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July 20, 2016

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July 20, 2016

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EDITOR’S NOTE / Contents

Greg Salisbury Editor

It is particularly appropriate that Philadelphia, a city of political firsts, should be the setting for yet another: the nomination of Hillary Clinton as the Democratic candidate for president. Just a few miles from where the revolutionary phrase “All men are created equal” was ratified 240 years ago, a woman will finally be in the running to lead the United States.

For those attending the Democratic National Convention, for those covering it – even for those simply watching it – this is a once-in-severallifetimes opportunity to bear witness to real history, something to tell your great-grandchildren about. Don’t allow the extraneous hullabaloo to detract from participating in this quadrennial celebration of democracy.

Enlightened and thrilled by what you’ve read? Can’t believe we could print such drivel? Let us know what you think: email me your letters to the editor at gsalisbury@cityandstatepa.com. (We reserve the right to edit for clarity and content.)

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DNC GUIDEBOOK

Your handy guide to the “Super Bowl of politics.”

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AROUND TOWN

No credentials? No problem! Find out what’s going on around Philly during the convention.

MEET THE DELEGATES Get to know four members of Pennsylvania’s DNC crew.

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THE OPPOSITION With Democrats flooding Philly, what’s a loyal Republican to do?

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THE WAR OF 1948

Battle lines are being drawn over a pending abortion restriction law.

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PERSPECTIVES

Tom Ferrick on Pennsylvania’s aging population, and Sabrina Vourvoulias on the growing call to action among Latino groups.

CityAndStatePA.com

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Editorial Director Michael Johnson mjohnson@cityandstateny.com Editor Greg Salisbury gsalisbury@cityandstatepa.com Managing Editor Ryan Somers rsomers@cityandstateny.com Associate Copy Editor Sam Edsill sedsill@cityandstateny.com Staff Reporter Ryan Briggs rbriggs@cityandstatepa.com Director of New Business Development Annette Schnur aschnur@cityandstatepa.com Finance and Office Manager Allison Murphy amurphy@cityandstatepa.com

CITY & STATE IS THE PREMIER MULTIMEDIA NEWS ORGANIZATION DEDICATED TO COVERING NEW YORK AND PENNSYLVANIA’S LOCAL AND STATE POLITICS AND POLICY. OUR IN-DEPTH, NON-PARTISAN COVERAGE SERVES AS A TRUSTED GUIDE TO THE ISSUES IMPACTING OUR STATES. WE OFFER ROUND-THE-CLOCK COVERAGE THROUGH OUR WEEKLY PUBLICATIONS, DAILY E-BRIEFS, EVENTS, ON-CAMERA INTERVIEWS, WEEKLY PODCAST AND MORE.

Vol. 1 Issue 4 - July 20, 2016

CITY & STATE MAGAZINE Our print magazine delivers long-form cover stories, investigative exposés, in-depth industry analysis and entertaining features on a weekly basis.

CITY & STATE FIRST READ The free daily First Read e-brief summarizes the top political news, editorials, schedule items and more – all in your inbox before 8 a.m. cityandstatepa.com CITY & STATE EVENTS City & State hosts monthly panel discussions, live Q&As, receptions and more featuring powerful politicians, industry leaders and experts from across the state.

CORRECTION: In the article, “How purple was my valley,” in the June issue, the photo used for Mike Fleck, the former Easton City Council member who pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit extortion, was incorrect. We mistakenly used a photo of Mike Fleck, the former Republican state representative of the same name. We regret the error.

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Cover GUILLAUME FEDERIGHI

Chairman Steve Farbman, President/CEO Tom Allon tallon@cityandstateny.com, Publisher David Alpher dalpher@cityandstatepa.com Creative Director Guillaume Federighi gfederighi@cityandstateny.com, Digital Manager Chanelle Grannum cgrannum@cityandstateny.com Copyright ©2016, City and State PA, LLC

July 20, 2016

City & State Pennsylvania

DNC SNAPSHOTS Meet four members of PA’s diverse delegation

By NATALIE POMPILIO

Part political love-in, part festival, part real-life LinkedIn, the 2016 Democratic National Convention promises to be exactly like every previous iteration in one respect: it will be a defining experience for the thousands of attendees.

One of the keys to making it so memorable: the sheer diversity of delegates. Nowhere does that ring as true as with Pennsylvania’s own 189-member delegation. How variegated are they? Read on.

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THE NEWBIE:

ANNE WAKABAYASHI, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF EMERGE PENNSYLVANIA

Anne Wakabayashi knows her first Democratic National Convention as a delegate will make history – and she couldn’t be happier about it.

“Being part of the convention where we nominate the first female nominee is just mind-blowing,” she exclaimed.

At 26, Wakabayashi already has an impressive political resume. The California

THE VETERAN:

MARK SINGEL,

FORMER LT. GOV. AND ACTING GOV. OF PA UNDER GOV. BOB CASEY, FORMER CHAIR OF THE PA DEMOCRATIC PARTY, PRESIDENT AND CEO OF THE WINTER GROUP Those convention speeches – those few soaring moments of oratory that seem to come out of nowhere each election cycle – are what still stick with Mark Singel, who, at age 62, is preparing to serve as a Democratic National Convention delegate for the eighth time. In San Francisco in 1984, he remembers New York Gov. Mario Cuomo turning President Ronald Reagan’s claim that the country was “a shining city on a

July 20, 2016

native and 2011 graduate of Juniata College has worked for campaigns at the state and local levels and managed the successful 2015 bids of Pennsylvania Superior Court Judge Anne Lazarus and Philadelphia City Councilman Allan Domb. She has served as political and communications director for the Pennsylvania Democratic Campaign Committee and led fundraising efforts for Equality Pennsylvania, a statewide LGBT advocacy group.

“I like working with people who care so deeply about what they’re doing,” she said. “People who work in politics have drive and want to change something. It’s an insane schedule, an incredible amount of work, but there is passion there, and I love being around it.”

Wakabayashi is currently the executive director of Emerge Pennsylvania, a statewide organization that recruits and prepares Democratic women to run for office.

Part of the larger Emerge America organization that operates in 16 states, Emerge Pennsylvania offers an intensive seven-month training program in a state that has never had a female governor or senator.

“Women’s voices, at all levels, are so

essential,” said Wakabayashi, who would also like to see more minorities and members of the LGBT community hold elected positions. “We have a very small subset of the population in government – almost every issue can benefit when you can bring more voices to the table.”

Wakabayashi’s delegate vote, naturally, will be going to Clinton.

hill” against him. In 1988, Texas state Treasurer Ann Richards – who would go on to become governor of her state – was the standout when she painted Vice President George H.W. Bush, his party’s presidential nominee, as a hapless, pampered child, then advised her crowd, “Poor George. He can’t help it – he was born with a silver foot in his mouth.”

Both were losing elections for his party, with Reagan besting Walter Mondale in ’84 and Michael Dukakis falling to the silver-footed Bush in ’88.

But the words of those speeches still resonate with this lifelong Democrat, who grew up in Johnstown, a hardscrabble Pennsylvania community dependent on coal mines, steel mills and garment factories. (His father rose to be manager of a women’s undergarment factory, and Singel loves to joke that “you could say he was in women’s underwear.”) His family and everyone he knew voted Democrat as a thank-you to President Franklin D. Roosevelt for the New Deal programs that helped the area through the Great Depression, like the Works Progress Administration and the Civilian Conservation Corps. They were “Roosevelt-Truman-Kennedy Democrats – and we’re really proud of that tradition,” he said.

Among the greatest convention speeches of this century, he said, are the 2004 address by then-Sen. Barack Obama and

Hillary Clinton’s 2008 speech endorsing Obama as the party’s standard-bearer. He’s also expecting inspiring words this year as the convention has “taken on more importance, more significance than others of the past.”

“I don’t mean to be dramatic, but what’s on the line here is the future of the republic and the security of the world,” he said, noting Clinton has to not only defeat Republican nominee Donald Trump but also “put a stake through the heart of the beast that he’s riding. Too many Americans have been seduced by this con artist. They are becoming an increasingly angry mob.”

Still, he predicts Clinton will win Pennsylvania by about 6 points.

“Clear-thinking Republicans are going to walk into that booth and say, ‘Who is capable of being president?’ and they’ll vote for Hillary,” Singel said. “You’re not going to tell me your devotion to party means you’re willing to threaten the republic.”

What events are you most looking forward to?

Two events put on by Liberty City LGBT Democratic Club, Liberty PA and Equality PA. It’s a Welcome Party on Sunday for LGBT delegates and a Post-Gavel Karaoke Party on Tuesday night. We’re all pretty excited about showing off Philadelphia’s Gayborhood to our visiting LGBT delegates – they should both be a good time!

What’s on your non-DNC agenda in the city?

I’m going to show off my city to everyone who is in town. I’m excited that a lot of friends and colleagues will be in town – it’s going to be a lot of fun to show everyone all of my favorite parts of the city.

What events are you most looking forward to?

Breakfast meetings – interaction with other delegates and guests.

What’s on your non-DNC agenda in the city?

Some commentary for local media; visiting some of the sites in Philadelphia.

