Germantown “Monopoly” Has a Parallel in History

A national study from Stamford University on the decline of the middle class and their evacuation from major cities used Germantown in Philadelphia as its prime example of a community that was vibrant, diverse and self-supporting only 25 years ago and today has lost much of its attraction with a commercial district in shambles.

For those who read these pages we began telling the tragic story of how Germantown was dismantled by design and intent some time ago. The process was so diabolical and represents the longest-running fraud and misuse of public money through political power in Philadelphia since the days of Bernie Samuels.

While we have printed installments relating how Germantown Settlement became a virtual monopoly of all private and public development and the destination of hundreds of millions in property, public dollars for development and social services since the mid-1970s, the entire story has yet to be told, nor have the responsible parties been held accountable. Bottom line, one man, with political connections to the highest level ran 30 corporations under the radar for 28 years.

The most comprehensive report to date was published in Philadelphia Magazine in October 2010 by Jason Fagone under the title “The Man Who Duped City Hall”, but it stops far short of how so much money was sourced from the city, state and federal trough and how it was kept alive through years of non-compliance and failure after failure to perform.  With part of the corporate empire created by Emanuel Freeman now in bankruptcy, there is hope that the expansive investigations lying dormant at the U.S. Attorney’s office will be re-activated and possibly merged with the irregularities that have outraged a bankruptcy judge in Federal Court where efforts were re-channeled to dupe the system once more.

The message from the DCC (Democratic City Committee) for the street is “Germantown Settlement is closed down — let’s move on”. Actually only a portion of the monopoly is closed down and quietly some of the same players are still the recipients of pubic largess and no one has been called to account for why so much federal money was distributed long after non-compliance was well known.  Worse, the damage done to Germantown needs to be told as it refutes clichés about how this kind of urban decay “just happens everywhere”.  It does not, and it did not happen because a one-industry city lost that industry and was too slow to react.  Philadelphia was dismembered from within, chased all manner of diverse blue collar and white collar industries out with reckless tax and regulatory policies that enriched the few after 1968, but the Germantown story was even more manipulative of its residents and its assets.

The ironic “Monopoly Story” is that of the well known parlor game of the same name that became one of the most successful board games in history after it was marketed in 1935.  The game that blended property ownership and capital formation with the chance of random good or bad choices from a roll of dice and the luck of the draw, fascinated many and kept folks occupied for hours on end for 75 years; at least until technology went electronic. The local connection is that the so called “inventor” who patented it, Charles B. Darrow who lived on Westview Street (then considered to be in Germantown), actually used a game that had been played for decades in Philadelphia and had been invented by a Quaker woman, Lizzie J. Magie. Ms. Magie named it The Landlords Game and patented it in 1904.  Her version had “Part Two” where tax reform prevented monopolistic practices from running out of control. Apparently the controls portion was left out of Darrow’s version. For all practical purposes, Mr. Darrow of Germantown stole this game from the Quakers, and developed his fortune.

In like manner Emanuel Freeman cleverly took control of the hundred year old Germantown Settlement social service organization and with the help of the political machine turned it into a massive real estate and social service empire trading on the reputation garnered from its Quaker founders. In like manner, Mr. Freeman stole Germantown Settlement from the Quakers and developed his fortune.

The Quakers always seem to be willing to forgive and forget, no matter how large the stakes and what has been lost.  Philadelphia’s political machine thinks so too.

If you don’t agree, you can change all of this in November 2012.  We will be telling the story and naming the names in the next 26 issues.

Jim Foster

Editor/Publisher