As much as I respect Freda Egnal and others who support Chaka Fattah, I wish to
point out that any analysis of businesses with liquor licenses near the edge of
the city will show that those just ourside of the city (e.g., check out City
Line Avenue and Belmont Avenue on both sides of the street) will show that many
places are thriving outside the city and hurting (or closing) inside of the
city. And guess what? There's a 10% drink tax in the city and not one
outside. Plus there are a bunch of other city taxes which you don't find in
the burbs. The need for so-called "replacement revenue" is, to my mind,
misguided. If businesses are discouraged to operate in the city, then there
won't be any revenue left to replace.
It can be extremely discouraging to operate a business in this city, and
Michael Nutter is the only person who has suggested that when you apply for a
business license in the basement of the MSB (Municipal Services Building),
instead of being greeted with something approaching contempt ("why are you
bothering me so close to my lunchtime?"), he suggests, and not in total jest,
having a bunch of cheerleaders saluting and greeting any new business venture!
We support Michael Nutter because we believe he can be more encouraging to
local business and in the end we believe this will INCREASE the amount of
revenue coming in to the city.
We are able to obtain an adequate workforce in the city. Yes, there are some
young people here who are woefully inadequate but there's a whole lot of local
residents who have street smarts and can pick up skills real quickly. When we
had a restaurant on the Penn campus, we found many so-called better educated
kids who were total incompentents when it came to work skills, so I think our
current available workforce is ok. Also with good public transportation,
Philly offers a great supply of labor from many neighborhoods. I can't speak
for all jobs, of course.
Crime levels are of course a problem in the city, but with a thriving business
environment, there are more people around at all hours and crime can be
reduced. At our "corner" of 47th and Baltimore I strongly suggest that crime
is down now that we have a growing corridor of Vientiane-Mariposa, A space,
Bennie, Lucky, Dahlak, Abby's, Lee's, Nicks, and FuWah and Abbraccio, and now
(soon) Vietnam Restaurant. Certainly the parking lot in back is safer now.
When I moved into this neighborhood more than 30 years ago, I thought that the
worst thing around here was the relative lack of business activity. Maybe now
we can do better with a real change in City Hall. Fattah and Brady talk about
how their "machines" can turn out the vote on Tuesday and I only lament how
they only seem interested on election day and in their "machines."
Roger Harman
----- Original Message -----
From: Freda Egnal
The primary concern that we have with Michael Nutter is his view and record
on business tax cuts, which, without identified replacement revenue, is a
serious threat to city programs and services . All businesses (and all people
for that matter) want tax cuts, but many surveys have shown that the top two
reasons businesses don't relocate here are because 1) our workforce is ill
prepared and inadequately educated to do the jobs they would bring; and 2) the
crime level in our city.
