Blazing the Neoliberal Trail: Urban Political Development in the United States and the United Kingdom by Timothy P R Weaver

Author:Timothy P R Weaver [Weaver, Timothy P R]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Comparative Politics, Social Policy, Public Policy, Political Science
ISBN: 9780812247824
Google: RnXqCgAAQBAJ
Goodreads: 27484796
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
Published: 2016-01-07T06:45:17+00:00

The Neoliberal Turn: 1979–2000

Bill Green’s Mayoralty

With Rizzo defeated, the 1979 Democratic primary race enabled other political figures to emerge from his shadow and mount a serious challenge for the nomination. Given the growth in the African American proportion of the electorate to 38 percent, black leaders convinced Charles Bowser to run as their candidate against Bill Green. Bowser had run as an independent moderate in 1975, but his 1979 campaign took on a more radical complexion as he attempted to connect Green to Rizzo’s racist organization. However, Green refused to be drawn and stuck to a message of racial tolerance. Although Bowser was able to win all the predominantly black wards and two white majority wards, he did not stimulate as high a turnout among blacks as was achieved to defeat Rizzo’s charter change.69 Thus, Green defeated Bowser with 53 percent of the vote.

With the Democratic nomination secured, Green then courted the black vote in preparation for the general election against Republican David Marston. Green’s efforts were complicated by the decision of prominent black leader Lucien Blackwell to run as an independent and Marston’s pledge to guarantee the role of managing director to an African American. Both Marston and Blackwell assiduously courted Bowser’s endorsement. In the face of this competition for black votes, Green matched Marston’s commitment in exchange for the endorsements of Bowser and Samuel Evans, another senior figure in Philadelphia black politics. This would be enough to win the election. Not only did he garner 53 percent of the vote in a three-way race, but Green also won approximately 50 percent of the vote in the thirteen wards in which at least 90 percent of registered voters were black.70 True to his word, Green appointed Wilson Goode, an African American from the moderate reformist wing of the black political spectrum, to be Philadelphia’s first black managing director.

As Green entered office, Philadelphia was bleeding jobs and population. During the 1970s, Philadelphia’s population had fallen by over 260,000 from 1.95 million to 1.69 million. Moreover, life for those within the city limits was tough. In 1980, unemployment stood at 12.4 percent of the labor force, and poverty rates had risen from 15 percent in 1969 to 22 percent in 1979. For African Americans, the picture was especially bleak. While the black unemployment rate in 1973 stood at 7.2 percent (just 0.4 percentage points higher than for the population as a whole), by 1980, 20.4 percent of black Philadelphians were unemployed. This would peak at 23.7 percent in 1983.71 For those in work, median household income was $13,169 in 1979 ($39,599 in 2010 dollars), 73 percent of the regional median.72

Mayor Green immediately took steps to confront the racial and economic legacies bequeathed by Rizzo. As Keiser notes, beyond the symbolically important appointment of Goode, Green also tackled the key issue of concern for black Philadelphians: police harassment and brutality.73 His administration instituted a new set of directives intended to curb the use of deadly force. These reduced the number of civilians shot by the police by 53 percent in the first two years.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.