Transcripts For WPVI Inside Story 20170312

Notwithstanding the amount, which is huge, of course . Well, look, its 4. 4 billion, but a lot of it is also deferred maintenance, whether its our roads, whether our parks and Recreation Centers and all of it libraries so its important what were doing to make sure that we can focus on our infrastructure. But there are also other aspects. You know, theres one thing, which is maintenance and cleaning up the skin. Its also to exfoliate to sort of grow and generate new skin, which is the, you know do we have any stake in robotics, advanced manufacturing . Do we have any stake in any other future economy machine learning, et cetera . Which we dont. And if we dont if we have our feet grounded firmly in the wet cement of history and preservation of today, eventually that cement hardens. And you have to also think about the future, use the foundation as a jumping board for the future. And i dont think we are doing that right now. Its not the mayors fault, its just, you know, how much money do you have and what do you focus on . You try to balance what you have and keeping that with some growth, always. Yeah. And theres certain things, like, you know, building over i95 it really is a shame cause it creates this big gash that you cant get to the river, and i think itll kind of create a wholedifferent kind of a feeling and Economic Development and jobs that comes out of that. I think the 500 million i think the number is for parks and fixing up recreation facilities, of which 100 million comes from the william penn foundation. Its great to have folks like that willing to step in. What i was disappointed on that, though, is the mayor wanted to just kind of do it the way it should be done, and, of course, council wants its prerogatives, so they want to pick who the developers are gonna be. And that feels like the old philadelphia game. And i think thats what kind of holds us back sometimes as a city, that individual Council People will be able to pick who the copromoters and developers will be for those things. And you know why that is. Thats cause its in my district, just like they have the ability to veto new development, et cetera, and its old school. So, thats because it leads to patronage jobs in some cases or cronyism. It does. And i know somebody, let me talk to him or whatever kind of stuff. Right. You know, monica, what i like is the fact that there is some kind of a focus on quality of life for all philadelphians, that the monies that will be funneled into the revitalization of the main streets in the city. Because, you know, i walk down the streets, and it really means a lot to be able to feels as if youre in a a flourishing city. The other thing is the housing for lowincome families and also for atrisk individuals the mentally ill, the drug addicts to get them out of the shelters, off of the streets, and in some kind of a semblance of a real home. That adds to the quality of life for me and for everybody else. Because ive seen i mean, the homeless problem, everybodys talked about it, but i really, in the past three or four years, have seen an incredible increase in the amount of Homeless People in the city, and that needs to be addressed. And it does need 300 million worth of bonds just for the park aspects. Some of its being paid for, along with the soda tax, as well as revitalizing some of our schools. But you do need some help from council here, so its gonna have to get passed. As usual, im in the minority, which essentially that theres been a lot of demonstrations by the Grocers Association the spanish Grocers Association of north philadelphia because of the soda tax, which is causing a lot of losses in their stores. Theres only 1 million in there for the homeless programs. And so, where your budget is, thats where your heart is. And so, the bulk of the money, no question about it, has economicdevelopment opportunities, but most of it, which is in the i95 corridor, south philadelphia area, and you still are totally if you go to north philadelphia, you still see the fact that youve got a vietnam there with the housing and the infrastructure and Everything Else is in incredibly poor shape. And if i had the opportunity for the budget, i would go to the neediest community and the neediest Community Happens to be in North Central philadelphia. And so, im in the minority in terms of thinking that the budget really has some benefits economically but doesnt have any real benefits for the needy community. You dont see it trickling down, with creating jobs and rising the lifestyle of everyone up . Well, the only way youre gonna create jobs is with the unions. No. And minorities have had a very difficult time getting into most of the unions in the city. And all of those jobs, as you know, in terms of construction and construction activities in that area is all union jobs. I hear no over here. No, look, its not that nelsons in the minority. I think we all agree that there are many needy projects that need money. I think the nuance point that were trying to make is its not what were spending money on, its how were spending money and who are the ones who are extracting the tax out of it. And its not just philadelphia, brian. If you think about the federal government 1910, the size of government compared to gdp was 6 . Today, its close to 40 . You know, 1. 