What do you think?
Rate this book
A Prayer for the City
A Prayer for the City is Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Buzz Bissinger's true epic of Philadelphia mayor Ed Rendell, an utterly unique, unorthodox, and idiosyncratic leader who will do anything to save his city: take unions head on, personally lobby President Clinton to save 10,000 defense jobs, or wrestle Smiley the Pig on Hot Dog Day--all the while bearing in mind the eternal fickleness of constituents whose favor may hinge on a missed garbage pick-up or an overzealous meter maid.
It is also the story of citizens in crisis: a woman fighting ceaselessly to give her great-grandchildren a better life, a father of six who may lose his job at the Navy Shipyard, and a policy analyst whose experiences as a crime victim tempt her to abandon her job and ideals.
Heart-wrenching and hilarious, alive with detail and insight, A Prayer for the City describes a city on its knees and the rare combination of political courage and optimism that may be the only hope for America's urban centers.
It is also the story of citizens in crisis: a woman fighting ceaselessly to give her great-grandchildren a better life, a father of six who may lose his job at the Navy Shipyard, and a policy analyst whose experiences as a crime victim tempt her to abandon her job and ideals.
Heart-wrenching and hilarious, alive with detail and insight, A Prayer for the City describes a city on its knees and the rare combination of political courage and optimism that may be the only hope for America's urban centers.
448 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1997
100 people are currently reading
1479 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 140 reviews
August 24, 2022
this is probably my favorite book i ever had to read for school.
yes, i gave it 4 stars, because it is sometimes bonkers hard to get through, but hard to think of even a runner up for Book That Changed My Thinking The Most And Also Gave Me The Most Opportunities To Insert Pretentious Factoids Into Polite Conversation. which is a major award.
honestly, i don't think there's another book like this anywhere. i was getting a little cynical about politics at the ripe old age of 18 when i read this (little did i know what was to come), and this restored my faith in at least the local level (temporarily) without being cheesy or overly optimistic.
anyway. this book is very underrated.
and it's by the friday night lights guy, if those words mean anything to you.
part of a series i'm doing in which i review books i read a long time ago, and this is the closest i've ever come to an actual review in doing so
yes, i gave it 4 stars, because it is sometimes bonkers hard to get through, but hard to think of even a runner up for Book That Changed My Thinking The Most And Also Gave Me The Most Opportunities To Insert Pretentious Factoids Into Polite Conversation. which is a major award.
honestly, i don't think there's another book like this anywhere. i was getting a little cynical about politics at the ripe old age of 18 when i read this (little did i know what was to come), and this restored my faith in at least the local level (temporarily) without being cheesy or overly optimistic.
anyway. this book is very underrated.
and it's by the friday night lights guy, if those words mean anything to you.
part of a series i'm doing in which i review books i read a long time ago, and this is the closest i've ever come to an actual review in doing so
December 28, 2018
This was certainly an odd choice for me to read while on vacation, i.e. not in Philadelphia, but such is the library hold queue.
The author spent four years embedded in the first administration of Ed Rendell as Philadelphia mayor (1992-95) and wrote about all the highs (rescuing the budget) and lows (losing the Navy Yard). He had total access to Rendell and his chief of staff David Cohen, whom I liked better after reading this book because I've only heard of him as the the chief lobbyist of Comcast, an outright evil job.
I most enjoyed the descriptions of my city and passionate arguments about how federal government policy screwed over urban areas leading to a vicious cycle of failure and flight. What I liked less was Bissinger's writing style, which I thought was florid, sometimes veering into metaphors that I found barely comprehensible. (After Rendell intervenes in cancelled beauty pageant, we learn that "The [contestants] sat in the front row, pretty and prim, the white sashes proclaiming their states running in neat diagonal lines from shoulder to sternum like cellophane wrapping on a piece of processed cheese" [96]. Uh, I know where my sternum is, what is up with these ladies?)
The other thing I found a little disappointing about this book is that it only covers Rendell's first term as mayor and so, in 2016, reads as being unfinished or ending in the middle of the story. I think of Rendell's tenure, overlapping my high school and college years, as the time when the city changed from being a place my family hardly ever went to (despite living 15 miles away) to being a place I wanted to live in. One thing I remember about Rendell is that at the end of his last term in office, he had a reception for people to take pictures with him, an event which went hours overtime because so many people came, such was his popularity. But as for any of the specific achievements of his second term, I don't remember them and they're not covered here.
Thus, I ended up seeing this book more as a vivid time capsule of Philadelphia in the early '90s and a character sketch of Rendell than as a comprehensive history of how the city was turned around. Still, for me, that made it worthwhile.
The author spent four years embedded in the first administration of Ed Rendell as Philadelphia mayor (1992-95) and wrote about all the highs (rescuing the budget) and lows (losing the Navy Yard). He had total access to Rendell and his chief of staff David Cohen, whom I liked better after reading this book because I've only heard of him as the the chief lobbyist of Comcast, an outright evil job.
I most enjoyed the descriptions of my city and passionate arguments about how federal government policy screwed over urban areas leading to a vicious cycle of failure and flight. What I liked less was Bissinger's writing style, which I thought was florid, sometimes veering into metaphors that I found barely comprehensible. (After Rendell intervenes in cancelled beauty pageant, we learn that "The [contestants] sat in the front row, pretty and prim, the white sashes proclaiming their states running in neat diagonal lines from shoulder to sternum like cellophane wrapping on a piece of processed cheese" [96]. Uh, I know where my sternum is, what is up with these ladies?)
The other thing I found a little disappointing about this book is that it only covers Rendell's first term as mayor and so, in 2016, reads as being unfinished or ending in the middle of the story. I think of Rendell's tenure, overlapping my high school and college years, as the time when the city changed from being a place my family hardly ever went to (despite living 15 miles away) to being a place I wanted to live in. One thing I remember about Rendell is that at the end of his last term in office, he had a reception for people to take pictures with him, an event which went hours overtime because so many people came, such was his popularity. But as for any of the specific achievements of his second term, I don't remember them and they're not covered here.
Thus, I ended up seeing this book more as a vivid time capsule of Philadelphia in the early '90s and a character sketch of Rendell than as a comprehensive history of how the city was turned around. Still, for me, that made it worthwhile.
November 3, 2020
first and foremost i think this book sucks because it does not perfectly synthesize an account of philadelphia politics in the nineties grounded in my own personal political opinions and value system. bissinger spends roughly 23% of his time sucking david cohen off and another 12-15% cramming as many metaphors as he can into each and every paragraph. he does a mediocre job of humanizing ed rendell (but not for lack of trying) and condescends to labor movements and minority advocates throughout. overall a shining example of why i will never be a successful critic.
