Check Out A Prayer For The City By H.G. Bissinger Distributed In Electronic Text

liked the intimacy of the account, A bit like watching 'The Wire' if not as well executed,

At times I felt like the treatment of the city's racial dynamics was fairly one sided but never dishonest or disingenuous.
He gave an honest account of the Rendell years in Philly from the perspective of the Rendell administration, and he did spend time on the history of cities in theth century and how race played a huge role in outcomes federal housing policy/redlining/etc.
That was a high point,

If the author referred to north philly as a desert one more time I would have had to deduct a star.
. . One of my alltime favorites I quote here a recent column from George Will not my cup of tea, but whatever talking about L.
A. Mayor Eric Garcetti Although presidents Andrew Johnson , Grover Cleveland and Calvin Coolidge had been mayors of Greeneville, Tenn, Buffalo and Northampton, Mass. , respectively, no mayor has gone directly from a city hall to the White House, But theth president came from eight years in the nations most docile and least admirable state legislature Barack Obama effectively began running for president as soon as he escaped to Washington from Springfield, Ill.
. Theth came from six bankruptcies and an excruciating television show, Will goes on to quote Fiorello La Guardia "There is no Republican or Democratic way to pick up the garbage.
”

Our increasing nationalization of politics at both the federal and state level is so very depressing, And local politics is not immune from these pressures, but to me, there are still signs of cities functioning as laboratories of democracy.


Lo and behold, about a year ago the Amazon robots or whatever they use to send us cheap deals for our ereaders thought I would enjoy abook about Philadelphia.
Maybe the robots knew I had loved Friday Night Lights, or that my remaining Jersey side of the family has made the trek from Newark to Middlesex County to South Jersey.
Or maybe it knew that I have an undergrad political science degree, No matter the reason, the robots were so on point about this one,

Simply put, this is one of, if not THE finest books about governing that I have ever read.
And I've read your Teddy White's, and your Hunter Thompson's, and your Game Changes, and your McCullough biographies, Maybe what sets it apart is that the campaign usually the much sexier part is so very secondary in this book to the actual act and pressures of governing.
More likely what sets it apart is the brilliance of Bizzinger, As he has demonstrated time and time again, he knows what he is doing,

So much to say about this book, but as a small note of praise, the ereader indicates that I madehighlights from this book.
I usually don't highlight books ever since finishing undergrad and law school, What the heck is the point There is no midterm in adulthood to prepare for, This one should be assigned in all of your Poli Sci classes,

Another important point about this book is that it is very much of its time, Hard to imagine how much the death of the great American City was discussed in the lates, Even as late as theelection and the W efforts in the suburbs and exurbs, Cities now are alive and thriving, Indeed, it is suburbs that need your prayers today, Bizzinger hits on so many ideas that are so relevant today this one belongs up there as much as any of them in understanding the Trump election.


Issues like the decline in manufacturing, corporate welfare, crime policy and it's resulting politics of race, I mean this as a great compliment to both Bissinger and Coates, but the redlining discussion is better here than in Coates' "The Case for Reparations.
" What is so impressive is that Bissinger had all of this in, Heck, this was even before "The Wire" which you will see so many echoes,

Finally, an additional point on the subject of this book Mayor Ed Rendell, Boy, the comparisons to Clinton Bill, not Hillary really are uncanny, And I mean that both very positively and negatively, The skilled technocratic policymaking. The politics of triangulation. But of course, the boorish behavior, The Lisa DePaulo story in this one, especially through the lens of metoo andseems so very terrible, Ed Rendell would struggle in today's political environment, but maybe that is also an indictment of our current political environment in addition to an indictment of Mayor Rendell.
This was certainly an odd choice for me to read while on vacation, i, e. not in Philadelphia, but such is the library hold queue,

The author spent four years embedded in the first administration of Ed Rendell as Philadelphia mayorand wrote about all the highs rescuing the budget and lows losing the Navy Yard.
He had total access to Rendell and his chief of staff David Cohen, whom I liked better after reading this book because I've only heard of him as the the chief lobbyist of Comcast, an outright evil job.


