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Tom Ferrick Jr.

Policing alone won't solve crime problem

Feb. 3, 2008
Tom Ferrick Jr.
For The Inquirer

Stripped to its essentials, the anticrime effort announced last week by the Nutter administration amounts to a redeployment of about 200 officers to a dozen high-crime districts.

It makes sense - putting officers where the crime is - but it's hardly rocket science.

As new Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey pretty much said, it's not Batman and Robin suddenly emerging from the Batcave, it is basic policing.

Plunging stocks, decreasing revenue and fixed costs could knock the city for a loop.

Jan. 27, 2008
Tom Ferrick Jr.
For the Inquirer

Even before the stock market took a dive, there were storm clouds over the Philadelphia economy.

The sales tax was the harbinger, as it often is. It is the first tax whose yield dips when consumers get jittery.

The city gets one percentage point out of the 7-percent state sales tax imposed within city limits.

It's a deal that dates back to 1990, when the state had to step in to rescue Philadelphia government from a financial meltdown.

Why the unions won't share

Jan. 6, 2008
Tom Ferrick Jr.
For The Inquirer

When Pat Gillespie appeared before City Council last month, he said he did not know the number of minority workers who were members of the city's building-trade unions - the electricians, plumbers, carpenters, glaziers and others who have a virtual monopoly on construction jobs in town.

This was odd because, if anyone should know, Pat Gillespie should.

Pa.'s can-do governor, at odds with his evil twin

Dec. 30, 2007
Tom Ferrick Jr.
For The Inquirer
Someone once said that the way to understand Ed Rendell is to think of him not as a politician, but as a real estate developer.
Like the best of developers - Tony Goldman and Willard Rouse come to mind - Rendell dreams big dreams about big projects and big buildings. It gets his juices going to take something run-down, neglected or underutilized (think of Center City circa 1980) and orchestrate a glittering remake.

Maybe it was something I said

Dec. 23, 2007
Tom Ferrick Jr.
For The Inquirer
As it turns out, I am a terrible person.
I am also an imbecile, a jackass, a hypocrite and a knave.
And that's the PG-rated stuff. You should have heard the rest of it but, as a rule, we don't use those words in a family newspaper.
All of this comes because I had the temerity to state in a column last week that casinos would be a good thing for Philadelphia and that it makes sense to put them on the Delaware waterfront.

Casinos won't ruin Philadelphia

Dec. 16, 2007
Tom Ferrick Jr.
For The Inquirer

To hear some casino opponents tell it, bringing gambling to Philadelphia is evil, corrupt and possibly even fattening.

They tell us the casinos won't make any money for the city. That locations selected will destroy adjoining neighborhoods. That the deal, which will bring two slots-only casinos to the city, was an conspiracy involving big money interests and corrupt pols, who trampled on the rights of the people.

The land that time, and good sense, forgot

Nov. 8. 2007
Tom Ferrick Jr.
For The Inquirer

Here is a short quiz for a wintry winter weekend.

Name the Pennsylvania city with a diminishing population, an eroding tax base, and deep budgetary problems?
a. Philadelphia.
b. Pittsburgh.
c. Allentown.
d. Erie.
e. All of the above.

Being an astute reader, you probably have guessed the answer: All of the above.

Deal these folks out

Nov. 18, 2007
Tom Ferrick Jr.
For The Inquirer

The neighborhood activists who gathered at a Civic Leaders Summit last month in Mayfair made it clear they want a "new deal" with City Hall.

And the New Deal is . . . No Deals.

Let me explain. What these civic leaders want is a city government that is - to repeat my mantra - efficient, transparent, logical and responsive.

Not one that responds only under duress, only after repeated calls to just the right person.

Nutter: A Time for Hope

Nov. 4, 2007
Tom Ferrick Jr.
For The Inquirer

Now comes Michael Nutter's moment.

The charade of a fall campaign will end this week. Election Day will come and go. On Wednesday, he will be mayor-elect of Philadelphia.

Just one step away from the office he has wanted since he was learning his life lessons from the Jesuits at St. Joe's Prep.

Maybe it is time to recall the Jesuit motto: Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam, "For the Greater Glory of God."

A lot is riding on SEPTA cash

Oct. 30, 2007
Tom Ferrick Jr.
For The Inquirer 

Say what you will about SEPTA, the central fact of life for the region's public-transit agency is that only 43 cents of every dollar it needs to operate comes from fares.

The remaining 57 cents come from government subsidies - local, state and federal.

Analyses of violence are light on the whys

Oct. 21, 2007
Tom Ferrick Jr.
For The Inquirer

Stand back, please.

I am about to summarize a three-foot-tall stack of dissertations, monographs, learned treatises, regression analyses, and a veritable plethora of data, charts and graphs done by criminologists seeking to answer this important question:

Why did crime decline so dramatically in America in the mid-1990s?

And drop it did. Between 1995 and 2002, violent crime in the United States went down 23 percent. The number of murders was down 24 percent.

City is sinking under the weight of benefits

Oct. 14, 2007
Tom Ferrick Jr.
For The Inquirer

The biggest crisis the next mayor will face when he takes over city government in January is that there is no crisis.

The city budget is balanced. The tax money keeps rolling in. All outstanding bills are being paid for.

Things are just fine in the $3.8 billion enterprise that is Philadelphia government. So what's the problem?

Safer schools? Stop coddling the violent students

Oct. 7, 2007
By Tom Ferrick Jr.
For The Inquirer

Meet Jack Stollsteimer, the Mr. Lonely of the Philadelphia public schools.

Stollsteimer is the safe schools advocate, a position created by the state legislature to monitor and improve safety and discipline in the Philly schools. The thinking was that a watchdog was needed because of the district’s, um, spotty record in this area. 

Making city better with less

Sept. 30, 2007
By Tom Ferrick Jr.
For The Inquirer

Let's begin with some good news for a change: Philadelphia government is reasonably well run and generally efficient.

The truth behind the surge in police in Philadelphia

Sept. 23, 2007
By Tom Ferrick Jr.
Inquirer columnist

Mayor Street and Police Commissioner Sylvester Johnson have decided to attack the root cause of the violence problem in Philadelphia: The news media.

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