by Jay A. McCalla

When I was a child, I recall seeing a quirky little film entitled “The Incredible Shrinking Man.” The title utterly lacked irony in that it was about a man who shrinks in size. It was a low budget, ambiguous entry in the horror genre and one of the few times reality lived up (or down) to the promise.

I think of Mayor John Street’s Neighborhood Transformation Initiative, for which I managed operations, and how it did not demolish anywhere near the number of dangerous properties that were promised.

The administration mislead City Council regarding how many houses can be demolished for

$120 million. If you demolish a string of row houses with a steam shovel, the work is quick and cheap. But, the typical demolition was an abandoned property in the middle of an occupied block. That kind of work is delicate, slow and expensive with the added cost of stuccoing the two exposed party walls that result from extraction of the offending property.

It is in the DNA of every politician to make things sound better than they are, so the Street administration used the deceptively low number and hoped nobody would be standing at the finish line to count actual activity.

All this makes me worry about Jim Kenney’s pre-K program. When he campaigned for office, Kenney promised “universal pre-K.” Once he took the oath of office, he explained that he’d only fund 5,000 slots – a stunning reversal from “universal” – and that the lion's share of his beverage tax (which was to be dedicated solely to kids) would go to pay for many things other than pre-K.

Now, we learn Kenney is capping pre-K slots at 2,000 – here are 40,000 eligible kids – and the cash for expansion has been sequestered indefinitely. Kenney’s Incredible Shrinking pre-K is officially floundering, and tough questions have to be asked.

Quite different from shrinking is the expected cost for a new police headquarters. It has soared beyond expectation and reason and will saddle our city with needless debt for decades.

There was no journalistic curiosity when Mayor Kenney announced he was abandoning the West Philly site, on which the city had already invested almost $50 million, and acquiring the Inquirer building as an alternative. He announced the change and the conversation quickly became about the new site and how much more useful it will be. Nobody in the administration publicly labored the matter of debt and long-term costs. Why worry our “pretty little heads”?

Well, we’ve recently learned the ultimate cost of the new headquarters may approach $450 million – almost $200 million more than expected just a few months ago. The stupendous increase is the result of a bouillabaisse of interest rates and tax credits that don't work in our favor.

Add the discarded $50 million for West Philly and the newly materialized, additional $200 million debt for the Inquirer building, and you've got a major screw-up in progress. If this project continues to advance, fully knowing it is almost $ 250 million more than the West Philly site –  which we still own – it will be a major condemnation of those who lead our government.

Philadelphia Democrats have for decades adopted the policy of “borrow, spend, pray.” Consequently, the city pension fund is underwater by almost $6 billion while the teachers’ pension fund deficit can be measured in the billions as well. Our school district needs $5 billion for urgent infrastructure improvements. Our streets are below national standards, and we've got more poor and illiterate citizens than any other big American city. Incontestably, Kenney is continuing our rotten political legacy.

On one hand, we've got Kenney’s fast disappearing pre-K, and, on the other, we’ve got his madly metastasizing debt on the new police headquarters. My hope is that he will ultimately knuckle-down and reach beyond “borrow, spend, pray” and put us on a rational path to reduced debt and improved services. That would be a mayor we could all hoist upon our shoulders.

Jay A. McCalla is a former deputy managing director and chief of staff for Philadelphia City Council. He does political commentary on WURD900AM and contributes to Philadelphia Magazine. He can be followed and reached on Twitter @jayamccalla1.