Our sixth Next Mayor focus group wrapped up about an hour ago it's taken me this long to digest what I just witnessed. Like with other groups, this was a diverse set of people that included:
- a young professional who lives in Center City,
- a couple of people who own their own businesses,
- someone who runs a youth development and cultural enrichment program for 6-18 year old African American boys,
- a minister from a large Center City church,
- one of the city's most well known experts on education issues, and
- the past president of a group based in West Philadelphia whose mission is to spread correct knowledge about Islam and talk about moderate Islam.
Several different issues were brought up by the group. Special emphasis was given to the sorry state of the city's infrastructure including the closing of recreation centers and the rundown condition of many neighborhood parks. One participant, a resident of Queen Village, was especially disturbed by how the city has sold some neighborhood park space to developers for more luxury condos and townhomes.
Another participant, a Southwest Philadelphia resident and founder of a non-profit that helps the needy, elderly, ex-offenders and the homeless by encouraging self-improvement and education, talked about education at the primary and middle school level. She made references to times when middle schools had to pay parents in order to get them to come in and receive their child's report card. At that point, the general theme of parental involvement moved the discussion in a direction that made me wonder exactly what we can get a mayor to do to make parents become more involved in their kids' lives.
Things were lively and almost reached the point of "impolite" as participants pressed each other to clarify what "concrete suggestions" they would have for the next mayor in order for him or her to be able to rectify the issues that they were bringing up.
We have one more scheduled for tomorrow and then we may start the process of assembling another group - with a slightly different angle to it. Stay tuned for more details on that.