Great Expectations

Harris Sokoloff, who as head of the Penn Project for Civic Engagement, has designed and led the civic dialogues for Great Expectations and the Central Delaware civic visioning project, reflects on those two experiences:

The presentation of the Civic Vision for the Central Delaware on Nov. 14 was a huge success, with more that 1,500 citizens attending the presentation and celebrating both the Vision as well as the civic engagement process that gave rise to it.

As Harris Steinberg of Penn Praxis, which wrote the document, noted, the work of citizens – their values and values based design principles – informed the work of the design professionals who pulled together the plan. Citizen work was the touchstone for the vision – grounding it in what Philadelphians’ care about. Meanwhile, citizens who took part learned from the experts about what’s possible on an urban waterfront..

The process was truly a blending of citizen and professional expertise.

Throughout the riverfront dialogues, we’ve learned a great deal about citizen interest and capacity for substantive engagement, including these points:

As we roll out the Citizens Agenda for Philadelphia's Future in print in the daily Inquirer, with the issues appearing two at a time, some pairings are more obvious than others. Education and Knowledge Economy were obvious, as were City Budget & Taxes with City Services.

The duo for today (Wednesday) might seem to offer a little less of a slam-dunk linkage.

Despite the forecast, people are rolling into the Convention Center for the Great Expecations Citizens Convention. More than 650 people registered to attend, so it should make for a good exchange of ideas later in the day. We'll start about 12:15 with an overview of the project by Great Expectations' Chris Satullo and Harris Sokoloff. Joining us will be Mayor-elect Michael Nutter.

Check back on the blog throughout the week as our Great Expectations citizen bloggers post their take on today's events.

More than 500 people shrugged off the hype about yet another nonexistent "winter storm" to pack the room yesterday (Sunday) for the Great Expectations Citizens Convention.

Thanks to all who came, giving of their time, experience and emotions to review the draft Citizens Agenda for Philadelphia. This thread is open for your comments and reflections on the day.

Those in attendance heard Mayor-elect Michael Nutter give a rousing speech about his own expectations for his administration, and for the people of Philadelphia. Along the way, Nutter gave the Great Expectations project a dollop of credit for the upbeat, substantive, civil tenor of the mayoral campaign just completed. And he welcomed the commitment expressed by Lenfest Foundation founder Gerry Lenfest, a key funder of the project, that Great Expectations would continue throughout Nutter's term, serving as a monitor and watchdog on the city's progress towards the goals expressed in the Agenda and embraced by Nutter.

For media coverage of the event, see http://www.planphilly.com/node/2316 and http://www.philly.com/philly/hp/news_update/20071203_Nutter__Great_ethical_expectations.html

Citizen blogger Whitney Hoffman continues her report from the Citizens Convention:

The first break-out session I attended was one on Education. The ideas of finding a leader, getting better financing, and looking for after-school programs all were welcomed as great ideas. But it felt like that was a very top-down approach to education, which seems best managed from a more bottom-up approach because nothing motivates people like how to best educate their children.

We spoke about making neighborhood schools integrated into the community, and about how they become centers and hubs for community activity, bringing in not only parents but also residents otherwise unaffiliated with the schools. Community open houses or meetings with City Councilpeople at the local schools were discussed as ideas to help people identify the neighborhood school as an important part of their community, whether they had school-age children or not.

Citizen blogger Whitney Hoffman wraps up her take on the Dec. 2 Citizens Convention:

In the session on the knowledge economy in Philadelphia, participants seemed to have many concerns. One concern was making Philadelphia an attractive and affordable city to young graduates, which meant affordable housing for people starting out in their first jobs. Another prong of the discussion dealt with providing internship opportunities with local unions and local businesses beyond formal co-op programs, to let students take off a semester and get more experience as well as needed funds to afford higher education.

