"Although there are currently efforts under way to amend the zoning code, the role of the board is to enforce the current zoning code." -Susan Jaffe, Chair, Zoning Board of Adjustments (Link)

Yesterday, with a commonsense quote that was for too long absent in our City, the Zoning Board followed the law, and rejected Unisys' application for their stupid sign on Two Liberty Place. I don't particularly care about their sign, but I don't like being bullied by a company that thinks they have the City over a barrel, and think it will only make other businesses a)angry and b)think about what they can extract from a City. And, I like that we have laws that are actually followed.

First, on the bullying: I disagree with Brett Mandel about our priorities as we try to create good jobs and a better life in our City, but he and Inga Saffron are exactly right with this:

The real trouble with the Unisys sign is the ambiguous message it sends about Philadelphia. The company has cleverly played into local insecurities by suggesting that a refusal is evidence the city isn't a business-friendly place, and has vowed to break its lease unless the sign is approved. But others will read different meanings into that sign.

Like Philadelphia sells itself cheap. Or bullies get their way.

Tax reformer Brett Mandel, of Philadelphia Forward, argues that special deals "create resentment and anger among those firms we have to retain." Imagine what went through the minds of Cigna execs when they learned they would be occupying the Unisys building. The best way to prove the city is a good home for corporations, he says, is to make sure the rules are transparent, equitable and affordable for all.

Second, not only was Unisys going to get something that would piss other people off and make us look like we are afraid to stand up for ourselves, but, the only way they were going to get it was if the Zoning Board ignored the law, as it has done so many times before. The Zoning Board's job is to enforce the zoning code. Changes to that law are coming, but should stem from our elected officials, not a group of five people no one knows about, who do what they please.

Remember, the Zoning Board ignoring the law has consequences. For example:

• Philadelphia passed a law that banned new billboards in the City, and the Board appointed by Billboard-Industry-backed Rendell and Street simply granted variances, every single time. Who cares if a law was passed? We needed our billboards.
• Or, for the longest time, even if you had a legitimate hardship to be approved by the Zoning Board, the only way you got anything don't was if you agreed to put in central air conditioning, because of the power of the sheet metal workers. Want to build affordable housing in Philly? Well, set aside a little cash, because folks need their AC! Who cared if that made no sense.
• Or, think certain neighborhoods should be designated historic, with restrictions on what can be built in them? Not in the old days of the Zoning Board, where then Zoning chair David Auspitz decided that, besides knowing how to make a pretty good Turkey club sandwich, he also had the expertise and power to decide what went where, the laws of our City be damned.

Say what you want about City Council- and I say plenty- but, they are still are a fairly responsive group of people, who can be swayed by public action (see: Casinos). I would much rather them making the law than an unknown, unaccountable group of people on the Zoning Board.

This ruling is a step in the right direction.