Neighborhood leaders met to suggest ways to improve Phila's zoning code process

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update: 2/1/10 11:58 a.m.

Developers and Neighbors meet

The third and final meeting by the Phila AIA and PPCE was held Wednesday Jan 27 and brought developers and neighborhood activists face-to-face. The goal was to recommend ways to improve public input during Philadelphia’s zoning process. One memorable line from the night was this one from a developer. “Just one person with a beef has the ability to harpoon a project that could turn a struggling neighborhood around.” You can see that the two sides have a lot to discuss.  During the meeting neighborhood leaders and developers discussed zoning changing in small working groups. Each group was asked to list their concerns and suggestions for improvements. Here are a summaries of those discussions.

Chris Satullo commentary on the zoning workshops

Group 1

Group 2

Group 3

Group 4

Conclusions

PlanPhilly has full coverage of the meeting.

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So much has happened since Michael Nutter was sworn in as Mayor of Philadelphia two years ago. Even for his supporters, it’s probably hard to remember the euphoria of that day. Finally, we thought, here’s a man who knew how city government worked but was also fed up with its inefficient ways.

In his inauguration speech (pdf), he laid an ambitious agenda. He promised to get a handle on violent crime. For homicide in particular, he called for a reduction of between 30 and 50 percent.

So, how’s he doing on that? Well, if he reduced 2007’s 392 homicide rate by 30 percent, then we could expect about 275 homicides a year.

In 2008, there were 333 reported murders. That’s a 15 percent drop. Not bad.

In 2009, that number was 305. That’s a 22 percent drop from the 2007 figures. Pretty good.

I’d say we’re on track with that goal.

Mayor Nutter got an earful from angry residents after he announced major budget cuts in late 2008

Other goals, however, will be a lot harder to quantify. Those are things like doubling the number of students who finish college in Philadelphia. Sure, there will be statistics we could look too, but, up or down, who’s to say this mayor could take the credit, or blame. Let’s put goals like these go in the “Hope” bucket.

Then there is the recession. Without it, would Philadelphia be gun-free utopia for bicycling paradise intellectuals? Maybe not, but it would be equally wrong to measure the mayor’s performance with a pre-recession yard stick.

If Mayor Nutter decides to run for re-election in 2011, will he deserve four more years?

While it may be be too early to make that call, what if the election were held today. Would you vote for him?

To give you an idea of how other people rate the mayor so far, here are some of the mid-term report cards we’ve gathered so far.

Congressman Bob Brady

Fmr Phila. Managing Director Phil Goldsmith

Northern Liberties Neighbors Association President Matt Ruben

Fmr Phila. Education Secretary Debra Kahn

Penn Future Outreach Director Christine Knapp

Artblog co-founders Roberta Fallon and Libby Rosof

What do you think? Would you re-elect Mayor Nutter if the election were held today?

Asking a politician to grade another politician, who lives in the same city, who shares the same political party, and have the same constituent base is not asking for the harshest of critiques. But given that It’s only fair to hear how someone like U.S. Congressman Bob Brady views the mayor’s first two years in office.

Brady is also Chair of the Democratic Committee in Philadelphia. Oh, one other thing. He ran against Michael Nutter in the 2007 Democratic Mayoral Primary. Brady lost and instead became “Mayor of Capitol Hill” a title you get when you ascend to chairman of the Committee on House Administration in Washington D.C. He oversees a $3 billion budget that among other things get to decide things that really matter to a politician staffing size and parking assignments.

But both Brady and Nutter have helped keep Philadelphia afloat during a recession that made federal dollars akin to a lifeline. So here’s Bob Brady’s assessment of Michael Nutter’s first two years as Mayor of Philadelphia.

Bob Brady

By Congressman Bob Brady

It is too easy to be an arm chair quarterback as Mayor Nutter navigates the city through very, very difficult economic times. The Mayor’s job is a front line challenge and there is no passing of the buck, so all of the hard pressed issues are on display for everyone to view. That being said I think the mayor has done a good job in keeping the city on course. Crime is down, there is renewed attention being paid to our public schools, the city population is apparently increasing and in spite of the recession new projects are breaking ground.