City & State Pennsylvania

July 20, 2016

THE HOLDOUT:

SAWYER NEALE, COLLEGE STUDENT

Sawyer Neale first found himself captivated by politics during the 2008 election cycle.

He was 12 years old.

By the age of 18, Neale had completed internships with the Pennsylvania Democratic Party, the Senate Democratic Campaign Committee and the House Democratic Campaign Committee; written political articles and opinion pieces for his local newspaper, worked on municipal, county and

THE AMERICAN DREAMER:

GISELE FETTERMAN, FOUNDER, 412 FOOD RESCUE AND THE FREE STORE

When Gisele Fetterman was 9 years old, her mother told her and her brother to grab their favorite things. They were going on a trip. She packed her diary, a doll, some clothes and photos.

That trip from the family home in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, became a permanent move to the United States, where, for more than a decade, the family lived in New York as undocumented immigrants. They knew no one when they arrived and spoke no English. Fetterman’s mother, a Ph.D. holder who previously handled nutrition care for Rio hospitals, cleaned houses during the day and worked as a coat-checker at night.

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state-level campaigns; and spent time at a consulting firm that advised Tom Wolf during the 2014 gubernatorial election.

“My interest (in politics) grew because it’s a way to make a difference in the world,” Neale said.

Now 19, Neale is one of the DNC’s youngest delegates. He is casting his vote at the convention for Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders. During this election cycle, he phonebanked and generally talked up Sanders to anyone who stopped to listen. He wanted to be a delegate to ensure that the things he and Sanders care about – including increasing the minimum wage, single-payer health care and criminal justice reform – become party priorities.

“I want to make sure the political revolution he’s trying to start keeps having impact,” said Neale, who said he would vote for Clinton in the general election in November.

“I’m a Democrat through and through, and I think the party has been a good force for social progress, but I think we can make it even better.”

A student at St. John’s College in Maryland, Neale lives on his family’s farm in Elizabethtown, and hopes to finance his

trip to Philadelphia with a GoFundMe page.

Yes, he said, he thinks some of his Republican friends from the GOP-centric area where he lives may jokingly dismiss him as an idealist, but he also believes they respect his commitment.

“When you talk to people on the other side, you find you have a lot of common ground,” he said. “We believe a lot of the same things, but we’re going about them in drastically different ways. “We’re all fighting for freedom and a society that works for everybody.”

“I have wonderful memories of those times because my mother made it an adventure,” said Fetterman, now 34. “I’m so grateful to live in this country and I never take it for granted. Even on America’s worst day, it’s so much better than my country of origin.”

Today, Fetterman oversees two nonprofits that feed and clothe many in the once-thriving Allegheny County steel town of Braddock and the surrounding areas. She is married to the town’s three-term mayor, John Fetterman. This month, she will serve as a delegate at the Democratic National Convention.

“I’m living a dream, without a doubt,” she said. “I’m a proud Bernie supporter and advocate, and I’m casting my vote for Hillary Clinton.”

Fetterman first heard of Braddock when she read a newspaper article detailing how the town and its workers had once been a thriving place that played a critical role the development of the United States – its steel was used to build the Brooklyn and Golden Gate bridges – but had become a largely abandoned and broken shell. Then a nutrition teacher living in Newark, N.J., she felt compelled to write a letter to the town, offering to visit and create a children’s summer program. Mayor Fetterman invited her to come west.

She fell in love – first with the town, then

with the man. That was nine years ago.

The couple are parents to 7-year-old Karl, 4-year-old Grace and 2-year-old August.

The children speak Portuguese, of course.

She’s only taught her husband a few phrases, she said, like “Gisele, você é uma deusa” (“Gisele, you are a goddess”).

“That’s all he needs to know,” she laughed. “I haven’t taught him any bad words.”

Immigration is obviously an important and personal issue for Fetterman. She hopes to use her position as a delegate to encourage compassion.

“Everything we see going on in America right now is a disconnect,” she said. “It’s so combative, even within our own party. I hope this week, we can come together and address issues of compassion and moving forward.”

What events are you most looking forward to?

I’m definitely looking forward to the daytime events POLITICO is throwing, and whatever events Planned Parenthood Action Fund is throwing or the Lady Gaga/DJ Jazzy Jeff concert.

What’s on your non-DNC agenda in the city?

Visiting with friends and meeting cool new people attending the convention! I also want to try to do the Donkeys Around Town scavenger hunt.

What events are you most looking forward to?

Fetterman said she hadn’t seen the most updated schedule of events, but wants to “meet and learn from as many people as I can, to be a part of history. As that undocumented little girl who came to America and spoke no English, I’m just so grateful.”

What’s on your non-DNC agenda in the city?

As much as I can fit in each day.

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CityAndStatePA.com

July 20, 2016

THE DNC SURVIVAL GUIDE

By RYAN BRIGGS

IN CASE YOU’VE been living under a rock for the last year or so: The Democratic National Convention is about to take over downtown Philadelphia, bringing with it some 50,000 delegates, elected officials, reporters and political junkies.

On many levels, it will be awesome – the “Super Bowl of politics,” as state Sen. (and Hillary Clinton delegate) Daylin Leach puts it. On many others, it’s going to be a nightmarish circus of humanity and thorny logistics.

Let’s acknowledge the donkey in the room right off the bat: You’re not ready for what awaits you – but that’s OK, neither are some of the elected officials we talked to. Let City & State Pennsylvania be your guide for who to meet, which yacht party to board and, of course, how to creatively make your way into the DNC.

GET AROUND

Visitors touching down in PHL have the convenient option of taking commuter trains downtown for just $8 – or, at least, they did until recently, when a manufacturer’s defect took one-third of SEPTA’s train cars out of commission. The transit authority says it will have 125 buses on hand to accommodate the crush.

Delegates should have the option of private shuttle buses to their hotels, but the

average Bernie Sanders supporter might be stuck with the slowest, most crowded form of socialist public transportation available. Monied lobbyists flying in to give Clinton their regards can at least expense a ride via Uber or Lyft, which has been made quasi-legal in Philadelphia during the DNC (Uber is normally illegal in Philadelphia).

Ride-sharing isn’t the only activity to get a pass during the convention: drinking after the normal 2 a.m. last call will also be allowed, as will certain minor crimes frequently slapped on protesters, like disorderly conduct and public drunkenness – although the latter might be designed to avoid uncomfortable police encounters with a sauced congressman or George Clooney.

So, don’t let anyone tell you Philly doesn’t roll out the red carpet when enormously powerful out-of-town guests – and the city itself – are under intense public scrutiny. But while the city may be taking a soft line on ridesharing, Philadelphia’s Unified Taxi Workers Alliance says real Democrats shouldn’t take that Uber.

“We’ve had a couple meetings with the DNC organizing committee – they’re going to be letting delegates know that ride-sharing services are illegal in Philadelphia,” said Ron Blount, president of the TWA. “They’ll be giving them taxicab vouchers to get around the city.”

Blount’s group wants ride-sharing barred in Philadelphia until their con-

tract workers are reclassified as fulltime employees, and is actively working to get delegates to add that plank to the Democratic platform.

“You may get an Uber ride for $4 or $5, and I’m sure the consumer and investors will be happy, but that poor driver is going to be taking the only thing he owns and making less than minimum wage,” he said. “I think it’s cruel.”

Blount added that, under another agreement worked out with organizers, volunteers from the city’s construction unions would be assigned to shuttle delegates around as another alternative to ride-sharing services.

With the DNC split between day events at the downtown Convention Center and delegate nights at South Philadelphia’s Wells Fargo Center, organizers have arranged shuttle bus service. But with hundreds of other events at smaller venues across the city, many Pennsylvania delegates said they expect to be hoofing it on the city’s walkable street grid.

“I’m going to be wearing my FitBit,” said Philadelphia City Councilwoman and Clinton delegate Blondell Reynolds Brown, “And I expect to get my 10,000 steps in every day.”

GET A ROOM

Even local delegates like Leach, who resides in Lower Merion, have been given a chance to snatch up blocks of hotel rooms booked by each state delegation. Leach said

JOSEPH SOHM

You’ve got your credentials – now find out what’s in store

City & State Pennsylvania

July 20, 2016

he’ll be taking a room at the DoubletreeHotel alongside his fellow delegates from the Keystone State.

“Even though it’s in Philly, and I live in Philly, given all these things to do, that’s 20 or 25 minutes of commuting time that I really don’t have,” he said. “It’s easier for me to take a shuttle.”

But others are going to be braving SEPTA’s trains and buses from their homes in the city and suburbs.

“I’m staying at home and reporting to the hotel at 8 a.m.,” said Brown.

Out-of-town visitors won’t have that option, and virtually all of the city’s more than 15,000 hotel rooms are booked. Convention organizers have been suggesting latecomers resort to AirBnB to find a place to stay.

One option is “Anthony,” who’s renting out an unremarkable rowhome in South Philadelphia during the convention – for a cool $36,000. His listing still proclaims the unit is close to the staging area for last year’s papal visit, when price gouging for beds was rampant.