February 15, 2015
If you loved the West Wing TV series, there are good chances that you’ll like this book. The author somehow finagled permission to be a fly on the wall during the Ed Rendell’s first term as Philadelphia’s Mayor (1992 – 1995), embedding himself in the Chief of Staff’s office, sitting in the shadows during executive meetings, even listening outside the door during tense confidential negotiations over navy yard reuse proposals. Readers are granted shockingly unfettered access to the internal workings of city government at the highest level – we are spectators at the Administration’s finest hours and most cringe-worthy stumbles. I’m still amazed at what Bissinger was allowed to witness.
What makes the narrative even more interesting is that the 1990s was a pivotal turning point for American cities, in a way that some guessed at in the moment but really became apparent only a decade or so later. White flight, the crack epidemic, race riots, Cabrini Green-like public housing projects, and de-industrialization had culminated in horrific conditions that left cities broke, crime-ridden, and plagued with poverty-related issues. Everything peaked in the 1990s: Administrations that realized that they were the last, best chance to “save a dying and obsolete city” took radical measures, capitalized on the economic boom of the 1990s, and entered the 21st century with enough economic momentum and attractive assets to lure in urbanophile Millennials. (See: Philadelphia, thanks to Rendell). The alternative was complete collapse of the city, following by the total implosion of the economy in nearby suburbs (see: Detroit. Gary. Flint). So not only does A Prayer for The City deliver a fascinating insider view, but what we’re watching is a desperate Administration try everything it can think of to pull a City back from the brink. “We’re shameless,” the Chief of Staff told the author. “We’ll play every card.”
The book offers thoughtful, poignant portraits of two men - Mayor Ed Rendell and his Chief of Staff, David Cohen – and in so doing, it offers insights into what it takes in terms of temperament and time allocation to excel at those jobs. We vote for Mayors, but do we actually know what they do, what they can do, to “create change”? Bissinger makes a compelling case that one of the Mayor’s key contributions was his relentless cheerleading: Rendell’s optimism “changed the entire feel of the city, to the point where the perpetual focus wasn’t on the litany of problems, but on what maybe, just maybe, could be done. As if by constantly talking about all that might be coming and planning for it as if it were already here, it somehow was already here. In a way, he wasn’t America’s Mayor but America’s first publicly elected cult leader, winning hearts and minds of hundreds of thousands on the basis of blind faith.” Even if he did have to do it by wrestling with six-foot pig mascots to promote a local hot dog business, or undertake any number of ridiculous shticks to market the city as an entertainment destination for suburbanites with money to burn.
(Of course, I also ate up the fact that both my employer and my boss were mentioned by name in the section about the 5-year financial plan that brought city government back from near-bankruptcy. “A manifesto for dramatic and radical and unprecedented change in an American city” – yeah, I think I’ll tell my Mom that that’s what I do for a living.)
My only reservation is that the narrative flow can feel like learning to drive a manual transmission – the adrenaline rush of union stand-downs and navy yard sale negotiations screech to a halt for a profile of a Philadelphia resident. I understand that the author included these profiles to give the reader a visceral image of the people whose lives hang in the balance, people like a soon-to-be laid-off welder, an African-American grandma raising her great grandkids in a crack neighborhood, a yuppie couple who are driven from their Center City townhouse after one too many violent crimes, etc. It’s all good content, it’s just awkwardly shoe-horned into the Rendall Administration story in a way that’s distracting at best and deflating at worst.
All in all, I can’t believe this isn’t standard reading among urbanists.
What makes the narrative even more interesting is that the 1990s was a pivotal turning point for American cities, in a way that some guessed at in the moment but really became apparent only a decade or so later. White flight, the crack epidemic, race riots, Cabrini Green-like public housing projects, and de-industrialization had culminated in horrific conditions that left cities broke, crime-ridden, and plagued with poverty-related issues. Everything peaked in the 1990s: Administrations that realized that they were the last, best chance to “save a dying and obsolete city” took radical measures, capitalized on the economic boom of the 1990s, and entered the 21st century with enough economic momentum and attractive assets to lure in urbanophile Millennials. (See: Philadelphia, thanks to Rendell). The alternative was complete collapse of the city, following by the total implosion of the economy in nearby suburbs (see: Detroit. Gary. Flint). So not only does A Prayer for The City deliver a fascinating insider view, but what we’re watching is a desperate Administration try everything it can think of to pull a City back from the brink. “We’re shameless,” the Chief of Staff told the author. “We’ll play every card.”
The book offers thoughtful, poignant portraits of two men - Mayor Ed Rendell and his Chief of Staff, David Cohen – and in so doing, it offers insights into what it takes in terms of temperament and time allocation to excel at those jobs. We vote for Mayors, but do we actually know what they do, what they can do, to “create change”? Bissinger makes a compelling case that one of the Mayor’s key contributions was his relentless cheerleading: Rendell’s optimism “changed the entire feel of the city, to the point where the perpetual focus wasn’t on the litany of problems, but on what maybe, just maybe, could be done. As if by constantly talking about all that might be coming and planning for it as if it were already here, it somehow was already here. In a way, he wasn’t America’s Mayor but America’s first publicly elected cult leader, winning hearts and minds of hundreds of thousands on the basis of blind faith.” Even if he did have to do it by wrestling with six-foot pig mascots to promote a local hot dog business, or undertake any number of ridiculous shticks to market the city as an entertainment destination for suburbanites with money to burn.
(Of course, I also ate up the fact that both my employer and my boss were mentioned by name in the section about the 5-year financial plan that brought city government back from near-bankruptcy. “A manifesto for dramatic and radical and unprecedented change in an American city” – yeah, I think I’ll tell my Mom that that’s what I do for a living.)
My only reservation is that the narrative flow can feel like learning to drive a manual transmission – the adrenaline rush of union stand-downs and navy yard sale negotiations screech to a halt for a profile of a Philadelphia resident. I understand that the author included these profiles to give the reader a visceral image of the people whose lives hang in the balance, people like a soon-to-be laid-off welder, an African-American grandma raising her great grandkids in a crack neighborhood, a yuppie couple who are driven from their Center City townhouse after one too many violent crimes, etc. It’s all good content, it’s just awkwardly shoe-horned into the Rendall Administration story in a way that’s distracting at best and deflating at worst.
All in all, I can’t believe this isn’t standard reading among urbanists.
December 30, 2011
What Bissinger has written is both paean and elegy to the once grand, once thriving American city. The focus is Philadelphia, but the story represents the plight of all the large urban centers across the country - cities whose "revitalized" downtowns are deceptive, "a brocade curtain hiding a crumbling stage set."
It's hard to believe that Ed Rendell, newly elected mayor of Philadelphia, would allow Bissinger to follow him around for four years, giving him access to meetings, policy debates, and personal melt-downs. I am astonished. And I'm inclined to agree with the author's view that Mayor Rendell is "a man unafraid to be human."
