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Clarke: "Class" and "power" stricken from North Central NID legislation
At a City Council Rules Committee hearing today, neighbors turned out en masse to protest a proposal they said was designed without them in mind.
Clarke: "Class" and "power" stricken from North Central NID legislation
After Chinatown neighbors got organized and got the Callowhill Neighborhood Improvement District defeated, City Council President Darrell Clarke made what seemed like a brilliant move in proposing his North Central Neighborhood Improvement District: the NID would not levy taxes on single-family owner-occupied homes.
Clarke envisioned the NID as a vital booster shot for the area economy, taxing commercial properties in return for increased public safety, greening, cleaning and other services. And many local landlords and developers say it’s critical to their investments — and they’re willing to pay to support it. What Clarke apparently didn't count on was that residents of the area would take that exclusion from the tax (which they don't want to pay, of course) as disenfranchisement, going so far as to circulate petitions calling the proposal a "Negro Removal District." At the first of two City Council hearings on the matter today, some residents of the neighborhood told Council’s Rules Committee they see the NID as an avenue to taxing them in the future, or even acquiring their properties by eminent domain. At the least, many see it as the city turning over power to Temple University, developers and area landlords. Lessie Drummond, who owns two rental properties in North Central, told the committee: “We need help, but we do not need to be controlled.”
By the end of the hearing, Clarke announced — among other amendments to the bill — that the words "class" and "power" would be removed from the legislation. “Class,” he admitted, “was probably not a good choice of words” to include in a bill dealing with fraught neighborhood politics in the vicinity of Temple University — even though “class” had referred to classifications of NID directors — not to, say, classes of residents of the area, which has seen endemic poverty and crime run up against typical town-and-gown issues as Temple has outgrown its old commuter-school status.
It goes to show how sensitive conversations about which class of people holds the power in this North Philly neighborhood have become. “There’s a general disrespect of the homeowners in North Central,” complained Judith Robinson, an outspoken neighborhood activist.
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