PennPraxis and PlanPhilly to launch planning and reporting project to establish an agenda for candidates for mayor and City Council in the 2015 races.

I’m writing to give you an early heads up on a visioning project you’ll be hearing about over the coming months. PennPraxis and PlanPhilly will be working to produce Blueprint2015: Building a 21st Century Philadelphia, a planning and reporting project to establish an agenda for candidates for mayor and City Council in the 2015 races.  We hope to ensure a substantive debate around issues such as infrastructure, equity, development reform, parks and public spaces, neighborhood change, preservation and transportation policy.

Blueprint2015 will provide: 

• Research into the ‘vital signs’ of Philadelphia using data and mapping to inform the public and candidates about the state of Philadelphia’s built and natural environment; 
• Coverage of development trends, neighborhood planning issues and transportation and housing policies that identifies best practices and gets candidates on-the-record around the future of these issues; 
• Civic engagement to elevate these issues across the city and create a positive urban agenda that candidates can adopt; and
• Convening of a city-wide summit in early 2015 where we will hear from experts on the city’s opportunities and challenges, crystallize the civic agenda for the candidates and hear from potential leaders about their visions for the city.  

We’ll need you to work with us to set the agenda, to attend the Blueprint2015 Summit and to support the blueprint once it’s developed. This means that you’ll see updates from us as we do our work in advance of the Summit.  You’ll also see changes in coverage at PlanPhilly as we continue to identify and focus on issues of importance to the future of the city.  

We’ll be in touch periodically beginning with the results of our one-question issue survey within the next week.  Thanks as always for your support of our work, and we’re looking forward to working with you to create Blueprint2015.

Blueprint2015 is underwritten by a generous grant from the Wyncote Foundation.   

Sincerely,

Harris M. Steinberg, FAIA
Executive Director
PennPraxis