Phila. is hard-put to finance ethnic parades

Is parading on the Ben Franklin Parkway, up Broad Street, or through the neighborhood a Philadelphia birthright? Or is the city's penchant for underwriting its annual pageants a costly tradition that needs breaking?

The last of the city's six annual ethnic parades on Sunday - the 76th Pulaski Day procession on the Parkway - signals the end of a painful year for parade organizers, and finds the opposition to the city's event policy in full march. Today, City Council is expected to approve a resolution calling for hearings on the subject.

It has been nearly a year since the wounded economy opened a $1 billion hole in the city's five-year budget plan and Mayor Nutter announced that the free ride was over for parades.

Specifically, he said he would begin to enforce a 1993 Rendell administration policy - drafted in similarly tough fiscal times - that requires every procession to pay the full city costs.

Rendell's policy had been enforced rarely and haphazardly. So when Nutter said it would be enforced consistently, panic ensued.

The Mummers fretted about the fate of their spectacle, but they shrank the extravaganza and made it through. The administration forgave about $300,000 in police and cleanup fees because of short notice, but that won't happen this year, said spokeswoman Maura Kennedy.

The St. Patrick's Day Parade organizers considered canceling, but found last-minute funding. A shortened Greek Independence Day march went off in March. German Americans drastically altered their Steuben Day parade on Saturday to make it work; the Puerto Rican Day festival proceeded on the Parkway with a shorter route.

The Pulaski Day extravaganza will be the last of the season, because the Columbus Day Festival organizers canceled their parade. Although the $12,000 or so in city costs were only part of the Columbus organizers' financial woes, the suspension of a 53-year-old tradition hit home with the other organizers.

On Sept. 22, the same day the Columbus Day Parade went down, all six ethnic parade groups wrote to Nutter.

"The unaffordable fees being charged this year threaten the parades' continued existence, to the detriment of Philadelphia's ethnic and cultural richness and diversity, " wrote Michael Blichasz, cohost of the Pulaski Day march, and president of Ethnic Americans United, an umbrella organization of the six parade groups.

The Irish went a step further: "The general feeling among our large ethnic group is that if the city doesn't want to help bear some of the cost, then perhaps we should move all of our events to neighboring counties, not just the parade," wrote Michael J. Bradley Jr., parade director for the St. Patrick's Day Observance Association, in a letter to Nutter and Council on Friday.

Kennedy responded: "We recognize that these are difficult times, but unfortunately the city is not in the position to make these financial commitments. That said, the city is firmly dedicated to working with these groups to put on successful and affordable events."

City Councilwoman Maria Quiñones Sánchez said she would issue a call today for hearings on the new policy. Sánchez, deeply involved in the planning of Sunday's Puerto Rican Day cavalcade, wants the city to standardize its prices and offer a break to the volunteer-driven nonprofit organizations behind the ethnic parades.

"The problem is, this administration says fairness is everyone pays the same," Sánchez said. "And I don't think everyone should pay the same."

What Sánchez is suggesting has been the traditional practice in Baltimore, where nonprofit parades have been given a 50 percent discount on city costs. But tough times are forcing Baltimore to change that policy, with the city now charging full cost of police and 50 percent for all other costs, according to the city's Office of Promotion and the Arts.

The Nutter administration has worked closely with parade organizers to find ways to reduce costs, said Kennedy. That includes shortening routes and duration, changing start times to avoid overtime for city police and other workers.

"We try to be creative and very cooperative with these events," Kennedy said. "Philadelphia is a city of neighborhoods, and these parades and festivals contribute greatly to that feeling.

"Philadelphia and Baltimore are not alone. In 2007 San Antonio, Texas, passed an ordinance requiring groups to to pay for traffic control and cleanup - but not security - and were promptly sued by two citizens' groups claiming the ordinance violates their First Amendment rights to free speech. A federal judge in July ruled against the groups, and the case is under appeal.

Philadelphia's policy - which includes all police costs, the major expense - is stricter than a sampling of major cities'. New York City does not charge for police or cleanup at parades, though it does charge for festivals. Houston covers costs for a parade of up to 1.5 miles or 15 intersections. Phoenix, Ariz., charges for notification of road closures and nonstreetsweeper cleanup.

Chicago began charging for cleanup in 2004, said Cindy Gatziolis, spokeswoman for the Mayor's Office of Special Events. That amounts to about $8,000 for next week's huge Columbus Day Parade.

"The way I looked at it, we skated all those years that we didn't pay," said Louis Rago, parade marshal for the Joint Civic Committee of Italian Americans, which puts on Chicago's Columbus Day event. "We tie up a main part of downtown Chicago for at least six hours, and I don't think that's a lot of money at all."

But in Philadelphia, as has also been argued in San Antonio, parade organizers said they pay for police with their taxes and should be able to march in the streets that taxpayers own. Bradley wrote that the St. Patrick's Day organizers bring people into the city throughout the year.

"We are communities that are huge, and ask for very little," said Blichasz, cohost of Philly's Pulaski event.

Sánchez said she wants to review the fees charged by the city to make sure they are fair, sensible, and uniform. Parades have always been an opportunity for departments - from police to L&I - to swell their paychecks with overtime. The Phillies victory parade on Oct. 31 cost more than $644,000 in police overtime and more than $1 million in total police costs.

Already, the city has worked to cut down police costs by adding regularly scheduled officers to man the parades rather than bringing in personnel on overtime, said Kennedy.

And if the Phillies win again, will the city foot the bill?

"It's too early to speculate," Kennedy said.