Great Expectations

Chris, and all the support staff who made it happen. Thank you!!! I have now watched the film twice and forwarded it to many who were unable to be there. Very creative and inspiring.
The day was challenging in lots of ways, but you made it worthwhile. Loved Patsy her stoop in So. Philly!!
My additions to the content:
In general - each action – near-term and long-term should be targeted to a responsible person, agency, leader – so that accountability and progress can be measured. This would look like – who will do it, by when, what outcomes can then be counted for evaluation of results.

Specifically on the Environment – expand the beyond concept of “Green Parkland” to protecting the quality of air, water, and eco-systems. This requires policies that support sustainable healthy communities, and in addition support the concepts of environmental health, and justice.
For an example of a community that has taken that approach, see A Green Los Angeles, http://www.libertyhill.org/common/publications/Greenla/GREENLA_to_print.pdf.
The requirements in this report include looking at the total cost of any development:
1. do no harm – expand evaluation of possible projects to include serious or irreversible damage to human health and eco-systems.
2. count all costs – new accounting practices that consider the full costs of an activity or investment – including resource, labor and disposal – to better understand the long-term human health, eco-systems and social impacts of decisions.
3. social equity – elimination of disparity and promotion of full social, economic, and geographic equality as intrinsic to environmental sustainability.

Under Environment near- term actions:
1. Delete markets and murals;
2. Develop a city ordinance to require all diesel transportation – septa/school/tour buses, trains, trucks, etc. to turn off engines, if they are waiting more than 5 minutes. Idling diesel engines are a major air pollutant. New York City requires this now;
3. Require recycling at all Fairmont park activities, including events at the boat houses;
4. Develop increased commitment within city to hold existing condominiums and new developments to recycle;
5. and while this probably belongs under job development – get serious about requiring developers/contractors to build green – and include requiring 25%local hires. If we want development to be good for the city, it should mean jobs for our residents.

Finally, require city leadership of all environmental protection functions to be accountable in one position. Currently air quality is in Health Department, water in Water department, and eco-systems have no location??
Thank you. M.P. West

Thank you for such a great civic event! I am sorry that the diverse, multiethnic, multihued Philadelphia I have seen since I moved here wasn't present, but, hey, this is an Eagles town right!?

I look foward to participating in next steps and in helping this project move along into action! Thanks again!

Peace

I visited several of the Fairmount Park Houses Saturday. They were decorated for Christmas. I took some pictures and posted them on my Picasa Web album. I sent the link http://picasaweb.google.com/joedgan/ChristmasAtColonialHouses to some guys I was in the Army with with whom I still correspond. I was surprised at how much interest there was and how some had never heard of anything like this. It made me think that the good things we have here that are peculiar to Philadelphia are the things that others may be most interested in.
In the City there are many unique things that have been left us by previous generations, some of which need some attention. There are many Fountains that don't work, Many forgotten Statues and much forgotten history.
The Temperance Fountain a 52nd and Parkside, right at The Mann Music Center, is probably the largest no working fountain. There are also many smaller ones along Kelly Drive.
The Park Houses themselves need more care. Many have volunteer committees which do great work, but could use some help.
Perhaps groups of volunteers could be formed to aid these different Monuments, just as you have a "Friends of the Japanese House" that has done wonderful things with the Japanese Tea House.
I seem to notice an increase of interest in the 1876 Centennial Exhibition. It would be a great thing to put up signs with pictures of each building and some information. The layout was enormous and is mostly still there. Again , this is unique to Philadelphia and of potential interest to many.
Joe Deegan

Hi!

My general impresson was very good overall, though I did find it troubling that the area where some of the most emphasis was needed had the least reasonable charted course of action - education...

