I am still blown away (esp with the secret service saying McPailin's rheotoric increased death threats on Obama) by the overt racism in McCain's campaign, and the disgust I felt motivated me to support Obama the most yet. Indeed, the fact that many white people (I head 55% of whites voted McCain and 45% Obama) rejected this crap... This very fact is what I am excited about, but I am still cautious, and I think the most obvious thing that we need to do, is continue to harness all the positive energy of the Obama campaign, and take this as far to the left as we can... At least some New Deal stuff, you know.

Well, I hope you enjoy this new essay by Philly writer David Love. I like his perspective, much like Mumia's as in coming from a radical background, Love does acknowledge much of the good of Obama being elected... but also recognizes that we now need to battle to get the most from it.

With all the news about the library and pool closings and Chinatown’s fight against a Center City slots barn, one thread ties these struggles together – the love of community. These struggles aren’t so much against something as much as they are a powerful statement of the sanctity of sacred spaces in our neighborhoods, of the rare places where the fabric of community is built, where our relationships with one another are fostered and cherished, and where lessons and values are passed onto new generations. Our communities are the heart of civil society.

Recently, Philadelphian Debbie Wei wrote just about the best piece I’ve ever seen on the notion of community and struggle in an essay "A Question of Place" published in Asian Week. Here's an excerpt:

As Philadelphia’s Chinatown fights a proposed casino mere feet from its doorstep, I’ve been thinking a lot these days about why saving Chinatown means so much to me.

Several years ago my youngest son, who studied kung fu and Beijing Opera in Chinatown, told me: "My favorite place to be is Chinatown. I know everyone there. I can walk around and hang out. The guy in the laundromat always gives me candy and everyone knows I’m a lion dancer and the old people all smile at me."

Chinatowns around the country represent an increasingly rare phenomenon. They are communities in the deepest sense: places not only defined by geography but also by memory and relationships. It is why my son would rather buy his candy in Chinatown even though he could get it cheaper at Walmart. When he buys his candy in Chinatown, he knows the clerks, he feels happy to see them and they are happy to see him.

The responsibility that comes with relationships and knowing that there is something bigger than yourself is part of what makes a community live — it is part of what makes us fundamentally human. It isn’t just about a geographic area. It is about emotion, about connection to a place.

It is a deeply moving and personal piece, especially at a time when our struggles seem greatest. As she writes:

"True progress has to do with the human heart and the relationships we build and sustain over time. Our future as a city is not about me and mine, not about rugged individualism, but about collective
responsibility. It’s about what is ours — all of ours.

When you see us in the streets protesting, this is why we fight.

Daily News columnist Ronnie Polaneczy wrote a nice Friday column about this as well. Ronnie was kind enough to reprint Debbie's essay on her blog post. And of course, you can find it at Asian Americans United’s website as well.

Just Equally Speaking….

I been hearing a lot lately about Proposition 8. After gaining a semi understanding of what Prop 8 is and the effects of repealing it has had on the LGBTQ community. Proposition 8 is a statewide ballot proposition in California. On November 4, 2008, voters approved the measure and made same-sex marriage illegal in California amendments added, "only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California". What really makes no sense to me is that, prior to it passing, same-sex marriage was a constitutionally protected right in California. What is going to happen to all those people who were married, does that make their marriage null and void?

http://www.philly.com/philly/opinion/20081119_Money_Under_Stadium_Seats_...

While this should come as no surprise, it's still sickening.

I’m curious what YPPers think of Verizon being given the right to offer its version of cable TV in the City. Do you have concerns about which neighborhoods will be “wired”? Do you believe competition with Comcast and the satellite companies will drive costs down? Will additional public access stations be used?

I would like to hear from folks before I write my testimony.

Lance Haver
Director of Consumer Affairs

The debate today was strangely detached, some pro and con forces were heard. I wish I had been recognized by the chair to speak :( ,but I think council's 'tude - except for Bill Green and Frank Rizzo was one of resignation.

I suppose it was all set up anyway, but I wish more people had shown up to express dissenting views.

Tax reductions will stop, even though Rob Dubow acknowledged they reduce inter-city competitiveness, and huge slashes will be made to programs, so the script played out as it was written.

Everyone talked about New York and their problems, which was weird, but if I'd had the chance, I would have mentioned that a higher tax on vacant land was signed into law for NYC this summer.

I hope the people will recognize that a land value tax can provide community-created revenue so that the tax rate reductions could continue without reducing citywide tax receipts.

Carol Campbell has passed away:

Carol Ann Campbell, a legendary force in the local Democratic Party, has passed away.

She died around midday at Methodist hospital. The cause is unknown, but she’d struggled with lung illnesses and was recently on a ventilator.

Campbell was the daughter of Edgar Campbell, former City Councilman, ward leader and Clerk of Quarter Sessions and often referred to as the Dean of Black Politics in the city. Carol Campbell took over the leadership of the fourth ward in Philadelphia when her father died in 1987

Campbell served as a ward leader and as secretary of Democratic City Committee for years. In the fall of 2006, Campbell was appointed by the Democratic Party to lead the Fourth District, after Mayor Nutter vacated the seat to run for the city's top office. She lost her re-election bid in the May 2007 Primary Election to Councilman Curtis Jones Jr.

Our condolences to her family and friends.

Perhaps we can use this space to tell our stories about libraries and what they mean to us.

The public library in my hometown was, when I first visited at abot 6 six years old, in a little corner of the municipal building / fire house/ courthouse. (With a population of 5000, you can kind of put everything in one place.)

