Before anyone waxes all poetic on Frank Rizzo, read this recent article first.
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/385518/who-lost-cities-kevin-d-williamson
Statue of Frank Rizzo in front of the Municipal Servies Building in the center of Philadelphia
Mural of Frank Rizzo on the side of a shop in the 9th Street Italian Market
Women in Philadelphia before the 2000s loved their three Franks: Frank Sinatra, Frankie Avalon and Frank Rizzo. One of the most popular sites for Italian-Americans, entertainment lovers, politicos and Mafiosi was the old Palumbo's nightclub and Nostalgia Room restaurant in the Italian Market. Nostalgia's walls were lined with framed, autographed b&w photographs of all the great lounge singers who had entertained at Palumbo's: Sinatra, Jimmy Durante, Patti Page, Dean Martin, Tony Bennett, Sammy Davis Jr, Rosemary Clooney, Al Martino, Connie Francis, Peggy Lee, Louis Armstrong, Louis Prima, Frankie Avalon, on and on.
Nostalgia served the best Neapolitan-Sicilian food and absolutely scrumptious Italian bread hot from Sarcone's bakery ovens several doors up 9th street. Linguini and clams, mussels, sausage and spaghetti, baked ziti, rigatoni with meatballs, scungilli, calamari, lasagne, eggplant parmesan... Throughout his political career, Frank Rizzo used to pop in for lunch or dinner, and usually walked amongst all the tables and along the bar, shaking hands with every patron of the restaurant before he departed.
In 1994, Palumbo's and Nostalgia were destroyed by arson. Just when the fire appeared to have died down, someone relit it -- three times. It was the passing of an era.
Those few nights made an impression on a thirteen year old mind.
Unlike Detroit, Cleveland, Newark, and other cities, there were no riots, no mayhem, no property destruction in Philly in that awful summer of ‘67.
Whatever his subsequent shortcomings, Commissioner Rizzo protected the law abiding from the barbarians.