“It’s my home and it has four bedrooms,” he said in a recent AirBnB exchange. “I’m open to an offer … call me and I’ll tell you why it’s the best.”

The unit is decidedly on the high end for pricing, but similar homes, and even the odd bedroom, were going for around $1,000 a night at last check. There’s no doubt that housing will be tight, and some visitors have resorted to less traditional forms of exchange to find a place to crash.

“Need a room/shelter/floor for the Philly DNC Convention, I offer food (groceries) instead of money, I offer s-e-x... making love instead of money,” reads one ad on Craigslist. “I offer temporary companionship, friendship, or whatever-ship possible.”

The ad was placed by a DNC volunteer from Connecticut, who asked to remain anonymous. The individual said the post was only semi-serious, but the response to the ad has been “overwhelming,” and that it had led to about 15 offers for places to stay.

“Only two or three wanted sex,” the volunteer said via email. “Everyone else wants housework or pets to be walked, or simple companionship.”

GET OUT

First off: don’t worry about being bored.

“As a delegate, you’re invited to far more things than you could ever go to,” said Leach. “If I’m good, I’ll wake up at 6 a.m.

and try to get an hour of exercise. Then you have breakfast in your hotel with the delegation and a guest speaker. Maybe one day it’s Joe Biden, then the governor of New Mexico. Personally, I think swing states get better speakers.”

After that comes a barrage of nearly 300 publicly advertised events spanning all four days. Leach, who’s attending his eighth convention, said he tries to narrow events down by his political interests – he’s been a big supporter of decriminalizing marijuana in Pennsylvania. So, he’ll likely be attending at least one of two weed-centric events: the Drug Policy Alliance’s DNC Welcome Reception; and a Marijuana Policy Project fundraiser for Oregon Congressman Eric Blumenauer at the Union League.

“Back when I started in the 1980s, legalization was a pipe dream. It wasn’t really a thing then. You can tell the movement has come a long way,” he said, noting the MPP’s swanky digs at one of Philadelphia’s most exclusive social clubs.

Freshman Philadelphia City Councilman Derek Green, another Clinton delegate, said he’ll be busy acting as an organizer for four of the 300-odd events. A “Latinx” event Green is co-hosting at the African American Museum, to celebrate African and Latino culture, already has over 700 RSVPs. “It’s a combination of work to some degree,” he said of his philosophy on the convention. “I’m trying to have some opportunities to network with people and talk about policy issues.”

Other local pols are using the DNC as a platform for particular issues. Philadelphia City Councilwoman María Quiñones-Sánchez will emcee a “PA4PR” event to draw attention to Puerto Rico’s debt crisis. The Philadelphia Asian American and Pacific Islander community will host a dim sum dinner in Chinatown to meet with national delegates. Several members of City Council, including Brown, will host a Black Congressional leadership dinner at Del Frisco’s steakhouse, with African-American legislators from around the country.

Congressman Bob Brady will host a rager (invites provocatively list the event time as “9pm to ???”), in true Philadelphia blue collar fashion, at the Sheet Metal Workers Union Hall. Mayor Jim Kenney will host a $500-a-head fundraiser at Popi’s Restaurant in South Philly. Councilman Kenyatta Johnson will host a yacht party on the Delaware River. Vice President Joe Biden is rumored to be planning a VIP

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dinner downtown at the swanky French restaurant Parc.

And then there’s celebrity-watching.

Snoop Dogg, a Clinton supporter, is hosting a Democratic unity concert, as are Lady Gaga, Ben Vereen and Alicia Keys.

“It’s surreal,” said Leach. “I’ve gotten into political arguments with Rob Lowe and Morgan Fairchild. You walk into a party and its sort of surreal. It’s Dan Rather and Barbara Streisand and there’s George Clooney over there. My kids want me to meet the Kardashians this year.”

And there are a string of events and speeches on the convention floor, but attending these events is no sure thing. Leach said that in his pre-delegate convention days, it was tough to get into the biggest and best events on the floor.

“The big issue with these events is credentials,” he explained. “Access – everyone’s scrambling to get access. I would go up with only my charm and I spent a lot of time negotiating, trying to get security to like me. So, this year, you’ll have Sanders people giving credentials away to Hillary people in exchange for access to other events and vice versa. Guest passes are like the cigarettes at the DNC.”

GET THINGS DONE

Perhaps the most important thing to do, as delegates truck nightly to the Wells Fargo Center, is hash out an actual platform for political change within a party rocked by Bernie Sanders’ movement to draw the party further to the left.

So, for some, beneath the circus-like exterior, the DNC holds a more solemn meaning. For Malcolm Kenyatta, a 25-year-old African-American from North Philadelphia who won a Clinton delegate slot, it’s a chance to highlight the grim poverty and racial oppression many in his neighborhood, just beyond Philadelphia’s polished downtown convention façade, face every day. It’s a part of the city that most delegates will never see. Kenyatta said he wants to be the messenger for that reality of life in Philadelphia.

“There are some places I could take you where people are living in Third World-level conditions. Just imagine if you unleashed the potential of people surviving in Third World conditions right now,” he said. “I don’t see the DNC as an opportunity to, like, just come and drink.

This is an opportunity while we have a lot of people here with a lot of influence and import … And I want to say, ‘What about North Philly?’”

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CityAndStatePA.com

July 20, 2016

ROLLING OUT THE BLUE CARPET Having fun during the DNC – when you’re not at the DNC AFTER MORE THAN a year of preparation, the City of Brotherly Love and Sisterly Affection is ready to amend yet another of its monikers – from “The Cradle of Liberty” to “The Cradle of Clinton’s Candidacy” – assuming all goes according to plan at the Wells Fargo Center on July 28.

Although this year, it seems nothing should be taken for granted.

A Democratic stronghold to begin with, the city will be as blue as one of Hillary

Clinton’s signature pantsuits during the Democratic National Convention, when the Democratic Party will formally nominate candidates for president and vice president, as well as adopt an official party platform.

So, who will win the Democratic nomination? Clinton? Bernie Sanders?

Lin-Manuel Miranda? It’s definitely one of those three, but the real question is: What can you do during the convention when you’re not, you know, at the convention?

By RACHEL KURLAND

In addition to official events overseen by the DNC’s Host Committee, there are plenty of opportunities to partake of all Philadelphia has to offer – and that don’t involve going to Pat’s, Geno’s, the Rocky statue or Independence Mall.

PEDAL POWER

Based on previous multi-day events, Center City traffic is going to be horrendous. So,

City & State Pennsylvania

July 20, 2016

if you want to whiz past the gridlock, try Indego, Philadelphia’s bike-share program.

Pro tip: If you see a street devoid of traffic save for black limos and SUVs, do not ride that way – the Secret Service has been known to be extremely ... let’s say “proactive” in dealing with bicyclists and pedestrians traversing cordoned-off areas.

For members of the media who are covering the chaos, you can rent a bike for a month-long unlimited membership for $12 instead of the usual $15 using the promo code DNCMedia. That may be more costefficient in the long run compared with the citywide $1 discount on walk-up rides for the convention, which is a one-time 30-minute trip for $4.

SEEING THINGS

credentialed convention attendees.

One ticket gets you access to all six days of the festival, which includes interactive displays, historical spectacles and special guest appearances (no spoilers) at seven different locations: the National Constitution Center, the Pennsylvania Convention Center, the National Liberty Museum, the Philadelphia History Museum, the Library Company of Philadelphia, the Historical Society of Pennsylvania and the Heritage Center of the Union League.

Each location will feature different exhibits and topics, such as the campaign trail, Philadelphia and the presidency, a media zone, political entertainment and areas for live performances, games and panel discussions. Essentially, this festival will give you the opportunity to experience the wonders of the DNC without actually being there.

Exhibits will be open each day from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. But if you’re trying to hop from one venue to another, consider PHLASH, a bus loop that connects all seven locations, which is available for ticketholders.

THE ART OF THE DEALS, SOUTH PHILLY-STYLE

What better way to endorse a candidate

JOSEPH KEMP; EAST PASSYUNK AVE.NUE BID

There will be plenty going on at the convention each night, but really, in terms of capacity, there will be about the same number of people in the arena as at your average Flyers game. And while all eyes will be on the Wells Fargo Center, plenty of opportunities outside the convention arena await the intrepid.

For example, those who enjoy sculpture al fresco may notice that Ben Franklin, Rocky and other hometown hero statues have some new company.

As written about in last month’s edition of City & State Pennsylvania, 57 Fiberglas donkeys will be dispersed around the city, each painted to represent a different convention delegation. They’re only here until Labor Day, so try to find all of them with the themed scavenger hunt app Scavify.

Even the city skyline will be aglow in patriotic spirit: Boathouse Row and Avenue of the Arts will be decorated in America’s colors during the convention, and several buildings will turn blue each night, including the Benjamin Franklin Bridge, Cira Centre, FMC Tower, the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, Macy’s and Three Logan Square.

For an interactive experience with the democratic process that doesn’t involve getting credentials, check out PoliticalFest.

