Karen Heller to Philadelphia: Drop Dead
Via ellen in comments, just what we need: the irrelevant Karen Heller in the irrelevant Philadelphia Inquirer defending the Mayor:
Now, what if the problem is critical? Immediately, you would cut spending.
This is precisely what Mayor Nutter is trying to do. In November, he announced that the city faced a $1 billion shortfall over the next five years.
“We had to make a lot of bad choices from a list of bad choices,” he said yesterday, almost a year to the day after taking office.
Yet he’s been met with vehement opposition and constant pushback. While virtually every private industry is dealing with the new economy, reducing staff and eliminating costs, citizens - many who want lower taxes yet expect superior services - believe their local government should be immune.
Yes, cut, people say. But don’t cut the libraries/Mummers/fire department/insert favorite program here. They’re practicing budget NIMBY.
What about raising taxes, Karen? You don’t mention that a poll shows Philadelphians would forgo a wage tax cut if it kept essential services open (the mayor likes to ignore that little fly in the ointment too). Nor do you talk about cancelling tax cuts. Nor do you mention Budget Director Rob DuBow’s projected $40 million dollar surplus: tell me, is this plain old ignorance on your part, or just deliberate misinformation?
What’s your angle? Did ,a href=”http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2420/1712003651_ba9b5113fe.jpg?v=0″>brian tierney threaten to sit on you? I see you talking about the necessity of cuts Karen, but I don’t see you mentioning that $30 million the mayor wants to build new regional libraries in north and south Philly (with a puny $500,000 for bookmobiles for “underserved communities”, presumably like mine where the mayor intends to rob our kids and families of a library). You don’t mention that Mayor Nutter puts casino funding AHEAD of public necessities. You don’t mention the hundreds of millions owed to the city in back taxes. Goodness me Karen, we wouldn’t want to trouble SEPTA or SUNOCO now, would we??
From your comments section, a voice that is clearly more astute than you are:
Posted by Nick4102 10:30 AM, 01/06/2009
I said it before, but people like this author don’t want to listen. Yes Nutter inherited the problems. But he stuck his head in the sand. And if you remember and I quote “This snuck up on us” from Nutter. How’s that? He did the easy thing. He lopped off what he thought would be easy. Close fire houses, firemen can’t strike, cloase pools libraries rec centers, kids don’t vote. But thankfully it blew up in his face. As I have said before, these cuts may have been needed, but not first. First you cut fat, and this city has plenty. No more city cars or drivers for council members and staff. let them uses there own cars like everybody else. Get rid of $90k “assistants” reduce staff and salaries. Do all that first. Nutter will say he reduces his salary, thats not enough like I said way to much fat.
It’s always nice to see a writer like Heller excuse the Mayor for beating up on the poor and on kids. Will the cuts affect you Karen? Will you be losing your library up in Chestnut Hill near where you live? I don’t think so. do you have internet access at home? probably. Do you make a lot more than your average Kingsessing, Fishtown, of Kensington family? given your proximity to Chestnut Hill, I would say so.
I’m more than a little disappointed at your grasp of democracy Karen. You write:
Local government creates a sense of entitlement because people deal with it every day. You can’t air your grievances on the floor of Congress or in the chambers of Harrisburg, but folks can join the circus any Thursday Council cares to convene. And they can yell at the mayor in town meetings….
The citizens of Philadelphia want their everything.
This is called “DEMOCRACY” Karen, in which taxpayers and voters elect REPRESENTATIVES who “REPRESENT” their constituents. They’re not kings, autocrats, despots, or dictators: they are expected to be responsive to US. Your buddy Mr. Nutter explicitly campaigned on transparency, open government, and bringing the public into the process: it’s too bad he was lying, but that’s no cause for your vehement defense.
So yes, we do have a sense of entitlement because it’s our taxes that pay the bills and our votes that determine who’s elected: what part of “we the people” is so hard for you to grasp? Here’s a suggestion: move to North Korea or Iran, where you can get a greater appreciation for that icky “sense of entitlement” you scoff at as “temper tantrums”.