It had a distinctive smell, of course, of books. It's a small I love to this day.

The librarian gave us all a little talk about how the library works. When she said we could actually take books home, I looked around in wonder at all the books and felt a sense of ownership. I blurted out, "You mean any of them? We can take them home?"

So then I had to find one...and there were lots of choices. That was the day I learned the pleasure of browsing book shelves...something that I continue to do today although its harder with progressive lenses.

There's a city-wide meeting tonight to discuss developing a city-wide agenda around the Digital Divide.

Philadelphia's Digital Inclusion Coalition
When: Wednesday November 19, 5:30PM
Where: United Way, 7 Benjamin Franklin Parkway, Lobby 2
Why: Develop an agenda for Philadelphia around Digital Divide and the Future of the City

There's no promise of live music a la Neighborhood Networks' event earlier this week but I am sure it will still be a good time. And one of particular interest to YPP readers. Not to mention timely with city library cuts. So hope to see you there.

It would be pretty awful. It would be very muddy and slow getting from place to place. Cars would be worthless. Mail delivery would be virtually impossible. If you were injured you might not be able to get to the hospital before you bled to death, and giving directions would already be a great deal harder than it is.

On an otherwise very happy Election Day this year, one dark spot was the mess the city made of processing new registrations and absentee ballots.

This failure went beyond the expected "I thought I registered but I never got a card." I saw many people coming in to the polling place with valid brand new registration cards, mailed to them by the city, only to be nowhere on the voter rolls. Nor on the supplemental rolls, printed out the day before.

Voting provisionally isn't the end of the world, but because in most cases that vote will not be counted it's frustrating for someone excited to cast a vote for the first time.

And then there were the "recieved after Election Day" absentee ballots.

Sure, the City Commissioners office should be reformed. Might be a good topic for the budget talks. But, to fix the voting administration problems, we should look bigger. Project Vote has compiled links to examples of recent public support for a new, federal, way of handling voter registration. The goal would be to have the federal government, rather than individuals or third-party registration drives, be responsible for getting every of-age citizen on the rolls. Look at the arguments below after the break, and let's start advocating for this.

EDIT: Kati says below, "If you are interested in working on election law reform in PA, there is a meeting on Friday afternoon at 2:30 p.m. at the Labor Council office (22 S. 22nd St.) to debrief the election protection efforts of various non-partisan groups, and to begin to strategize about a legislative agenda on election reform in 2009."

Daily News editorial

A crisis of this magnitude is license to do some serious reinvention of government. It's a time when you can get away with bold thinking, and radical ideas. A few more of those were what we were hoping for.

First, let's be clear: We know how easy it is to be armchair experts, and how hard it is to have to make the decisions. But we also believe the city and its citizens are richer when we can have discussions about these challenges, with many at the table trying to solve the problem. This is a time for us to tough it out together. We hope that during the town-hall meetings the mayor announced yesterday he has a chance to listen as much as to talk.

Friends of the Free Library of Philadelphia
215.567.4562
savethelibraries@gmail.com
http://www.libraryfriends.info

press release and schedule follows -

------

Monday, November 17, 2008
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

MAYOR NUTTER ANNOUNCES SERIES OF TOWN HALL MEETINGS ON CITY'S RESPONSE TO
FINANCIAL CRISIS

Top City leadership to attend eight community meetings across Philadelphia

Philadelphia, November 17 - Mayor Michael A. Nutter has announced a series
of eight Town Hall Meetings throughout Philadelphia to explain the city's
response to the financial crisis and changes to the budget. The meetings
will take place during late-November to mid-December. At the meetings, city
government leadership will explain the difficult decisions that need to be
made, share the principles that guided the process, and to listen to any
concerns that citizens may have.

At each session Mayor Nutter will make opening remarks and run the audience

So, yesterday the Mayor's office decided that the super secret rationale for "right-sizing" our libraries and pools and fire departments shouldn't be so secret.

In an inch-thick binder, Chief of Staff Clay Armbrister provided figures showing Philadelphia has more libraries per capita than all other top 10 cities and would remain first in libraries even after closing more than a fifth of its 54.

Siobhan Reardon, president and director of the Free Library of Philadelphia, told Council that it was her idea to shrink the library system to provide better service at existing libraries with fewer resources.

......

The decision on which libraries to close was based on how many people were served, afterschool program attendance, building size, and annual visits, Reardon said.

The administration argues that the closures are appropriate even without a budget crisis. Armbrister left little room for keeping libraries open, while leaving open the possibility of preserving public pools through private donations.

Even when releasing the information, this administration seems to get more ridiculous by the day. So now, after the Mayor saying it would break his heart or something, the budget crisis just gives us a nice opportunity to shutter libraries that should be closed anyway?

I seriously cannot wait until the city-wide Hawaiian shirt day. Those shirts are really festive.

Council's reaction to the presentation was mixed, though most members were gratified to get something they could sink their teeth into.

That is nice. Now how about letting the public see it. Are the rationales online?

And, I really think Jim Kenney is one of the more thoughtful members of City Council, but...

"You have people who want to grumble and to grandstand, but when I look at it, I think they worked extremely hard and were extremely thorough in their examination," Kenney said. "Anyone who's got a complaint about it should come up with another idea or ideas."

Come on. How in the world would anyone even know whether that statement is true, when so much has been done in secret? Maybe they have been thoughtful, but even if so, they have no one to blame for this outcry but themselves. When you conduct the people's business in secret, that is what happens.