“People are scared. They’re afraid to walk on the streets. A woman on the first day of [return-to-office] got punched to the ground on the way to work across the street from our campus,” one Philadelphian told the Brookings Institution. “Now it’s back to the 1990s, it’s just mayhem on the train right now,” said another. “Nobody wants to take it.” Property crime, too, is adding to Philadelphia’s chaos and disorder, up 17% since before the pandemic.
Statistics and anecdotes like these push the city further down its negative spiral, keeping the property market in a sorry state. A partner at one of Philadelphia’s largest commercial real estate brokerages said in January that while small- and medium-sized deals are still getting signed, the pace is greatly reduced relative to the pre-Covid baseline. Larger deals, he says, are “mostly stuck in neutral.”
With every deal that stalls, more potential tax dollars are lost and fewer services are rendered to the Philadelphians who need them. But looming city elections offer a chance for the city to reflect on where things are going. As the field of candidates shapes up to replace Mayor Jim Kenney and members of the City Council, Philadelphians should press them on their strategies both to cover pension obligations in a proactive way and to shore up the tax base and public safety.
www.zerohedge.com/political/pensions-are-defunding-philadelphia-police