Perhaps that’s why you relate so well to Mayor Literacy, who told you:
“I would have loved to have had more time to do things better. I’ve apologized. Next time, we’ll do better. We’ll have much more public engagement, share information,” Nutter said yesterday. “Then people can see what it’s like inside the government and how you manage all of the parts. This is a massive enterprise, a huge undertaking. When you’re in a flood situation, you don’t have time to schedule a meeting.”
yes, in times of trouble, the democratic process must be short-circuited in favor of top-down dictatorial mandates, government by executive fiat. What a precedent Heller argues for: if there’s an emergency, the Mayor can do whatever he wants, regardless of what his constituents think.
Karen Heller and her BFF Michael Nutter obviously know what’s best for everyone. That’s why she has a column in a failing newspaper.
Siobhan Reardon and Michael Nutter: Bullshit Artists and Bullies
The saga of the arrogant fool continues:
Mayor Nutter, responding this morning to a judge’s refusal to overturn her order blocking the city from closing 11 branch libraries, praised her and pounded the seven library plaintiffs and three City Council members who won that legal victory last week. Nutter painted three options presented this morning to Common Pleas Court Judge Idee Fox by the city as “compromises” in a difficult financial situation.
“I am astounded at the complete unwillingness by the plaintiffs to even discuss a compromise,” Nutter said after Fox met with attorneys for both sides this morning and then rejected the city’s motion to reconsider her ruling from last Tuesday. The city had asked Fox to either reverse that ruling, allow the closures to happen while the city appeals to the state Commonwealth Court or give the city three weeks to “drastically” scale back staffing and schedules at every library branch in the city.
So it’s the patrons who won’t compromise?? Give me a break, Mayor Nutter! You’re the one who told the city the libraries will be closed permanently. You’re the one who set himself up to be slapped by telling every single neighborhood whose time you wasted with your phoney-baloney town-hall meetings that you would not under any circumstances adjust your plan or actually listen to the community. You’re the one that forced a court case, and now that you’re the loser, you want to blame everyone but yourself. You’re a bullshit artist and a bully, and I don’t know why anyone would take you seriously anymore.
Maybe it’s all that time you spent as a municipal bond salesman, hobnobbing with the wealthy and CEOs, but you are clearly out of touch with ordinary Philadelphians, many of who don’t have internet access, or can’t afford to subscribe to netflix, or drive to the mall to buy brand-new books.
[And as an aside, I followed my own advice this weekend and got my own damn library card, which I have to admit I had sadly overlooked. Now instead of paying netflix for the latest season of The Wire, I get to watch it for free. God bless the public library!]
And now, having lost badly, the Mayor intends to punish library users by cutting hours back drastically at all of the branches to about 3 days a week: that’s totally in character for a man who would choose to permanently close libraries in response to a temporary crisis, and one who is so sure of his own rectitude he claims that “city controller Alan Butkovitz’s plan to save the city almost half a billion dollars is more of a publicity stunt than a blueprint for success.” But who can believe the mayor now, when the numbers he’s provided for library closing are under dispute, and his own budget director says that after the cuts, we’ll have a $40 million surplus ($32 million if we keep the libraries)? What’s the phrase lawyers use? Lie about one thing, lie about everything.
Indeed, Amy Dougherty, who leads the friends of the Free Library says that no other city agency is taking such cut. in fact, she says “I believe there is a bloated middle management and upper management, many of who are librarians who could go back to the branches.” Who are you gonna trust? The guy who’s fudging the numbers and locking the public out of decisions that permanently affect the whole city, or a woman who leads a volunteer group that has spent decades supporting the library?
Meanwhile Siobhan Reardon tries on the role of bully herself:
We will not be able to use overtime after this weekend to get the libraries open when there is a shortage.
We expect that there will be at least 20 libraries that will be challenged to open during this coming week due to staffing shortages
Senior staff are in the process of putting together plans, for the Trustees to review, which will reduce days of service system-wide. This will be necessary in order to comply with the judge’s order and set up a sustainable service model. We believe it will be a combination of 4 and 3 days across the system for now.
