Understanding the issue
It's Philly's turn among American cities to see cranes on its skyline. The next mayor is going to have to figure out how to make sure that building is good for the city -- meaning environmentally sound, meaning common-sense, meaning a workable balance of development for the condo-buying rich (who bring their healthy tax and retail bills) and the working folks of Philadelphia (who teach our kids, patrol our streets and raise our kids.)
This won't be easy in Philly, where the zoning code is old and councilmanic privilege remains a development fact of life. Not to mention that the next mayor will have to handle the creation of two slots parlors in the city -- that is, unless a community drive to prevent the casinos is successful.
Compare the candidates' environmental plans
Read Bob Brady's Energy and Sustainability Plan
Read Dwight Evans' environmental plan
Read Chaka Fattah's environmental plan
Read Tom Knox's environmental plan
Read Michael Nutter's environmental plan
From The Next Mayor Community Network:
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. Read the environmental agenda -- and what the candidates said about it -- in our special report.
Or learn more from Sustainable Philadelphia, the Next Great City Initiative; or Greenadelphia!
City Paper: Loose Canon: It's the Environment, Stupid (9/14/06)
And more: From the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society - how can the "Green City Strategy" help our city?
Life after slots
The state gaming control board has given licenses for two slots parlors on Delaware Avenue: the Foxwoods Casino, (architects' early rendering pictured above) in South Philadelphia on Reed Street, and the SugarHouse Casino at Shackamaxon Street in Northern Liberties. This -- plus racetrack/casinos, or "racinos," in Chester and Bensalem -- could change Philly forever, especially if you live near I-95.
However, a community effort to prevent the building of the casinos is gathering steam. Check out what the each of the candidates said about slots parlors -- including how they'd use the slots revenue -- here.
Check out many of Casino-Free Philadelphia's press releases in our PR Archive.
Casinos or no, dealing with the impact and still developing an enjoyable, useful waterfront will be one of the biggest issues the next mayor must face.
From The Next Mayor Community Network:
Are we helping or hindering development?
A thriving city allows for smart development. Does Philadelphia? Check out these two reports from the Building Industry Association of Philadelphia:
'If We Fix It' - released in Fall 2004, a look at how the development process works in Philadelphia; identifies 10 steps to make the system more user-friendly
Tax Abatement Analysis - released in September 2006, an analysis commissioned by the Building Industry Association to study the effects of the 10-year tax abatement program on the City
From The Next Mayor Community Network:
Are we helping or hindering 'rowhouse Philadelphians'?
Another view of the Tax Abatement from community activists ACORN: "The Cost of Luxury Condo Development to Rowhouse Philadelphia"
And ACORN's "PeopleFirst Platform: Housing, Heat, & Home Repair" agenda
From The Next Mayor Community Network:
How do we make our neighborhoods
work for seniors?
Today, Philadelphia is home to more than 254,000 people over the age of 60, comprising 17 percent of the population -- and many are poor, according to a report by the Philadelphia Corporation for Aging. How do we make our neighborhoods work for our eldest -- and all generations?
The waterfront: A coordinated plan
After too long, the city finally has a group that's willing to tackle the complicated problems of planning a useful, accessible, enjoyable and economically powerful waterfront. It's called PlanPhilly.
Daily News editorial: Rethinking the river, with your help (10/25/06)
City Planning Commission: North Delaware Waterfront: A long-term vision for renewal and redevelopment (from the Pennsylvania Economy League) (Fall 2002)
The Current Mayor's Legacy on Neighborhoods
In early 2006, Mayor Street presented this video to the Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce during their annual mayoral luncheon. It's the Mayor's own report card of his first six years in office and touts accomplishments in neighborhood transformation, economic development and education.
Planning the city
Finding the right place to build something in Philly is infernally difficult. Undeveloped land is scarce, and despite the goals of Mayor Street's five-year Neighborhood Transformation Initiative, creating large parcels still requires a lot of legal research and lengthy dealmaking -- including with disenchanted neighbors and city councilpeople who, thanks to "councilmanic privilege," can stop a development in their district they don't like.
Development of large-scale residential/retail developments can happen (and NTI gets some of the credit for that), though the developers who do them also say they'd like a planning and zoning process with less overlap and more authority. This issue has finally caught the attention of City Council, which may address it in early 2007 (scroll through the story for the zoning coverage). This is one of those sneak issues that might not get time during a campaign -- but make a huge difference in life in the city.
Daily News: Earni Young: Zoning & planning take center stage (11/13/06)
Planning magazine: Philadelphia gears up for an election (Nov. 2006 pdf)
Mark Alan Hughes | PRIVATE PLANNING NOT A PUBLIC GOOD (10/11/06)
Daily News Editorial: Philly Zones Out: City needs a plan to stop battles between developers and residents (7/24/06)
WHYY News: “Fail to plan, plan to fail.” Susan Phillips reports on city
planning as an issue for the next mayor’s race. (RealAudio, 4/26/06)
Gentrification: Could it work for you?
The Daily News' Earni Young takes a different look at the "g-word." Blacks, she says, do not lose when whites move in -- no matter how scary gentrification can be to our city's resilient long-term residents. (posted 7/3/06)
Philadelphia's Housing and Real Estate Market
WHYY News: Susan Phillips on Philadelphia's changing housing market. (9/12/06)
Daily News: Earni Young | Center City cooling off, but it's no big chill (9/12/06)
WHAT YOU SAID:
"I suggest the prime issue MUST be overall sustainability - not
"environmentalism", not "public health", not even "buy local" - but all-in-one. A different "world view" using projects, newspaper & other
media, organizational relationships, powerful local funding sources, the business community incl. Chamber of Commerce et al, the business
end of the local higher education powerhouses, spiritual organizations, et al. Using something like "The Natural Step" as a holistically sustainable framework (as the NJ township of Lawrence is currently undertaking) we could move Philadelphia & the Delaware watershed (aka the Delaware
Valley) into a survival future - economically, humanistically, ecologically.
Starting NOW is the only way humanity will "survive" successfully over
the next 30-50 or hundred years of hard transitions."
- Bill Marston
Gentrification is another concern. I'm all for neighborhood redevelopment, but not when honest working poor get pushed out in favor of upper income earners who can afford the rising property taxes…
The city needs to get tough on blighted property owners. There needs to be tougher standards for existing structures. If you own it, it needs windows, doors, and a mowed lawn, or you start paying fines. The city needs to be more proactive in fixing streets. I've made 3 phone calls about a pot hole that is getting worse at 20th and Locust, starting on Nov. 3rd of this year. Its still there. How hard is it to fill it in? There's a busted up side walk in my neighborhood that I was told by DiCicco's office, nothing could be done about. Why? Is it sooo hard for the city to cement 3 sidewalk squares, or if it is the property owner, to get them to do it?
- Joseph Timlin
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