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1. Cherelle Parker is unapologetically normal – much to her critics’ dismay

By Terry Tracy

Parker’s recent strides in restoring order across the city – from Kensington’s drug encampments to the anti-Israel protests in University City – are not acts of conservative betrayal as some whisper, but are refreshingly actionable policy initiatives, a rarity from the stale halls of Philadelphia City Hall.

If her critics are rattled, it’s because they’ve become unaccustomed to pragmatic leadership in a city now too long marooned by dangerously unqualified, overly dogmatic “progressives” at its helm with lawlessness and societal decay in their wake.

Why It Matters. Parker’s new era is transforming both city streets and City Hall’s notoriously ineffectual City Council chambers, where her proposed budget slashes nearly a million dollars from Prevention Point Philadelphia, a non-profit which provides sterile syringes to drug users.

Swatting away critics, Parker defended the cut as a measure of both fiscal and moral prudence. Simply put, Parker supports the program’s merits, wishes the organization well, but makes clear that the city – and its taxpayers – are not picking up the tab.

More recently, Mayor Parker announced that her administration would begin a thirteen week process on June 3rd to clean every street in the city. According to the Inquirer, the city’s director of clean and green initiatives will coordinate a multi-agency effort to collect trash, sweep streets, fill potholes, tow abandoned cars, remove illegal dumping, and fix abandoned properties.

Pick up trash! Fill potholes! Go figure.

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2. Hold the phone!

By Beth Ann Rosica
 

Government overreach is what propelled me into politics, advocacy, and ultimately journalism.  As someone who fought to open schools, eliminate mandatory masking, and help pass the constitutional amendment limiting the governor’s powers, I am not a fan of the government interfering in my life or parenting decisions.

So, when I read Senator Ryan Aument’s (R-Lancaster) proposed legislation to restrict cell phones in schools, I had mixed feelings. On the one hand, as a parent to teenagers, I see the daily, negative effects of excessive technology use, and I question whether it is as dangerous for them as drinking alcohol or taking drugs. But as a libertarian committed to the least amount of government possible, I was not completely sold on the concept that the state needed to intervene.

That is, until I read The Anxious Generation, by Jonathan Haidt, published earlier this year. If a genie granted me one wish, I would ask that every parent and educator read this book. The author presents a compelling argument why schools should ban cell phones, in addition to granting more play time. 

Why It Matters. Many people mistakenly assume that cell phones are already banned or limited in schools. However, the reality is that in most public schools, kids are still accessing their phones even if they are not allowed to. Many schools have rules that phones cannot be used during class, but kids find a way to sneak looking at them, and teachers should not have to sacrifice instructional time to police illicit cell phone use.

According to Haidt, much of the drama, bullying, and violence that occurs in schools stems from social media that is being accessed during the school day. If those issues could be reduced and student mental health improved with an inexpensive simple decision, why would we not do that?

Quotable. “Between 2010 and 2015, the social lives of American teens moved largely onto smartphones with continuous access to social media, online video games, and other internet-based activities. This Great Rewiring of Childhood, I argue, is the single largest reason for the tidal wave of adolescent mental illness that began in the early 2010’s.” – Jonathan Haidt, The Anxious Generation

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3. Podcast

4. Lightning Round

• George Hofmann: Walling off the shore

• Thom Nickels: Life on the streets – and in the woods

• Christine Flowers: Catholics, kickers and abortion

• Paul Davis: Does Philadelphia need Krasner’s new Prolific Gun Offenders unit?

• Elizabeth Stelle: Why is rural broadband so challenging? Government red tape, mostly.

5. What we're reading

Martin Gurri’s The Revolt of the Public captured the zeitgeist around the worldwide discontent with elite leadership in the 2010s. This week at The Free Press, Gurri has an essay continuing that theme into the present day. “The elite dream,” he writes, “is to turn the clock back to the day before the internet was invented,” to once again control what information makes its way to the masses. They will not succeed. “It rarely works. The chaos and contingencies of the digital age allow the normies and their chosen tribunes, the populists, too much room to maneuver. Trump’s rise in the opinion polls would otherwise be inexplicable.”