(You may remember PoliticalFest from its first incarnation during the 2000 Republican National Convention, when Hillary was a newly elected U.S. senator and Beyoncé was still fronting Destiny’s Child.) This nonpartisan festival, which runs from July 22-27, effectively combines American history, government and politics just outside the DNC gatherings. Tickets are $15 for adults, $5 for children 18 and under, college students with a valid student ID and seniors 65 and up, and free for veterans and

MCGILLIN’S OLDE ALE HOUSE WILL FEATURE DNC-THEMED DRINK SPECIALS.

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THE FOUNTAIN AT PASSYUNK SQUARE WILL SEE PLENTY OF ACTIVITY DURING THE DNC.

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CityAndStatePA.com

arguing for tax reform than by enjoying discounts on some of our favorite comestibles? Venues are adding a dash of red, white and, in some cases, bleu (cheese) to their menus during the convention through a clever promotion called DNC Deals, which consumers can follow along on social media with the hashtags #DNCDontMissThis or #DNCDeals.

Partaking in the $20.16 meal deals are places like The Olde Bar, which offers a lump crab BLT, a crab salad comprised of hickory bacon, iceberg lettuce, tomatoes, Dijon mustard and Old Bay potato chips. The Old City restaurant will also have drink specials for each night of the DNC, featuring a themed political cocktail, such as a coffee cocktail or a sherry cobbler – supposedly one of Thomas Jefferson’s favorites.

At Tinto in Rittenhouse Square, the $20.16 special includes five happy hour bar snacks all night long throughout the week, along with colonial-era beverages like sherry and madeira.

McGillin’s Olde Ale House in Center City will feature a red, white and bleu burger – topped with roasted red peppers, caramelized onions and crumbled bleu cheese – accompanied by some patriotic drinks. The Dublin Donkey, for instance, is a mix of ginger beer and a shot of Jameson, while the Red, White and Blue cocktail combines a strawberry daiquiri, a piña colada, Blue Curaçao and rum.

Over at Passyunk Passeggiata – a weekly event that combines a farmers’ market, shopping, dining and happy hour – the East Passyunk Avenue Business Improvement District will host special events throughout the DNC, like at Brigantessa, which will have a special menu – and stay open until 1 a.m. – with an additional 20 percent off for delegates with credentials.

To really get in the DNC spirit, the DNC Passyunk Passeggiata Street Festival will also stay open until 1 a.m. on July 27 to extend the South Philadelphia-meets-Italian market experience, with street food, outdoor bars, vendors, live music and, of course, the farmers’ market.

Even if you’re not toasting Hillary or Bernie, there are plenty of places to watch the goings-on from afar – specifically, at the bar. (It’s your democratic right to drink during the convention, right? Especially now that the city’s drinkeries have been given the green light to stay open past their normal 2 a.m. closing time during the DNC.) After a tour of Yards Brewing Company in Northern Liberties, you can pick up a six-pack or growler in honor of a few

July 20, 2016

of our Founding Fathers: a Thomas Jefferson ale, a Poor Richard’s Tavern Spruce (made with essence of spruce tree, based on Benjamin Franklin’s recipe) and a George Washington porter.

If you’re not much of a theme-oriented person, plain ol’ alcohol courtesy of Center City Sips, the citywide Wednesday happy hour, will do just fine. You can’t have summertime in Philadelphia without Sips.

As such, the Host Committee and Center City District are joining forces to create the largest Sips gathering ever at Dilworth Park, Comcast Center plaza and Centre Square on July 27.

Philadelphia was one of the first cities to embrace food truck culture on a large scale, something that DNC participants can taste for themselves on July 25 at Philly Feast: United We Eat, the Night Market-style food truck festival. Trucks will fill Third and Arch streets from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., with retail vendors and live music.

Shane Confectionery, the artisanal Old City candy atelier founded in 1863 and brought back to hand-crafted life by the brothers behind the equally beloved retro ice cream parlor Franklin Fountain, also put together a few clear toy candy donkeys and presidents, and more to come leading up to the DNC.

DON’T YOU FORGET ABOUT ME

Instead of the cheesy “I went to the DNC and all I got was this lousy T-shirt” souvenir, check out some other local vendors for some Philly flair – think more donkey charms, less LOVE statue paraphernalia.

Open House, a Center City boutique, keeps its products nonpartisan with an assortment of gifts, like nameplates with slogans like “Democrats Do It Better” and “Republicans Do It Better,” or bobbleheads of the Obamas, Clintons and Donald Trump.

They also sell coasters and pins with themes of each party.

Duross & Langel, a Center City natural soaps, hair and skin-care producer, was an early adopter of #DNCDeals. It’s been advertising discounted products since June and will continue through the DNC, including green tea and avocado mud masks, moisturizers, vanilla body scrubs and natural bug repellent balm, to name a few.

And if you’re willing to shell out nearly $300, Lagos, the Rittenhouse Squarebased jewelry store, created donkey and elephant pendants to add to its Rare Wonders collection.

■

WHERE TO FIND IT ALL Indego Locations throughout the city rideindego.com 844-4-INDEGO

Yards Brewing Company 901 N. Delaware Ave. yardsbrewing.com 215-634-2600

PoliticalFest Locations throughout the city phldnc.com/ politicalfest contact@phldnc.com

Philly Feast: United We Eat Third and Arch streets thefoodtrust.org/ night-market 215-575-0444

The Olde Bar 125 Walnut St. theoldebar.com 215-253-3777

Shane Confectionery 110 Market St. shanecandies.com 215-922-1048

Tinto 114 S. 20th St. tintorestaurant.com 215-665-9150

Open House 107 S. 13th St. openhouseliving.com 215-922-1415

McGillin’s Olde Ale House 1310 Drury St. mcgillins.com 215-735-5562

Duross & Langel 117 S. 13th St. durossandlangel.com 215-592-7627

Passyunk Passeggiata Various spots along Passyunk Ave. visiteastpassyunk.com 215-336-1455

Lagos 1735 Walnut St. lagos.com 215-567-0770

City & State Pennsylvania

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July 20, 2016

THE LOYAL OPPOSITION Philly Republicans and others plan protests for the DNC

WELCOME TO PHILADELPHIA and the 2016 Democratic National Convention!

That faint chanting? No, you heard correctly: They’re not saying “Hillary for President.” They’re saying “Hillary for Prison.”

It’s just the local Republican Party’s way of greeting visitors. Hillary Clinton, they say, will fit right in here: Philadelphia is a city with “endemically corrupt Democratic politicians, both at the local and statewide level,” as Joe DeFelice, chairman of the Philadelphia Republican City Committee, puts it. Stick around for nomination night, when they’ll celebrate Clinton making history as the Democratic Party’s flag bearer – because she’s the first major party nominee to be investigated by the FBI. “This gives us a perfect platform,” DeFelice said. “It’s an exciting time.”

Even for a Republican.

Next week, thousands of Democratic delegates will flock to Philadelphia to officially name Clinton their presidential candidate.

They’ll be joined by about 20,000 members of the media who, if Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is correct, are a left-leaning bunch who collectively “need to get (their) head out of (their) butts.”

That means a tidal wave of Democrats will flood a city where their party’s registered voters already outnumber registered Republicans by roughly 7 to 1. In October 2015, the Office of the Philadelphia City Commissioners reported there were just over 1 million registered voters in the city: 781,198 Democrats, 111,638 Republicans and 107,645 “others,” including those unaffiliated with any national party.

What’s a loyal Republican to do? Seize the opportunity, according to DeFelice, an attorney in private practice. With guidance from the national party, he and his committee members want to send this message: Clinton is a corrupt career politician whose main goal has been to enhance her own power and influence.

“As the Philadelphia GOP, we are uniquely prepared to tie her to a culture of corruption that has run our city into the ground through decades of one-party rule,” said DeFelice, who is also considering a simple TV viewing party for what he derisively terms “the coronation.”

MARK DIXON

By NATALIE POMPILIO

“I love our city and I want to see it showcased in the most positive way,” DeFelice said. “That said, this is a cesspool of corruption, and if that makes it to the world stage, it could prompt change.”

Democrats have dominated Philadelphia politics for more than 60 years. (Republicans might use less friendly terms like “stranglehold,” a “suffocating grip” or a “false democracy” to describe the majority.) The last time a Republican was elected mayor was in 1947.

Of the city’s 13 City Council members, only three belong to the GOP. City leaders are happy to showcase how Philadelphia has flourished in recent years – with a Center City development boom, a growing population and new recreation opportunities along both the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers, among other positives.

But Republicans say they need to focus beyond downtown. Census data from 2014 has shown the city has the highest rate of deep poverty – those with an income of 50 percent or less of the poverty rate – among the country’s 10 largest cities. In April, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and Virginia Commonwealth University released data

showing that people who grow up in struggling parts of North Philadelphia have an average life expectancy of 68 years, while those who live in tony Society Hill, about five miles away, have a life expectancy of 88 years.

The schools, the GOP notes, are struggling. The crime rate is holding steady. The only thing going strong? Corruption, they say. Longtime U.S. Rep. Chaka Fattah, a Democrat, was recently convicted of racketeering, fraud and money laundering. (His son, Chip, was convicted of federal bank and tax fraud charges last year.) Another Democrat, state Sen. Larry Farnese, has been indicted by the feds on charges of bribery and conspiracy. The city’s daily newspapers have reported that the FBI is looking into money dealings involving Democratic District Attorney Seth Williams.

