Philly Council taking budget hearings to the neighborhoods

This year’s Philadelphia City Council budget hearings are going to have a different feel – and different locations.

City Council President Darrell Clarke says he wants to take some of the budget hearings directly into the neighborhoods, so residents don’t have to come to Center City to testify.

“While we have budget hearings in council, it’s difficult for some people to get to those hearings. More often than not they tend to be during the course of a workday,” Clarke said. “Having it in the evening in a neighborhood we think we will maximize the participation. We’d like to know what people have to say.”

This isn’t the first time council has taken its show on the road.

“We did a couple years ago,” he said. “We had pretty good participation. People actually liked the fact that they saw their City Council at work out in their neighborhoods, so we want to replicate that particular process.”

The first neighborhood budget hearing will be 6 p.m. March 14 at St. John’s AME Church, 2114 S. 71st St. in Southwest Philadelphia. The full schedule is posted here (link to pdf), but no additional neighborhood locations have been announced yet.