He Takes Heat for Philadelphia’s Big Problems : For Mayor Goode, Little Brotherly Love

The nation’s birthplace has big problems, and its mayor, once mentioned as a potential vice president, is taking the heat.

Philadelphians complain about too few police, dirty streets and reduced services. They blame Mayor W. Wilson Goode, whom they have forced to back off from a proposed $70-million tax increase. Even a political ally of the mayor says he has been “a disappointment.”

Democratic presidential candidate Walter F. Mondale mentioned Goode as a possible running mate in 1984, but that was before the 1985 debacle that forever damaged the mayor’s image. When police, with Goode’s approval, confronted the radical MOVE group, 11 people were killed and scores of homes were destroyed by fire.

Halts Interview

Although Goode has insisted that things in Philadelphia are not as bad as critics claim, last week, he abruptly cut off a telephone interview on the first question: Is the city in trouble?

“I don’t want to talk about it,” he said. “Just say the mayor doesn’t want to comment.”

Challenges remain for Goode, the first black mayor of the nation’s fifth-largest city, who is nearly halfway through his second four-year term.

Since he reversed the city’s commitment to building a new courthouse and jail after $30 million had been spent on it, Goode faces the wrath of the legal community and a federal court that has ordered the city to relieve prison crowding. Forced by public pressure to back off the tax increase, Goode is trying to put together a budget amid projections of a $100-million deficit and the clamor for more services.

Panel Rebuffs Proposal

Even a special Tax Policy and Budget Review Committee appointed by Goode rebuffed the mayor’s tax proposal.

“I thought it would be a whitewash and it wasn’t. That in itself indicates the severity of the problem,” said W. Thacher Longstreth, the senior Republican on the City Council.

Many say that Goode hasn’t been a good manager, and even supporters such as Edward Mezvinsky, former Pennsylvania Democratic chairman and co-chairman of Goode’s 1987 reelection campaign, acknowledge that the mayor is in a political bind.

“He’s got to take unpopular positions because there is a lot less money available,” Mezvinsky said. “The city has to make it on its own. It’s got to pull in its belt and cut out unnecessary services. It has to be done if the city is going to survive.”

At recent town meetings, which Goode arranged this winter in a futile effort to sell his tax plan, tempers frequently flared as citizens confronted the frustrated, sometimes angry mayor to demand more police, cleaner streets and a crackdown on drug dealing in neighborhoods.

Ex-Mayor Withholds Comment

Former Mayor William Green, under whom Goode was city managing director, would not comment on the managerial style of his successor.

“The facts speak for themselves,” Green said.

Several top Democrats did not return phone calls or refused to comment publicly on the mayor’s standing. The political ally who called Goode a disappointment would speak only on condition of anonymity.

“He really isn’t running the city well. He is not a dishonest person and is trying to do his best, but integrity isn’t enough to manage, and his mismanagement has allowed his detractors to have a field day, which has undermined his effectiveness,” the Goode ally said.

“This city is more divided today than ever before. All the blame isn’t Goode’s alone. Others have to share it, like the council, like the business community, the judiciary. Everyone seems to have an ax to grind . . . and Goode has been unable to bring the diverse elements together so the city can be run well,” the ally said.

GOP Smells Blood

Republicans looking ahead to this fall’s district attorney and city controller elections smell blood. It’s been nearly four decades since Republicans last controlled the government of this city, which has a 3-to-1 Democratic registration.

“If you listen, you can hear people saying Philadelphia is ready for a complete change in government and politics,” state Sen. M. Joseph Rocks, the GOP choice for controller, said.

Goode has shown he is listening. He said recently he would hire 400 more police this year, and then add 300 more in each of the next three years to a force that now numbers about 6,000 (down from the 7,800 when he took office in 1984).