Citizen blogger Marisa McClellan attended the "Presenting the Agenda" community forum for the 2nd Council District. The event was held Feb. 21 at St. Gabriel's school. Marisa lives in a Center City apartment that has been in her family for more than 40 years. She blogs at Apartment 2024, Metroblogging Philadelphia, Stories from Reading Terminal (currently on hiatus) and Slashfood. When she's not writing online, she can be found co-hosting the local online cooking show Fork You and desperately trying to finish her thesis. She writes:
The first thought I had when I pulled into a parking spot was, “Wow, I had no idea that this was down here!” This was St. Gabriel’s Church and down here was 29th and Dickinson Streets. I’ve lived in Center City since moving to Philadelphia six years ago, and while I’ve explored many of the city’s neighborhoods beyond downtown in the intervening years, I’d never had reason to be in that pocket of southwest Philadelphia.
I stood on the sidewalk for a moment, in awe of the church building, which has an almost-medieval look at night, until a sign with an arrow caught my eye. It pointed me around the corner, to a side door of the parish’s school. Following that guidance, I walked in, down some stairs, and found myself in a brightly lit basement multipurpose room.
The room was sparsely populated when I arrived, and I wondered for a moment if I had gotten the time wrong. However, it appeared that the inclement weather (we’d had a bit of snow that day) kept some people away. Luckily, a few more folks did trickle in over the course of the program.
Chris Satullo got things started by giving a brief history of the Great Expectations Project, hitting on the neighborhood potlucks and the 30 meetings in 30 nights that they held last winter. He presented the Citizens Agenda, the document that has become the tangible result of all the work done last fall, and gave the people in attendance their charge: Formulate questions that you could present to a Philadelphia City Councilperson about how they plan to help implement positive change in the city.
People then broke into self-selected groups depending on their passions and interests. I sat with the group dealing with Arts Funding, Poverty, Youth and Homelessness. (These are not the official categories, but instead what the members of the group cared most about). A primary theme that appeared almost immediately was that people are concerned that the city is funding the wrong things. The Arts and Culture section of the Agenda includes a plan to create a regional arts fund. However, there’s no language in that section that indicates that there will be money to fund the smaller, community-based arts programs. There were two people from the Point Breeze Performing Arts Center sitting around that table, and they expressed concern that their organization would never see any of the regional arts funding because it would be earmarked for larger institutions such as the Philadelphia Art Museum. Other people continued to talk along that theme, reminding one another how art can have a transformational effect on students and how it is imperative to get arts programs back in the schools. They really wanted to see some money go in that direction.
This also spurred talk of how the city spends so much money bringing people from outside the city and region to visit, while spending very little to improve the quality of life of the people who live here. During the question-and-answer time with the four members of City Council, this divide in thinking became clear, as time after time, when asked about arts funding, they were only able to think of it in terms of large organizations and institutions that have an impact on tourism and the dollars they bring.
At this point, I headed over to briefly listen in as the other two groups finished their discussions. I caught snatches of conversations about city services, the responsiveness of councilperson offices and the disparity in cleanliness that you experience in the city as you move from neighborhood to neighborhood. I didn’t plan my time well though, and just as I was settling in to a spot in between these groups, Chris called time and we shifted to the question-and-answer session with the Councilmembers.
At the beginning of the evening, Anna Verna was the only member scheduled to appear, but over the course of the small group session, Jack Kelly, Bill Green and Bill Greenlee also arrived, so that we had almost a quarter the Philadelphia City Council sitting in the basement with us. Given that the number of participants didn’t rise above 25 the entire night, it the best Philadelphia politician-to-citizen ratio I’ve ever experienced. I was actually quite stunned and impressed that so many members of City Council would take time out of their evening on a cold, snowy Thursday evening to interact with residents of the 2nd District.
They answered questions about neighborhood cleanliness, street cleaning, city departmental accountability, the 311 program that’s coming soon, and the Green for Philadelphia program that would take the city government to an electronic system that would make it easy to track accountability and responsiveness. They were honest and frank, although on occasion I found their answers really frustrating. In particular, when asked about increasing street cleanings in Philadelphia neighborhoods, Anna Verna gave an impassioned answer about how several years ago, the city tried to implement a regular street cleaning program. Notices were sent out well in advance, asking people to remove their cars so that the streets could be swept. However, the mornings of cleanings, cars weren’t removed and so they were ticketed. Her office was barraged with calls, complaining about the ticketing and so they discontinued the program. She then started recounting her memories of being a child in South Philadelphia and how people used to go out every Saturday morning, scrub their stoops, sweep their sidewalks and clean up their neighborhoods themselves. She ended with a head shake and said, “We just can’t have it both ways.”
