Here's a news flash:

Gather 25 Philadelphians in a room and ask what they like about living here, and they won't scoff or sneer. They'll talk your ear off.

At least those are the early returns as The Inquirer's Citizen Voices '99 project on the mayor's race gets under way this week.

A series of 20 neighborhood forums began in the Northeast and Frankford in the last three days. They are the jumping-off point for a yearlong process of citizen conversation about the pitfalls and the potential of the city's future. About 750 citizens - most from the city, some from the suburbs - have signed up for this Editorial Board project.

The task for citizens at these first sessions is to pick what they see as the biggest challenges facing the city. In coming up with a format, we were mindful of our city's nasty rep as the hotbed of hostility. For openers, we thought, let's accentuate the positive. As an ice-breaker, let's ask: ``Tell us something you like about Philadelphia.'' (Then duck.)

So far, nobody's jeered, and only a few have snickered. Instead, enthusiastic answers have flowed, from Philly lifers and transplants alike. Words such as friendly and accessible were used and echoed. Residents extolled the ``amazing cultural attributes,'' the ``great mix of ethnic neighborhoods,'' the ``very beautiful architecture'' - even the lack of earthquakes!

The folks at the Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corp. should have had a videocam rolling.

Some of the memorable comments: ``Here you don't just read about history in a book. You walk down the street and see it.'' ``It's a city with a lot in it, but it's not so vertical like New York.'' ``I've left this city several times, but I always come back. What I love most about it are the people.''

``I moved to Florida and moved right back. I couldn't relate to anyone who didn't know where the Melrose Diner was.'' ``In the suburbs, you drive 15 minutes for a gallon of milk. Here, I've got a Wawa next door, a video store and a bakery nearby. Is there anything else in life you really need?'' (That last line - the guy was joking. I think.)

Now, don't conclude that these sessions were just saccharine lovefests among a bunch of folks on Prozac. So far, citizens have proved mostly clear-eyed and tough-minded about the problems Philadelphia must surmount to thrive.

Yes, they despise the wage tax. They see hints of progress on crime (one woman got cheers for predicting a future ``Mayor Timoney''), but they never were fooled by the city police's tricked-up statistics. They know that dark cloud still hovers. They've got a sense of dire urgency about the schools. They have a devil of a time pinpointing who's going to replace the jobs that have fled the brick husks of closed factories.

But, invited to dream of a better city, they have seized the moment with gusto. They have not given up on Philadelphia.

It's early in this project. In other neighborhoods, other rooms, perhaps the mood will be gloomier. For now, though, we're glad Citizen Voices '99 began with the good people of Bustleton, Frankford, Torresdale, Holmesburg and Mayfair.

Where does the project go from here? In a series of events, citizens will move from identifying vital issues to studying those issues' twists, tradeoffs, solutions and costs. They'll define points of common ground with their fellow citizens, and points of stubborn tension.

All this, we hope, will prepare them to be savvy, fair questioners of the candidates during town meetings this spring and fall.

After the election, the group will draft a Citizens Agenda for Philadelphia, a summary of what their year of civic deliberation has taught them about what Philadelphians can do for one another, and what their elected officials should do. That document will be presented to the new mayor and Council.

Perhaps this is the first you've heard of this project, in which we at The Inquirer are working closely with scholars at the University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg Public Policy Center and its Center for School Study Councils. We haven't advertised it much because the first announcement last fall generated so much response. (About 300 of the participants are a diverse, random sample of the city recruited by Annenberg for a research project on the mayor's race.)

If Citizen Voices '99 sounds like something you'd like to be part of, we'd still like to hear from you. That's especially true if you belong to the two ethnic communities that, despite our outreach efforts, remain underrepresented in the group: Latinos and Asian Americans.

To learn more about the project, check out its Web site: http://www.citizenvoices.com.

To sign up, drop us a note at Citizen Voices, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Box 41705, Philadelphia 19101 Or you can e-mail citizenvoices@phillynews.com We will need to know your name, address, neighborhood, phone number, age, party and race.

At this point, we may not be able to work you into the first set of forums, but we will keep your name on file for future events.

And we'll keep listening as Philadelphia talks things over.

To comment, call 215-854-4243 or e-mail csatullo@phillynews.com