Great Expectations

Jobs and Economic Development appeared to be the least popular group; at one point, it was just two people and the moderator. Luckily, a few more people showed up or were “recruited” from other groups. Our group of six prepared for a lively moderated discussion.

The goals around this initiative are about creating a tax structure that encourages jobs and growth, attracting residents (and tourists), providing assistance to businesses in Philadelphia, and establishing smart city planning and sustainable development.

We were encouraged to share our views on why jobs and economic growth was important to us. More important, how would we measure the city’s success? And finally, how could the city improve its customer service?

I started off with my own personal living-and-working in the city success story and mentioned how it would be great if more large corporations had incentives to have locations (not necessarily their entire organization, but a branch) in Philadelphia. One of the group members challenged that idea, saying we have plenty of big corporations (the new Comcast building is a prime example) and that the city needs to help small- and mid-size companies stay local. For example, the city could change the tax structure so smaller companies would stay and grow.

Much of our discussion revolved around how to help the transition from education (both high school and university) to jobs in the city. First, there is the matter of the access to those jobs (everything keeps moving in a circle) that help people stay. Someone thought of a formal partnership between universities and the city (formal being the operative word) and real tax benefits for employers who hire “re-entry” folks (people making the transition from jail to job).

Another concern was language barriers – speaking another language should be a skill that is sought out and rewarded. Local business should have first dibs at city contracts. Perhaps other neighborhoods need a special services district like the one University City has. Someone suggested a city-wide job registry (Craigslist for Philly? How about Benslist?)

Of course, our topic was connected to other topics. City Wage Tax (that ever popular topic) isn’t really an issue IF people are getting value for their tax dollars – which feeds into the customer-service improvements on the city’s agenda. So by virtue of improving quality-of-life and city services, there will be incentive for people to live and work here. Crime and safety obviously play a significant role in retaining residents and bringing in business as well. So no initiative lives in a vacuum.

Everyone had wonderful ideas. But we struggled with defining measurable outcomes that would show the city’s success. A couple of times a year, I have to go through my own performance evaluation at work and come up with measurable goals for the year - it’s far from a simple task.

Regardless, we forged ahead. Our moderator tried to rein us in (quite a challenge). We were full of ideas, but a bit stumped on measures of success. Perhaps it was difficult in that we did not have any statistics to benchmark.

Afterwards, everyone was invited to browse the room and review the notes from the other break out groups. We looked for similarities, differences and for novel ideas.

To close, a panel Q&A session for the city officials and Councilwoman Sanchez.

A few questions were district-specific, discussing defunct security cameras (in light of the recent student killing by a number of truant students).

Someone asked how Philadelphia ranks in terms of federal funding. The sad fact is that we are comparable to other cities of our size, as our federal government lacks urban policy.

Much of the questioning focused on the proposed 311 system. The officials felt that it could be empowering in terms of data collection (helping the city to measure its performance) and would like it to work well (though we must allow for the system to hit a few bumps before its running smoothly). It was pointed out that although other cities like New York have implemented 311, Philadelphia is not NYC, and we cannot use them as a direct comparison. (I could not agree more!).

Overall, an evening well spent as ideas were shared, considered and will be taken back to the table for review. One of the best things about these forums is that the community is truly being heard. I look forward to the next round of GE forums!