I understand her frustration, as her office did try to do something to remedy the problem and they got nothing but resistance, but there does seem to be something more at play here. I wish they had talked a little more about changing neighborhoods, people using dirty streets as a way to keep gentrification off their streets and the hopelessness of poverty as opposed to the good old days when people took more pride in their environments.
Despite my complaints about the way in which Council President Verna responded to some questions, I was very impressed by the Council people over all. They seem to be deeply committed to making Philadelphia a better place to live, work and do business, and I am hopeful that they will be able to make a difference in the life of the city.
Comments (9)
I've heard this same response from Anna Verna about having mechanical regular street sweeping almost word for word many times. It's awesome that she's old enough to remember when most women didn't work and stayed at home, so could function as an unpaid army of street sweepers, but those days are long gone.
Is she just too aged (mid-seventies) to accept "new" old ideas and put them in action, especially when this exact issue is raised at every meeting she attends?
How about, Ms. Verna, have the city collect the overdue city property taxes of about $494 million, and use some of that to have weekly street cleaning. People in the neighborhoods want it, and so long as you start the program where people are requesting it the most (i.e. where Citizen Alliance once had to do it, or where neighborhood associations have to organize it, it'll work.
If people get towed, I recommend that your staffers have the gravitas to tell them that they are expected to follow the rules like everyone else. Most of your voters can read, right? Do you have to forgive every ticket, every tax bill, stop the collection of water and gas bills, just to have a constituency?
I hope not.
Posted by Anonymous | March 7, 2008 10:47 AM
Posted on March 7, 2008 10:47
I disagree that the Council reps are "committed" to change. Except for Greenlee, who can do math, the Council reps listed above are hardwired against positive meaningful change.
I've heard them argue for the BPT, against collecting property taxes, seen them make meaningless incremental reductions over a decade in taxes that employers don't even notice enough to consider moving into (or back to) the city.
I've seen Anna Verna's office staffers give away some of the most valuable property in South Philly to a nonprofit that is very generous to her and the Democrats, who was then, and is still, so far behind in finishing their grand plans that they received hundreds of millions in housing and development monies for that their vacant lots still pockmark a landscape of half million or more dollar homes.
Verna gave Odunde property to build low income housing in a commercial district, a street with newly emerging and long term businesses, and when requested to negotiate to give property to the group for their low income housing for an area where the market won't go, nearer to malls and large, less expensive stores, she demurred. The "Odunde lots" on 23rd and South are still vacant, with dangerous crumbling sidewalks, years after this deal. The Odunde office door is now boarded up, just across from the freshest newest business in the area -- Grace Tavern, Sweetpea Events, The Balkan Express, and the new shops in the 2200 block of South St. Apparently, there is no penalty for not building by a certain time, unlike the contracts the RDA uses for private owners.
The tough battles need someone who can stand up and persuade, not simply capitulate to old, out of date, bad performing local political groups who once made up the campaign finance landscape of South Philly.
South Philly deserves:
1. Highest standards of ethics -- no property or contracts unless previous projects are complete or otherwise dispensed with, such as reversion back to the RDA for sale to more reliable, accountable builders such as Habitat.
2. Best evidence-based standards, openness, reducing the huge number of city owned, or "authority" controlled properties that kill a tax base for good schools and clean, safe streets is the simplest job of government by not paying, or not even being assessed to pay, for their footprint or toll.
3. Focusing on getting the basics of city government right first: clean streets, safety, good schools. We don't need the comptroller to decry Darfur. He needs to audit or oversee the privately contracted auditors in order to answer the question "where did all that money go?"
4. Removing obstacles to business to create jobs, instead of relying on taxpayers to fund a bloated government that creates temporary jobs. The BPT, the gross receipts tax on gross profit, not just net profit, the wage tax. The wage tax provides the city $1.2 billion in revenue. But overdue property taxes total half a billion. If the Council focused on selling city property and leasing it back it needed, there would be thousands more property tax paying owners back in the tax base.
5. Grow a tax base. If government need not own a property (which pays no taxes) let a private owner buy it. The city will use the revenue and NEW property taxes to replace revenue from the wage tax. Regular rescreening of property tax exemptions city wide is critical. It's obvious some nonprofits don't even exist anymore, but are not around to pay taxes on the vacant property they own in some of South Philly's most interesting neighborhoods. Tax vacant property just as much as property with a building on it - we can't afford to give vacant landholders a "discount." Their footprint costs the city just as much. Other cities do this just fine. There's no drama, no question, that vacant lots are not a benefit to a city, and any city that owns and holds thousands of properties in limbo is foolish. Collect property taxes in full, on time, or foreclose in two years. Same rule for everyone, no exceptions, and we know how much old Council likes its ability to make them. Schoolchildren, though they don't vote, need adults who can be adults with adults and collect the revenue they need to go to a decent school.