Ultimately though, Rendell, and his passion to save Philadelphia, is not what fascinated me the most. What the book did is lift the manhole cover on the political machinations, both good and terrible, that keep government snaking along. Do we need government do help us maintain a civilized society? I think we do, but what a sewer! I admire the noble efforts of politicians who enter this befouled environment in order to make a difference, a better life, for their constituents. What they're up against is beyond description, although Bissinger does justice to the attempt. Poverty, racism, drugs, crime, fear, despair, poor public schools, abandoned factories, little health care, and a culture of public dependence. That's the short list.
Although I found this book seriously depressing, I also came away feeling something of the spirit of confidence and hope that all is not ruined. I admit that I'm deeply cynical about politicians and the legislative process - government policies are so often grossly damaging - but this book makes clear that there are people willing to make painful sacrifices for the greater good.
This book is about the possibilities.
It's hard to believe that Ed Rendell, newly elected mayor of Philadelphia, would allow Bissinger to follow him around for four years, giving him access to meetings, policy debates, and personal melt-downs. I am astonished. And I'm inclined to agree with the author's view that Mayor Rendell is "a man unafraid to be human."
Ultimately though, Rendell, and his passion to save Philadelphia, is not what fascinated me the most. What the book did is lift the manhole cover on the political machinations, both good and terrible, that keep government snaking along. Do we need government do help us maintain a civilized society? I think we do, but what a sewer! I admire the noble efforts of politicians who enter this befouled environment in order to make a difference, a better life, for their constituents. What they're up against is beyond description, although Bissinger does justice to the attempt. Poverty, racism, drugs, crime, fear, despair, poor public schools, abandoned factories, little health care, and a culture of public dependence. That's the short list.
Although I found this book seriously depressing, I also came away feeling something of the spirit of confidence and hope that all is not ruined. I admit that I'm deeply cynical about politicians and the legislative process - government policies are so often grossly damaging - but this book makes clear that there are people willing to make painful sacrifices for the greater good.
This book is about the possibilities.
February 18, 2010
I don't know if a better book has been written about local politics. This book may be one of the best ones I've read about politics, period. It's a dizzying portrayal of a big city mayor trying to navigate the shark-infested waters of public employee unions, the media, state and federal government, job loss, white flight, and more. It's both engrossing and deeply depressing. Not perfect (Bissinger lays it on a bit thick sometimes), but overall I loved it.
December 11, 2024
Read this back in the day. Great book about cities and the great city of Philadelphia.
August 10, 2024
A good read. I enjoyed it quite a bit. A fun in-depth look into the functions of a city. Close to a 5 but I just needed a little more honest discussion of the shortcomings of Ed Rendell. Really good though.
March 21, 2018
I quote here a recent column from George Will (not my cup of tea, but whatever) talking about L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti - Although presidents Andrew Johnson , Grover Cleveland and Calvin Coolidge had been mayors of Greeneville, Tenn., Buffalo and Northampton, Mass., respectively, no mayor has gone directly from a city hall to the White House. But the 44th president came from eight years in the nation’s most docile and least admirable state legislature (Barack Obama effectively began running for president as soon as he escaped to Washington from Springfield, Ill.). The 45th came from six bankruptcies and an excruciating television show. Will goes on to quote Fiorello La Guardia - "There is no Republican or Democratic way to pick up the garbage.”
Our increasing nationalization of politics at both the federal and state level is so very depressing. And local politics is not immune from these pressures, but to me, there are still signs of cities functioning as laboratories of democracy.
Lo and behold, about a year ago the Amazon robots (or whatever they use to send us cheap deals for our e-readers) thought I would enjoy a 1997 book about Philadelphia. Maybe the robots knew I had loved Friday Night Lights, or that my remaining Jersey side of the family has made the trek from Newark to Middlesex County to South Jersey. Or maybe it knew that I have an undergrad political science degree. No matter the reason, the robots were so on point about this one.
Simply put, this is one of, if not THE finest books about governing that I have ever read. And I've read your Teddy White's, and your Hunter Thompson's, and your Game Changes, and your McCullough biographies. Maybe what sets it apart is that the campaign (usually the much sexier part) is so very secondary in this book to the actual act and pressures of governing. More likely what sets it apart is the brilliance of Bizzinger. As he has demonstrated time and time again, he knows what he is doing.
So much to say about this book, but as a small note of praise, the e-reader indicates that I made 45 highlights from this book. I usually don't highlight books ever since finishing undergrad and law school. (What the heck is the point? There is no mid-term in adulthood to prepare for). This one should be assigned in all of your Poli Sci classes.
Another important point about this book is that it is very much of its time. Hard to imagine how much the death of the great American City was discussed in the late 90s. Even as late as the 2004 election and the W efforts in the suburbs and exurbs. Cities now are alive and thriving. Indeed, it is suburbs that need your prayers today. Bizzinger hits on so many ideas that are so relevant today (this one belongs up there as much as any of them in understanding the Trump election).
Issues like the decline in manufacturing, corporate welfare, crime policy and it's resulting politics of race. I mean this as a great compliment to both Bissinger and Coates, but the red-lining discussion is better here than in Coates' "The Case for Reparations." What is so impressive is that Bissinger had all of this in 1997. Heck, this was even before "The Wire" - which you will see so many echoes.
Finally, an additional point on the subject of this book - Mayor Ed Rendell. Boy, the comparisons to Clinton (Bill, not Hillary) really are uncanny. And I mean that both very positively and negatively. The skilled technocratic policy-making. The politics of triangulation. But of course, the boorish behavior. The Lisa DePaulo story in this one, especially through the lens of me-too and 2018 seems so very terrible. Ed Rendell would struggle in today's political environment, but maybe that is also an indictment of our current political environment in addition to an indictment of Mayor Rendell.
Our increasing nationalization of politics at both the federal and state level is so very depressing. And local politics is not immune from these pressures, but to me, there are still signs of cities functioning as laboratories of democracy.
Lo and behold, about a year ago the Amazon robots (or whatever they use to send us cheap deals for our e-readers) thought I would enjoy a 1997 book about Philadelphia. Maybe the robots knew I had loved Friday Night Lights, or that my remaining Jersey side of the family has made the trek from Newark to Middlesex County to South Jersey. Or maybe it knew that I have an undergrad political science degree. No matter the reason, the robots were so on point about this one.
Simply put, this is one of, if not THE finest books about governing that I have ever read. And I've read your Teddy White's, and your Hunter Thompson's, and your Game Changes, and your McCullough biographies. Maybe what sets it apart is that the campaign (usually the much sexier part) is so very secondary in this book to the actual act and pressures of governing. More likely what sets it apart is the brilliance of Bizzinger. As he has demonstrated time and time again, he knows what he is doing.
So much to say about this book, but as a small note of praise, the e-reader indicates that I made 45 highlights from this book. I usually don't highlight books ever since finishing undergrad and law school. (What the heck is the point? There is no mid-term in adulthood to prepare for). This one should be assigned in all of your Poli Sci classes.
