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Archive: November, 2011
A new anonymous blog that purports to be by an Occupy Philly member makes a rather mournful assessment of the discussions about whether to comply with requests that protestors move out of Dilworth Plaza for scheduled renovations. The Reasonable Solutions blogger wrote:
"This morning our group, that was present at G.A., is reporting that the majority has shifted back to staying and resisting police. Reasonable Solutions has been advocating that we expand to a second location, and while we were gaining support over the last few days there was a major tide change yesterday. An unofficial count was 80 for resisting, 12 for not resisting. Another report stated that it was more like 40 to 10. Either way that is a super majority. This may be due to:
- lack of Solutioners on site (although I know we don’t have 80+ members)
- 4 days of persuasion hypnosis brought by our opposition
- the shake up we experienced amongst our donations and resources committee"
The subject will come to a vote at this Friday's General Assembly and could be a turning point for the Philly demonstration, which has so far worked peacefully with the city.
Last night’s election seems to signal a defeat for the Philadelphia left: Green Party candidate for Sheriff and anti-poverty activist Cheri Honkala received just 7 percent of the vote, crushed by Democrat Jewell Williams; and Uhuru’s black nationalist-socialist candidate Wali “Diop” Rahman got destroyed, receiving less than 4 percent.
Honkala’s candidacy never took off into anything resembling the grassroots movement that would have been necessary to overcome the huge number of Philadelphians who likely vote a straight Democratic ticket, and Diop’s message of “revolutionary resistance” made his self-imposed political isolation a forgone conclusion. But while this might be a defeat for the self-proclaimed leftist candidates in Philly, the city’s left, some of whom are camped out at City Hall, largely sat this election out.
Keystone Progress, a statewide progressive organization, is responsible to so many constituencies that their voting guide was effectively useless: nearly every candidate in the state was endorsed by at least one union or liberal group, making it impossible to discern any clear progressive standard bearers.
Those few voters who bothered to appear at the polls yesterday didn't throw too many curve balls. Michael Nutter is still mayor in Philadelphia — the only surprise being, perhaps, that Republican Karen Brown managed to claim 21.65 percent of the vote in yesterday's election. Brian O'Neill, longtime incumbent in the 10th District City Council seat, hung on despite a vigorous challenge from Bill Rubin, who was looking to link O'Neill with the politically toxic Deferred Retirement Option Plan. Mark Squilla, the heir apparent to Councilman Frank DiCicco's First District Council slot, won handily and threw a massive party in South Philly to celebrate (perhaps funded with the thousands of dollars that have come into his campaign even since it became clear that he had no serious challenger).
There were upsets though: Isaiah Thompson details the byzantine politics that almost (but maybe not quite!) quashed David Oh's chances of winning a Republican at-large City Council seat: Dennis O'Brien has the most votes, but Oh is still neck-and-neck with Al Taubenberger with 96 percent of voting precincts counted. He also looks at the larger implications of anti-establishment Republican Al Schmidt's win for City Commissioner here.
As for the voting process itself, there were some reports of political materials illegally being brought into polling places as well as late poll openings. But Committee of Seventy said the bulk of the issues it heard about centered on some polling places not posting required foreign-language notices in Spanish and Chinese. (Also, Karen Brown told CBS 3 her car had been vandalized for the 10th time on Tuesday.) Voter turnout was under 20 percent.
Those outside the restaurant industry may not realize quite how Kafka-esque the process of (legally) putting a few chairs and tables on the sidewalk really is. But, in fact, any restaurant located outside of a designated sidewalk seating zone such as exists in Center City actually needs to get City Council to pass a law — OK, an ordinance — to allow it. That's in addition to haggling with the Streets Department over permits and dimensions.
Now, Girard Coalition is working with Councilman Darrell Clarke to bring a new sidewalk seating zone to Girard Avenue from Eighth Street to Susquehanna Avenue. "It's about giving restaurants on Girard Avenue the same rights that restaruatns in Center City have," says the Coalition's Corey Bell.
