The latest episode of Issues Forums in on the air and the web. You can watch it by a number of different platforms: catch it on TV-12, Comcast Digital Channel 242, Comcast Digital Video OnDemand by selecting "Get Local -> WHYY -> The Next Mayor," check out streaming video on our website, or use this link to open up your iTunes and subscribe to our video podcast and watch it on your iPod (my favorite method).
Ok, that's a pretty long-winded way of saying we have a lot of different ways for you to get our content. But what the heck, why not just watch it here:
So let's go through the list of things that the mayor can directly do to improve the local environment:
1. The Visual Environment - There's a sign on a telephone poll near my house that says that littering will get you a $50 fine. This sign violates two economic principles. Laws and fines designed to combat nuisance crimes need two things in order to work - some chance that they will actually be enforced and a crazy steep penalty if they are enforced. Otherwise, rational actors who aren't governed by any higher moral considerations (ie it's just wrong to litter) will multiply their percentage chance of getting caught by the amount of the fine and if that number is less than some number in their subconscious which puts a value on their effort to take their trash to a trashcan, they will litter. Since, in Philadelphia, the chance that the law will be enforced is zero, that number will always be zero so they will always litter.
Even if the city starts enforcing the law, they would need to raise the level of the fine by a lot so that the probability times fine number is high enough to change behavior. Again, a long-winded way of saying that the next mayor can increase the fine and order a crackdown. If he doesn't want to do that, he'll have the far more difficult task of teaching people (adults) that littering is wrong after their parents failed to do so.
2. Clean water - With Philly's combined storm water and waste water system, heavy rains means that the sewage treatment plants are often overflowed. The sewage (human waste and the cat litter that I flush down the toilet) bypasses the treatment system and goes right into the rivers... or into basements. It's an expensive proposition but the next mayor needs to consider overhauling the entire sewer and storm water system. Part of the money can come from charging people according to their impact on the system.
No, that doesn't mean charging people who eat a lot of Mexican food more. It means charging parking lots more for their water-sewer fees. At the very least, even if it doesn't produce enough to overhaul the system, changing the fees would reflect their impact on the system and could generate enough money for other storm water mitigation efforts.
3. Recycling - Once a week, single stream, plastic, glass, metal, paper and cardboard. Some cities even recycle food and yard waste like Seattle's "Zero Waste Strategy." City saves millions in landfill fees and generates millions from the recycling (that's double millions if you're keeping score at home).
4. Fix SEPTA. Ok, ok... the next mayor only has indirect influence over SEPTA but whatever influence he has should go towards modernizing and possibly expanding the system.
5. Renewable energy. I have my own vision for a city that's complete "off the grid" - generating all of it's own power by covering all of these thousands of urban rooftops with solar panels or photovoltaic paint and urban wind farms. No more electricity from the coal fired plants whose waste product follows the wind currents to our city and helps turns the sky into that soupy, opaque color that we've got today.
Surplus electricity could then be sold back to PECO, which would then sell that electricity to the suburbs thus creating a new and mutually beneficial transfer of money from suburbs to city and enable us to eliminate the wage tax - c'mon folks, this is the dream zone. Ever since the power outage I experienced on Monday night, I've since scaled back my vision to solar panels on my house that could power my central air.
Ok... so I went a little overboard and far beyond anything that or panelists had to say. I'm just sick of watching all these other cities do cool things like "green roofs," "zero waste," hybrid cabs, bike stations etc. To borrow a quote from yesterday's Metro, "I think compared to a lot of big cities, Philadelphia probably hasn’t made the leaps and bounds to be seen as a leader on environmental issues... Other cities are willing to take risks to get out front.”
So watch the video and fire away in the comments.
Comments (1)
The recent news of a film studio paotentially being constructed in the greater Philadelphia region should be a major priority of this administration and a focal point of each candidate. Having this built in Philadelphia, and not some sleepy suburb, would have a major impact on how this city as it is viewed from both a business and entertainment perspective. Act local with a global impact - think "Glocal"!
Posted by Think Glocal | August 8, 2007 12:00 PM