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REPRINTED FROM THENEXTMAYOR.COMMarch 25, 2007 press release, (submitted via e-mail) |
PRESS RELEASE
To: Media Contact List
From: Stanley Diamond, Outreach Committee (215-242-0612)
Re: Endorsements for City Council
Date: March 25, 2007
At the Steering Committee meeting meeting of Neighborhood Networks held on Sunday, March 18, the recommendations and vote tallies of our neighborhood divisions were reviewed and we endorsed the following additional candidates for City Councilperson-at-large in the upcoming election: Matt Ruben, Andy Toy, Bill Greenlee, and Blondell Reynolds-Brown.
We endorsed Marc Stier for Councilperson-at-large at an earlier meeting.
In addition to our earlier endorsement of Damon Roberts for Councilperson in the Second District, we endorse the following additional candidates: Irv Acklesberg District Eight, Maria Quinones-Sanchez District Seven.
We expect to continue to assess other candidates for Council and persons who have applied for our endorsement for judges and row offices.
Neighborhood Networks is a grassroots, progressive organization which represents the decisions of our membership. Our endorsements are voted on first in neighborhood divisions and then reviewed and approved by the Steering Committee.
For additional information about our endorsed candidates, call Gloria Gilman, Chairperson of Neighborhood Networks, at 215-568-4990 or Stanley Shapiro, Campaign Chairperson and Vice-Chairperson of Neighborhood Networks at 215-247-9169.
The results of the questionairres submitted to us by the endorsed candidates can be found on our web site at www.phillynn.org
We provide the following brief summaries about the people we have endorsed.
Marc Stier is a founder of Neighborhood Networks, former chair of West Mount Airy Neighbors, and an innovative leader in a wide variety of progressive causes, such as increasing the minimum wage, adequate funding for SEPTA, and fair and equitable tax restructuring. He campaigns on the theme that our politics is broken and that it is in everyone’s interest to make City government open, transparent, and accessible to all without regard to political connections.
Matt Ruben, President, Northern Liberties Neighbors Association from 2002-2006, been a leader of a variety of movements for social change in Philly, working on such diverse issues as abortion rights, welfare advocacy, street vendor rights, and most recently keeping casinos out of Philadelphia. Matt’s campaign is based on the idea that crime, poverty and population loss will not be solved unless we pursue an agenda of economic growth with social justice.
Andrew Toy has an outstanding record of advocating for the growth of the small business sector in Philadelphia, working for many years at LISC, the largest community development support organization in the country and managing the Business Services Division of the Philadelphia Commerce Department from 1986-1994. Andy insists that as we bring new business investment and jobs to Philadelphia we must be sure that no one is left behind in poverty or displaced through gentrification.
Bill Greenlee is the former Chair of the Philadelphia Chapter of Americans for Democratic Action, director of constituent services for Councilman David Cohen, and a strong advocate of civil rights, labor rights, and tax equity. With an encyclopedic knowledge of the workings of city government, he intends to focus his work on maintaining and increasing the quality of city services and insuring equal access to those services for all Philadelphians.
Blondell Reynolds-Brown has served seven years on City Council during which time she has been Council’s leading advocate for programs to protect and advance the interests of women, children and youth. Recently she created City Council’s Committee on Gender Parity which will investigate and explore expanding opportunities for working women. In the last year Ms. Brown also provided strong leadership on two issues of central importance to NN and its members: recycling and media consolidation.
Maria Quinones Sanchez is a veteran community activist. Formerly on the staff of City Councilman Angel Ortiz, she later served as the first female and youngest Executive Director of ASPIRA, the largest Latino educational institution in Pennsylvania. She believes that the answer to the rampant violence that is plaguing our neighborhoods and our city is the creation of well funded and maintained recreation centers, community policing, job creation, and real educational and working opportunities for our youth.
Irv Ackelsberg has represented individuals and groups ably and creatively for 30 years working out of the neighborhood office of Community Legal Services. Irv has represented hundreds of voters in the district in their personal problems, but he also has taken on powerful financial and political interests. He is always on the side of ordinary people and has fought – and won – battles against foreclosure sales, SEPTA fare hikes, payday lenders, fraudulent training programs and other con artists.
Damon Roberts, is the outgoing Community Outreach Director for the Philadelphia Young Democrats, the Leader of South Philadelphia Neighborhood Networks Division, a 2006 fellow in the Center for Progressive Leadership (CPL) and Chair of Philadelphia’s Social Action Committee (SAC). He campaigns on his belief that public investments in economic development must yield such public benefits as good jobs, affordable housing, and childcare.
NEIGHBORHOOD NETWORKS
PO Box 7762 Phila., PA 19101
215-568-4990 www.phillyneighborhoodnetworks.org