Chances are, you’ve seen the video of Councilmember Quetcy Lozada venting her frustration over her efforts to clean up Kensington during last Thursday’s Council meeting. It was probably no surprise to her colleagues.
Councilmember Quetcy Lozada during a heated Council meeting. Photo: phila.gov
By Denise Clay-Murray
If you’ve watched an episode of any television show set in an office, or have been in an office yourself, you know that while everyone conducts themselves as a professional, not everyone gets along.
In fact, there are times when office life gets so contentious that telling people off — loudly — isn’t off the table.
When most of Philadelphia City Council resigned to run for mayor back in 2023, we got to witness all of the contentiousness among Council members that we hadn’t been privy to previously. The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune that were being thrown around between former Council members during that race showed us just how much of a diplomat former Council President Darrell Clarke actually was.
In a way, it also showed why Clarke thought it was time to retire. Having to referee the equivalent of a WWE wrestling match and an MMA fight with a boxing match thrown in every single day for 12 years would be hard on anyone.
If you’ve attended or watched any of Philadelphia City Council’s meetings this session, you might have noticed the demeanor of Seventh District Councilmember Quetcy Lozada. From public comment sessions, where people have applauded President Donald Trump for siccing Immigration and Customs Enforcement on large chunks of her district, to the disdain expressed by public commenters regarding her legislative efforts to clean up Kensington, you kinda knew that her level of frustration was building.
During last Thursday’s Council meeting, the dam finally broke.
And to be honest, I hope that the FCC wasn’t listening because if it was, WURD, the radio station that broadcasts City Council Live, may have some explaining to do.
In last week’s Hanging In The Hall, I wrote about Councilmember Lozada’s bill regarding mobile medical service providers.
While it was widely assumed that the bill would be voted on Thursday as part of Council’s final passage calendar, the bill was amended again. This set of amendments allows street vendors to continue vending, allows for emergency services issued by the Department of Public Health to handle emergency overdose clusters, and designates that the mayor’s office will determine what licensing agency will be in charge of providing the licenses these providers will need to be able to operate. The permits will specify when and where these services can operate within the Seventh Councilmanic District.
Like they did last week, members of the harm reduction community came to say that no matter how many amendments Lozada put on the legislation, it would still cause unnecessary harm to those battling substance abuse.
“[This bill] criminalizes compassion, promotes policing over care, and only creates new barriers that will leave our most vulnerable and marginalized neighbors without the support they need,” said Amanda Burch, a Kensington resident. “My neighborhood is affected by the sweeps that the city has been conducting, and I know that if this bill is passed, it will not improve the quality of life for my house or unhoused neighbors. As it is written, it will only create further harm and exacerbate existing public health crises, it will make it impossibly difficult for people to access basic care, and it will set a dangerous precedent.”
People even quoted James Baldwin and Pope Francis in opposition to the bill.
But by the end of the public comment session, Lozada had decided she’d had enough. Before introducing the amendments for consideration by her colleagues, she pushed back on some of the things she’d heard.
Council then voted to amend the bill by a 15-2 vote, with Council Minority Leader Kendra Brooks and Minority Whip Nicolas O’Rourke voting no. One of the people who spoke out in opposition to all of the iterations of the bill thanked the Councilmembers for their consistent opposition.
But when Councilmembers were able to deliver speeches on the floor, Lozada, who leads the group known as the Kensington Caucus, chastised those opposed to the bill — including her colleagues — for not understanding that her community is under siege.
“We can’t ask for certain things in certain neighborhoods,” she said. “We are here to fight for every neighborhood. We can’t talk about education if we’re not remembering the kids in communities like mine that are impacted by what they see going and coming from school every day. We can’t talk about education when my kids are sitting in buildings where bullets [fly into] windows. We can’t talk about education when my kids have to walk over people who are living on our streets because they are suffering from substance abuse….”
But wait. Lozada wasn’t done.
“We are having an impact, and the impact is going in the right direction,” she continued. “We don’t expect everyone to agree with how we’re doing this, but we have to continue to do and make the difficult decisions in order for the constituents in the Seventh Council district and the surrounding districts to have quality of life. That is our responsibility. The people who are dying on the streets of Kensington are someone’s children….”
And now, the finish…
“You cannot sit here and tell me that you are okay with people’s children having their faces stuck to the cement! You can’t tell me that you’re okay with people’s children living with wounds and losing their limbs,” she said. “You can’t tell me that you’re okay with the conditions in Kensington! If you’re okay with that, then you need to look at yourself in the mirror and figure out what you’re doing in this space!”
Okay…
Well, like I said, this was kind of inevitable. It didn’t make it any less stunning, but it was inevitable. And you have to wonder what this is going to mean in terms of relations in the chamber. Council President Kenyatta Johnson has his work cut out for him.
In any case, the aforementioned bill finally comes up for a final vote this Thursday.
But while it will probably provide a lot of fireworks, it won’t be the only thing that will bring everyone to the public comment stage this week.
Council will also be considering a resolution commemorating the May 13,1985 MOVE bombing.
I hope WURD has a seven-second button at the ready.
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