IMHO the city is backsliding into a leadership crisis where in any given process, the number of vetos has proliferated and the (career) cost to anyone who tries to push a project through is too high. That's a perfectly natural thing to happen in a bureaucracy, but it needs to be countered by strong leaders who can articulate a vision that motivates the rest of the people in the process to come along.

So far as I've seen, none of the declared candidates have identified this problem by name. I'm worried that many of the candidates who have spent time on city council are too comfortable with the current power-sharing arrangements to upset the cart, so I am generally counting council experience against them.

There are a number of candidates running more or less as "reformers," including Allan Domb (who's business acumen is countered by his years of support for councilmanic prerogative while on council), Rebecca Rhynhart (who's reformer credentials look great, but as the city Controller that's also literally her job), and Jeff Brown (who would make a stronger case if not for his nakedly self-interested opposition to the soda tax).

As of right now, I'm leaning towards Rhynhart. But there's a number of major issues the candidates have been silent on (is anyone going to say anything about the state legislature trying to unilaterally remove democratically-elected Philly officials, for example?). So I'm keeping open ears.

Lol, I have sent PPA probably half a dozen RTK requests for this data and they have repeatedly insisted they do not have any data about parking regulations on Philadelphia streets.

I do not believe them, but I'm also not about to sue them over this.

🌲✊

Did you apply through the city, or through tree tenders? The way it seems to work is if you apply through the city they will automatically deny you for literally any reason. I have multiple friends who were rejected by the city, but later got one through tree tenders.

If you were rejected by tree tenders but still want a tree... I know an arborist who will cut a tree pit and plant one for you, but it's not free.

ONLY IF YOU PLANT TREES IN YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD.

HERE'S HOW: https://treephilly.org/street-trees/

OPTION THREE (applying through PHS treetenders) IS USUALLY FASTEST, DEPENDING ON YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD.

SORRY ABOUT THE SHOUTING -- I'VE HAD A LONG DAY, BUT I GET REALLY EXCITED ABOUT PLANTING TREES IN PHILLY.

But they show you all the KFCs and Starbucks your heart could ever desire!

I've noticed auto part stores have strangely large flashlight selections. Not a hobbyist so I've no idea if they're high-end or just cheap crap, but they probably list their inventory on their websites. I'm thinking the chains like autozone, pep boys, etc.

I mean... for my neighbor it's just a hobby. IDK what to tell you, not everyone who's into the dirtbike culture is the same?

> Are you just arguing to argue or do you not know what’s going on?

Bro you've got to unwind your conception of who you're talking to. Look at your comments: you come in hard with accusations of bad faith and then act incredulous when people ask you actual questions. It's fully weird.

> if Sullivan was still there the riots wouldn’t have happened.

No argument there, Outlaw's incompetence was well-established as the primary reason for the lack of a response plan and the way the riots devolved. She is also the one who threw Wilson under the bus for the tear gassing on 676. She's a politician, not a professional.

But both Sullivan and Wilson were inspectors and deputy commissioners during a 7-year period when the city's murder rate steadily climbed and their ability to solve crimes declined. Calling the people who ran the department into the ground "competent" is exactly the kind of willful blindness that /u/scumandvillany is talking about.

This is all interpersonal politics, same as every other dysfunctional agency in philly - one group is mad at another group so they blame everyone for all the problems. But surprise, surprise, ousting your political enemies isn't the same thing as solving problems.

Then why didn't you just say that? How can we have a conversation about my ideas and your ideas if your ideas are so obscured by such a thick layer of ironic sarcasm that I can't even tell what you mean?

What's your argument for why patrol reduces crime?

Okay but what if it's not a tradeoff?

What if the security theater does nothing to affect the 'crime circus?'

Is that a good reason to spend money on security theater?

Where is this evidence of a command staff that ever knew what they were doing? If the department started falling to pieces when Ramsey left, that would indicate that Ramsey was the one holding the shit show together, not a mysterious clique of competent managers.

And are you implying that someone (Ross? Coulter? Outlaw?) purged the upper management of PPD? Do you have names of competent inspectors you think were purged?

You implied (not stated) that there was at some point a competent command staff. My reading comprehension could be shit, but if you're not actually saying the things that you're thinking, that's just bad writing.

Oh okay, so you read half the comment and lost your shit at a word, then rage-replied before finishing the rest of what I said.

That actually explains a lot.

> that knows what they are doing

So... you didn't read Rhynhart's report.

>Philly Police Dept. has inconsistent strategies, slow response times, and outdated systems, city controller says

Other than sexually harassing/fucking direct reports and failing to show up to work, what exactly does the current leadership excel at?

What part of "I was frustrated when she hadn't articulated criticisms that were merited, but now that she has she might win my vote" led you to that conclusion?

Oh I agree, but last year she came out with a series of policy recommendations on how to address crime that were heavily focused on the DAO and very little on policing. I think this report is much more in the right direction.

FWIW, I'm not a Krasner diehard (I like many of his policies, but he's made plenty of mistakes, too) - but the FOP has gotten way too much mileage out of blaming Krasner for the police department's stunning incompetence, and it bothered me that she was seeming to align with that narrative instead of talking about what was wrong with PPD.