4 trillion in entitlements, it costs 400 billion to spend it, and its no different than what were doing now. 4. 4 billion budget, but by the time various nonprofits and others extract their tax, not much is gonna go to the needy that youre talking about, nelson. And we have to do triage here. I mean, theres only a limited amount of money that you can pull out of the you know, the residents in this city, as well. I mean, theyve already been overtaxed well, well beyond. And i agree with you about the soda tax. I think that thats really harming the communities that it was supposed to help and assist. But i agree with ajay. I mean, i think that were all in it for the least among us. We want and if we raise them up and we raise each other its sort of like a high tide raises all boats. And is this dead on arrival, though, or does this have some life enough that we cant do everything every year with the budget, so you have to start somewhere. Does it have enough legs that it can stand . Yeah, i think it i think hell get pretty much everything that he wants. Youd like to see some and were gonna, you know, eliminate this or eliminate that and find some cost savings. It doesnt seem like theres much of that. I think the mayors got a good, solid, really Terrific Team around him in terms of some of the key spots and people who know what theyre doing. I do think, when you get to things like the homeless problem, thats one that you really do see. Its amazing, the downtown. And a lot of that is tied to addiction. Yeah. When you see these folks, you know, it started with oxycontin, and now its this and its that. And its and not to mention, post 2008, a lot of families are still struggling from the great recession. Absolutely, from that recession. All right, lets move on to talk about the Philadelphia District attorneys race. Its getting more interesting, with the filing deadline already here. Democratic side seven candidates. Six men, one woman. We have everything from former judges, deputy d. A. S, attorneys, a managing director thats one of our former panelists. And we also have a republican side, but not contested there. Who do you see as the frontrunner, who seems to have the biggest war chest, where is it shaking out . I think ajay and i agree that it looks like, you know, rich negrin has the most visibility at this point. But its too early to tell in terms of whats gonna happen, cause you have no idea where the partys gonna go. Right. Where johnny dock is gonna go. So, until the party really decides how theyre gonna run the structure, even if they call it an open primary, they essentially its a controlled race. When you have the district attorneys race, the turnout is extremely low. You usually get 15 to 20 turnout, and as a result of that, whoever the Democratic Party decides to push i think thatll be rich negrin would be the first hispanic if he gets the nomination. If he got in. And a former managing director for mayor nutter for the city, before that, a longtime aramark executive as well. A very solid guy. In a crowded field, though, thats really what it does, cause you can have 14 , 15 , 18 turnout. Whoever the Party Endorses will be the person. I do love, though only in philadelphia, i feel like, getting back to the other thing the fellow whos been dominating, this shabazz, who has, what six times hes been taken to court for not paying rent, the tax liens, this and that, and, you know, its. It does feel like oldschool philadelphia. And can i just say one thing . How interesting it is that in the whole field, the only female is the republican. [ chuckles ] you know . The only female candidate, beth grossman, is the republican. No, no. Judge thats true. Judge deni, judge deni. Right. All right, lets talk and the current district attorney, seth williams, seems to be backpedaling a bit on a promise that he made that he would not pursue life sentences for any juvenile offenders who have perhaps had their cases rechecked. And now hes saying he might need to do at least one to three cases upon review, and one of those had killed a Police Officer when they were 15. The Supreme Court of the United States has its what . Im sorry. The Supreme Court of the United States has, to some extent, really ruled upon that issue, which essentially is you shouldnt throw away the key for a juvenile, and you should have an opportunity for some reformation before you can decide that the persons gonna have a life sentence. And i think that it depends, basically, on the tragedy of the case. But just because a person commits a grievous kind of crime, i believe that the Supreme Court is against having lifetime sentences for juveniles. And they have reviewed 300 cases, so theres only two or three that theyre saying are so heinous that they cannot irreparable corruption is what the standard is by the Supreme Court. And the judge is right. I mean, there has to be you know, i think the default position is youre not going to have life without parole for a juvenile. But you need to keep that open in those really heinous cases. You cant just say, well, you know, hes a juvenile. No, there are certain