David Cohen (politician)

David Cohen (politician)

David Cohen (November 13, 1914 - October 3, 2005), was an American lawyer, Democratic civil servant and politician. For the last 26 years of his life, he was a Philadelphia city councilman representing the northwest district. Having served a four year term not consecutive to the other terms, he represented northwest Philadelphia for a total of 29 years. He died in office aged 90.

Cohen was a local Democratic and community leader during the mayoral administrations of Philadelphia Mayors Joseph Clark and Richardson Dilworth, a councilman during the administration of Mayor James Hugh Joseph Tate and the police commissionership of Mayor Frank L. Rizzo, and a councilman in the mayoral administrations of Mayors William J. Green, W. Wilson Goode, Edward G. Rendell, and John F. Street. He served nearly 14 full years in City Council with future mayor Michael Nutter (who was elected mayor two years after Cohen's death). His views on city issues were often at odds with the majority in city government. Rendell described him as the most tenacious political leader he ever met.

Cohen supported labor unions, collective bargaining, racial integration, desegregation, and equal opportunity since the late 1930s. He claimed he had anticipated trends of increasing support for such positions. He campaigned with planks of civil rights, workers rights, good government, constituent service and geographic inclusiveness.

In his first term on the City Council, he successfully sponsored in 1970 an air pollution measure, and emphasized it in his next campaign. His chemical right-to-know bill, in 1982, was one of the nation's first. He opposed waste incineration within the city, successfully in the case of a proposed plant near the Philadelphia Naval Yard. During his tenure, two long existing waste facilities were shut down. He claimed that these curtailments in waste facility operations produced a saving of $1.5 billion in trash disposal costs over thirty years and enhanced the attractiveness of the city areas of South Philadelphia, Northern Liberties, and Roxborough as targets for development.

In 1995, Cohen declared himself "a Franklin D. Roosevelt Democrat", and thereafter refused any other public comment on supporting political alliances in the city.

At his death in 2005 at age 90, Cohen was one of the oldest American elected leaders in office, serving at large on the City Council, and thus representing all the city's 1.5 million residents. (U.S. Senators Thurmond and Byrd each also reached the age of 90 while representing a U.S. constituency with a population of a million or more, before and after him, respectively.)