Today at 4pm, in WHYY Studio 1, which I've been so far unsuccessful at renaming Studio 1 on the Sunset Strip, we'll be convening the sixth of our Next Mayor focus groups. It's been a while since I've written about the progress of the focus groups. The highest praise I can give to these events is that if I were one of the 6 or 7 (or 8) candidates for mayor, I'd want to be in the control room watching them and taking lots of notes.
We've had people from all walks of life come together and sit in small groups for an hour and a half to two hours, brainstorming about what they think the most important issues are for the city of Philadelphia and the Greater Philadelphia region. In addition, they've given us great feedback about the type of leader that they think can most effectively move the city forward.
Some of our participants have included: John Childress, director of African American Chamber of Commerce; Frankie Lancos, of Greater Philadelphia Cares, an organization on South Broad Street that matches volunteers with organizations that need help; Ralph Roberts, founder of Comcast; Mary Tracy, Executive Director of SCRUB, the Society Created to Reduce Urban Blight; Alleuyson Kim, a 20-something, new resident of Philly who lives in Northern Liberties and loves it despite several incidents of crime at her workplace and in her neighborhood.
You may recognize some of the names. They are the movers and shakers of the region whose names always seem to appear in bold in the business or social section of the paper. Others are just normal, everyday Philadelphians, like you and me, who are just trying to get by, raise their families, find a decent job, buy a home, save up money to enjoy a night out once in a while but who have no less a stake in the success or failure of the next mayor as those movers and shakers.
To borrow from the gran-daddy of reality shows: once again, we'll put a bunch of strangers, picked to share the same room for two hours, discuss the issues together and have their opinions taped, to find out what happens, when people stop being polite, and start getting real.
Ok... ok... for the most part they stay polite, but you get the picture.
I'll be back later to let you know how it went.