by Susan Phillips, WHYY News

Today’s Inauguration of Barack Obama has Philadelphians hoping for better economic times.  The city faces a growing deficit, library closings and possible tax increases.  So what can the new administration do for Philadelphia?

Wynnewood resident Will Archer: “More than anything else i think it breaks the glass ceiling for what people of all races can do in this country so that’s what excites me the most.”

Archer is one of hundreds who came to watch Barack Obama’s Inaugural train on Saturday.  But breaking the glass ceiling may not be the first thing that comes to mind in a tough economy. The excitement about a new administration has residents hoping to benefit from Obama’s promised financial aid to cities.

Construction worker Jallah Kroma: “Let us keep working. Let the recession start somewhere else.  We don’t want it down here.”

Kroma is a construction worker helping to expand the Pennsylvania Convention Center.

Kroma: “We want the stimulus package to keep the infrastructure going on and put the money in our pocket and hopefully have it trickle up not down.  That’s my hope.”

Mayor Michael Nutter: “Well, you know anytime i go to D.C. I’m not bashful or shy.  I’m always hopeful to bring a big check back.”

Nutter wants to tap into the funds promised by Obama in his stimulus plan.

Nutter: “[We would need that] in order to accomplish the President-elect’s goal of at least three million people working new jobs or saved jobs in two years.  We’re the population centers of the country.  We know how to put people to work.  We have jobs that are shovel ready, hammer ready.”

But the real question for Philadelphia is how the federal dollars will be spent.  Jeremy Nowak is President of The Reinvestment Fund.

Nowak: “You don’t want a stimulus program to prop things up that don’t work.  You want a stimulus program to balance between the immediacy of projects important for infrastructure and have some economic meaning and longer term economic infrastructure that will help us grow out of the recession in a year or two.”

Mayors across the country have prepared lists of projects they want funded.  Nowak says it was hard to see any kind of strategy within Nutter’s two and a half billion dollar wish list.

Governor Ed Rendell says the primary focus of the stimulus should be jobs but he’s also hopeful that increased education funding will directly help the city.

Rendell: “If that plan comes to reality, the city of Philadelphia will get significant dollars for Title I education funds for poor kids and special ed.  And that’s a huge plus for the city of Philadelphia.”

But perhaps even more important over the long run, Rendell says Obama is the first urban president in decades.

Rendell: “Because he comes from Chicago and understands the problems of the cities, and i think you’ll see someone very cognizant of these problems and is willing to deal with them.  Long term, I think a lot of the thrust of Obama’s domestic policy is going to be toward cities and regions around cities.”