Connor Barwin's CIvic Season Week 17

It is of course important to note that New York City is just unequalled to any other city. First, it is huge—one of the geographically largest of the Rustbelt cities, withal also the most dense, which gives it its humongous population (almost 8.v million). If New York City were a country, information technology would be the 12 ^th most populous. New York is an economic powerhouse of truly global proportions, as evidenced past its much higher median household income: $52,259 versus $37,192 for Philadelphia.

1 surface area that makes for a fascinating comparison betwixt the two cities is our very different electoral politics. There are slight differences in voter registration between the two cities—the percentage of Democrats in NYC is 68.7 percent and in Philly information technology'southward 78.6 percent. Yet there are slightly fewer Republicans in NYC than in Philly, 10.3 percent versus 11.2 percent—so why doesn't New York, like Philly, reflect overwhelmingly Democratic mayoral victories?

"The mayor of New York has in recent history been more likely to be a moderate Republican—Lindsay, Guiliani, Bloomberg—than a Democrat," saysProfessor Richardson Dilworth of Drexel's Center for Public Policy. "Virtually people would actually consider Ed Koch to accept really been a moderate Republican, or at to the lowest degree a very bourgeois Democrat. Even the New Dealer and FDR buddy Fiorella LaGuardia was a Republican."

Then why practice the cities differ? Part of the answer is the historical evolution of the parties in both cities.

"A major concern for Philadelphia Democrats is that, fifty-fifty if they elected someone who was a Republican in proper name only (such as New Yorkers did when they elected Bloomberg, who had very recently been a Democrat), that person would still be appreciative to the statewide Republican party, and information technology would once again pb to a monolithic shift in parties—which would too brand Pennsylvania a solid Republican state in presidential elections," Dilworth says. "In other words, sophisticated Philadelphia voters may actually be thinking of national politics when they vote against Republicans, even in their off-year local elections. This was certainly an thought the local Autonomous party pushed when they were faced with the challenge of Sam Katz confronting John Street in 1999 and 2003. By contrast, Democratic New York has always had a political automobile independent of the state—and Republicans elected mayor in New York tend to be seen as city-specific reformers running confronting the metropolis Democratic machine, not as role of a state Republican machine. And then local voters in NYC are in some respects more gratuitous to vote for Republicans as a protestation against their own party than are voters in Philadelphia."

Simply it goes fifty-fifty deeper. New York encompasses much of its suburbs in its own boundaries—and those areas comprise legions of what came to be known every bit "Reagan Democrats." Think of the Archie Bunker Telly character in Queens—though he may be a registered Democrat, he's far more than likely to vote conservatively for mayor and president.

"In Philadelphia, this voting bloc is more likely to exist outside of the metropolis, in Delaware County—where there is of classstilla potent Republican car," Dilworth explains. "There are often a lot of complaints well-nigh Philadelphia being a i-party town. It's a civic weakness but it may be that trying to strengthen the city's Republican party is non the almost viable solution because Philadelphia voters recognize that the city is structurally incapable of sustaining a two-party system. If you desire a viable 2-party arrangement in the city, peradventure you need to follow the instance of NYC and push for the annexation of the 3 surrounding counties."

Of course, that'south a politically far-fetched scenario. But information technology's certainly worth talking virtually in the context of trying to discover a path to a more pluralist political system. And that's a plumbing fixtures style to conclude our civic season—with the ancestry of a discussion about how we go almost strengthening the state of our local union. Thanks for reading this season's experiment in the health of our civic life!

Note: Nosotros played New York iii times this season, but merely count the city once in our Borough Scorecard.

Philadelphia Eagles		New York Giants
% BA or higher 24.4	seven POINTS Giants	% BA or college 34.9
% Below poverty 27.2	7 POINTS Giants	% Below poverty 21.0
% Bike to work ii.1	7 POINTS Eagles	% Bike to work 1.0
% Moved to urban center in past yr 4.6	7 POINTS Giants	% Moved to city in past year iv.8
Violent crime per 1,000 residents xi.0	7 POINTS Giants	Violent crime per 1,000 residents 6.2
% Volunteer 26.1	7 POINTS Eagles	% Volunteer 17.7
% Voted in last mayoral election 25.5	7 POINTS Eagles	% Voted in last mayoral election 23.80
Income Inequality Index .51	7 POINTS Eagles	Income Inequality Alphabetize .54
% of population aged 22 to 34 22.5	seven POINTS Eagles	% of population aged 22 to 34 22.13

Final Score

Philadelphia

Eagles

Last Score

Sep. 14	21-35 Falcons	Falcons
Sep. 20	21-42 Cowboys	Cowboys
Sep. 27	28-35 Jets	Jets
October. 04	14-42 Redskins	Redskins
October. eleven	21-42 Saints	Saints
Oct. 19	28-35 Giants	Giants
Oct. 25	21-35 Panthers	Panthers
November. 08	21-42 Cowboys	Cowboys
Nov. fifteen	56-0 Eagles	Dolphins
November. 22	35-28 Eagles	Buccaneers
November. 26	42-vii Eagles	Lions
Dec. 06	28-35 Patriots	Patriots
Dec. 13	42-21 Eagles	Bills
Oct. 19	35-28 Eagles	Cardinals
Dec. 26	14-42 Redskins	Redskins
Jan. 03	35-28 Eagles	Giants