…and is met with jeers in comments, from actual Philadelphians who have lived here for more than Reardon’s 3-month residency, and know how to call bullshit:
Posted by CleanupPhilly 05:39 PM, 01/05/2009
Or, the city can collect and foreclose on the $522 million in overdue, unpaid property taxes to fund the $40 million total library cost of operation. Why does Ms. Reardon “have to restore the budget for library materials” when she needs money for staff? That makes no sense either. Again, this sounds like more gamesmanship than actual attempts to solve problems.
Posted by snevets 07:09 PM, 01/05/2009
Excuse me, Ms. Siobhan Reardon, instead of threats to reduce city-wide library services because you can’t get your own way to shutter the 11 libraries originally on the cutting board, why don’t you attempt to redirect your energies and flex your influence to REAPPROPRIATE the $30 million set aside by city and state funds originally earmarked to build the new Central Library Annex at 1901 Vine Street? Instead, this money could be appropriated to keep the existing community libraries intact??? Also, you previously indicated in the press that your department plans to build two NEW REGIONAL libraries in South and West Philadelphia! Listen to what you’re “feeding” us….threats to lay off staff if you can’t shut the 11 libraries WHILE, unbelievably, planning to expand and build new libraries! Where’s the common sense? Where’s the leadership?
Posted by John Scanlon 09:16 AM, 01/06/2009
Ms. Reardon- when did you cease being an advocate for libraries? What made you stop? Were you ever an advocate for libraries? Do you really think it is ok for students without home internet to travel 4 miles a day to complete school assignments? Ms. Reardon- please consider the human costs involved in Mr. Nutter’s library decisions.
We are faced with an intransigent mayor, who clings to bad ideas that hurt our city with the tenacity of a lamprey. Now, more than ever, Philadelphians need to call (harass if necessary) their reps on city council and demand that they keep our libraries open.
The Mayor needs to realize what Marc Stier eloquently points out at YPPm:
In the few weeks we have seen a dramatic outpouring of civic energy and spirit. Those of us who have been community and political activists for years in Philadelphia were not surprised by it. We have seen that spirit time and again in one setting after another—in town watches; in volunteers working to renovate public parks, recreation centers, and playgrounds; in campaigns to save historic buildings; in efforts to insure that new development fit our communities; in long meetings to develop plans for the Delaware River waterfront; in struggles to increase education funding; in a citizen run referendum on casinos; and in a fight to protect tax breaks for working people and in many other settings.
And all this energy and spirit has broken through in a political culture that does not welcome of citizen activism at all….
Liberal democracy at its best is not government by elected monarchs or councilors who make decisions among themselves, in private, and who then announce the decisions to us. It is government in which those decisions are openly debated and reviewed before and after the fact and in which political officials take part in those discussions.
We have not really had that kind of government in Philadelphia for a very long time. For reasons and in ways I will explain in a post on my blog, we have had a political culture in which decisions are made behind closed doors and in which our public debate, when it took place at all, was essentially a farce—-a song and dance by electeds and appointeds that was meant to give the impression of real democratic interchange but that had nothing really to do with how the government worked or why it did what it did….
Mayor Nutter’s reliance on experts has actually added to the problem. For now it is not just contempt for those outside the inner circle of politics that leads to opaque, secretive government. That contempt is still there. But it is reinforced by the assumption on the part of the administration officials that they know so much more than the rest of us.
If the Mayor continues along this self-destructive path, I predict a massive backlash should he decide to run again. Stop trying to steamroll the citizens of this great city Mr. Nutter. Stop acting like you’re better than the rest of us. Stop playing games with the numbers, and start dealing honestly and openly with us, like you promised when you were a candidate.
The scales are falling from the eyes of your constituents, especially in the working class neighborhoods. Sooner or later, this Samson is going to wake up and bring down your temple.
THE BULLY RETURNS
Nutter, who had planned to close the branches Dec. 31 to help close a $1 billion budget gap over the next five years, said that keeping the branches open would mean reduced service across the library system.
“We only have a certain number of personnel to operate the 53 total branches, which will impact the level of service and continued service,” Nutter said. “That will cause us to have to cut back service days and programmatic activity.”
Nutter also said that if the city has to keep all the branches open, it likely would mean more layoffs.
