Jeff Brown Wants To Be Mayor of Philly, Here Is A Quick Look At Him.
by Alex Lloyd Gross
Feb 3, 2023
Jeff Brown has announced his candidacy for Mayor of Philadelphia. He has zero political experience, unlike others that have served the city in some capacity. Brown is a grocer. He was the former CEO of Brown’s Shoprite stores . These stores were in Philadelphia and it’s suburbs. “I’ve been working with unions, I can organize and I recognize where there is a need and I fill it” Brown said. When asked about is lack of experience, he said “We’ve been picking leaders wrong and the people we elect leave the problems alone”. He thinks he has fresh ideas.
He cannot stand the way Jim Kenney has been running the city. The regressive soda tax is only the tip of the iceberg. “It was stupid, it hurts the poor and I know where the bulk of the tax came from, it’s poor inner city working people that can least afford to pay it. This is in contrast to reports that the center city area generates the most money for the tax. “This has killed businesses. His Shoprite store was put out of business. “We were on the border and people left my store , stopped going there and went into Delco stores. We could not sustain ourselves, having lost 30 percent of our business”, he said. It has been successful for my suburban stores not in Philly. In spite of this fact, Brown said “I cannot commit to getting rid of this, or any tax at this time, the city is such dire straights,”.
Crime in the city is rampant. Jeff Brown knows this and he says that he will work with Larry Krasner to get it under control. “I believe that I can work with him on some issues,” Brown said. The progressive DA is adamant about cutting breaks to some accused criminals and plea bargaining down cases that a good percentage of the Philadelphia population does not agree with. “We have got to get gun crimes under control and them prosecuted “, he said. He would like to make a capital investment in police forensics.
Brown said that he is very much involved in neighborhoods and he said when people came to him with problems, he was successful 98 percent of the time, especially when he helped get previously incarcerated people back to work. However, he said that the city is in a downward spiral for attract and retain businesses in the city.
Asked if he would go back to running his Shoprite stores if his bid is not success, he replied “probably not, I may do charitable work or go back in some capacity, but not in a CEO capacity.