Conservatism For Philadelphians
The City of Brotherly Love May Be Ready To Embrace Conservative Ideals After All.
By many standards, Philadelphia has improved dramatically over the last twenty-five years. The land west of the Schuylkill River no longer bears the same urban grit and decay that Will Smith once sang about in the opening sequence to The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. The Liberty Bell, now enclosed in brick, marble, and glass, is no longer surrounded by heroin needles and discarded pill bottles. Violent crime is down — homicides have declined 36% from 2007 to 2014 — and the number of residents is up, reversing the massive metropolitan flight of the latter half of the 20th century. Center City and campuses from Penn to Temple are in the midst of construction boomlets. Amid all these indicators, a 2014 Pew Charitable Trusts report declares Philadelphia to be a “city on the rise.”
Or is it? Penn freshmen are arriving in a city whose long-term fortunes are still very much undecided. Neighborhood development is uneven and not all that lasting: West Philadelphia, for example, has largely become the real estate sandbox of its resident universities, not local businesses and individuals. Poverty, at roughly 28 percent of the city population, has remained persistently high pre- and post-recession. Local and regional leadership is atrophied and corrupt. In an August 2, 2015 op-ed, Republican mayoral candidate Melissa Murray-Bailey noted that in the recent past eight Philadelphia public officials have been charged with corrupt practices, including U.S. Representative and prominent Democrat Chaka Fattah. This moral drag translates into a weak civil society, with nonprofits established to enrich political allies and broken political promises undercutting the public’s faith in grassroots movements. For all of its good qualities, Philadelphia is ripe for massive change.
This awakening has a name: conservatism.
It may be hard to believe in a city that hasn’t had a Republican mayor since 1952, but conservative ideals are increasingly in line with Philadelphia’s urban fabric. Consider the city’s turn to New Urbanism, a philosophy of municipal management heavily influenced by former Heritage Foundation president and Moral Majority giant Paul Weyrich. Rejecting the continued development of suburban sprawl, Great Society-esque public projects, and community disintegration, Philly leaders and citizens alike see merit in reformed transportation networks, the closeness of business and industry to the home, and strong communication channels that keep local politicians involved in the day-to-day events of the street. This is organic growth, with mild tax incentives and individually-directed efforts replacing deliberate government intervention. It’s a process led by people who see a moral code within a hands-off approach to building and maintaining Philadelphia’s various communities.
At its core, conservatism offers three focus points for the City of Brotherly Love: reasonable constraints on government, efficient decision-making that doesn’t place bets on a city’s future, and an idea of social justice that emphasizes balance and understanding over division and alienation.
A Different Kind Of Empowerment
Philadelphia politicians are considered something of a seasonal phenomenon. Every four years, they migrate from Rittenhouse Square and Society Hill to Germantown and Mantua, promise a big new benefit for the neighborhood, ask for a vote, and vanish in a flurry of handshakes and smiles. Residents don’t have a lot of say in how the city is run — average municipal races are lucky to collect a 10% eligible voter participation rate — and accountability levels are low across elected and appointed positions.
Interestingly, it’s the Republican Party’s status as a seemingly powerless outsider that gives it such an edge when it comes to providing information to voters and cleaning up Philadelphia politics. For the past decade, the party has orchestrated an insurgent watchdog movement designed to check the excesses of Democratic and liberal rule. Recently, when the City Council moved to abolish the resign-to-run rule preventing sitting council members from occupying their posts while also campaigning for mayor, Republican party leaders fought to ensure that voters were aware their local government was embracing a blatant conflict of interest. This position has established Republicans and conservatives as vigilant policymakers who prioritize good governance over party interest.
Clearly, Philadelphia needs more of this type of leader. Embodying the Edmund Burke quote that “good order is the foundation of all things,” individuals such as former city council candidate Matt Wolfe and former District Attorney candidate Danny Alvarez continue to fight for a conservative ideal that links communities in closer bonds of trust with their representatives. Mr. Wolfe, for example, is a prominent opponent of “councilmanic prerogative,” an informal and legally questionable practice in which City Council members exercise near-absolute power over land development projects in their districts, often without much voter input. Mr. Alvarez, on the other hand, is better known for his neighborhood-centric understanding of law enforcement, emphasizing a get-tough-on-crime approach that puts the term “Killadelphia” to rest while remaining sensitive to all residents’ civil rights. While these two men did not win election among a largely Democratic voting block, they continue to prove that Philadelphia, sick of the disenfranchisement and corruption associated with entrenched liberal interests, is willing to lend a sympathetic ear to more conservative political leaders. As a result, there is hope yet among the electorate that an end to single-party dominance may provide more citizen empowerment and awareness of civic issues.
