For our second mission, the Counter Intelligence Unit went to the Kingsessing neighborhood in Southwest Philadelphia. Most people only get to see this area on television when "that news van" or its competitors are out there to cover a fire or shooting. Our mission was simple: find out from a random group of people what they expect from the next mayor and what are their major issues.
First some information about Kingsessing. According to the Philadelphia Neighborhood Information System (a fantastic resource), Kingsessing had a population of 34,106 in 2000. That includes 32,497 blacks, 617 whites, 383 hispanics and 229 asians. It's a fairly young group with an under-18 population of 11,070 or about 32 percent.
The educational attainment numbers show that in 2000, there were 7,239 people age 25 or older with a high school diploma and 860 people age 25 or older with a bachelor's degree. Finally, 18,617 or more than 50% of the people in Kingessing live in a household with an income level that's below 200% of the poverty line, while 10,322 people are in households with an income level below the poverty line itself.
While the piece is edited to fit down into the 90 second to 2 minute range, it includes at least one mention of all of the major issues brought up by the folks in the Platinum Image Barbershop on that bright April morning. All of the shots used were taken that day, either just before or just after the interviews and all were taken in that neighborhood.
While we shot the piece, I was not particularly surprised to hear that crime is the dominant issue and that the people in that neighborhood are aching for some kind of economic development that brings jobs and more household wealth into the area. It's easy to write about these issues in the abstract or for politicians to talk about them without really getting to see how the people who live these issues every day are affected by them. Anyone who wants to be mayor can't forget that.
Anyway, check out the video here.