BY PATRICK KERKSTRA INQUIRER STAFF WRITER Before the next mayor’s first term ends, $1 of every $4 Philadelphia spends will go to city workers’ pensions and health benefits. Unless the city gets a handle on these costs — which have more than doubled in Mayor Street’s tenure — the next mayor will have little or no cash left for new initiatives. Alone among big U.S. cities, Philadelphia has committed itself to substantive, long-term tax cuts. The reductions may be essential if the city is to scale down its notorious tax burden and compete for commerce, but that does not erase […]
TODAY I SAW…
BY JEFF DEENEY “Today I saw…” is a series of nonfiction shorts based on my experiences as a caseworker serving formerly homeless families now living in North and West Philadelphia. I decided not long after starting the job that I was seeing so many fascinating and disturbing things in the city’s poorest neighborhoods that I needed to start cataloging them. I hope this bi-weekly column serves as a record of a side of the city that many Philadelphians don’t come in contact with on a daily basis. I want to capture moments not frequently covered by the local media, which […]
BRIAN ENO & DAVID BYRNE: Mea Culpa
From My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts, 1981.
KILLADELPHIA: Death Toll Hits 128; Nutter Calls For Emergency Declaration; Phawker Says ‘Call Superman’
For the fourth time in six months, the Democratic mayoral candidate yesterday called for Mayor Street to respond to the city’s climbing homicide rate by declaring a crime emergency. That would allow police to be sent into specified neighborhoods, Nutter said, to crack down on illegal weapons and to arrest probation and parole violators. Street rejected Nutter’s advice. Mayoral spokesman Joe Grace said the police already are working energetically against gun-related violence but would not set different rules for police activity in high-crime neighborhoods. “Something must be done,” Nutter told reporters on the sidewalk outside City Hall. “If we’re serious […]
Hold The Phone! SAM KATZ Switches From GOP To Indie, Opening Door To Possible 2007 Mayoral Run
MARICA GELBERT OF THE INQUIRER After weeks of blogging about the Philadelphia mayor’s race, Sam Katz has taken a step toward jumping into it, The Inquirer has learned. The three-time mayoral candidate has left the door open for a fourth run, quietly switching his party registration at the eleventh hour last week from Republican to independent. In an interview this afternoon, Katz repeatedly declined to say whether he was considering a run. But he also did not rule it out, saying only: “It is what it is. I wouldn’t read too much into it.” The pre-primary deadline for voter registration […]
All Of This Happened While You Were Sleeping
WENT TO PLACES UNKNOWN: Spoon, Starlight Ballroom, Last Night BY JONATHAN VALANIA FOR THE INQUIRER Most bands are lucky to live one nasty, brutish and short life — much of it spent travelling vast distances to play for minuscule audiences, waking up in the back of stinky rental vans and finding breakfast at the bottom of a Budweiser can — but like a cat, Spoon seems to have nine lives. Spoon keeps coming back from one curiosity-killing foray into the unknown after another — trusting a major label, aping the Pixies, dabbling in white funk, etc. Some religions call it […]
NPR FOR THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When You Can’t
RADIO TIMES Hour 1 The politics of faith. We talk with RAY SUAREZ senior correspondent for PBS’ NewsHour with Jim Lehrer. He is author of The Holy Vote: The Politics of Faith in America, which was released last year. He was also a contributor to last week’s 11-hour PBS series America at a Crossroads, His segment looked at Why Muslims in America haven’t been radicalized like some European Muslims. Hour 2 Leni Riefenstahl, the Controversial German Nazi film director, is often referred to as Hitler?s filmmaker. Her most famous works are documentary propaganda films for the German Nazi Party including […]
HIZZONER ’07: The Gloves Are Officially Off
“There are four candidates sitting at this table that all their life helped working men and women,” Brady said. “There is one candidate, Tom Knox, that has not. [He’s been] ripping off men and women, working men and women . . . Predatory lending, insurance scams, attacking pensions. Now, I’m going to get a lot of negative ads coming back to me, probably a million dollars negative on me. But . . . my vision is too important for this city to have Tom Knox become the mayor.” It was a calculated attack. As the candidates left the television studio, […]
GARDENING AT NIGHT: The Weedman Cometh, Again
BY S. FITZGERALD LODWICK Friday afternoon was April 20th, or to those in the stoner community 4/20, aka the Fourth of July for those who get high. In the name of the holiday, Edward Forchion, aka the NJ Weedman, organized a marijuana rights rally at the Independence Visitor Center. It was supposed to be at the Liberty Bell, but the location changed due to construction. I arrived around noon, as per the instructions in the ad in City Paper the week previous. Upon meeting several people looking for the same event, we were guided by Rob Dougherty of Philly NORML […]
We Know It’s Only Rock N’ Roll But We Like It
[Illustration by ALEX FINE] AMY SAYS: Patti Smith is 60 and graying, a widow, the mother of two grown children. Somewhere in the last few years, people began referring to her less as “punk priestess” and more as “punk matriarch.” Her new album, Twelve, is a genre- and generation-spanning collection of covers that has kinder critics saying she’s coming full circle now, which would almost make sense were there anything cyclical, round, or non-linear about Patti Smith. Her body is like an arrow always pointing forward, the direction all visionaries cast their eyes. She may not get there with us, […]
KILLADELPHIA: Warm Nights, Hot Lead, 124 Dead
Despite a new round of pleas last week to stop the violence, the killing in Philadelphia did not abate. At least eight people were fatally wounded by gunshots from Friday night through noon today, and at least 6 people were injured. The homicide number climbed to 124, with weekend shootings that spiked with the higher temperatures. Six of the latest homicides occurred on city streets, while two happened inside apartments and one took place at a neighborhood barbecue in West Philadelphia. INQUIRER: Seems Neighborhood Forums, Candlelight Vigils And Good Intentions Don’t Do Dick