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Philly could take a cue from a city that works
Dec. 31, 2006
Chris Satullo
Inquirer Editorial Page Editor
Philadelphia will elect a new mayor and City Council in 2007. That means some familiar words and phrases will get a full workout: violent crime, school reform, the neighborhoods, pay to play, war chest, ward leader.
But there's another word, a proper noun, that will be much on the minds and lips of the city's civic and business leadership, if not so much its political players. That proper noun is Chicago.
In September 2005, 72 local leaders took a trip to the Windy City, sponsored by the Pennsylvania Economy League. For many on the trip, what they saw and heard as they interviewed Chicagoland leaders deepened a restless dissatisfaction with how things work, or don't work, in the Philadelphia region. When they got back, many of them tried to spread that restlessness with the status quo among their local peers.
As a result, a bunch of "how come" questions are brewing that will get raised whenever mayoral candidates come calling for money or support among the city's business and nonprofit leadership. Questions such as:
How come Chicago gets a gleaming, bustling Millennium Park on its waterfront, and we get stuck with Penn's Landing?
How come Chicago looks so green, with new trees and flower boxes everywhere, and we can't even get the grass in Fairmount Park mowed properly?
How come Chicago's Richard M. Daley is part of an effective Metropolitan Mayors Caucus that makes regional cooperation happen, while our mayor couldn't get suburban leaders to return his calls even if he was offering to buy lunch?
How come Chicago, a big city with hardball politics, managed to redo its whole zoning code and help create a planning board for the whole region, while Philly's code remains a crazy patchwork invitation to corruption and its professional planners are neutered?
And how come the Bulls, Bears and White Sox have all had championship parades since the last time Philly had one?
Well, that last one isn't the political class' fault, but still....