Another important point about this book is that it is very much of its time. Hard to imagine how much the death of the great American City was discussed in the late 90s. Even as late as the 2004 election and the W efforts in the suburbs and exurbs. Cities now are alive and thriving. Indeed, it is suburbs that need your prayers today. Bizzinger hits on so many ideas that are so relevant today (this one belongs up there as much as any of them in understanding the Trump election).
Issues like the decline in manufacturing, corporate welfare, crime policy and it's resulting politics of race. I mean this as a great compliment to both Bissinger and Coates, but the red-lining discussion is better here than in Coates' "The Case for Reparations." What is so impressive is that Bissinger had all of this in 1997. Heck, this was even before "The Wire" - which you will see so many echoes.
Finally, an additional point on the subject of this book - Mayor Ed Rendell. Boy, the comparisons to Clinton (Bill, not Hillary) really are uncanny. And I mean that both very positively and negatively. The skilled technocratic policy-making. The politics of triangulation. But of course, the boorish behavior. The Lisa DePaulo story in this one, especially through the lens of me-too and 2018 seems so very terrible. Ed Rendell would struggle in today's political environment, but maybe that is also an indictment of our current political environment in addition to an indictment of Mayor Rendell.
February 3, 2016
There's a good book to be found in the text of this book; the political chess-playing on its own would make a three-, maybe four-star book. But as it's presented, Bissinger's too fundamentally dishonest and crowd-pleasing in his presentation for this to merit serious consideration as meaningful nonfiction. He seems to lack all respect for his presumed audience, between his narrative gimmicks and the sheer transparency of his emotional manipulation; it comes across as an insecurity in the strength of the story he's chosen, which is unfortunate, as it was strong enough without his intrusive modifications. Some of this is small stuff, like his providing gratuitous details to no purpose (half a page listing Philadelphia's firsts, half a page of the names of ships built at the navy yard, etc.), which feels mostly like an attempt at padding out a term paper; he might argue that such expansive lists were included to impress sheer scale upon the reader, but simple numbers would be sufficient to impress that same scale. His choice, too, to take intermittent excursions from the overtly political bulk of the text to drop in on the lives of four citizens feels like another misjudgement of his audience, like either desperate attempts to keep his audience from getting bored or periodical reminders that this book's story of politics is a fundamentally human one, as if that could ever be forgotten. His personal biases also come across without much effort made toward concealment (and the efforts that are made are so lackluster as to have the effecting of highlighting), and without even bothering forth arguments in their favor, let alone successful ones.
Most concerning is the artificiality of the narrative he massages into such a construction so as to be able to say to any kind of reader (broadly, we might break these potential subsets into pro-government and anti-government groups), "Ha, I proved you wrong. This isn't going where you thought it was, and I'm not supporting your case," but also, "You should be commended for believing that, but that doesn't make you right." This frustrating double-rebuttal is not dubious for the emotion it provokes; frustration is a perfectly valid emotion to elicit, and likely would have been the one elicited by a straighter retelling of the facts (indeed, even without Bissinger's reckless and undecorous ramping-up, the undoctored version of events would likely play as black comedy with an honestly-earned, multifaceted tragicomic tone), but the manner of extraction here removes any power from the fact of the situation and gives it all to Bissinger himself; under the guise of offering a balanced portrayal, Bissinger actually merely ensures that his book will end up as utterly unchallenging to readers of any and all points of view. He seems to have more of a congratulatory interest in lionizing himself and his readers for whatever beliefs they may or may not have in America's system of government, and in blaming its players broadly, than in truly analyzing that same system. As a result, this book fails my standard litmus test for effective nonfiction, which is, roughly, to raise as many more questions as it answers; Bissinger is uninterested in such questions and answers, assumes his readership is as well, and so disregards them altogether.
Most concerning is the artificiality of the narrative he massages into such a construction so as to be able to say to any kind of reader (broadly, we might break these potential subsets into pro-government and anti-government groups), "Ha, I proved you wrong. This isn't going where you thought it was, and I'm not supporting your case," but also, "You should be commended for believing that, but that doesn't make you right." This frustrating double-rebuttal is not dubious for the emotion it provokes; frustration is a perfectly valid emotion to elicit, and likely would have been the one elicited by a straighter retelling of the facts (indeed, even without Bissinger's reckless and undecorous ramping-up, the undoctored version of events would likely play as black comedy with an honestly-earned, multifaceted tragicomic tone), but the manner of extraction here removes any power from the fact of the situation and gives it all to Bissinger himself; under the guise of offering a balanced portrayal, Bissinger actually merely ensures that his book will end up as utterly unchallenging to readers of any and all points of view. He seems to have more of a congratulatory interest in lionizing himself and his readers for whatever beliefs they may or may not have in America's system of government, and in blaming its players broadly, than in truly analyzing that same system. As a result, this book fails my standard litmus test for effective nonfiction, which is, roughly, to raise as many more questions as it answers; Bissinger is uninterested in such questions and answers, assumes his readership is as well, and so disregards them altogether.
July 22, 2023
Wow. Wow. Wow.
It took me a long time to finish it, but incredibly well done book. Provided a history of the city in a particular time, while also providing a deeper history on certain topics. It told this story while weaving in specific people’s stories/experiences within Philly to highlight what was happening at a larger scale in the city / what Mayor Rendell was working on.
Funny, raw, and objective. I’m not a big sports guy, but I want to read Friday Night Lights for the incredible writing of Bissinger.
It took me a long time to finish it, but incredibly well done book. Provided a history of the city in a particular time, while also providing a deeper history on certain topics. It told this story while weaving in specific people’s stories/experiences within Philly to highlight what was happening at a larger scale in the city / what Mayor Rendell was working on.
Funny, raw, and objective. I’m not a big sports guy, but I want to read Friday Night Lights for the incredible writing of Bissinger.
Read
July 12, 2024A tough one! Kind of hated the POV but appreciated the Philly history and the inside look into how the sausage got made during Rendel’s administration. Just so pro-cop and pro-business. Really want the left-wing history of the city now!
April 20, 2011
Give a great nonfiction writer like Buzz Bissinger unfettered access to a colorful and complicated politician like Ed Rendell and you’re going to get an amazing book.
I don’t hand out five stars too often but “A Prayer for the City” probably deserves six.
This inside look at Rendell’s first term as mayor of Philadelphia is much, much more than a biography of a politician, although it’s a darn good biography. More than anything else, “A Prayer” is a heart-wrenching lamentation about our country’s betrayal of its big cities, and about the ramifications of that.
Bissinger doesn’t shy away from addressing federal policy, in all its wonky and nefarious aspects. But what makes “A Prayer for the City” sing, or make that wail, are its vivid descriptions of how policy affects people on a personal level.
