The
Philadelphia International Cycling Championship was the biggest bike
race in America, drawing tens of thousands of spectators, attracting
the top cycling teams from around the world and generating an
estimated $15 million in revenue for local businesses. It is no
more, largely because Michael Nutter views the life of a city as
something that must be handed down from the government. It is not
the first event he has chased from Philadelphia and it won't be the
last.
Like
most such events, it was hatched not by bureaucrats but by
dreamers---David Chauner, Jerry Casale and Jack Simes III, three
biking enthusiasts with ties to the city. In 1985, the young men
realized their vision on the streets of Philly for the first time, in
a race won by Olympian Eric Heiden. Then in 2009, as Chauner told
the Inquirer last week, the city's fees tripled. The race limped
along for three more years, but the red ink finally spelled the end.
The
Dad Vail Regatta began in 1934 and, after a hiatus for WWII, has been
held on the Schuylkill since the 1950s. It faced a fate similar to
the bike race in 2009 when the Nutter Administration decided it
needed to more than double the city's fees. In November of that
year, the Regatta announced it was moving to Rumson, New Jersey
because it couldn't afford Philly any longer. Only after an
intervention by Bob Brady was the regatta saved, at least
temporarily.
Other
events have not been so lucky. The Pennsylvania Barge Club (founded
1861) resides on Boathouse Row. Its “Philadelphia Frostbite
Regatta,” however, is no longer run on the Schuylkill but on the
Cooper River in Camden. The races were forced to leave in 2009 when
the Nutter Administration boosted its demands on the organizers to
$9000 per year.
And
then, of course, there's Love Park, where Michael Nutter made his
bones in Philly politics.
As
the popularity of skateboarding exploded in the 1990s, big names in
the sport began to tout the wonders of Love Park as a venue. Some of
them with international reputations (Ricky Oyola, Josh Kalis, Anthony
Pappalardo), were seen in the park and attracted crowds of spectators
for their tricks. ESPN, which created the X-Games, took notice of
the phenomenon and tried to make this city the home of the Games,
signing a two-year deal to bring the event to South Philly.
This
was too much for Councilman Nutter, however. He sponsored the bill
to ban skateboarding in all public places and shepherded it through
City Council, after which it became law with Mayor Street's
signature. It had to be done, we were told, because skateboarding
would cause a million dollars in damage to our parks every year.
Sound a bit inflated? Or hysterical? It does to me too, and there
was never any documentation offered for this estimate. But even if
it were true, it would have been chump change compared to the
estimated $40 million the X-Games would have brought in to local
businesses.
What
is particularly sad about the X-Games saga is that skateboarding
developed in Love Park purely by accident. When Edmund Bacon first
conceived of Love Park in 1932, he had no idea that sixty years later
the design of the place would turn the park into a mecca for
skateboarders around the world. Yet to a visionary like Bacon, that
serendipitous result was the very thing to be cherished about a city.
Accidents happen in urban spaces, wonderful accidents that bring
people together in ways no one can anticipate. This was why, in
2002, the 92-year-old Bacon rode a skateboard in Love Park as a
protest against the dreary legislation Councilman Nutter had pushed
through.
I
cite the “economic impact” figures for these events ($15 million
for the bike race, $16 million for the Dad Vail, $40 million for the
X-Games) for one reason---to make clear that Michael Nutter's
hostility is NOT based on any rational economic criteria. If the
bike race brings $15 million to Philadelphia businesses every year,
that money (in hotel rooms, restaurant bills, souvenirs, hot dogs,
transport, shopping, etc.) generates tax revenue for the city far in
excess of the extra $200,000 or so the city tried to extract from the
organizers. Beyond that, of course, one would hope that elected
officials in Philadelphia would have a more general assumption that
money coming into Philly businesses is a good thing, and that
prosperity should be encouraged for its own sake. This is apparently
not the case.
I
don't know why Michael Nutter does this repeatedly to events beloved
by city residents. I'm not his shrink. I can only conclude that,
since he is hurting Philadelphians (and the city treasury) by his
actions, his primary motive is to exert government control (at any
cost), over the sometimes untidy life of the city. Unless the city
government itself organizes these festivals and sports extravaganzas,
Michael Nutter seems to view them as somehow illegitimate and
unworthy of preservation. The Mayor was very much in charge of the
Labor Day concert at the Art Museum (though he left most of the
details to Jay-Z). No problem there, I guess. It is only the events
that are produced organically from the citizenry that excite his ire and
his desire to impose the heavy hand of government.
A
different sort of city government would view events like the bike
race and the Dad Vail and the Frostbite Regatta and Love Park
skateboarding as civic assets, and manifestations of Philly's unique
spirit. A different sort of mayor would understand he is merely a
temporary caretaker whose job it is to nurture and support the
dynamism that bubbles up from neighborhoods and entrepreneurs and
community organizations. Instead, it seems that Michael Nutter, as
both a councilman and now as a mayor, views the real treasures of the
city as untidy little annoyances that must be regulated, taxed, or
stamped out.
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