Council's good feelings spilling out to the city

March 18, 2008
Chris Satullo
Inquirer columnist

It's the era of good feeling at Philadelphia City Hall.

Members of City Council, sour and surly for much of John Street's second term, seem almost giddy in the honeymoon glow of Mayor Nutter's first 100 days.

Strange days, happily so, for the body once dubbed by Mayor Bill Green (more on that name in a moment) "the worst legislative body in the Western Hemisphere."

Council's reaction to calls for reform or progressive policy is no longer a defensive crouch or a deep sigh. The general tenor is "We're optimistic; we're working on it."

Evidence of this was plentiful recently as Council members showed up to talk with citizens at Great Expectations events around the city.

Last year, Great Expectations - a civic dialogue effort by The Inquirer and the Penn Project for Civic Engagement - developed a Citizens Agenda for Philadelphia's Future. This ambitious civic to-do list was rolled out at the Citizens Convention last December, then revised based on feedback received at that forum.

We're holding 10 neighborhood forums, one for each Council district, to present the finished agenda to citizens and Council. The 450 or so residents who attended the forums use a discussion of the agenda to shape questions to be asked of Council members who show up for an hour-long Q&A.

And they have shown up. Some have been to multiple sessions, including at-large members Jack Kelly and Bill Greenlee, the Fourth District's Curtis Jones Jr., and the runaway leader (six sessions), new at-large member Bill Green, the son of the man who once so famously denigrated the body.

Green the Younger has consistently impressed citizens with his candor, his grasp, and his vision for high-tech reform of government, even if sometimes his veteran colleagues roll their eyes at his lengthy orations.

Only two district members failed to show up in their districts: Donna Reed Miller in the Eighth (typical), Darrell Clarke in the Fifth (scheduling snafu). One snow-postponed session remains to be held, in Marian Tasco's Ninth District. If you'd like to come, it's at 6:30 p.m. next Tuesday at the Albert Einstein Medical Center.

You can also read full reports on the sessions, with lots of photos, on the project Web site: www.greatexpectations07.com. We invited citizen bloggers to take part in the forums and write about their experiences. They've done so with gusto.

What's been on the mind of the public at the forums?

There's great energy behind the agenda's call for a 311/CitiStat system to handle citizen service requests and to enforce accountability for results. Council members seem hugely impressed with new Managing Director Camille Barnett's vigor in pressing to get this system running by the end of the year.

Planning and zoning reform was a top-of-mind topic everywhere. Here's the thorny challenge: Everyone has a different definition of what reform means. As a woman from Roxborough said, she's all for a new master city plan, as long as it means nothing gets built near her.

Everyone knows that the current zoning code is bloated and outdated. It produces too many bad results and leaves too much room for mischief. But neighborhood leaders who know how to work the current system are nervous. A new master plan and zoning code, while being clearer, fairer and more forward-looking, might also reduce the leverage now wielded by savvy civic groups.

Property tax revaluation was another high-interest topic. Speaking in Mount Airy, Councilman Wilson Goode Jr. showed the frankness that a politician fresh from easy reelection can show, telling folks that the revaluation everyone fears is desperately needed to end the crazy-quilt assessments that tend to be most unfair to working-class Philadelphians.

Some in his audience weren't buying it, though. What came across clearly is that, even if they see the need for revaluation in theory, Philadelphians don't trust their Board of Revision of Taxes to do it fairly or competently.

Citizens showed enthusiasm and Council members optimism about the prospects for other agenda priorities: greener city policies; new rules for inclusionary zoning and transit-oriented development; an anti-litter push; more money for arts and culture. Council showed less enthusiasm for the agenda's call for stricter ethics rules.

The era of good feeling is bound to hit some rough patches. Just wait for this spring's budget hearings. But right now there's a welcome change in the vibe at Broad and Market.