Brilliantly, Bissinger devotes much of the book to Philadelphia residents like Fifi Mazzccua, an aging African-American woman who is single-handedly raising a houseful of grandchildren and great-grandchildren while her son rots in prison; or like Mike McGovern, a city prosecutor who confronts the most atrocious acts of violence in the urban cesspool.
“A Prayer” also dives into the travails of political leadership in our society, where even the rare, well-intentioned elected official must constantly deal with people who put their self-interest ahead of the common good.
If you care about cities – or even if you just care about our country – this book is an important one to read.
I don’t hand out five stars too often but “A Prayer for the City” probably deserves six.
This inside look at Rendell’s first term as mayor of Philadelphia is much, much more than a biography of a politician, although it’s a darn good biography. More than anything else, “A Prayer” is a heart-wrenching lamentation about our country’s betrayal of its big cities, and about the ramifications of that.
Bissinger doesn’t shy away from addressing federal policy, in all its wonky and nefarious aspects. But what makes “A Prayer for the City” sing, or make that wail, are its vivid descriptions of how policy affects people on a personal level.
Brilliantly, Bissinger devotes much of the book to Philadelphia residents like Fifi Mazzccua, an aging African-American woman who is single-handedly raising a houseful of grandchildren and great-grandchildren while her son rots in prison; or like Mike McGovern, a city prosecutor who confronts the most atrocious acts of violence in the urban cesspool.
“A Prayer” also dives into the travails of political leadership in our society, where even the rare, well-intentioned elected official must constantly deal with people who put their self-interest ahead of the common good.
If you care about cities – or even if you just care about our country – this book is an important one to read.
July 2, 2013
I grew up in Philly, spent 16 years of schooling there, and now live in South Jersey and still work in Philly. I learned more about the city during the 1.5 weeks I was reading this book than I did in all that other time combined. The depth of the reporting, the range of stories covered, the ability to sort through reams of information-- it's all really impressive.
But it's not just a Philly book-- it's a book about the slow decay of the American city and the ways people have tried to combat that death, with all the inherent political mess that comes with that territory. Although the 92-96 timeframe may seem dated, it's actually more fascinating now to see it because the book opens with Mayor Rendell saying his economic plan will shape the city for the next 25 years. 21 years after that proclamation, it's possible to really see where some of the changes in this city are rooted.
Every now and then Bissinger gets a little carried away with ludicrous metaphors and imposes his voice on the story in distracting ways (and it was weird how he seemed to immediately and instinctively side with Rendell's camp during the incidents when he sexually harassed and/or actually assaulted women), but overall the prose is strong and clear and crisp and everything else you'd expect from a writer of this pedigree.
But it's not just a Philly book-- it's a book about the slow decay of the American city and the ways people have tried to combat that death, with all the inherent political mess that comes with that territory. Although the 92-96 timeframe may seem dated, it's actually more fascinating now to see it because the book opens with Mayor Rendell saying his economic plan will shape the city for the next 25 years. 21 years after that proclamation, it's possible to really see where some of the changes in this city are rooted.
Every now and then Bissinger gets a little carried away with ludicrous metaphors and imposes his voice on the story in distracting ways (and it was weird how he seemed to immediately and instinctively side with Rendell's camp during the incidents when he sexually harassed and/or actually assaulted women), but overall the prose is strong and clear and crisp and everything else you'd expect from a writer of this pedigree.
August 2, 2017
I liked the intimacy of the account. A bit like watching 'The Wire' if not as well executed.
At times I felt like the treatment of the city's racial dynamics was fairly one sided but never dishonest or disingenuous. He gave an honest account of the Rendell years in Philly from the perspective of the Rendell administration, and he did spend time on the history of cities in the 20th century and how race played a huge role in outcomes (federal housing policy/redlining/etc). That was a high point.
If the author referred to north philly as a desert one more time I would have had to deduct a star...
At times I felt like the treatment of the city's racial dynamics was fairly one sided but never dishonest or disingenuous. He gave an honest account of the Rendell years in Philly from the perspective of the Rendell administration, and he did spend time on the history of cities in the 20th century and how race played a huge role in outcomes (federal housing policy/redlining/etc). That was a high point.
If the author referred to north philly as a desert one more time I would have had to deduct a star...
March 6, 2008
As an inside look at how politics gets done in a big city, this is pretty much unparallelled, and all of its observations about how cities have been abandoned and screwed over are pretty much right on the money.
So why didn't I like this? I think Bissinger's writing is pretty unimpressive - the whole thing has these weird macho New Journalism airs about it, which I recognize as an attempt to spice things up but feels a little overcompensating. Nevertheless, it's 100% necessary reading for understanding why Philly is how it is.
So why didn't I like this? I think Bissinger's writing is pretty unimpressive - the whole thing has these weird macho New Journalism airs about it, which I recognize as an attempt to spice things up but feels a little overcompensating. Nevertheless, it's 100% necessary reading for understanding why Philly is how it is.
December 9, 2008
If you love cities read this. To understand how the American city has been methodically undermined by public policy throughout the 20th century and to see an exceptional pair of men fight the good fight through their own flaws, read this. Very well-written book about the first term of Mayor Rendell in Philadelphia. I live in the city and love the city and this broke my heart, but left me hopeful that there are still people in public service who want cities to survive and maybe, someday, thrive again.
January 10, 2008
details of the operations of a unique city and it's unique mayor. details the life and times of ed rendell (then mayor, now governor) and makes you idolize the man- if your a hard working liberal that is. even if you don't like rendell, you'll learn a lot about him and a lot about what has happened to make philadelphia the way it is today.
November 30, 2011
The author was given complete access to Philadelphia Mayor Ed Rendell during his first term and the book shows the inner workings, both the good and the bad, of running a big city.
January 11, 2016
One of my all-time favorites
March 23, 2024
If you are from Philadelphia, or from the Delaware Valley, then you will want to read this book because this is your history
The author, Buzz Bissingger is best known for his 1990 non-fiction book Friday Night Lights. He is the cousin of Peter Berg, who directed the film adaptation of Bissinger's book Friday Night Lights.
( In a list of the one hundred best books on sports ever, Sports Illustrated ranked Friday Night Lights fourth and the best ever on football. ESPN called Friday Night Lights the best book on sports over the past quarter-century.)
In 1987, while writing for The Philadelphia Inquirer, Bissinger won the Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting for his story on corruption in the Philadelphia court system.
He is a longtime contributing editor at Vanity Fair magazine.
Since he lived in Philadelphia and wrote about the city so much, he could clearly see how the City was dying. When he heard that the charismatic Edward Rendell was running for mayor, he thought that he had to capture the moment.
He dedicated 4 years in following Rendell and his City Team in their attempts to turn America’s fifth largest city around. This book is very well researched and documented and is primarily based on first hand accounts.
Edward Rendell served as as the 96th mayor of Philadelphia from 1992 to 2000. He would move on to serve as the 45th governor of Pennsylvania from 2003 to 2011. He served as chair of the national Democratic Party from 1999 to 2001.
