Ideas that could help

Feb. 18, 2007
Philadelphia Inquirer Editorial

For the last month, in 30 forums over 30 days in neighborhoods all over the city, the Great Expectations: Citizen Voices on Philadelphia's Future project has invited the city's residents to dream dreams both ambitious and practical.

Here are some first fruits, 23 neat ideas that emerged from those rousing dialogues. They are ideas meant not only to address the city's most glaring problems - crime, schools, job base, corruption - but also to buttress its most shining assets - its culture, parks and history, its universities and hospitals, its close-knit neighborhoods.

Truth be told, citizens struggled most to find fresh ideas on the big, hairy, top-of-agenda issues of this election year. Often they settled for stating broad goals or echoing ideas already heard on the campaign trail. Where they were most creative was working on smaller, quality-of-life issues - or breaking down the huge issues into smaller first steps that might change attitudes or create momentum.

For a fuller look at the yield from the forums, please see http://go.philly.com/forumreports:

The Apprentice: Philadelphia: Invite business-student teams from the Big 5 universities (and Drexel, too) to compete to come up with the best business plan to create jobs inside Philadelphia. Find a venture capital fund that would give seed money for young graduates to try the idea.

'Hood to 'Hood Field Trips: Close-knit neighborhoods can also be cliquish and hostile. One idea to open kids up to the city's diversity emerged from several groups: Have students design a tour of their neighborhood, stressing its history and assets, then host that tour for kids from a school in a different neighborhood. Then have the schools reverse the process.

Crime Czar: The next mayor should appoint one person in charge of anticrime strategy, with enough sway over the budgets of the district attorney, courts and probation departments to bring them to the table.

The Pledge: Ask all candidates for mayor to sign this anticorruption pledge: "If any person I appoint to my administration is convicted of official corruption, I will resign."

Someone to Watch Over Me: Create an ombudsman independent of either the mayor or City Council to investigate citizen complaints about performance of elected or appointed officials.

311 Line: Set up a 311 line for non-emergency requests for service or to complain about problems.

Do-Gooder Rewards: Encourage volunteerism by offering city-subsidized rewards for sustained volunteer effort: tax breaks, business discounts, or sports tickets.

SEPTA Service: Not an Oxymoron?: Ideas flowed on this topic: *Create a fare card that riders can load up with a dollar value, then swipe for easy access. Better yet, make it a regional fare card - a la E-Z Pass - good on PATCO and Amtrak as well as SEPTA. *Put route maps and schedules on bus shelters. *Work a deal with Mapquest, Yahoo! Maps, etc., so that whenever users type in a city address, they get directions how to reach it via SEPTA. *Require
SEPTA board members to ride the system at least once a month and report on their experiences. *Put prominent, well-marked newspaper recycling bins at all train and subway platforms. *Run more "night owl" service for young people going out on the town. *Put SEPTA token machines in high-traffic areas, e.g., Wawa.

Good Buzz: Partner with Wireless Philadelphia to maintain and transmit a "Wish You Knew" blog/text service, to disseminate positive city news and word of things to do around town.

Anchors Aweigh: Institute a water-taxi service up and down the Delaware.

City of Learning: Use a national marketing campaign with that theme to promote the city's universities and colleges. Similarly market the city's hospitals as a quality-of-life asset, particularly to parents with children.

Cultural Buddies: Pair people up across ages, races and neighborhoods to share the city's rich variety of cultural offerings. The orchestra one night; a hip-hop concert the next.

The Sherpa Guide to L&I: Create the job of "customer guide" to the city bureaucracy, someone who would take charge of guiding a person's application for a building permit or license through the red tape.

Create an alliance that would do for Philadelphia's many small historic sites and houses some of what the Theater Alliance of Philadelphia does for the city's theater groups. Don't forget African American sites such as the John Coltrane house. The alliance would enable the many nonprofits that care for the sites to share services, promote them jointly to tourists and schools, and devise a regional preservation strategy. Create more dog runs at parks and rec centers. They are a quality-of-life draw and are centers of friendly connection.

Let's Have Dinner Together: City schools suffer from low parent involvement, but many young parents shun schools as hostile, lecturing places. With school help, home-school associations could organize informal, potluck dinners hosted by active parents, who could share useful information with other parents and invite them in a friendly way to get more involved.

Edmunds.com for the Schools: Many parents have no idea about the school choices developing under the reform agenda - and how could they? The district needs a consumer-friendly Web site for parents to search by address for all of their school options, with clear information on resources, programs and how to apply.