Jacob Golden: Ambition and Results

Working in one of Congressman Brendan Boyle’s Philadelphia district offices as a freshman in college was a wonderful experience but it was made better by knowing that I met a great friend during this time and one who showed me that there are no limits to what one can do in this field.

Jacob Golden was also a freshman interning in the same office and he always gave his all to whatever work he did in the office whether it was helping with constituent services or community outreach. I knew he was destined to go places after an event we both helped the congressman with.

Oscar Lopez (on the far right) and Jacob Golden (left to Oscar) with Congressman Boyle and EU Ambassador Lambridinis. Photo courtesy of the Office of Congressman Brendan Boyle.

Representative Boyle was going to have a dialogue on transatlantic relations with the EU ambassador to the US, Stavros Lambridinis, in Philadelphia’s Independence Visitor Center. Jacob assisted the ambassador and the Philadelphia Committee on Foreign Relations staff with absolute ease. That takes a certain amount of gravitas and confidence to do as an 18-year-old.

He then went on to have other incredible experiences with Congresswoman Madeleine Dean and PA State Representative Perry Warren in Bucks County. This last experience connected Jacob to his current full-time job as Councilmember Michael Driscoll’s legislative director.

Philadelphia’s 6th councilmanic district was left vacant after Bobby Henon was charged with conspiracy to commit fraud and bribery. Driscoll used to be a prominent state legislator but after northeast ward leaders endorsed him to replace Henon, he was making the transition to city politics and quickly needed to staff an office.

Rep. Warren recommended Jacob to councilmember Driscoll and he was now going to balance this role on top of finishing his 4+1 Masters in Public Policy Program at Temple University. He learned the mechanisms of City Hall quickly and made a name for himself by elevating a project that people can not seem to stop talking about now.

I recently caught up with Jacob and he was able to walk me through how he rallied government support behind the movement to have there be a subway line underneath the Roosevelt Boulevard, a notoriously dangerous street in Northeast Philadelphia.

The boulevard is a 12-mile stretch of multi-lane road that spills into Bucks County. A third of Philadelphians live within a mile of it, and it carries about 90,000 vehicles daily along with 20,000 residents via bus.

According to the PA Department of Transportation, between 2012 and 2021, 119 died as a result of an accident on Roosevelt Boulevard and 49 were pedestrians. This has resulted in half measures being implemented like adding red light and speeding cameras along it, but Jacob makes the case for why the subway would solve this issue and more.

Q: How did you first hear about the movement in support of the Roosevelt Boulevard Subway Line?

“I used to watch urban planning on YouTube and I came across the Armchair Urbanist, whose name is Alan Fisher. I sent him an email and we met for coffee. It wasn't until after that meeting that he released a video on the history of the Roosevelt Boulevard Subway. From working in the Northeast and the transit desert it is, I knew this was a cool project that I wanted to learn more about.”

Once his initial interest had peaked, Jacob connected with Jon Geeting from 5th Square, an urbanist political action committee. Geeting recommended that he should reach out to Jay Arzu, a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Pennsylvania’s Stuart Weitzman School of Design who also runs the Boulevard Subway Twitter account. For his advocacy in promoting this ambitious transportation project, Arzu was recognized as the 40th most influential person in the city by Philadelphia Magazine.

Q: How were you able to convince Councilmember Driscoll to be on board with this project?

“He thought the idea was cool but not realistic. I then put together a briefing with Jay and showed him that it wasn't a pipedream. Seeing that the federal dollars from the pandemic era are still available, even though House Republicans are trying to claw back at them, and the grassroots support made him feel excited about the boulevard subway line idea.”

The I-95 bridge collapse, which happened in the 6th councilmanic district, gave the office another reason to fight for the subway because, without I-95 or Roosevelt Boulevard, Northeast residents have no easy way to get into the city. Once council met after the summer recess, Jacob got to work quickly and introduced a resolution to hold a hearing on the subway line.

The online public was a success and the young legislative director was able to have representatives from SEPTA, PennDOT, and government officials testify. One of the elected officials to testify was PA State Rep. Anthony Bellmon, someone whom Jacob and I worked closely with in Congressman Boyle’s office when he was a constituent services manager and senior adviser. This goes to show that it is always important to stay in contact with former colleagues.

Councilmember Driscoll and supporting partners have now moved to hold in-person public meetings with Northeast residents to brief them on the viability of the project and get their input.

Q: Why has SEPTA been skeptical about this popular idea?

“I think they have valid concerns. They're staring down the barrel of a $240 million annual operating deficit. I think that we're gonna get through that, I think we are going to be able to fund stuff and we're gonna find new local revenue to support them,” Jacob said. “People often look at the failure of the KOP rail project and point to its failure. They will ask if this project is any different. Well, we're looking at something 10 times the volume minimum, we're talking about 100,000 plus riders a day for something that's obviously going to be more expensive, but something that the people want and need.”

For context, the King of Prussia Rail Project was a $3 billion plan that was halted in March over federal concerns that the transit agency SEPTA could not afford. SEPTA officials blamed Philadelphia and collar county officials for not giving the project more financial support, but it was mainly championed by political and business leaders.

When Jacob talked about future hopes for the Roosevelt Boulevard subway line project in our conversation, he said he hoped to see more backing from federal legislators. Funny enough, days after our discussion U.S. Senator John Fetterman commented on one of the project’s Twitter posts saying “We should talk” This can only be the start of good things to come soon.