Making Philly the 'Next Great City'

Philadelphia residents and businesses want the environment to be a big part of the race for mayor, according to an effort launched Jan. 25, 2007.

"Building up and improving our neighborhoods must be key priorities of the new mayor and City Council," starts the manifesto of the Next Great City coaltion.

The coalition has commissioned a poll that shows 56 percent of those surveyed believe the environment is a top issue for the next mayor to address. And it's developed a set of 10 environmental action items that it wants the candidates for mayor to commit to.

(The effort will also host a candidates' forum on the role of the environment in the race in February. More details can be found at www.nextgreatcity.org or www.sustainablephiladelphia.com.)

Full disclosure: The Next Great City is part of the Next Mayor's Community Network, a collection of groups in the city that have joined our effort to encourage debate of issues in the mayor's race. But we want to know what you think about the recommendations. Comment on the agenda on our blog.

And we want to know what the candidates think. We're asking each of the five Democratic candidates to respond to the Next Great City recommendations. Here's what they said:

WHAT DO THE CANDIDATES SAY?
Candidate	Chaka Fattah	Dwight Evans	Tom Knox	Michael Nutter	Bob Brady
Response (click to read more)	'Fully endorses' all of the recom- mendations	'Fully endorses' the agenda	"A giant YES of support"	'Strongly endorses' the agenda	No answer yet