Henon targeting bad neighbors in Northeast Philadelphia

Public shaming hasn't been a municipally sanctioned punishment in this country since Hester Prynne's time.

And Councilman Bobby Henon isn't suggesting that Northeast Philadelphia return to Puritan forms of dispensing justice.

But something's got to be done, he said, about the problem landlords who rent their properties illegally and allow violations and back taxes to pile up.

Henon said about 65 percent of the calls he has received since taking office in January are about these properties. He has compiled data that show they drag down values of nearby homes by 20 percent, and that the blight often leads to increased crime.

So Henon has started what he is calling the Bad Neighbor Initiative. He is taking out ads for the next month in the Northeast Times, asking residents to drop a dime on their bad neighbors and warning landlords to come into compliance.

He'll be sending out letters to problem landlords and tenants, as well as to their neighbors.

The warnings and tactics, he promised, will get more stark over time, and he may introduce legislation to increase fines and penalties for owners and tenants.

The problem is that there already are laws on the books that landlords and tenants are flouting. So Henon is looking for other ways to put pressure on them - including making examples of them.

He has started a "Bad Neighbor Map" on his website that shows dozens of properties in his Sixth District that have citations and delinquent taxes.

He hasn't listed addresses or named names - yet.

If necessary, he may subpoena "the worst of the worst" and make them testify before Council.

"I'm going to shame people into complying with the law," he said. "How bad is that?"

Perhaps the landlords will have to wear a scarlet letter - A for Absentee. - Troy Graham

New elections honcho

It will be months before he passes probation and a Civil Service test, but the three elected city commissioners have agreed on the man they want to run the nuts and bolts of the city's election machinery. He is Gregory Irving, 50, who has been holding down the top administrative job in the commissioners' office since Bob Lee left last year.

Irving is the son of the late Edna Irving, the outspoken chief of staff to John F. Street when Street was City Council president. Greg Irving said he was running the housewares and furniture section of a Boscov's department store in the mid-1980s but saw no opportunity to run his own store.

"Mom sent me to Marge [Tartaglione, the equally outspoken woman who was then commissioners chairwoman], we had a talk, and she hired me as a temp, $5.05 an hour," Irving recalls. Asked if he needed an endorsement from his Democratic ward leader, Irving smiled. "No," he said, "I had my mom." - Bob Warner