'What changes would you like to see in your neighborhood once the new mayor takes office?"

That's the question we're asking people from neighborhoods all over Philadelphia. Below is the second of a series of 11 "Neighborhood Dialogues" that will run right up to voting day. Participants were chosen from among folks involved in the Citizen Voices project. Our focus in this second dialogue is South Philadelphia.

Charles Baltimore and Scott Drake live in different parts of South Philadelphia. Baltimore is on the steering committee for Philadelphia Women's Basketball 2000; Drake is a consultant for Computer Science Corporation at Campbell Soup in Camden. They spoke recently to Commentary Page editor John Timpane.

Baltimore: We're long past the era when politicians do anything for us other than to make sure services are delivered. When the city had a powerful machine, they got things done. But for better or worse, those days are gone now. So the main main task for the mayor is to make sure services are run efficiently.

Drake: What I and most residents want to see is consistent delivery of city services. I see people working their tails off to better the neighborhood - cleaning up corner lots, planting flowers in cracked sidewalks. The residents are doing their share, but not getting a fair response from the city.

It's a borderline neighborhood. One or two blocks walk, and you can see homes where people have lived for a long time. In two more blocks, you'll see abandoned homes, abandoned cars, residences falling apart. That's why the city's neglect irritates me so much: We could get brought right into the Center City fold, but we're falling behind faster than we can stay in place.

Sidewalks we call about weekly never get repaired. One is next to a homeless shelter next to a church and near a day-care center. You would think that the city would give priority to such problems.

I have yet to see any street sweepers come down the street. I've had to go down into the street with a broom and a shovel sometimes. But when I drive up Fifth Street to get on the Ben Franklin Bridge every morning, I see the pavement is wet and clean for the tourists.

Baltimore: It would help if the mayor appointed qualified, appropriate people for the various city posts. Appoint an experienced business person for the finance department. Appoint someone with real management experience to be the managing director of the city.

At same time, I hope the new mayor continues to do a lot of the things Rendell started. Rendell has a lot to do with really turning Philadelphia from a little town to a truly cosmopolitan neighborhood. Landing the Republican convention, getting motion picture companies to shoot major films here, attracting all this business to Center City - good ideas like those have to continue.

Most of all, the people themselves need to do more. Stop sitting around and complaining. Organize and invest in your neighborhood. Whether renting or buying, keep your property nice. Make sure your kids are well cared for. People have to do most of these things themselves. And they can make a big difference if they organize and come up with specific strategies for their neighborhoods.

We're seeing a transition. The ethnic mix of some neighborhoods is changing. That's producing new opportunities and some new tensions. The tensions you'll always have. But it's the opportunities we forget. Most of the new people are hard-working and want to get ahead and be part of American life. The Puerto Ricans are an excellent example, as they have been for decades in this town. It's also true of the black poor, by and large.

But there is an approach to the politics of race that doesn't help people get ahead. One is pretending that prejudice prevents everything. It doesn't. We're in the computer age now. There's got to be a way to train folks. I think people like Angel Ortiz should quit saying that "people who don't speak English should be left alone." What the next mayor should do is to take the race card and throw it out the window. Then start doing what people want - which is to socialize and culturalize people.

Drake: I want a mayoral candidate who can drive through our neighborhood, see the opportunity there, all the really good things we're in danger of letting go.

It doesn't take much to turn a borderline neighborhood into a place with real personality. But I don't think there's a vision yet for our neighborhood. It needs one.

Next week: West Philadelphia.