By now you may have seen the package of information that we've put on thenextmayor.com that details the recommendations of the Next Great City initiative (NGC) and the statement that we've already gotten from Candidate Nutter. I won't go into detail here about all of those recommendations but I encourage you to give them a read and let us know what you think. You can also go to NGC's website and give them your comments.
And I know what you're thinking. Of course they're going to endorse these recommendations. Who would be against reducing asthma rates or improving transit stops or recycling? Is any candidate seriously considering running as the "screw recycling" candidate? A friend of mine leaned over to me at the event and said that it's too bad that people have this perception that running on environmental issues is a "problem" in this city because the fact is that environment and labor are two of the biggest pieces of the Democratic Party base and this is an overwhelmingly Democratic city. In fact, you can add to Nutter's response the response that Candidate Fattah delivered in person at the event.
During the question and answer session with panelists who represented some of the organizations that are part of the NGC coalition, Fattah, who arrived at 10:25 for the 9am event, stood up and said that he fully endorses all of the recommendations and that he hopes his fellow candidates do the same. I have no doubt that they will. Bob "spinning the sh*t" Brady will become Bob "endorsing the sh*t" Brady. Tom Knox will undoubtedly take the For Sale Sign down from City Hall while he's climbing on board. And Dwight Evans, who was represented at this morning event by a high level staffer, will answer this "question of leadership" with his endorsement and remind us of how many of these recommendations he's already put in effect in West Oak Lane.
For the record, Michael Nutter was also in attendance, arriving shortly before the event started and staying through the Power Point presentation of the recommendations. In fact, the Nutter-Fattah relay team guaranteed that at least one candidate was present the entire time.
Fortunately a very smart and perceptive member of the audience asked the question that I had. What happens when all of the candidates say, "sure, I love this plan, sign me up?" John Hanger, President and CEO of Citizens for Pennsylvania's Future fielded the question.
"There are some tough lifts in here," said Hanger. He made the point that there are reasons why the zoning code hasn't been changed in decades and why the stormwater fee structure has remained the way it has for so long. And we've already seen examples of folks who would be opposed to planting more street trees. Clearly, there are powerful constituencies who would oppose many of these recommendations and who could have influence over the candidates.
Hanger promised that as NGC continues to meet with the candidates and when they conduct their forum on February 15th they would pin the candidates down on the specifics and get their commitments to individual parts of the plan. Getting public, unequivocal commitments to some of the action items actually stands hit a candidate right in their campaign contributions. For example, if the powerful, deep-pocketed folks who own surface parking lots (a group that stands to pay more under restructured stormwater fees), here a candidate pledge to uphold that recommendation, they'll be much less likely to make that $5000 contribution. We'll be sure to pass along all of the information that NGC gets from the candidates as well as an account of the February 15th forum (and video from the forum if possible).
So that leaves us with the following to figure out:
Who would be against these recommendations?
What do the candidates say to them?
Of those groups that would oppose any of the recommendations, who makes contributions to the candidates (an indication of what the candidates said to them)?
Gee... kinda makes those campaign finance disclosures a LOT more interesting. Don't cha think?
Stay tuned for more.
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