* Show your support for preserving the Mozino Forest

* Save The Mozino Forest website

General Notes:

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* Interested in running for office OR know someone who should be? Please reach out to me at nick@delcorising.com.

* EDIT: I’m building a network of residents/writers willing to keep an eye on their own township, borough, and/or school board.. if interested, please email me at nick@delcorising.com.

In this episode, I sat down with Lee Jordan and Bonnie Hallam, two leaders in the fight to keep the Mozino tract in Drexel Hill as open green space. Lee is the vice chair of the Upper Darby Planning Commission; Bonnie is the recently retired chair of the township’s Environmental Advisory Committee. We covered what’s actually on the parcel, how a for-profit developer came to write the township’s own rezoning ordinance, the economics of paving over the last big piece of green space in Upper Darby, and what winning could actually look like. Here’s the conversation for those who’d rather read than watch.

What’s actually there. The Mozino tract is about 15 acres of forest with 65-year-old trees and the Colin Brook creek running through it. It was originally part of the Collinbrook Farm before being subdivided, and Mr. Mozino bought it in 1960. It’s private property — Lee and Bonnie haven’t set foot on it — but from the adjacent Collinbrook Church land they’ve seen the deer, birds, and mature canopy up close. It’s also fragile: steep slopes and the creek mean only about 60% of it can even be built on. And it’s not just any lot. As I noted in the conversation, it’s the last open space parcel over ten acres left in Upper Darby, and it has sat in the township’s comprehensive plans as land worth acquiring going all the way back to 2004.

Two paths into the same fight. Lee came to it about a year ago, when developer Rockwell Development brought a plan to the Planning Commission — the first she’d heard the land was even for sale. Bonnie has been tracking Upper Darby’s open-space fights for years. She’d joined the successful effort against an apartment complex on the nearby Thompson tract, which is what first made her and others realize how few of these spaces were left. Back then, former Mayor Keffer had set aside ARPA money to acquire both the Thompson and Mozino tracts and was seeking matching county and state funds — but the budget got redirected, and open space came off the table. Bonnie kept going to Planning Commission meetings, which is how she caught wind of the Rockwell plan and started showing up to say no.

The vote, and a first-ever dissent. Lee was one of only two commissioners — alongside president Jeff — to vote against recommending the Community Mixed Use (CMU) rezoning. Her reasoning: the comprehensive plan that supporters kept citing also stresses how little open space Upper Darby has and calls for redevelopment of existing properties, not developing the green space that remains. She and Jeff also flagged concerns about spot zoning — everything surrounding the parcel is R1 single-family homes — and the legal exposure that comes when an ordinance is changed to benefit one developer. For the first time either of them can remember, the two dissenting members documented their reasons in a written appendix so council could see exactly why they voted the way they did.

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The developer wrote the ordinance. Here’s the part that should stop people cold: the rezoning ordinance was written by the developer’s own attorney. Lee described a Planning Commission meeting unlike any she’d sat through — the township brought a solicitor (they never have one), the developer brought what looked like three attorneys, and the residents showed up representing only themselves. What the rezoning does, in practice, is flip the burden onto the community. As things stood, Rockwell could already build roughly 56 single-family homes by right; to do mixed use, the developer would have had to go to the zoning board and prove a hardship — a tough case, since you know what you’re buying. Instead of that route, the township pursued a zoning map amendment, and suddenly it’s residents who have to fight. I also submitted a right-to-know request and got back essentially nothing of substance — only Greg Lingo’s own email describing what the commission decided. The commission never received an independent staff analysis of the project.

Not anti-development — anti-this. Both were emphatic on this point. They support community mixed use; it already exists all over Upper Darby, and there’s a mixed-use project underway right now on Walnut Street with retail downstairs, affordable apartments upstairs, and green space around it that everyone’s happy about. Their objection is the parcel, not the concept. Bonnie’s question for anyone worried about housing: why put high-end housing on the last piece of forest when the township needs affordable housing everywhere — and CMU-driven redevelopment is exactly where that affordable housing belongs? There’s no shortage of places that could actually use it: 69th Street, the old Sears, the tired corridors that keep turning into ghost towns.

The economics. Lee’s sharpest argument was financial. A big new development looks great on the books right away — a quick tax bump — but as roads, services, and school seats age and fill, the long-term maintenance costs fall back on existing residents. She served on the Upper Darby school board and knows the district is at capacity even with a new middle school coming; adding hundreds of homes’ worth of students isn’t fair to the kids already there. And she framed it as a public safety issue: State Road is already hard to move on, a micro-hospital is going up less than a mile away, and the nearest full hospitals are Riddle or Lankenau. Pack in that many homes and a medical emergency on that road becomes genuinely frightening.

