GreatExpectations2007 - West Oak Lane REPORT ON CITIZENS FORUM

Date: Feb. 7, 2007

Location: St. Athanasius Rectory

Participants: 12

Moderators: Ilene Wasserman and Josh Warner

Inquirer observer: Chris Satullo, Editorial Page editor

Participants were first asked to describe one hope or one fear as the city enters its election year. Then, participants were asked to imagine they were giving a good friend’s family advice on whether to move to Philadelphia.

What would be the pros and cons of that move?
What forces and factors underlie those pros and cons?
What steps could the city and region take to strengthen those pros or weaken those cons?

For a full description of the exercise, see http://go.philly.com/friendsdilemma

Moderator's Report:

By Ilene Wasserman

What were the group's most striking hopes/fears?

HOPES:

People coming together.
Mayor with a vision.
Elected officials that listen to people.
Tipping point – toward the good
Philadelphia as a destination city.
Less corruption / Nepotism
Business leaders take bigger role.

FEARS:

Crime and violence (Continuing to be a major problem)
Racial divide
Common man forgotten
Lack of jobs/activities for kids and young adults
Family structure
Tipping point – toward the bad
"Business as usual"
One-party control
Gap widening between "have’s" and "have not’s"
Future for kids

What "pros" emerged as most important?

1. Cultural resources

2. University systems

3. City of neighborhoods, with a mix of housing along with old and new residents

4. Transportation (relatively short commute times)

What "cons" emerged as most important?

1. Public schools

2. City projects /Planning / L&I

3. Economy

1. Pro: Cultural resources

Why is this pro important?

Cultural resources provide:

Theaters, sports, dance, performance art, museums, etc.
Architecture, open space, walk/bike paths

What action steps could strengthen it? What actors should do them?

Create more culturally based resources for schools, jobs, young people, etc.
Increase exposure to cultural resources across neighborhoods.
Integrate museum houses with local museums (River Plantation Houses).
Create incentive to artists, writers, etc. (no or reduced city tax).
Use high schools as basis for exposing teens to cultural resources.
Bring people from different culture together around activities (hip hop and museums).
Draw neighborhoods in and integrate with cultural resources.

Now, the cons ...

1. Con: Economy / Jobs

Why is this con important?

Little access to jobs for those with criminal records. (Those that want to work can’t.)
Mix of jobs available in city is skewed to skilled and educated.
Unions – limiting requirements; membership requirements
Taxes – hurt residents, business and workers
Business Privilege Tax – how it works, how to fix it
Disincentive to businesses locating here and bringing residents
Insurance costs

What action steps could weaken it? What actors should do them?

Create jobs
Create apprentice programs [Wharton, Drexel, Temple, etc.]
Conduct a "Summit of Business Leaders" to explore how to address tax cuts and the business environment in city; study best practices.
Beautifying neighbors (Horticultural Society, Village of Arts and Humanities)

2. Con: Public schools

Why is this con important?

The strength of schools is essential to development.

What forces or factors underlie it?

Inadequate schools
Uneven access to good schools
Values, faiths, families not integrated with schools
Lack of dress code
Parent involvement lacking (taxpayers responsible)
Support is drained by private/charter school enrollment. (Kids that remain in public schools are at risk for drugs, violence, truancy, etc.)
Reformation Committee is not working.
Unions inhibit progress.

What action steps could weaken it? What actors should do them?

Foster parent involvement.
Incorporate values into education.

3. Con: City planning and L&I

Why is this con important?

Difficult to get a project through in the city.
Projects take too long or do not get done.
Pay-to-play

What forces or factors underlie it?

Lack of an integrated data base
Must work with several departments to complete a project; employees cannot make decisions.

What action steps could weaken it? What actors should do them?

Create an integrated data base to track all information on one form.
Have one point person to follow a project through to the end.
Motivate customer service through objectives with bonus incentives.
Train people in customer service.
Strengthen citizen participation.
Create a zoning code that works.
Create a feedback loop that includes citizen participation on governing boards and commissions.

4. Con: Transportation (pro and con)

Why is this con important?

Pros – commuter trains – good schedules during rush hours
Cons – safety; lack of scheduling on off hours
Not universally accepted as in other cities

What forces or factors underlie it?

Finances
Safety concerns
Social class

What action steps could weaken it? What actors should do them?

Obtain funding.
Use promotional programs.
Provide more security.
Make transportation available for different work shifts.
Provide consistent schedules.

Observer's Notes:

Chris Satullo

Editorial Page editor

The night was cold and the group relatively small at this final Neighborhood Citizens Forum for the initial phase of the Great Expectations project.

But that didn’t prevent the energy from crackling and the ideas popping.

This was a lively group full of good ideas, among them:

1) To counter the “con” of a weak job base, one woman suggested staging an annual “The Apprentice: Philadelphia” type of competition. Noting that all five Big Five colleges in town, as well as Drexel, have business schools, she asked: Why not gather teams from all six schools and have them compete to create an entrepreneurial business plan whose goal would be to create home-grown jobs that Philly residents could fill? Perhaps, as a prize, a local venture-capital firm or corporate sponsor could agree to provide seed money to make the idea a reality, and the city could help arrange a tax-free site with some support services at one of the business incubators in a Keystone Opportunity Zone.

2) To take advantage of the pro of Philly’s diverse cultural offerings, but to blunt the con of weak culture education in the schools, one woman suggested an “usher-intern” program, whereby Philly’s leading cultural organizations would take on young people from tough neighborhoods as usher trainees. This would teach them responsibility and how to deal with the public, and expose them to high culture in a very positive way. Another woman suggested a Cultural Buddy program that could reach out across boundaries of race, income, class and age. An older person could be paired with a younger one from a different background, and each could invite the other to take part in a cultural event that meant a lot to the host. That way you could get, for example, opera/rap exchanges, or a day spent visiting the Art Museum in the a.m. and mural arts in North Philly in the p.m.

3) Several business people talked with disgust about how hard it is to get any kind of action or permit out of the city bureaucracy. “If I have to get something out of L & I (Licenses and Inspections), I have to reserve a whole day out of my work week to do it. You go to L & I, and you stand in line for an hour just to get a number so you can stand in line again at the place you need. But there you can only do one thing, so for the next thing they send you across the hall to wait again for an hour, then the last thing you need can’t even be done there so they send you across the way to another building. That, whatchacallit, Municipal Services Building, it’s just a house of horrors.”

The action step suggested was to create a system where each person taking on the city bureaucracy was linked to an “angel” or “advocate,” whose job it was to stick with them to shepherd that application all the way through the process.

4) A man from Mount Airy, noting how many old, finely crafted homes in need of work or fitting furnishings there are in the city, suggested that a small job growth sector could be training residents to be artisans and craftspeople capable of doing preservation repairs, period decoration and furniture work for those homes.

5) It was noted that besides the wealth of historic mansions and homes run by the Fairmount Park Commission, Philly has many other great old historic homes such as Wyck in Germantown that are run by small nonprofits. But there is no collaboration among them on tourism and tours and the like, and no regional strategy for raising funds to preserve and maintain the homes. An alliance of historic homes could do for this sector, it was suggested, what the Theater Alliance of Philadelphia has done for the lively arts.