cases that warrant that type of you cant capital punishment, no. Even 30 years later is too much of a danger to absolutely. Is killing a Police Officer that line in the sand for you . You know what . I think its not just who you do this horrible tragedy and tragic act against, but its also look at the individual. I mean, has there been a certain sense of, you know, this persons really in a different place than they were when they were 15 years old, now at 45 or 50. But it should be rare, too, as well. Right. And redemption and rehabilitation can be done at the same time even if you keep someone in custody for the rest of his life. A lot of kids do stupid things. Yeah. And particularly boys tend to grow a little slower than women do. But i think compassion as well as redemption and Second Chances should be part of our creed as a society. And i think we ought to revisit these issues. Governor wolf, meantime, is making it unofficial, but it seems to be that hes going to run for a second term. But he has some opponents on the other side, of course. At least four republicans have thrown their names into the hat as a possibility, as well. How do you feel about the way thats shaking out . He did say, at least, that he is proud of his gains in school funding, how hes treating the heroin epidemic that you mentioned before, also that hes trying to liberalize the beer and wine sales. So, hes had some accomplishments, but some people would say thats not enough. You know, one of the things that struck me is what an interesting way to announce youre running for reelection at an Editorial Board meeting. I mean, not at a rally, not at a press conference, but at an Editorial Board meeting for penn live, which is, i guess, the harrisburg patriot newspaper. Mmhmm. So, its a unique kind of approach. Look, the governor was off to a really slow start. I feel like hes gotten some traction over the last year in terms of finding out, realizing that i have to work with the legislature. Im not the king, im the governor. So, if i dont get the others to agree with me, then i get no and hes got some good staff around him. I still think hes gonna have a long haul to get reelected, and itll be interesting to see what happens. Any of the four republicans that you like . I can name their names. Theres u. S. Rep mike kelly, senator jake corman, and Lieutenant Governor jim cawley. Um. Among others. And speaker turzai. Right. Theres a number of others. Yeah, i think he has a good shot at maybe well, wagner has the lead on the republican side. Hes got the money. Trashhauling business, right . Yeah. Hes very he made a lot of money on the public the public good. But the real problems gonna be is when youre running against someone, thats when the issues really come up. And since hes running against someone who may have a lot of negatives, you tend to raise the level of the other candidate. So i dont think, until that happens right now, he doesnt have the best approval rating, but maybe the candidate that hes opposed to will have a lower approval rate, or maybe no one knows who wagner is, and so that essentially helps the candidates. I think he looks too close to trumpish, and i think if you had a race against governor wolf, against someone like jim cawley, now it becomes a really tougher race, one, because of the lack of enthusiasm. Theres an Enthusiasm Gap with the Current Governor right now. Even though the Democratic Base is up in arms, even though theres an antitrump sentiment and the dems are going to come out to vote, its not going to be about because theyre coming out to vote for the Current Governor as much as theyre coming out to vote against the republican candidate. I agree. If the republicans had a moderatetosomewhatprogressive and likeable candidate like a jim cawley it becomes a tougher race for the governor. I dont see jim cawley hes a former Lieutenant Governor, bucks county republican. Terrific guy to do it. Hes now running the united way. And if youre in that role, and hes doing a good job doing that, and its a good job in terms of what you do, its a good job in terms of compensation, i dont see a person like that saying, you know what . Im gonna walk away from this. I hope this works out, and what would i do next . He might not, but im talking about the kind of a profile yeah, the kind of i agree. The type of person that would be. Before we go to break, quickly, a couple of bills in harrisburg of interest. One of them is, perhaps, a retread of the gun law attempt that was struck down by the pennsylvania Supreme Court. It was act 192 that tried to tell local governments, you cant have a tougher gun law than the state allows. The nra is in the thick of that. Anybody concerned that were doing this on sort of a backdoor approach to try to get more gun control again . Well, it was my understanding that under the pennsylvania constitution, its the state that governs Gun Legislation, so im not really sure how local municipalities can have gun laws that are stricter or, you know, divide from the constitution itself. So, i mean, as far as the Gun Legislation and being able to challenge these municipalities is concerned, thats one issue. But, from my perspective, i dont know how municipalities can have local