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The linked fight over affordability. When I raised council’s own data — that roughly one in five Upper Darby households spend over half their income on rent — Bonnie’s answer was that developing Mozino does nothing to solve it. High-end housing on a fragile forest parcel isn’t affordable housing. She also read resident Noah Field’s early appearance at the Planning Commission, where he backed the rezoning before neighbors even spoke, as more about supporting the idea of community mixed use than this specific site.

A path to actually saving it. This is where there’s real hope. The Save the Mozino Forest group formed in late June/early July and Bonnie announced it at the July 15 council meeting. Bonnie also leads the Tree Tenders of Upper Darby, who’ve planted more than 2,000 trees over seven years — about what’s standing in that forest, though she’s quick to note new saplings can’t do the work of 65-year-old trees. Some of the region’s foremost conservation groups are reportedly ready to help fund a purchase, with a meeting set with Kyle McIntyre — chair of the planning, zoning, and building code committee — who has publicly said he supports saving the forest. His support is helping stall any council vote while the funding package comes together. Council member Brian O’Neill, who represents the district, and Melissa Dinofio Bazone, head of the environmental and public health committee, are also expected at that meeting. And a conservation bond on the November ballot could unlock county matching money; Bonnie went to county council, where Elaine Schaeffer voiced support, and the county had once earmarked Greenway funds specifically for the Mozino tract before the acquisition fell through.

What winning looks like. Their vision splits two beautiful ways. Lee imagines an environmental center and a walking trail connected to the adjacent Collinbrook historical site, where 12,000 students a year already come to learn — a place kids could reach by public transit without leaving the township, instead of driving to Haverford for a walking path. Bonnie could happily see that, or she’d be just as satisfied letting the forest regenerate toward a 100-year forest, planting now so young trees can succeed the old ones and the land keeps cleaning our air and water and cooling the neighborhood. What neither wants is litigation — a waste of township money — which is the realistic worst case if council passes the CMU. First, they want to convince a majority of council to step back and table it.

How to get involved. The single most useful thing before council votes: reach out to council members, send letters, and show up to meetings — and wear green. There’s power in numbers, and at the last meeting residents literally stood up to be counted. Spread the word to neighbors, church groups, anyone, because a lot of people still don’t know this is happening. And sign the petition. As Bonnie put it, council needs “cover” to vote no — they have to see that an overwhelming majority of the township opposes developing this parcel, not just a handful of speakers. Find the action steps and the petition at SaveTheMozinoForest.org.

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Upcoming events listeners can plug into:

* Saturday School of Struggle: “You Can’t Think Your Way Out of Poverty (But Here’s What You CAN Do)” — Sat, July 11, 1–2:30 pm ET, on Zoom. Hosted by the Nonviolent Medicaid Army. As the economic crisis deepens, how do we help our communities come together for support, survival, and strategy instead of falling for scams and false fixes? Register · Facebook event

* Put People First! PA Statewide Call — Wed, July 15, 7–8 pm ET, on Zoom. Held every third Wednesday, this call is open to members, mobilizers, and anyone curious about the Healthcare Is a Human Right campaign. Share stories of struggle and find out how to get involved. Join via Zoom (or dial 646-558-8656, Meeting ID: 548 395 7623) · PPF-PA on Facebook

Jamie and Robin welcome questions and are happy to connect, so don’t hesitate to reach out. I will connect you…otherwise, just show up and see if their organization peaks your interest! They are wonderful people and have a unique organizational setup you might find welcoming.

In this episode, I sat down with Jamie Blair and Robin Stephens, two leaders from Put People First! PA (PPF-PA) — a statewide, member-led organization fighting for healthcare as a human right. We covered how they found the movement, the collapse of Delaware County’s hospital system, the fight to restore dental care, and what winning could actually look like. Here’s the conversation for those who’d rather read than watch.

Two paths into the same fight. Jamie, from Lansdowne, came to PPF-PA over a decade ago after a family healthcare crisis, drawn by a community where “you didn’t need to have all the correct ideas” or the solutions — just a willingness to fight. Robin found the group after retiring, following a trip to Washington and a rally in Harrisburg, and was struck by the loving, welcoming mix of people from every walk of life. At 67, she calls joining “one of the best decisions I’ve ever made in my life.”

What “member-led and staff-free” really means. Unlike most advocacy groups that run top-down with paid staff and experts, PPF-PA is built by everyday members who pay dues — anywhere from $2 to $20 a month — to do the work themselves. Campaign decisions are made by consensus, starting in regional healthcare rights committees and moving through the whole organization. As Jamie put it, they’re not relying on professionals; they’re ordinary people who came to the work because something about it spoke to them.

How Crozer was dismantled. Jamie and Robin walked through the timeline: in 2016, for-profit Prospect Medical Holdings bought the then-nonprofit Crozer system and began extracting profits and closing facilities piece by piece — Springfield around 2020, Delaware County Memorial in 2022–23, and finally Taylor and Crozer-Chester in May 2025 after Prospect declared bankruptcy. They described the private-equity playbook in plain terms: Prospect sold the land out from under the hospitals and made them rent it back, pulled hundreds of millions out to pay shareholders, saddled the system with debt, and — Robin noted — reportedly paid three CEOs $10 million each right before the bankruptcy filing. In Pennsylvania, no law currently prohibits any of this.

