Cindy M. Bass (born November 4, 1967) is a Democratic politician and member of the

City Council A municipal council is the legislative body of a municipality or local government area. Depending on the location and classification of the municipality it may be known as a city council, town council, town board, community council, borough counc ...

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

Personal life

Bass grew up in

North Philadelphia North Philadelphia, nicknamed North Philly, is a section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is immediately north of Center City, Philadelphia, Center City. Though the full extent of the region is somewhat vague, "North Philadelphia" is regarded as ...

and graduated from Parkway-Northwest High School and

Temple University Temple University (Temple or TU) is a public university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related research university in Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. It was founded in 1884 by the Baptist ministe ...

. She served as chair of the Coalition of 100 Black Women, was involved with Mt. Airy USA and worked as a community loan officer. In 2005, she started the Northwest Fund, a non-profit that funds neighborhood groups. Bass is divorced and lives with her daughter in Mount Airy.

Political career

Bass has worked as a senior policy advisor to former

Congressman A member of congress (MOC), also known as a congressman or congresswoman, is a person who has been appointed or elected and inducted into an official body called a congress, typically to represent a particular constituency in a legislature. The t ...

Chaka Fattah Chaka Fattah (born Arthur Wesley Davenport; November 21, 1956) is an American politician who served as a Democratic Party (United States), Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives, U.S. House for from 1995 to 2016. The d ...

, and was a special assistant to

Allyson Schwartz Allyson Schwartz (née Young; born October 3, 1948) is an American Democratic Party politician who represented parts of Montgomery County and Northeast Philadelphia in the United States House of Representatives from 2005 to 2015 and Northeast an ...

during her time in the

State Senate In the United States, the state legislature is the legislative branch in each of the 50 U.S. states. A legislature generally performs state duties for a state in the same way that the United States Congress performs national duties at ...

. She has been involved in community organizing, helping marshal funds for local projects and efforts. She has worked as a campaign manager for former

Philadelphia City Council The Philadelphia City Council is the legislative body of the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in the United States. It is composed of 17 councilmembers: ten members elected by district and seven members elected at-large from throughou ...

member Blondell Reynolds Brown. She also ran unsuccessfully for

Pennsylvania State Senate The Pennsylvania State Senate is the upper house of the Pennsylvania General Assembly, the Pennsylvania state legislature. The State Senate meets in the State Capitol building in Harrisburg. Senators are elected for four-year terms, stagger ...

. She first ran for City Council's Eighth District in 2007 with the support of

and the endorsement of the

Philadelphia Daily News ''Philadelphia Daily News'' is a tabloid newspaper that serves Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The newspaper is owned by The Philadelphia Inquirer, LLC, which also owns ''The Philadelphia Inquirer'', a daily newspaper in Philadelphia. The ''Dail ...

but lost to incumbent Democrat Donna Reed Miller. She placed second in a four way primary. She ran for the Eighth District seat again in 2011 after Donna Reed Miller's retirement. In the primary she received endorsements from

Michael Nutter Michael Anthony Nutter (born June 29, 1957) is an American politician who served as the 98th Mayor of Philadelphia from 2008 to 2016. A member of the Democratic Party, he is also a former member of the Philadelphia City Council from the 4th di ...

, ''

The Philadelphia Tribune ''The Philadelphia Tribune'' is the oldest continuously published African-American newspaper in the United States. The paper began in 1884 when Christopher J. Perry published its first copy. Throughout its history, ''The Philadelphia Tribune ...

'', ''

The Philadelphia Inquirer ''The Philadelphia Inquirer'', often referred to simply as ''The Inquirer'', is a daily newspaper headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Founded on June 1, 1829, ''The Philadelphia Inquirer'' is the third-longest continuously operating da ...

'', ''

'', R. Seth Williams and others. She won the eight-way race with 39.4% of the vote. When she ran for re-election in 2023,

endorsed her challenger Seth Anderson-Oberman. While noting Bass' achievements including advocating for LGBT adoption rights and securing resources for underserved areas of her district, the editorial board wrote that her tenure was marred by several significant missteps including appointing a board member who was later convicted of embezzlement, selecting an unqualified developer to restore the Germantown YWCA, and proposing legislation to remove bulletproof glass that could have gotten someone killed. Bass won the primary by about 400 votes, and was elected to a fourth term in November 2023.

Philadelphia City Council

Stop-and-go bill

In November 2017, Bass introduced a bill that would force establishments listed as restaurants, but do not have public bathrooms or seating for 30 people, to remove the bulletproof glass that protects employees from getting shot and stabbed by their customers. This earned controversy from the store owners – most who are Korean Americans – who felt they were being "targeted". The bill was passed by City Council prompting heated exchanges between

Asian Americans Asian Americans are Americans with Asian diaspora, ancestry from the continent of Asia (including naturalized Americans who are Immigration to the United States, immigrants from specific regions in Asia and descendants of those immigrants). A ...

, who are the primary business owner of these stores, and

African Americans African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from any of the Black racial groups of Africa ...

, who experience litter and nuisance behavior from store patrons who purchase alcohol and consume it outside the store.

References

* * * * * * * *

External links