In this book the author also shadows David Cohen.
David L. Cohen is an American businessman, attorney, lobbyist, and diplomat who is now he United States ambassador to Canada. He previously served as the senior advisor to the CEO of Comcast Corporation. Until January 1, 2020, he was senior executive vice president and chief lobbyist for Comcast. He also served as chairman of the board of trustees for the University of Pennsylvania and was chief of staff to former Philadelphia Mayor Ed Rendell.
To flesh out the story and bring it onto the street, he includes the experiences of Linda Morrison, a City Planner and advisor. Jim Mangan, a welder at the Philadelphia Navy Shipyard, Michael McGovern- a prosecutor in the District Attorney’s office, and Fifi Mazzccua- a lifelong city resident who was struggling to raise her great-grandchildren after having raising her grandchildren.
The issues facing the city in this book are of interest to all because they are about the same issues facing all of the large cities in America.
The book closes in a final showdown with the threatened closure of the historic 190 year old Philadelphia Navy Yard. (One of the city’s biggest and most important employers).
After the closure, area politicians scrambled to recruit shipbuilding companies to use the Navy Yard’s large dry docks. Mayor Ed Rendell pursued a deal with German shipbuilder Meyer Werft that fell through in 1995 after Governor Tom Ridge rebuffed the proposal’s $167 million in government incentives as “pure fantasy.” Ironically, two years later, Ridge supported a more expensive deal to bring Norway’s Kvaerner (which later merged with Aker, adopting the latter’s name) to Philadelphia. Ridge’s deal created less than half of the deal Rendell was near to closing and costs taxpayers far, far more money.
This had never been clearly reported by the press around the Capitol in Harrisburg
The author, Buzz Bissingger is best known for his 1990 non-fiction book Friday Night Lights. He is the cousin of Peter Berg, who directed the film adaptation of Bissinger's book Friday Night Lights.
( In a list of the one hundred best books on sports ever, Sports Illustrated ranked Friday Night Lights fourth and the best ever on football. ESPN called Friday Night Lights the best book on sports over the past quarter-century.)
In 1987, while writing for The Philadelphia Inquirer, Bissinger won the Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting for his story on corruption in the Philadelphia court system.
He is a longtime contributing editor at Vanity Fair magazine.
Since he lived in Philadelphia and wrote about the city so much, he could clearly see how the City was dying. When he heard that the charismatic Edward Rendell was running for mayor, he thought that he had to capture the moment.
He dedicated 4 years in following Rendell and his City Team in their attempts to turn America’s fifth largest city around. This book is very well researched and documented and is primarily based on first hand accounts.
Edward Rendell served as as the 96th mayor of Philadelphia from 1992 to 2000. He would move on to serve as the 45th governor of Pennsylvania from 2003 to 2011. He served as chair of the national Democratic Party from 1999 to 2001.
In this book the author also shadows David Cohen.
David L. Cohen is an American businessman, attorney, lobbyist, and diplomat who is now he United States ambassador to Canada. He previously served as the senior advisor to the CEO of Comcast Corporation. Until January 1, 2020, he was senior executive vice president and chief lobbyist for Comcast. He also served as chairman of the board of trustees for the University of Pennsylvania and was chief of staff to former Philadelphia Mayor Ed Rendell.
To flesh out the story and bring it onto the street, he includes the experiences of Linda Morrison, a City Planner and advisor. Jim Mangan, a welder at the Philadelphia Navy Shipyard, Michael McGovern- a prosecutor in the District Attorney’s office, and Fifi Mazzccua- a lifelong city resident who was struggling to raise her great-grandchildren after having raising her grandchildren.
The issues facing the city in this book are of interest to all because they are about the same issues facing all of the large cities in America.
The book closes in a final showdown with the threatened closure of the historic 190 year old Philadelphia Navy Yard. (One of the city’s biggest and most important employers).
After the closure, area politicians scrambled to recruit shipbuilding companies to use the Navy Yard’s large dry docks. Mayor Ed Rendell pursued a deal with German shipbuilder Meyer Werft that fell through in 1995 after Governor Tom Ridge rebuffed the proposal’s $167 million in government incentives as “pure fantasy.” Ironically, two years later, Ridge supported a more expensive deal to bring Norway’s Kvaerner (which later merged with Aker, adopting the latter’s name) to Philadelphia. Ridge’s deal created less than half of the deal Rendell was near to closing and costs taxpayers far, far more money.
This had never been clearly reported by the press around the Capitol in Harrisburg
June 25, 2023
This was a really excellent book. I had read somewhere, I can't remember where, that it was the best Philadelphia book ever written, and it might be true. You could say it is outdated a bit, but that makes me feel old and I think that is unfair. All this stuff was happening when I was in high school and college, which was not that long ago in the grand scheme of things.
This is not just a Philly book either. It is perfect for understanding what happened to the great American cities in the second half of the 20th century. I am absolutely going to assign a chapter or part of a chapter to my US History students. I feel like I know this stuff pretty well and I still had my eyes opened by this book. The biggest thing is white flight...I had always had a relatively simplistic attitude about what actually happened there. It seems self explanatory, right? Black families moved in, and white families moved to the suburbs because they were racist. And that is not inaccurate, but the part I didn't understand was the way the government engineered it. Bissinger calls it "government-engineered incentive to leave." Essentially, the feds told all the white families, we are investing in the suburbs and we will back your mortgage if you move there. But we will not help you if you try to get a mortgage in the city. The government basically wrote off the working class parts of the cities. So the government basically abandons these neighborhoods, gives white people incentive to leave, traps black families in these emptying, dying places, and then acts surprised about crime rates in the 80s and 90s.
I am extremely impressed by the level of research that went into this. Bissinger basically moved into City Hall for years, and he was there for everything. Literally almost everything. If you read the notes at the end, he was there for the hospital visits, and the phone calls, and the angry meetings, and the parties, and the secret negotiations. He was always there. The only times he wasn't there was when he was visiting his other people he follows in different parts of the city. How did he sleep and see his own family? It's nuts. You get the sense that he really tried hard to be neutral, but it is kind of impossible. He's pretty much always on Rendell's side. I don't see how he could have avoided that though. If you are embedded with a Mayor for years, how are you not going to lean towards the Mayor's point of view?
This is also an amazing book for understanding what it is like to be mayor of a big city. Dealing with the state, dealing with the unions, with Jersey, with Washington, with the City Council, business owners, the sports teams...everything. I don't think I have ever read a book quite like it. I wonder if new mayors read this book before inauguration day. They should.
