For the past couple months, I have been struggling with how to tackle my dad’s run for City Council and the role of our site. Flat out, I strongly believe that he is the strongest candidate for Council in the 8th District, and so, that is why we are endorsing him. And, over the next couple months, I and others will talk more about some of his obvious strengths. But it seems weird to me to pretend that I am simply looking at a resume, and presenting that to everyone. So, in thinking about conveying what kind of Councilman I think my dad will be, I need to get a little personal.

I spent my entire childhood in two homes in Germantown. I love that neighborhood, likely for similar reasons that Ray loves West Philly and Gaetano loves South Philly. It is a wonderful place, with beautiful homes, and good people. It is quintessential Philadelphia.

For a lot of us, growing up in a neighborhood like Germantown got pretty tough in the late 80’s and early 90’s. The neighborhood, like too many places in Philly, got hit with the whammy of Reagan-Bush, unemployment, crack and of course, the dreaded urban flight. As the neighborhood went into decline, idealistic parents were suddenly smacked in the face with the conflict of their principles of not abandoning their homes and neighbors versus concerns for their kids’ safety. And so, the flight began, and one by one, good families left Germantown. It was not a unique story, of course; it was happening all over the City.

Despite the downturn, our little corner of SW Germantown was probably doing better than much of the neighborhood. But then, when I was about 14 years old, something noticeably changed, and our little corner of the City seemed to be spiraling downward faster than anyone. Stick ups, muggings, drugs, you name it. People were afraid to walk two blocks to the Stop-N-Shop that was once a hub of our neighborhood (the late, great Manny and Carmen’s). Why, when our little section of the City had seemed to weather the storm of urban decay longer than our neighbors, were we all of a sudden being hammered?

The answer turned out to be found in two words: Manheim Gardens.

The Manheim Gardens was a huge, sprawling apartment complex with hundreds of units across multiple blocks of SW Germantown. It was decent, affordable, rental housing, filled with families and was an anchor for the neighborhood. But, at some point, a slumlord from Brooklyn bought it and decided that his best course of action was to stop putting a dollar into it, to stop maintaining it in any way, and to leech out everything he could. Predictably, when it happened, in a neighborhood already struggling to keep its head above water, the Manheim Gardens went from being an anchor property, to an anchor tied to Southwest Germantown’s leg, pulling us under water. Drugs were being openly sold, muggings happened routinely, and as far as I remember, there was even a chop shop that started operating there. Panic, like I have never seen up close, set in.

As a teenager really just becoming aware of what was going on around me, it was tough to take. I remember Alex routinely being stuck up. And I still vividly remember the stress and guilt of my parents, trying desperately to balance their role as our protectors versus their instincts to stay and fight. I’m pretty sure Dr. Spock never made a manual for that type of situation.

Today, however, if you take a ride in SW Germantown, a completely different picture emerges. Sure, it’s not perfect. But generally you see beautiful homes, in a stable, integrated neighborhood. What happened? Well… not to get too hero-esque here, but, one person took the lead, and month after month organized Germantown homeowners, organized tenants of the apartment building, used political pressure on the Mayor and the City Councilperson (Donna Miller) to do their part (which they did), used his knowledge of the bankruptcy code, followed the Brooklyn slumlord into Court, and pushed that crumbling property that was taking down our neighborhood into the hands of a CDC that spent time and money restoring it, and allowing SW Germantown to breathe again. It is not a stretch, as long-term residents from streets with names like Erringer, Schuyler, Copley, Abbotsford and Clapier can tell you, that fixing that property basically saved the neighborhood.

So, you want to know what kind of Councilperson Irv Ackelsberg is going to be? He will be a proactive, organizing, legislating, courtroom-using leader of the community who will do everything he can to improve all neighborhoods of the District, and the City as a whole. I know it to be true, because that is what he did for mine. The fact that he happens to my dad certainly makes me biased. But it also let me see that work, up close and personal.

It is with pride that I operate something that could potentially help his campaign in any small way, and I look forward to the next two months, helping him, Maria Quiñones Sanchez and others in any way we can.