Another Philadelphia neighborhood under attack. The tactics are always
the same.
"If they care about the neighborhood and not just controlling the money,
they'd be inclusive of the entire neighborhood from the beginning," she
says. "Not two years later after private meetings."
However, it's too late to be on the committee; all nine slots were
quietly filled shortly after a group of landlords approached Clarke in
January 2010. When asked why a fancy invitation wasn't sent to all
landlords and businesses in the area about serving on the steering
committee like the 86 pages of the bill, Pizzola says: "To send out a
mailing to the community and say, 'Let's see who wants to join us'
doesn't make sense. To make a mailing costs $2,300."
Read more:
http://www.philadelphiaweekly.com/news-and-opinion/cover-story/139898183.html?page=2&comments=1&showAll=#ixzz1n8oc0YR8
<http://www.philadelphiaweekly.com/news-and-opinion/cover-story/139898183.html?page=2&comments=1&showAll=#ixzz1n8oc0YR8>
This raises a red flag with Gerald Frug, a Harvard law professor who has
studied improvement districts in Philadelphia. He says NIDs represent
19th-century America, when only property owners---many of whom don't
live in the area---could vote. "We are supposed to have a one-person,
one-vote system," he says. "But NIDs aren't organized that way. They're
set up to benefit developers, not the residents."
Read more:
http://www.philadelphiaweekly.com/news-and-opinion/cover-story/139898183.html?page=3&comments=1&showAll=#ixzz1n8os2p27
<http://www.philadelphiaweekly.com/news-and-opinion/cover-story/139898183.html?page=3&comments=1&showAll=#ixzz1n8os2p27>