Let me make a few comments on each area:
1) Arts = priorities seemed on target. I think however, that more funding needs to be poured into our schools to help get children motivated about studies with a few more frills around the 3 'R's. Free attendence to performances for classrooms shoudl be happening for EVERY student at least 1x/yr for each major art form and PLEASE don't forget our historical exhibits! All should tie into curriculum and have some student project result from thier experiences.
2) I am not sure of the priorities here. We have so many fundung shortfalls. Most are caused by a failure of property tax collection I am sure however. Privatizing government agencies has not proven to be cost cutting and ends up being a political tool in far too many instances. Tax abatements and other freebies should be on a sliding scale having to do with the income of the occupants and thier length of tenancy. Get some serious evaluations as to how we can stop holding so many people in prison without bail to help reduce this millstone. Non-violent criminals need better psycological & re-integration help and less of our expensive prison time. Pensions - these will keep our retired people from living on the street, so I am not sure cutting them is a good idea, buy outs maybe, but not the kind where they go back to work anywhere. Open the budget to citizens and get thier input - It would help with the next issue and many others
3) City services - cutting these comes back to haunt us, mostly in the pocketbook - DON'T. Get some help with citizen oversight & volunteers. ALL MUST get properly trained and evaluated, ESPECIALLY long term employees.
4) Crime - everything seemed on target, aside from the stressing of the need for a long-term plan not subject to sound-byte adminstration. A 0 tolerance for aggresive behavior in children, removing them to another class or school so that others who want to concentrate on learing can is necessary - too amny victims end up going bad too. Give the bad actors INTENSE councelling until they can demonstrate social behavior. Good pre-school programs to ID at risk children and help them along with thier WHOLE FAMILY would probably have the greatest effect. It is parential attitudes which let this escallate. Kids with low self esteem don't feel like they are "grown up" unless they've used a gun or tried to get pregnant before age 15. A sad fact which we have to live with and as a society work seriously on. The more time we spend on early warnings, the less crime will cost us, physically, financially and mentally.
5) Education - this was a mess. #1 was a fiscal goal in my opinion. I think that5 there should be a pretty equal partnership between children, parents, teachers AND levels of government. Schooling in Western Society needs full reform. Few Western cultures can compete with children of some of the world's poorest nations. Insecurity seems to be key here. Again, early childhood programs with ratios at 5:1 are necessary to ID those most at risk. Preventing victimization is EXTREMELY important here - school must be safe from bullies and TELEVISION CULTURE. Kids should not be any more worried about being punched than what they are wearing. Dress codes need to be uniforms, not street clothing. PARENTS must be rated on thier performance and held accountable. Educatio should include more of what has been cut out, physical sexual and mental health, home Ec & Shop, arts programs need more stress to give kids a better chance of understanding why they go to school. Information MUST be more available. The grounds need to be opened for adults for local activities and less of a feared place for all. Scools are where recreation and meetings should be taking place when school is not in session.
6) Environment: Fairmont Park is NOT the #1 Priority - We need a PHILADEPHIA PARKS system, NOT a regionalized entity. Environment is NOT just about nice parks, it's about sustainable resources, water being the most important. We need to get serious about our looming water crisis and plan seriously for the future - water-front development MUST CEASE. Entertainment venues requiring massive building should not be happening in riparian areas in the 21st century, large buldings have become economic liabilities no matter what millenium they were built - the EU has recognized this and do not allow it. This keeps economics from muscling in on resources needed by the population. Flexibility for future water resource preservation MUST take precident over all planning. Doing so will keep us out of troubles over the next half century when world supplies are expected to be in dire supply. We need open space and tree cover to be priorities to work on having a healthy future a comprehensive plan for decades forward needs to be adopted. DIY green rooves should be incorporated into our new zomning. Furthermore, we have federal parks within our boundaries and they may as well be on another planet with thier entry fee costs.

