SELF-DESTRUCTIVE BEHAVIOR IN PHILLY THAT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH ALLEN IVERSON

For all the good unions do, they often stand in the way of intelligent urban policy. Unions are so powerful in urban politics, that the balance of power, often tilted radically against labor elsewhere, is skewed the other direction - bloating city budgets and providing residents with insufficient city services. Ed Rendell may be pillored by Bob Casey, Jr. for "union-bashing," but had he backed down to the demands of municipal unions, Philadelphia would never have escaped from insolvency. It now appears that the power of construction unions in Philadelphia are severely hampering redevelopment of the parts of the city left barren from the city's industrial decline. The Inquirer proposes a set of policies to ease the problem. For anyone who thinks I'm being too harsh on Philly's unions, I invite them to take in the wasteland that stretches north of Center City the next time they ride the train between New York and Washington.