NEWS, SPORTS, COMMENTARY, POLITICS for Gloucester City and the Surrounding Areas of South Jersey and Philadelphia

Frank R. Weisgerber Sr. of Gloucester City; GHS Class of '48, Navy Veteran
Haz Mat Unit Receives Federal DOT Grant for Advanced Training ~ Cherry Hill News & Information

The King of Center City | Philadelphia City Paper

If you haven't heard of Paul Levy yet, the odds are getting better every day that you will. The ubiquitous street-cleaning machines along the streets of Center City? Levy's work. The new lollipop signs outside Center City trolley stations and bus stops? Levy. The small army of walkie-talkie-carrying "ambassadors" along Center City streets? The newish Cafe Cret on the Ben Franklin Parkway? The controversial attempted crackdown on panhandling? The innovative (and recently shuttered) Community Court? Levy, Levy, Levy. Now in its 20th year, the Center City District has grown from a modest street-cleaning and marketing machine to the hub of an ever-growing empire of influence. Levy, its commander in chief, presides over a budget of almost $20 million annually, earns roughly double the salary of Mayor Michael Nutter, and has positioned himself at the helm of a remarkably agile and increasingly far-reaching institution: Unelected and largely unfettered by bureaucracy, he might be called something of a Center City monarch.

The viaduct is just the latest of Levy's many ambitious dreams for Philly. And it's exactly the kind of project he just might pull off: slightly impossible, somewhat contentious and probably on his own terms.

Jessica Kourkounis

Of his various radical ideas, perhaps the most radical idea Paul Levy ever had — and, it would turn out, the smartest — was to believe that the filthy, neglected, crime-ridden Center City of the 1980s was Philly's ticket to success.

He had already abandoned one city, coming to Philly after getting laid off from teaching public schools during a 1972 budget crisis in New York. He worked at a toy store on South Street, and then in a series of political jobs centered around housing, including a stint at the city's Office of Housing and Community Development and in an organization called the Central Philadelphia Development Corp.

CONTINUE via www.citypaper.net

by Isaiah Thompson

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