Buzzing Buzz

by Paul R. Levy

The interview with Buzz Bissinger in the April 27 City Paper regarding his piece in this month’s Philadelphia magazine articulates well the mood of that portion of Philadelphia’s electorate that remains uncomfortable with the results of last November’s Mayoral election.

Bissinger’s book on Rendell, A Prayer for the City — a great piece of writing that captured the tone, spirit and style of his leadership and the daunting challenges of big city governance — did much to burnish the image of "America’s Mayor."

But sitting silently on the sofa, taking notes in the mayor’s office for several years, Bissinger clearly was seduced by Rendell. He depicted accurately the energy, the passionate belief in the city, and Ed’s brilliant capacity to engage and energize a crowd. At his best Rendell restored fiscal stability while cutting taxes, sparked a hospitality-led economic revival and restored to Philadelphians a belief in their city. That’s an extraordinary achievement.

But like so many others, Bissinger fell prey to the cult of personality. After all, what does the title of his book signify? If not Ed and chief of staff David Cohen, all we have left is….what? A prayer for the city? Divine intervention? That’s nonsense; and it’s misleading.

Rendell was without a doubt the best Philadelphia mayor in over a generation. But, as Bissinger notes, the list of things left undone is equally impressive. After the first term, he discarded any effort to "reinvent government" — to consolidate and streamline bureaucracy, simplify regulations, improve services while reducing the cost of government. While hospitality jobs grew, high-wage office jobs contracted. Much was done in neighborhoods, but there was no attempt to radically rethink and recast abandoned, industrial wastelands as alternatives to suburban sprawl or as incubators for the new economy. To be sure, all leaders have strengths and weaknesses, and it’s only because of Rendell’s significant accomplishments that we have the luxury to contemplate what he did not do.

Bissinger notes that John Street brings to the office of mayor a very different personality, different strengths and different priorities. But he laments the absence in Mayor Street of a compelling vision, describing the focus on blight removal only as an effort at "eradication" — taking something away.

Perhaps it’s worth recalling that the Center City District began in 1990 with the most prosaic of goals: clean and safe, making litter, graffiti and crime go away. But by paying to eradicate these huge, dispiriting negatives, the business community restored its own confidence and the belief that coordinated public and private actions can yield enormous returns. Why isn’t making 40,000 abandoned cars go away an equally compelling beginning?

Bissinger’s Philadelphia magazine piece hangs on an evocative literary conceit: a stroll from Chestnut Hill down Germantown Avenue to the idyllic 19th century Morris Arboretum, and then to an unfinished piece of bridge reconstruction and the temptation to flee the city’s high taxes by crossing to Montgomery County. "If you don’t care about folks like me," Bissinger cries out to Street, "by god, I’m going to leave!"

Perhaps if Bissinger had strolled the other way, following the lead of Elijah Anderson’s powerful Code of the Street, down Germantown Avenue through Mount Airy, Germantown and into North Philadelphia, he would have encountered the drug deals, the abandoned vehicles and houses, and the stirring efforts of inner city revival that are the basis for the vision that inspired a narrow majority of Philadelphians to elect John Street mayor.

So therein lies the tale of two cities, two dramatically different experiences, and two radically different horizons of choice. The challenge for leadership is not to lament broken bridges, but rather to build them; to find new common ground in a strategy for growth that can reduce taxes for business and the middle class while restoring hope, opportunity and a competitive edge to our inner city.

Paul R. Levy is Executive Director of the Center City District. If you would like to respond to this Slant or have one of your own (650 words), contact Howard Altman, City Paper News Editor, 123 Chestnut St., Phila., PA 19106, or e-mail altman@citypaper.net.