No More Hedging
Detroit has a lot of influence in Philadelphia’s City Hall. The shadow of municipal bankruptcy and the collapse of social services lurks in nearly every corner of public policy, from school funding to privatized gas services to SEPTA modernization. Philadelphia itself has bonds rated only three times higher than junk status by Standard & Poor’s, with some analysts placing it in the same “broke city” category as its unfortunate Michigan counterpart.
The big issue isn’t just debt: it’s that social services are likely to shrink as the screws tighten on local finances. That means Philadelphia residents most in need of safety nets are in danger of losing their existing support.
CEO of the Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce and former Republican state senator Rob Wonderling thinks a pragmatic approach may reverse the decline of Philadelphia’s social services while saving badly needed funds for long-term city management. In a 2014 interview with The Notebook, a Philadelphia-based education publication, Mr. Wonderling pointed out that besides the obviousness of having a city that can pay its bills, Philly’s main priority should be to encourage organizations that “embrace uncertainty and become as adaptable as they can.” This perspective ultimately means encouraging policy goals such as an improved business climate for innovative tech companies, a public education system that coexists with charter schools, and a public transit network that is both efficient and capable of fostering economic growth. It also means ensuring that enough money remains to preserve a social safety net for the truly poverty-stricken.
The Chamber of Commerce CEO, like most Republicans and conservatives who have witnessed Philadelphia’s changes from the outside looking in, understands that the city’s current unionized, tax-heavy atmosphere does not spell well for Philadelphia’s future success. Instead, a forward-looking approach that lowers Philadelphia’s sky-high corporate tax rate to attract businesses, offers regulated school choice programs for low-income communities, and links welfare to work incentives will provide the city leeway to manage its finances, all while adjusting its politics and civic fabric to the realities of a 21st century world. If that sounds like the Republican Party’s national platform, that’s because it is — and it might be just the combination of policies Philadelphia needs to shake off the Detroit blues.
Real Justice
In his book The Conservative Heart, American Enterprise Institute President Arthur Brooks writes that, despite all the noise and confusion of various protest movements, social justice is not some shibboleth of the left. Instead, the term refers to “working for a society that lives up to our American standards of fairness,” making it easily accessible to the left and right of our country’s political spectrum. Within this fold, conservatives champion “meritocratic fairness,” or the idea that real justice involves the abundant opportunity to pursue happiness by taking care to invest in one’s own personal growth.
Philadelphia has already started to embrace this form of social justice — and it can do a lot more to implement policies in the pursuit of a fairer society.
Take the program Ready, Willing, and Able, sponsor of the “Men In Blue” who sweep the streets and alleys of Philly’s urban core. RWA aims to reduce criminal recidivism and homelessness among former prisoners by providing work transition opportunities. Each participant applies into a program that pairs work duties with individual responsibilities such as independent housing, maintaining sobriety, and restoring relations with family members. The process provides a base level of support but hinges any true success on a participant’s willingness to rise to the occasion. The goal, of course, is to avoid welfare dependence and become a community contributer with high self-worth, pairing productivity with dignity and a sense of accomplishment.
While not a conservative organization, RWA’s methods are aligned with conservative social justice. Arthur Brooks notes that conservatives believe in “making the starting line more equal for the vulnerable by improving education, expanding the opportunity to work, and increasing access to entrepreneurship… ensur[ing] that rewards reflect effort, merit, and virtue.” What can be more virtuous for a down-and-out person than succeeding at life when given another chance?
Expanding RWA’s model to other big social issues in Philadelphia would work wonders. How about solving the city’s stagnant social mobility and high income inequality? Just as Ready, Willing, and Able links social advancement to work, ESOPs, or Employee Stock Ownership Plans, connect employment with a larger stake in a business and higher overall income. ESOPs function by granting employees equity in a company as part of a benefits package. Known to provide more compensation to workers while giving them a greater say in company operations, ESOPs enjoy support from both conservatives and progressives due to their ability to inspire productivity while assigning greater value to employees. It also just so happens that Philadelphia’s favorite convenience store, Wawa, runs one of the largest ESOPs in the United States. With such an established brand name serving as a marker of economic and social responsibility, there’s ample room for a conservative approach to Philly’s social and economic ills.
A Conservative Agenda?
Philadelphia has a long history of political movements and upheavals, but conservatism has rarely influenced the city’s political and cultural atmospheres. The challenges of our generation and shifting attitudes toward city leadership may be a new opportunity for conservative ideals to play out in metropolitan policy. From Penn students looking to get involved in Philadelphia’s volunteer network to politicians looking for fresh ideas to reinvigorate their communities, there is strong potential for conservative thinkers to play an increasingly impactful role in the City of Brotherly Love’s evolution. All it takes is a few people willing to take up the mantle and declare that a conservative agenda for Philadelphia is a blueprint for everyone’s growth and success.