The human cost. Through their community “base building,” Jamie and Robin hear the stories directly: a woman out of medication who couldn’t find a doctor to take her insurance; a Chester heart-attack survivor wondering whether she’d survive the drive to the next hospital; patients now facing a 40-minute car ride to Riddle, a $150 Uber, or three buses and a train to Philadelphia. Riddle itself is beyond capacity — beds in hallways, overwhelmed staff. And this isn’t unique to Delco: Robin pointed to closures across Norristown and warning signs at Pottstown and Phoenixville. Meanwhile, the shuttered Crozer-Chester ER was reportedly used for police dog training just months after it was saving lives.

The Crozer 8. Both Jamie and Robin were among the eight people arrested on September 8, 2025, in a peaceful sit-in at a still-open building in the Crozer complex — singing, sharing stories, careful not to block any patients. After years of exhausting every other channel and getting no solutions from elected officials, they chose nonviolent civil disobedience, answering to “a higher law.” They were charged with third-degree misdemeanors. In the lead-up, community members of all ages — including what Jamie affectionately called the “edgy grandmas” — painted a 20-by-30-foot “Take Back Our Hospitals” banner, hung where it was visible from I-95.

Politically independent, on purpose. PPF-PA doesn’t align with either party, holding all power holders accountable. Jamie and Robin described friendly meetings with county council, the Governor’s staff, and local officials who called the closures devastating but delivered nothing — whether from lack of will or lack of power. Their guiding belief: “No one’s coming to save us.” Robin noted Medicaid has been cut under both Republican and Democratic administrations, and the group thinks of itself as building a “people’s party.”

Linking the fights. Robin explained why she connects hospital closures to immigration and ICE: healthcare is a human right for everyone, regardless of documentation. She pushed back on the idea that immigrants are to blame for lost care, and condemned the cruelty of detention centers where people are denied medication and children are held. “If you have a body, you deserve healthcare.”

“We need our teeth.” The conversation turned to PA’s 2011 elimination of the adult dental benefit in Medicaid — cut under a Republican governor, but following budget-saving guidance from the Obama administration, another example of balancing budgets “on the poorest backs.” Today Medicaid readily covers extractions but rarely crowns or root canals, and dentures only once in a lifetime. At massive free clinics like Mission of Mercy, thousands line up overnight; at one, all twelve denture sets were gone by 8:30 a.m. the first morning. They shared the story of Dawn, who said she used to love to smile but no longer does, because her teeth were all extracted rather than saved.

Crowd the Capitol. In June, PPF-PA brought 50–60 people to Harrisburg — over half visiting for the first time — to deliver 200+ healthcare stories to more than 60 legislators, hold visits with both Democrats and Republicans, and share testimony at a press conference. The two dental bills (Senate and House) remain in committee, tied up in budget negotiations. The cost to restore the benefit is under $20 million — a “drop in the bucket,” especially next to the $43 million the state is set to spend on data center tax breaks, and the state’s $11 billion “rainy day fund” that Robin says sits unused while “it’s pouring.”

What winning looks like. The vision is community-controlled public hospitals. Jamie described how the demand to use eminent domain to take Crozer back from Wall Street profiteers — originally raised by Crozer nurses at a county council meeting — resonated instantly once people understood it meant reclaiming the hospital for the community. They’re skeptical of the “micro-hospital” trend (like ChristianaCare’s 10–12 bed facilities replacing Crozer-Chester’s 400+ beds) and of a proposed rebuild that would be 90% outpatient — a model they argue prioritizes profit over the reality of patients’ lives.

How to get involved. PPF-PA welcomes newcomers. They host a statewide call on the third Wednesday of every month (7–8 p.m. on Zoom), and the Nonviolent Medicaid Army holds a monthly “Saturday School of Struggle.” Anyone can share their healthcare story through #MedicaidMondays on social media. As Robin put it: “Movements start with the telling of untold stories” — and people deserve to feel valued and heard. Find events and details on their Facebook page or by joining the listserv.

(2) Notes:

* There are (3) Delaware County Council seats on the ballot in 2027 … if you are interested in running or know someone who should be, please reach out to me at nick@delcorising.com.

* If there is someone you would like me to interview for the podcast, also email me at nick@delcorising.com.

Volunteers to help collect Medicare for All signatures are welcome.

Interview Summary

Who is Kae Kalwaic

Kae Kalwaic taught at Nether Providence High School before joining the education department at Swarthmore College in the early 2000s. Her Medicare for All activism grew directly out of what she witnessed working at the college — employees with health coverage who still couldn’t afford their medications, discussions about working conditions held in whispers despite the college’s Quaker values, and a living wage campaign that taught her healthcare and wages are inseparable.