Every other philly politician seems to be incapable of talking about police from a perspective of trying to fix what's broken. Even MQS (who's running on a 'make government work' kind of platform) can't seem to articulate what she thinks is wrong (besides 'too few cops')

Lol, apparently writing up paper messages to hand to other desk jockeys to deliver in person.

PPD had 7,167 employees in Dec. 2020. Of those:

• 4,000 in field operations
• 1,000 in support services
• 1,050 in criminal investigations
• 450 in "homeland security/intelligence"
• 225 in professional standards
• 175 in forensics
• 150 in aviation

Within "field operations," the big chunks are ROC North (1,900) and ROC South (1,850). As an illustration, ROC South looks like this:

• 1,587 police officers
• 143 sergeants
• 46 lieutenants
• 33 corporals
• 12 captains
• 3 inspectors
• 1 chief inspector

Within Criminal Investigations division, there's a different breakdown:

• 537 detectives
• 322 police officers
• 96 sergeants
• 57 lieutenants
• 12 corporals
• 14 captains
• 6 inspectors
• 4 chief inspectors
• 1 staff inspector

It's very strange to me that middle and upper management in the criminal investigations unit are staffed at similar rates to patrol divisions with >2x the number of officers. Also, the number of budgeted detective positions decreased from 2020 to 2021.

Patrol is a black hole of wasted effort. We need officers to respond to calls, but beyond that you're wasting a payroll on security theater.

Solving violent crimes and arresting criminals is the only way to fix the perception that doing crime won't lead to consequences. We need more murder/assault arrests and fewer contraband arrests.

TBH, this is definitely making her look more appealing. Last year when she caved to the "blame krasner" trope I was worried we wouldn't have a single candidate willing to talk about police dysfunction. But this report basically nails it.

If she follows up with a platform designed to fix PPD (that will actually work, starting with a new commissioner and upper management) she might earn my vote.

Y'know what? I feel a little bit vindicated. I'm just gonna vibe with that for today.

SDP did not declare bankruptcy, Act 46 was passed without the support of Philly representatives. Act 46 gave the state the power to unilaterally take over school districts by declaring them 'distressed'. Only Philly was targeted.

More to the point, the SRC was not a receivership because most receiverships end when the financial woes end. The SRC stuck around for ~two decades to implement an unpopular and unwanted program of school privatization that hasn't produced better results for either taxpayers or students (but it did weaken the teacher's union...).

You can disagree, but you can't call me disingenuous. Your analogy to a receivership is just wrong - it's a completely different thing.

Addl important context: the Philly school board was suing the state at the time for violating the civil rights of minority kids because state school funding to the city was so little. The SRC was imposed on Philly to counter the political and legal campaign for more state funding of poor school districts.

> but in general the people in those rural areas aren’t voting for them because of that.

I mean...

Does it matter if it was 'intentional' or not? If my elected leaders were fucking with the democratic self governance of other parts of the state, I would hold them accountable. When was the last time Philly's legislative delegation got together to take control of York County's schools away from York County voters?

Rural PA voters vote for reactionary ideological blowhards who have long used the power of state government to hurt the prosperity of the state's largest city. You can't call it anything other than what it is.

> Also no one in rural PA cares about Philly

Not in a conscious "hey, fuck philly!" way they don't. But when they go to vote, they have an impressive record of always picking the guy who then fucks over philly.

Intentional or not, this is on the rural voters picking shitty legislators.

• PA Act 111 created a parallel legal system that adjudicates any disciplinary actions or dismissals of police officers through binding arbitration. The process is supposed to be fair, but over decades has accumulated bad precedents to become a firewall to firing cops. It's become essentially impossible to fire a Philly cop who isn't convicted of a crime. As recently as 2020 there were bipartisan efforts to fix this law, but pro-cop Republicans and some Democrats defeated it.

• The Heart & Lung Benefit - a state law that lets the police union pick doctors who can then 'diagnose' long-term disabilities - has been abused to the point where 11% of our police force is out sick for months at a time. Not only that, they get paid more while out sick.

• The Uniformity Clause in the state constitution prohibits Philadelphia from raising property tax rates on commercial properties, unlike many other cities. This means that Philly either has to raise taxes on poor residents (who can't afford it), or forgo lucrative revenues from high-dollar commercial properties in center city. There have been large coalitions of businesses and politicians trying to fix this for years, to no avail.

• The School Reform Commission (SRC) was created to 'responsibly manage' the city's schools by taking control away from Philadelphians and putting it in the hands of republican legislators from the middle of nowhere for nearly two decades. That experiment ended a few years ago with no serious improvement in school outcomes, but with 1/3rd of our school seats closed and handed over to unaccountable charters that do things like teach abstinence only sex ed and steal district money.

• The Philadelphia Parking Authority is a state agency with no local governance - ostensibly it exists to collect parking revenue and hand it over to the schools. In reality it's a local republican patronage mill that fails to effectively enforce parking restrictions (see: south broad, sidewalk parkers, etc.), somehow manages to make very little profit, and spends suspiciously large sums on "consultants" who are friends of the board. PPA has never hit its revenue targets for sending money to the schools. Last year they even tried to claw money back from the school district.

In each of these cases, Philadelphia politicians are powerless to fix the problems created by state laws because state laws supersede local laws. Kenney may be a no-show at this point, but frankly there's not a lot he can do about the police.

How could Larry Krasner do this?!