{"id":741,"date":"2009-08-20T14:44:39","date_gmt":"2009-08-20T18:44:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mpomy.com\/?p=741"},"modified":"2009-08-20T14:44:39","modified_gmt":"2009-08-20T18:44:39","slug":"philadelphia-you-wont-recognize-us-shortly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/mpomy.com\/?p=741","title":{"rendered":"Philadelphia – you won’t recognize us shortly"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"rodin-gates-of-hell\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Above is Rodin’s Gates of Hell<\/a>, currently on display at the Rodin Museum<\/a> here in Philadelphia.\u00a0 Soon we’re going to find out what’s on the other side.\u00a0 As a result of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania’s failure to pass a state budget which would authorize the city to (1) raise sales tax and (2) restructure pension funds, city government is now being dismantled.<\/p>\n

Here’s the mayor speaking at today’s press conference:<\/p>\n

This is not a game.\u00a0 This is not an exercise.\u00a0 This is not about leverage, and no one is crying wolf, pointing fingers, or blaming anybody.\u00a0 We have no money.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The cuts will eliminate the jobs of approximately 3000 city employees, but this may not be all bad.\u00a0 there is so much fat that needs to be trimmed from the city’s bloated bureaucracy, that extreem measures will result in a leaner and more efficient government.\u00a0 And while my heart goes out to those that will lose their jobs, that’s not the major problem with the so-called “Plan C<\/a>” that is now going into effect.<\/span><\/p>\n

Of greater concern is the brutal evisceration of city services.\u00a0 There will be no more libraries.\u00a0 there will be no more Recreation Department.\u00a0 1000 police officers – gone.\u00a0 Fairmount Park Commission – gone.\u00a0 The Court system, the district attorney and the public defender – all partially shut down.\u00a0 Office of Arts and Culture – gone. <\/span><\/p>\n

If Harrisburg comes to our rescue in the next few days with approval for the sales tax increase and pension restructuring, this may not have to happen with such violence.\u00a0 But, right now, the picture is extremely bleak.
\n<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Above is Rodin’s Gates of Hell, currently on display at the Rodin Museum here in Philadelphia.\u00a0 Soon we’re going to find out what’s on the other side.\u00a0 As a result of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania’s failure to pass a state … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[188],"tags":[697,698,696,694,1489,695],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/mpomy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/741"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/mpomy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/mpomy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mpomy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mpomy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=741"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/mpomy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/741\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":743,"href":"http:\/\/mpomy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/741\/revisions\/743"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/mpomy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=741"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mpomy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=741"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mpomy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=741"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}