidate - at least to my less politically mature eyes - who had a decent shot of winning due to matching his desire for balancing the budget with a level of empathy for the marginalized. He even publicly acknowledged his gay brother who had died of AIDS, a remarkable admission for that time.

Short of mass gentrification, a Republican will only win the Mayor's Office (let alone Council seats in majority-minority districts) if they show how balancing the budget and privatizing services will directly benefit the struggling and disenfranchised. One smart way to do that would be to have, say, Roland Martin come in and push the benefits of a broad charter school overhaul. (Not that I would necessarily advocate for this myself as I have educator friends in the School District; IJS.)

Catering to the stable-to-prosperous areas of the city while casting aspersions onto the more challenged neighborhoods would not be a winning strategy. Unlike down the road, there are no "electoral" victories here.

[2e1m5a]

Originally Posted by Redddog

It's the entitled youth.

While the job has it's obvious drawbacks, $55K to start plus full pensions in 20 years used to be pretty compelling. Now, these damn kids all think they deserve to be millionaires.

(I'm only kinda kidding)

I have a buddy who's wife was a NYS trooper. She started right out of college and retired at 42 with a $95K pension and lifetime benefits. She's now a forensic psychologist, works part-time and is whistling dixie every damn day.

Nah--it's the culture of Policing, the stigmatization of only oppressing the poor/Justice for Just-Us, and being made to enforce unjust laws. The overwhelming majority of Americans support marijuana legalization yet the War on "Drugs" rages on (70% of "drug" cases include marijuana). This will reach a headway at some point, and we probably have already begun to see it.


Those generous pensions and early retirement for Police come at the expense of the rest of Government and taxpayers.
Especially in PA, it is insanity. This is not to mention things like civil asset forfeiture with Police directly stealing BILLIONS from innocent citizens. People are disgusted in general at Police, and usually rightfully so.

Auditor General: Billions in Transportation Funding Diverted to PA State Police.html

[cpomp]

Originally Posted by thedirtypirate

I was seriously disappointed when Kenyatta won again last fall. The woman running against him seemed like she really cared about improving the community and what-not. He's an idiot who's legislative achievements amount to little or nothing. I was happy when he got laughed out of council over his 'ban' on bay windows.

She did well in the polls considering how small her campaign was, but I agree.

A shame there are so many absent minded voters of Philadelphia don't know any better.

I hope Dombs term limit bill gains traction.

I'm also nervous about the influx of far left "progressive" candidates, most don't have the slightest and are already aiming to ruin the influx of development and and uptick in business interest in the city.

But we shall see...