Mr. Michael DiBerardinis, labeled an activist by Philadelphia’s Mayor-Elect and a former Occupy Philly protester, named new Managing Director.
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The incoming Philadelphia Managing Director, Mr. Michael DiBerardinis, who, according to Mayor-Elect Mr. Jim Kenney will oversee many of the departments that service communities every day, had a big fan sitting in the front row of the Mayor’s Reception Room today at City Hall, where the key members of the new Mayoral Administration were unveiled.
In a pin-striped suit, which is a departure from the wears he donned four years ago as an Occupy Philly protester, Mr. Dennis Payne snapped photos on his smartphone of the man who he’s seen over the last couple of years come to Kensington – “a forgotten Philadelphia neighborhood,” said Mr. Payne – to help transform the impoverished community with resources, like 34 brand new street lights in McPherson Park, a patch of land once regulated, unofficially, as the go-to spot for drugs and prostitution, not to mention the occasional homicide.
Mr. Kenney called Mr. DiBerardinis an activist – “Mike, over his career, as a younger guy, was involved in standing up for poor people.” – and Mr. Payne agreed, saying that the Mayor-Elect’s portrayal of the former Parks and Recreations Commissioner isn’t an overstatement, but rather fully accurate.
“He’s been a constant player in trying to restore all our neighborhoods,” said Mr. Payne, a lifelong resident of Kensington, who claims he can live anywhere in the world but has a spiritual obligation to his hood.
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Mr. Payne admits, however, that his neighborhood is still one suffering from major structural disadvantages, but before Mr. DiBerardinis and others – like City Councilwoman Maria Quinones-Sanchez – coordinated resources for the Kensington Park and surrounding locales, the area was a “total combat zone.”
“He who controls the corner rules the neighborhood. The drugs dominate everything in our neighborhood,” Mr. Payne, who recently graduated an eight-week civic engagement course and is working as a government liaison, said in an exclusive interview with Techbook Online.
Mr. Payne, an older white man, remembers as a young boy waking up early and watching the merchants in his neighborhood tend to their shops via sweeping and hosing down the sidewalks. Back then the area was a “white working class neighborhood,” he said, and “we’re trying to bring that back.”
Very optimistic is Mr. Payne about Mr. DiBerardinis, who will be a “strong managing director,” meaning Mr. Kenney, in contrast to current Philadelphia Mayor Mr. Michael Nutter who employs many Deputy Mayors, will rely on the Managing Director’s Office to move the City forward by inciting collaboration between departments and their commissioners.
“I won’t be micro-managing, just managing in general,” said Mr. Kenney, who this week announced the locations of his upcoming town halls meant to solicit ideas from residents on how to improve Philadelphia.
Mr. DiBerardinis in January will be second in command of the nation’s fifth largest city, but that fact seems as if it will do little to diminish the activist which makes up a large part of his personhood.
“I have a deep appreciation for civic activism, organizing and public service,” said Mr. DiBerardinis, who also noted his equal regard for “pushing government to do the right thing and do it well.”
‘The Modern Day Civil Rights Movement,’ a free 6:30pm panel discussion at the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia preceding Grammy Award-winner Mr. Christian McBride’s Nov. 21st 8pm concert at the Merriam Theater, will be moderated by Christopher “Flood the Drummer” Norris.
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