Engage and Enable Neighborhoods

Two thoughts:

The curriculum restrictions on teachers in the Philadelphia public schools stifle reasonable creativity that a professional educator should have to do an effective job. Good teachers are understandably frustrated by the lockstep expectations under which they work, and tend to leave.

Concerned parents with interest in their children's education are moving their students to charter schools. When we talk of requiring members of the school board or educators to have their children enrolled in public schools, they should be in regular, not charter, schools. This will really benefit the other students.

In particular, this redistricting should take into account most recent census data on past population movement & present trend inidcators, natural & man-made geographic boundaries that connect or disconnect neighborhoods from services, and present & proposed capital infrastructure for city & school facilities. It should also make full use of GIS software on the city's various web sites, so that a resident can "point-and-click" on an area to locate pertinent district/catchment area offices.

The Sheriff, City Commissioners, Register of Wills and Clerk of the Courts could easily be incorperated into other city agencies and the courts.

L&I must provide data to zoning board of adjustment ie: Code violations, use of property for last ten years. The practice of "legalizing" multi family dwellings after years of illegal use with a variance has got to stop.

The City must identify absentee landlords with better record keeping. Income property owners must indicate accurate name and mailing address. A review of L&I files indicates inspector unable to gain entrance and unable to locate owner.

The Zoning Board needs to establish substantial fines and fees
when dealing with ligalizing these violators.

Before reassessments the city should review properties being utilized as multi family while they are zoned single family.

Many Philadelphia neighborhoods have experienced an influx of new, mostly younger, residents. Many recent graduates are attracted to the city because it is relatively affordable when compared to New York, Boston, or DC. This is generally a good thing, but there are some unintended side effects. One of the biggest is the tension between newer and older residents.

People who have lived in rough neighborhoods for many years shouldn't be pushed out by gentrification. At the same time, new residents shouldn't feel unwelcome-- after all, Philadelphia has the infrastructure to support nearly 5 million people. There is room for everyone. It's time to take concrete steps to build community in changing neighborhoods.

The city should sponsor some form of dialog between new and old residents. This will help ease some of the tensions and make sure that no one is lost in the shuffle. What are some of the other steps that we can take to make sure that everyone, new and old residents, feel comfortable in their neighborhoods?

Let's have places for kids to go and do things instead of roaming the streets and learning how to be criminals and do-nothings. Comcast, the sports teams, and other companies that make a lot of revenue from the citizens of Philadelphia should have to contribute X amount of dollars for programs and rec centers for kids. This will eliminate some crime now but also a lot of crime in the future. Have you been in a City rec center lately? They all smell like urine and dirt, and there are never enough basketballs, etc., for the kids to play with. You can sell the naming rights to these rec centers like you sold the naming rights to all the stadiums to earn revenue for this. And that's just for starters!

Serious disecting of our school system to combat this disease of failure. There must be a forum of parent and decision makers to take back the system that has fallen before our eyes. We must attract quality teachers that are wiilling to work toward success. The parents must be held accountable for negative actions some of our young people are facilitating.