About Me

I've been a political activist for more than 45 years, working to strengthen our commitment to America's historic civic values through building community, expanding economic opportunity, and broadening citizen participation in all aspects of the democratic process.

I got involved in the Civil Rights Movement and the Student Movement initially as an undergraduate at Oberlin College.

In 1967, I led a national movement for Student Power as national President of the United States National Student Association.

I moved to Cambridge in 1968, where I spent a year at the Florence Heller School at Brandeis and then got into community organizing through the Massachusetts Welfare Rights Organization.

I moved to Philadelphia in 1971 to see if we could build a grassroots citizens' movement within the framework of the American democratic tradition that had shaped my own work as an activist in the 60's.

Two years later, I brought a group of political theorists and activists together to create the Institute for the Study of Civic Values in Philadelphia. The political philosophy guiding the Institute was shaped by co-founder Wilson Carey McWilliams--author of "The Idea of Fraternity in America" and a wide range of articles and books exploring the American democratic tradition.

ISCV has now worked for more than 30 years to promote neighborhood empowerment in Philadelphia and around the country.

After a decade of community organizing, I won election as a City Councilman-At-Large in 1983, building support for a "Neighborhood Agenda" throughout the city. As a Councilman, I led the fight for neighborhood involvement in the City's economic development programs.

Three years later, I was called upon to direct Philadelphia's Office of Housing and Community Development. Over the next four years, We rehabilitated more than 3,500 houses and apartments and helped cdc's get started in low income neighborhoods throughout the City.

I returned to the Institute for the Study of Civic Values in 1992, where to continue the fight for neighborhood empowerment, economic opportunity , and citizen participation as an activist again.

I was among the first activists to use the Internet as a vehicle for organizing, going back to 1994, where I created a national email list called "civic-values" and built a "PhillyNeighborhoods.org" web site to promote neighborhood empowerment online in the city.

Working on the internet still represents an important part of what I do. Check out the Institute's web site at http://www.iscv.org or the PhillyNeighborhoods web site http://phillyneighborhoods.org.

I've written two books--"Will the Revolution Succeed" in 1973 and "NetActivism: How Citizens Use the Internet" in 1996--and lots of articles along the way. I still write regularly for the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Philadelphia Daily News.

I play jazz piano on the side with a group called the Reading Terminals in Philadelphia because we play at Philadelphia's Reading Terminal Market the 2nd Friday of the month.