“We work as Republicans to make the city better and try to hold the opposition that has controlled it for so long accountable,” said DeFelice, comparing his group’s efforts to those of Sisyphus, the character in Greek mythology who was condemned for eternity to push a boulder up a mountain, only to watch it tumble down again. “We keep push-

City & State Pennsylvania

July 20, 2016

ing that rock up the hill and we’re hoping it gets lighter and lighter.”

G. Terry Madonna, a professor and director of the Center for Politics and Public Affairs at Franklin and Marshall College, said that historically, members of the opposition party don’t do much to draw attention to themselves during their rival’s nominating convention.

“It’s one of those things where you let the other party have their four days, then it’s over and you move on … There’s nothing wrong with an occasional press release or providing input when contacted by reporters, but officially, the other party doesn’t play a role,” he said. “But we’re in the wildest, most unpredictable time in our history. Maybe the old rules are gone.”

This is an “election like no other,” he noted, with each side realizing that “the more outrageous they get, the more attention and press they get.”

That’s how the “Hillary for Prison” platform came about. One GOP insider wondered if the Republicans should use Eastern State Penitentiary, where Al Capone was once held, as a backdrop for some events. At one point, they considered a “Feel the Bern Clinic,” where local Republicans would staff an ersatz medical tent and offer to heal the pain of Bernie Sanders supporters with love and legitimacy – if they switched to the Republican Party. They ditched the idea to refocus on Clinton, they said.

Of course, it’s possible that the Republican dissent will be overshadowed by the Democratic dissent. The city is issuing permits to protest, allowing groups to gather in FDR Park in South Philadelphia, not far from where the convention is being held.

But many groups – including some Sanders supporters and anti-poverty organizations – have said they won’t allow their free speech to only be free in designated areas.

Among the most creative exhibitions planned so far: Cheri Honkala, of the Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign, is organizing a “fart-in” both inside and outside the Wells Fargo Center to take place on the night Clinton will give her acceptance speech. The so-called “Beans for Hillary” event is meant to “greet the rhetorical flatulence of Hillary Clinton with the real thing.” Accordingly, people from across the country have been sending beans to her offices, Honkala said.

“We’re hoping farting is not illegal yet in this country, because everything else seems to be,” she said.

While passing gas in protest may seem silly to some, Honkala said the fart-in is drawing attention to the causes she supports, like

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ONE POLL FOUND 46 PERCENT OF STATE RESIDENTS BELIEVE THE PHILLIE PHANATIC IS MORE QUALIFIED TO LEAD THE COUNTRY THAN DONALD TRUMP.

ending homelessness and hunger. Doubters who Google “Honkala and fart” will see she’s right.

“These are literally life-and-death issues – we have no other choice but to step forward,” said Honkala, who said her group was also planning to set up a tent city called “Clintonville,” in a nod to the Depression-era shantytowns called Hoovervilles. The location will not be announced for fear the city will block the gathering, she said.

More mainstream Democrats also take advantage of the national love of ridiculousness.

In June, the left-leaning firm Public Policy Polling reported that 46 percent of Pennsylvania residents believed the Phillie Phanatic – the mascot of Philadelphia’s Major League Baseball team – was more qualified to lead the country than presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump. (About 40 percent picked Trump when the question was asked of 1,106 registered voters over a two-day period.)

In a similar vein, the Philadelphia City Council in June passed a resolution condemning Trump for his “racist, sexist, xenophobic, and anti-American values … which are at odds with the deeply held values of the City of Philadelphia, the City of Brotherly Love and Sisterly Affection.” The 10 Democrats supported the resolution. The three Republicans did not. It’s unknown how much time in terms of city employee time and resources went into drafting the toothless measure.

“The question is if you think this the right forum,” said Councilman David Oh, a Re-

publican who voted against the measure.

“It looks like we’re getting into the campaign and we’re supposed to be staying out.

I also wouldn’t support something against Hillary Clinton.”

Oh said he and other elected officials are planning workshops and other gatherings when the DNC is town. The end goal is strengthening the local GOP in the long term, not tearing down the opposition in the moment.

“The focus will be on what we as Republicans are doing that is positive and good,” he said, noting the party has a small group of reactionaries – perhaps 15 percent – who are rabid in their dislike for all things Democratic and who manage to monopolize the media.

“I would characterize 85 percent of Republicans as solution-oriented. We’ll talk about working together and how to advance solutions.”

John Featherman, a Republican who has run for Congress and mayor of Philadelphia, said the city’s Republican committee used to be “a dormant organization that no one knew existed.” He sees that changing under DeFelice, who took the helm of the Philly GOP last year and immediately made changes like hiring a director of communications and a director of finance. He’s an aggressive and creative leader who has shown he can recruit younger party members, and – if all goes as planned – grab headlines, Featherman said.

“This convention,” he predicted, “is going to be part of a revolution for the Republican Party in Philadelphia.”

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July 20, 2016

CONVENTIONAL NUMBERS

When putting on an event of the magnitude of the Democratic National Convention, the sheer number of numbers can become overwhelming. To help put the enormity of the quadrennial event into context, here are a few of the more salient figures involved in its production.

2,170

Wells Fargo Center seats removed for DNC

1,500

1,090 400

385

Total credentialed press organizations

Signs displayed around the stadium district

Buses to ferry delegates around town Credentialed foreign press organizations

750

Miles of cable run for media covering the DNC (with another 125 miles of fiber optic cable for good measure)

35 38

Percentage of conventionrelated business awarded to minority-owned businesses

Wells Fargo Center suites converted to office space for the DNC

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20,000

50,000 Estimated total number of visitors to Philadelphia during the DNC

$43million

Size of National Special Security Event grant secured by the city for the DNC

Percentage of DNCC staff who are women

Estimated size of the press corps covering the DNC

15,000

Hotel rooms rented for the DNC (not counting couches and AirBnB)

17,000

Volunteers signed up

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July 20, 2016

THE WAR OF 1948 Battle lines are being redrawn over a pending abortion restriction law

By JENNY DEHUFF

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CityAndStatePA.com

THE HAMMER CAME DOWN last month on the Lone Star State when, in a 5-3 vote, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that parts of a Texas law that would have reduced the number of abortion providers in the state by imposing stricter medical requirements were unconstitutional.

The decision was felt across the country, including in Pennsylvania, which is considering a similar piece of legislation.

If approved, H.B. 1948, which was passed by the state Senate Judiciary Committee last week, would be among the strictest anti-abortion laws in the nation. It would scale back the availability of legal abortions from six months after fertilization to five, mandate spousal approval and require that a second physician be present in case the fetus survives the abortion, among other provisions. A violation would be a thirddegree felony, punishable by up to seven years in prison and a $15,000 fine.

The bill also includes language its sponsor, state Rep. Kathy Rapp (R-65), acknowledges is not recognized by the medical community.

Rapp, the Pro-Life Caucus Chair in the state House of Representatives, contends that when the Supreme Court’s landmark Roe v. Wade decision, which enshrined abortion rights, was rendered in 1973, abortion was supposed to be rare.

Rapp said she and her colleagues in the Pro-Life Caucus began reassessing the abortion issue as soon as the 2016 legislative session started.

“We started looking at what’s going on across the nation as far as pro-life issues,” she said.

“The number of abortions since 1973 is 59 million,” she added. “I don’t consider 59 million abortions rare.” (Rapp said that figure came from the Guttmacher Institute, a national research center for sexual and reproductive health, and the Centers for Disease Control.)

Rapp declined to say if laws in other states influenced the drafting of her bill, although there is no shortage of recent legislation she and her colleagues could have drawn from.

In May, Oklahoma’s governor vetoed a controversial bill that would have made it a felony to perform an abortion.

Under a law in Louisiana – which has been temporarily blocked by the Supreme Court – doctors who perform abortions must have admitting privileges at a hospital within 30 miles of their clinic. Mississippi, Missouri and Kansas have similar laws.

Critics of H.B. 1948 argue that, among other flaws, it refers to “dismemberment

July 20, 2016

abortions,” instead of the accepted medical term of dilation and evacuation, the practice of dilating the cervix and extracting what’s inside; its terms place new restrictions on a woman’s ability to have an abortion; and the measure passed through the House with lightning speed and without a public hearing.

Gov. Tom Wolf has threatened to veto it if it reaches his desk.

“This legislation would be a step backwards for women and for Pennsylvania,” Wolf said in a statement after its House passage. “If it passes the House, I urge the Senate to reject it. If this legislation reaches my desk, I will veto it.

This is a bad bill for Pennsylvania and we cannot afford to allow it to go forward.”

It’s unclear what the Senate will do in terms of when members will vote on H.B. 1948. According to one source in the House, once the state budget is voted on, the House typically adjourns for most of the summer, but the Senate could reconvene in the coming weeks to vote on the matter.