One of the most compelling suggestions was to make Philadelphia a leader in alternative energy, or make it a center for telecommuting, and invest in the regional wi-fi net that would allow people to live and work from here, anywhere, in the emerging global economy. We spoke about providing more e-learning for continuing education.

Citizen blogger Susan Zalenski of West Philadelphia attended Citizen Convention issues sessions based on: What she knows best, what she thinks about most, and what she takes for granted. She writes:

When it comes to Philadelphia, “Great Expectations” is something most residents probably lack. We’ve learned to lower the bar and deal with. But why shouldn’t we expect more from our civic leaders and our city government? How can we make Philadelphia a Great American City?

Great Expectations has put forth the agenda to make Philadelphia great.

Mayor-elect Michael Nutter warmed up the crowd with a heartfelt speech about Philadelphia, the Great Expectations agenda and a promise to focus on doing instead of dreaming about doing. How can we improve our city? Why DO we choose live here? And better yet what, can we citizens do? The day was an opportunity to open up to ideas and think about how our civic leaders and institutions can initiate and manage the change than needs to happen. The agenda has been drafted – now it’s time to fine-tune, modify, review and elaborate – what do you LIKE about the agenda, what could be different and how will YOU make a difference?

There were a dozen core issues up for discussion. Each person was encouraged to attend three sessions during the day. Choosing only three topics wasn’t an easy task, but I went with what I knew best, what I think about the most, and something I take for granted.

What I Know Best: Transportation

Myself and a group of other engaged citizens/SEPTA warriors gathered for a moderated discussion on the transportation issues that affect Philadelphia with the #1 priority going to something basic, but very important: SEPTA Customer Service.

Philadelphia-area blogger and podcaster Bill Rowland discusses his impressions of the Great Expectations Citizens’ Convention held at the Pennsylvania Convention Center on Sunday December 2nd.

In this program, Bill covers the event including the welcome session, as well as discussions of three of twelve key issues found in the draft Citizens Agenda. Specifically The Knowledge Economy, City Services and Crime.

Listen in to Bill's podcast

Margit Olsen joined the Great Expectations citizen blogger team for the Dec. 2 Citizens Convention. She's 25 and preparing to go back to school in order to become a special-education teacher. She moved to Philly three years ago from Delaware and currently lives in West Philly with her girlfriend, dog and three cats.

Margit writes:

I held “Great Expectations” for the day. I came in pumped to talk about real issues. I signed up for my first topic, Transportation, and I took my seat. I have been in Philly for the last three years, and I have grown to have a deep love for the city and its people. I thought long and hard about the other two topics I wanted to delve into. I made my decision: poverty and education. I thought to myself, “I will do what I can.”

Transportation: I am not a daily Septa rider. I don’t claim to be. I am not because I think that it is a flawed system. I appreciate the ease of taking Septa from my house in West Philly into the city when I want. I love that the trolley stops right outside my door. I hate a lot of things about Septa, too. I hate that the trains stop running pretty early. I hate that its fare keeps increasing. I also hate that from 6 a.m. until 9 p.m. right now they are doing construction outside my house.

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.

Albert Yee moves on to Arts & Culture in his second installment from the Dec. 2 Citizens Convention. He writes:

The biggest issue in the Arts & Culture session was the creation of a regional fund to support the arts. The group of 20 was split into two groups that did not come back together to discuss as a whole. The side I was in did not come up with the how to get that money. People were confused as to where it would come from. It could come from tax money, a pledge of 1% of the city's budget, somewhere else. Taking the leap of faith that hundreds of millions of dollars would be poured into Philly's thriving arts scene, where would it go and what would it do?

An artist, Sue, was concerned that much of the money would end up going to administrative costs. She said that usually, 80% of monies end up going to admin costs and a trickle ends up in the pockets of the artists themselves. She stressed that the message must be clear that artists cannot create art for free and they must be paid for their contributions to the city. Sue added that the old Office of Arts & Culture (it currently doesn't exist, but I believe Nutter has pledged to reopen it) did not do anything other than organize artists around Christmas time to create displays around City Hall. She said that a revived Office of Arts & Culture must actively act as a liaison between all of the arts groups in the city. A well designed website would be a huge step; the group agreed.