The Swarthmore Living Wage Campaign

When Kalwaic joined the effort, the starting wage was $5.50 an hour. Students drove the campaign — researching, organizing petitions, hosting guest speakers, meeting with staff and faculty. Despite having a billion-dollar endowment, the college resisted for four years. Eventually, after faculty joined the push, the college agreed to $10.38 an hour. The campaign’s connection to healthcare was direct: workers who had coverage still couldn’t afford their medications. That realization pushed Kalwaic from living wage organizing into Medicare for All advocacy.

The 2019 Meeting with Mary Gay Scanlon

Kalwaic organized a delegation of physicians, union reps, and community members to meet with Scanlon. The testimony included policy details, personal cancer stories, and quotes from scripture. Kalwaic wrote afterward that “only the coldest of hearts could not be moved.” Scanlon’s primary objection was the impact on the 1.5 million workers employed by the private healthcare industry. She declined to co-sponsor. What Kalwaic has since learned: giving every healthcare industry worker two years of severance pay after passing Medicare for All would still be cheaper than the current system.

The Petition Campaign

After the 2019 meeting failed to move Scanlon, Kalwaic decided in 2025 that a new strategy was needed. She started collecting signatures herself — at senior citizen events, protests, clubs, festivals, and Democratic committee meetings. She has spoken to Democratic committees in Lansdowne, Springfield, Upper Chichester, Mid County, Aston, Clifton, Ridley, Upper Darby, Marple Newtown, and Haverford. All were welcoming. Only Swarthmore Dems turned down her request to speak. Nether Providence Democrats have not responded to three written requests. She now has over 1,700 signatures. The response rate has been around 90% of people she asks — higher than national polling on Medicare for All, which sits around 69-70%.

The Scanlon Donor Question

Kalwaic raised what she considers the core problem directly: check her donors. Scanlon takes money from corporate PACs including firms that represent hospitals and health insurers. Nick noted approximately $90,000 from Ballard Spahr, which represents hospitals and health insurers. Kalwaic’s view is that Scanlon’s public persona — standing with scouts, firefighters, giving speeches at rallies — creates goodwill that obscures what’s underneath the fundraising. The donor accountability argument, she says, tends to be an “aha moment” for people who hadn’t connected those dots.

The Crozer Connection

Both Kalwaic and Nick connected Medicare for All directly to the Crozer Health collapse. Kalwaic’s argument: Medicare for All establishes a guaranteed funding stream dedicated to services rather than profit margins, which is exactly the structural fix that private equity exploitation of hospital systems makes necessary. Other developed countries with universal systems keep costs down and produce better outcomes. The Crozer crisis is a local demonstration of exactly what Medicare for All is designed to prevent.

Unions and the Political Landscape

Kalwaic tried to engage unions but found them unresponsive. Her theory: unions link healthcare benefits to contract negotiations and don’t want to disrupt that dynamic. Many also contribute to Scanlon’s campaign and may not want to risk the relationship. She has been in contact with Put People First Pennsylvania and found them very receptive. She also sees the League of Women Voters, DSA Delco, Delco Indivisible, and Quaker organizations as key coalition partners going forward.

What Comes Next

Kalwaic has not yet delivered the 1,700 signatures. She wants a coalition of organizations and voters in place before doing so to maximize the impact. The plan is to form a committee, coalesce the groups that have been supportive, and build a unified advocacy push. Scanlon’s office has not acknowledged the petition campaign or requested a meeting.

Who Is Judy Trombetta

Judy is the Democratic nominee for Pennsylvania’s 166th State House District, covering Haverford Township and part of Marple. She was born and raised in Berwyn, went through the Tredyffrin/Easttown school district, and got her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in social work at Temple University. She is a sitting Haverford Township Commissioner — elected in 2021, sworn in 2022, elected vice president of the board her first year, and elected president of the board in 2025. By day she serves as Intergovernmental Affairs Manager for the Montgomery County Commissioner’s Office, where her job is to manage relationships across 62 municipalities, the Montgomery County state delegation, and federal partners.

How She Got Into This Work

Judy’s path into government started with social work. While at Temple, she interned at a low-income housing facility in Washington Square West, worked at the Pennsylvania Prison Society on programming for children of incarcerated parents, and eventually landed at Hedwig House, a mental health clubhouse in Ardmore, where she became a psychiatric rehabilitation specialist. The pattern she kept seeing — people who qualified for government services but had no idea those services existed — is what pushed her from direct service into government itself. She wanted to be on the side that decides whether the resources reach the people who need them.

