Great Expectations

The forum came back together to quickly discuss findings before breaking up into four large groups to discuss Accountability for services and strategies, Resources & Funding, Coalitions for political leverage and Cooperation for capacity building. Some quick suggestions were thrown out rapid fire. Establish PhillyComplaints.com and have citizens post their grievances for officials to see and respond to. Form a coalition of community groups. Have City Council meet after 5 p.m.

I went to sit in on the Capacity Building group. About 8 people plus myself and 2 moderators took part. Gary, from Longcrest in the NE, started off with some good news - his group had doubled attendance in the last 4 years, but in those 4 years, the community had become much more diverse and the newcomers weren't getting involved. He looked to the group for help. But first, the group wanted to know how the group got so big. Gary said they got very involved in the community and helped get things done. They were clear that residents needed to take the first step and make that first call themselves, but if things didn't get done, his group would do the best they could. His group went to State Rep, and former mayoral candidate, Dwight Evans for help in penetrating the new groups. His office committed two people to helping out.

Kirk, from Dickinson Narrows, said that his neighborhood was incredibly diverse and that their flyers go out in 3 different languages and even that is not enough anymore with multiple Asian populations living in and around the Narrows. Skip, from the Pan Asian Association, recommended a buddy system where those new to the neighborhood or new to the group were escorted to meetings to make them feel more welcome and for civic associations to hold meetings on the turf of newcomers to let them feel at home. He stressed that Asians want to establish a relationship first and do business second. Barbara expanded on that by suggesting a buddy system be created for entire neighborhood groups - for established groups to take on a new of struggling group close by.

Kirk suggested establishing a block coordination system (different from the existing block captain system which works with varying degrees of success) similar to a phone tree in the ability to disseminate information. Freda, from Garden Court and pictured speaking above, stressed the need for the proper resources to establish a block coordinator system.

Susan, from Ashton Square in the NE and pictured above, suggested a centralized place for resources. Perhaps even an office within City Hall as it is technically the center of the city. D-L disagreed with that saying City Hall was not truly representative of a central location in this city of 135 square miles. The issue of getting too close to the politicians was on the minds of the rest of the group. Skip said that if a major citywide coalition, with Great Expectations at the center of it all, were powerful enough with so many different peoples and neighborhoods represented, a new mayor couldn't afford to ignore it. Pay to play and who you know wouldn't be in play anymore if a group were large enough. He added that a coalition should proactively steer clear of politicians (I'm assuming to avoid asking for favors). Jill, from Roxborough, was quiet through the discussion, but when put on the spot by a moderator she put in her two cents. She said that in her experience, coalitions work very well when things are going their way, but once things start going not so well, things get ugly quickly.

Time flew by and it was time to bring the whole group back to the main room. Mayoral candidates Michael Nutter (D) and Al Taubenberger (R) were on hand to answer some questions. But first, they took a tour of the room where the notes from each of the sessions were taped to the walls. The Q&A session with the candidates coming up in Part III.