This is not just a Philly book either. It is perfect for understanding what happened to the great American cities in the second half of the 20th century. I am absolutely going to assign a chapter or part of a chapter to my US History students. I feel like I know this stuff pretty well and I still had my eyes opened by this book. The biggest thing is white flight...I had always had a relatively simplistic attitude about what actually happened there. It seems self explanatory, right? Black families moved in, and white families moved to the suburbs because they were racist. And that is not inaccurate, but the part I didn't understand was the way the government engineered it. Bissinger calls it "government-engineered incentive to leave." Essentially, the feds told all the white families, we are investing in the suburbs and we will back your mortgage if you move there. But we will not help you if you try to get a mortgage in the city. The government basically wrote off the working class parts of the cities. So the government basically abandons these neighborhoods, gives white people incentive to leave, traps black families in these emptying, dying places, and then acts surprised about crime rates in the 80s and 90s.
I am extremely impressed by the level of research that went into this. Bissinger basically moved into City Hall for years, and he was there for everything. Literally almost everything. If you read the notes at the end, he was there for the hospital visits, and the phone calls, and the angry meetings, and the parties, and the secret negotiations. He was always there. The only times he wasn't there was when he was visiting his other people he follows in different parts of the city. How did he sleep and see his own family? It's nuts. You get the sense that he really tried hard to be neutral, but it is kind of impossible. He's pretty much always on Rendell's side. I don't see how he could have avoided that though. If you are embedded with a Mayor for years, how are you not going to lean towards the Mayor's point of view?
This is also an amazing book for understanding what it is like to be mayor of a big city. Dealing with the state, dealing with the unions, with Jersey, with Washington, with the City Council, business owners, the sports teams...everything. I don't think I have ever read a book quite like it. I wonder if new mayors read this book before inauguration day. They should.
June 9, 2021
This was a fascinating book - the author (I'm not quite sure how he blagged his way into it and I highly doubt you would ever get this level of access today) managed to get privileged insider access to the first term of the Philadelphia mayoralty of Ed Rendell in the years 1992-95. He utilised this front row seat to produce a compelling history of the struggle to save a city that many had already given up on and riven by the familiar American urban themes of decay - drugs, violence, debt, racism and the flight of the middle classes to the safety of the suburbs.
Once the scene is set for just how badly the city of Philadelphia is screwed (hint; extremely) for the incoming mayor and his team, then the book swiftly chronicles the various elemental challenges that face the new city administration - starting with the monumental task of facing down the public unions in order to stop the city going bankrupt. Once that is achieved, the tasks only get harder! The mayor and his workaholic Chief of Staff, David Cohen, strive against seemingly impossible odds to create a future for their city and, amazingly, when you consider the long-term trends stacked up against them, succeed.
Rendell and Cohen come across as the right kinds of public servant - bold, energetic, visionary - but we also meet far too many of the wrong kind, only interested in power and the rewards that flow from that. Bissinger also further contextualises the struggle to save the city by framing the lives of four of its inhabitants throughout the pages - an African American great-grandmother who has already lost much of her family to drugs and violence in the ghettos of North Philly, a welder at the once-mighty Navy Yards, a public homicide prosecutor who seems to take a savage delight in putting away criminals for life without parole and a committed evangelist for city living who is ultimately disillusioned and forced to move to the safety of the suburbs after one mugging too many.
The narrative has a novelistic feel to it and even though the action is spread over four years, the tension of these epochal events is maintained throughout. The characters also leap off the page - I do think that Bissinger has more than a touch of Stockholm Syndrome when it comes to his portrayals of Cohen and Rendell but when you consider their achievement today, the saving of the city itself, this is understandable.
Should be required reading for anyone interested in politics, urban decay and renewal, or just anyone who likes a heroic tale enthrallingly told.
Once the scene is set for just how badly the city of Philadelphia is screwed (hint; extremely) for the incoming mayor and his team, then the book swiftly chronicles the various elemental challenges that face the new city administration - starting with the monumental task of facing down the public unions in order to stop the city going bankrupt. Once that is achieved, the tasks only get harder! The mayor and his workaholic Chief of Staff, David Cohen, strive against seemingly impossible odds to create a future for their city and, amazingly, when you consider the long-term trends stacked up against them, succeed.
Rendell and Cohen come across as the right kinds of public servant - bold, energetic, visionary - but we also meet far too many of the wrong kind, only interested in power and the rewards that flow from that. Bissinger also further contextualises the struggle to save the city by framing the lives of four of its inhabitants throughout the pages - an African American great-grandmother who has already lost much of her family to drugs and violence in the ghettos of North Philly, a welder at the once-mighty Navy Yards, a public homicide prosecutor who seems to take a savage delight in putting away criminals for life without parole and a committed evangelist for city living who is ultimately disillusioned and forced to move to the safety of the suburbs after one mugging too many.
The narrative has a novelistic feel to it and even though the action is spread over four years, the tension of these epochal events is maintained throughout. The characters also leap off the page - I do think that Bissinger has more than a touch of Stockholm Syndrome when it comes to his portrayals of Cohen and Rendell but when you consider their achievement today, the saving of the city itself, this is understandable.
Should be required reading for anyone interested in politics, urban decay and renewal, or just anyone who likes a heroic tale enthrallingly told.
January 20, 2021
It's difficult to imagine how a writer could capture the rich, complex, heartbreaking tapestry of urban crisis as eloquently and memorably as Buzz Bissinger does here. Despite the setting - an era I was too young to remember and a city I don't know well - I was immediately drawn in by the urgency of the problems and the tenacity of its protagonists. Chief among the countless things Bissinger does exceptionally well is his ability to paint the tightly woven threads of urban decay, never taking his eye off of the human element, but showing how the city's challenges impact different individuals and different communities in different ways. It adds to the discouraging complexity, the nagging idea that no matter how a problem like violence or housing or industrial decline is addressed, someone is going to be worse off for it. Ultimately, though, this sentiment is drowned out by a much more uplifting message: that a little bit of hope, determination and resiliency can go a very, very long way, even in the face of challenges that seem insurmountable.
Reading this book 25 years after it was written, you do notice that the way Bissinger talks about certain issues - race and gentrification, to name two - is at times a little outmoded. That said, he writes with an extraordinary amount of compassion and empathy, and with his characteristically direct writing style, he beautifully tells the stories of many people whose stories aren't often told. I appreciate, too, that he isn't overly hagiographic toward his subject, Mayor Rendell. He praises his attributes and lays bare his shortcomings.
This book fascinated me as someone studying policy, to see the battles and dilemmas a high-level decision maker has to face day-in day-out. But the depiction of the human element of this story may stick with me more. The delicate care with which Bissinger treats his subjects, and the skill he exhibits in weaving them together to build a cohesive picture of a city struggling to survive, is what makes this book so worth reading.
Reading this book 25 years after it was written, you do notice that the way Bissinger talks about certain issues - race and gentrification, to name two - is at times a little outmoded. That said, he writes with an extraordinary amount of compassion and empathy, and with his characteristically direct writing style, he beautifully tells the stories of many people whose stories aren't often told. I appreciate, too, that he isn't overly hagiographic toward his subject, Mayor Rendell. He praises his attributes and lays bare his shortcomings.
