What Madness Is This?

A funny thing happened on the way to the finals.

by Nick Norlen

Casino-Free Philadelphia organizer Daniel Hunter has seen how longtime allies can turn into enemies.

"One of the things about political players is that they frequently have these fallings out," he says. "That's what happens in the political world when you're so involved in deal-making. One of the things that's so nice about Casino-Free and Spiral Q [Puppet Theater] is that we don't make deals. Spiral Q and Casino-Free are true lovers that won't have that duking it out at some point."

But the two civic-minded groups did make one deal. With each other. To be the co-champions of City Paper's online Philly Madness tournament, rather than battle it out in the finals.

It helps that the two organizations aren't exactly strangers.

A few weeks ago, while planning to tout their new report on an estimated $52 million in "hidden" casino costs, CFP realized they needed something more than a dollar amount to get Gov. Ed Rendell's attention during their April 10 "debate-in" at his downtown office.

Naturally, they decided on a giant papier-mâché bust of his head.

Their go-to group for the job, of course, was Spiral Q, whose mission, among others, is to help bring visibility to the work of social activists through the use of giant puppets and props.

But before stopping by Spiral Q's headquarters to pick up the Rendell head a few days before the protest, Hunter realized something potentially awkward. The two groups, who have a history of collaboration — Spiral Q lent larger-than-life magnifying glasses to CFP for its transparency campaign in 2006 — and who consider themselves sister organizations, had a very good chance of meeting in the finals of Philly Madness. If history was any indication, the matchup could get messy.

"At first, I joked that we were going to nail them," says Hunter, recalling how he was later chastised by a fellow staffer: "'You know, Daniel, you might not need to be all that competitive,' she said. 'Maybe there's another option.'"

Sure, Hunter and his fellow activists were proud to have routed SugarHouse in the first round, but many still felt uneasy about eliminating Mayor Michael Nutter on the way to the final four. And Spiral Q Executive Director Tracy Broyles didn't take any satisfaction in the fact that her group had easily defeated Space 1026, which, in a great example of how much of a small town Philadelphia can be, had designed Spiral Q's T-shirts.

"This is going to be messed up," Broyles remembered telling Hunter about the pending bout. "We can't vote against you. But we also can't vote against ourselves. How am I going to get all of my people to lay their voting weapons down?"

So, with the suspicion that his organization would dispatch Reading Terminal Market, and that Spiral Q would continue its unlikely run past the Free Library, Hunter drafted a letter. When his suspicions came true, he sent the letter to City Paper, with the blessing of Broyles, to call for an "end to the madness" — and to request the crowning of two champions.

Moved by their plea, the Philly Madness Committee acquiesced.

"It's really appropriate in a way," Hunter says. "Both organizations ... have very similar principles." Among those, he says, are the concepts of "transparency, openness in government, democracy" — all ideals that are increasingly desired by citizens who "are getting more and more tired of the politics as usual."

Broyles agreed.

"I've lived in a lot of cities and one of things that I've really valued about Philadelphia is how really engaged Philadelphians get in the life of the city," she says. "Which is why I think an organization like Spiral Q can exist here. Or why a group like Casino-Free Philadelphia can form."

And, apparently, why the two can agree to share the championship.

While the alternative may have been more entertaining — think CFP piñatas and a "Puppet-Free Philadelphia" campaign — the truce speaks volumes about what this city can sometimes aspire to.

After all, the aim of this year's Philly Madness tournament was to determine who or what is "quintessential Philly." And if it that notion is embodied by two groups that stand for civic engagement and cooperation, then who are we to choose only one?

(n_norlen@citypaper.net)

See how we got here at citypaper.net/phillymadness.