Gun Legislation that conflicts with the state laws, because its the state that really lays out what you can and you cant do with respect to restricting guns. Unless your state is really two places, which is an urban and a suburban area. Exactly. Pennsyltucky. Yeah, theres no question the state can legislate, but there are fringes around that an urban community could do things in terms of registration and other activities which essentially make it a little harder for the obtaining of weapons. But the state legislation can always usurp whatever legislations done by the city. And i would hope that theres some sensitivity. Theres a different need in upstate than there is in urban america. Absolutely. With the killings in chicago, killings in philadelphia. Do you think you need more guns down here . Is that what youre saying . For defense . Is that what youre i would love to see harder access to guns in urban america. Absolutely. All right, well take a break. Inside story continues right after this. Inside story is presented by temple university. Remarkable change isnt easy, but for those who take charge, it comes naturally. Explore temples impact. Visit temple. Edu impact. Fios is not cable. Were wired differently. Maybe thats why weve been ranked highest in Customer Satisfaction by jd power 4 years in a row. And now you can love fios too. Get our best offer of the year. 150 meg internet with equal upload and download speeds, tv and phone. All for 79. 99 per month, for the first year with a twoyear agreement. Plus get hbo for a year and free multiroom dvr service for two years. Go to getfios. Com or call 1. 888. Get. Fios get the best. Get fios. Welcome back to inside story. Last week, millions of women around the globe celebrated International Womens day to, of course, tout successes and gains in business, science, other areas, but also to pinpoint places that need growth. And one of them, interestingly, in pennsylvania, we have a couple of graphics to show you was really startling to a lot of people, and thats in the political realm. We have some areas, room for growth. Certainly, pennsylvania has never had a female governor, senator, mayor in philadelphia. But heres a statistic for you. And our population, as many people know, is 51 majority female, 49 male. Heres another one thats sort of an eyecatcher. Pennsylvanias entire congressional delegation is and always has been male. Its one of 13 states without female representation. So, if half the state wants to be represented by someone who maybe could feel their needs more whether they could is debatable but anyway, how do they go about building on that and changing the scene to at least equate it a little bit . Well go ahead, ajay. Well, i was just weve never had a female mayor and never a female governor and never a u. S. Senator whos a female, no current congressman. I think a lot of it is you have to build a pipeline and you have to make sure that you cant just have the marketing materials and organizations at all levels, but also provide the opportunities in addition to mentoring the right opportunities, and make sure that they have the same advancement, equal access to opportunity as opposed to equal access to outcome, as well. So, you have to do both. And i think that starts at the leadership level. If you have more women and those who are thinking about these issues, they will make it beyond just the marketing materials, make it a daily practice. Weve had katie mcginty, who ran for office, we had d. A. Lynne abraham. Weve had people who have risen up but havent necessarily conquered those particular jobs. Yeah, there have been great successes, especially i mean, i look to lynne abraham. Shes one of my heroes. And she really is an iconic figure in philadelphia controversial, but iconic. I to build on what ajay is saying, i think hes absolutely right. There has to be a pipeline. There has to be a sort of like a bullpen. You have to have mentorship, but you also have to make sure that it is crossphilosophical, that its not just focused i see a lot unfortunately, from my perspective i see that theres a lot of philosophical ghettoizing, whereby theres a lot of mentorship and theres a lot of support for someone who would be considered either a progressive or a democrat, especially in this city. There needs to also be a base of support for those who are more conservative, republicans, people who have more, lets say, traditional values. And do you see any of the changes happening, or is it stagnant . You know, youre seeing changes, you know, and i think youre seeing more of an extreme focus on, you know, more women on boards of directors, et cetera, et cetera, things like that, which is important. Dianne semingson locally is kind of moving ahead and pushing hard on that issue. It is interesting that one of the earliest states that had a u. S. Senator was maine Margaret Chase smith, right . Back in the late 40s, 50s. And so, you wonder if its somehow when theres an urbanized environment, as there are in pennsylvanias of the world, versus a more rural, kind of less of an organizational structure around politics, it gives more of an opportunity for women to lead through the process. Again, you know, i disagree. Women have been