This book fascinated me as someone studying policy, to see the battles and dilemmas a high-level decision maker has to face day-in day-out. But the depiction of the human element of this story may stick with me more. The delicate care with which Bissinger treats his subjects, and the skill he exhibits in weaving them together to build a cohesive picture of a city struggling to survive, is what makes this book so worth reading.
August 19, 2019
Prayer for the City is a fantastic political biography. Bissinger draws you very close to Ed Rendell during his first administration as Mayor of Philadelphia. The writing is captivating and one can really feel the pull of various political forces in a City experiencing strife. In addition to the Mayor, his Chief of Staff David L. Cohen gets due credit for fantastic work. Bissinger paints all the big challenges that the administration faces with personal color and heart-wrenching tragedy (especially in the area of crime). Crime and poverty are the most common challenges of Rendell's first term and we meet family after family who lose their loved ones too soon due to gun violence. Bissinger's treatment of the DA is dated at best and now doubtlessly out of line with the present need for criminal justice reform. He chalks up prosecutorial 'wins' in ways that feel uncomfortable to read through the lens of the present day. The chapters on public housing feel incredibly contemporary as if the same challenge has persisted unabated (in New York) 30 years later. The most fascinating for me was the veneration of Philadelphia as the 'workshop of the world' particularly as the most prominent ship building center of the 19th C. United States. He bolsters Philadelphia's past to remind us of how its economic collapse was a more precipitous and calamitous fall than we might otherwise imagine. We feel Rendell's and Cohen's limitless energy and passion for pursuing manufacturing jobs knowing, as they do, that it is a Sisyphean task; Philadelphia's future wealth will be in the service sector not industry. An excellent book of its type - far more captivating and inspiring than a self-congratulatory political autobiography.
January 22, 2022
The characterization of this book as “outdated” is beyond generous.
I was taken aback by the racist, classist, anti-union sympathies that the author revealed at every turn. He essentially glosses over two separate incidents of violence against women at the hands of Mayor Rendell, which in today’s world would be grounds to demand his resignation. He puts an assistant DA—who clearly gets off on condemning young Black men to life sentences—on a pedestal.
And to make matters worse, the writing itself is groan-inducing. Here is one of my favorite examples: “It was pouring outside, and the rain only oppressed the streets even more, robbing them of what little crevices of life and light there might have been…The church inside was cavernous and slightly musty smelling. A chandelier with naked bulbs hung limply from the ceiling, and an American flag stood in the front in a tired salute.”
Why didn’t I just stop reading if I hated it so much, you might wonder. Well, I’m very stubborn and insist on finishing what I’ve started. But please learn from my mistakes—save yourself the time and energy and find a different book to read.
I was taken aback by the racist, classist, anti-union sympathies that the author revealed at every turn. He essentially glosses over two separate incidents of violence against women at the hands of Mayor Rendell, which in today’s world would be grounds to demand his resignation. He puts an assistant DA—who clearly gets off on condemning young Black men to life sentences—on a pedestal.
And to make matters worse, the writing itself is groan-inducing. Here is one of my favorite examples: “It was pouring outside, and the rain only oppressed the streets even more, robbing them of what little crevices of life and light there might have been…The church inside was cavernous and slightly musty smelling. A chandelier with naked bulbs hung limply from the ceiling, and an American flag stood in the front in a tired salute.”
Why didn’t I just stop reading if I hated it so much, you might wonder. Well, I’m very stubborn and insist on finishing what I’ve started. But please learn from my mistakes—save yourself the time and energy and find a different book to read.
May 11, 2017
My son (who lived in Philadelphia for two years while attending graduate school at Temple) gave me this book because he wanted me to understand more about what had happened to the city in the nineties, after it hit rock bottom. Mayor Ed Rendell and his chief of staff, David Cohen, did some pretty remarkable stuff to turn things around in a city that was a mess--crime, debit, you name it. I liked reading about these very different men and their ways of attacking problems and serving their city. I also liked the side stories about individuals in the city, and those were quite gripping at times. However, some of the detail and style of the book wore me out. I loved it at first, but it was just too much after awhile. Perhaps it was just the mood I am in right now. Also, the salty language was more than enough for me. I know this is just how many people talk, but no thanks!
January 4, 2024
I really enjoyed and learned from this read.
It’s crazy to think about just how much access the Rendell administration gave Buzz. This book is not a page turner — there are parts that are thrilling, but because of the sort of context-laying (often necessary) and statistics included, some parts feel MUCH slower. Some of the language throughout is a reminder that this book was written in the ’90s and not in the best of ways.
There is a lot of drooling over the work ethic, accomplishments, etc. of a particular individual and while they do seem remarkable as a person, it does start to feel repetitive.
I definitely feel a stronger attachment to Philly; a greater appreciation of what local government does, can do, and cannot do; and a sense of dread.
Being put in the room where it happens is pretty cool.
It’s crazy to think about just how much access the Rendell administration gave Buzz. This book is not a page turner — there are parts that are thrilling, but because of the sort of context-laying (often necessary) and statistics included, some parts feel MUCH slower. Some of the language throughout is a reminder that this book was written in the ’90s and not in the best of ways.
There is a lot of drooling over the work ethic, accomplishments, etc. of a particular individual and while they do seem remarkable as a person, it does start to feel repetitive.
I definitely feel a stronger attachment to Philly; a greater appreciation of what local government does, can do, and cannot do; and a sense of dread.
Being put in the room where it happens is pretty cool.
December 21, 2020
This is not only an engaging and thorough look at the state of American cities in the 20th century, but a revealing look at one of America’s most overlooked cities, Philadelphia. Rereading this book in 2020 while living in Philadelphia, I wonder how much of the issues highlighted by the book have been addressed? The city is way more gentrified, Queen Village is now a true Yuppie Paradise as is Graduate Hospital. Is that all it takes? To have the neighborhoods that were underserved and poor, be filled up by wealthier residents who have more clout and money in order to be turned around? As those same gentrifiers turn their focus to North Philadelphia, will it look and feel entirely different by 2030? Probably. I wonder what Power Broker Extraordinaire Cohen would say about the city now.
January 8, 2026
When A Prayer for the City was recommended to me, if you would’ve told me that a tale of Ed Rendell’s first term as Mayor of Philadelphia would become one of my favorites, I would’ve said, “ha!” The only book I’ve read thrice. Trials, triumphs, and tribulations in our City of Brotherly Love alongside the ups and downs of one of modern Pennsylvania’s most interesting politicians. Racial politics. Competing neighborhood interests. The glory of yesteryear juxtaposed with the cold unknown of modernity. Stories told from Philadelphians of all walks of life. A scrappy mayor fighting for his scrappy city against state and federal headwinds. This book has it all. Required reading for anyone who loves Philly. Incredibly well written.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 140 reviews