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Citizen Voices on the Inquirer Opinion pages
Citizens grill the candidates
All this week, we are running the two mayoral candidates' responses to questions on six issues of vital importance to Philadelphia: education, public safety, race and diversity, neighborhoods, government reform, and jobs. The questions were developed by participants in the Citizen Voices project.In Germantown, neighborhoods and schools are main concerns The core issue In the trenches Crime and safety
Citizen Voices '99 off and running
Citizen Voices project resumes as Philadelphia chooses a mayor
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 are the first four of a series of eleven Neighborhood Dialogues that will run right up to voting day...
The City's Business
Citizens Work for a Better Philadelphia
Who's the Boss?
Introduction to this special report
A livable city
Neighborhoods
Education
Taxes
Business and Jobs
Community and Mutual Concerns
Most livable city
Schools and Youth Programs
Another look at taxes
Tourism and Appearance
Abandoned Housing and Homelessness
October 19,
1999
'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 tenth of a series of 11 "Neighborhood Dialogues" that will run right up to voting day. Our focus in this dialogue is Germantown. Participants were chosen from among people involved in the Citizen Voices project. Sheila Laney, an office manager, has lived in Germantown since 1975, and Judith Callard, an editor at the Germantown Historical Society, has lived there since 1967. They spoke recently to Commentary Page editor John Timpane. 
On schools, candidates differ on which risks to take on the road to reform.
October 17, 1999
The last time Philadelphians elected a mayor, education was barely a blip on the candidates' radar screen. A new superintendent, David W. Hornbeck, had just begun his second academic year, and - while issues in the sprawling system loomed large - there was little public agitation for the mayor to be more accountable for the schools.
Pay attention to the neighborhoods, and help residents help themselves.
October 15,
1999
It's not unusual for Betty Britton and her neighbors to hustle after a trash truck with bucket and broom in hand. Their mission: To tidy up after the weekly pickup in their North Philadelphia neighborhood.
From more police to prevention efforts, candidates address the issue and its causes.
October 14, 1999
Reducing the fear and reality of crime in every neighborhood will be one of the major challenges for the mayor whom Philadelphians will elect next month.
September 30, 1999
They say it's been eerily quiet. They say there aren't any big issues.
On the first point, "they" might have a point. Since Labor Day, the Philadelphia mayor's race hasn't exactly been a cascade of memorable moments. On the second point, "they" are wrong.
September 2, 1999
O
Creating an employer-friendly Philadelphia will be a big part of the next mayor's role.
It's a big number: 134,800. That's how many jobs Philadelphia lost between 1975 and 1995. Getting just some of them back, let alone keeping the ones still here, demands that Philadelphians see their city as a newcomer sees it...
Here are a few scenes from a convention (nothing, though, about smoke-filled rooms or funny hats). The talk is about Philadelphia's neighborhoods. One person tells a tale of how her neighbors organized a block cleanup, only to run afoul of some city rules and be shut down. Heads nod, voices groan in recognition around the room...
The next mayor should remember that basic services are not just favors for the few.
Ed Rendell became a local hero by giving Philadelphia fiscal stability - and pizzazz. Yet city residents are still disgruntled with their government.
They feel ill-served by a Rubik's Cube bureaucracy. They cite slow-motion employees who couldn't care less. ("What I think of as a right," said a participant in The Inquirer's Citizen Voices, "they think of as a favor.")...
Essays from the Neighborhoods
Sunday Inquirer, April 11, 1999
Residents and former residents tell us what the next mayor should do to make all of the city's neighborhoods places where people want to live and raise their families.
City government size and services over the years
Sunday Inquirer, April 8, 1999
What size is the right size for Philadelphia? As the city population shrinks, what is happening to city services? The Inquirer Editorial Board takes a look in words and graphics.
The citizens are preparing their questions.
They want a detailed discussion of the issues.
Community Voices Essays
Philadelphia 2010: Participants in Citizen Voices '99 envision
a city ranked as the best in America. Here's how it happened.
The Philadelphia described on these pages does not yet exist - at least in steel, brick and macadam. But it began to come to life last month in the imaginations of the nearly 500 area residents who took part in the first round of community forums in The Inquirer Editorial Board's Citizen Voices '99 project....
Published Sunday, February 21, 1999 in the Inquirer
Eleven years ago, the city was wracked by a contentious mayoral race, crime, racism, an insensitive police department, high unemployment, substandard housing, substance abuse, economic chaos and homelessness....
Philadelphia is the safest city in America in 2010 because it has a police management team that requires patrol officers to respect its citizens and do all they can to protect them. When patrol officers don't provide services of respect, protection and combating violence, they are punished....
Philadelphia learned something that everyone else is trying to get: Cooperation, focus, innovation, accountability and dedication all lead the way to success....
As the millennium dawned, we Philadelphians agreed that our worst problem was the grievous tax burdens, both on wages and real estate. Taxes, more than anything else, had caused the hemorrhaging jobs and population since 1950....
Special to Philly.com
The fortunes of Philadelphia turned brighter when former Mayor, Ed Rendell convinced a major pharmaceutical manufacturer to cancel plans for a new plant in Blue Bell, and build in the city instead.
It is the year 2010 and the neighborhoods of Philadelphia are alive and full of energy. Neighborhood revitalization started with the Welfare to Work Program.
The
transformation of Philadelphia over the last decade has been nothing short of amazing. Following Ed Rendell. s successful campaign of making the city attractive to tourists and outsiders, his successors have made the city desirable and viable to insiders.
Back in 1999 the new Citizen Voices movement convinced the new mayor and city council that the most important issue was not how to grant hundreds of millions to build new stadiums, but how to use that money to make the educational system of the city the best in the country. Now in the year 2010....
Greetings& .and
welcome to Philadelphia . America. s best city! ...We eliminated, in phases, our regressive and rusty city wage tax, commerce tax, business taxes, fees et al such that we could attract world-class corporations and employees here, as well as making Philadelphia the lowest (least) taxing region in America!
...we have the most celebrated history in the nation; we should continue to make it more visitor-friendly, accessible, and publicized. We have an impressive set of cultural fora....
...the
most serious problem facing our city today is one that may seen superficial, but actually runs deep. It. s the number of abandoned buildings all over the city.
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