The Pittsburgh Years

Her first job in government was as chief of staff to Pittsburgh City Councilman Doug Shields, who hired her into the role straight out of the Pitt Institute of Politics. When Shields ran for district magistrate, she stayed on as chief of staff to the next councilman in that seat — Corey O’Connor, now mayor of Pittsburgh. While in that office, she helped pass the city’s ban on hydraulic fracturing — a ban still in effect today — and a property tax assessment appeal assistance program for low-income Pittsburgh residents who couldn’t afford a lawyer to fight their county assessments.

Harrisburg and Montgomery County

After Pittsburgh, Judy spent five years with the Pennsylvania Senate, starting as a district director and being promoted to chief of staff. She spent two and a half of those years going to Harrisburg with her state senator on session days, sitting in on conversations with advocates and constituents, and helping move legislation forward — including Pennsylvania’s medical marijuana bill, which took eight years and a Republican co-sponsor to pass. She is currently the Intergovernmental Affairs Manager for the Montgomery County Commissioner’s Office, where she watched the early Trump federal funding freeze throw a county government into chaos at 8 a.m. on a Tuesday and then get reversed by a judge by 4 p.m.

Why She Ran

It wasn’t Trump himself. It was the impact. Watching Medicaid, food assistance, voting rights, reproductive rights, and civil rights come under attack — and watching the federal funding freeze paralyze the supportive services Montgomery County delivers to its residents — convinced her this was not a moment to stand by. She had the experience. She had the relationships. She decided to use both.

Beating a 33-Year Incumbent

Judy unseated Greg Vitali, the longest continuously serving member of the Pennsylvania House, by a 24-point margin in the May 19 Democratic primary. David Brown had run the same lane against Vitali in 2022 and lost by 17. Judy’s read on what was different: she had a written track record as Haverford Township Commissioner, a weekly newsletter that reaches 3,000 households in the township, and years of community presence as a basketball coach, Discover Haverford liaison, and volunteer at the Irish Festival and Heritage Festival. One of her biggest supporters first met her pouring Guinness at the Irish Festival in Marple — and ended up hosting a meet-and-greet and door knocking for her. She also matched Vitali at his own game. Vitali was known for door knocking. Judy door knocked back, almost every night, sometimes with her family, sometimes alone. Over 25 meet-and-greets. People at the polls on election day told her she had knocked their door.

Public Education

Public education is her top priority and the through-line of her career. As a Temple undergrad, she watched kids walk into the Philadelphia elementary school across from her campus without backpacks — a contrast with her own TE School District experience that has stayed with her. In 2009 she did a fellowship through the Education Policy and Leadership Center in Harrisburg and worked on the Pennsylvania school funding campaign. She supports Governor Shapiro’s budget proposal to fully fund and equalize school funding, and would advocate for fair teacher pay, mental health counselors in every school, education specialists, and music and arts programming across the state. Her local frame: Chichester just announced a property tax hike that still leaves a school funding deficit, and Pennsylvania’s school funding system has been unconstitutional since the 2023 Commonwealth Court ruling. The proposed seven-year fix is too slow.

Recreational Marijuana as a Revenue Source

She would back legalizing recreational marijuana — both as a long-overdue criminal justice reform and as a revenue source. When she worked for the state senator who passed medical marijuana, internal appropriations projections put recreational at roughly $1 billion in first-year revenue. Pennsylvania is now behind every neighboring state. She would direct that revenue toward public education and criminal justice reform.

The Budget and Harrisburg Dysfunction

The 2025-2026 budget went months past its deadline. The 2026-2027 budget is due June 30, and she is honest that she doesn’t see it getting done on time. She calls the current level of gridlock unprecedented — “textbook dysfunction” — and her response is rooted in the bipartisan work she watched happen on medical marijuana. That bill took eight years and a Republican co-sponsor to pass, and the state senator she worked for built it by finding common ground across very different constituencies: moms with kids who had seizures, veterans with PTSD, and Republicans who saw revenue potential. Her view: you don’t move a divided legislature by telling the other side to pound sand. You have coffee.

Data Centers

Judy is straightforward that this is a space where she is still learning — and that this is true of most people in government right now. Her current position: strong state-level regulation around utility usage and protecting community health, with local authority retained for the zoning and land-use decisions. She compares the data center wave to hydraulic fracturing in Pittsburgh, where she learned the issue existed only because residents started calling the councilman’s office to ask why landmen were on their porches with leases. New industries arrive faster than government can react to them. The lesson she takes from fracking and the Clean Air Act is that catching up after the fact is the bad outcome. The job now is to get ahead of it.

Joe Walker and the General

She does not know much about Joe Walker — they have worked the polls at two different locations together and he seems like a nice guy and an insurance broker. She has not seen evidence of a base of support, and a Republican has not won this seat in roughly 35 years. But she does not take it for granted. In her 2025 reelection as Haverford Commissioner, she received more Republican votes than her Republican challenger — a small sample, but one she is proud of, because it suggests she can transcend party affiliation in a community that knows her work.

