The Blonde and the Blowhard

A "Buy Local First" organizer tosses a gauntlet at the Inky's biz columnist -- who jives and hides.

by Bruce Schimmel

When I met Judy Wicks in the early '80s, it seemed she could play the dizzy, frizzy blonde in a screwball comedy about hippies and freaks. Here was a woman who knew how to party, who celebrated her birthday by dancing on the roofs of what's now quaintly called Sansom Row — a strip of townhouses between 34th and 36th, now home to Wicks' White Dog Café.

Today, these 19th-century townhouses are occupied by retail holdovers: miniscule businesses, some successful, some of which seem to barely hang on. These homegrown shops are nearly encircled by mostly corporate franchises, the invasive species of the retail world. And it is these absentee-owner, megacorp stores that Wicks has come to despise, because, she says, they're hurtful to Philadelphia.

Wicks, now in her 60s, could still play a madcap blonde with her mane of platinum hair. But now the giggly patter of a perfect hostess is increasingly interspersed with a fierce invective against corporate greed. In her new role of strategist for her Sustainable Business Network (SBN), Wicks, the hippie, is becoming a fiercesome harpie. "Cheap oil is the lifeblood of corporations," says Wicks. "We need to hear the cries of the children of Iraq, suffering because of oil. We need an end to patriarchy. It's time to bring forth the goddess in all of us." To my mind, it's past time for this local diety, albeit self-styled, to wail loudly. And I'm happy that her call for justice is annoying some at the Philadelphia Inquirer — the White Tower on Broad.

Recently, I wrote about Andrew Cassel, the Inky business columnist who savaged SBN's "Buy Local First" campaign, which encourages consumers to buy goods first from stores that are locally owned. The goods themselves don't have to be local — though that'd be nice. But the owners of the store should live nearby, because it stands to reason that money spent with locals tends to enrich the local economy. As evidence, you don't need studies about the destruction that Wal-Mart and their ilk wreak on local economies, ecologies and communities. It's obvious: Buying from a neighbor makes good sense.

But the Inky's Cassel disagrees, writing that he was "troubled" by the notion of Buy Local First. "What makes SBN's campaign so different," asks Cassel, "from one urging people to patronize businesses owned by Christians, or heterosexuals, or white people?"

Cassel's comparison was so patently foolish, it brought almost universal howls and jibes. My favorite, the headline of a blog on Young Philly Politics, states simply that "Andrew Cassel is off his rocker." Still, I say, blame not poor Andrew, for he may not understand what he says. As a business writer for corporate media, Cassel is less a high priest of Free Trade than he is an altar boy, mouthing the pieties of the megacorps that succor him.

Deluged with protests, however, Cassel did a bit of backpedaling in a recent column. "Let's be clear," writes Cassel, apparently clarifying himself, "There's nothing wrong with patronizing locally owned firms if that's what you prefer."

But the Goddess was not appeased. Perhaps it was Cassel's suggestion — following a fulsome compliment, praising the White Dog as a "Philadelphia landmark" — that Wicks should have used her career to turn her restaurant into a franchise. It made me wonder if Cassel was trying to piss her off, or if he's just that dense.

Following Cassel's first column, Wicks invited the writer to attend a SBN conference that recently took place at Penn's law school. From the podium, she scanned a crowd of about 200 that included local business owners, a handful of megacorp escapees, the odd anarchist, some economists, a lot of farmers, and a tall woman with feathers in her hair that looked like a young Cher. But there was no Cassel.

Wicks was clearly disappointed. From the law school stage, surrounded by oil portraits of austere jurists, she pilloried the columnist, saying she'd brought a "big dog" to debate him. The dog in question, Michael Shuman, has introduced the message of Buy Local First to several cities, where he's gone mano a mano with several local free-market advocates. But, alas, Andrew the Meek was nowhere to be found, nor were any reporters in attendance from the White Tower.

Still, something of Cassel did appear, even if the columnist was not there in the flesh. Shuman worked the columnist's free-market pieties — along with the columnist's headshot — into his roadshow presentation of "The Ten Worst Arguments Against Buy Local First."

Seeing Cassel's grinning face among the paintings of the law school's jurists, Cassel looked very much the pip-squeak. As Shuman demolished Cassel's inanities, this otherwise earnest crowd roared. It was to some, I imagine, a cleansing laughter. But one can only hope that the sounds of their derision will be heard in the White Tower, where I'm told that some actually care about a self-reliant and sustainable local economy.