On June 30, state Sen. Daylin Leach and state Reps. Dan Frankel and Tim Briggs, among others, called on the General Assembly to stop movement on any proposals that would limit access to abortion in light of the Supreme Court’s ruling that these kinds of bills do not meet constitutional muster.

Opponents of the bill don’t mince words about the draconian nature of H.B. 1948 and its ramifications.

“Pennsylvania would have the most restrictive abortion ban in the country,

PA REP. KATHY RAPP, AUTHOR OF HB 1948

should this go through,” said Selina Winchester, associate director of external affairs for Planned Parenthood Keystone. “‘Dismemberment’ is an inflammatory term – it’s meant to rouse up (Rapp’s) base. This is not a medical term that’s used at all,” said Winchester, who argued that fetal anomalies, many of which are “not compatible with life,” don’t show up on ultrasounds until after the 20th week of pregnancy.

“It doesn’t make any sense,” she said.

“One percent of abortions are performed after 20 weeks … and it’s almost always (because of) a fetal anomaly.”

Rapp defended her bill by saying that many pieces of legislation are passed without public hearings or input from

ABORTION PROPONENTS IN PHILADELPHIA CELEBRATE LAST MONTH’S SUPREME COURT RULING.

City & State Pennsylvania

July 20, 2016

DANITRA SHERMAN

medical professionals, such as the medical marijuana bill recently signed by Wolf.

Rapp said the same people who argued against her bill for not having doctors weigh in used the same argument when it came to medical marijuana.

“We could bring in all kinds of doctors on both sides of the issue. We could talk to Kermit Gosnell” – who was convicted of murdering infants in his West Philadelphia clinic during illegal late-term abortions – “if we wanted to,” she said.

“We just passed medical marijuana… these (critics) are the same people who said it wasn’t necessary to have the medical people weigh in on medical marijuana.”

As for her use of the term “dismemberment abortions” – which her bill defines as “the act of knowingly and purposefully causing the death of an unborn child by means of dismembering the unborn child and extracting the unborn child one piece at a time from the uterus through the use of clamps, grasping forceps, tongs, scissors or similar instruments,” Rapp shrugged it off as semantics.

“If it bothers the medical community, so be it,” she averred, “but there are former abortionists who use that term – dismemberment. For the public to understand that abortion method and

procedures, that is exactly what happens – it is a dismemberment.”

In a letter dated April 4, Scott Shapiro, president of the Pennsylvania Medical Society, asked state representatives to vote down H.B. 1948 because he believes the legislation “interferes with the relationship between physicians and their patients.”

“House Bill 1948, if approved, would significantly jeopardize the open dialogue within the physician/patient relationship … a relationship that is the very foundation upon which modern medicine was built,” he wrote. “We urge you to join us in preserving the ability of patients and their physicians to make their own medical decisions and to thwart any effort that may erode that freedom.”

State Rep. Jordan Harris (D-186), who voted against the bill, called it “just another attempt to attack a woman’s right to choose.”

“This could be devastating for women and men – for people, in general, across the commonwealth,” he continued. “The last thing we need to be doing is dealing with the most restrictive abortion bill in the country and go backwards as far as a woman’s ability to seek medical treatment, and that’s what this is – a strict decision between a woman and a medical professional. For me, the government

19

should stay out of that and let the medical professionals do their job.”

Less than a week after the Supreme Court ruling in the Texas abortion case, Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt, the National Constitution Center hosted a debate on the issue among top legal scholars and advocates.

Clarke Forsythe, acting president and senior counsel with Americans United for Life, an anti-abortion public interest law firm based out of Washington, D.C., argued that abortion was the only medical procedure in the country that was actually a constitutional right.

The Supreme Court ruling “was a horribly tragic and unfortunate decision,” he said.

“There is no other medical procedure in this country that is a medical right, and what that means is that courts sit in judgment on abortion legislation, unlike any other type of legislation regulated.

The Supreme Court established itself as the National Abortion Control Board – it sits as responsible for every regulation, in every clinic, coast-to-coast and whether (the fetus) survives or doesn’t survive, it scrutinizes it.

“Unlike health and safety regulations for any other medical procedure in this country, the Court is incompetent to do

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CityAndStatePA.com

PA REP. JORDAN HARRIS OPPOSES HB 1948

that. The judges are incompetent to do that. They are as responsible for Kermit Gosnell as for any other conditions in any other clinic anywhere in this country.”

Kathryn Kolbert, a political science professor at Barnard College in New York City, who argued in favor of abortion rights at the event, served as counsel on behalf of the petitioners in Planned Parenthood v.

Casey. She said there are currently more than 1,000 laws against abortion on the books nationwide.

“The Court really said very strongly that they’re not going to give deference to state legislative judgments about medical decision-making and facts, when, in fact, they operate differently in the real world,” she offered.

“They looked closely at the medicine behind this. Frankly, there’s not a lot of dispute about the medicine. There are people on one side of the issue who oppose abortion, who don’t do abortions, who talk about medicine, but, for the most part, the medical community is very supportive of the pro-choice position, and very much against these types of laws.

“The issue is, should legislatures or should courts make these judgments about what the medical underpinnings are? In my view, courts, which actually look at the facts, as opposed to politics, are, at least, better. I’d prefer the legislatures didn’t mess in this area at all, but assuming they do, it seems to me – and assuming there’s a history of antagonism against exercising these rights in this area – I think courts are better to do it than the legislature.”

State Rep. Leanne Krueger-Braneky, a Delaware County Democrat, was the first to step to the House floor to challenge the

July 20, 2016

bill upon presentation to her colleagues before the Committee on Health back in April.

“I was told there were very private meetings,” said Krueger-Braneky. “When I asked if doctors had been consulted, I was told yes. When I asked if they were Pennsylvania-based doctors, (Rapp) wasn’t sure. When I asked if those doctors were members of the Pennsylvania Medical Society, (Rapp) said she wasn’t sure.”

Krueger-Braneky criticized Rapp and her Republican co-sponsors of using scare tactics to drum up votes for H.B. 1948, which passed by a 140-58 vote.

“This is a commonly accepted procedure that is often the safest procedure for women who need to choose an abortion after 13 weeks of pregnancy, and the rhetoric on the floor was highly charged,” she said.

“I do believe that votes were not cast in the interest of what’s best for women in Pennsylvania.”

She admitted, however, that she and her Democratic colleagues were not blindsided by the measure; on the contrary, they’re often on the lookout for “these types of things.”

“I believe that people were legislating their own moral priorities,” she said.

“Fetal abnormalities are typically not detected until a woman has an ultrasound at 20 weeks. My understanding is they’re much harder to detect, and so this legislation would force women to detect fetal abnormalities that are not compatible with life, after a 20-week ultrasound, to carry these pregnancies, until either the fetus dies inside of them or until they give birth to a baby with horrible birth defects. It’s incredibly cruel. There is no exception in this bill for rape, incest or fetal abnormalities.”

But Rapp disagreed.

“I believe that abortion devalues human life,” she opined. “And I am a believer that life is God-given. When we devalue either the unborn or any people on this earth, we walk a fine line then of devaluing the next group of people, including the unborn.”

Rapp implied that the Supreme Court ruling would not impact H.B. 1948 as much as it would the state’s 2011 Health Care Facilities Act, which requires facilities that provide abortion services to meet the same standards as ambulatory surgical centers.

As chairman of the House Health Committee, state Rep. Matt Baker (R68) authored the bill that found passage thanks in part to the revelations of what happened in Gosnell’s “house of horrors” abortion clinic.

When asked about new challenges to his legislation, Baker said there are “major distinctive differences” between Pennsylvania’s laws and the Texas provisions that were struck down, noting that Pennsylvania does not require clinics to have admitting privileges at a hospital within 30 miles, and that waivers are available here, unlike in Texas.

“We issue waivers and tier the abortion facilities based on the anesthesia,” he explained. “That reflects the seriousness of the procedure. Texas did not have that.”

■

NATIONWIDE RESTRICTIONS The Washington PostRESTRICTIONS recently examined NATIONWIDE data from the Guttmacher Institute on abortion laws and practices across the United States. Here are the results: In 24 states, abortion clinics are required to meet standards similar to those for ambulatory surgical centers: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Connecticut, Florida, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Virginia and Wisconsin. (Requirements in Texas and Kansas are suspended pending federal court cases.)

Four states require abortion doctors to have admitting privileges at local hospitals: Missouri, Utah, North Dakota and Tennessee.

Twenty-seven states have waiting periods: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia and Wisconsin.

Ten states restrict health insurance coverage: Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma and Utah.

Fourteen states ban abortion at approximately 20 weeks after fertilization: Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas, West Virginia and Wisconsin.

City & State Pennsylvania

July 20, 2016

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PERSPECTIVES

AGE AGAINST THE

MACHINE The implications and ramifications of PA's growing elderly population

By TOM FERRICK

ONE OF PENNSYLVANIA’S biggest problems is that it has too many people over the age of 65 – and the situation is only going to get worse.

We rank fourth in the nation in terms of the percentage of our citizens who are over 65 (behind Florida, Maine and West Virginia). This group accounts for 16 percent of the state’s population, or about 2 million people, with a median age of 74.5 – also among the highest in America.