Shorter Mayor Bully: “Fine, i’ll just make sure there are no staff for ANY libraries..
over at Young Philly Politics, Ray Murphy bravely holds his nose and calls the Mayor’s argument what it is: a big, stinking pile of horse shit:
as Marc Stier reported on this blog, “”rolling closures” may now be in store. That means random branches close at random times during the week to save money.
Come on Mayor.
You control a multi-billion dollar budget. The library closures you proposed represent an $8 million annual cost. And your own budget director has said that he now expects a $40 million surplus this year. What gives? The idea of rolling branch closures makes it hard to think you are not being somewhat vindictive.
What gives? I’ll tell you what gives, ray: the mayor has made up his mind that the libraries have to go, and that’s that. They have to go, no ifs, ands, or buts from we the peasantry.
I do not know why the Mayor is opposed to services that help working class people and the poor, but it’s totally in character for the man who nearly bit my head off for pointing out his disgraceful stance on public transit and suggesting he take SEPTA to work:
“Mr. Nutter: when SEPTA was to re-open the Route 15 line on Girard Avenue, your colleague Carol Campbell tried to block this project saying that her constituents didn’t want to go back to parking on one side of the street: they have been parking on both sides illegally. You backed Ms. Campbell. I want to know how you and Mr. Saidel propose to fix the SEPTA problem, and whether you will both commit to riding SEPTA to work every day.”
The mention of the Route 15 clearly set Mr. Nutter’s hackles on edge: I could see it. He turned to me and said “The issue with the 15 trolley was that SEPTA did not communicate with the community at all.”
“I don’t believe you,” I said, and with good reason. News of the revived line had been in the newspapers for MONTHS. The construction on Girard Avenue was obvious, taking place in the middle of the street. Unless the residents of 59th and Callowhill are deaf, illiterate, and blind, the revived line was impossible to miss. This is a project that cost taxpayer $82 million dollars, and Mr. Nutter is telling me that no one knew this was coming?
“I don’t care if you don’t believe me,” Nutter said. “As for riding SEPTA every day, I will not have you force me into pandering to you. I will not commit to that.”…
After tonight’s Q&A, I feel comfortable saying that Michale Nutter is exactly as he’s portrayed: has a superiority complex; he believes he knows what’s best, does not want to entertain questions or concepts that conflict with his image as civic hero, and is condescending and arrogant when dealing with constituents and voters. I saw this repeated throughout the evening on any number of topics. His answers on gun violence were predictable and boring. His answers on taxes were evasive. All were delivered with the air of someone who knows better than you.
Take a look at my post on the meeting at the Kingsessing Rec Center a few weeks ago, and you’ll see that nothing has changed. Same old arrogant, high-handed, dishonest, condescending egomaniac with a superiority complex.
Philadelphians will have to fight long and hard to restrain this Mayor, who seems to see himself as better than the average city resident. He’s not willing to ride transit with us, he wants to take away public resources (forever!) rather than raise taxes, and he’s unwilling to take on the city’s corporate deadbeats. Perhaps all those years as a municipal bond salesman made him identify more with those who would coddle big business and the wealthy at the expense of the poor and the working class: i don’t know what it is, but it’s unacceptable.
Gaza: An Eye for an Eye Leaves Everyone Blind
I am no expert on Israel issues, but I do know enough about common sense to know that you can’t defeat an entrenched popular movement like Hamas by bombing the shit out of that movement’s base. That’s doubly true when, like Hamas, the movement has gained electoral legitimacy through free and open elections, like the ones George Bush insisted on in 2005.
What will doubtless emerge from this latest orgy of blood and violence is that the Israeli army will have to completely and utterly destroy Hamas if they are to claim victory, while all Hamas has to do is to stand up to Israel, much like Hezbollah did in Lebanon. israel believes that if they punish [read: "mangle and kill"] people and families in Gaza enough, the people will turn on Hamas, blaming them for the war. Israel doesn’t seem to understand that occupied people rarely if ever side with the occupier. It’s really not that difficult a concept to grasp.
