Councilmen Courtwright ‘stepped up to the plate’ and addressed the problem of vagrancy and pan-handling in Scranton, especially in the ‘Electric City’s’ downtown. I KNEW it was a matter of time before Scranton’s skid row poor became a target. Every time an administration (local, state and nation-state) is in crisis it seems that the poor are the first targeted. This tends to happen because the poor are the easiest to blame for various hard times (such as recession, crime and blight), but mostly because challengers for officers gain power by exploiting the populism and hostility against the poor—Judy Gatelli in Southside, and Janet Evans for city blight. There is currently a renewed interest in ‘Zero-tolerance policy,’ based on the broken window thesis, against the smallest infractions: if the police can establish orderliness by targeting social and material blight by moving vagrants, drugs dealers, prostitutes and various undesirables of color out of town, then the larger problems will magically disappear and Scranton will experience never-ending economic progress. The new political battleground has become the city’s dispossessed population. We are watching a race to the bottom: the winner is the one who can pander to/create class hostility the most.
The biggest problem I have with Courtwright is the contradiction of pan-handling. On one hand, city admin want to throw all the homeless in jail and push the D.A. to seek the harshest punishment under the law. On the other hand, the city of Scranton is the biggest pan-handler around. Take for example the Christmas lights excursion. The city finds no issue with blocking/congesting traffic to the REGIONS most important trauma center. Then, after rubbernecks idle their gas-guzzling SUV through Nay Aug and see the dog and pony show (or if you’re a member of the local bourgeois you may articulate class distinction by paying the 5 bucks for the horse ride) Ray Hayes or other people from the city admin stand there and pan-handle for a ‘donation’ to the recreation authority of a city with the most oppressive taxes in the state. Everywhere I turn I see the city pan-handling for a donation. My question is this: It’s ok to feed Doherty’s addiction, but NOT ok to feed a bum or a bum’s addiction?
To be honest, I’d rather give my 25 cents (¼ the cost of a cheap 40oz) to a skid row alcoholic than pay 25 cents to the city parking meter at CMC’s ambulatory surgery parking to pick up my mother after surgery. Everywhere I turn there is a parking meter. Everywhere I turn there is a well connected business contributing to a campaign in exchange for a KOZ. On nearly every busy street I turn there is a city subsidized billboard with either Chris Doherty’s name and slogan or smug face on it. We’re enjoying the summer in Scranton alright. I bet the advertising company is really enjoying the summer.
Gangs
Are ‘gangs’ in Scranton new? My answer is No. And if you believe yes, I think you may have memory deficiency. Did people forget the gangs in West side from many years ago? Recall the very old adage: ‘A West-sider never fights one-on-one’. People still say that because of the gangs that were in West side. Remember when the West Siders battled the boys of North Scranton? Remember the ‘MA’s boys’ of North Scranton from years back? I can go on and on naming gangs from the 1970’s onward. Or, were these NOT gangs?
Then what is a gang? Gang is surely an ambiguous word: A gang, according to Wikipedia, is a group of individuals who share a common identity and, in current usage, engage in illegal activities. Ok, let’s go with this definition. Do Councilpersons John and Alex, dipping their filthy hands into the pension fund illegally, constitute a gang?
My essential question is this: what’s new about today’s gangs and why are we discussing them when we’re discussing them? I remember Scranton’s ‘little mafia’ of circa late 90’s/early 00’s. They were a gang of high schoolers uncovered by the moral panic after the Columbine shooting. That panic eventually died out. However, the gang issue has reappeared. But why? I’m not 100% sure, but I have some speculations. 1. Gangs are a bit more organized and conspicuous now. They have titles and tags (although the old Scranton gangs had titles) such as JRB and are structured like a bureaucracy. They’re mocking the Blood and the Crips. 2. The class position/ or color of gangs may be changing. 3. Much like the Columbine moral panic, we have our own local moral panic of crime. Many people, such as Gatelli and Evans, benefit from crime and gangs. The problem I have is that it becomes legitimate, for example, to put armed guards in prison-like city schools and heavily police to the poor in Southside. I am going with number 3. WHEN we talk about an issue partly explains WHY we talk about an issue.
Enjoy the Summer in Scranton!
No money to fill pot holes. No money to let kids swim/use sliding board free. The city is distressed. However, the city can always find the money to spend on marketing provided by politically neutral (LOL!) Lamar. Mayor Doherty’s campaign strategy is VERY rational and efficient. Don’t be fooled folks: he is not running the city like a business. He is running the city like a campaign, like a Mayoral re-election campaign. Contribute a few thousand (under various names) to the campaign and choose one or more of the following: 1. KOZ, 2. High paid work, 3. A high paid job.
Next, the Mayor exploits taxes out of Scranton residents so he can buy signs that signify the “progress”—as if he personally did/paid for the work. We see “Restoring the Pride: Mayor Chris Doherty” nearly everywhere from the Weston Fields basketball court to development projects downtown. Finally, Scranton ‘NEWS’ is no different than the pre-election junk mail. Everybody knows that the Times are as pro-Doherty as a paper can get.
Furthermore, the “Enjoy the Summer in Scranton” signs go overboard and really piss me off. We let him get away with restoring the pride signs (as if we were without pride without him as Mayor). Now, he has become so egotistic and narcissistic that he posts his ugly face all over town. The newspaper and advertisements telling people to come to Scranton are campaign ads, nothing more. We are subsidizing the Mayor’s re-election. In other words, we are BUYING our oppression.
