Philadelphia Flash Mobs Bring a Confused Response from Mayor Kenney

Mayor Kenney, Speak Up!

Deconstructing the Mayor'southward confused statement on flash mob violence

Nov. 16, 2016

In 2022 at that place were several vehement flash mobs in Philadelphia: young people in large groups attacked random pedestrians. In reaction, Mayor Nutter took to the stage  from City Hall to the church pulpit.  He spoke straight to those that participated in the mob violence and to their parents. His words were tough and house . And he hammered away over a period of time.

There were two recent violent flash mobs in Philadelphia: one on Broad Street at Temple University and the nigh recent ane at 16 th and Walnut in Eye City. In reaction to the first incident at Temple, Mayor Kenney was silent. Subsequently the 2nd incident last weekend, I wondered if the silence would continue.

On Monday, the Mayor's Office of Advice alerted the press that he would accost the contempo spate of violence. That night, at the wrap-upwards ceremony to the Philadelphia International Unity Loving cup soccer tournament, Kenney delivered a argument that condemned the flash mobs along with a series of racist post-election activities, including social media slurs and graffiti.

"I know right at present that many Philadelphians are feeling broken-hearted, aroused, agape, even hopeless. Others feel emboldened by hateful rhetoric to human activity out in destructive ways," the Mayor said. "But if nosotros allow any of these feelings to guide our actions, so we are no meliorate than what nosotros claim to oppose…Calling someone by any type of slur, defacing a building, or participating in a flash mob does naught to assist preserve the values of diverseness and inclusion that make Philadelphia potent."

While I am glad he made those comments, I found them disruptive. By combining the flash mobs and mail-ballot detest crimes into a singular narrative, he did non address either with enough specificity or clarity. And by connecting flash mob incidents to political enmity, organized merely random acts of violence took on a meaning they probable do non have.

Addressing the two issues—flash mobs and detest crimes—demands a different venue than a ane-off statement to a pocket-size gathering and a press release. This is when you go to the airwaves, community centers, union halls, business organisation customs, and organized religion communities and speak very directly to citizens of the city.

The opportunity to practise so is still there but it must exist taken.

Philadelphia has emerged over the by few decades with a profoundly stronger sense of public life. Y'all encounter information technology everywhere: on commercial boulevards, at neighborhood festivals, at newly renovated plazas, and on walking trails. Thousands of new millennial and empty nester residents have contributed to a sense that the city is on the ascension. We have more than urban dwellers, café diners, park enthusiasts, and convention goers. The city has go blithe in unexpected ways and until recently its law-breaking rates have fallen.

It is good that the Mayor has been so conscientious to speak to historically excluded groups from undocumented immigrants to the LGBTQ community. Only he has to remember that students on Broad Street or those attending the theatre on Walnut Street are as well his constituents.

But unchecked disorder is mortiferous for a city, especially for a urban center similar Philadelphia whose growth is and then fragile. Just talk to people in Chicago and Baltimore where law-breaking rates have spiked dramatically. Merely the result is not only law-breaking in the conventional sense but our shared sense of public social club.

There is a body of research that extends back to the early 1980's that examines the effect of what some telephone call soft crimes on neighborhood decline. The cleaved windows piece of work by Wilson and Kelling in 1982 was the nearly prominent example of putting forrard the hypothesis that y'all can contrary decline past intervening at the micro-civic level.

My favorite work in this regard is Wesley Skogan's 1990 book, Disorder and Reject . A Northwestern University political scientist, Skogan studied the impact of civic disorder on neighborhood alter. He uses Chicago every bit his laboratory and he emphasizes the role of perceptions in driving decisions.

Many years ago when I taught urban studies seminars at the University of Pennsylvania, I would sometimes send students to unlike parts of the city to read the surroundings. I wanted them to enquire questions nigh self-arrangement and civic values. What did it mean when you could have a planter outside a house without anyone stealing it or writing graffiti on it? When some streets in Due north Philadelphia or Kensington ban together and purchase the same low-cal fixtures outside the house, what does that say about their level of social organization? Why did some streets have a hard fourth dimension getting abandoned cars towed away?

Places that permit civic disorder—trash that does not get picked upwards, vacant lots that gather illegal dumping, graffiti that doesn't get removed, public displays of violence and hostility—can reinforce a downward screw. Places that quickly intervene by making articulate the boundaries of adequate behavior are more than likely to thrive.

Past combining the wink mobs and post-election hate crimes into a singular narrative, the Mayor did not address either with enough specificity or clarity. And past connecting flash mob incidents to political enmity, organized but random acts of violence took on a meaning they likely do not have.

And that is why I worry about the relative silence around the violent wink mobs and the tendency in Philadelphia over the past several years to relax quality of life standards. There is a reason why the Center City Commune in Philadelphia began its piece of work in the early 1990s with the uncomplicated mantra of clean and safe. It was a signal to residents and businesses, visitors and workers, that they should drag their expectations.

Mayor Kenney is ane of a number of recently elected mayors who ran on social justice platforms: a focus on reducing poverty, making sure that marginalized groups are part of the political process, and identifying redistributionist policies. He is a peachy spokesman for those issues.

Kenney achieved a win in the early days of his assistants: A soda taxation whose revenue is focused on early childhood centers and a bond deal for recreation centers and parks. These are potential game changers for neighborhood revitalization and, if managed well, will benefit the city and region as a whole.

But reducing poverty and upholding civic values around the quality of public life should non be viewed every bit either/or propositions. In fact, I would argue that it is non possible to achieve one without the other.

There are three big issues that confront the city: reducing poverty, attaining financial sustainability, and enlarging our economic relevance in a global market place. All 3 must be addressed. But none can be achieved in the absence of demographic and income growth, which in plow rely on high quality amenities and public security.

It is practiced that the Mayor has been so careful to speak up for historically excluded groups from immigrants to the LGBTQ community. Simply he has to remember that students on Broad Street or those attending the theatre on Walnut Street are besides his constituents.

He ignores them non at his peril, but at ours.

Photo header via Wikipedia

mcguirearniagaten.blogspot.com

Source: https://thephiladelphiacitizen.org/jim-kenney-philadelphia-flash-mob-violence/

Share this post