In the end, Hamas will only become MORE entrenched, more popular with the Gazans, and more powerful. It’s a sad state of affairs for everyone. The fact is, eventually both sides have to sit down and talk at a table that will inevitably sit atop a mountain of stinking, pustulent corpses. Only israel and Hamas can decide how tall their tower of offal will be.
Via Phawker, images from Gaza. Not for the weak-of-stomach.
I really hate wars.
STICK TO YOUR GUNS REPUBLICANS!
We thought after all that — and, oh yes, losing the election — everyone in the Republican Party leadership would have figured out that race-baiting alienates young, minority and all reasonable voters.
Clearly, not everyone has.
Chip Saltsman, a veteran political operative, is pushing his candidacy for chairman of the Republican National Committee. He distributed a compact disc containing a parody questioning President-elect Barack Obama’s racial authenticity.
NY Times, “Talk About Out of Touch”, 12/31/08
The controversy surrounding a comedy CD distributed by Republican National Committee chairman candidate Chip Saltsman has not torpedoed his bid and might have inadvertently helped it.
Four days after news broke that the former Tennessee GOP chairman had sent a CD including a song titled “Barack the Magic Negro” to the RNC members he is courting, some of those officials are rallying around the embattled Saltsman, with a few questioning whether the national media and his opponents are piling on.
Politico, ‘Magic Negro’ flap might help Saltsman, 12/30/08
Republicans, pay no attention to the New York Times. As a northeastern lefty, I can tell you with some authority that newspaper does not have your best interests at heart. It is the right leaning Politico that should guide you. Believe me, using archaic terms that make you sound like a character out of “To Kill a Mockingbird” or Thurgood Marshall will endear you to Americans everywhere, of all colors.
Please be aware that you don’t have to rely on “negro”: you may also wish to try “quadroon” or “negroid”. Try talking about blacks en masse as “the negro problem”: that will win you scores of votes.
Also, please stick to your strategy of nativist hysteria: there is nothing people are more frightened of than people who speak Spanish. Keep talking about how they breed so much. That worked very well for you this year. Let’s hope you continue along this path.
Just stick with ol’ Brendy-boy, Republicans. I’d never steer you wrong.
Yeah, it’s a slow start, but I’m just easing back into the bloggery…
Writer’s Block
Between family visits, Sam, and the holidays, I have a case of writer’s block. It’s not the ordinary “I can’t think of anything to write about” kind of block, but the kind where when you finally have time to write, you’re just too damn tired.
Hopefully I’ll have energy tonight, because there really are a few things to be said about Alberto Gonzalez, Republican confusion about racist remarks, and of course our Mayor’s quest to rob Philadelphians of their library.
Injunction!
Judge Idee Fox issued an injunction against the Mayor today, preventing the closure of the libraries. It’s well worth delving into the comments for legal analysis. Also, a lot of excellent stuff here about the City’s projected $40 million dollar surplus?
It’s a victory, but not the end. However, now’s a time to celebrate: tomorrow at 3:30 PM, the Coalition to Save the Libraries will hold a celebration at the Kingsessing Library.
Big yays to everyone who fought this fight so far, and good luck to everyone as we press forward!
Response to Senator Casey
Dear Senator Casey:
I received your letter dated 12/15/08, regarding our disagreements regarding your vote for the poorly named “bailout” of the financial sector: as I have stated previously, “handout” would be a better word. Your letter in response is wholly inadequate, unless one is looking for evasions, straw men, and red herrings. Also, you and your staff substantially misrepresent your record.
You write “we face troubling economic conditions, and we have spiraled into what could be a severe and prolonged recession.” Nowhere do you say WHY this has happened: you do not mention that the Senate and Congress spent the past few decades dismantling New Deal safeguards like Glass-Steagal, and setting up the now-notorious craps game know as the “credit default swap market”. Until you address these actions, how can you hope to solve the problem?
You write, “Since the TARP program began, the Secretary has used more than $300 billion of these funds to make loans to, and acquire equity stakes in, a number of banks and AIG, a large insurance company. While these actions have prevented further failures…”
And let’s stop there for a moment. Putting aside your abuse of the comma, I would like to know exactly WHICH failures have been prevented. The FDIC posts a list of banks eaten by other banks every week, and it is well-know that the TARP rewards larger banks that take over smaller ones, whether those smaller banks are solvent or not. We also know the TARP funds are supposed to stimulate lending, and that such lending isn’t happening because the bill you voted for doesn’t have any strings attached. So I would like to know; which failures? Name them, and detail how the TARP funds prevented these failures.
