I jumped at the opportunity to attend the Great Expectations Agenda meeting in my own City Council district, the First. This meeting was the biggest of the district meetings to date with about 70 - 75 people in all. This event was at the Daily News - Inquirer Building so there was plenty of space. I was happy to see a bunch of City Year corps members in attendance. Their red Timberland jackets have become a common sight for my eyes during my time in Philly. This was also the first district meeting with Asians (aside from myself) in the audience. There was a good mix of young and old (about 40% - 60%) so I'm sure a good range of opinions and experiences were raised in each group. The Inquirer's Chris Satullo announced that 1st District Councilman Frank DiCicco would be there as well as, once again, At-Large City Councilman Bill Green. UPenn's Harris Sokoloff polled the crowd to see how many had been to previous Great Expectations events; about 60% had. He asked how many had been to any of the Penn Praxis events; about 40% had. The people at this event knew what was going on and what the project was trying to accomplish.
I jumped in with Group B for the breakout session. Covered by the dozen in the session were the topics of Crime, Poverty and Transporation. The group had members actively involved in the issues they chose to talk about including Ellen who hasn't owned a car since the 1950s, Aqila, a City Year corps member from DC who was appalled by SEPTA after moving to Philly and Debi and Dick who were active in the homeless community.
Judith, a transplant from Hungary, wondered why Philadelphia seems to have the problems it does while other cities don't. Across the table, Kirk pointed out that it's the notion that Philadelphia is worse off than other cities is often reported in the city's papers more so, perhaps, than in other cities leading to the perception that Philly's worse off. He pointed to Mayor Nutter's remarks during the Citizen's Convention where he asked that the papers report more on the good things that happen in the city as well as the bad. Doing so can give the people hope. Debi was concerned with constantly reinventing the wheel with each administration. She wanted to find out what was working and what could be working better with additional funding instead of scrapping everything and starting all over again. Ellen wanted to know what was going on with the new program for businesses to hire ex-offenders with the benefit of a $10k tax write off from the City. Aqila wanted to see the programs targeting high school aged kids to be introduced at the middle school level. Working in high schools in Philly, she's seen first hand how it's too late for many.
Kirk wanted to reframe the notion of civic service as not being a penance or chore, but rather a way to take ownership. He saw part of the problem as young African-American males not viewing civic service as a sign of masculinity. A remedy could be to have groups of peers working together to prevent the ridicule a single member of a group could receive. Lisa wanted to see how council could help remove the stigma and also, how to find the numerous volunteer opportunities around the city. Kirk added that lots of people commit crime to escape poverty and at the crux of things was the issue of safe transportation throughout the city. Once the issue of safe transportation around the city is addressed, the other issues could fall in line easier.
Aqila recounted tearful phone calls home to her mother in DC after several rides on SEPTA. I'm familiar with DC's MTA after 3 years at college in DC. Under the MTA, bus fare is $1.25 using a SmarTrip card or $1.35 in cash; TRANSFERS ARE FREE. In Philly, tokens (not easily bought across the city) are $1.45 and $2 if you're paying with cash; transfers were almost non-existant and it took a lawsuit to get them back - they cost 75¢ apiece. Aqila said that SEPTA drivers were particularly unfriendly and when it came to directions, especially so. Being an out-of-towner, she saw this as an incredible affront. Judith was appalled that she couldn't receive change for a $5 bill while trying to take the subway. She was told to go to a coffee shop outside the station to get proper fare. I told her that almost all of the booth attendants are not allowed to give out change. Only at hubs like Market East, Walnut-Locust and others can they give riders change (which I might add is a completely asinine setup). She was happy to learn that it wasn't a particularly nasty SETPA employee who wouldn't give her change, but a general rule in place. Still, she wanted the rule changed so that booth attendants could give change.
This being the 1st District and the current site of both casinos slated for Philadelphia, an few minutes were set aside for each group to discuss the casinos and to raise questions for the Council members. Debi explained to the group about the latest findings from City Council hearings. She reported that at the last meeting, City Council was exploring moving the casinos further north and further south with the Foxwoods site possibly ending up down by the Navy Yard or by the airport. She said that the casino people weren't too happy with this turn of events. Debi also said that Council would look into a new traffic plan to replace the one from 2006 (pre-IKEA development) which is very out of date considering the development since then.
Dick was concerned with the issues of poverty and homelessness which casinos bring to cities as they did to Atlantic City. Dan was concerned with the City taking the reports done by the casinos as the final word. He wanted to see the City issue their own findings on issues they were concerned with to vet the casinos' reports. Kirk, who isn't necessarily against casinos, asked how to attract developers to the brown lots dotting Philadelphia and the waterfront and pointed out how Disney turned down an offer for a plot in Philly. But before the casino talk got too heated, it was time for the larger group to reconvene and fire off questions to the Council members.
Part II will cover the Q&A session where, once again, every question was answered without any political tip-toeing around issues.
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