Where She Fits in the Delco Delegation

If she wins in November, Judy joins a delegation that includes Speaker Joanna McClinton, Rep. Jen O’Mara, Sen. Tim Kearney, and the rest of the Delco delegation. She credits the existing delegation’s work — O’Mara on paid family leave, Kearney on e-scooter regulation, the broader fight on the Crozer closure. Her first-year approach is to support the bills already in motion before figuring out what she introduces herself. One thing she would push for is allowing Pennsylvania municipalities to use local speed radar — Pennsylvania is the only state in the country that doesn’t permit it, and she sees daily speeding complaints as a township commissioner with no real tool to address them.

What She’d Do in a Democratic Trifecta

If Democrats win the trifecta in November and she wins her seat, her priorities are public transit funding, raising the minimum wage (Pennsylvania is now more than 15 years behind on this), tackling affordability as the issue where people are hurting most, and public education as the foundation that makes communities thrive. Her bottom line: invest in public education and you are investing in children, public safety, and economic vitality at the same time.

I sat down with Doug Leake, co-chair of Delco DSA, to talk about the Swarthmore Nine, progressive organizing in Delaware County, and what it actually takes to build a left political infrastructure in a county that spent 150 years under Republican machine control.

Delco DSA's current priorities

Pride is up first — they'll be at both the Media parade and the Upper Darby resource festival. After that, the Swarthmore Nine case is front and center. After nearly a year of trying to connect with Swarthmore's Students for Justice in Palestine, Doug finally linked up with them at the No Kings march in Media last month. DSA has since connected them with UDTJ and Kyle McIntyre, and Doug's been helping them navigate a county most of them don't know.

The Swarthmore Nine and Tanner Rouse

One current and one former students are facing up to a year in prison for a campus protest. Doug's argument is simple — the moment the DA's office got involved, it stopped being a campus matter. New DA Tanner Rouse inherited this case from Stollsteimer and could drop the charges tomorrow. The path to getting him there is public pressure, and Doug breaks down exactly what that looks like in practice.

DSA and the Democratic Party

DSA Delco isn't the enemy of the Democratic Party. Doug's framing: they're going to drag Democrats kicking and screaming to victory. His experience with regular Delco residents has never been negative. The friction is always with party leadership — not with the people.

Why local politics is where the left wins

Doug makes a compelling case that the national left keeps going for the crown and missing. Bernie's two losses convinced him to think smaller. Local politics is relationship-driven, low-resistance, and the place where you actually build the infrastructure to win bigger fights down the road.

Chester, voter turnout, and the representation gap

The city with the most Democrats in Delco has some of the lowest turnout in the county. Doug connects this to exhaustion, not apathy — and flags a real racial representation gap in the Delco Democratic Party that nobody wants to talk about out loud.

Swarthmore College is actively pursuing third degree misdemeanor charges against the Swarthmore 9, carrying a maximum punishment of one year in prison…

* Click here to sign a petition for Swarthmore to DROP the charges for these peaceful protestors.

* Email: president@swarthmore.edu

* Phone: 610-328-8314

* Jun 29th trial event has been listed here: https://www.delcorising.com/advocacy-calendar

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Correction: An earlier version of this episode described the Swarthmore 9 as ‘nine students from Swarthmore College.’ I misspoke. Of the nine arrested on May 3, 2025, Jace was a current Swarthmore student and another is a former student. The other seven were not students at the college. The error has been corrected in the video.

Interview Summary

Who Is Jace Boland

Jace is a junior at Swarthmore College from Middletown, Delaware, who attended a Quaker high school in Wilmington before enrolling at Swarthmore in the fall of 2023. He got involved with student activism almost immediately — October 7th happened one month into his freshman year, and a coalition of student organizations, not just SJP, organized a sit-in shortly after. He has been involved in Palestinian rights organizing on campus ever since.

What the Encampment Was and Why It Happened

The spring 2025 encampment was one of very few on any campus that semester. It was not the first act of protest — it came after a year-long escalation from the Swarthmore administration. The spring 2024 encampment lasted over a month, produced negotiations the administration shut down, and resulted in disciplinary charges against roughly 25 students, the majority of whom were students of color. One student was suspended on the charge that they assaulted a board member by using a bullhorn in their presence. After exhausting negotiations, sign-waving, and chanting, the group decided reclaiming physical space on campus was the most powerful move available. They also believed, based on Swarthmore’s Quaker identity and its prior tolerance of protests under the Biden administration, that the school would not call police.

The Culture of the Encampment

Jace says this is his favorite question to answer. After a year of disciplinary tactics designed to scare students away from talking about Palestine, the encampment created something the administration’s strategy had been specifically trying to prevent — genuine solidarity. There was a bar of entry. Walking in meant you were willing to risk something. People came from other Philadelphia-area campuses to share food, skills, and experience, including veterans of the Penn encampment. Alumni organized food delivery. Others built wooden walkways through the mud. It was the kind of community that forms when people are backed into a corner and decide to stop pretending they are not.

