What follows is a draft opinion piece that was intended for the Philadelphia Inquirer but which the author has not submitted.
I moved to Philadelphia in 2002. This month, I will finish law school, quit Philadelphia, and take my degree with me.
In college, the only thing I knew I wanted was to live in a large city, busy with commerce and full of opportunity where I wouldn’t have to own a car. I nearly moved to New York, but settled in Philadelphia. I was from Delaware, and I would continue to work there for the next year, so Philadelphia was a natural choice. Besides, my parents had grown up in Levittown. My father worked for Scott Paper for many years, his mother, for John Wanamaker. My mother’s roots in Philadelphia were deeper still. But after more than seven years, I have no compelling reason to stay, and numerous reasons to leave.
In 2003 my brother considered applying for admission to the Philadelphia Police Academy, but applicants at the time had to have been Philadelphia residents for at least one year. Perhaps this was to encourage people to live in the city, or perhaps it was to protect natives from competition. Whatever the reason, this rule sent him away. He wound up in Raleigh, North Carolina, where he graduated at the top of his class. He now patrols that fast-growing city’s roughest ward. Philadelphia police still must live in the city today, but the requirement of one year of residency before applying has wisely been scuttled under Mayor Nutter.
In 2006 the city made a bid to host the 2016 Summer Olympics, but representatives of the USOC must have had to ride SEPTA, because Philadelphia was eliminated pretty early. Maybe it was the filthy subway stations, or that we’re still using tokens, or that station attendants won’t make change. Maybe they just didn’t like that they couldn’t buy a ticket for the R1 at the airport before boarding. A world-class city would have a world-class transit system. But now that Harrisburg’s half-baked proposal to fund the neglected network by charging tolls on I-80 has been rejected twice by Washington, we can be sure SEPTA won’t be winning any medals any time soon.
SEPTA is independent of the city government however. Therefore its ineptitude is no more city hall’s fault than is the lousy selection at the PLCB’s Wine & Spirits Shoppes. Nonetheless, Philadelphians are stuck with both agencies, just as they are with the Philadelphia Parking Authority, which at least is competent and profitable.
The PPA was formed to generate revenue, and is very profitable to be sure, but its mission is at odds with other city goals. Automobile use in Center City should be discouraged if density is to be restored. But as long as the PPA exists to generate revenue from parking fees and fines, it must encourage automobile use, and therefore discourage the very density necessary for further revitalization of the downtown area. Moreover, the well-intentioned decision to fund Philadelphia schools with PPA surpluses means that school budgets will require the presence of still more private cars to ticket in already congested Center City.
Perhaps this lack of vision is why urban revitalization here is so often left to high-profile projects rather than to fundamentals like safety, maintenance and garbage collection. In 2003 the city got a new football stadium and after that, a new baseball stadium. A soccer stadium is now under construction amid the ruins of Chester, but some Center City streets that were crumbling when I arrived in 2002 are still crumbling today.
The sports arenas do bring jobs or course, as will the slots parlors. Apart from the construction jobs however, which are temporary, those created by these projects are mostly low wage, low skill jobs. To thrive in the twenty-first century, the city needs attract high-skill jobs.
It is all the more remarkable then that neighborhoods like Northern Liberties, Fishtown and the East Passyunk corridor are experiencing a renaissance that has attracted the attention of national media outlets. There, chic cafes, bars, and boutiques are appearing alongside funky facades so old they are as a set for a movie about a place that time forgot. But it is largely the influx of outsiders – college-educated young singletons – that has revitalized these long-neglected corners of the city. Doubtless few of these newcomers are here because of a new stadium, or the prospect of casinos. If their city is to be great again, Philadelphians had better recognize this, celebrate their arrival, and work to keep them here. High taxes, poor public services, crime, government corruption and pitiful public schools will be sure to drive most of them away once they’ve started families.
Indeed, educated newcomers have been and will continue to be essential for Philadelphia’s rebirth. But I am amazed at how often during my time here I was asked where I went to high school. Perhaps I should not be. Less than a fifth of all adult Philadelphians have a degree beyond a high school diploma or equivalent. So, Mayor Nutter, who is doing a splendid job in very difficult circumstances, is right to focus on getting more Philadelphians to go to college. As for me, I didn’t go to college, and to law school, so I could spend the rest of my life being judged by where I went to high school. High school is for kids. Philadelphia has some growing up to do.
