It's Our City is a project that uses TV, Radio and Web
to promote civic engagement in the Philadelphia region.Was It Worth It?
Thursday, January 1st, 2009 at 1:23 pm - by Tom Ferrick. Filed under: Budget.
By Tom Ferrick
When it comes to Mayor Michael Nutter and the libraries, the phrase “more trouble that it’s worth” comes to mind.
The Urban Dictionary, a snide and funny web site of American slang, defines the phrase as follows: “high maintenance; requiring excessive investments of effort that may not be exceeded by the return.”
It has been a tough climb but has it been worth it?
That sounds about right.
The latest turn in the story came Tuesday when Common Pleas Judge Idee C. Fox blocked the mayor’s plan to close 11 branches as of Jan. 1, saying Nutter needed City Council’s specific approval to shut them down. Judge Fox cited a 1988 law passed by Council – over Mayor Wilson Goode’s veto – to require its approval before any city facility is shuttered.
Suffice it to say, the Fox ruling will be appealed by the city and the case is likely to go up to the state Supreme Court. It could be months – it could be 2010 – before the issue is resolved legally.
Which is another way of saying the libraries are likely to stay open, in some fashion, for the foreseeable future.
It also means that Nutter has set into motion a fight that could result in a court ruling that diminishes the power of the mayor’s office.
To recapitulate:
The mayor announces a plan to close 11 of the system’s 54 branches.
He ignites a storm of protest from library-lovers and neighborhood folks.
He prompts a faction on Council to rebel against him and his plan.
He prompts a law suit that challenges his power — and the challengers win Round One.
He gets holy Hell for these actions and others at a series of town hall meetings.
His approval numbers have taken a major hit. (I haven’t seen them, but you can bet they have.)
The man who was praised a few years ago as a savior of libraries, now is cast as a villain.
And for what?
For an estimated $8 million a year in savings. Out of a $4 billion city budget.
At a time when he needs broad public support to make tough decisions about city spending in the face of this wicked recession, Nutter has expended a vast amount of political capital in a losing cause to save a pittance.
Where did he go wrong?
Let me take a crack at answering that question.
In attacking the libraries and city swimming pools, Nutter went after city services that are heavily used by city residents. Visits to the city’s library branches totaled 5.5 million last year. The city’s swimming pools had nearly 1.2 million visitors during the eight weeks they were open last summer.
The mayor’s argument wasn’t that these services weren’t heavily used, but – simply and plainly – that the city could no longer afford them.
With this argument, he went against a sizable segment of the city’s population – many of them working class or lower-middle class – that is service oriented.
Give them a choice between city services and higher taxes and many of them will pick higher taxes.
Convincing them to give up services requires a lot of groundwork.
It can’t be done – as the mayor tried to do – in one speech announcing a crisis and the closures at the same time.
What’s worse, the mayor didn’t mete out the pain equally. He picked winners and losers. Roxborough, Chestnut Hill, Center City, North Philly – you deserve libraries. Kingsessing, Olney, Fishtown, Holmesburg – you do not.
Again, to recapitulate: You go after heavily used and popular services. You do not sell the idea of the necessity of service cuts. You give the impression of favoring one neighborhood over another. You refuse to retreat or consider alternatives to the plan. You get your head handed to you by a judge for overstepping your authority.
Badda bing, badda boom.
More trouble than it’s worth.
How to get out of it? Well, one thing not to do is to do what the administration hinted at doing after the Fox ruling: Inflict punishment and pain on all library users by severely curtailing hours and services at all branches.
Take that step now and it will be seen as payback to the groups (read: rabble rousers) who filed the suit (read: had the audacity to challenge the mayor).
It would also be, if I may coin a phrase, a very John Street thing to do.
Here’s an alternative: Back off on the library issue, Develop a comprehensive plan for meet the economic crisis that involves sacrifice by everyone –taxpayers, vendors, city employees, the mayor and his top staff — and use the upcoming budget address (for fiscal 2010) to begin the process of selling it to the public.
If people feel that everyone is feeling some pain, they won’t resent as much swallowing their piece of it. If people think the administration has really, actually listened to them and their concerns – and taken them into account – then maybe they will go along with the plan.
In other words, admit you made a mistake and go back to the drawing board.
January 1st, 2009 at 7:42 pm
Well said, Tom. Regardless of whether or not closing the libraries is indeed financially prudent, the Mayor should’ve recognized the sheer emotional imprudence that would hobble his administration moving forward. I knew the fight was lost over vegetarian Chinese yesterday, when I overheard the woman at the next table say, “Mayor Nutter, that guy’s such an a**hole.” I wanted to jump into their conversation, wave my arms around and defend the guy. I wanted to shout, “Mike Nutter as councilman, as candidate, as the Philly Clean-up Mayor or 311 guy is no a-hole!” But Lincoln put it best, “Better to stay quiet and be thought a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt.” In the end, if the library issue has got his constituents thinking he’s a jerk, he better repent and refocus to win them back, or else he will just be another Street.
January 2nd, 2009 at 8:23 am
Extremely well summed up Tom. One thing I’d add is the later plan to move some the lost library services to other city locations meant that the proposed savings would be an even more microscopic percentage of the city budget.
It has been very disappointing to watch Michael Nutter turn into the very thing he attacked as a candidate.
January 2nd, 2009 at 2:20 pm
Tom: Very, very well said.
January 2nd, 2009 at 3:49 pm
great article Tom. Small quibble: you write, “In other words, admit you made a mistake and go back to the drawing board.”
If Mr. Nutter’s history in council is any indicator that is simply NOT going to happen. I remember early in his candidacy words like “high handed” arrogant” and stubborn” kept coming up. he’s been known as a “my way or the highway” kind of guy for a long time. His response to the court ruling is indicative: he’s going to appeal and press on, because he has decided the libraries have to go, and so go they must whether Philadelphians like it or not.
bet on it.
