Friday, April 11, 2003

THACH: Legendary Philadelphia public servant Thacher Longstreth passed away today at the age of 83. A lifelong Republican, Longstreth dedicated his career to the people of Philadelphia, serving for the last twenty-four years as a City Councilman.

I met Thach back in 1993. I was a senior in college, the only male student in an Urban Politics course at Mt. Holyoke (itself a story worth telling another day). We were assigned to do final papers, and I chose to write about City Council's efforts in 1993 to create a Police Advisory Commission where victims of police misconduct could have their grievances heard and investigated by an independent body.

The initial bill, spearheaded by Councilman Michael Nutter, passed Council by a 9-6 margin, with Longstreth among those in opposition. Mayor Rendell, under pressure from the Fraternal Order of Police, vetoed the bill. One additional Councilman would have to switch for Rendell's veto to be overturned.

Never before during Rendell's reign had a veto of his been overturned, and none would be in the six years that followed. But in 1993, Thacher Longstreth -- Republican WASP patrician, guaranteed a Council seat for life because of the Charter's requirement that at least two at-large Councilmen be of the minority party, a man beholden to no constituency, and certainly not the city's African-American or Latino communities -- Thach changed his mind, and voted to establish the Commission.

I wanted to understand why.

So during Thanksgiving break that year, I headed home to Philadelphia. I sat down with Councilman Michael Nutter, who spearheaded the legislation, as well as the chief of staff of Councilman Brian O'Neill, a chief opponent, both of whom gave me some insight.

And then it was noon, and time to meet with Councilman Longstreth. We met in the Council's main chamber, sat in the chairs, and just talked. As it turned out, I knew his granddaughter, who was two years behind me at Amherst and the star of the women's volleyball team. (Thach himself was 6' 6").

I was hoping for 10-15 minutes of his time. As it turned out, I got an hour and a half.

And why did he change his vote? I wish I had a copy of that paper handy so I could quote him directly -- it's somewhere in storage at my mom's. But the message was clear, and I remember it clearly to this day:
He just thought it was the right thing to do.

Yes, Philadelphia's City Council functioned as the deliberative body all legislatures are meant to be. Longstreth explained that Councilman Nutter and others had convinced him that the establishment of the Commission was something that mattered deeply to the City's minority residents, especially in the post-Rodney King era, that it would help them feel more connected to the City in which they lived. It would help restore their faith in government as a place from which good things could happen, and even though these were people whose votes Longstreth neither sought nor needed, he took their feelings and interests seriously.

So Thach defied a popular mayor, defied the city's police union, and upset a lot of his natural constituents. Because it was the right thing to do.

And he didn't mind spending a hour and a half of his time the day before Thanksgiving explaining it all to some college student he had never met before and would never meet again.

That's the kind of man he was. God bless him, and may he enjoy his eternal rest in a place of peace.

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