You write, “we need proper oversight of all government investment to ensure sensible use of funds.” That’s not what you voted for. You write, “no blank checks should be awarded.” That’s not what you voted for. You wirte “there need to be clear limits ion executive salaries and bonuses in all companies receiving taxpayer support.” That’s not what you voted for.
Senator, I don’t think you really responded to my letter. Perhaps this kind of evasion and horse manure fools your low-information constituents, but it’s not enough for me. I want a REAL response that details A) how congress and the senate plan to reinstate regulations that prevent economic collapses; which failures have been prevented; and why you voted for a laissez faire bailout when it was obvious that strict conditions needed to be implemented.
I’ll make a point of calling after the holidays, and look forward to speaking with you or your staff.
Piggies at the Trough
Note to Capital One’s collection agency: instead of bothering ME for the measly sum I owe you (and which I will never pay), go bug your CEO Dick Fairbank, who walked away with not only $17,000,000 in stock options, but $3.56 billion in taxpayer funds. That’s $3,560,000,000.00: surely he can spare a dime or two.
Greedy piggies: you crashed the economy, and all you want is more slop.
Really, all you greedy CEOs should be rendered and made into candles.
Saturday Brimstone
Sam and I walked into the possibly-doomed Kingsessing Library on Saturday to get him a library card of his own.
The building was nearly vacant: besides the two of us, there were two librarians and a few people using the computers at the back of the room. Large gaps of books were missing from nearly every shelf.
As we filled out the paperwork, I looked up at the librarian and asked if she’d heard anything about the lawsuit to keep the libaries open (thank you for signing on Jannie Blackwell). “Nothing so far,” she sighed.
“I cannot believe that mayor,” I replied.
Just then the door opened and who should step in but Hizzoner himself wearing a baseball jacket and hat. Our eyes met, and as usual he looked a little confused as if to say, i know that guy, and I don’t like him. But where do I know him from and why don’t I like him?
As he walked by the librarian rolled her eyes and muttered “There he goes himself… maybe you should go talk to him.”
“I don’t have anything to say to that guy,” I scoffed, and we both chuckled.
Sam signed off on his library card, and we walked out the door and down the steps where tow massive SUVs were idling outside. It was kind of galling: here’s Mayor Literacy talking about how we have to shutter the libraries to save money, and he needs two SUVs to get to where he’s going. Why not save some dough a show up in a compact or a hybrid? Why not turn off the engine instead of wasting gas.
As I walked by the SUVs, I flipped the bird at them. A man stepped out of one of the vehicles.
“What’s that for?” he said. “Why’d you give me the finger?”
“It wasn’t for you,” I said. “It was for this entire administration. Big disappointment.” And I turend to walk away. No point in talking to someone that doesn’t listen.
“What? Why?” the guy persisted.
“Well for starters, there’s no need to close this library, or any of the 11 branches.”
“We have a $100 million dollar deficit,” he began.
“Yes, I know. And you have plenty of tax bills outstanding. And you have plenty of loopholes that could be shut. And you have hundreds of people proposing alternatives. And I know for a fact that this plan to shut libraries has been in development for some time now.”
As if to prove a point, the guy said snottily, “well then where’s the next nearest library to here.” As if I didn’t know.
“It’s two miles west in Paschalville, through a neighborhood where people pop off guns like it’s going out of style. You read the past year’s news, and it’s nothing but shootings in southwest, murders in southwest.” I pointed at Sam. “You want me to walk through that area with a 5 year old? Or maybe I should wait out in the cold and rain for a trolley? There aren’t any trolley shelters in this neighborhood. You want to walk 4 miles round trip with a kid?
This library is a resource to the community here. People rely on this place.
“So yeah, that’s why the Mayor gets the finger. Have a nice day.”
Then I went home and took a shower because I smelled like brimstone.
