After a long day on the election circuit, I need a break.

We all encounter little things in Philadelphia that need changing or bettering. I've been trying to write about them for the Daily News over the last couple of months.

We seem to be looking for change in this city. Let's remember that it takes baby steps. See a small problem and work to fix it.

In that vein, he's something on a bit of a lighter note:

http://ww.philly.com/dailynews/opinion/20080423_Project_Elephant.html

I imagine a lot of us who post to or read this blog live in the Un-Green zone.

Philadelphia needs to get serious about recycling. We have a culture of waste here that rivals few other places. From kids to adults, people don't care about litter, their trash and the effect it has on the city. When people start to think about throwing their trash out, they waste less. They litter less.

Improved recycling can be the key to a greener city, obviously, but its impact on making Philadelphia cleaner will be marked as well.

http://www.philly.com/dailynews/opinion/20080226_LIFE_IN_THE_UN-GREEN_ZO...

Lottery total revenue last year: Approximately $3.2 Billion.

Scratch off ticket revenue: $1.7 billion

Profit: $980 million

Clearly, the lottery is a big part of the PA Budget. Hey, it benefits older Pennsylvanians. But we shouldn't be promoting it any longer with a ubiquitous Groundhog.

As states weigh the options of $50 scratch off tickets, and possibly even higher-priced tickets in the future, we should be looking at the way we're promoting this regressive tax. Simply, Gus must go.

He's Joe Camel. Joe went a long time ago. It's time for Gus to join him.

Check out my op-ed in the Daily News here for more.

We should be honoring our musical history in this city. It's time to work toward taking some pride in the things we have and our contributions to America. The Philly Sound, including our doo-wop history and other musical stylings, is one of our biggest treasures. Let's give it a place of prominence.

http://www.philly.com/dailynews/opinion/20080110_R_B_down_by_the_river.h...

A large portion of this region has two views of the system, late and/or filthy. As a city division rider that occasionally ventures into the burbs for work on some lines, I haven't had too much of a problem with the former, but filthy, I can't accept. While acknowledging that SEPTA is the largest housing agency for those with mental illness and/or homeless and that this often contributes to its decrepit state, it's unacceptable that buses and El trains should have urine on the floor, outdoor stations smell like sewers, etc.

Though the last time I posted an Earth Month Idea no one answered, here's another, which could be equally dumb but I've decided to try to get some policy/ideas going in the face of repeated threads in which people who likely agree on 99.9% of things fight via keyboard on this blog rather than via email...

Problem : FAIRMOUNT PARK'S LACK OF CONNECTEDNESS TO PHILADELPHIA YOUTH

The other day, I found a tire on the corner of my block, just sitting there. I drive down the road behind Edison High school, which is I think is Mascher or Quasi-2nd street, fairly frequently and I'll usually pass about three hundred or more discarded tires.

Dumping tires is a Philadelphia pass time.

Each year, the Streets department holds a tire round up for two months or so, affording community groups like ours in Fishtown a chance to earn some money and get rid of the dumped tires in our area. We did pretty well this year, 1000 tires for $500. Think about that 1,000 over two Saturdays in Fishtown and some parts of Kensington. I'm sure that all of the other community groups that participated found similar booty on our streets (Tires are really, really freaking dirty and often contain some undefined liquid in the wheel well that doesn't taste great).

I've been sending this announcement to all candidates via email and some by mail today. If you are a candidate or campaign manager for a Citywide office or Judicial office, please contact me at 215-287-3492 or at ajthomson175@hotmail.com to confirm attendance.

I'm still getting the formal invites out today, but figured this would be another venue to reach as many candidates as possible.

The Fishtown Neighbors Association is a civic organization that seeks to improve the quality of life for all in our community through service projects, citizen-participation events and civic-education committees. We invite all municipal and judicial candidates from all parties to speak at our April membership meeting.

This ran in today's Daily News.
http://www.philly.com/dailynews/opinion/20070321_Casino_vote_is_good_for...

LET'S SAY YOU invite a friend over to live with you.
On his way over, he walks through a field and his boots are covered in mud. You've decided to have this person live with you and are excited to have his company and to help pay the rent.

If he doesn't remove his shoes, he's going to track mud all over your house. The whole time he's there, you're going to worry about the damage he's doing instead of his contributions to your life and the lower bills you're going to pay.

To avoid this, you can ask the friend to take off his shoes so he doesn't ruin your house, and you can enjoy your time together.

Though not a perfect analogy, this is quite similar to the state of casino gaming and its hopefully delayed entry to our city.

I believe the education question is the only one for this city and the most-central issue to turning the city around. Until someone talks turkey and exposes the underbelly of the system so that people demand better, the city won't improve. Each year 10-20K people will leave rather than deal with it and another 10-20K people won't move here because of it. Sure jobs matter and an endemic structure of poverty is in place, but schools can have discipline, kids can be challenged and a safe environment for learning can exist. Create that and Philly instantly becomes a better place to be and good-paying jobs follow it. You might have to step on some toes and tell some people some things they don't want to hear, but that's leadership.
Now for my promotion of The Wire, starring Fishtown's-own John Doman. I now realize that most people are in the same boat I was until I broke down and got HBO (a good decision if only for this show and Extras, which is also great).

State Representatives must be tough. Senators even tougher. The Governor is a pretty tough guy.
I say this because recent comments from council talk about avoiding a confrontation with the state as if the state was an all-powerful leviathan bent on imposing it’s will on it subjects with little regard for their rights or concerns, rather than a representative democracy. Rather than even acknowledging the fact that the city, as host to two slot parlors, should be able to dictate some of the terms through which this industry comes to our town, the third-rail of casinos and the impacts on our communities has been something many don’t want to touch.

Thanks, Ray Murphy, for directing the blog toward solutions.

Solutions require actions, continuous actions. In my mind, Reform is a verb, it's based on acting in a way that will produce meaningful change. It's based on doing.

Unfortunately, I believe that many "reform" movement activities are more vocal and are often one-time, stunt-based press-release fodder for some annointed reformers. That said, it's not true of all reformers, including some who participate on this blog.

To me, progressivism is a belief or way of acting that looks for ground-up solutions, solutions that will grow and keep problems from coming back or getting worse in the future. Some of the suggestions I've read about here, including mid-night basketball, are more ground-up than others, but many ignore the root causes of violence and the systemic problems of the areas that need the most help. Essentially, these communities lack even the most basic institutions that other neighborhoods take for granted. One basic resource which we need to revive is the once-proud and much-larger network of youth cultural and sports organizations. Many on this blog who may not have grown up in Philadelphia may be unaware that, even ten to fifteen years ago, Philadelphia had a larger network of volunteer-based programs for kids in sports, drama, music and other activities. In many neighborhoods, black, white or hispanic, these organizations are gone. With their absence, kids in many of these neighborhoods have had little to no meaningful extra-curricular activity with other kids or adults in their community. This absence has been in place for almost a generation. I believe we are now dealing with some of the ramifications of this absence with the current escalation of violence.