I most enjoyed the descriptions of my city and passionate arguments about how federal government policy screwed over urban areas leading to a vicious cycle of failure and flight.
What I liked less was Bissinger's writing style, which I thought was florid, sometimes veering into metaphors that I found barely comprehensible.
After Rendell intervenes in cancelled beauty pageant, we learn that "The contestants sat in the front row, pretty and prim, the white sashes proclaiming their states running in neat diagonal lines from shoulder to sternum like cellophane wrapping on a piece of processed cheese".
Uh, I know where my sternum is, what is up with these ladies

The other thing I found a little disappointing about this book is that it only covers Rendell's first term as mayor and so, in, reads as being unfinished or ending in the middle of the story.
I think of Rendell's tenure, overlapping my high school and college years, as the time when the city changed from being a place my family hardly ever went to despite livingmiles away to being a place I wanted to live in.
One thing I remember about Rendell is that at the end of his last term in office, he had a reception for people to take pictures with him, an event which went hours overtime because so many people came, such was his popularity.
But as for any of the specific achievements of his second term, I don't remember them and they're not covered here.


Thus, I ended up seeing this book more as a vivid time capsule of Philadelphia in the early 's and a character sketch of Rendell than as a comprehensive history of how the city was turned around.
Still, for me, that made it worthwhile, If you love cities read this, To understand how the American city has been methodically undermined by public policy throughout theth century and to see an exceptional pair of men fight the good fight through their own flaws, read this.
Very wellwritten book about the first term of Mayor Rendell in Philadelphia, I live in the city and love the city and this broke my heart, but left me hopeful that there are still people in public service who want cities to survive and maybe, someday, thrive again.
I absolutely loved this book, It is incredibly written and gives a first hand look into city politics, Though Philly was struggling in the early and mid nineties, Bissinger still found a way to describe the romantic aspects of the city while not hiding from the truth.
It gives an honest portrait of Rendell, The heroics of David Cohen was fascinating to read about and would motivate anyone, One of my favorite books that I have read, Give a great nonfiction writer like Buzz Bissinger unfettered access to a colorful and complicated politician like Ed Rendell and youre going to get an amazing book.


I dont hand out five too often but “A Prayer for the City” probably deserves six.


This inside look at Rendells first term as mayor of Philadelphia is much, much more than a biography of a politician, although its a darn good biography.
More than anything else, “A Prayer” is a heartwrenching lamentation about our countrys betrayal of its big cities, and about the ramifications of that.


Bissinger doesnt shy away from addressing federal policy, in all its wonky and nefarious aspects, But what makes “A Prayer for the City” sing, or make that wail, are its vivid descriptions of how policy affects people on a personal level.


Brilliantly, Bissinger devotes much of the book to Philadelphia residents like Fifi Mazzccua, an aging AfricanAmerican woman who is singlehandedly raising a houseful of grandchildren and greatgrandchildren while her son rots in prison or like Mike McGovern, a city prosecutor who confronts the most atrocious acts of violence in the urban cesspool.


“A Prayer” also dives into the travails of political leadership in our society, where even the rare, wellintentioned elected official must constantly deal with people who put their selfinterest ahead of the common good.


If you care about cities or even if you just care about our country this book is an important one to read.

this is probably my favorite book i ever had to read for school,

yes, i gave itstars, because it is sometimes bonkers hard to get through, but hard to think of even a runner up for Book That Changed My Thinking The Most And Also Gave Me The Most Opportunities To Insert Pretentious Factoids Into Polite Conversation.
which is a major award,

honestly, i don't think there's another book like this anywhere, i was getting a little cynical about politics at the ripe old age ofwhen i read this little did i know what was to come, and this restored my faith in at least the local level temporarily without being cheesy or overly optimistic.


anyway. this book is very underrated,

and it's by the friday night lights guy, if those words mean anything to you,

part of a series i'm doing in which i review books i read a long time ago, and this is the closest i've ever come to an actual review in doing so I grew up in Philly, spentyears of schooling there, and now live in South Jersey and still work in Philly.
I learned more about the city during the,weeks I was reading this book than I did in all that other time combined, The

depth of the reporting, the range of stories covered, the ability to sort through reams of information it's all really impressive.


But it's not just a Philly book it's a book about the slow decay of the American city and the ways people have tried to combat that death, with all the inherent political mess that comes with that territory.
Although thetimeframe may seem dated, it's actually more fascinating now to see it because the book opens with Mayor Rendell saying his economic plan will shape the city for the nextyears.
years after that proclamation, it's possible to really see where some of the changes in this city are rooted.