Our current Council reps (except for Greenlee) prove themselves, vote after vote, to be fossilized.
Posted by Anonymous | March 7, 2008 11:12 AM
Posted on March 7, 2008 11:12
Best evidence based practices mean you get rid of those who are not paying property taxes, or not even being assessed to pay property taxes.
The BRT should not be elected if they can't put in a FMV with a reasonable expectation that Council can change the millage in a reasonable way.
We can't have some taxes one way for some people and one way for another. Not everyone is going to have a family that can perpetually live in a city. That's OK. There are people who want to live in Philly who can take on the ownership of a 100+ year old house. Foisting these old houses and calling it "scattered site" PHA housing is grotesquely unfair to tenants and their neighbors.
It's especially unfair because PHA doesn't have to pay the property taxes needed for schools. Only newer MTW PHA developments contribute to the tax base.
WE CAN afford to sweep streets. We just have to create the expectation that this will be done, and collect the money already there, already set up, to pay for decent street cleaning.
It's a shame we get the same "My maw swept the streets every day" song and dance. Angelo Bruno also ate mac and cheese. So what?
Posted by Anonymous | March 7, 2008 11:20 AM
Posted on March 7, 2008 11:20
When was the last time Verna did a pilot street cleaning program? 1980? How would she know if it will work today?
Posted by Anonymous | March 7, 2008 11:21 AM
Posted on March 7, 2008 11:21
It disgusts me how Verna is so against street cleaning just because people complained about getting their cars towed. That's the kind of low brow response that makes Philly look like it does. Go anywhere else in Europe and see what how filthy Philly looks in comparison. Coal burning Poland looks better.
Posted by Anonymous | March 7, 2008 11:31 AM
Posted on March 7, 2008 11:31
It shocks me, because it's not difficult. Other cities sweep streets just fine.
???? What gives here? We have the money, we just don't collect it. Sure, some people will have property (usually vacant lots or shells) face foreclosure, but most will simply pay up.
It seems like Council is trying really hard to keep property taxes low while it is cutting the wage tax. Can't do both. The days of the $300 per year property tax bill should have ended when Mondale ran for office.
Posted by Anonymous | March 7, 2008 11:37 AM
Posted on March 7, 2008 11:37
How can any city have $494 million in uncollected property taxes?
What does Council even think of this? Why does the press write so infrequently about this? The info comes straight from city data:
www.hallwatch.org/proptax/about/redelinq/stats/summary
This money is right there. How did Council let it happen that there would be 113,000 properties that owe property taxes? How can this debt be still outstanding when a sheriff sale would pay off all the lien debt in most cases?
This hurts PGW, PWD, and our own revenue for schools, safety, everything. It's illegal to have property taxes all over the place, yet the city does that too. The discrepancies within a block are all over the map.
The BRT can't even seem to address it. Of a city of 1.4 million, only 113,000 properties owe money to the city for property taxes. Why is the city so behind?
There's no point in giving Council a wish-list of your fav topics if they can't get the money for it. But the money has been there all along. Creepy.
Posted by Anonymous | March 7, 2008 11:44 AM
Posted on March 7, 2008 11:44
It's fishy that there is all this uncollected property tax money outstanding by the city.
I'm pretty sure that all of these entities can enter this property back into good property tax paying status some how.
www.hallwatch.org/proptax/about/redelinq/stats/topdelinquents/mailingaddress
Posted by Anonymous | March 7, 2008 11:46 AM
Posted on March 7, 2008 11:46
There must be zero accountability for Philadelphia city agency that collects delinquent real estate taxes. It's not new; I have marveled for decades that there were properties in my neighborhood that had not paid taxes in 10 or 15 years and were not up for tax sale. Is it understaffing that causes no work to be done on these delinquent accounts? Is it political intervention? In any event, here's a remedy: offer some group of lawfirms 1/2 of 1% of collections (that's 1/2% of $494 million, or about $5 million in potential fees) to write a letter to the owners and if they do not pay their properties go up for sheriff's sale -- no exceptions. The progress of the efforts should be posted on the internet to assure an visible process. The citizenry of Philadelphia deserve no less.
Posted by anonymous | March 8, 2008 4:24 PM
Posted on March 8, 2008 16:24