Albert Yee, who blogs at dragonballyee.com returns to the Great Expectations blog for the first in a series of posts on the Great Expectations Citizens Convention. Albert writes:
I spent this Dec. 2 at a convention. It wasn't in Las Vegas, and there weren't any cars showcased. What took center stage was 500+ Philadelphians coming out, in the cold, to talk about the future of this city. Above is a shot from the Pennsylvania Convention Center where the convention took place. After people registered and picked up their lunches, they went into this large room to take a seat and meet fellow concerned citizens. I saw many familiar faces, some people I had met at previous Great Expectations events, some from my own political/community venturings. I inhaled my Italian hoagie and got to shooting.
Above is Gerry Lenfest from The Lenfest Foundation, one of, if not, the largest monetary backers of this Great Expectations experiment. He spoke only a few words of the promise he saw in the project and how his foundation was proud to be a part of it.
Mayor-elect Michael Nutter was running a little late so the a film by Richard Power Hoffmann was shown. Prayer for Philadelphia won the Great Expectations film contest. You can see Hoffmann's film here and all of the entries here. This is the second Hoffmann film I've seen, the other being Fridays at the Farm. Both films were shot using thousands of photos from a still camera and voice over. His knack for storytelling is obvious and I look forward to seeing more from him in the coming years.
Next up to the mic was latecomer, busy guy and still unemployed for a month incoming mayor Michael Nutter. He gave a surprisingly emotional speech which can be listened to in full here. He stressed wanting to continue this Great Expectations experiment and not have it end with suggestions for him in January. He wanted to see an ongoing report card on the progress of the GE's points and how the city government was doing through his tenure.
People were listening, cheering and taking notes all through his half-hour speech.
Nutter emphatically called for people to be civil to one another. For men to stop abusing the women of Philadelphia. For women to not sell themselves for a short term gain. To stop hitting children inside the home and to start setting an example for them to follow instead. Nutter has come a long way in the year or so of his candidacy. The first time I saw him, he was wooden and stand offish. He became more affable. Still smart-allecky, but with better comedic timing. When he had points to make, he made them unabashedly. This was the second or third time I've seen him since he won the election, but this was the first time I really saw him emotional about improving the city he will govern. The crowd ate it up.
He's a popular guy. It took him 15 minutes to make it out of the room. Every step of the way there were five people who wanted to congratulate him, shake his hand, give advice, lobby for a cause or just want a photo with the incoming mayor.
But there was work to be done. The agenda was laid out in a nice spiral-bound booklet and I was off to my first breakout session. I chose the Environment. With about 40 other citizens and two moderators, the group had a hard time hearing each other with so many points to be made. The group was split into two sections with one part meeting out in the hall; I stayed in the room.
We broke into about 5 groups to discuss the agenda and then came back to discuss each group's most important issues more in depth. One point that most groups felt was very important was the adoption of LEED standards for the entire city. One person pointed out that DC had done it already. One person from my breakout group shared a conversation she had with a developer who said that LEED standards would be prohibitively expensive. In the breakout session I pointed to the research The Next Great City group did which pointed to approximately a 10% increase in building costs which should be made back in energy cost savings well within the first decade of operation. This lead to a participant to stress the importance of educating the public.
Fred was adamantly opposed to changing the city charter to allow the "mayor to appoint an accountable, qualified, strategic Park Commission." Why? He felt that the original ideals of the 1800s charter was to keep politics out of the parks. He added that the city must stop starving the parks of funds and that it needs a 1% funding mandate (1% of the city's annual budget) to keep it great. Several groups pointed to the confusion of the agenda of this breakout session - that environmental/greening efforts were confused with preserving the parks system.
One participant called for an alternative energy consultant. He told of all the energies which could be harnessed along the two rivers and from the gases we see burning from the refineries dotting the southwest of the city.
The agenda pointed to attracting a "John Timoney" [PPD Chief from 1998-2001] type to lead the environmental push. Members of the group called for a Green Giant to take a lead on issues that the mayor couldn't on a daily basis. Others questioned what exactly the top environmental cop spot would do. But all were in agreement that the entire city must change their mindset to incorporate the environment and not have it as a stand alone issue.
The group was got along well with everyone raising hands to speak. But I think things got a little out of hand. Granted, this was the first breakout session so the people in the room were most interested in this issue and had the most to say on the subject. One issue that didn't get much time was that of recycling. Single stream recycling, which was introduced for the northwest, is spreading to Center City and South Philly as of this past Monday (an article by the South Philly Review". But there's still a long way to go, like being able to recycle plastics aside from #1 and #2 bottles with necks.
I also attended a session on Arts & Culture and one on Transportation which I'll write about in the next few days.
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