Continued:
7) Knowledge Economy - All on target here. Scholarships for our wonderfully gifted kids that make it through HS despite all of the pit-falls - PLEASE!!! Make it easier to get school info and to volunteer to help kids with schooling as an aide, etc
8) Neighborhods - The list was important, but I thought that preservation of Economic as wella s racial diversity was not addressed in enough depth. Many of the programs in place help folks who are middle class already - get with sliding scales and maybe homestead some of the vacant places out. Unfortunately HUD looks a lot more like it's in the biz of making money than helping poor folks get on with economic stability which is what keeps neighborhoods solid. Raising values on speculation by outsiders is somewhat necessary but this is not a stabilizing process - there needs to be more balance in keeping our less fortunate fellows secure as well as ourselves. Abatements should be on a SLIDING scale. ID families at risk, this would keep neighborhoods steady and cost less in the olong-run as children of less fortunate households will not be uprooted at the first sign of trouble and be at risk for so many ills. It takes a community, folks...
9) Planning & Zoning - Form-Based, TOD, sustainable zoning with major process reforms - Including the structure of government entities invloved in the proces is the #1 priority. We need to sustain our communities with civic participation. For too long Pay-to-play Politics have found thier root in our development projects & it's still going on fiercly in the form of Casinos as we speak. The waterfront and all water shed areas can no longer be held privately as the long-term costs of maintenance as well as resource usurpation are too great. We don't need to save just the middle class, but lift the poor a bit as well so that basic happiness is possible. Our planning board must be an entity more open to citizen needs & scrutiny and make a long-term comprehensive plan as thier duty in the charter clearly calls for. There has been absolute failure in this regard, as partisan politics are often played right here in the zoning stages. The current structure allows just a few people to make far too many decisions with impunity. Citizens may not understand building, but they know right from wrong and our planning board has made a patchwork mess of our environment which we will have to clean up for generations. DVRPC & DAG are much more forward looking agencies and we shoudl be calling them in along with impact studies far more often than is happening.
10) Poverty - Crime is based upon Poverty, is based upon attitude, is based upon mostly environment, is based upon what is left for a child to live in - a vicious cycle. Bottom line, early childhood intervention. Schools should be the place where learning for all of adulthood happen & where it is most economically reasonable to stop the cycle. Programs like DARE don't work, but behavior/self-esteem based programs do. Low self esteem is the reason why certian young folks measure cool by how early in life then can make babies and or handle guns - 15 is too late to start helping these kids. Specially trained individuals to help children work past the shortcomings in thier lives need to be in place - it's cheaper than a jail cell, teen pregancy or the results of a funeral...
11) Reform & Leadership - This area was in order, but the Home Rule Charter needs some more teeth for citizens to make use of and bring things to fruition. Annual accountability reviews need publicity and participation of the citizens. Public meetings should be at night if they invlove exceptions to the usual rules and even if they don't citizens should have the right to questio judgements made by our government. Documentation of proceedings from agenda to minutes/transcriptions, videos need to be publicly available in a timely manner.
12) Transit - this area gave ideas which are a good start, but this needs a bit more work. Our transit layout is for a population demographic which changed about 100 years ago. DVRPC & other regional planning studies show this clearly, we need to look more seriously at critism. R-Lines do not get the ridership they should because they do not adjust rider space and timing during peak hours. The same number of cars every hour, crowds or no crowds. the trains arrive about 1/2 hour late because after the first few stops it's a sardine can ride. The Rte 1 bus lines have a similar situation. They now leave every 10 minutes, but are still crowded even with now 2 buses per run - the more space the more riders! We need a subway line there to meet up with the orange and blue lines from Bensalem to Wynnewood to cope with reality -really. Furthermore it is idiotic to stop service on weekends before 3 AM if you want new ridership from outside the city. If people haven't tried riding during the weekday crush and there is no service when they want to sample Philly at it's best, extended weekend service is our best bet. Day Passes really need to go back to providing a rail ride and no expiration date. It's a nightmare getting off a plane and having the ticket machines say cash only but mostly just plain not work. I used to carry a pass in case my car broke down or wanted to ride R-1 from the airport instead of calling a cab. Signs need a lot of improvement - if you read the New ones on the M-F line they say trains (not A&B) stop at 6PM, look like you might get stranded, I had to ask to make sure when the new changes took effect. The board memebers just have to get over suburbia too, it's offensive how the R lines which are so inefficient get incredible parking lot make-overs when the rest of us get service cuts trying to get to our jobs. Encourage nearby subrubanites to catch a bus to the line like the rest of us do, the car thing is just too much of a drain on the economy as well as just plain unhealthy.

Well, I am hoping the everyone recognizes that this process could just restore our supposed rights of the "pursuit of health, wealth and happiness" and that our needs are necessary for the survival of the city as well as individuals.

Thanks for giving us the opportunity to participate!!!

Jeannine S Missaoui
Harrowgate, Phliadelphia