September 18-24, 2003

city beat

Fishtown: Still Waiting for Change

Diner politics: At the Acropolis in Fishtown, where Christina Koutsoubos has worked since she was 12, the mayor’s race is on customers’ minds. Photo By: Michael T. Regan

Want to vote for Katz? Well, keep that to yourself at the Acropolis diner.

by Amy L. Webb

Editor’s note: You all know about the carping. Campaign headquarters attacked, or not. The campaign spokesperson who trashed his boss. But when you get right down to it, Philadelphia voters want to know what the candidates will do for them. For the next seven weeks, City Paper will tour the city to find what people are saying really matters in the Nov. 4 mayoral election, in a series called Speaking of Issues …

If you’re expecting a steady stream of coffee refills or an extra pickle with your sandwich, best not to mention Sam Katz around Mary Kulb.

"You ain't getting waited on, that's for sure," Kulb says. "Forget my tip. I'll give you a tip instead. The last thing we need is a Republican mayor."

Kulb waits tables at the Acropolis, an always-busy diner in the heart of Fishtown. On a typical afternoon, a handful of her regulars convene there to trade local gossip.

At the heart of most discussions is owner Gus Koutsoubos, who moved from Greece 30 years ago and opened the diner. He named it the Acropolis because "in Greece, acropolis is a park. I wanted people to come and talk about the community -- and eat some good food."

And at this time of year -- as it has been every election cycle for decades -- Koutsoubos debates the willing. Typically the unwilling, too.

"You know, Street has done OK for four years. Sure, taxes are so high, but they need to be for the services we receive."

Kulb and two other waitresses nod their heads in agreement.

"I think he is a good man," Koutsoubos continues. "Once, I took a vacation and let someone else run my diner. I came back, and we were in so much debt that it took me a year to straighten everything out. So I think that maybe if we let someone else in to run the city, we may have the same problem. It's not broken, so don't fix it, right?"

Koutsoubos waits for a response from Kulb and a half-dozen customers.

"Can't argue with that," says a man at the counter. "Can I get more coffee?"

The mix of patrons at the Acropolis look a lot like the rest of Fishtown. They're mostly white, a mixture of Polish, Irish, German and Italian.

For many, education hasn't been a priority. Fewer than 6 percent have a college degree. Most people go into family construction or repair businesses or work for the city straight out of high school. The jobs they find tend to be on the lower end of pay scales -- about a quarter of the population falls below the poverty line.

If you walk through central Fishtown and Riverside, you'll see a few bustling, well-lit shopping centers. A national drugstore chain just opened a new branch. And there's talk of a trolley line that will eventually run straight down Girard.

But go a little northeast, and the scenery changes. Flatiron and The Pocket tell a different story. Blocks away from the post office on Frankford, garbage and graffiti line empty, vacant lots. The same beat-up car has been docked on the street for a month, with police-issued ABANDONED tabs stuck to the windows. Entire buildings -- once the tony homes of wealthy elevator manufacturers -- are today dilapidated heaps of brick and wood.

Blighted buildings seem to breed crime. At the very least, areas like this tend to repel new business and potential investment. Incumbent Mayor Street's public safety project, Safe Streets, was supposed to address blocks like this. Under his direction, the city earmarked $100 million for his five-year program. But since its inception in May 2002, more than half of that money is already gone. And whole sections of Fishtown never saw the transformation they were promised.

"I don't feel very safe on this street, that's for sure," says Ron Henning, walking along Oxford. He stops at an abandoned, crumbled mess of a building and sighs. "See that? It's a crack house. That's what happens when you leave bad areas go for too long. The city was supposed to board this thing up, but it's just been ignored."

One of the campaign's talking points so far has been how to address crime -- and how to pay for new programs. Katz wants to increase police presence. He wants more arrests, longer jail terms, a new prison and a deputy mayor in charge of public safety. On the other hand, Katz wants to reduce the city wage tax, a move that Street's people say could scrap more than 900 police officer jobs.

"I really feel like the candidates are criticizing this plan and that plan," Henning says. "They've never bothered to come here to see all our problems for themselves. I've never seen Street here. So far, I haven't seen Katz talking to anyone around Fishtown. I feel ignored."

At a grocery store on the south divide between Fishtown and Port Richmond, Lisa Walters is buying salami and cheese for her children's lunches. Two women next to her in the deli line were already condemning Katz for his plans to improve safety.

"I really disagree," Walters said. "Katz has a business background and a good sense of how to disperse wealth. At this point, the important thing is to get Street out of office."

Walters, a real estate agent, rifles through the groceries in her basket, checking to make sure she's remembered to get bread. "Buyers ask me about safety when they're looking for a place in Fishtown," she says. "As an agent, I can't really editorialize. Instead, I tell them that on my block, there are lots near my home that have been vacant for years. Then I tell them that I send my kids to Catholic school -- something we can't really afford."

But for Walters, whose husband is a fireman, the more pressing issue is his safety and income. "Our firemen and policemen have to fight for benefits because this city's finances are in shambles. The way he treats city workers is deplorable."

There may not be a consensus yet on how the vote will go in Fishtown. Seven weeks are left before the election, but it doesn't seem to matter. Much of Fishtown has been waiting far longer than the past few mayoral elections for change.