Why I’m Running for Phoenixville Borough Council as a Socialist

My name is John Parker Studebaker. I’m a 27-year-old delivery driver, student, and political activist running for Borough Council in Phoenixville’s West Ward. I wanted to take the time to answer a question I have been asked time and time again: “Why are you running as a socialist?”

The quickest answer is because I am a socialist, I believe that housing, education, and healthcare are fundamental human rights. I believe that our government should be run by the working class for the working class, not billionaires. And most importantly, I believe all of these things are possible, just not under our current system of capitalism that rewards greed and strips us of our human dignity.

But there is a longer answer and one that applies right here in Phoenixville. As a delivery driver, I spend my time traveling around our town and more and more it is becoming either luxury apartments, luxury townhomes, or outrageously priced single-family homes. When talking with neighbors, friends, and co-workers, the number one thing that comes up is affordability and how they hate to move but they have no choice as rent has gone up or they just can’t find a place to buy that is reasonable.

When we started this campaign, affordability was a driving motivation as I saw more co-workers and friends leave our town, and, in my work as an activist, I heard more and more stories of landlord greed and already failing “luxury homes”. Capitalism can’t fix the affordability crisis. We need rent control, we need an eviction moratorium and eviction diversion programs, and above all we need new affordable housing. But our elected leaders won’t raise their voices; they are happy to sit back and let the working class get pushed out of the town they built.

The interest of the Borough Council is clear. If you’re leaving Phoenixville on Kimberton Road, you’ll notice the lack of a sidewalk, forcing people walking into town on the shoulder right next to traffic. This lack of sidewalk leaves Eland Downe and Pickering Run with no safe, walkable option to town. Meaning that two major developments are left unwalkable. But these are working class neighborhoods, not luxury developments, so the Borough lets it go. The developers can’t profit off of safety, so why does the council care?

There are polices we can push to immediately start making change. Our plan day one is to push through an eviction diversion program. This program will help working people stay in their homes by allowing for third-party mediation between landlords and tenants, saving court costs by settling disputes without going to court and without putting an eviction on a tenant’s record. Our next step on housing will be to pass a rent control resolution calling for our state representatives to enact rent control. This is crucial as Reading City Council just passed a similar resolution. We must use our power at the local level to fight for higher change, not just sit back and throw up our hands.

Parking has been a hot button issue as well. We need to grant all employees of businesses in Phoenixville free parking passes for the lots. And we need to secure free parking on Sundays for Phoenixville residents. People who live in unwalkable neighborhoods should not be charged for enjoying their own town. For the weekends during the street closure to make the lots more accessible the Borough can provide a parking shuttle.

In front of the Borough Council building, they fly the Progress Pride flag. I believe this perfectly sums up how politics have been treated in Phoenixville. All show and lacking any substance. What’s progressive about gentrification? I believe progress goes beyond flying a flag. It’s in our policies and values. It’s in our actions. Borough Council’s actions have been anything but progressive. I believe we can fight for so much more. I don’t believe in the developers that are building low-quality, overpriced housing. I don’t believe in the politicians that sold out our town.

I believe in the working class that built this town and stuck with it through thick and thin. I’m a socialist because I believe that a better future is possible and together we can fight and win a town for the working class, not the developers.