- who would like to see Verizon offer cable TV in Phila?
- Council Committee Passed the Freeze
- Carol Campbell Passes Away
- My first trip to the public library
- Fight digital exclusion
- What if half of Philadelphia didn't have roads?
- You know, let's not even worry about the City Commissioners office messing up voter registration processing
- Bold ideas to fix the budget
- Mayor Nutter's Town Hall Meeting Schedule
- City Releases Library Information to City Council
The Next Great City
Submitted by Dan U-A on Thu, 01/25/2007 - 1:31pm.
The Next Mayor has a post up about the latest group to put out a plan, and ask the Mayoral candidates to sign on. This time, the focus is on the environment:
At 9 a.m. this morning, a coalition of dozens of organizations ranging from labor groups to environmental activists will be challenging the candidates for mayor to get behind a series of environmental actions that the group calls, "affordable," "revenue-neutral" or having "an identified funding source." These actions, according to The Next Great City, represent "some immediate, doable and powerful improvements to neighborhoods" that the next mayor can accomplish "over the next four years."
....
Next Great City's main event will be on February 15th at the Academy of Natural Sciences when the candidates will be invited to participate in a public forum to share their response to NGC's recommendations as well as their own plans for good, sustainable, neighborhood-improving growth.
Now, you may be wondering, "what are these recommendations?" Check out our coverage page.
Some of the recommendations are pretty basic- like planting neighborhood trees, some are more complex, like enacting modern zoning. (And, frankly, I don't think all of the suggestions are likely to be revenue neutral.) Anyway, that said, every recommendation makes sense.
I expect most of the candidates to sign on. If successful, then with the Seventy pledge, and with this one, the first start of a civic movement to demand change is starting to build.
Nutter has signed on; they are waiting for responses from the rest.
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i hope candidates go further
this next great city thing looks good though i wonder why it put a revenue neutral cap on at all? you gotta spend money to make money.
one specific thing i'd like to add (that probably would be revenue neutral) is for the city to dump 50% or more of its car fleet and put the initial savings into a grant to be given to Car Share.
There is aparking lot at 15/Cherry full of city cars now. A lot of them are for DHS workers. Let's dump half of them and then put like 30 Car Share pods there.
This would boost Car Share's scope and would cut down on energy emissions since Car Share uses a lot of hybrids.
If the city does not want to do this, then they should at least replace 75% of their current fleet with hybrids.
What about this: if the City
What about this: if the City really wanted to boost Carshare- a policy that they can park in any meter for free? IE, a general policy that except for tow away zone things, the PPA simply will not issue them tickets?
I think that would be a boon to car share, and to retail shopping in C City and the like, and to the environment.
along those lines...
I have been meaning to ask if anyone has seen this:
I love it when SEPTA decides to market itself. It's always bizarre.
The next mayor, next state
The next mayor, next state delegation and next congress must do a better job of getting money to Philadelphia for dedicated funding and more metro or trolley lines. Period. We should set a goal now of having at least one new line built by 2012. That is leadership!
Supporting Michael Nutter in 2007!
PhillyCarShare is Awesome, but...
You could never cut the City's fleet by 50% without drastically and dramatically cutting services to citizens. Most of the City's fleet is in the Police, Fire, Streets, and Water Departments.
As to hybrids, Councilman Kenney has created for the City a policy that establishes a preference for the purchase of hybrids when they're cost effective.
As you know, the City established a successful partnership with PCS that has been recognized internationally. In 2005, the program made the "Top 18" in the Harvard Innovations in American Government Awards competition and also received an Environmental Excellence Award from Governor Rendell. This program also received a "Bennie" from YIP.
The best way to help the enviroment does cost lots of money.
Expand public transportation aggressively. More high speed lines like the the Market-Frankford Line. Less bus based transit. Philadelphia could easily and should easily have 2 more lines that traverse the city to connect places that can only be reached by bus.
Make the regional rails a bit more reliable in the harsh weather (how? I'm not an engineer).
Then, we have to increase ridership. How? Make public transit clean and safe.
Has anyone here tried to eat on the DC Metro? I saw it happen once--it was not pretty. In the meantime, people toss food trash all over our trains--nasty.
Car share is great. But, it use is relatively limited compared to the ridership and potential ridership of SEPTA.
Supporting Michael Nutter in 2007!
You don't have to tell me sister...
but i think the next great city folks thought it would be more palatable to go revnue neutral. the city does own quite a big fleet of vehicles--remember when the DN did an expose on the unessecary number of SUVs they owned?
And Car Share is a great program whith a ton of members but also potential for a ton of growth.
But, yes, I could not agree more that aggressive SEPTA investments should be the priority of any elected official.
What I would like to see.
One day, when people in our generation really start taking leadership positions for the mayor, congress-people and state delegation to coordinate on ambitious goals to no only bring revenue to the city, but actual capital projects.
