Progress vs. Progressivism

In an opinion piece cheering the rise of “progressive” Democrats such as U.S. Senate candidate John Fetterman and Philly state reps Elizabeth Fiedler and Rick Krajewski in the Inquirer last week, veteran political consultant Joe Corrigan wrote this:

Residents of the most voter-rich county in Pennsylvania [Philadelphia] deserve aspirational leaders who get stuff done for the people they serve.

To that we say, amen. But also, what exactly is this “stuff” that is getting done?

The progressives’ influence really started to get a grip in Philly and Pennsylvania in 2014. That’s when Gov. Wolf and Fetterman, his lieutenant governor, got elected. A year later, it was previously moderate City Council member Jim Kenney who embraced a progressive platform and was elected mayor. The same year Helen Gym won her seat on City Council. State Rep. Chris Rabb was first elected in 2016, followed by Fiedler in 2018. Larry Krasner was voted in as district attorney in 2017. Jamie Gauthier won her seat on Council in 2019, which is the same year that the Working Families Party got Kendra Brooks elected to Council.

Here is some of the stuff that has happened as these leaders have ascended to power:

• Philly’s homicide rate more than doubled
from 248 in 2014 to 562 in 2021

• Drug overdose deaths in the city doubled
from 628 in 2014 to 1,214 in 2020

• Poverty increased in 38 Philly neighborhoods, while declining in just 17
according to Census data

• Philly ranked 26th out of 30 large U.S. cities for private-sector job growth
City job creation ran 40% lower than the median urban rate from 2010 to 2019

• The city maintained one of the lowest rates of business creation among big cities
No other large, eastern city has fewer businesses or Black-owned businesses
per resident than Philly

• Philly’s unemployment rate increased from 6.9% (June 2016) to 7.7% (Jan. 2022)
The national unemployment rate decreased from 5.1% to 4%;
today, Philly’s unemployment rate is nearly double the national rate

• Total public school enrollment in Philly dropped nearly 3% in the past six years
School District enrollment has plunged by 12%

• Property taxes increased by $400 million, or 33%, in five years (2016 to 2021)
That’s before next year’s net 14% increase goes into effect

Progressives like to tout increases in taxes and government funding, and this is one area where they have gotten it done. The city’s 2022 budget was $1.4 billion bigger than six years earlier (and that’s not counting more than $2 billion in federal Covid relief funds awarded to the city and School District). Yet resident satisfaction with city services has declined in nearly every category during that time.

In Philadelphia, there is a huge gap between city leaders’ rhetoric and results. This is one reason nearly 80% of voters do not participate in city elections.

Consider four news items from the past month.

1. The Inquirer reported that the Philadelphia Land Bank is in possession of, and unable to properly maintain, tens of thousands of vacant properties. The purpose of the Land Bank is to facilitate the sale of these properties, in order to free up land for more affordable housing and to reduce blight. Instead, the tradition of requiring City Council members to individually approve all property sales within their district blocks most parcels from ever being sold.

2. Also from the Inquirer, the Philadelphia Department of Health has only managed to spend $147,000 of the $8.3 million it was awarded by the federal government to extend extra Covid-19 supports to underserved communities. This is the same department that botched the early implementation of Covid vaccine centers.

3. Things aren’t better in other city departments. The executive director of the Pennsylvania Prison Society wrote that “a dangerous lack of supervision persists in [Philadelphia] jails.” She stated that 29 people have died in city jails since the start of the pandemic, the majority murdered or the victims of drug overdoses.

4. Finally, the Inquirer cited an analysis showing the city has levied bigger property-tax increases in working-class neighborhoods where home prices have risen modestly than in more affluent sections of the city where home prices have skyrocketed. “Since 2013, the city has adopted various reforms, each billed as a fix to a system riddled with uneven tax bills for homes with roughly equal valuations. Rather than instill confidence, the changes raise more concerns,” wrote the paper’s editorial board.

This last quote could apply much more broadly to the city’s overall current state. In spite of huge increases in local government funding, and many proclamations by city leaders about reducing or even “ending” poverty, inequality and hardship are on the rise.

A Greater Philadelphia is not anti-progressive. Rather, we want to see results replace rhetoric. We believe progressivism that ignores the practical realities is not progress.

We want to see fewer victory speeches and more attention paid to the unglamorous details of governing. Government funding helps nobody if officials don’t hire qualified people to fill funded positions (such as police officers and prison guards). Reforms aren’t reforms if the inequities they were designed to unwind in fact persist.

Ignoring the needs of the private sector when 84% of city jobs come from the private sector is no way to reduce poverty. Introducing bills that have no chance of passage in the state legislature help nobody except the elected officials who get to tweet about those bills.

Threats to democracy may abound, but the biggest of all is a government that—in spite of ample resources—repeatedly fails to deliver the services and supports that citizens need.