Great Expectations

As a born and raised Philadelphian, now living in northern Virginia, I'm curious about whether you will cover transportation issues. It's pretty amazing what they do down here -- they actually have a regionalized mass transit system. And there's active work ongoing to expand the mainstay of it -- the Metro. From my experience, the SEPTA system is not as efficient, in part because of the takeover of Penn Central and Reading years ago and in part because of the urban-suburban politics that prevents true regionalistic planning in SE PA.

Chris,

You wrote about the next mayor needing to reach out to the suburbs on issues that affect residents of both areas. What issue do you personally think should be at the top of his list to address in this manner? What issue do you think the people of Philadelphia would pick, based on what you've heard from talking to so many in the last few months?

Thanks

And since my field of work is as a higher education administrator -- specifically, a student financial aid director and college registrar -- in addition to adjunct teaching in political science and urban studies -- In do think it would be quite interesting to see what the series (and the mayoral candidates) think about higher education within the context of economic development within the city and regionally.

David - Good to hear from you. Yes, mass transit came up hugely in forums and we will address it.
What's interesting is how varied the opinions on SEPTA were. Riders of regional rail tended to think it's a pretty good system and quite an asset; riders of City Division tended to have their eyes bug out and their mouths says, "You've got to be kidding!" when they heard that.
But we did hear from citizens in the Northeast or other parts of the city who say they appreciate not having to own a car, because SEPTA goes everywhere they care to go. They have a zillion ideas for improving it, but they haven't given up on it.
Finally, we heard over and over again from young Philly professionals, the type who've moved into the city in the last five years and who tend to be huge Nutter supporters: They think the city is great and world class in so many ways, but they find SEPTA, and its lack of service for young people enjoying the city late at night, to be an appalling contrast with other world-class cities.

David -
We'll also be doing a package in October on the brain/drain, and the role eds and meds could play in buoying the regional economy. Obviously, eds (colleges) and meds (hospitals and med schools) are already a vital engine, but other cities - from San Diego to Kansas City to, of course, Boston - have done so much more to focus on the biotech possibilities of their campuses and to retrain the brightest grads as local residents.
Chris

The thing that amazes me down here is that suburban areas have their own systems (ART for Arlington; DART for Alexandria; systems in Montgomery County, MD), along with overarching systems (State of MD bus and rail; Metrobus as regional). They're all integrated. You can literally use a mass transit transfer for half a day and pay only $1 to travel fairly well in the area.

I could write something about a former Philadelphians experience in another city's system, if you want.

On the higher ed front, you tend to get policy from Harrisburg on that. It would be refrsshing to see a specifically local approach to some of those issues. I realize, though, there's the issue of impediments to regionalism in SE PA -- after all, I wrote a piece on that years ago...(in the Inquirer, as a matter of fact).

Regarding issues for outreach:

You've got two ways to look at that question:
a) What's most urgent from a city perspective?
b) What issues are most ripe for city/suburban cooperation?
Those two lists are not identical. In fact, they are pretty different. What you'd hope to do is to find at least one issue that's on both lists, where you have some ideas on how to gain traction, and zero in on it.
The first list, based on city residents' perspective, would clearly be topped by help on gun control and on school costs. Hardy perennials, both worthy, but probably losers if what you're looking for is a win that would build trust. Also big on the list is SEPTA; there might be some transit issues where you could benefit from cooperation, but they tend to be second-order ones: how to revise routes so that city residents can more easily work in the 'burbs, or to reflect changing suburbanite interests in the city so that buses or trains run closer to capacity. But the big-picture funding problems - this region, alas, isn't ready to tackle them head-on.
The second list, possible wins, might include enhanced regional cooperation to attract employers, fixing the airport, a regional fund for arts, culture and tourism, maybe a joint city/suburban push to bring that pro soccer team to Delaware County, which is a chance for a Philly mayor to show he can back a suburban project.

The city has created some big financial issues in the past decade. We float long term bonds to pay for short term projects. Pension and health care costs are going through the roof. I think it is time to drop the DROP. Why pay civil servants double time for four years? Did taxpayers vote on the DROP? I also think we need to raise health insurance copays. I know that I pay $248 every two weeks for my share of my Keystone Health Plan East. My employer pays the rest. How much do a city civil servant pay for their health insurance? I want to be fair to our city employees but at the same time the city will not grow with our current taxes. We need to cut taxes to encourage growth and we need to cut expenses to cut taxes.