Rendell brings campaign to Penn

Mayor Ed Rendell brought his vision for Philadelphia to the University yesterday, speaking at the Law School and then visiting campus dining halls to register student voters. Rendell's speech was sponsored by the Penn Law Democrats. About 100 supporters -- mostly graduate students -- attended, nearly filling an auditorium in Tannenbaum Hall. Rendell, a University alumnus, began by reflecting briefly on his undergraduate career but then launched right into campaign rhetoric. The mayor explained that he was elected in 1991 as "the doctor to a very sick patient." At the time, the city was teetering on the edge of financial ruin, which Rendell described as "a bullet wound to the chest," and was also suffering from the "cancer" of an economic downturn. "Unless we cured the fiscal problems, nothing else would matter," he said. For this reason, Rendell's priority during his first term has been balancing the budget -- without raising taxes or cutting city services. He achieved this feat by imposing a 30-month wage freeze on city workers in 1992, a move that has resulted in continuing animosity from municipal unions. Yet Rendell said the city's work force has been slimmed by 1,500 through attrition over the past four years. He also cited a slew of statistics showing that city services have improved. The opening of additional recreation centers, more frequent trash collection, refurbished playgrounds, additional police and firefighters and increased library hours topped the mayor's list of accomplishments. Rendell also said he plans to gradually reduce the city's wage tax for the first time in a decade, and the gross receipts tax -- for the first time since World War II -- over the next five years, because current budget projections show increasing surpluses. But the continued migration of city residents to the suburbs has the mayor concerned, as does the increasing prevalence of poverty and dearth of jobs within the city's limits. "We can't keep losing jobs and gaining poor people who draw on our services," he said, criticizing nearby municipalities who have in the past deposited their homeless just inside Philadelphia's boundaries. After the mayor's speech, audience members tossed questions to him, inquiring about his interaction with the unions, the state and federal government and the city's neighborhoods. "The thing that makes government work the best at any level is fixed accountability," he said, when asked what can be done to fix the city's public schools. Currently, the school board is appointed by the mayor, but because members' terms are staggered, Rendell will not have a majority until December -- the end of his first term. Rendell also spoke about the potential revenues that could be realized through riverboat gambling, and the prestige the Avenue of the Arts will bring to the city when completed. After the question-and-answer session, Rendell shook hands at a Law School reception and worked the tables in the Hill House and Castle dining halls. The mayor explained to students that they can be registered to vote at both their home and school addresses, as long as they do not vote more than once in an election. Engineering sophomore Renee Deehan and College freshman Jay Mather, both Boston natives, said they would "definitely not" have registered without the mayor's encouragement. But College freshman Sophie Stein was more cynical, questioning the mayor's motivation for visiting the dining hall. She said she would register, although she does not plan to vote for the mayor in November. "I don't know what he stands for," she said, explaining her decision. Today is the last day any city resident can register to vote in next month's general election. College Democrats will have registration cards available on Locust Walk in front of Steinberg-Dietrich Hall all afternoon.

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