S.W. Philly Hungers For Politicians To Hear It

by Tony West

S.W. PHILA. activist Marcus Clark poses a question about councilmanic candidate Ori Feibush’s proposal to sell vacant city lots for redevelopment at large community debate organized by S.W. Globe-Times newspaper. Only Feibush showed up.

Was there a debate or wasn’t there? That’s the note the contentious 2^nd Dist. Council race ended on in Southwest Philadelphia – the neighborhood nobody listens to.

Ninety people showed up at the Elmwood Skating Rink near 71^st Street & Grays Avenue to hear incumbent Councilman Kenyatta Johnson face off against his brash challenger Ori Feibush. But only Feibush showed up.

Feibush was discreet about his absent foe, seldom mentioning him. But he was freed to deliver a barn-burner of a speech, appealing to Southwesterners’ sense of alienation from the city as a whole.

This race is the hottest in Philadelphia’s spring primary, after the mayoral race. Freshman Johnson, a protégé of State Sen. Anthony Williams, is defending his seat against a well-heeled opponent, developer Ori Feibush, who has been rebuilding the map of Point Breeze and South of South neighborhoods. Johnson won his seat by a hair in 2011 when its long-standing occupant Anna Verna retired.

The northern end of the 2^nd Dist. has been grappling with development since 2007. But in beleaguered working-class Southwest Philadelphia, disinvestment and blight are still the chief challenges. Once a bastion of working-class whites, it has become a bastion of working-class Blacks. But it’s still a humble and struggling community.

The Johnson and Feibush campaigns agreed on four debates in South Philadelphia which went off. But when Feibush suggested a fifth debate in Southwest Philadelphia a month ahead of time, Johnson’s team stated all four dates Feibush offered were previously scheduled, thus off limits.
Thus no debate in the Southwest. That’s odd, because the Southwest comprises about one-third of the 2^nd Dist.’s citizens.

The Feibush campaign says a fifth debate, in the Southwest, was scheduled. It says it was organized and moderated by the Southwest Globe-Times, a nonprofit newspaper published by the Southwest CDC, which is the recognized voice of Southwest Philadelphia. It was scheduled and advertised to take place at the Elmwood Roller Skating Rink a week ahead of the event.

But Johnson never agreed to this debate and was unaware it had been scheduled, said Dan Siegel, a Johnson campaign spokesman. He had not been following the local newspapers.

Another representative of the Johnson campaign, Mark Nevins, said, “We were very clear with the Feibush campaign nearly a month ago that we were happy with the four debates we had and that we wanted to make sure we had enough time to connect with voters one on one in the Southwest and throughout the 2nd Dist. Ori knew that there would not be a fifth debate a month ago.

“Despite that, he deliberately and dishonestly ignored that fact and schemed to fabricate an event for the sole purpose of trying to make himself look good and Kenyatta look bad. It clearly backfired on him and now he’s digging himself a deeper hole with more lies to try and explain away the lies he’s already told. This is not the sign of someone who is ready to lead.”

But the Feibush campaign denied this debate was part of the package it had negotiated with Johnson. “The Southwest Globe-Times received several calls from residents complaining their community wasn’t getting a Councilmanic debate of its own,” said Gregg Kravitz, a spokesperson for Feibush. “The newspaper reached out to us for a debate and we agreed. We had no contact with Councilman Johnson about this event and we had no idea whether he would show up or not until the event began.”

Regardless of the source of the snafu, the result was a two-hour gift to Feibush, who presented himself as the only candidate willing to go to Southwest Philly, talk to Southwest Philadelphians and offer blunt answers to their problems.

Southwest activist Mark Harrell, who emceed the event, noted pointedly of his home neighborhood “it’s like it’s a long-lost part of Philadelphia” when plans are made for the city as a whole.. “But we who live, work and worship here don’t believe the Southwest doesn’t exist.”

Feibush told the crowd, “I’m wearing a suit and tie because this is a job interview. I’m your guest in your neighborhood, asking for a chance to serve you.”

Feibush put forth a plan to unleash economic development in the Southwest. He said the community needed “jobs, not job fairs” and stated he had “spent a decade putting people to work” in the 2^nd Dist.

The candidate called for the City of Philadelphia immediately to put on the market all the vacant lots it owns in the Southwest. “Every year for the past 30 years, the City has ended the year owning more lots than it started with,” he commented. Noting the area’s rowhouse blocks are pockmarked with empty spaces, Feibush said such neighborhoods were designed to be occupied by residents. The Southwest “needs more neighbors,” he said. He accused Johnson of holding up the sale of city-owned land throughout the district.

If elected to City Council, Feibush said he would earmark all the proceeds of such sales as an endowment for the home-school associations of public schools in the district, bypassing the general fund, so Southwesterners could immediately invest more resources in their battered neighborhood schools as they saw fit.

Speaking of the Southwest’s bedraggled Woodland Avenue business corridor, Feibush charged, “It is easier to start an illegal business in Philadelphia than a legal one.” He promised to fight barriers to entrepreneurship.

Feibush said he would install publicly accessible security cameras across the Southwest outside the Police Dept.’s system at a fraction of the cost. He decried the condition of unkempt alleys and dangerously maintained rail rights of way as well as the spread of chop shops. “Everything the City of Philadelphia doesn’t want is dumped in your neighborhood,” he said.

It was a message that went over well with the crowd. But residents still pelted Feibush with shrewd questions.

Marcus Clark of Action United complained the vacant lots would be sold to immigrants if they were developed. He urged some to be developed as vegetable gardens for local residents.

Carolyn Moseley of Eastwick raised the problem of sinking buildings in parts of the community that were built on unstable landfill. Feibush stated cheap fixes are available for such properties: helical piers which, for less than $10,000, can preserve these homes – less than the cost of demolishing and rebuilding, he said. Feibush asserted he would press for the City to spend this money on behalf of imperiled homeowners.

How will the widespread feeling of political alienation in Southwest Philadelphia play out in this election? Signs for either candidate were scarce along Woodland Avenue one week before primary Tuesday.

   Send article as PDF