Everyone knows that the number of older residents in the state will increase with the influx – make that flood – of baby boomers into the ranks of the elderly.

By one Census Bureau estimate, Pennsylvania will have close to 3 million residents over the age of 65 in 2030 – nearly 23 percent of the state’s total population.

This will have enormous social and economic consequences.

The social consequences will be visible on the local level. Not only will the state have a million more elderly citizens, it will also have a huge increase in the number of “super-elderly” – people who are at least 80 years old. They tend to be frailer, some with serious medical challenges, and are more prone to dementia and Alzheimer’s disease than younger seniors.

Anyone who has cared for an elderly parent can tell you the emotional, physical and sometimes financial

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CityAndStatePA.com

burdens that entails for both parents and children.

On the plus side, the state has developed a myriad of programs to support seniors using money from the state lottery, the tobacco settlement money and the state’s general fund. In some cases, the federal government picks up a share of the expense, especially when it comes to medical and nursing care.

In other cases, the state goes it alone with a list of programs and services that includes property tax rebates, free public transit, adult day care, subsidies for home caregivers and prescription drugs. Many of these programs use means testing and are targeted to the elderly poor; others are not.

According to an estimate made by economist Robert P. Strauss, in 2013, the state spent between $4.2 billion and $4.7 billion in general fund and off-budget programs for those over 65.

By 2025, Strauss estimates those same services will cost $5.8 billion to $7.8 billion.

Where are we going to get that additional $2 billion to $3 billion? No one knows – certainly, no one at the political level is talking about it much. (To be sure, those who run programs for the elderly are acutely aware of the trends, with some calling the coming maelstrom the “silver tsunami.”)

In this state, we prefer to practice “Mañana Economics” – “We’ll worry about it tomorrow.”

Strauss, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University, is emphatically not a member of this school.

“THE THING ABOUT THE ELDERLY PROBLEM IS THAT WE ARE ALL IN THIS TOGETHER AS A CIVILIZED SOCIETY, BUT NO ONE WANTS TO TALK ABOUT IT IN A MEANINGFUL WAY.” – ROBERT P. STRAUSS

“The thing about the elderly problem is that we are all in this together as a civilized society, but no one wants to talk about it in a meaningful way,” Strauss told me.

By “meaningful,” he means “fact-based.”

The reality, as Strauss and other fiscal experts know, is that the incremental rise in state tax collections will not be enough to meet this bulge in expenses. The result could be a hole several billion dollars deep.

Strauss is also alarmed because he projects that the number of people in the working-age group will decline by 1 million over the next 15 years. Others say the decline will be less sharp, but the U.S. Census Bureau

July 20, 2016

does project fewer adults aged 30 to 64 in this state in the coming years.

It makes sense: Pennsylvania is not a state that draws a lot of migrants – foreign or American. Our population growth rate is usually in the single digits.

The upshot is that sometime in the next decade, there will be fewer people in the workforce to pay the taxes needed to subsidize the growing number of elderly.

“We don’t know what we are going to do,” Strauss lamented at one point. Later, he predicted: “The strain from this is going to rip what is left of our political fabric.”

What makes Strauss unpopular in some political circles is not his analysis, but his proposed cure, which steps boldly into taboo territory: He wants to tax the elderly.

Pennsylvania is one of only four states that exempts people over 65 from paying state and local income taxes. Most other states tax all or some of retirees’ income from public and private pensions. “We are giving the elderly a free ride,” Strauss said.

And it isn’t a cheap one. Strauss estimates it cost the state $2.5 billion in lost income taxes in 2013 to keep these exemptions in place. That figure, too, will rise with time. A recent paper put the cost of the exemptions at $5.4 billion – and possibly more – by 2025.

Strauss has a point that goes beyond his critique of the economic side of this issue. If it’s been said once, it’s been said a thousand times by our politicians: We must invest in our future.

In Pennsylvania, though, we have put down a lot of money on the past.

For example: Pennsylvania’s lottery yields about $1 billion in profits a year – and all of that money is dedicated to programs for seniors. But, in 16 other states with lotteries, the proceeds go to education: sometimes in the form of subsidies to higher education institutions (California); sometimes to bolster aid to basic education. Three states – Florida, Georgia and Kentucky – use chunks of their lottery proceeds to fund scholarships for children to attend state public and private colleges.

That lottery distribution could be changed in Pennsylvania, but the degree of political difficulty would be excruciating. Getting seniors to agree to give up part of their exemption from income taxes also would be a hard sell, enough to scare away politicians afraid of being accused of ageism. “How can you be against our seniors?” is a question that would haunt their dreams.

Strauss has a rejoinder to that: “I’m 72, for Chrissakes,” he exclaims. “Look, we’re all old. The question, is, are you going to pass the buck to a young working couple making $45,000 a year?”

Within a decade, that question could dominate the state’s public policy and politics.

■

Tom Ferrick is an award-winning reporter and columnist who has covered state and local government and politics since the 1970s.

City & State Pennsylvania

July 20, 2016

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SABRINA VOURVOULIAS

“WE MUST GIVE PUERTO RICO THE ABILITY TO RESTRUCTURE ITS DEBT AND THEN ENGAGE IN DEEP, MEANINGFUL REFORM TO ENSURE THAT PUERTO RICO’S PATH TO RECOVERY IS TRULY SUSTAINABLE.” – MARÍA QUIÑONES-SÁNCHEZ

PERSPECTIVES

FINDING THEIR VOICE Latino groups call for action over DAPA, Puerto Rico, Toomey and Trump

By SABRINA VOURVOULIAS I SPENT MOST of past few weeks in the company of justifiably angry Latinos.

First, on June 23, the U.S. Supreme Court announced it was deadlocked, 4-4, on President Barack Obama’s executive actions – Deferred Action for Parents of Americans (DAPA) and extended Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA+) – which would offer temporary deportation relief to an estimated 4 million undocumented people.

In 2015, the Migration Policy Institute estimated that some 51,000 people were eligible for DAPA and DACA+ in Pennsylvania, nearly half of them concentrated in three counties: Philadelphia (12,000), Montgomery (5,000) and Chester (5,000).

As soon as the deadlock was announced, Latino immigrant rights groups took action. Not1More and Mijente called for a “No DAPA? No Deportations” moratorium. Make the Road Pennsylvania (based in Reading) and Juntos (based in Philadelphia) held press conferences to announce further actions, and on June 28, both organizations offered support to Latinos who, in an act of civil disobedience, blocked traffic on the I-676 ramp at Vine Street in Philadelphia in protest.

Rev. Adán Mairena, the pastor of the Presbyterian West Kensington Ministry in Norris Square in Philadelphia, was one of four people cited for obstruction during the action.

Though his congregation in Norris Square is mostly Puerto Rican, Mairena has been a tireless advocate for Philadelphia’s undocumented community, even offering sanctuary to a mother of U.S. citizens who was threatened with deportation in 2014.

Mairena spoke to me about the undocumented folks who participated in the civil disobedience with him: “My place is there to support them and let them know they are not alone,” he explained. “And I really do see myself in my brothers and sisters. It's intense because only by fortune or luck or circum-

stance are my mother or my nephews not in that situation.”

Adanjesus Marin of Make the Road Pennsylvania said that in Reading, the Latino community is “devastated by the Supreme Court's inability to reach a majority for DAPA.” “But we are at a point where we have no choice but to fight back for our very survival, and so that is what we've decided to do,” he added. “We hold not only the Supreme Court responsible, but all of the politicians who have created the climate of hate that made it possible.”

In Philadelphia (as in Reading and Allentown, which both have substantial Latino populations) Puerto Ricans have also been supporters of DAPA and DACA efforts, even as they have been waging a sometimes solitary battle to inform their fellow Americans about ways to address the financial crisis on the island.

That point was referenced by Philadelphia City Councilwoman María Quiñones-Sánchez in her comments at a People for the American Way event at City Hall, which happened to take place an hour or so after the DAPA road-blocking action ended.

“We need to activate ourselves,” Quiñones Sánchez said.

“We need to register and we need to vote.”

Political activation of the Latino community across Pennsylvania was the focus of the PFAW event, which brought together Quiñones-Sánchez and legendary Latina civil and labor rights activist Dolores Huerta, as well as leaders of immigration advocacy groups, among them Marin, Erika Almirón of Juntos and Yaheiry Mora of CASA. Scheduled roughly a year after Donald Trump opened his presidential campaign by impugning Mexicans as rapists, drug dealers and criminals – “Donald Trump’s Year of Hate,” per PFAW signage – the event had speaker after speaker assert that they were committed to fighting back via the bal-

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July 20, 2016

lot box in Berks, Lehigh, Lancaster, Philadelphia and other counties across the commonwealth.

“We have a very potent, nonviolent weapon to stop Donald Trump,” Huerta said. “In Pennsylvania, there are between 300,000 and 400,000 Latino voters. Latino voters have made the difference in the last presidential elections, and guess what? Latino voters are going to make the decision in the next presidential election ... to ensure that Donald Trump is never in a position to appoint Supreme Court justices.”

