Today's panel, introduced and moderated by Chris Satullo, is made up of four members: Sharmain Matlock Turner, president of the Greater Philadelphia Urban Affairs Coalition;
Gloria Guard; president of the People’s Emergency Center and the PEC's Community Development Center;
Michael Katz, a historian of poverty from the University of Pennsylvania;
and Willie Baptist, of the Kensington Welfare Rights Union
First question: What struck you as something from Veronica's presentation on NYC that Philly could do, or something that seemed a little off?
Gloria: New York has actual hard information, which for a long time we've been lacking.
Sharmain: New York is putting its money where its mouth is. They're going to make an investment.The best ideas: Having an actual strategy of how to eliminate poverty. Next mayor must come up with a strategy.
Michael: That NYC actually formed a committee and is willing to put poverty at the forefront of the political agenda. How much can other cities accomplish?
Willie: This is not an issue of just poor people. This issue is cutting across racial and gender lines, and this problem is going to require a social movement beyond just the individual cities.
2. What in Philly is trapping people in poverty?
Sharmain: We're trying to find opportunities for young people to work during the summer. In Philly, we're seeing a change in the economy. The kind of factory jobs that we had 20 years ago are no longer here. We're getting people into the workforce, but we're not seeing them move up.
Gloria: If there's no way for people to move up, those entry-level jobs aren't there for others who need them. Also, as housing becomes less affordable, it's harder for people to pay market-rate rent. Interested to see how the cash-incentive program works out in NY. Commending the GUAC for taking on predatory lenders.
Michael: Real wages have been going down since the 1970s and the protections people once had have also been eroded. The only reason family income has remained stable is because so many women have gone to work. It's astounding that poverty has been missing from the political agenda. What are we going to do about low wages? So far, we've all agreed to subsidize people rather than raising the minimum wage.
Willie: Each of us has a sense of responsibility to come up with creative solutions so that we can draw from diversity of experiences. My situation, being poor with diabetes and formerly homeless, is one that faces so many people in this country. We're talking about America, and people are dying in the streets while houses sit empty. Poverty is tomorrow's slavery.
The crowd of about 85 people responded to Willie's passionate answer with a round of applause.
Comments (9)
Philadelphia politicians spend a lot of time trumpeting the local housing boom without considering the impact that it has had and will continue to have on the poor and on the middle class-- teachers, social workers, public servants (public interest attorneys, doctors working in clinics). No one is addressing what's been called the donut effect, where every major city in the country has become a donut of middle class people ringing a center of incredibly wealthy people . . . and the poor people are on the outside. It's an unhealthy way to run a city. Unfortunately, local groups like Philadelphia Forward and the Economy League are not concerned with the impact of their policy proposals on the poor or working class and look forward to (I'm quoting) a Philadelphia with more rich people.
Posted by citizen | April 10, 2007 5:24 PM
Posted on April 10, 2007 17:24
I don't recall the groups Philadelphia Forward or the Economy League touting "more rich people" and I've followed their work and publications for some time.
However, I do recall these groups advocating for a more educated workforce, and a higher percentage of college graduates retained in the city as per other successful cities.
Posted by Anonymous | April 11, 2007 8:06 PM
Posted on April 11, 2007 20:06
Actually, I've always moved to where the best jobs were for my skill set at that time.
I think we have to be honest about the seeming philosophy of certain groups that want to retain the poor in one place their whole lives.
Statistics on those who rise from low wage earners to high wage earners mirror my experience: I moved from city to city and state to state, getting a better job and more pay each time.
Tethering the poor to Philadelphia appears to have benefits more to politicians than it does to the poor themselves.
I think Fattah has got it wrong: people don't need to reverse commute from the inner city to the exurbs or outer ring and back again, subsidized by his van pool. That is a good start for people, but it is only temporary at best.
People, once settled, are better off moving to where the jobs are for their skill and experience level, where employers are crying out for them.
