Green Party Ideas for the Next Mayor of Philadelphia

"The Green Party of Philadelphia (GPOP) recognizes that around thirty percent of the members of the Democratic and Republican Parties have now chosen two candidates for mayor," said GPOP Chair Glenn Davis following the Green's Membership Meeting on May 27 at Dream House Asian Bistro in Roxborough. "Those two candidates will now be observed and questioned by the great majority of voters, who did not participate in the primary election," continued Davis. "The Green Party has many good ideas, which should be pursued by the next mayor. Therefore our membership has voted to offer some Green Party policies for consideration by Mellissa Murray Bailey and James Francis Kenney. We hope that Philadelphia's voters will evaluate the responses of Bailey and Kenney before deciding between them."

"I believe a Green Party mayor should take a serious look at racial disparities in Philadelphia," said GPOP Treasurer Hillary Kane. "Those disparities are economic, educational, and health-care oriented. Our next mayor should understand that Philadelphia is just one incident away from becoming the next Baltimore. In the past, mass incarceration has been the standard response of mayors elected from either of the two corporate parties. Philadelphia deserves something better from our next mayor."

Julian Robinson, a Philadelphia Community College student who is a member of the GPOP City Committee, said, "I am against stop-and-frisk. It should be ended by our next mayor because police do not have the right to stop an innocent person and check them without a warrant." The Green Party has a history of opposition to stop-and-frisk. The Green Party national platform says, "We condemn the practice of racial profiling by law enforcement agencies, which are guilty of stopping motorists, harassing individuals, or using unwarranted violence against suspects with no other justification than race or ethnic background."

Chris Robinson, a Green Party organizer from Germantown, said, "The most important thing for our next mayor will be to improve public education. I hope that our next mayor will enact the Green Party's four-point plan for improving public education: a democratically elected school board, an end of attempts to privatize education, an equalization of educational resources, and an end of the school-to-prison pipeline." Robinson continued, "The Green Party has also proposed three ways to pay for improvements in public education which would fall on large businesses and mega non-profit organizations. We have proposed to cut the ten-year free pass on luxury developments, institute good neighbor payments (aka Payments In Lieu of Taxes) on mega-nonprofits, and increase the use and occupancy tax on major corporations."

"I believe that our next mayor should emphasize the purchase of new voting machines which have a verified paper-audit trail," said GPOP Chair Glenn Davis. "The Green Party has a six-point platform for improving elections, and now is the time for Philadelphia to comply with this common-sense demand. City Council has already authorized $22 million for the new voting machines. We should certainly elect a mayor who will assure that our new voting machines will allow audits of contested elections, a capability which Philadelphia has not had for the last 20 years."

"I expect the next mayor will declare Workers Day or May Day, May 1, to be a public holiday," said Vivek Ananthan, a founder of GPOP. "May Day is an official holiday in 66 countries and unofficially celebrated in many more. It is a shame that May Day was born in the U.S., but we no longer recognize it as a workers holiday."