Category: Uncategorized

Montgomery County goes Democratic

This thesis is about the Republican Party in Philadelphia, but the entire region can teach lessons.

For the first time since 1978, Bucks County, north of the city, has more registered Democrats than Republicans, as reported by the Philadelphia Inquirer today. Montgomery County, too, is a Philadelphia suburb that has seen a rise in Democrats on their rolls despite a sold Republican presence since at least the Ronald Reagan administration in the 1980s.

With Pennsylvania embroiled in a heated Democratic presidential primary, pitting Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y. and Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., the party is attracting new voters and finding Independents and even Republicans going Donkey, if only for the chance to weigh in on what may be a decisive primary.

The Democratic edge is small, just 3,000 and a fraction of a point, but the important lesson is how one competitive election can bring about wild rises and falls in voter interests, persuasions and registrations.

Still, Chester and Delaware Counties, other surrounding Philadelphia suburbs, remain largely Republican.

Gary Frisch: polar swimming for hunger

good-works.jpg

As filed last week for the Philadelphia Business Journal, to run in last Friday’s edition.

There are those who seek out an opportunity to swim in a frigid lake in March.

“Honestly, it’s something I’ve always wanted to do,” said Gary Frisch, company president of Swordfish, a public relations agency in Voorhees, N.J. “I’ve been itching to do it, though maybe a little afraid, scared of how my body would react.”

Of course, there are also those who just want to watch.

Continue reading Gary Frisch: polar swimming for hunger

Nonpartisan elections: the take by Sam Katz, John Street, and others

Last week I got the opportunity to sit down with former Republican contender for mayor, Sam Katz.

We spoke on a number of subjects, more notably his view of nonpartisan elections in Philadelphia. He told me that he hadn’t given it much thought, not thinking it was worth pursuing.

Today, he followed up on our conversation with more thoughts on the subject.

As a practical matter, election law is controlled by the state—i.e. the legislature. Those laws are made by incumbents. The state has very few legislative and senate districts that are generally considered to be “in play”. So getting members of the House and Senate to vote for a system that would put their renomination at greater risk by enabling people outside of the party that nominated them to have a voice, isn’t something we’re likely to see anytime soon. Pursuing it as a political agenda item, would, in my view, be a waste of time and energy.

Continue reading Nonpartisan elections: the take by Sam Katz, John Street, and others

E. Robert Levy: the mortgage crisis explained

Transcribed interview for the Philadelphia Business Journal, as published in February. As, the mortgage crisis weighs on, I thought some might be interested to learn a bit more from an industry expert.

Name: E. Robert LevyE. Robert Levy
Title: Executive director and counsel & executive director of legislative and regulatory information & legislative regulatory counsel
Organization: Mortgage Bankers Association of New Jersey & Mortgage Bankers Association of Pennsylvania & Pennsylvania Association of Mortgage Brokers
Education: Rutgers School of Law in York, Boston University (started undergrad) and Farleigh Dickinson (graduated undergrad),
Career History (most recent first): Private practice in law; deputy commissioner to New Jersey state Department of Banking and Insurance; Attorney general and counsel to New Jersey state Department of Banking and Insurance
Home: Livingston, N.J.

1) What are the major differences in the mortgage crisis between New Jersey and Pennsylvania?

Well, the differences are probably fairly negligible, depending upon what data you look at. Overall, the negative impact on both states, or on either state, is far less than what you find in other parts of the country, California, Florida, Nevada. As far as foreclosure rates are concerned, they are affected by the nature of the urban parts of the state, which get hit harder than others as there is some evidence that non prime lending was more prevalent in those markets.

2) How are the state legislatures and executive branches in each state approaching the problem differently?

Continue reading E. Robert Levy: the mortgage crisis explained

Glen Macnow: please rank Philadelphia cheese steaks again

People love to rank cheese steaks. There is something about listing shit that people love, so why not the cheese steaks? Listing, ranking, investigating shit that is supposed to be unique to a particular region or city or country, definitely worth a post on Stuff White People Like.

Nearly six years after Craig Laban, the respected Philadelphia Inquirer food critic, launched the Cheesesteak Project, Glen Macnow of WIP, a Philadelphia sports talk station, announced the initial findings of his own inquiry. His claim to note, though, is eating at 45 different locales, to Laban’s just 22.

His top pick thus far (his analysis isn’t complete) is South Philly’s John’s Roast Pork on East Snyder Avenue.