Taking away any loyalties we feel towards our current leaders, we really are a disjointed bunch. It seems too many are concerned with their fief and not enough concerned with the common good. If the local party really wants to be effective, it must be the means to facilitiate this coordination. Then we can have a "Big Dig" a new subway line (like they're getting in NYC), a "Millenium Park," or, maybe one day, actual stuff on the Delaware River front! Maybe the Barnes will actually be in Philadelphia. And, maybe, just maybe (this is my self thinking out-loud), an ice-skating rink in Dilworth Plaza (preferably the more western-northern end, so that it is not just a big, grey void, and people can actually feel like our City Hall is a place we can actually touch--and enjoy.
Coordination. When we do our work---we should remember that. Maybe that is the ultimate benefit of a place like YPP--so we all know who we are, common ground.
Supporting Michael Nutter in 2007!
Bring back the rink!
There actually was a skating rink at the concourse level at 16th and JFK years ago. There was also a restaurant and bar that had windows looking out to the rink. I remember it being pretty cool and like your idea of putting one in Dilworth plaza.
Maybe the mayoral candidates should weigh in on this.
I had heard of that rink.
I had heard of that rink.
Just last night, I walked through Dilworth plaza and looked west, towards the taller buidings and thought, this would be such a great idea. And, there is nothing better than pedestrian traffic to make people in town feel safe. At night, Dilworth plaza is a dark, dark place.
We need to be more festive. I'm sure some corporation like Comcast would be willing to help out.
Supporting Michael Nutter in 2007!
I haven't priced out the
I haven't priced out the SEPTA capital investment program I've put forward at http://www.stier2007.com/node/121. I'm working on it. But it is probably at least $2 billion.
It is a lot of money. But while there are no federal operating subsidies but there are federal capital dollars. And some of the projects I'm proposing, the Roosevelt Boulevard line and the Delaware Riverfront line would be high on the list of projects to be funded by the feds because the local match, in terms of existing infrastructure would be high (on the Delware) or beause ridership projections would be hight (on the Roosevelt Boulevard.)
We need this money for transit and to be people back to work.
SEPTA has been requiring that some contractors who build our trains is to hire local subs. I know someone who makes what I think are the undercarriages for rail cars. If SEPTA were creative in encouraging more of this, we could do a lot better in bringing manufacturing back to the city.
If for no other reason, we need to grab this money and put more people to work.
Expect a Damon Roberts position piece soon
On creative uses of PhillyCarShare.
GREAT program with great possibilites!
Supporting Damon K. Roberts, Marc Stier, Maria Quinones-Sanchez, Irv Ackelsburg, and Vern Anastasio (should he decide to run) for City Council. Supporting Michael Nutter for Mayor. Running out of room on the bumper for more stickers.
The Slate Solution!
Why didn't someone think of this before?
All you guys who want a progressive slate should be working on a joint bumper sticker.
On a more serious note:
One of the first car share sites was, I think, in Mt. Airy. It is an incredibly neat program. West Mt. Airy Neighbors encouraged the program and suggested a place for the cars.
Imagine a great transit system and car share!
doh!
i should really do my research. from the philly car share website:
The city already uses
The city already uses CarShare at 1515 Arch and other locations. Buying hybrids to replace fleet vehicles that were paid for years ago wouldn't save the taxpayer's money. The cost to maintain and fuel a 10 year old Taurus is minimal.
Slots to Think About
Looking at the Next Great City I was left feeling that the slots parlors proposed for the riverfront would score very badly if you turned the NGC list into indicators that we would measure our progress towards greatness against. Things that don't move us towards resolving problems and themselves create more or expand existing problems should be denounced and opposed. Like many issues the casino issue when you go deep into the organizing becomes connected with so many other issues. It is a neighborhood, city, state and national (and international issue). It is a public health, safety, crime and environment issue. It is an infrastructure, zoning, land use sustainable development and transit issue. It is a good government, tax and revenue, corruption and pay to play issue. It is a jobs, business and economic development issue. I live next door to a ten year old who suffers from very serious asthma. He has grown up just a couple blocks from I-95 (we live between I-95 and the Delaware River). With a 5,000 car, 10 story parking garage proposed a block from our house (part of the Sugar House proposal) will our air become cleaner, will my neighbor's asthma improve? There was never a lot of support for casinos in residential neighborhoods (60% of Philadelphians opposed casinos in residential areas based on a poll conducted in the summer of 2005 by the Philadelphia Gaming Task Force) yet here we are with a City Administration chearleading the Gaming Control Board's decision-making process, a Governor who sees gaming as simple entertainment and opposition as being afraid of the unknown, and very few Mayoral candidates or high profile civic leaders in the city articulating any position whatsoever. This will change due to the work of Casino Free Philadelphia and many others. I look forward to actually using the ideas like those of the Next Great City initiative to actually challenge the status quo and move toward transforming our city for the better. We can start by stopping those things that move us away from greatness. Casinos are top of the list for me and can be stopped. I am sure there are other great things to advance and destructive things to stop and I look forward to working on those issues as well.
i love your posts but
just learn to hit the return key sometimes!
lol
hannah
Update on the Next Great City
At the Next Mayor, they have asked the rest of the candidates whether they support the proposals. Joining Nutter in supporting the proposals are Fattah, Evans, and Knox. Brady has yet to respond.