Posted on Sun, May. 15, 2005

Center Square | Slow - but sure - steps to reform

By Chris Satullo

Three weeks ago, I posed this question: "Philadelphia: Why don't you want a revolution?"

Why isn't there more outrage at the city's complacent culture of corruption, more energy to reform the bad habits that waste tax dollars, harm services, coddle the incompetent, scare away investment, and corrode the civic spirit?

The e-mails and phone calls poured in, before and after the verdicts in the federal City Hall corruption trial Monday.

We do want a revolution, people replied. Count us in the pitchfork brigade. "I'm sure I am not the only resident in my city who is embarrassed, disgusted and fed up," Tim Donovan of Philadelphia said.

The problem, folks said, isn't that they don't want a revolution. They just don't know how to get one. "Like many other Philadelphians," wrote Chris Torpie, "I am at a loss as to what to do to effectively tackle this problem, which may be partly responsible for the perceived apathy."

"Do you really think there is a leader out there who can lead us toward reforms - and who is also capable of getting elected?" asked John Craft of Devon.

Torpie and Craft have a point. There is no obvious banner to which those who seek a better way can flock - no savvy outfit, no charismatic figure.

Part of the problem is how "blue" this city is. John Kerry got 80 percent of the vote here. People may be sick of the local Democrats, their childish factions, Swiss-cheese ethics and parochial outlook. But most city voters would rather poke hot needles in their eyes than pull a lever for anyone in the same party as George W. Bush.

The city GOP doesn't help. It seems mostly content to be a junior partner in a corrupt system, earning its petty cut of the jobs and deals in return for staying quiet and weak.

I've interviewed many GOP candidates in the city over the years, and words cannot express how lame - ill-informed and underfunded - most of them have been. Why do you think the Inquirer Editorial Board has resorted to gambits such as endorsing write-ins or dead guys in districts where the incumbent Dem was intolerable?

Most likely, any reform insurgency will have to rise up within the Democratic Party.

That's a steep hill. Incumbents have the system wired to their advantage. Electoral politics here are so expensive, wounding and sleazy that good people are discouraged from running.

"My friends looked at me like I was absolutely nuts," said Marc Stier, a Temple University professor who ran for a statehouse seat in the Northwest last year. "Why would I try to fight this dirty, corrupt system, the craziest on the East Coast?"

A vicious cycle occurs. Ethical people avoid city politics, trying to do civic good while flying under the pols' radar. So the people most likely to jump into the Philly political bazaar are those unbothered, or enticed, by its sleaziness.

Should any earnest person challenge an entrenched ward leader or incumbent, the system knows how to exact revenge. Most civically active people eventually need something from government - a permit, a grant, a hearing. The fear of payback chills the ardor of more than one would-be reformer.

Still, Ron White, Corey Kemp, and the rest of the Street-era pay-to-play posse have done Philly a favor, even as they sold it out to the highest bidder. They weren't the first, smartest or boldest players of the putrid game. They just got caught. But that lifted the lid on the sewer - and got citizens riled.

New banners of reform are now waving, tentatively.

The Committee of Seventy, the city's venerable good-government outfit, seems to be rousing itself from a long slumber. In an op-ed in this paper on Thursday, its board chairman, Ned Dunham, gave the city's business community a deserved kick in the rear for its see-no-evil attitude.

A crew of local bloggers - representative of the wave of younger citizens moving into the city, bringing unspoiled perspectives - has set up a reform Web site and online petition at www.stoppaytoplay.info.

Two grassroots efforts to knit disgusted Philadelphians into effective reform movements have begun. Stier is a moving force behind one, called Neighborhood Networks, which will hold a convention on June 4. The other is called the Philadelphia Reform Council and plans a first meeting on Aug. 17. Each of these groups is talking of running reform slates in the 2007 City Council elections.

"The reason why nothing changes is our politicians are utterly secure. They win with Saddam-like margins," Stier said. "Nothing will change without competition."

Hope is stirring, Philadelphians. Grab your pitchfork.