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I’m a big klutz. Just ask the guy on the Chestnut Street bus whom I accidentally whacked in the head with a large baguette (it was 100 percent whole wheat, but that didn’t seem to impress him). Uncle Nunzi says that’s what I get for buying bread not made in South Philly. Somehow, I don’t think the victim would’ve been any happier if I had hit him with a loaf of Italian bread. Uncle firmly believes my buying a baguette is a sign of poor upbringing. He thinks the word “baguette” is pretentious.
Our mayor is anything but pretentious, and sometimes it gets him into trouble with a local media that once doted on Frank Rizzo and is intent on making up for it by hyper-criticizing every mayor’s office occupant since. I understand there is no honeymoon period when one becomes mayor of a big city. The urgent problems that face Philadelphia, while no worse and sometimes better than those of other American cities, does not permit grace periods. Negativity is our mother’s milk; cynicism, our religion. There is cause for skepticism. All one has to do is look at the obstacles we have yet to overcome in developing our waterfront area that is still awaiting the kind of development that took place years ago in Boston, Baltimore, Savannah, and San Antonio. But some of the barbs slung at Jim Kenney began right after he made his inauguration speech. His rhetoric doesn’t soar, but charging him with a lack of vision doesn’t square with Kenney’s determination to implement universal pre-K to improve Philadelphia students’ performance.
Uncle claims I am blind when it comes to criticizing Kenney. Columnist’s note: My wife worked the phones one day during the Kenney campaign. When he was a councilman, Kenney graciously sent over a couple of drinks to us in the Palm Lounge, and we reciprocated. My South Philly Review column “The Passion of Jim Kenney” made it into a couple of his campaign ads. Yes, I like him. I like that he has the combination of the street smarts he learned growing up in South Philly and respect him for his good heart that leads him most often in the right direction when it comes to his politics.
I criticized the regressive nature of the sugary beverage tax Kenney has proposed to fund universal pre-K, but at the same time I asked if there is a better way. So far, I have heard a great deal of criticism, but I haven’t seen a better plan. The proposal to tax containers instead of targeting sugar-sweetened beverages still falls disproportionately on poor communities. At least taxing soda gives the poor the option to cut down or eliminate the sugary drinks from their diet with the health benefits that accrue from that decision. The poor can’t escape a tax on containers.
The proposal to increase real estate taxes to fund pre-K is a non-starter. The City is still in a muddle trying to implement its plan to tax property based on market value. Why then would you turn around and add to that mess by increasing property taxes? It didn’t help when Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders railed against the tax, though he lauded the goal. Sanders proposed a graduated tax not knowing that Philadelphia doesn’t have the authority to implement such an assessment. After committing for years to a slight annual cut in the City’s wage tax, it doesn’t seem smart to turn around and increase that tax. There is little controversy that universal pre-K is desirable in Philadelphia, although implementing the full program in one year might not be preferable to phasing it in.
Meanwhile, the soda industry is spending big bucks running scare ads against what it misleadingly calls the “grocery” tax. We’re not talking about the necessities of life here, folks. We’re talking about using a little less sugar in our diet. Uncle says the tax will fall heavily on Cumpare Carmen, who likes to mix cream soda with store bought red wine. Not that Uncle is critical because he believes there ought to be a tax on poor taste.
Kenney has been less certain in his stance on “stop and frisk.” He campaigned against the practice because it unfairly targets minority communities. However, he has since caught flak for wavering on eliminating the police practice altogether. He believes that if implemented correctly, “stop and frisk” does not have to be onerous. It’s a difficult position to sell, even if Kenney is correct, and I think nothing can salvage “stop and frisk” as a prudent police tactic. The new mayor has admirably tried to lessen controversial police contact with the minority community by downgrading nuisance crimes. Eliminating “stop and frisk” would go a long way toward achieving that goal.
On Police Commissioner Richard Ross’ decision to forego requiring police applicants to have college credits, I believe a better move might be involving our community colleges in fulfilling that role less expensively.
Instead of fostering dialogue and proposing solutions, some of the media is focused on whether Kenney is “cool” or whether he should have invited The Roots back to head the July 4th concert.
In the meantime, Uncle thinks Kenney should ban me from riding a crowded bus when I’m carrying a baguette even if it is 100 percent whole wheat. He thinks I should be charged with assault with a deadly weapon. ■