Like Laban, his list puts Tony Luke’s on Oregon Avenue as the top among the big name chains, and similarly, Pat’s and Geno’s didn’t even make it in the Top Ten.

Oh, another thing white people love to do is reject the most popular of a regional craft because, seriously, they know a much better place no one knows about (a derivative of wanting to be the only white person around).

David Dinenberg: growing Grasso

As submitted for the Philadelphia Business Journal last week, unedited, for Friday’s edition.

David Dinenberg made some big deals as a real estate broker.

“But I was so unsatisfied,” said the new chief operating officer of Grasso Holdings, a full service real estate firm based in Philadelphia.didenberg-dave.jpg

It wasn’t for him. Uniting one company looking to buy and another looking to sell, no matter the field, left him feeling like a middle man, Dinenberg said.

Dinenberg’s new role will let the company’s CEO David Grasso focus on the largest deals and developing strategy for the growing firm.

“I cover the day to day management of the company,” said Dinenberg of his corporate management of the company’s affiliates, involved in construction, development, residential sales, leasing and property management. “Now I need to understand everyone’s projects.”

Those projects vary for Grasso, which isn’t asset specific. They’ve recently renovated the Lofts at Bella Vista and the Packard Grande, two Center City condominiums. Last year, Grasso opened Valley Square, a 400,000 square foot shopping center in Bucks County. In the coming months, the company is to break ground on a 1.2 million square foot mixed-use project in Center City, which will include a Whole Foods Grocery, a Best Buy, a hotel and high end rental apartments.

“We are a medium sized company doing huge deals,” he said. “We put our sights above where most people would put their own sights.”

“The best thing about real estate is that there are so many aspects to real estate,” Dinenberg said. “That’s what captivates my interest in the business in general.”

As the company continues to expand, Dinenberg is charged with developing an internal structure, offering oversight without hurting the company’s independent and entrepreneurial spirit, he said.

“You need those checks and balances as you grow up,” he said. “And we’re growing up.”

As he reduces his load of personal projects and shifts to a leadership role over the accounting, human resources, marketing, public relations, sales and leasing of Grasso and its affiliates Tycoon Entertainment, GH Property Services and GH Realty, Dinenberg said he hopes to help the company grow in a healthy way.

“I can take that to the next level, to operate Grasso and offer corporate oversight,” he said. “This is something I’ve always wanted to do.”

See other examples of my reporting here.

Interview: Sam Katz, a three-time Republican mayoral candidate

This afternoon I was privileged enough to speak with Sam Katz, one of the most successful Republican politicians in Philadelphia in the last half century. Nothing speaks more to the party’s struggles here than the truth of that statement and the realization that Katz has never won a major public office.

It also is important to say that Katz spent much of his life as a registered Democrat and registered as an Independent in May 2007, to retain the possibility of running outside the two-party structure. In the end, he found Michael Nutter a palatable enough candidate to not run at all.

Still, in 1991, 1999 and 2003, he was considered a respectable Republican contender in a city that rarely considers the non-Democrat at all, set aside considering them somewhat palatable. But, Katz grabbed a handful of meaningful endorsements, including former Democratic mayoral candidates Happy Fernandez and John White Jr. in 1999 and former Street confidant Carl Singley in 2003.

There were two topics I wanted most to address with Katz, his general thoughts on the reality of a two-party system in Philadelphia and if nonpartisan elections could add a more competitive element to city-wide elections.

Continue reading Interview: Sam Katz, a three-time Republican mayoral candidate

Bob Barnett: former Sam Katz campaign director

During today’s interview with Ellen Kaplan, former issues director of Sam Katz’s 1999 Republican bid for mayor of Philadelphia and current staffer at the Committee of Seventy, she mentioned the success of Katz’s 1999 campaign director Robert S. Barnett.

I had heard the name, even having mentioned Barnett once before here, back in September when noting his take on the effect of President Bill Clinton on the 1999 mayoral battle between Katz and John Street.

Bob Barnett was one element of a bipartisan, but Democratic-leaning crew leading Katz’s 1999 campaign, which included veteran consultant Neil Oxman, policy director Linda Morrison, and issues director Ellen Kaplan, all Democrats, and Republican consultant Christopher Mottola, as reported by CityPaper.

Continue reading Bob Barnett: former Sam Katz campaign director