Politics
In 1917, Greenfield was elected to a seat on the Philadelphia Common Council and served until 1920. Originally a Republican, he switched parties with the advent of the New Deal and remained a strong Democratic supporter until his death. He enjoyed a close relationship with many Presidents from Herbert Hoover to Lyndon Johnson. Greenfield served as a delegate to the Republican National Convention in 1928 and to the Democratic National Conventions from 1948-1964. He was also a presidential elector in 1956 and 1960. Through his political connections he received appointments to various committees and commissions. These included appointment by Philadelphia Mayor Richardson Dilworth in 1956 as Chairman of the Philadelphia City Planning Commission. In order to accept the position, Greenfield had to retire from his real estate business, stepping down on January 1, 1956 after fifty years as head of the Greenfield Co. (which then became Albert M. Greenfield & Co., Inc.). He became a strong advocate of urban renewal. Although on the commission for only a little over a year, his work laid the foundation for the development of Penn Center, Society Hill, the Independence Square area surrounding Independence Hall, and Veterans Stadium. Also because of his political activism, in 1948 Philadelphia hosted both the Republican and the Democratic party conventions.
Read more about this topic: Albert M. Greenfield
Famous quotes containing the word politics:
“Politics are for foreigners with their endless wrongs and paltry rights. Politics are a lousy way to get things done. Politics are, like God’s infinite mercy, a last resort.”
—P.J. (Patrick Jake)
“The politics of the exile are fever,
revenge, daydream,
theater of the aging convalescent.
You wait in the wings and rehearse.
You wait and wait.”
—Marge Piercy (b. 1936)
“There is a place where we are always alone with our own mortality, where we must simply have something greater than ourselves to hold onto—God or history or politics or literature or a belief in the healing power of love, or even righteous anger.... A reason to believe, a way to take the world by the throat and insist that there is more to this life than we have ever imagined.”
—Dorothy Allison (b. 1949)