I spent many of my formative years babysat at the knees of my grandparents and aunts and uncles in South Jersey, and I never once thought I'd volunteer to move there. I love my family don't get me wrong, but I hated how they would always call our city "Philly," and complain about the taste of our water, and were generally down on the urban environment.
But, as much as I love Philadelphia, after 28 years it's finally occurred to me that maybe they were right. Except it's not Philadelphia I find fault with, but Pennsylvania.
New Jersey is a solidly blue state, and they are consistently on the cutting edge when it comes to progressive public policy. From civil unions for LGBT people to liberalized absentee voting laws to a very progressive income tax to abolishing the death penalty, you've got your pick of concrete progressive legislative accomplishments to chose from in NJ.
And yesterday's really topped the cake: New Jersey became one of only three states in the nation to offer paid family leave to its workers.
From the Inky:
New Jersey's version would offer workers up to six weeks' leave to care for sick family members and newborn or adopted children. During the last legislative session, another version of the bill, which would have offered up to 10 weeks of paid leave, failed to clear the legislature.
The current bill would offer workers leave at two-thirds of their salary, up to $504 per week, for six weeks. Workers would pay for the program through payroll deductions, which would cost an estimated $33 per year. Workers would be limited to one leave per 12-month period.
Federal law mandates most employers give workers up to 12 weeks of unpaid family leave, although companies with fewer than 50 employees are exempt.
Paid family leave is an essential plank in a 21st century New Deal for workers. Why?
Because when the first New Deal got started in 1933, many more households contained a full-time stay-at-home member. So when someone else got sick or ill, there was someone available to help.
This is not the case today as any of us who has cared for a sick family member can tell you. In an era where hospital stays are shorter, prescriptions are handed out like candy, and the procession of home care workers into the home of a sick family member can make your head spin, it's necessary to have someone else around full-time.
But without paid leave, when one of the worst aspects of our conversion into a service economy is that vast numbers of workers no longer have sick or vacation days, a lot of people care for their family members in lieu of earning wages, and in some cases, give up their job to do so. Paid family leave addresses this problem.
There are also obviously a lot more women in the workplace today than in 1933, which makes paid family leave an essential worker benefit for any female employee who wants to give birth. Not to mention the fact that starting a family via birth or adoption interferes with work in almost every scenario you can imagine (one parent or two, gay or straight) since we all work a lot more more hours than did our forebearers.
Paid family leave allows families to stay fiscally secure during rough times which, in the long run, benefits our shared economy. It's a shame that states are having to slowly fix this the lack of paid leave in the "landmark" FMLA bill Clinton got passed back in the 90's, but it's heartening that it is happening, and happening right across the river.
In short, I heart NJ's paid family leave.
We need this here too. Dollar for dollar, New Jersey is really setting itself up as a competitor with our region for jobs and residents in a very significant way. Decent home prices, good schools, paid family leave (and for me civil union laws) are all just a PATCO ride away in New Jersey.
And the chances of us getting all (if any) of the progressive reforms they've put in place soon are slim. So unless we decide to secede soon, it might be time to call a real estate agent...
alternative energy grants and rebates, too
I'm not sure of the intimate details, but when I did some quick looking at grants and rebates for alternative energy solutions for homeowners, NJ seemed to be well ahead of PA on that front too.
New Jersey Is A More Progressive State
New Jersey is a much more progressive state. That has something do with why it has not elected a Republican to the U.S. Senate since 1972, why it has elected two different Democratic governors back to back--something Pennsylvania did for the only for the only time since the Civil War in 1958--and why the Democrats have comfortable margins in both Houses of the New Jersey Legislature.
If anyone has moved to New Jersey already because of its more progressive nature, it would be useful if they would make that publicly known. I have used the fact of positive action in New Jersey to help prod the Pennsylvania legislature to institute a chemical right to know law and to raise the minimum wage to $7.15. I will be supporting legislation in Pennsylvania to match New Jersey's six weeks of paid sick leave. I have lobbied the New Jersey minimum wage commission on behalf of a higher New Jersey minimum wage, and assured them that Pennsylvania would likely follow with an increase if New Jersey did.
On civil unions, there are differences of opinions. A commission to study the New Jersey civil union legislation found that civil unions were inadequate and demeaning; this is line with the opinion of the Pennsylvania ACLU. New Jersey has passed legislation banning discrimination against gays, while Pennsylvania lags do to lack of support from Republicans and conservative Democrats.
I believe the Democratic Presidential primary offers some chance for hope, increasing the total Democratic vote and showing that liberalism is not dead. That Barack Obama can be a serious candidate in Pennsylvania violates all the conventional wisdom; his vote will be seen by many as a measurement of progressive strength around the state. I feel his vote totals will be high enough in various places to get people thinking that the old Reagan era standards of what is acceptable are no longer in vogue.
Obama and PA
You are saying that you think because Obama is a serious candidate in PA there is some indication that the state legislature you serve in, and lead on behalf of Democrats in the House might start churning out better legislation? I wonder, beyond that, if you could offer some more insight into what democratic leaders are planning to do to keep pace with the kinds of progressive reform NJ has passed?
I Am Planning To Introduce Paid Parental Leave
I can speak for myself and not for other elected leaders on this. I closely follow New Jersey because its direction is the direction I want to go in. Whether that is the will of the entire leadership team or not depends on how much support can be generated. The generation of active, visible support and participation for progressive state legislative initiatives has never been easy.