discriminated throughout the world, and including here. If you look at the pay rate and equal pay, they still only get 79 cents on a dollar for the same job that the men do. There was a study done that, at that rate, it would take at least to the year 2021 for a white woman to succeed. It would take for African Americans 2022, and for latinas 2023. So, it is a discriminatory factor that exists, and as a result, if you dont have economic power, you know how much money youre losing not only in Social Security . According to this study, if we had equal pay today, we would take care of 30 of the poor people in this country. If we had equal pay. So, what part are you disagreeing that i said . I just wasnt sure i disagree i disagree that we essentially are allowing people to get into the pipeline to grow. Oh, no. Theres large theres large discrimination. Can i. Against women and women opportunities. But can i can i say something, please . And i respect you and i love you, your honor, i really do. But i think thats the study that im talking about. But were conflating here but, yeah, i love you. Were conflating the situation of women at an International Level and women in the United States. Can i say this as an immigration attorney who deals with women from thirdworld countries and who this week had three different genderviolence asylum claims absolutely, women internationally are discriminated against. But to say that the American Woman is at a disadvantage with respect to the you know, the world, thats not true. We have christine, i disagree. Those numbers all right, go ahead. I mean, we do have disadvantages. We dont have to walk 20 miles to get water, as they do in africa every day. Those numbers are u. S. Numbers. Explain how im discriminated against. Ill tell you how. Lets just take from the top level. We at the Business Community are struggling to find a woman to celebrate, because there are four or five that we keep celebrating. Thats because theres talent there, theyre not moving up the ranks. But how is being a ceo 500 a metric . That pushes down to Everything Else. If you have leadership, the policies also govern, because were all biased. So its discrimination at all levels the policies and the opportunities, all those things are. Well have to leave it at that. How . Flow downwards. Hold on. Inside stories of the week coming your way next. The facts are the facts. Data is data. At ikea, we believe that everything you need should be within reach. In an affordable dream kitchen that works as hard as you do. Save up to 20 at the ikea kitchen event. At ikea, we believe that everything you need should be within reach. In an affordable dream kitchen that works as hard as you do. Save up to 20 at the ikea kitchen event. Inside story is presented by temple university. Remarkable change isnt easy, but for those who take charge, it comes naturally. Explore temples impact. Visit temple. Edu impact. Time for inside stories of the week, and lets start with nelson. Well, its International Womens month, and i really think we should honor a major accomplisher, dr. Carmen febo, who for 10 years has labored and finally accomplished this week the opening of a new cultural and museum in the heart of north philadelphia, in the hispanic community. 25,000squarefoot facility, which is incredibly beautiful and available to that community. Christine. Monica, crocheted hats have become a symbol of rising up in a movement, particularly in support of women. On friday, it was to my great horror National Abortion providers appreciation day. And so, in that vein, i crocheted my own hat in baby blue, and. This is in honor of life. All right. Ajay. Shoutout to erinda shenu sheno. She just won 10,000 from our foundation cause she had the winning essay for the covering letter prompt. And the prompt was, gandhi wrote a letter to hitler four weeks before the outbreak of world war ii, and the essay talked about whether or not theres role of civility in popular discourse, especially when we disagree with people. So, erinda, congratulations. Terrific. Brian. Heres what a woman can do dawn zier, the brilliant ceo of nutrisystem, where im fortunate to serve on the board, in less than five years, has taken this company from 7 a share to 49 a share. Shes gonna be honored at Widener University this week, this thursday, at the voices of leadership, where ceos like Ellen Kullman also a woman joe neubauer, vernon hill, others, Gerry Lenfest have all been honored before. So, thats what a woman can do. Terrific. And thats inside story for this week. Thanks so much to you for watching, and thanks to our insiders for their ideas. And thank you. And thank you so much. Have a great week. Thank you. See you next week. Thank you. The following is a presentation of espn on abc. A unique combination of features creates one of the most fun venues in american motor sports to open the verizon indycar season. Its the firestone grand prix of st. Petersburg. Start with a vibrant, lively downtown, full of shops, straunlts, a lot of fun. A waterfront. A ballpark. An airport runway. Put those together with palm trees. Hightech, highspeed race cars. Racing stars from america and around the world. The result can only be some fast, florida fun