The hoagies are coming! The hoagies are coming!
Ya gotta love Philadelphia. The City of Brotherly Love. The City That Loves You Back. The Cradle of Liberty. Every time I drive into Philadelphia, I remember why I don't often drive into Philadelphia.
Like many older cities, Bro Love is struggling to survive. A shrinking tax base combined with ever-increasing expenses. A 250-year old infrastructure. The flight to the suburbs of affluent citizens, businesses, and stores. The perception, right or wrong, that the city is filled with crime, litter, traffic jams, homeless panhandlers, and odd odors.
Recent events aren't helping much. This week, Phoenix passed Philly as the fifth largest city in the country, despite southwest housing prices that are about double here, and an AVERAGE high temperature of 105 in July. Ben Franklin's crib was America's number three city in 1950, fourth in 1970, and fifth in 1990. Phoenix wasn't even on the charts until 14 years ago.
Faced with a $227 million budget deficit, which must be closed by June 1, taxes are going up. Among them, Mayor Street has proposed raising two different parking fees. Some lots, including the new stadiums, may be forced to charge $25 a day or more. Pittsburgh tried this, but is now cutting those taxes after seeing business in the downtown area fall off.
When you deal with numbers like $227 million, there is no easy solution. Proposed cuts in the burdensome wage and business taxes are shelved. Rec centers and pools closed. Library hours shortened. And the really bad news is that you have to do it all over again the next year. And the next. And the next.
If you walk the downtown streets, you see the result. For Sale. For Rent. Available. Even on upscale Walnut Street, which Philadelphians like to refer to as their Rodeo Drive or Fifth Avenue, at least four stores have closed recently. Anyone who wants to live, or operate a business in Philadelphia, has their choice of choice locations.
Well, apparently not just anyone. And apparently not just anywhere.
The hoagies are coming. Or trying to. "Upscale" hoagies, according to a spokesperson for Quiznos Sub. That hot-sandwich franchise is planning to open at 16 th and Walnut, in the hallowed upscale ground somewhere between Le Bec-Fin and Brasserie Perrier. The owner of those upscale eateries, Georges Perrier, is throwing an upscale french fit. "Now we are going to destroy the street by bringing a hoagie shop a block from me? I'm very upset".
And the upscale president of the Walnut Street upscale business association added, "Everyone is against it". By everyone, we can assume that she means everyone who has an upscale store on the street. The upscale public street. The upscale public street paid for by all citizens' taxes. The taxes that are being increased to cover the city's downscale budget.
You would think that the last thing Philadelphia needs is another hoagie shop. Actually, that would be the NEXT-TO-LAST thing. The LAST thing is a business turned away. With a $227 million hole in the budget, every pocket helps, whatever the scale. Does Georges Perrier really believe that a hoagie shop a block away is going to hurt his upscale fancy french foodfests?
If the answer is yes, then the cry "Everyone is against it" is the anthem for the decline and fall of a once-great city. What is it they are against? What will Quiznos bring to Walnut Street that is harmful to the upscale shops already there? The answer is obvious - PEOPLE who are not "upscale". That would no doubt include hoagie-lovers like students, office workers, and everyday Joes. Sacre Bleu!! And it might, God forbid, include laborers, ethnic minorities, and those undesirables who don't have an upscale reservation for Perrier's palaces.
This isn't exactly brotherly love. It's pretty much saying, if you aren't "upscale", go somewhere else. With the rest of your kind. This is a street for people with money, and we don't want them scared off by the riff-raff.
There is no shortage of food shops in the city, although the masses jonesing for a heated hoagie will no doubt welcome Quiznos. But that surfeit of sandwiches is no reason to deny the location (which was, after all, vacant) to yet one more. Ajit Patel of Bensalem is willing to invest his money in the franchise, so let the lunch-munching PUBLIC decide if "everyone" is really against it.
Oh yeah, there has been one more headline about Philadelphia economics recently. If Governor Rendell has his way, there will be two slot machine parlors and one "racino" (race track/slot casino) opening in the city. Since the state budget is also deep in the red, you can bet on it. Most of the revenue will go to the state for property tax relief and education. The city will supposedly benefit from increased stores, office space, and residences.
Call me crazy, but I just don't get the concept that people will want to relocate their offices, or their homes, close to a slot parlor in Philadelphia. Crowds. Traffic. Litter. Crime. Sounds like the reasons people are getting OUT of Dodge.
And look no further than Atlantic City to see the fallacy of the argument that gambling halls benefit the area. Casinos have been great for, well, casinos. True, employment has increased, but there has been little economic rub-off to local businesses. People park in the casino lots, gamble and eat in the casinos, and walk the boardwalk to other casinos. Often, car traffic in that area is terrible.
We may not have Georges Perrier (or even Quiznos) around here, but our town treasuries have surpluses. We have a new pool and library. The new YMCA rec center is on the way. There are no slot parlors in our near future. And we spell parking $.25 rather than $25. Don't you miss being "upscale"?