In his June 2013 TedX talk, “Why Mayors Should Rule the World”, political theorist Benjamin Barber postulates that the best solutions to deep seated, interdependent challenges come from cities. He points out that mayor’s have a job to do, problems to solve and a vocal constituency to answer to – if a mayor doesn’t do the jobs that are expected of them, then they are out of a job. He positions mayors as the great problem solvers in democracy, and I couldn’t agree more. We get things done because we must. Our citizens demand and deserve services.
Philadelphia is a city of nearly 1.55 million people. Our population has grown every year since 2008. And, no major city has experienced a larger growth of young people than Philadelphia. I want to point out that our growth is not unique – on the whole, Philadelphia is part of a trend nationally and globally with the growth of metropolitan areas. But, our growth is incredible when you consider that Philadelphia had spent the last five decades losing citizens mainly to its suburbs, but to a lesser extent, other major metro regions with more jobs and opportunities and a better quality of life. Today, I want to talk to you about Philadelphia, our challenges and our solutions – I want to present a case study, if you will, of the revitalization of one American city by looking at the four main focus areas of this class: education, employment, public safety and housing.
One of the most pressing, serious concerns for the City of Philadelphia is public education. I believe that education is the true economic driver of every city. But education is a very complicated issue in Philadelphia. The Greater Philadelphia region is home to 101 colleges and universities but:
Since the beginning of my Administration, improving our educational attainment rates and the quality of education provided to our children has been one of my foremost goals. When I came into office, the graduation rate was 57%. Let me put this in context. In 2001, when I was a Councilman, and after years of low academic achievement and budgetary problems in Philadelphia, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania took over the Philadelphia School District.
More than a decade later, the Philadelphia School District is still plagued by budget shortfalls and is also experiencing declining enrollment. More and more parents are voting with their feet and sending their children to charter schools, which, in Philadelphia, are still public schools. The parents who are choosing charter schools want a high quality education for their children in a safe environment.
In 1997, Philadelphia approved its first charter schools, publicly funded, privately managed schools, which allowed communities to tailor the experience – smaller classes, targeted areas of study, safer spaces, longer days and more autonomy. Philadelphia quickly became a test case for the private management of public schools and other interventions sanctioned under the No Child Left Behind Act. From the first four charter schools in 1997 to the 84 charter schools in Philadelphia today, the enrollment has grown. We anticipate 60,000 of the 200,000 Philadelphia School District students will be educated in a charter school next year.
Charter schools are not the solution to our educational troubles. Some charter schools are exemplary while others are mediocre and need to be reformed or closed. Some havesuffered from serious mismanagement due to poor oversight. But charters have become a vital part of our public education model. In the last 10 years, our high school graduation rate has improved by 20%. Charter schools are a part of that. Our college attainment rate has grown from 18% in 2007 to 24%. Charters, specifically charters with college preparedness curricula, are a part of that. There is this “charter vs. District school” debate that only hurts public education. I don’t participate in it. For me, the debate should be “high performing school vs. low performing school.”
It shouldn’t matter where you learn as long as your education is topnotch.
To shift the public debate in my City, we created the Philadelphia Great Schools Compact – a citywide commitment between the School District of Philadelphia, the charter school community and the Archdiocese of Philadelphia schools to increase the number of high performing seats available to Philadelphia young people. The goal of the compact is simple: eliminate 50,000 low performing seats by 2017.
To achieve it, we have to expand the number of high quality school options, close poor performing schools, provide schoolbased support and training, continue District turnaround efforts and share best practices across the board. Doing all of these things enables the Compact to create clear and consistent academics by which all schools can be compared.
Investing in our young people, ensuring they have opportunities to be successful and providing them a high quality education is critical to every City. Well educated young people means less crime, less poverty, more jobs, better jobs and a City of the future.
In 2010, the Brookings Institute referred to Philadelphia in a study as a “skilled anchor” – one of 19 metro areas that have transitioned from a manufacturing & shipping to a service based economy. This transformation is driven by medical and educational institutions, and specialized manufacturing. We are seeing tremendous growth in a number of sectors: technology, life sciences, healthcare, education, and energy.
However, we face challenges in our workforce readiness. Currently, 550,000 adult Philadelphians function below adult literacy levels. If we continue down the same path of low literacy, limited digital literacy and poor educational outcomes for our residents, then by 2030, we project that an estimated 600,000 Philadelphians will lack the basic skills needed to compete in the global economy.
But we are making progress through our work on education and in workforce development. Three facts to consider:
1. There are more jobs in Philadelphia last year than any year since 2003
2. There were more Philadelphians employed in Jan 2014 than any January since 2009
3. There were fewer Philadelphians unemployed in Jan 2014 than any January since 2008
Philadelphia’s unemployment rate is 8.9%. This time last year rate was 11.8%. There are $7.5 billon in construction projects completed since 2013, under construction right now, or planned. Major corporations are expanding in Philly – Comcast, Urban Outfitters, FMC. And we have a thriving startup/tech community. Two weeks ago, we opened a new office for a firm from Delaware that originally opened a Philly office in March 2013 with 12 people. They quickly outgrew their space, now at 30, and are growing to 55 by the end of the year.