January 2nd, 2009 at 8:24 pm
While Roxborough did not lose a library it was severely hurt by these cuts. An Engine Company (the fire truck that carries water) and a swimming pool are both slated to close. I guess it some comfort that I can read a book while my house burns down.
January 4th, 2009 at 10:43 pm
MR. Nutter has PRIORITIES! He needed the Money to help Annenberg, Pew, Comcast & Lenfest to move to take the art, the heart, out of one of Philly’s few National and Cultural Landmarks and move it just 5 miles to a Parkway Tourist & Luxury Tower development. He apparently won’t listen to voices from The Smithsonian, The Wall Street Journal, The New Yorker, The LA Times, Att’y General Candidate John Morganelli or me who oppose the Barnes Move. GUARD THE BARNES GATE MR. NUTTER! Keep The Barnes in Merion! Barnesfriends.org Artjail.org
January 5th, 2009 at 10:25 am
This whole sad episode proved several things.
First, people- even in Philadelphia - will get involved.
Second, we’ve learned that the Mayor will stick with an unpopular choice.
Third, In a city with whole neighborhoods still at risk of collapsing, citizens instinctively recognize that outposts of civilization matter.
What to do?
Recognize that we have a mayor with grit, even in the face of opposition that went from inchoate to organized in the blink of an eye.
Recognize that no matter how great the decline of our city, a lot of people think it can come back, and that the infrastructure must be there for that revival (indeed, it would help catalyze the revival).
Recognize that there is a basic dysfunction in our revenue streams. What worked in 1940 doesn’t anymore. The land value tax is just one tool to help move our city towards a well that need not run dry every boom and bust cycle.
The Mayor and the citizens can reunite on this issue, and provide a powerful against those that prosper from decline, and have hijacked so much of the city’s establishment, from the political, financial, educational and cultural.
To drive the naysayers from the temple of Philadelphia, we need to reward work and punish blight for the whole city.
We need to stop the privilege-seekers and monopoly-givers who make their pile of cash from abatements and sweetheart deals, while continuing a system that keeps good people down, and makes small business and families refugees into the suburbs.
Time for the Mayor and the citizens who voted for him to join forces against the system that drove them apart.
January 5th, 2009 at 5:02 pm
Dear Tom,
Exactly.
Best, Allison
January 6th, 2009 at 12:26 am
From the start Mayor Nutter has treated all communication about this like he was issuing orders from Mt. Olympus. His arrogance is jaw dropping .Given his rise, one expected him to at least be more politically savvy. No one will stand to lose something when it’s demanded with a snarl .
I read today he is trying to pit patrons of the other branches against the patrons of the 11 in the cross hairs.
Nutter said his meetings over the weekend with supporters of other libraries showed that many are “not thrilled” with the idea that keeping the 11 branches open will mean significant impacts everywhere. “It’s a theoretical thing that you read about in the a newspaper until it really happens,” Nutter said.
No kidding….glad he’s supposedly listening to someone .
The Mayor is not in this fight for the chump change 8 million. What Mayor Nutter wants is to begin to dismantle the concept that a city government provides the public services they cannot pay for out of pocket.
Any politician as ambitious as Nutter must be seen by the money set , as someone who is willing to shut down , sell off and privatize public services whatever the public out cry .
So it ’s full steam ahead . Now that the Mayor can’t have the 11 branches closed out right ASAP , he will move on and degrade the whole library system from within.
In fact Mayor Nutter should thank Judge Fox. He can now cobble all the branches, not such 11.
January 7th, 2009 at 2:42 pm
Though out this whole thing I wondered about the Mayor’s insistence in lighting speed on this. The branches have to be closed NOW!! But then I realized that there was many wealthy projects the city wants to do and you can’t do a 100 million upgrade to the main library if you are trying to close branches , plus a 20 million landscaping project for the parkway and put slot machines in the Gallery….while closing branches. The branches have to be closed and a moot point for those things to go forward . And so the hyper speed , damn the torpedos to closing these pesky branches. But something happened. The law suit slowed things down
January 8th, 2009 at 2:30 pm
These are not surprising my anymore, but thanks..
Happy new year to everyone..
January 10th, 2009 at 1:59 am
It may be Mayor Nutter wants to privatize the library system? I guess he wants to axe the poorer ones in order to make the system more attractive to a company? How else can one explain his actions? If so, he’d have a better chance of getting this though if he was honest about it.
Because no one believes a city that could generate 68 million for the painting “The Gross Clinic” , can’t get up 8 million for libraries….or not even try. If there was the will, there would be a way. It’s the will that is lacking at City Hall.
Mayor Nutter wanted this to go at shock & awe speed….but opps… then the law suits slowed it down. On top of this, his political handling of the situation has been so ham fisted, even those who might have agreed, are starting to back away. And who ever had the idea of those town halls meetings, Nutter should fire. All they did was pour salt in the wound. People mistakenly thought the Mayor was coming to listen to them. Only to learn what they said didn’t matter .
January 13th, 2009 at 12:54 pm
from the newspaper
But, said Amy Dougherty, director of Friends of the Free Library, “It is puzzling that libraries that had functioned with three in the past now have to have four. During a budget crisis, our goal is to keep library services throughout the community.”
Demanding there be more staff as they lay off staff…..hmmmm ?
It’s not puzzling of course. But we have entered the Pravda stage, where the truth is understood to be the exact opposite of what is said.
May 18th, 2009 at 9:34 am
[...] Examples: That recent display of high-powered journalists using Wikipedia without a second source; The Urban Dictionary, even if it was called “snide” and used by Tom Ferrick, whom I call one of the best [...]