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Phil Goldsmith takes the hard line on Mayor Nutter saying that past Philadelphia mayors have accomplished more in their first two years. Gee, Phil, tell us what you really think. Goldsmith’s views are worth thinking about even if you don’t fully agree. This is after all a major global recession that has hit every level of government hard. But still he provides a perspective that shouldn’t be ignored. Goldmsith is someone who has seen Philadelphia city government from the inside out. He a past interim director of the School District of Philadelphia, acting Executive Director of Fairmount Park, past Deputy Mayor for Policy and Planning, former Philadelphia Inquirer reporter and served as the Managing Director of the City of Philadelphia (under John Street). He currently serves as President of Ceasefire PA.

Q&A with Phil Goldmsith

WHYY: The Nutter administration. Two years in – Two years to go. Half Empty / Half Full?

Goldsmith: I think the next four or five months will tell where the glass stands. I think he got off to a late start and the world sort of changed on him. I think he’s now starting to pick things up a bit. So I’ll probably answer a little differently today than I would have four or five months ago when I thought they weren’t making as much progress as they should. I think how he goes through the next budget cycle and we still have the union negotiations out there are two big things that have to be resolved.

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WHYY is running short essays this month on what people think of Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter’s first two years in office. One of the challenges in doing this is how to factor in The Great Recession. On January 7, 2008, few people knew that the housing market would collapse, banks would become toxic sites, and tax revenues to states and cities would shrink. WHYY’s Susan Phillip’s talked with Matt Ruben, a longtime community organizer who in 2007 ran for City Council. In their conversation he shared with us his thoughts on Nutter’s performance during this recession.

By Matt Ruben president of the Northern Liberties Neighbors Association. (NLNA)

I think he has done in many respects as well as anyone can do given the impossible budget situation that he found dumped in his lap soon after he came into office. I think the administration has taken great strides in certain areas, environmental areas, recycling, planning. I think that there is a sense that the city government is operating in a pretty fair minded way. In some respects a more open way than it did before. I do think that there have been some missed opportunities to rally and mobilize and enlist the support of some of the constituencies that elected him. I think the administration at times has been very open, but at times retreated to think about issues in isolation and has incurred negative feelings from the public as a result.

WHYY News profile of Nutter’s first 2 years

Mayor Nutter poses for the city's 2008 Back to School campaign

In January 7, 2008 Michael Nutter was sworn in as Philadelphia’s mayor. During his inauguration speech he made many bold promises. One of the major ones was on improving education. Here’s what he said:

If our young people are ever going to have the opportunity to begin college, let alone earn a degree, then they must graduate from high school and we must commit ourselves to lowering the 45% dropout rate that plagues our city day after day after day and that we must seek to cut in half over the next five to seven years.

But a mayor is not in a position to launch major school reforms. But what a city leader can do is set goals, provide support and turn the heat up on school administrators see certain issues as major priorities. Also, Philadelphia’s mayor gets to appoint two of the School Reform Commission’s five member board. The Governor gets to choose the other three. We reached out to DEBRA A. KAHN to assess Mayor Nutter’s handling of education issues in his first two years. Kahn served as Education Secretary under Philadelphia Mayor John Street.

Here is a Q& A with Debra Kahn who now is Executive Director of Delaware Valley Grantmakers.

WHYY: Overall, how do you think the Nutter administration on education has done in the first couple of years?

Well the Mayor from the get-go set some very ambitious and important goals about halving the dropout rate and doubling the percentage of our city residents who have college degrees. These are what might be called big hairy goals. And they’re important ones but they also take a lot of time to accomplish. I know there’s been a lot of infrastructure put in place.  It takes a while to see progress come to fruition. But there are indicators along the way. I think the city needs to keep an eye on the ball in addition to those.

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In April 2009, Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter released a plan called Greenworks. It is his administration’s vision of how to make Philadelphia the greenest city in the nation. Many of the ideas in the Greenworks plan can be traced to The Next Great City Initiative that challenged citizens to help develop policies that would promote sustainable economic vitality. One of the major organizers of the Next Great City was Penn Future. We asked Christine Knapp to give us her take on Nutter’s first two years in office.

By Christine Knapp
Director of Outreach
Citizens for Pennsylvania’s Future (PennFuture)

Mayor Nutter’s Midterm Grade

Sustainability: A-

Overall: B

The economic crisis obviously played a large role in shaping decision making and outcomes in Mayor Nutter’s first term. Ambitious reform items had to be scrapped in lieu of keeping basic city services functioning and talented new staff was forced to do more with less.

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