By Tom Ferrick
(part 3 of 5)
To understate the case, the city has not been successful over the years at getting its labor unions to make concessions on wages, work rules and fringe benefits.
Union leaders are not elected to give up their members’ hard-earned rights and benefits.
Confronted with this resistance, the city has often resorted instead [...]

Mayor Winston: Mike, look out that window. We preside over the greatest city in the world.
Mike: Sir, that’s New Jersey.
Tom Ferrick wrote at length about how the plan to close eight library branches didn’t make sense from a policy perspective and how, ultimately, it cost Mayor Nutter just about every drop of political capital [...]

(In the interest of full disclosure, it should be noted that I have been personally involved in the issue of using 3-1-1 to perform a city service and have written about my experience and my thoughts about the experience on another forum.  As I said there, I have no desire to use my position on [...]

Yesterday, on WHYY’s Morning Edition, Dave Heller spoke with Mayor Michael Nutter about the latest economic data for Philadelphia, the Board of Revision of Taxes and the decisions by other city officials to take or not to take voluntary pay cuts.  You can listen to the interview by clicking on the play button below or [...]

Just as the Foxwoods Casino is about to begin the formal approval process to build in the Gallery Mall, activists today began a counter campaign. Casino-Free Philadelphia launched its “Declaration of Independence from Casinos” campaign to pressure city officials to block gambling altogether. The event staged near Independence Hall featured a handful of demonstrators dressed [...]

By Tom Ferrick
(Part 2 of 5)
Mayor Nutter likes to talk about making political alliances outside the city. Well, here is an opportunity for him to join other local officials across the state to press for a change in the way county courts are funded.
For 22 years, the state of Pennsylvania has been living under a state [...]

The City of Philadelphia is stepping up its effort to win public support for the next round of budget cuts. Over the weekend, the Mayor Michael Nutter made visits to several neighborhoods to explain face-to-face the toll the national recession is having on this city’s finances. This handshake diplomacy is being accompanied by budget 101 [...]

If the residents of any city in America should be familiar with the term gerrymander, it’s Philadelphians.   Gerrymandering is the dark art of drawing the boundaries of political districts without any regard to logic or geography, but with a keen eye to furthering the election chances of a) incumbents or b) the political party that’s [...]

By Tom Ferrick
(part 1 of 5)
The city’s budget woes are beginning to sound like an ad for an oriental rug store: Save 10! 20! 30 percent or more!
Only in this case it is cut 10, 20, 30 percent! At least that was the directive of Mayor Nutter to his department heads the other in [...]

Beginning on Monday morning, It’s Our City will feature a series of stories by veteran political writer Tom Ferrick on where a lot of money could be found. This will be a serious look at everything from the money that is owed to the city to how the city could restructure the benefits package of [...]