Deal these folks out

The neighborhood activists who gathered at a Civic Leaders Summit last month in Mayfair made it clear they want a "new deal" with City Hall.

And the New Deal is . . . No Deals.

Let me explain. What these civic leaders want is a city government that is - to repeat my mantra - efficient, transparent, logical and responsive.

Not one that responds only under duress, only after repeated calls to just the right person.

Not a government that only acts after a City Council member or a civic group leader keeps banging at its door.

Not a government where it is whom you know, not what you know, that counts.

Not a government that tailors service delivery and enforcement to political pedigree and clout.

In short, it's a government where you don't have to make a deal with someone to get what you deserve as a taxpayer.

The New Deal is No Deals. It's a City Hall that just plays it straight.

Can this ever happen in Philadelphia, an ancient city founded on a deal William Penn worked out with the Delaware Indians?

The 80-plus civic and neighborhood leaders in that room in mid-October sure wanted it to happen.

And, when it comes to city government, these folks know whereof they speak.

They are on the phone nearly every day with some bureaucrat somewhere trying to arrange for new stop signs, code enforcement, trash collections, police protection . . . I could go on . . . for their neighborhoods.

By the way, this meeting was called under the banner of Great Expectations, a year-long effort, sponsored by The Inquirer and the University of Pennsylvania, to talk about the city's future, with the mayor's race as backdrop.

We hosted the summit because we thought neighborhood and civic groups would like the chance to come together and talk about their common concerns, about the future of this grassroots movement.

If you could have bottled the energy in that room during those five hours, you could power all of the street lights in the city.

These folks are true leaders. Their energy is what keeps them going, but what gets them going is an unselfish desire to help their neighborhood and their neighbors.

If Philadelphia is to be reborn, if it hopes to end its half-century slide, this is where it will begin: block by block, neighborhood by neighborhood, from the bottom up. It is good to know the energy is there.

In hosting the meeting, we wanted to give these civic leaders a chance to sit down and share experiences. And did they ever.

It didn't take long to realize that, while the way issues are ranked may vary depending on locale, the problems in Somerton are very much like the ones in Logan, and the challenges in Logan are very much like the ones in West Philly.

Realizing you share common problems is one step toward devising common solutions. But that is another topic for another day.

What I heard - and what I read from Great Expectations moderators' notes of the day - is that these leaders want to do more for their neighborhood and their city, but feel hamstrung by what has turned out to be their principle duty: acting as liaisons with City Hall.

As several of them put it, 70 percent or more of their time is spent trying to get the city to respond promptly to everyday problems. "Fighting for minutiae" is how one of them described it.

Becoming the go-to guy in your neighborhood may satisfy the ego for a while, but these leaders see it mostly as a bad deal. They'd like to be freed from trash pickup monitoring so they can concentrate on other things. Such as: planting trees, welcoming new neighbors, fostering civic spirit, helping create master plans for their neighborhoods, joining with other civics to propose citywide solutions to shared problems.

"Our association could become a conduit for community betterment," said one leader.

"We could have a social community role rather than an advocacy role," said another.

None of this can happen, though, unless they find a way to get out of - or at least lessen - the constituent-service business.

And none of that can happen unless the city becomes more responsive to everyday calls from everyday citizens.

Simply put, citizens shouldn't need special help from a civic group or a City Councilman to get routine services.

I know it's not quite that simple an equation. The demand for city services is great; the line is long. Who can blame people for using connections to advance a couple of spaces in that line?

City Hall will have to make it clear that making delivery of services fair means that sometimes you do have to stand in line.

But filling in the other side of that equation - a City Hall that is more efficient, transparent, logical and responsive - is really the first step. And it's a key challenge for mayor-elect Michael Nutter.

Just remember: The New Deal is no deals.

 

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You can contact Tom Ferrick at tferrick@phillynews.com