Great Expectations

Al Taubenberger – Energy independence is important to this nation politically, so that we reduce reliance on oil from nations ruled by despots. City is making some progress, can go further. Green building is a good idea, but you don’t want it to add too much cost. Perhaps we can do something with tax advantages.

Michael Nutter – The word environment means different things to different people. It doesn’t necessarily only mean Birkenstock-wearing, crunchy granola tree-huggers.
All of us can be environmentalists, depending on what our interests are. If you want to save money, being an environmentalist can help you. Recycling isn’t just good for the environment; it’s also good for the city’s budget. We save money and we can return that money to you in services.

If people are to buy into this, it’s about is information and education. We give you the information about how environmentalism can help you and you can decide what kind of environmentalist you want to be.

Taubenberger: I’m of German descent, and I visit Germany pretty often. One thing I notice in Germany, every yard has some sort of fruit tree. That’s something we do here.

EDUCATION/SCHOOLS

Citizen Leroy Howell – With schools, it’s always tied to class size. To manage the classroom, you have to have the right class size. I know, when you talk class size, you’re talking about spending a lot of money – new teachers, new classrooms. To me, that commitment has never truly been made. It takes money.

Annie Leary – Obviously, we have a deficit and we need to address it. But teachers are stretched thin.

Ivan – There’s got to be something to teach these parents, because that’s where the problem is. You know who Big Momma is? That’s the name for grandmother. You know what, Big Momma is 30 now. Their daughter is 15 and is a mother.
They’re kids; they don’t know how to raise kids.

Adan Mareira – In the schools, it seems like there’s two tiers. If the kid is good enough, you can go to a charter. If not, you’re in neighborhood schools. That’s great if you’re the kid in the charter, but what about the other 70 percent. Some of these public schools, these buildings, it's like they have a story, a reputation, a memory that will never be erased. That will be tattooed in people’s minds forever: Oh, that’s the school where the teacher did that to the student, or where the students did that to the teachers..

How can we get to the point in our schools where the number of college recruiters equals the military recruiters. All these great colleges in this city, yet in my neighborhood there’s a 60 percent graduation rate.

Citizen Ebony Staton -- One thing that strikes me, the district is so large; could that be a solution, to break district into smaller units? How can they get on top and reach out when the district is so large ?

Nutter: We know how to educate kids; there are some superior schools in this city, and they all have those characteristics. The ones that don’t, don’t work.

We need to get parents more involved, but there’s something business can do to help. We need to talk to the business community about making it easier for parents to go to school. You should be able to show up for the parent-teacher conference or the school play or for an emergency without having to take a whole day off or worry about losing your job.
Unfortunately, with parents, we don’t get a magic wand to wave around and say: Hey you, pay attention to their kid.

Taubenberger: Parents need to be involved. They have to be told: You have not only the future of the city, the state, the country, but all of mankind in your hands.

We have to take a look at the work rules; the teachers union has to be more engaged in making sure every school has good teachers. Word gets out about a place: this is terrible school, and it gets worse. You get a few good teachers in a school like that, and they’re looking to get out. Most of us can name our elementary school teachers; they touch are souls. They are so very, very important.

Nutter – No matter who’s technically in charge, the mayor has to be a leader in focusing attention on the importance of education.

Taubenberger – In this city, the mayor is a figure like no other. I remember when Ed Rendell was mayor, he was scheduled to come talk to the Burholme Civic Association, which I was leading. So it was a snowy night in Philadelphia, and you know people in the city with snow. I was ready to cancel, but Ed’s office called and said he was still coming. So we had the meeting, and it was a packed house. On a snowy night. If it had just been a regular meeting, no one would have come out. That’s the kind of power the mayor of the city of Philadelphia, and it has to be used to bring forth a good quality of parental involvement.

Nutter (On teenage pregnancy) – I don’t think for the girls it has so much to do with sex,
With wanting to fit in.

But I’m only aware of one case where a woman got pregnant by herself. All of this negative attention gets focused on the girl; more has to be on the guy who was part of it.

Ivan – We need to create jobs and not just for kids, but for adults. Especially for people coming out of prison.

Taubenberger: Absolutely. When people have jobs, they see the world differently, they’re engaged. A whole lot better than the drug trade.
Running for mayor has expanded my mind. A year ago, I would have told you a hundred reasons why an ex-con couldn’t be hired. Now I’d list a hundred reasons why you must be hired. Spending time with professor Elijah Anderson, who was at Penn and now is going to Yale, really influenced me. He’s spent so much time out on the street, really talking to the people who are out there, finding out how they think and what influences them.

Nutter: That high school diploma has to have that value, that power to put you in line for a decent job. People have to see a pathway for themselves. If they don’t, they make a different set of decisions than those sitting around the table would make

Taubenberger: So often, businesses are so busy running their business, they don’t look left or right, which is a problem when you need them to help you address a big issue like this. But you have to understand this attitude, to see why to a degree they have to be that way, before you can change it.

Nutter: For many business people in this town, the perception has been that City Hall was closed to them. Or they were afraid to be in touch, because there were some very dramatic scandals that touched business people who tried to do business with the city. Every city has its scandals, Boston does, Chicago does, but here we’ve had an excessive amount of that kind of thing

If I get elected, one of the first things I do is to write a thank you letter to every one doing business in Philadelphia, just them to let them know we really appreciate that they are here.

We are in the customer service business; that’s the business we are in. that’s what we do. The only reason for us to exist. We have to have a serious Citistat system and a 311 hotline for service calls.

Taubenberger: Tell you what. I’m not going to write them a letter. I’m going to call them.

We just have to have a serious, on-going dialogue between the business community and the mayor.

John Weidman (the host): Targeted incentives work; they bring the kind of business we want to have as a city

Ebony Staton (the host): Yes, we ned to send a message that these are the type of businesses we want, and incentivize those businesses. Central message I missed seeing when I came here was: We have as Philadelphians have a standard of behavior for business, rather than just letting anybody come and do anything as long as they provide some jobs.