Philly’s most vulnerable citizens are treated like garbage

This week I’ve been writing about vulnerable people whom the powerful treat like throwaway problems.

For example, in Harrisburg, House Republicans threatened to deny Philadelphia schools critical funding unless city Democrats backed a separate measure that would cut retirement benefits to future public employees.

“If Philadelphia Democrats aren’t going to be there for what needs to be done, then nobody’s going to be there for them,” state Budget Secretary Charles Zogby told WHYY last week. “And they can go home and tell their constituents why they couldn’t get money for the school district.”

Zogby, who orchestrated the state takeover of Philly schools in 2001, today plays the role of cinematic Mafioso: “Hey, pal, shame if something happened to that school district of yours.”

On Sunday, Republican Gov. Tom Corbett reiterated Zogby’s threat. On Monday, the legislature passed a budget without pension cuts — and Corbett, who promised to veto any budget that lacked such a measure, declined to sign it as of press time. 

Though the state controls the city’s public schools, Corbett has deeply reduced their funding. The recent comments are a stark reminder that state Republicans don’t always consider Philadelphia’s youth, disproportionately black and poor, to belong to the commonwealth as a whole.

Yet more remarkable: This horse trading was not over any new state funding but rather over the state simply allowing the city to hike its own cigarette tax. In a surprise move, more moderate Senate Republicans on Monday inserted the tax hike in an unrelated measure, which now faces a very uncertain future in the conservative House.

This, after City Council recently boosted the share local taxpayers pay to schools, moving to provide $150 million, but still leaving the Philadelphia School District with a $66 million budget gap.

Thousands of teaching and staff positions have already been lost. Schools have been closed, libraries have been shuttered, violence has erupted, counselors cannot address complex student needs, nurses at many schools are part-time and arts and music are anemic. It could get far worse.

Corbett, under political siege in large part due to education cuts, had proposed new state schools’ funding in his budget proposal. But a huge revenue shortfall and Republican aversion to taxing natural-gas drilling put that at risk. The approved budget delivers far less than Corbett had proposed. Before its passage, the District had said “way over 1,000 layoffs” would result without a cigarette tax and Corbett’s proposed spending hike.

“It becomes a question whether we would have the bodies to lay off and still maintain schools functioning,” says School District spokesperson Fernando Gallard.

Superintendent William Hite has also requested an additional $224 million to start rebuilding the District. That seems unlikely.

I asked Stephen Miskin, spokesperson for Republican House Majority Leader Mike Turzai, what pension reform, whatever its merits, has to do with the city’s cigarette tax.

“Pensions and education funding are and always have been tied together,” said Miskin, noting that pension costs are eating up an ever-growing share of state spending. “It’s bankrupting the districts.”

And last summer, he said, the state voted to funnel more money to city schools — but that allowed Philly to hike its own sales tax and redirected $45 million in federal dollars. Republicans nonetheless believe that every dollar that goes to Philadelphia is one dollar that doesn’t go somewhere else.

“Our members got beaten up back home in their own districts, mainly because of that cash, the $45 million,” says Miskin. “Their point was, what makes those kids more important than our kids?”

Turzai, angling to replace outgoing House Speaker Sam Smith, cannot support tax hikes without alienating right-wing legislators whose support he needs. This is not a policy question but a political one. 

“Right now,” says Miskin, “the policy merits to our members is — they don’t want to raise taxes.” 

Corbett faces a tough re-election fight and cannot seem to navigate between his party’s right wing and a general electorate prepared to blame him for school-funding problems. And so Republicans, who control the entirety of state government, hope to blame Philadelphia Democrats. 

The state budget is setting up Philly schools for renewed and deepening disaster in September. That means a wave of negative headlines ahead of Election Day. If Republicans further starve Philadelphia schools, students in this city will suffer. It could, however, prove helpful for Democrats in November. Strangely, the fate of Philadelphia students and the state Republican Party now seem closely entwined.

Sad to say, the homeless aren’t treated any better.

Last Sunday, I was biking along Spruce Street just after 5:30 p.m. when a man without either arm tumbled into the street. He was likely homeless, very likely drunk and quite possibly mentally ill. He somehow got himself out of the street and laid down in the middle of the sidewalk. I encouraged him to make his way back to his perch on a nearby stoop, next to a tall boy of Colt 45.

I called 911 at 5:41 p.m. and told the dispatcher that the man needed immediate medical attention. He was stumbling and could not speak. As he tried to stand up, his pants kept falling down. Time passed, and it began to rain, but no ambulance was in sight. 

The man stumbled toward a shirt that was lying on the ground and tried to pick it up with his prosthetic hook. I kept telling him to sit down, and to stay awake. Another spill into the road would be dangerous. 

I called 911 again at 5:52 p.m. and was told the ambulance was on its way. But when I called again at 6 p.m. something odd happened: I was transferred from 911 to the Fire Department dispatcher, who told me that there was no record of any ambulance having been sent — but that one was leaving now. I provided the same information for the third time.

The man at some point started walking east toward Broad Street, his pants falling to his knees. Fearful for his safety, I followed and watched as he peed against the wall of the Atlantic Building.

A security guard employed by Post Brothers, the developers who own the building, emerged and started yelling at him to pull up his pants. I asked the guard not to yell, explaining that he was extremely sick and that I had called an ambulance. Instead, the guard called police, to whom he complained about both the man and myself — and then, in a menacing sort of way, berated me. 

Post Brothers CEO Mike Pestronk wrote me by email that the guard, who works for a contractor, “did not go through proper protocol” and that they “have let all parties know that this behavior was not acceptable.”

The ambulance finally arrived around 6:10 p.m. — 30 minutes after I first called. The city Fire Department boasts an average response time of 6.5 minutes for medic units. According to the Fire Department, my “first two calls were interpreted and dispatched as a police matter by the police communications staff. The third call was the first call to be transferred to PFD.”

The ambulance arrived about eight minutes after the Fire Department received my last call, and transported the man to Hahnemann University Hospital. I do not know his name and, because of medical privacy rules, do not know what happened to him. 

Why, I asked the Police Department, did two calls that clearly identified a medical emergency get routed to police? Spokesperson Lt. John Stanford told me that police are often dispatched first to deal with the mentally ill or intoxicated. But he says that an error may have been made in this case, and they are investigating.

Thirty minutes was too long for a man who, among other things, was at risk of getting hit by a car. Our most vulnerable citizens deserve better.