In West Philly, a political battle is brewing over development and public safety

Jamie Gauthier is in an unfamiliar position.

Just four years ago, the West Philadelphia City Council member was a political newcomer who stunned the establishment by toppling incumbent Jannie Blackwell, whose family had a representative on Council for more than four decades.

Now, after a turbulent first term navigating the pandemic and rising rates of gun violence, Gauthier is launching her reelection bid to represent the city’s 3rd District ahead of the Democratic primary.

And the progressive lawmaker will have to defend her seat from someone else who wants to upend the status quo.

She’ll be challenged by Jabari K. Jones, the 28-year-old head of the West Philadelphia Corridor Collaborative, a coalition of small businesses and entrepreneurs. He’s running as a moderate Democrat with a tough-on-crime posture and believes Gauthier’s housing policy is repressive to development.

The race could be among the most competitive primaries in the district Council races.

All 17 City Council seats — 10 geographic district seats, seven representing the city at-large — are up for election this year. District Council members are responsible for handling the bulk of constituent service requests, and much of their job is centered on making decisions related to land use, where they can exercise near-total control.

Only a few of the district-level incumbents will see serious challenges this cycle. Jones, who plans to formally announce his run Friday, expects to get a boost from business interests, and his messaging on crime could resonate as the city is in the midst of an unprecedented gun-violence crisis.

But Gauthier has proved formidable at generating grassroots enthusiasm. She’ll likely be backed by some of the city’s most politically powerful labor unions, and she said she’s built relationships with elected Democrats across the ideological spectrum.

At her campaign launch event Saturday, Gauthier was joined by a gaggle of officials ranging from activist-lawmakers to longtime establishment types.

“I wouldn’t be running for reelection if I didn’t feel like I have strong support from the communities in my district,” she said in an interview. “And I feel like I’ve done a lot to build the relationships that I will need to be successful in May. So I’m ready.”

The campaign is expected to center on housing and development. An urban planner by trade, Gauthier ran on a pledge to bring more affordable housing to the district, which stretches from University City to Cobbs Creek, and includes Cedar Park, Mantua, and Kingsessing.

Prior to her taking office, some activists questioned whether Gauthier would be too cozy with developers or swayed by corporate interests because she had the support of Philadelphia 3.0, an outside spending group funded by wealthy investors who spent hundreds of thousands to get her elected.

But one of her signature policy decisions has angered housing developers who say it lacks incentives to build in the neighborhood.

In 2021, she championed legislation that mandates affordable housing for new, large residential projects proposed in a large swath of her district. The legislation, also called mandatory inclusionary zoning, took effect last summer and intended to keep low- and middle-income residents from being priced out of their neighborhoods.

» READ MORE: Philly Council President Darrell Clarke considers mandatory affordable housing for development in his district

There’s some dispute as to whether the approach is working, and Jones has been critical of it, saying developers will take their projects elsewhere. He said that the legislation is too “one-size-fits-all” and that he prefers incentivizing developers to build affordable housing through subsidies.

“Businesses can make the decision to say, ‘Hey, I can put this money anywhere and build this project anywhere. Am I gonna build it in an area where I have to deal with overwhelming obstacles?’” Jones said.

Gauthier said incentives alone are not enough.

“If we give developers the choice of whether they’re going to build affordable housing, they’re not going to do it,” Gauthier said. “And so we have to have laws that mandate that our neighborhoods are going to be affordable.”

She added: “I don’t think that it should shock anyone that developers are going to push back against it. It is going to cut into their profit line.”

In June 2020, when civil unrest gripped the city for days after the murder of George Floyd, Gauthier stood on the 52nd Street corridor amid violent clashes and pleaded for calm as police blanketed the neighborhood in tear gas.

Just four months later, officers fatally shot Walter Wallace Jr., a 27-year-old man who was wielding a knife and who family members said was in the midst of a mental health crisis. Gauthier called it “unfathomable.”

She said the crises colliding in the 3rd District informed her positions on policing and justice. She’s been a strong proponent of progressive criminal-justice reform, and in 2020 she showed openness to restructuring or even replacing the city’s model of policing.

Today, she says the nearly $800 million police budget doesn’t need to grow. She’d prefer to see Council fund more investments that tackle blight, provide mental health supports, and create safe recreation opportunities in neighborhoods most affected by gun violence, many of which are in her district.

» READ MORE: ‘I thought we were going to die’: Jamie Gauthier’s brush with gun violence is all too common for many Philadelphians

Jones said Council has been too focused on funding violence-prevention programs outside law enforcement. He said Council should more robustly fund police technology and forensics.

“You can’t have prevention when you’re already having the crimes happen,” Jones said. “When you have a fire in a building, when the Fire Department shows up, they don’t show up with smoke detectors. They put the fire out first. Then they give you smoke detectors.”

Gauthier — who had a close brush with gun violence last year — said improving trust between police and residents helps solve cases and is itself a violence-prevention measure.

“These are very connected issues,” she said, “even though they’re often talked about as areas that contradict each other.”