Every now and then Bissinger gets a little carried away with ludicrous metaphors and imposes his voice on the story in distracting ways and it was weird how he seemed to immediately and instinctively side with Rendell's camp during the incidents when he sexually harassed and/or actually assaulted women, but overall the prose is strong and clear and crisp and everything else you'd expect from a writer of this pedigree.
My son who lived in Philadelphia for two years while attending graduate school at Temple gave me this book because he wanted me to understand more about what had happened to the city in the nineties, after it hit rock bottom.
Mayor Ed Rendell and his chief of staff, David Cohen, did some pretty remarkable stuff to turn things around in a city that was a messcrime, debit, you name it.
I liked reading about these very different men and their ways of attacking problems and serving their city, I also liked the side stories about individuals in the city, and those were quite gripping at times, However, some of the detail and style of the book wore me out, I loved it at first, but it was just too much after awhile, Perhaps it was just the mood I am in right now, Also, the salty language was more than enough for me, I know this is just how many people talk, but no thanks! This is not only an engaging and thorough look at the state of American cities in theth century, but a revealing look at one of Americas most overlooked cities, Philadelphia.
Rereading this book inwhile living in Philadelphia, I wonder how much of the issues highlighted by the book have been addressed The city is way more gentrified, Queen Village is now a true Yuppie Paradise as is Graduate Hospital.
Is that all it takes To have the neighborhoods that were underserved and poor, be filled up by wealthier residents who have more clout and money in order to be turned around As those same gentrifiers turn their focus to North Philadelphia, will it look and feel entirely different byProbably.
I wonder what Power Broker Extraordinaire Cohen would say about the city now, If you loved the West Wing TV series, there are good chances that youll like this book, The author somehow finagled permission to be a fly on the wall during the Ed Rendells first term as Philadelphias Mayor, embedding himself in the Chief of Staffs office, sitting in the shadows during executive meetings, even listening outside the door during tense confidential negotiations over navy yard reuse proposals.
Readers are granted shockingly unfettered access to the internal workings of city government at the highest level we are spectators at the Administrations finest hours and most cringeworthy stumbles.
Im still amazed at what Bissinger was allowed to witness,

What makes the narrative even more interesting is that thes was a pivotal turning point for American cities, in a way that some guessed at in the moment but really became apparent only a decade or so later.
White flight, the crack epidemic, race riots, Cabrini Greenlike public housing projects, and deindustrialization had culminated in horrific conditions that left cities broke, crimeridden, and plagued with povertyrelated issues.
Everything peaked in thes: Administrations that realized that they were the last, best chance to “save a dying and obsolete city” took radical measures, capitalized on the economic boom of thes, and entered thest century with enough economic momentum and attractive assets to lure in urbanophile Millennials.
See: Philadelphia, thanks to Rendell, The alternative was complete collapse of the city, following by the total implosion of the economy in nearby suburbs see: Detroit.
Gary. Flint. So not only does A Prayer for The City deliver a fascinating insider view, but what were watching is a desperate Administration try everything it can think of to pull a City back from the brink.
“Were shameless,” the Chief of Staff told the author, “Well play every card. ”

The book offers thoughtful, poignant portraits of two men Mayor Ed Rendell and his Chief of Staff, David Cohen and in so doing, it offers insights into what it takes in terms of temperament and time allocation to excel at those jobs.
We vote for Mayors, but do we actually know what they do, what they can do, to “create change” Bissinger makes a compelling case that one of the Mayors key contributions was his relentless cheerleading: Rendells optimism “changed the entire feel of the city, to the point where the perpetual focus wasnt on the litany of problems, but on what maybe, just maybe, could be done.
As if by constantly talking about all that might be coming and planning for it as if it were already here, it somehow was already here.
In a way, he wasnt Americas Mayor but Americas first publicly elected cult leader, winning hearts and minds of hundreds of thousands on the basis of blind faith.
” Even if he did have to do it by wrestling with sixfoot pig mascots to promote a local hot dog business, or undertake any number of ridiculous shticks to market the city as an entertainment destination for suburbanites with money to burn.


Of course, I also ate up the fact that both my employer and my boss were mentioned by name in the section about theyear financial plan that brought city government back from nearbankruptcy.
“A manifesto for dramatic and radical and unprecedented change in an American city” yeah, I think Ill tell my Mom that thats what I do for a living.


My only reservation is that the narrative flow can feel like learning to drive a manual transmission the adrenaline rush of union standdowns and navy yard sale negotiations screech to a halt for a profile of a Philadelphia resident.
I understand that the author included these profiles to give the reader a visceral image of the people whose lives hang in the balance, people like a soontobe laidoff welder, an AfricanAmerican grandma raising her great grandkids in a crack neighborhood, a yuppie couple who are driven from their Center City townhouse after one too many violent crimes, etc.
Its all good content, its just awkwardly shoehorned into the Rendall Administration story in a way thats distracting at best and deflating at worst.


All in all, I cant believe this isnt standard reading among urbanists, .