The Cisco Divestment Demand

The encampment’s central demand was for Swarthmore to end its relationship with Cisco. Cisco is the world’s largest networking company and provides Swarthmore’s campus-wide VPN and cybersecurity infrastructure — meaning it is installed on every single student, faculty, and staff member’s personal device. According to the American Friends Service Committee’s Investigate project, Cisco provides networking and communications services to both the Israeli military and Israeli police forces, centralizing their communications and powering AI surveillance technology. Gaza is one of the most surveilled locations on the planet and Cisco is a major supplier of the hardware and software that enables that surveillance. The demand is not simply to drop Cisco but to replace it responsibly — students and supportive faculty are currently doing the research to identify an alternative that does not create a new problem.

The Administration’s Justifications

Swarthmore President Valerie Smith cited two things: masked and unidentified people on campus, and graffiti on an Adirondack chair that read “bomb Tel Aviv” with hearts around “Hamas” and “Houthis.” On the masks — students were masked specifically because Swarthmore has close to 400 surveillance cameras across a small campus, and the administration had been using that footage to target and discipline student activists for over a year. Masking was a direct response to documented surveillance. On the graffiti — Jace says someone drew on a chair with markers, the school painted over it within 48 hours, and the idea that marker drawings on patio furniture constituted a threat sufficient to mobilize close to 40 police officers from eight departments is, in his words, beyond him. College students draw on things constantly. It only becomes terrorism when Palestine is the subject.

The Arrest and What Followed

Jace was arrested, processed at the Swarthmore borough station — where the school’s vice president of student affairs and a public safety officer were present in the room, something he found odd — and then transported in a police motorcade to the Media police station for mugshots and fingerprinting. When his identity was confirmed during processing, Swarthmore immediately issued an interim suspension, a mechanism that allows one administrator to suspend a student and bar them from campus, housing, and dining without due process. His mother received the suspension email while pulled over on the side of I-95, not knowing where he was. He did not find out he was suspended until after he was released. His keffiyeh was among belongings that went missing and were never returned or accounted for.

After the interim suspension, he was required to clear his dorm by noon that day — a deadline he was physically incapable of meeting since he was still in a police parking lot. Alumni organized and funded a house in Philadelphia for two weeks for him and other displaced students, many of whom were financially independent or low-income. His summer research fellowship funding was revoked. He spent weeks couch surfing before moving into a lease he had already signed, then worked at an ice cream shop for the summer.

He was suspended in the fall semester as well — a second, separate action — meaning he completed his junior year while simultaneously preparing for a criminal trial, attending the school prosecuting him, and having his financial support stripped away.

Delco Officials and the DA

Jace attended the Delaware County Council meeting where DSA Delco Chair Doug Leake raised the case publicly. He was in the room. He could not speak because he is not a Delco resident. Myself and Jace’s read on Council Chair Womack’s pivot to Correctional Officers Week mid-comment: wildly out of touch, tone deaf, and frankly kind of crazy. No local elected officials have reached out to the Swarthmore 9 directly. The Swarthmore Borough Council has been more receptive. State representatives have not made contact.

On the DA — the case began under Jack Stollsteimer and transferred to current DA Tanner Rouse. Jace ran into Rouse in Swarthmore recently and spoke with him without Rouse knowing who he was. Rouse’s response was essentially that the charges were filed and therefore have to be seen through. Jace’s take: for an ostensibly progressive Democratic DA, that logic is hard to square. Swarthmore is using the Delaware County legal system to fight a dispute with its own students rather than deal with those students directly. That is a political trial, and a progressive district attorney should be able to recognize one.

Swarthmore and the Trump Administration

At the start of this school year, President Valerie Smith sent a campus-wide email celebrating Trump’s HB1 bill — a bill that dramatically expanded ICE’s budget and authorities — because it included $20 million for Swarthmore. That is where the year began. Under the Biden administration, a two-week sit-in and a month-long encampment were tolerated. Under the Trump administration, the same formation got 40 police officers called in. The “outside agitator” narrative — used to justify the police response — was never invoked during the spring 2024 encampment despite significantly more outside participation, including Philly Jewish Voice for Peace hosting events. All of a sudden, this year, those same tactics make students violent, terrorists, whatever. Jace also notes that Swarthmore’s board of managers has what he describes as a remarkably Zionist leadership, and suspects increasing pressure from the board to crack down on pro-Palestinian activity is part of the picture.

Where the Movement Is

Jace is honest that the movement is in a moment of reassessment. Three years into what he calls this phase of the genocide, with the Iran war escalating, Israel advancing into southern Lebanon, and repression of campus protest intensifying, people are trying to figure out what works. He is hopeful that the free speech dimension of the Swarthmore 9 case will draw in people who might not otherwise engage with the Palestinian rights question directly. He thinks this summer is a moment where people could band together across different entry points. His bottom line: not winning is not an option, and treating any of this as normal is exactly what those in power are counting on.

