Brendan’s war to save Philly public pools and libraries gets some serious recognition in the Philadelphia Weekly.
Part wiseass and part history buff, Brendan Skwire isn’t the ordinary white-gentrifier-in-the-’hood that he might seem. Most nights after work the edgy 38-year-old bicycles home to his notoriously dangerous Southwest Philly neighborhood, dashes up the stairs of his rowhome, plants himself in a room full of books and then busies himself writing one angry missive after another on his provocative, take-no-prisoners blog Brendan Calling.
With the glare from the laptop illuminating his face, Skwire looks more like a man possessed than the creative urban professional he is.
That sounds about right. So does this:
The self-described loudmouth who “drinks a lot of beer” has no interest in the status quo, and is happy to use any means necessary—blog, email, cell phone—to harass local, state and even national elected officials into (to borrow from the master) delivering change we can believe in.
“I like making phone calls to people like Bob Casey and Arlen Specter to annoy them,” he boasts.
In a recent post, Skwire confesses to making so many harassing calls to elected officials over the years that it’s nothing for him to use up an entire month of cell phone minutes in just one week. Skwire even posts the conversations to his blog.
Score one for the good guys, Drinking Liberally, and the Philly blogosphere. Brendan has excellent advice for Sunoco:
As for the oil giant, Skwire insists the company “can probably make a deal with the city by saying, ‘Hey, drop the suit against us for the $1.8 million we owe. We’ll donate the money,’” Skwire says. “Give them naming rights. Let them put up a sign, ‘Sponsored by Sunoco,’ and it’ll be a huge PR blast for the company. They can be known as the company that saved the pools and ride on that for 20 years! The same goes for the libraries. We’ve done a lot for them. We need them as our partners.
Sunoco should follow that advice. I’m sure Mayor Nutter would be grateful to get Skwire off his pant-leg.
thanks for the link.
you shoudla seen that meeting last night. the daily news described it as “the rowdiest yet”. And the mayor did not come out smelling like a rose either. he lied and got called on it; he evaded questions; he passed the buck. He totally sucked, and everyone knew it. At one point some woman asked him to name how many schools in our neighborhood had libraries. when he turned to one of his bureacrats, she yelled “i want to hear it from YOU.”
he had no response, so she schooled him herself.
One. there is one school out of four in our neighborhood that has a library. and many teachers at the meeting recounted ferrying books from the library back to school for their students.
That man is going to have one term, and I hope he’s driven from office before then.
I hope that PW piece lights a prairie fire that forces the Eagles and Sunoco to step up to the plate. And if they do, I hope you get a plaque at your local pool.
Congratulations!
Brendan you should be proud of yourself. Way to fight the good fight.