They're in the process of gathering support form community groups, and they already have 10 restaurants that have signed on and received preliminary approval from the Streets Department pending the new legislation. (There are, of course, a few restaurants on Girard that seem to be putting tables out without the necessary permits.) Bell hopes that the ordinance will be in place to begin seating customers outside by next spring, but says "it's a mystery as to how long it could take."
The Center City District, where an outdoor cafe zone has been in effect since 1995, has 273 cafes, which represents a 10 percent increase just since 2010, according to the District.
Sure, the mayor's race was a given: but at stake on Tuesday was more than a mere mayor. For one thing, there's the looming internal vote for presidency of City Council — which will determine, among other things, the success Mayor Nutter can expect during his next four years.
Then there's the future of the ailing Philadelphia Republican machine, whose boss, Mike Meehan, saw his power challenged on multiple fronts on Tuesday. And if you believe those who argue that the Republican and Democratic machines are really one and the same, you might say the whole dang decades-long structure of Philadelphia political power was under siege.
First, there was the the victory of Al Schmidt over longtime incumbent Joe Duda for a seat with the City Commissioners. Schmidt is one of a band of Philadelphia Republicans staging an insurgency against party boss Mike Meehan. In May, Republican insurgent John Featherman broke ranks and ran against Karen Brown, the machine's choice, for mayor. Featherman lost, but not by much, while Schmidt advanced to the general election.
The City Commissioners office, which oversees elections, is both a source of life-giving patronage for the Republican party and a potentially influential force in city elections. It may not sound as glamorous as mayor, but Al Schmidt's attempt to seize the seat from Duda amounted to a serious challenge to the city's political machine.
Then there was the bare-knuckled battle by union boss John “Johnny Doc” Dougherty to defeat outsider candidate David Oh in his bid for City Council At-Large. (Oh came out ahead of his leading opponent, party pick Al Taubenberger, but by less than two hundred votes with more to count on Tuesday night.)
Oh, as you may recall, came under fire — just a few months, it might be observed, after winning a punishing victory over his opponents in the city's Republican Primary in may — when the Daily News published a series of articles suggesting Oh might have mis-characterized his military career. Not long after, various news outlets reported that a group of veterans had staged a public shaming of Oh. Around the same time, anonymous (and illegal) campaign fliers calling Oh a “faker” began to appear.
The fliers, as this author observed in last week's print edition (and in an epic, 3,000-word on-line version, which you can read at our blog, the Naked City), proved beyond a doubt that someone was funding a smear campaign against Oh. Digging deeper, CP found that one Joe Eastman, who had brought together eight veterans to criticize Oh, has a longstanding personal grudge against Oh. Several established local veterans groups, in fact, supported Oh wholeheartedly.
Meanwhile, party bosses have plenty of reasons to keep Oh down. A candidate independent of the Republican machine, Oh poses a clear and present danger to a plan by Dougherty, long in the works, to prevent the election of Councilwoman Marian B. Tasco as Council President and potentially stymie Mayor Nutter and the alliances backing him (Tasco is favored by Mayor Nutter; her presumed opponent, Councilman Darrell Clarke, is not.)
A few days after the publican of that article, new fliers appeared, this time bearing a signature: Philly Phuture — a PAC controlled by John Dougherty.
The Oh vote is too close to call — but when CP ran into a clearly excited John Featherman last night, he had this to say about Tuesday night's election: “[Republican party boss] Meehan just lost control of the Commissioners seat — if he loses to David Oh now, that means that people who run for office will no longer have to go get his help,” Featherman said breathlessly. “This is huge.”
The tradition of intra- extra- quasi- and uber-electoral parties coming together for lunch at Famous 4th Street Delicatessen was alive and well today, as candidates, politicos, reporters, David Cohens, etc. gathered for the bi-annual schmoozefest.
