Perverse Commute

"These suburban companies hate the city."

by Bruce Schimmel

But I recently got an e-mail from John Dodds about a new Brookings Institute study that highlighted the magnitude of our region's "job sprawl." Dodd heads the Philadelphia Unemployment Project (PUP) and runs a reverse commute program called Commuter Options.

Dodds' program drives workers in vans from the inner city to the far reaches of exurbia. To factories and call centers in Norristown, West Gosham, Horsham and Feasterville, to fill blue-collar jobs that pay between $9 and $17 an hour.

I hate Commuter Options, and I've shared my misgivings with Dodds, whom I respect. As a matter of policy, I think jobs should come to people and not the other way around.

Ironically, Dodds agrees with me. In theory.

Yes, says Dodds, it's much better for companies to bring jobs to the city. But after seeing some $79 million evaporate into the city's Empowerment Zones, he's concluded that "tax incentives have had an abysmal record for influencing corporation location decisions."

Besides, Dodds adds, "Some of these companies will never come here. They hate the city." So until someone "comes up with a viable strategy to reverse the flight," Dodd believes that this is the best we can do.

Meanwhile, Commuter Options' congressional champion, Chaka Fattah, called it "wildly successful." In a phone interview, Fattah repeated a prediction he made two years ago.

"Down the road, the whole nation will be talking about this effort," said Fattah then, as he increased fed funds for the four-year, $4 million program. (The fed provides $2.4 million of that; the rest comes from the state and limited employer/employee contributions.)

Despite Fattah's prediction, there's been no national talk about this program. That's because it's out of step with reality. There's no "reverse commute" anymore. Just more traffic.

Besides, why should taxpayers, in effect, reward companies for building where there's no mass transit? Why should we help employers avoid paying taxes where their workers live? Or help those who don't pay enough to attract local workers?

Still, the cheers from some keep a-coming, as the Inquirer and KYW recently celebrated the program's expansion to 32 van routes.

But dig a little deeper, and we find that these 32 routes carry fewer than 140 people, which makes for a little more than four people a van.

"Wildly successful"? Hardly. It costs the million-dollar-a-year program some $7,200 a year to underwrite each job — which on average pays about $25,000.

Certainly, as Dodds says, for many of these 140 workers, this transportation program is wonderful. As proof, he asked me to listen to an unedited KYW report, available on PUP's website.

Grateful as many sounded, I also heard something very telling, which didn't make it into KYW's final broadcast:

One inner-city worker confessed that while he owned a car, he leaves it at home. "Why should I put that many miles on my car?" he asks. Good question. Indeed, why should taxpayers be driving people to distant jobs, when the jobs ought to be coming to them?

(bruce@schimmel.com)

Hear Schimmel's complete interview with John Dodds at citypaper.net/canon.