Citizen blogger Beth Lewis, who previously about the civic leaders' summit for Great Expectations, returns to give us her take on the Dec. 2 Citizens Convention. She writes:

There was no question that Michael Nutter’s presence, and the determination with which he spoke about Philly already being great, buoyed up the spirit of the group that had gathered at last Sunday’s Great Expectations Citizens Convention with the sense that a “new day”, as he described, was dawning. But equally uplifting, I felt, was the opportunity to meet people from the entire Philadelphia community and together discuss the strengths and shortcomings of the Citizens Agenda. While the problems we face as a city are large, the recognition that we need to pull together to dialogue about what needs to be done to address them, to me, represents the value of the Great Expectations effort.

Albert Yee focuses on transportation along with the wrap-up session in the third of his three-part post on the Dec. 2 Citizens Convention. He writes:

My final session for the day was transportationhttp://www.greatexpectations07.com/node/301. It was a smaller group of about 10, with 2 moderators, spread out a large circle. Why we didn't move close to each other, I'm not quite sure. That didn't stop a spirited discussion focused around SEPTAhttp://septa.com/ and the PPAhttp://www.philapark.org/home.aspx. Skip opened up the discussion with concerns about limited English seniors who get no sympathy from SEPTA. He said that he's tried numerous times to initiate talks with SEPTA about the issue, but they refuse to meet him and his minority-represented groups. One of the moderators, Carol, added that many seniors don't know that they can ride SEPTA for freehttp://www.septa.com/fares/senior_citizens.html.

Greg, who was the youngest participant I saw, had a lot to say during the meeting. He wondered why SEPTA didn't have free systemwide mapshttp://www.septa.com/store/books_maps/city_maps.html. Another participant, Debi, said she recently bought the systemwide map. It set her back $10. NYC's MTA has the full color, zebra-folding mapshttp://www.mta.info/mta/maps.htm all over the city. DC's Metro offers mapshttp://www.wmata.com/maps/maps.cfm that you can download to your iPod. Boston's T has downloadable mapshttp://www.mbta.com/schedules_and_maps/system_map/ for all their lines. Chicago's CTA also has mapshttp://www.transitchicago.com/maps/systemmaps.html you can download in .pdf. Would it kill SEPTA to stitch together some printable resolution .pdfs for people? How many people are buying those $10 maps anyway? I've lived here for 3.5 years and I didn't know they existed until Debi said she actually owned one.

Citizen blogger Peak Johnson graduated from high school last spring and former editor of the North Philly Metropolis. He gives his perspective on three issues he decided impacted youth in the community: poverty, crime and transportation. He writes:

Although I had blogged before as part of my after-school program, I never thought much about the medium. As a writer for my community paper, the North Philly Metropolis, I’ve wanted to reach readers in my community rather than in the cyber community. But after my friend Mr. Ben Lowe explained that the Great Expectations project was looking for citizen journalists, I decided to give blogging a shot. He thought the Citizens Convention might be of interest to me because writing is what I do. I thought that being fresh out of high school and having already built a reputation as writer in the Metropolis, I should try a new approach.

Unfortunately, I really have no sense of direction when traveling around Philadelphia – or anywhere else for that matter, even if my destination is just a few blocks from home. As I waited for the No. 33 bus, I hovered over the stack of The Metropolis that I was taking with me and repeated the directions to the Convention Center in my head. I had the reoccurring wish that someone would see me, know me, and drop me off where I needed to go. Despite the gray skies and rain, this was my lucky day. A neighbor pulled up and asked, “Where ya going?” “Twelfth and Arch, the Convention Center,” I replied. And with a wave of his hand signaling me to hop in, we were on our way.