In a city that has run out of cash, it’s wiser to call a neighbour than an ambulance
Philadelphia got a new mayor in January and most residents couldn’t be happier. After being sworn in, Michael Nutter gave a rousing speech about all the great things he planned for the city: less crime, better schools, more jobs. ‘People who have confidence in the future make big plans,’ Nutter declared. ‘This is the new Philadelphia.’ It makes you wonder if the poor man knows what he’s getting into. Or, as one headline put it: ‘Michael Nutter Is, Um, Totally Screwed.’ Don’t get me wrong: if you’re coming to town to see the Liberty Bell or grab an artery-clogging cheese steak, that’s great. You’ll have a good time. We’ve got off-Broadway shows, fabulous museums and more Ben Franklin impersonators per capita than any other city in the world. Our archaic alcohol-control system means an abundance of cheap but gourmet BYOB eateries.
But for those of us who live here, things aren’t so rosy. With 392 slayings last year, our murder rate exceeds those of New York and Chicago: the nickname ‘Killadelphia’ is starting to stick. About a quarter of the city’s 1.4 million residents live in poverty, and the number is rising. Almost half the city’s high school students drop out before graduation.
Businesses here need help. The city has a wage tax, a ‘business privilege’ tax and so many other taxes that a 2006 study showed it to be more costly to do business in Philadelphia than in six other major cities, including Boston, Los Angeles and Washington, DC. And even if businesses did move here, would they be able to find employees among the uneducated populace? Would incoming employees want to send their children to the city’s sub-par schools?
There is also an unseen, but very real, threat that one local writer referred to as ‘the boa constrictor strangling the city budget’. The city’s expenses far outweigh its revenues, particularly when it comes to pensions and health insurance for city employees. The new mayor faces contract negotiations with the four largest unions, including those representing police and firefighters. The city faces shutdown, and possible bankruptcy. Not to be too doomy and gloomy about it, Philly could suffer complete financial collapse in the coming year — and it already struggles to provide many basic services. I haven’t seen a snowplough in my neighbourhood in five years. The streets are so pockmarked with holes that driving is like a video game.
And please, in the midst of all this, let’s hope there are no crimes or fires and no one wants to pick up a dog licence or file a building permit or die. (But if the parking ticket people were gone, that wouldn’t be so bad: that seems to be the one agency that’s on top of its job.) Also: avoid calling 911 for medical help. Drive yourself, even if you’re missing a limb. Our city ambulances have been notoriously and fatally slow in recent years.
The Pennsylvania primary on 22 April could turn out to be the clincher in the Clinton–Obama contest, but if John McCain is the ultimate winner, the presidential election could work against loudly Democratvoting and Democrat-led Philadelphia. To those who say that a Republican in power wouldn’t let any major American city suffer, I say: New Orleans?
Politics here can be ugly, though it is always interesting: right now, one local state representative, a Democrat, faces trial for charges including fraud, conspiracy and obstruction of justice. Federal authorities say the man used state money and charity funds to live an opulent lifestyle. The indicted official says the Bush administration is out to get him and other powerful Democrats. I say he has a mighty fancy house for an elected official.
Now some of this is to be expected. We’re in a city after all. So when we get together, we talk about crime. It’s hard to avoid when my car’s been broken into three times in four years, even though there’s a police car semi-permanently parked only blocks from my house. There were four murders in my neighbourhood last summer, a fact I’m guessing local realtors are reluctant to reveal in our already crippled housing market. As for me, I just wave to the officer in the parked car on my way home, lock my door and metal outer gate, then set the alarm. I have no trouble sleeping, but I’ve heard gunfire as I lay in bed at night.
And we expect some inconveniences to balance out all the conveniences of city living. Almost every place I need to go — grocery store, gym, doctor’s surgery, restaurants, drug stores — is within a 15-minute walk of my front door. I can buy boots to wade through the snow. But sometimes I wish things were a little easier.
No matter what happens over the next few months, I’m confident Philadelphians will pull together. Residents here have a bad reputation: outsiders think we’re on the edge of uncouth. They keep bringing up the time Philadelphia fans pelted Santa Claus with snowballs during a pro football game. You would be angry, too, if you lived in a city with four major professional sports teams and not one of them had won a championship in over 20 years.
But Philadelphians are loyal, tough and incredibly stubborn. You have to be to keep cheering for those sports teams. Philadelphia has been called ‘a city of neighbourhoods’ and it’s true. United by ethnicity or economics or simple proximity, people watch each other’s backs. I know most of my neighbours — something friends in New York and Washington say is highly unusual — and they know me.
Sometimes it’s annoying, like when a neighbour scolds you for putting your garbage on the curb too early or casually asks who that was leaving your house late Saturday night. But other times, it’s just wonderful. My nextdoor neighbour, 78-year-old Paco, made me a promise soon after I moved in: ‘If you’re ever in trouble, just scream my name and I’ll come running.’ I believe him. When I heard his sobs piercing the wall one night, I immediately went to his side. His wife had just died. Her body was still warm. We sat together until their family arrived.
So if Michael Nutter finds the city is beyond saving, at least I know I won’t be alone. And in true Philadelphia fashion, we’ll toughen up, ride it out, and hope for a better season next year.
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