50 days: The lessons we've learned so far (The Next Mayor)

The Next Mayor officially kicked off on December 5, 2005 - that's 476 days ago for those of you keeping count. Since then, we set out to learn as much as we could about the issues facing the city and the region and the candidates who hope to tackle those issues.

We've talked to people where they live, in their neighborhoods, places of businesses, "hang outs," and special events.

We've brought a whole range of people into the studios of WHYY for a series of intense, 90-minute sessions during which we've poked and prodded them about what they think the major issues are for this race and the type of leader whom they're looking for to take over as the next CEO of the city and region.

We've tracked the candidates to many of their various community forums, starting the day after Election Day 2006 all the way to just last Friday (edited to change link and add: thanks to Albert and Philly Future for that account). We've even been able to get video of some of them to share with you in their entirety.

We were even able to get the current mayor, who's not one known to embrace the media by any stretch, to offer us his opinion on what the greatest challenge will be for his successor.

So throughout the day, I'll be reviewing those lessons and asking you, who have been following the race just as closely, if not more so, as we have been, to offer your own thoughts on what you've learned about the issues and the candidates. If I miss an issue or an important point about a candidate, PLEASE, bring it up in the comments. I may even boost it to the up into the next post just so nothing is missed.

Lesson 1 (and trust me, I don't have the energy or creativity to come up with 50 lessons so I'll just number then as they come to me):
Crime is big but not as big as you think.

Back in August 2006, the Daily News and Dr. Terry Madonna of Franklin and Marshall College, released the first "Keystone Poll" on the 2007 mayor's race. Setting aside, for a moment, what several hundred voters thought about a bunch of men who hadn't even officially declared their candidacies (except for Nutter), let's focus on what the poll told us about issues. By a HUGE margin (even wider than the Sixers' 124-74 drubbing at the hands of the Rockets), voters considered the most important problem facing Philadelphia today to be "Crime, drugs and violence."

The number was staggering. Sixty-four percent of those survey cited "Crime, drugs and violence" while the next category, "Education, schools, programs" got 5%. Considering that the margin of error in the poll was 5.1%, "Crime, drugs and violence" could be considered the ONLY problem facing Philadelphia today. The numbers were similar in the second Keystone Poll released last January.

So why isn't crime as big an issue as you think it is?

To supplement polling, The Next Mayor decided to dig deeper by asking people to think about the crime issue in a different way. The participants in our Community Forums informed us that crime is a problem but it's actually more of a symptom than the root cause. At its core, the crime problem is a manifestation of a lack of jobs and poor educational opportunities. This group, in particular, made that link directly and gave great suggestions to the next mayor (the guy, not the project) about what he could do to solve the so-called "Number 1 Issue" of this election.

But what did folks who live in one of the sections of the city that has been most afflicted with this epidemic of violent crime have to say? Were they asking for more police on the streets? Longer sentences? More prisons? In short, were they looking for the typical suggestions offered by a "Law and Order" candidate during an election marked by high crime numbers?

Nope.

In this edition of Counter Intelligence (Quicktime required), we heard from folks in Kingsessing, in Southwest Philadelphia, who made the insightful link between lack of jobs and job training, abandoned buildings and crime.

So there you have it. Lesson 1 - crime is big but not as big as you think. Give the people of Philadelphia a lot of credit for understanding what it takes to reduce crime permanently and sustainably.

Check back here throughout the day for more lessons.

Comments (7)

drm:

Any news about the tribune poll????

Posted by drm | March 26, 2007 10:12 AM

Dave

Isn't this ABC story about the security cameras Fattah's been taking credit for funding, and isn't Curtis Jones (who's running for district council in the 4th) a Fattah ally (the Philly Magazine article certainly suggests that is the case)?

Giving funding to political allies instead of the people who can make the best use of it (the police department, in this case, as the ABC report points out) is one of Philadelphia's biggest problems. This doesn't look very promising as far as Fattah improving things if elected.

http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/story?section=local&id=5146254
http://blogs.phillynews.com/dailynews/nextmayor/2006/11/when_congressmen_run_for_mayor.html
http://www.phillymag.com/articles/chaka_fattah_just_your_average_politcian

Disclaimer: I'm a Nutter supporter.

Posted by Dave | March 26, 2007 10:16 AM

Sbadeau

This paragraph, and the answer below it bears repeating and repeating and repeating.

"But what did folks who live in one of the sections of the city that has been most afflicted with this epidemic of violent crime have to say? Were they asking for more police on the streets? Longer sentences? More prisons? In short, were they looking for the typical suggestions offered by a "Law and Order" candidate during an election marked by high crime numbers?

Nope"

Of course we need safety, security and law and order, but we will never solve the problem of crime and violence as long as that is what we focus on. We MUST focus on solving the underlying challenges - and at the heart of those challenges we find our children.

Our children need to be connected to strong families, excellent educational opportunities, people who give them a vision of hope for their own future, safe places to spend their time before, during and after school, and exposure to a range of experiences where they can identify and then develop their skills, talents and abilities.

It IS about education and jobs, but it is BIGGER than education and jobs. It is about taking the long view - the multi-generational view - of how we discover our strengths and build upon them as the foundation of greatness for our future, and how we identify our weaknesses and shore them up effectively.

Posted by Sbadeau | March 26, 2007 11:36 AM

sj:

I think most people agree that crime can be reduced in the long term by better opportunities and education but that doesn't mean that something can't be done NOW. Philly is hardly the only city with a large number of poor, destitute people and yet other cities manage to keep their murder rates much lower. Philly needs new tactics and policies to be implemented in the short term while working on long term, permanent solutions. Even if the next mayor has a great plan for increasing economic development it would take many years for that plan to bear fruit in terms of reducing the crime rate. More cops isnt going to help though, that is one thing that Street has said that I agree with.

Posted by sj | March 26, 2007 3:31 PM

I can't conclusively refute the argument that more cops won't help, especially since there seem to be ways to get more cops on the street and fewer behind desks. However, I know that my police district is having trouble deploying officers in my neighborhoods, which mostly suffers from property and nuisance crime, because they're often tied up responding to violent crime elsewhere in the district. This sounds to me like a pretty good argument for more police officers (that and/or more efficient deployment of resources).

Posted by Dave | March 26, 2007 5:49 PM

seand:

The Curtis Jones story about the 5 cameras in Wynnefield installed for the staggering cost of $700K has the potential to blow up out of that one council race and engulph Fattah's whole campaign.
Dave's right that story is really juicy.

A big congressional earmark of homeland security money goes to building the "pilot program" for cameras across the city thanks to Chaka Fattah. Instead of a program run by the police he gives the money to a political ally at non-profit community development group the PCDC. The PCDC doesn't know anything about law enforcement - they do streetlighting, street fairs and street clean- ups. What the heck are they doing with "homeland security" money?
This is how Fattah is going to stop crime - vastly inflated no-bid contracts operated my amateurs for cameras that don't even work!

The press so far has just looked at this thing as a Curtis Jones 4th District council race thing. I think they are missing the big point on Fattah's crime plan in a major way.

More cops may not solve everything but they sure work better than no-bid security camers that cost more than $100K a piece and don't even work.

Posted by seand | March 27, 2007 12:14 AM

PhillyDeservesBetter:

It's classic Fattah - all sizzle, no steak. He doesn't follow through.

Posted by PhillyDeservesBetter | March 27, 2007 6:29 AM

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