For the World Cup or the Fourth of July, Philadelphia shows it’s the place to be | Shackamaxon

Welcome to Shackamaxon, a weekly politics column focused on what’s happening at City Hall and in Harrisburg. It is named for the place where the Lenape chiefs would meet to conduct the people’s business, which is now known as Penn Treaty Park. This week’s edition looks at the ways Philadelphia has changed for the better since the Bicentennial — and the ways things have stayed the same.

My fellow columnists Trudy Rubin and Jenice Armstrong have both pointed out how disappointing Washington’s celebrations for America’s 250th anniversary have been. My advice? Skip the city that didn’t even exist in 1776 and visit Philadelphia instead. Skip Boston, the small town with the tall tales, as well. If you are healthy and hydrated enough to withstand the brutal heat wave, the City of Brotherly Love and Sisterly Affection is the best place to celebrate the Fourth.

Philadelphia embodies the story of America. Our city was founded by William Penn, a Quaker idealist who staunchly defended religious liberty. It was fostered by Ben Franklin, a writer and inventor who embodies our nation’s ingenuity and ambition. Octavius V. Catto, himself a Black man born free, fought for the rights of the enslaved, both before and after the passage of the 13th Amendment.

A century before the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Catto became a martyr when he was shot and killed on Election Day in 1871 as part of a broader campaign of political violence against Black voters. Catto’s fiancée, Caroline LeCount, desegregated this city’s streetcars long before Rosa Parks did the same for buses across the country. Siegmund Lubin started one of the first movie empires, right here in the city. The iconic Stetson hat, long associated with cowboys and the Wild West? Another product from the city known as the “Workshop of the World.”

There’s a case to be made that not only did America start here, but our city is the most American of them all. Everything that our country is known for, both for good and for bad, has happened here, as well.

It always bothered me that our city’s greatest draw seems to be Rocky Balboa, the fictional boxer from the eponymous film. Beyond the fact that this city is where America began, Rocky also memorializes a very specific era of our city’s history, one of decline. The first movie was released in 1976, during a decade when Philadelphia lost over a quarter million residents. Crime, trash, and disorder dominated the city’s streets.

It’s also worth noting that the film was released in the year of America’s Bicentennial. The celebrations that year were largely a misfire. Then-Mayor Frank Rizzo scared many potential visitors away, and there was an outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease.

That’s not to say Rocky, or the city he inhabited, was without charm. Despite the challenges, Philadelphians were still full of heart and grit, qualities Sylvester Stallone’s creation exemplified well. But the place shown in the movie doesn’t capture the full spectrum of what Philadelphia had to offer, even during the tumultuous ’70s. Rocky may have run up the Art Museum steps, but he never stepped inside.

Today’s Philadelphia is a dramatically different city. While the white working-class communities Rocky represented remain an important part of the city, they no longer dominate it. Rizzo would garner very few votes if he were on the ballot today. Philadelphia is now a multicultural, multiracial city on the rise. Rather than repelling visitors and residents, the city welcomes them.

According to Sports Business Journal, the city’s FIFA Fan Festival is a pacesetter, leading the 13 other public World Cup viewing areas in North America in both single-day and overall attendance. Social media feeds are filled with international visitors praising the city’s culture and cuisine. Some Brazilian fans called it the most beautiful city they have ever seen.

Throughout the year, city officials have expressed confidence in Philadelphia’s ability to recoup the investment made in hosting the World Cup and other events. The state tourism office has told The Inquirer that early indicators are positive, with flight bookings, Amtrak arrivals, and Airbnb rentals exceeding expectations. While the initial projections were for 500,000 World Cup visitors, we may end up seeing closer to 800,000.

Beyond the number-crunching, however, there’s a more important goal at stake: changing people’s perceptions of our city.

That’s something impossible to set a price tag on.

So far, one of the biggest reasons to be skeptical about Philadelphia’s future is City Hall. The city’s leaders too often serve their own interests, rather than those of the public.

Take Curtis Jones Jr., who represents the 4th District on City Council. Jones is certainly capable of being an insightful public official. Since his colleagues passed him over as Council president, however, he’s displayed increasingly questionable behavior.

Earlier this year, Jones asked Streets Department officials to consider delaying crucial bridge repairs until after his reelection, citing concerns that the public might blame him for their inconvenience.

Jones, however, ignored the impact of public opinion when it came to his own personal finances. Both he and his wife, Jazelle Jones, who serves as city representative, are planning to take payments through DROP, a retirement program that was never meant to accommodate elected officials. The pair stands to collect up to $750,000 by retiring for a day — and then returning to their six-figure jobs. This may be a rounding error in a city that is planning to spend $7.1 billion in the next fiscal year, but it is also more than 10 times Philadelphia’s median household income.

Asked about Jazelle Jones’ retention, Mayor Cherelle L. Parker cited the need to stay the course as a factor in making an exception for the city representative. Left unspoken was the fact that if Parker had blocked this payday, it would have likely complicated her relationship with Curtis Jones — one of the mayor’s most reliable supporters on City Council.

This kind of cronyism only reinforces negative perceptions of the city. Anyone looking for evidence that Philadelphia is the same old parochial, self-dealing city it was known for being in the past has only to try to keep up with the Joneses.

To be fair, City Hall isn’t the only place that seems like it’s having a hard time getting its act together. Harrisburg has yet again missed its budget deadline.

While local governments, school districts, and SEPTA are expected to submit their own spending plans in a timely manner, legislators have apparently decided that deadlines don’t apply to them. The Pennsylvania Senate went home early rather than finish negotiations that its own leaders have said are productive.

Last year, the impasse went on into the fall, forcing some state services to grind to a halt and schools to take out loans in order to pay their bills. The commonwealth simply can’t afford to do that again.

This year, rising revenues from existing taxes and a potential influx of money from so-called skill games have made the process easier. Still, it is July, and there’s no budget deal.

What we need is a way to hold legislators accountable for failing to do their jobs. In the past, withholding pay was suggested as a leverage point. State Rep. Natalie Mihalek, a Republican from Western Pennsylvania, has said that failing to pass a budget should lead to a special election, a nod to the concept of “confidence votes” in Westminster parliaments.

Maybe that will get the General Assembly to take its job seriously.