Pine-Spruce: Will We Replay Washington Avenue?

No.

Farm worker waiting for dinner bell, Ohio, 1938.
Ben Shahn/FSA.

I'm not willing to play charades with Kenyatta Johnson any more. The travesty of Washington Avenue should be enough to convince anyone with eyes, ears, and a pulse that the man does not bargain in good faith. 

He sets us tasks. We perform them. He sets us more tasks.

This is a very old playbook. It's called The Labors of Hercules. My favorite is The Cleansing of the Augean Stables. (Augeas made the mistake of stiffing Hercules after he'd done the job; things did not go well for Augeas.)

I won't rehearse The Labors of Washington Avenue here. They involved meetings and petitions, and more meetings and more petitions, and finally a decision to reject competent advice and insist on a plan that very quickly proved deadly. (For more, click here.) 

The facade of consulting the citizenry is just that, but it does allow Mr. Johnson to play his little games of divide and conquer - make sure the citizenry are split and angry with one another, and perhaps they will forget to be angry at Mr. Johnson. 

And it gives Mr. Johnson what he wants, which is No Change. All while he can pretend to be open to change.

And meanwhile, he does nothing to make life in Philadelphia better. In fact, by making people very angry, he makes the quality of life for residents worse. It's a sick, twisted game. I'm not playing any more.

A Better Model

There are better models of government available. One of my favorites is the podesta. The city-states in medieval Italy were often places of significant internal conflict. Back then the political factions were built around wealthy and powerful families suffused with arrogance, and all trying to dominate the whole city. (If you're fond of Shakespeare, think about the Montagues and Capulets in Romeo and Juliet.) Sometimes one family would succeed, but often the factions found themselves mired in irreconcilable conflict. At loggerheads, as people used to say. 

Then one fine day, there comes a wake-up call. Perhaps one of the cities that has gotten its act together has taken it in mind to conquer Loggerhead City, and is hiring mercenaries from all over Italy to put together an army.

Oh my, what are we going to do? say the rich and powerful of Loggerhead City. Maybe we need to work together to defend ourselves, but every time we meet it just turns into a shouting match.

Enter the podesta. He's almost always an outsider because his main job is to settle disputes between powerful people who don't trust anyone who's from another faction of the city. He also runs the city government and the army. Something like a mayor, but also something like a judge.

A Podesta for Philadelphia

Philadelphia is a very Italian city, in many ways. We have many factions; we are frequently quarrelsome; and often our government seems paralyzed. Maybe we need a podesta. Wait, you say. We already have a mayor.

Yes, but the mayor these days is quite weak, because Darrell Clarke, the previous president of City Council, set out on a personal mission to destroy Michael Nutter, who was the mayor at the time. One of his chosen instruments was bike lanes. Nutter was fond of bike lanes and was installing quite a few of them. Clarke (with help from his mini-me Bill Greenlee), wrested control of bike lane installation from the mayor and gave that control to City Council.

This was bad for bicycling in Philadelphia, and it was also bad for Philadelphia. In time Clarke essentially became a shadow mayor, with greatly expanded authority over many things. 

So we had two mayors, one of whom had authority without responsibility, because, when things went wrong, as they often did, the shadow mayor could step further back into the shadows and send his whisperers out to blame the mayor for the travesty du jour.

So, yes, Philadelphia could use a podesta. Or at least a single strong mayor. It's a very Italian town, in many ways.

Two Final Thoughts

First: A basic function of government is resolving disputes that the parties themselves cannot resolve. Judges do this all the time. But for many issues, responsibility ultimately falls on our mayor and City Council, who have become quite adept at dodging this part of their jobs. 

Second: Our leaders need to lead. We didn't hire them just to change street names. They have the police power, which covers health, safety, morals, and the general welfare. This is their power, and their responsibility, and they can't duck it. That dead body on Spruce street belongs to City Hall. 

See also Quo Vadis, Philadephia?