Candidates line up to replace Rep. Dwight Evans | Shackamaxon

This week’s column analyzes the city’s camera surge, the need for political challengers, and calls for some basic sense about security.

Over the last few years, Philadelphians have increasingly come under surveillance. Cameras enforce bus lane violations, issue speeding tickets, and help prevent and solve violent crime. Just this week, the Philadelphia Parking Authority announced it is now adding cameras to the city’s trolleys.

This surge in surveillance has led to some residents bemoaning what they view as a cash grab. These worries were echoed last year by City Councilmember Jeffery “Jay” Young during a committee meeting in which he held up authorization for school zone cameras. Fortunately, these concerns are unwarranted.

Our speed and red-light cameras are not designed to raise revenue. While camera systems in states like Illinois are used to pay for regular local government expenses, Pennsylvania’s are earmarked for traffic safety projects. Philadelphia is getting $13 million from the most recent distribution. This leaves politicians with little incentive other than to focus on safety and efficiency when choosing where and why to place the cameras. The system isn’t designed to take advantage of sudden speed traps, a problem that occurs with both automated and traditional traffic enforcement systems.

Per a PPA spokesperson, 63% of vehicle owners who get a bus camera ticket don’t get a second one.

In the case of the trolley cameras, it is also a question of basic fairness. If you ride the trolleys enough, you’ll eventually end up stuck. Almost always, it is because someone decided to inconvenience 20 to 40 people to avoid parallel parking or walking a short distance. While no one likes getting a ticket, motorists who opt to block trolleys should be happy with the fact that they aren’t being immediately towed.

The race to replace U.S. Rep. Dwight Evans was always going to be close-fought. With the youthful Brendan Boyle occupying the city’s other congressional seat, this could be the best chance to represent Philadelphia in Washington, D.C., for decades. State Sen. Sharif Street (the son of former Mayor John F. Street) and State Rep. Morgan Cephas (who chairs the Philadelphia delegation in the state House) are both long-expected candidates for the job. They’ve been joined by progressive firebrand Chris Rabb, surgeon Ala Stanford, and a handful of other candidates with less funding and political support. For Southeast Pennsylvania politicos, it’ll have to do. There simply aren’t a lot of competitive races this year.

In state Senate District 34, Towamencin Township Supervisor Kofi Osei is running against party-endorsed candidate Chris Thomas. There are also a couple of contested primaries for state House seats. That’s all, folks.

Next year also looks fairly empty. While some progressive groups have polled residents to gauge the viability of defeating Mayor Cherelle L. Parker, few potential candidates appear eager to take her on. That’s perhaps not surprising. Only one Philadelphia mayor has failed to be reelected in the last 70 years. That includes W. Wilson Goode Sr., who bombed a city block during his first term, and Frank Rizzo, who failed a lie-detector test he himself had suggested.

What the city really could use are more challengers for City Council seats. So far, I am aware of just one candidate, Jalon Alexander, who has put his hat in the ring. Alexander plans to challenge Young in the 5th District, citing capricious decision-making. But Young, while he may be the most egregious example, is not the only Council member who could use some competition.

I expect the city’s progressive groups, like Reclaim Philadelphia and the Working Families Party, will eventually find candidates to challenge some of the weaker members, including Young, Cindy Bass, Nina Ahmad, and Jim Harrity. Last cycle, these groups organized around ideas, like rent control, that simply aren’t viable in Philadelphia.

Despite being mostly frozen out by Council President Kenyatta Johnson and their colleagues, the current progressive delegation has been somewhat unwilling to challenge that body’s status quo. While Councilmember Kendra Brooks voted against a ban on safe injection sites, and Rue Landau voted against one of Young’s ill-considered moves, the city could use at least one councilmember who is willing to consistently challenge their colleagues’ bad decisions.

We call Gov. Josh Shapiro the Ambitious Abingtonian here for a reason. The governor is a hard-charging, elbows-up politician who has turned many friends into enemies over the years. Republicans seem to believe they have finally found a weakness in Shapiro’s political armor: the decision to spend taxpayer money to secure his home in Abington, and the seizure of a small strip of adjoining land that accompanied it. State Sen. Tracy Pennycuick, who represents western Montgomery County and eastern Berks County, even opined that Shapiro “put his family at a higher level of risk” by moving them home instead of to a bunker after the April arson attack at the governor’s mansion.

Of course, the Shapiros just survived an attempted assassination. Let’s be human beings for one second. Shapiro’s shell-shocked children deserved to sleep in familiar settings.

If Republicans want spending decisions to critique, they should start with Shapiro’s reliance on an opaque group called Team PA to pay for everything from travel to sporting events instead.