I am planning to introduce paid parental leave legislation for six weeks on the New Jersey model. At such time as there is widespread agreement in the gay community that New Jersey's models of domestic partnership legislation and civil unions are worthwhile, I would be glad to introduce or co-sponsor such legislation. Should New Jersey ever enact gay marriage, I would be glad to try that in Pennsylvania too. We are a decade or more behind New Jersey on protecting the employment rights of gays, and I strongly support legislation I have backed for more than quarter of a century banning discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.
The Obama campaign is important because it is very visible, and its results so far are extremely impressive to many. The more votes Obama gets, the more legislators will start asking questions about what Obama Democrats want. For all too many decades, too many Democratic legislators have been fixated on what Reagan Democrats want.
All I have to say is that if
All I have to say is that if guys like Ray Murphy actually move to New Jersey, then PA and Philly are completely screwed!
i mean, i am kinda kidding...
(and thanks Charles!)
I am kind of kidding, and maybe this is a native Pilly person convo, but why are we masochists for this city when you think about crazy our state is? I love Phila. to death, i really do, and i am maybe a bit obsessed...but is living in Collingswood and taking PATCO all that different than living in Mt. Airy (which also makes me shudder, but I digress)? And you get real rights and benefits from your state--especially as a gay?
I dunno, if I felt any confidence that Democrats here had some kind of plan to gain power, I'd maybe feel more optimistic...but...
The differance? Mt. Airy
The differance? Mt. Airy doesn't suck! The LBGT community is pretty strong in my kneck of the woods. It must suck being gay and having to choose between living in New Jersey [holds nose] and having rights, or living in West Philly OR Mt. Airy and having a strong an vibrant community.
Come on now
I think if Ray's post says anything, it's that the reasons why many people choose to live in the Jersey suburbs rather than in the city of Philadelphia are multiple and complex. I've known several gay and lesbian couples who live across the Delaware exactly for this reason -- a few years ago, it was the promise of recognized joint adoption, and a few years from now, it will be something else still. Paid parental leave is just another reason why it is often not easy to have and raise a child in the City of Brotherly Love -- credo expertum.
Since we're stuck with the "suck" tag, we might as well run with it. I've lived in Germantown/Mt. Airy, and I've lived in West Philly. Both, in their own ways, seriously suck. And there are many places in New Jersey which hardly suck at all. Despite all of our relative privilege, I doubt that anyone on this site would be here if Philadelphia, for everything that it has going for it, hasn't sucked in some small way for them today, and sucked deeply many, many times in the past. If Philadelphia didn't suck, we'd all be at Chowhound arguing over which pizza place was the best. It's because Philadelphia (and Pennsylvania) suck that we are motivated to change it. I mean, talking with you guys about elections and revenue is fun, but it's not that fun.
I think that the fact that I
I think that the fact that I used hyperbole in jest (partially), my point did not come across very well. Yes, this is a complex subject with many sides. There are things about Jersey that are appealing and things about our state that need t change. That’s why I said that it would be a great shame if a guy like Ray Murphy left, not just because I consider him a part of my community, but because he grew up here and loves our city, but there are things about it that deeply trouble him, as they do me.
As far as sucking, well, yeah, G-Town and M. Airy sort of suck too in there own ways. Being young and single in Mt. Airy is sort of weird because it’s very much a place for married people. In Germantown, you deal with crack heads/dealers and crazy people in groups homes living around the corner (true story!). There is a sense of community here that is quite something unlike almost no other place in this country.
Life is a series of tradeoffs. In my industry (software), I sometimes say that the choice between one solution or the other is the difference between a turd and a polished turd. In my programs, and in my life, I have to pick the sucky solution that sucks the least. That’s sort of how it goes. So yes, Mt. Airy sucks and NJ sucks, but NJ is not my type of suckiness.
Philadelphia's Next Marketing Campaign
"Philadelphia: Let's Polish Up This Turd!" ;-)
Actually, that sounds more like a SEPTA slogan.
And just for clarity's sake
I don't know if I agree with Charles that what we got here can't be found elsewhere--there are a lot of interesting urban communities in the country, but this is my city and I do love it.
However, the point of this post was really to say, wow, not 10 miles from where I sit and type right now is an electorate that put in place a legislative body that can move progressive bills. In other words, it's not in the water, PA can do better.
And yea, seriously, if I can still do all the things in Philly I do now and only be as far away from the action as I would be if I lived in Mt. Airy (which, yes, does sound pretty awful to me) why not move to NJ and actually take advantage of much better laws?
I am probably the worst of anyone in holding Philly loyalty tests, but it is getting to the point where inveterate local loyalty isn't gonna cut it for me if our elected Democratic leaders in Harrisburg can't do more than just talk about making change, and actually pass laws to protect this city's competitive advantage...over NJ.
come on over, Ray
well, speaking as a native Jersey girl who lives in the afore-mentioned borough of Collingswood, Ray, we'd love to have ya!
I'll tell you the truth--when I moved back to the Delaware Valley in 1999, after living in California for eight years, I didn't plan to end up doing all my political activism across the river from where I live--mostly, I was motivated by a desire to be close to my family, as I was about to have my first kid--but that is what ended up happening.
The reality is, there are many great things about Philly, and many great things about New Jersey. One of my favorite things about Collingswood is that my kids can go to school in a racially and economically diverse environment, and have classmates with gay and lesbian parents--as Ray points out, there's been something of an exodus of Philly L/G/B/T families to South Jersey, given our state's more progressive policies. Are they perfect? No, but we're also not fighting a ridiculous 'Defense of Marriage' amendment to the state constitution.
Plus, we're like five minutes closer to the shore.
Now if only there was a YoungJerseyPolitics website! Maybe you can take care of that for us, Ray.