How to Help

SEE THE TOP OF THE ARTICLE

OR

here you go…😊

(2) Notes:

Swarthmore College is actively pursuing third degree misdemeanor charges against the Swarthmore 9, carrying a maximum punishment of one year in prison…

* Click here to sign a petition for Swarthmore to DROP the charges for these peaceful protestors.

* Email: president@swarthmore.edu

* Phone: 610-328-8314

* Jun 29th trial event has been listed here: https://www.delcorising.com/advocacy-calendar

* OR..add to your calendar directly here!!

* Instagram for SJP: https://www.instagram.com/swarthmoresjp/

PA Budget Impasse

According to Rep. Jenn O’Mara, it wasn’t any one dramatic issue … it was the mix of a Democratic House, a Republican Senate, and a Democratic governor all trying to pull the same bill in three different directions. Add election year vibes and internal Republican disagreements, and the whole thing turned into political gridlock.

SEPTA’s Crisis

SEPTA’s dire financial situation should have been a wake up call in Harrisburg, but Rep. O’Mara says the urgency simply didn’t land with many lawmakers. Outside Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, most legislators don’t rely on public transit, so the idea of “saving SEPTA” feels distant (even though it carries one of the nation’s largest ridership on the smallest state subsidy). Senate Republicans floated a plan to fund SEPTA through revenue from “skill games,” but their caucus couldn’t get behind their own bill, and without a unified GOP position, nothing moved. A court ruling that temporarily blocked SEPTA’s planned service cuts also dulled the sense of crisis, even though the agency only avoided cuts by raiding its capital budget. O’Mara says Pennsylvania can’t keep claiming SEPTA is essential while refusing to give it the predictable, recurring funding any major transit system needs to survive.

Transit Funding Is Stalled

O’Mara says legislators actually built a smart, revenue neutral plan that would’ve shifted a slice of sales tax into the transit trust fund. It’s not a tax hike, it’s not a new fee … it’s just reallocating money. But the Senate won’t touch it, and in Harrisburg, no one wants to be seen touching or broaching the topic of taxes, even when they’re … not raising taxes.

Climate Policy — Cap and Trade

There’s been chatter that Democrats “gave up” on climate action when RGGI got pulled from the budget, but O’Mara argues that’s not accurate. RGGI was tied up in the courts and likely doomed. She says repealing it wasn’t a rollback; it was trading a dead on arrival policy for wins like school funding and an expanded Earned Income Tax Credit. She also supports Gov. Shapiro’s new PACER plan, which aims to put carbon pricing into real law instead of relying on fragile executive orders.

School Funding

Pennsylvania’s school funding overhaul is a marathon, not a sprint. The state still leans heavily on property taxes, and shifting to the modern formula (the one based on actual student needs) will take years. Last year and this year made progress, but seven years is the target to get districts caught up. One quick win is fixing cyber charter school costs, which O’Mara says are wildly inflated and draining money from local classrooms.

A Few Tax Ideas For Public School Funding

If politicians had the political courage, O’Mara says there are two big revenue ideas:

* Closing corporate tax loopholes using “combined reporting”

* Taxing digital ad spending from huge platforms

Neither is radical (they’re already used elsewhere), but Harrisburg isn’t exactly famous for going against the donors that fund campaigns.

Delco Property Taxes

Delco inherited a fiscal mess from previous administrations, and inflation plus the end of COVID relief funds made it worse. Large, mandatory expenses (like mental health programs) keep rising faster than revenue. Counties also have very few ways to raise money besides property taxes. It’s not that the state is blocking Delco … it’s that it’s not helping enough.

How the State Could Help

A lot of county expenses are state mandated, such as mental health services, emergency services, and public safety. O’Mara says if the state paid its fair share, or even a slightly fairer share, counties wouldn’t be in such a bind. One of her missions is to fix Pennsylvania’s dysfunctional EMS system, which still relies on volunteer staffing even as call volumes grow.

Pennsylvania’s Campaign Finance Laws

Here’s how O’Mara describes the state’s current campaign finance system: “Pennsylvania is like the wild west of campaign financing.” Pennsylvania is one of the few states where there are no donation limits and candidates can spend campaign money on almost anything. She supports adding federal style limits, imposing a gift ban, requiring digital reporting, and dragging dark money into the light. The problem is that the people who benefit from the system, write the rules.

Election Reform That Could Actually Happen

Dream reforms like ranked choice voting or publicly funded elections aren’t close yet. But O’Mara sees potential in Harrisburg for more realistic fixes:

* Open primaries

* Same day party registration

* Early voting

* Letting counties process mail ballots earlier (pre canvassing)