http://www.thislife.org/Radio_Episode.aspx?sched=1214Eight citizen bloggers attended the Dec. 2 Citizens Convention. The first to send in a post is Whitney Hoffman. Whitney is a parent of children attending public schools in the Philly suburbs and a tutor at Kennett Middle School. She podcasts about learning and learning disabilities and has been actively involved with the new media community in Philadelphia. She blogs regularly at Parent's Eye View and GNM Parents Blog, and is part of the Mommycast and Friends podcast channel. She is also director of operations for the Podcamp Foundation.
Today, she weighs in on the opening activities, which included the Michael Nutter speach. Tomorrow, look for her thoughts about the education segment.
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By Whitney Hoffman
On a blustery Sunday morning, over 500 citizens from all walks of life gathered in the Philadelphia Convention Center to be a part of the Great Expectations Citizens Convention and to discuss issues facing Philadelphia and the region.
I sat with diverse group of people for the opening speakers, including Bill Leonard, an attorney and part of Pennsylvania Intergovernmental Cooperation Authority (PICA), and Fred Vincent, who has been a high school teacher but now develops tours of local neighborhoods in Philadelphia, giving people the real Philly. Everyone seemed favorably impressed by incoming Mayor Michael Nutter’s remarks.
I was particularly pleased with the emphasis on ethics, and Nutter’s having hired former U.S. attorneys to lead the ethics commission, something that is reminiscent of the renaissance that occurred in Chicago under Mayor Harold Washington in the 1980s.
Mr. Nutter wants to take the best practices from all around the country and adapt them to Philadelphia, to stop Philadelphia from just dreaming about a better tomorrow, to make it real. He challenges us all not to expect government to do all the work, but for each of us to do our part to make our neighborhoods and communities better. Nutter emphasized that education is a key to helping the reduction in crime and that we need to make education of our students a top priority in our attempts to make larger changes in the livability and future of our city. He received enthusiastic standing ovations from the crowd, who are energized for a change in administration and eager for a change in our city, even when the economic climate would seem to make big change more difficult to achieve.
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