'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 fourth 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 dialogue is West Philadelphia.

Jack Shannon is managing director for economic development for the University of Pennsylvania. Jacqui Brown is a test developer for Assessment Systems Inc. They spoke recently to Commentary Page editor John Timpane.

Jack Shannon: I'd encourage the new administration to work with the universities, businesses, local community groups and residents to restore a number of the historical buildings in the area. Unlike other areas, University City has a diverse and rich array of architecture in its houses and office buildings. We could have an area analogous to the Union Street area of San Francisco: a strong, vibrant, relatively diverse neighborhood that supports a commercial corridor providing an array of services and goods to the community. Such a place is also a good marketing piece for visitors; it can get them beyond Center City, to see the exciting things happening in the neighborhoods.

Jacqui Brown: I'm thinking about the major shopping area on 52d Street. It needs to be presentable. The mayor can get behind the local business associations, give them guidelines to ensure that the area is presentable. It has become a junky, nasty, smelly area. I grew up here, and a long time ago, there was a greater diversity of stores, fewer hangers-out, and it was cleaner. The neighborhood also has a problem with open lots that have become weedy and trashy. The new mayor should enforce provisions so that owners are responsible for making open lots either green spaces or paved lots. Failing all that, they should turn those properties over to the city to do something with them.

Same with housing. There are a lot of old, abandoned houses. The mayor should give owners a deadline by which they have to get their buildings up to code. There should be some time limit past which people lose their properties if they don't keep them up or sell them.

Maybe the new mayor could make the process of acquiring derelict or disused property easier. There's money to do it and people who want to do it. It's a matter of enforcement and a lack of a game plan. The old Broadway restaurant, for example, sits next to a vacant lot and has been boarded up for years and years. Somebody must own it, but apparently he or she isn't accountable. It's become just another eyesore on 52d Street. In my neighborhood, the hangers-out gravitate there.

Shannon: The next mayor should work with the many institutions here - Penn, Drexel, the University of the Sciences, University Health System, Children's Hospital - to revitalize key commercial corridors: Market Street, 40th Street, Baltimore Avenue.

The mayor needs to take fuller advantage of the tremendous economic development opportunities presented by the research and other activities at the colleges and universities here. We need also to do a better job of translating university research into new enterprises and jobs. Penn, for example, is growing in size and scope, and the next mayor should tap into that engine.

How to do it? Make taxes less of a barrier to new business development.

A university researcher who starts up a business is no different from anyone else in that situation: They'd like to spin off businesses but want to have those businesses close to their day jobs.

Brown: I'd love to see the new mayor be more aggressive on wage-tax reduction. That was supposed to be temporary, but it has become a money pot. Everyone realizes there has to be a wage tax, but it's way too high.

Shannon: The city needs to keep more of our research start-ups here. Many migrate to the Route 202-suburban corridor, and far too many migrate out of the state and out of the region.

And one of the critical challenges for the next administration is to improve public education in Philadelphia so it is a viable option for not only those "trapped" in the city, but also those in the middle- and upper-income levels who have choices.

Even if my wife and I choose to send our daughter to a private school, it's still in our interests to have great public-school alternatives so that everyone gets the education they deserve so they have the chance to compete for the jobs they will have later in life.

And finally, we have to ensure public safety.

Brown: My neighborhood, well, I wouldn't sit outside at night. You never know what's going to come down the block. I've seen cops here and there, but not many. Couldn't the next mayor encourage the police to keep up a presence in the neighborhoods?

Shannon: Without a comprehensive, sustained strategy, many efforts will be doomed to maintaining the status quo at best. But if you link these things in a strategic way, incorporating suggestions from the community, and with active participation from the private and institutional sectors, the result will be greater than the sum of its parts.