City Council: Let's not overlook that other campaign

April 1, 2007
Philadelphia Inquirer Editorial

The Philadelphia mayoral campaign gets curiouser and curiouser.

It’s one muddled melee right now, with a lot more talk about candidates’ wives’ salaries than about gunshots that maim or classrooms that work.

Perhaps this might be a good time to remind ourselves that other city elections are occurring this spring that really matter to the city’s future.

An entire City Council will be elected.

Philadelphia has a strong mayor form of government, but Council still matters greatly to the health of the city, for good or ill. During the Street years, Council members provided the energy that produced larger tax cuts and ethics reform. Over time, though, Council has also been a den of inertia, keeping the city mired in bad habits of parochialism, influence peddling, patronage and nepotism.

To anyone who wants to see City Hall cleaned up or zoning reform enacted or neighborhood business centers revived or sound fiscal oversight instituted, these Council elections should be a very big deal.

The good news is a far more robust, qualified field of challengers has emerged to challenge the status quo than in past elections.

That’s why the Editorial Board’s Great Expectations project — which will seek all year to connect citizens’ hopes and ideas for their city and region to the political process — will spotlight Council elections in May.

The project, a partnership with the University of Pennsylvania with grants from the Lenfest and Knight Foundations, always planned a big round of events in the first week of May, before the May 15 primary. Originally, we’d thought in terms of mayoral forums. And the week’s agenda will conclude Sunday, May 6, with a mayoral debate on WHYY-TV.

But the urgent need now seems to be for more focus on Council races.

So, change in plans. In May, Great Expectations will head out into each of the 10 Council districts, to hold what we call Deliberation Days. Each D-Days event will have four elements:
- A citizen dialogue about the mayoral campaign and city issues.
- A straw poll on the mayor’s race.
- A straw poll on another huge issue: the casino referendum.
- A Council candidates forum.

In the seven Council districts with a contested primary, we’ve invited the district candidates to attend the forum. Almost all have accepted. At three other sites, we’ll hold forums with the phalanx of candidates for seven at-large positions. The five Republican candidates will appear at one site; the Democratic candidates will split over two sites.

The public is invited, but we request advance registration. To do so, please send an e-mail to great-expectations@sas.upenn.edu. List your name, address, e-mail address, phone number and the forum you’d like to attend.

Here’s the schedule:
Wednesday, May 2
District 8: 6:30 to 9:30 p.m., Lutheran Theological Seminary, 301 Germantown Ave.
Thursday, May 3
District 10: 6:30 to 9:30 p.m.; Klein Jewish Community Center, 10100 Jamison Ave.
Democratic at-large (Group I): 6:30 to 9:30 p.m.; The Enterprise Center, 4548 Market St.
Friday, May 4
District 1: 6:30 to 9:30 p.m., Independence Visitors’ Center Ballroom, Sixth and Market Streets.
Saturday, May 5:
District 4: 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.; School of the Future, 4021 Parkside Ave.
Democratic at-large (Group 1): 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.; Holy Family University, 9801 Frankford Ave.
District 7: 1:30 to 4:30 p.m.; Kensington CAPA High School, 2051 E. Cumberland St.
District 2: 1:30 to 4:30 p.m. Greater St. Matthew Baptist Church, 2321 Fitzwater St.
Sunday, May 6
District 9: 1:30 to 4:30 p.m., Albert Einstein Medical Center, 5501 Old York Rd.
District 5: 1:30 to 4:30 p.m.; Honickman Learning Center; 1936 N. Judson St.
In other project news, a revamped project Web site debuts today, including a new blog. Check it out at http://go.philly.com/greatexpectations.