Among them was union boss John Dougherty, better known as Johnny Doc, who seemed to be the life of the part: many of the candidates CP observed at the gathering are being supported by Dougherty, who was busy handing out anti-David Oh fliers paid for by a political PAC associated with his IBEW Local 94. Dougherty wasn't being stingy either: CP watched as Doc dumped whole packs of the fliers on anybody he could find.
Why might Dougherty be out to get Oh? Read this post. The short answer is that Oh is not among the candidates that Doughery has backed for City Council — candidates who have pledged to vote against Councilwoman Marian B. Tasco for the presidency of City Council.
Her presumed rival for that position, Councilman Darrell Clarke, showed up to Famous too, looking a little tense and tired: Clarke has much riding on today's election, as the makeup of Council will determine the next president.
The Delaware River Basin Commission just posted revised draft rules on Marcellus shale drilling in the Delaware River watershed — and environmentalists are none too pleased. The new regulations offer some comfort in delineating the process for wastewater disposal and paving the way for alternative sources of fracking water besides the Delaware River (which some of us need for drinking). But they also leave much of the regulation to the individual states to avoid "unnecessary duplication."
The Commission is expected to adopt the regulations on Nov. 21 at a meeting in Trenton. Environmental advocates say that the lack of public comment on the new draft rules is the equivalent of "slamming the door in the public's face." A press release from Catskill Mountainkeeper, Delaware Riverkeeper Network
Damascus Citizens for Sustainability, Environment New Jersey, Hudson Riverkeeper, NJ Environmental Federation, New Jersey Sierra Club and NYH2O follows.
Tunisians took to the streets, Egyptians overthrew their despot, Libyans revolted — all for the right to do what you can so easily: participate in a fair democratic election.
Not registered? Did you vote Obama/McCain in Philly? You're registered.
Don't know where to go? Check the Committee of Seventy's ultra-helpful web site.
Don't see why you should bother?
Come now:
Brian O'Neill in the 10th District faces the toughest opposition in decades against Democrat Bill Rubin; David Oh, the presumed front-runner for Minority (Republican) City Council At-Large faces a concerted smear campaign by Johnny Doc's crew and a "group" of Veterans headed by one guy with a long beef against Oh, and, perhaps, others in a tight race that includes Joe McColgan, Michael Untermeyer, Rep. Denny O'Brien, and Al Taubenberger.
There's the Shakespearean conflict over who will become the next City Council president — a deicision in the flux as these Council candidates duke it out.
And then, of course, there's the upstart Al Schmidt's attempt to seize a seat with the the City Commissioners from longtime incumbent, the aggressively camera-shy Joe Duda. (On the Democratic side, you'll see Stephanie Singer and Al Schmidt on the ballot).
There are many more candidates running as well: we don't do endorsements but find the Daily News endorsements here, the Inquirer endorsements here, and a whole mess of progressive endorsements here.
Even as conglomerates have consumed and consolidated the media in the United States and around the world, activists and entrepreneurs have been generating grassroots alternatives, in the form of community media, nonprofit websites and other news outlets. Tomorrow, City Paper reporter and columnist Daniel Denvir — along with Temple professor Naomi Schiller — will co-moderate Global Experiences of Media Reform, a forum on the topic hosted at Temple University's Paley Library lecture hall. Pete Tridish of Prometheus Radio Project and Jesús Suárez of Catia TVe in Venezuela join a panel of academics and experts to discuss recent legislation and court decisions affecting media ownership in the Americas, and to offer insight into new movements to sustain community media projects.
Tomorrow, the Council on American-Islamic Relations' (CAIR) Philadelphia chapter is holding a press conference at Whole Foods in Fairmount, where they say a Muslim supermarket worker was harassed and ultimately unfairly fired from his job because of his religious practices. "At one point, he was reportedly forced to pray by a trash dumpster after supervisors prevented him from performing prayers indoors in a storage room. Moreover, he was allegedly unfairly terminated on his return from Hajj, the Islamic pilgrimage to the holy city of Mecca," CAIR said in a statement. At Tuesday's event, CAIR is asking that the worker be allowed to return to his job.
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