Ed Rendell was sworn in today for four more years in the governor’s mansion. Rendell, as Mayor of Philadelphia, was one of the original group of mayors that came up with the novel idea of suing gun manufacturers under the theory that their product was a public nuisance. As governor, he’s given some lip service to the one-gun-per-month bills that the city politicians keep wanting to pass, but has largely kept quiet on his opinions on gun control. Aside from his position on that issue, he’s outlined some things I can get behind:
He broke new ground with his promise to overhaul the state’s open-records law, which many right-to-know advocates regard as archaic because it limits public access to specific categories of records rather than opening all records to public scrutiny except for specific exceptions.
I’m generally in favor of public records being as public as possible, with some notable exceptions. We will need to make sure that if this happens certain types of records (you know the ones) don’t get made public. I’m also enthusiastic about this:
His proposal to choose state appellate judges through a merit-selection process — a cause that critics of the current elective system have promoted for more than a decade — also came without warning.
I’ve never thought it a good idea to elect appelate judges. Judges should be separated from politics as much as possible. I’ll support this one. Even though I doubt this “merit-selection” process will be apolitical. There’s also a propsal in his inaugural address to put redistrcting to referendum. I have no idea how you’d make something like that work. I think there are better ways to deal with that issue, and don’t believe democracy is really going to work there. Hey Ed, some tax relief would be nice too!
I still think Ed Rendell is the luckiest politician in PA. The only reason why people liked him in Philadelphia is because he wasn’t Wilson Goode and he paid people to throw snowballs at the Dallas Cowboys.
Meanwhile, during his tenure as mayor, Philadelphia was just like most cities in the 90’s. The crime rate plummeted, as did other major cities. The city’s “vibe” improved when Philadelphia followed the trend dump money into arts, culture, restaurants, convention centers, and hotels.
And now that he’s not mayor of Phila. anymore, he looks even better because the crime rate has risen, and Philly’s reputation has worsened. This drop isn’t because of Rendell’s brilliance or Street’s incompetence (OK, maybe that a bit), but it is rather because Rendell never truly did anything to solve any of the problems that plagued Philadelphia. Philadelphia remains a poor place to do business compared to neighbors New Jersey and Delaware, and it continues to hemorrhage population while other more dynamic cities (read Phoenix) pass it by.
That’s a great comment. Thank you.
Philadelphia really needs it’s Giuliani to come along. The sad thing is, I don’t think the people who are left would elect him. They’d rather have bozos like Street, Nutter, Evans and Fattah, and because of that, I don’t think The City of Brotherly Love has a very bright future. It will continue to lose to cities who have populations who will vote for politicians with more of a clue.