Election Day: Point Breeze is 'like a war zone, actually'

It's a tense primary in the 36th Ward — at least, for those who realize there's a primary going on. 

Trash day in Point Breeze.
Emily Guendelsberger

Most voters we spoke with in Point Breeze said they wanted the neighborhood's trash problem solved.
Emily Guendelsberger

New construction at 19th and Federal will cover up a mural.
Emily Guendelsberger

An open hydrant floods the corner of 18th and Federal near American Sardine Bar.
Emily Guendelsberger

The Old School flyers for the 1st and 3rd Divisions.

It’s trash day as well as election day in Point Breeze, and the trucks haven’t come through yet. Most of the voters at the polls agree that the garbage on the streets is a major concern; today the trash on the street has something of a red, white and blue color scheme from the discarded flyers endorsing candidates for committeeperson, usually a minor and uncontested Democratic Party office. Both sets of flyers take a fill-in-the-blanks approach to the different candidates, and look about the same from polling place to polling place outside of the different names.

One template, paid for by Friends for a Better South Philadelphia and endorsing the set of candidates associated with developer Ori Feibush and the more recent, more affluent residents of Point Breeze, has a quote on the back: “Vote for us on May 20 to give out neighborhood a stronger voice in City Hall!” The other template, paid for by the Committee for Civic Engagement, uses quotes from established neighborhood politicians like former City Council President Anna Verna and 2nd District Councilman Kenyatta Johnson. (For ease of reference, let’s call this group the Old School.) 

The Old School flyers from the 1st and 3rd Divisions of the 36th Ward.

Interestingly, some of the flyers paid for by the Old School say “write-in” after the candidate’s name instead of his or her button number. That’s because this race saw 76 challenges to candidates’ validity, and 34 people kicked off the ballot. Those petition challenges, most paid for by Feibush and targeting candidates from the Old School, caused nearly half the Democratic Party-endorsed candidates to be kicked off the ballot. It was an early move in what appears to be an attempt by Feibush to take over control the 36th Ward from the Old School, something that will be extremely helpful when he challenges Johnson for the 2nd District Council seat next year. (It’s kind of complicated; you can either just take our word for it or read our longer piece on the subject from this week’s print issue.)

Around 8 a.m., Johnson and Feibush were spotted chatting outside the fire station at 20^th and Federal. The polling place for the 3rd Division is directly across from Feibush’s OCF Coffeehouse, which is something of a symbol of the gentrification of the neighborhood. Whether gentrification is good or bad for the neighborhood is a very raw topic.

Neither of the two men is on the ballot in this primary himself — technically, Johnson’s there supporting his wife, Dawn Chavous, who’s running for committeeperson in the 3rd Division, and Feibush is there as an interested businessman who owns the coffeehouse across the street and has invested a lot of money in houses that are roughly twice as expensive as the neighborhood’s average. The two have butted heads many times, and an angry website Feibush made in 2012 decrying Johnson's lack of action on a vacant lot next to his coffeehouse inspired Anonymous to hack phila.gov and kenyattajohnson.com on Feibush's unrequested behalf, and Feibush says Johnson has blocked him from pursuing developments in the neighborhood many times. It's fair to say the two don't get along. 

So what were the two men chatting about? “I offered to buy him a cup of coffee,” says Feibush, intercepted in OCF Coffeehouse a few minutes later. Is that cup of coffee he’s holding for the Councilman, then? “No, no. … just a friendly chat.” He’s taking the coffee to a zoning hearing at which he’s due in 10 minutes, but he still has time to give a sound bite: "It's exciting to see individuals at the polls, handing out literature – and, more importantly, in the past week, individuals who are candidates for office knocking on doors and meeting their neighbors, which is always a good thing. It's a shame that you need an election to make that happen sometimes."

“Every division where there isn’t a preferred candidate by the party has a write-in candidate,” says Feibush of the Old School's flyers, “which is fascinating to me because some of the write-in candidates can’t possibly take office because they were booted for not living in the division. But the party is actively working to get them elected, anyways.” He says he can’t recall specific names of candidates who were deemed ineligible for those reasons off the top of his head, but that several people had supplied addresses of vacant lots or clearly abandoned properties.  

Tanasha Vann, 31, was kicked off the ballot after one of Feibush’s petition challenges. She’s still campaigning, though, chatting with people outside St. Barnabas Church at 18th and Wharton. Her three kids are running around, appearing to be having a ball helping out. Vann says this is something she used to share with her own mother, who was a committeeperson for decades until she passed away a few years ago. “It used to be so fun — I used to do the flyers, pass out the little ballots, send out mail, go door to door. This election is not that fun; it’s not community-oriented at all. It’s more like a war zone, actually. It’s tense! It’s definitely tense.” She says she’s running for her mother’s old seat in part because she’d already been helping out with the duties for a while, and people know to come to her with problems. “It’s a community thing, it’s familiar. I see a lot of my neighbors out here. … Whatever the outcome is, I hope it’s beneficial for the community.” 

Feibush told City Paper last week that he expected turnout would be a lot higher than the usual for a gubernatorial primary.  This morning, he says it’s hard to remember exactly what the turnout was like four years ago, so it’s hard to judge. “But there’s certainly a lot more people on the street, a lot more energy.”

There are, indeed, quite a few people hanging out in front of the polling places we stop by — candidates shaking hands and handing out flyers, poll workers and people who just appear to be watching the show from lawn chairs. Donald Matthews, 50, says this election has caused tension in the 36th Ward, but that’s beside the real point. “The important thing is to get Corbett out. … I’ve lived in this neighborhood my whole life, and Corbett’s the worst governor we’ve ever had.” Matthews particularly faults Corbett for his unhelpfulness about fully funding Philadelphia’s public schools. He says he thinks turnout’s going to be better in the general to oust Corbett; he says all the fighting about committeepeople has turned a lot of the community off, and that because of that, he expected turnout to be “pretty low.” (“Crooks, they’re all crooks,” loudly grumbled one woman at another polling place.) 

Councilman Johnson says that, yes, all the challenges had made for a tenser election than usual. Asked about whether the flyers endorsing write-ins for candidates who were kicked off the ballot were unusual, Johnson says he thinks “elected officials who are supporting those candidates are supporting them independently — that’s not an official party ballot. That’s more independent support.” (To be clear, these flyers feature a headshot of him next to the quote “Committee people are on the front lines of the neighborhood. Support me by voting for [candidate A] and [candidate B]. —Councilman Kenyatta Johnson.”)

As of 8:30 a.m., only 20 people had voted at the firehouse, which serves as polling place for the 3rd Division.

“It’s somewhat slow right now,” says Johnson. “Hopefully, as the day goes along, we’ll have more of a turnout throughout the 36th Ward.” He says he expects turnout to be about average for a governor’s race.

So, what were he and Feibush discussing earlier? “Just the democratic process,” says Johnson, straight-faced. His aide, who was present for the conversation, starts laughing, and a few seconds later, the Councilman and this reporter join him.

New construction that will soon literally cover up a mural honoring the Civil Rights movement was far too obvious a visual metaphor for this reporter to pass up.