Tying people fire prone housing stock 100+ years old, in communities ravaged by bad schools, drugs, and violence, is killing them off.
Only someone trolling for votes wants to continue the social welfare policies of past years of stay place subsidization!
People need relocation grants and/or loans to get work where it already exists now.
Posted by Anonymous | April 11, 2007 8:12 PM
Posted on April 11, 2007 20:12
Still people want the "government" to "create jobs" it seems, as though the government ever did.
In fact, freeing the market place from high taxes not seen elsewhere will allow business to return.
Gross receipts taxes are a bizarre artifact that has moved many business (except for those headquartered elsewhere and not subject to city tax) outside our bounds.
If a 10 year tax abatement worked for real estate, it can work for business too.
The R7 line doesn't have to be a long string of empty factories for dye, chocolate, and roller bearings.
Philly is going to be the new home of a synergy of stem cell research and its transferred off shoot industries in pharmaceuticals and medicine, but only if PA will do what California is doing and allow and fund things like stem cell research.
Stem cell research has revitalized the UK midlands, making their old coal cities shining showpieces of academia and research.
Why can't we see that and do it here? Why don't activists try a new paradigm of inviting instead of fighting business?
Leave the minimum wage alone and let business fight for employees by allowing so much business to come in. You won't need to legislate wages.
Posted by Anonymous | April 11, 2007 8:19 PM
Posted on April 11, 2007 20:19
Why are we looking to New York City as a model. There is no American city which excels at poverty reduction. Could we perhaps learn from other developed countries who have much lower levels of poverty? Northern Europe is an obvious example, but most every other developed country has lower levels of poverty. Let's look at their true success stories, not NYC. Sometimes the solutions are outside our own national boundaries ...
Posted by Curtis | April 12, 2007 8:33 AM
Posted on April 12, 2007 08:33
If the US has not imitated "northern european" or heavily taxed socialist countries in 40 years of review and comparison, it's reasonable to say it just won't happen.
Philly, like NYC did, has to collect taxes, levy fines for criminal and antisocial behavior, and collect, garnishee, or foreclose.
NYC encourages the private market where Philly impedes it.
The effect on local school funding, crime, and renewal is at once obvious.
In Philly, low income home owners are the last to pay property taxes, but the ones costing the city the most to care for.
Why not simply have one set of rules for everyone?
If you owe money, you pay or face foreclosure.
The neighborhoods that pay the least in fact owe the most and cost the most. We can't subsidize, via a socialism model, the deficit caused by deadbeats.
http://www.hallwatch.org/proptax/about/redelinq/stats/delinqbyzip/index_html?skey=pcent&rkey=pcent
This web page shows that the most distressed neighborhoods owe the most in property taxes. Why are these home owners getting a free ride when schools are desperate for revenue?
North Philly's property owners have almost half who owe for city services. That pays for prisons, social workers, maintenance, safety, and schools.
We can't afford this policy of noncollection. The paper can't afford to continue to pretend that foreclosure is "bad" when it pays for gas, water, and property tax liens that are decades if not merely years, overdue.
Posted by http://www.hallwatch.org/proptax/about/redelinq/stats/delinqbyzip/index_html?skey=pcent&rkey=pcent | April 12, 2007 6:55 PM
Posted on April 12, 2007 18:55
Rendell created a surplus in his first year of office by selling property tax liens to a private collector.
When is the city going to fairly, impartially collect much needed overdue revenue?
http://www.hallwatch.org/proptax/about/redelinq/stats/delinqbyzip/index_html?skey=pcent&rkey=pcent
Why does the press treat city finance as an orphan, when it holds the key to solving all of the problems chronicled by the PMH writers?
I ask this in earnest.
Posted by Anonymous | April 12, 2007 6:58 PM
Posted on April 12, 2007 18:58
I grew up in Philly. I left right after high school for the military. I have never returned other than to visit family. The cost of living factor will keep me from returning to Philadelphia. I certainly don't have the answers but the cost of housing, insurance and just general living is way out of scale.
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