“And Sen. (Pat) Toomey continues to hold the Supreme Court seat open for a Trump presidency,” she added.

It isn’t the first time Huerta has called out Pennsylvania’s Republican senator for partisanship in blocking Obama’s judicial nominees. In May 2015, Huerta pushed Toomey to “do your job” by confirming Judge Luis Felipe Restrepo, whom Obama nominated for the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in November 2014. (Restrepo was finally confirmed in January 2016.

Toomey, who has met with Obama’s Supreme Court nominee, Merrick Garland, but refuses to proceed with the confirmation hearings, came under fire from Quiñones Sánchez as well.

“Pat Toomey’s inaction on the president’s Supreme Court nominee is a failure of leadership for Pennsylvania,” she said.

“The disgraceful things Donald Trump has said about Mexican immigrants and Puerto Ricans show that he doesn’t have the temperament or the judgment to be commander-in-chief.

Until Sen. Toomey renounces any support for Trump, he has to be held accountable for the positions of his party’s

Requiem for records:

Are you looking for a centralized database containing all policeinvolved shootings in the state, regardless of whether or not they resulted in fatalities? Good luck: there is no repository of information from the state’s roughly 1,110 lawenforcement agencies. But is that about to change?

Conventional wisdom:

The most recent union-related controversy at the Pennsylvania Convention Center – the removal of two local IATSE leaders – is the impetus for an investigation into the integral, sometimes difficult relationship between convention centers, the unions that make them

nominee. Latinos will make our voices heard loud and clear this November.”

It’s not just about stalled immigration legislation and record deportation numbers.

On July 1, the president signed the Promesa bill drafted by Congress, which ostensibly permits restructuring of Puerto Rico’s $72 billion in bond debt, but does so by imposing a seven-member Fiscal Board that has more power than the government of Puerto Rico. The fiscal board can, for example, choose to sell off land, and in the days before the bill’s signing, the ground was prepped for just that when beaches in Vieques, Culebra, Condado, Isla Verde, Isabela, Lajas, Cabo Rojo, Guánica and Rincón were transferred from public to “private” ownership.

The privatization of beaches prompted one Puerto Rican on the island to climb up the capitol building’s flagpole and take down the U.S. flag in an action poignantly – and pointedly – reminiscent of Bree Newsome climbing the flagpole at the South Carolina capitol to remove the Confederate flag flying there.

“The Promesa bill is deeply flawed,” said Quiñones-Sánchez, “but it is only a first step that we desperately need. Years of bad policy have created a humanitarian crisis in Puerto Rico, and for too long, the profits of hedge funds have been prioritized over the health, safety and lives of the American citizens on the island.

“If we do not deal with the crisis in Puerto Rico, we will deal with it here,” she added. “Thousands leave the island monthly.

We must give Puerto Rico the ability to restructure its debt

run, and the cities that depend on both parties for economic success.

The summers of our discontent: The August

Uprising of 1924 in Russia; the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising of 1943; Paris and Chicago rioting in 1968; this summer’s unrest, to name a few: What is it about upheaval at this time of year, especially in August?

fraught issue of unconventional natural gas and oil drilling in Pennsylvania, and the impact, both current and potential, on the state and the surrounding region.

Also: Opinion columns from Tom Ferrick and Sabrina Vourvoulias, a photo essay on City & State’s NY vs.

PA Food Fight at the DNC, WInners & Losers, and much more!

In the pipeline: The first in a series of articles exploring the

To Advertise in this issue, please contact Annette Schnur. aschnur@cityandstatepa.com 215-490-9314 ext. 3004

City & State Pennsylvania

July 20, 2016

and then engage in deep, meaningful reform to ensure that Puerto Rico’s path to recovery is truly sustainable.”

The “¡Sí, se puede!” that resounded frequently at both June 28 events in Philadelphia may now be more widely associated with Obama, but long before his landmark 2008 campaign it was a rallying cry coined by Huerta back when she was organizing farmworkers in California. Then, as now, the challenge was to prod people to “get off the sidewalk” and walk the streets into history.

And in Pennsylvania, Latinos are running with that idea.

Advocacy for Puerto Rico is taking place in Philadelphia: Councilwoman Quiñones-Sánchez will be part of a July 25 rally in support of Puerto Rico at Thomas Paine Plaza to draw attention to the issue during the 2016 Democratic National Convention.

And there may yet be legal recourse for DAPA and DACA+ protections to be put in place. David Leopold, the former president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, believes there is a way forward: “The Obama administration does not have to simply accept the Supreme Court’s failure to rule,” he said in a commentary on Medium. “It can – indeed, should – immediately file a motion for reargument before the Court to take place once a ninth Justice is confirmed by the U.S. Senate.”

In the interim, in Pittsburgh, Casa San José is holding DAPA information sessions and legal screenings at the University of Pittsburgh’s Center for Latin American Studies, and engagement is escalating in Reading and Allentown.

“In Reading, 60 percent of the population is Latino, yet we

25

have zero representation in city government,” Marin said. “In the wake of the DAPA decision, we have fought for simple protections like a city ID, and we have been met with racist opposition from government officials who claim to represent the city. At a meeting last week, our members voted unanimously to keep up the fight, endorsing a moratorium on all deportations, and pledged to also hold local politicians accountable for their failure to serve the people.

“In Allentown,” he said, “where the Latino population has nearly doubled since 2010 and is close to reaching a majority, our organizing committee has been conducting a series of surveys on the most important issues facing the community. While education funding and raising the minimum wage had dominated those surveys for weeks, post-DAPA, we have seen an increased desire for workshops and materials on deportation protection. And we've started to provide that through workshops and distribution of ‘Know Your Rights’ cards.”

“In Lehigh Valley,” Marin added, “our members are looking right at Pat Toomey, and planning to hold him accountable for his refusal to appoint a ninth (Supreme Court) justice.”

■

Sabrina Vourvoulias is an award-winning metro columnist at Philadelphia Magazine and an op-ed contributor to The Guardian U.S. Her novel, “Ink,” was named one of Latinidad’s Best Books of 2012. Follow her on Twitter @followthelede.

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CityAndStatePA.com

July 20, 2016

LOSERS SHARON PINKENSON – Unbelievably, in a year where fiscal concerns and an imperative to simply pass a timely budget led to many controversial interest groups being sidelined, pols gave the nod to a $5 million increase in the state’s film tax credit. Hardly considered an essential program by most, Harrisburg sources say credit for the credits seems to mostly go to aggressive lobbying by Pinkenson, the longtime head of the Greater Philadelphia Film Office. The program enjoys bipartisan support because it is perceived to be an effective jobs creator.

OUR PICK

OUR PICK

WINNERS

After worries Harrisburg would repeat a nine-month budget impasse, lawmakers passed a compromise budget that saw a nearly 5 percent increase in spending. Most insiders say the budget has more winners than losers, but City & State found plenty of both.

DARYL METCALFE AND SETH GROVE – The biggest losers in a consensus budget are those on the edges of the ideological spectrum. Members of the ultra-conservative wing of the House, like the loquacious Metcalfe, were “on the outside looking in,” according to one staffer during this year’s budget talks. Once an existential threat to the state GOP, folks like Grove were often described as an obstacle to compromise in last year’s budget cycle, opposed to any form of new taxation. Now, the tea party influence seems to be winding down as Republicans have scaled back their quest for pension reform and true liquor privatization, and traded Wolf’s surrender on new, broad-based taxes for increases in niche taxes.

THE BEST OF THE REST

THE REST OF THE WORST

TOM WOLF - approval ratings moving toward 50 percent

TOM WOLF - makes big sacrifices for on-time budget

JAKE CORMAN AND DAVE REED - led GOP toward the middle

RON BLOUNT - Taxi Workers Alliance loses in ridesharing

in compromise budget

legalization

PUBLIC EDUCATORS - $200 million for education in budget

CHARTER SCHOOLS - fails to nab new regs that would make

UBER, LYFT AND VINCE FENERTY - ridesharing will likely be

it easier to open more schools

legalized, with funds going to Philly Parking Authority

BIG TOBACCO - tobacco sales to fund big portion of budget bump

Co-hosted by: PA Democrat Rep. Brendan Boyle and NY Democrat Rep. Carolyn Maloney

Tuesday, July 26 • 2:30pm - 4:30pm during the Democratic National Convention Rep. Boyle and Maloney will join a panel of political reporters, food critics, and chefs to chew over New York and Philly’s most iconic dishes.

Get exposure for your brand and organization at the event! Reach: • Members from NY and PA DNC delegation • High profile politicos • Power brokers

• Media figures • And more!

Be seen at the event!

Contact David Alpher at dalpher@cityandstatepa.com to learn more about advertising and sponsorship opportunities.

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“I was fired after I raised my voice for a union and a safer Philadelphia airport.”

–Bruce Cornish, PHL ramp agent.

Philadelphia airport workers are fighting for an airport that is better and safer for workers and passengers alike. Yet the more they speak up, the more their employers bully, threaten and fire them.

At the Philadelphia International Airport, the ticket out of poverty is $15 and a union.

32BJSEIU

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#povertydoesntfly 7/19/16 1:29 PM