City government is supporting this community through StartupPHL, a program which provides seed funding to startups that want to start, stay and grow in our city. With the growth in population we’ve seen – especially among millennials – we expect that the economic development climate in Philadelphia will continue to grow.
This growth and development would not be possible without a robust public safety and crimefighting strategy. In 2013, Philadelphia saw a dramatic drop in the homicide rate – it was down more than 40% compared to the year prior. We think that this is in part due to the holistic approach we’ve taken in addressing the root causes behind crime and violence.
I believe our approach to this issue has been unprecedented in Philadelphia. We knew that simply hiring 500 new police officers with marching orders to stand on every street corner was not enough – ultimately, that’s a short-term solution. We are in this for the long haul because we are looking to create systemic change and address the underlying conditions that contribute to criminal activity: poverty, lack of education, joblessness, etc.
We’ve involved agencies and departments like public sector & nonprofits, schools, social service programs, antipoverty and workforce developments agencies, and even programs that assist returning citizens.
Within the government, we have an initiative called PhillyRising that works with residents about the issues they experience and what help they need.
When the problems are identified, they bring in different city services like building computer labs, removing dangerous trees and homes, or cleaning blighted land.
And the best part: they provide training courses for citizens so that when the City officials leave, residents can continue to help themselves and their neighbors by understanding how to navigate requesting City services.
But of course, crime fighting can’t happen without the Police Department. They are engaged in ‘smart policing’ – using data to pinpoint hotspots and utilizing technology to make their policing strategies more effective. The PPD has partnered with the District Attorney on programs like GunStat to target violent offenders, increase bail amounts and implement mandatory sentencing, and we’ve developed a Community policing strategy which includes more foot patrols, a surveillance
camera network, and a text tip line with monetary rewards.
We opened a multimillion dollar, high technology facility (nationally known as a Fusion Center) which brings together law enforcement officials from all types of agencies under one roof to better coordinate regional responses to hazards and events.
And the Juvenile Enforcement Team (JET) unit is comprised of probation and police officers and is housed inside Family Court. They focus on high-risk juvenile offenders, gather information about juvenile gangs
We’ve made a great deal of progress, but I’d be remiss if I didn’t note that violence still plagues some of the most poverty-stricken areas of our cities. This isn’t just a Philadelphia problem, it’s a national epidemic.
I joined seventeen mayors and more than two hundred city leaders from 37 municipalities nationwide in New Orleans, Louisiana for the inaugural Cities United convening in February. Cities United is a national movement aimed at reducing the tragic number of violence-related deaths of young African American men and boys. Since the launch in 2011, Cities United has forged a growing network of 56 mayors working to equip local leaders with the tools, practices, skills and resources needed to effectively eliminate the violence related deaths of African American men and boys.
With the launch of President Obama’s ‘My Brother’s Keeper’ initiative, we are hopeful that the federal government will join mayors and Cities United as a strong partner in efforts to implement practical, results-driven strategies that ensure that young African American men and boys are on equal footing with their peers and have the opportunity to achieve the American dream.
My Administration has focused on efforts to
Philadelphia homeowners seeking to remain in their homes face two significant challenges.
To prevent homelessness by creating suitable living environments and providing decent, affordable housing, OHCD has focused on keeping the homes of low and moderate income households habitable. The primary program designed to maintain habitability for low and moderate income households is the Basic Systems Repair Program (BSRP). BSRP provides free repairs to the electrical, plumbing and heating systems of owner-occupied homes in Philadelphia. In certain instances BSRP may also repair a home’s roof.
From 2008 to 2013, BSRP maintained the habitability of 10,770 homes through these system repairs.
When the foreclosure crisis hit in 2008, the City of Philadelphia responded by creating the Residential Mortgage Foreclosure Prevention Program. A collaborative effort between the executive and judicial branches, the Program alerts homeowners to their rights and the support available to them; connects them housing counselors who work to create a financial structure in which the home can be saved and who negotiate with the lenders on agreements to save the home; provide legal support through public interest attorneys.
The program serves as a national model. It has been replicated in other cities, and has received national and international media attention. Since June of 2008,
Since January 2008:
One of our most recent developments is Paseo Verde, a $47 million mixed-use, mixed-income transit oriented development, which is the first LEED-Platinum Neighborhood Development in the US and only the second in the world. We also recently completed the John C. Anderson Apartments, one of the first LGBT-friendly senior residences in the country.
The City has long recognized the positive impact that “cleaned and greened” lots have on a neighborhood. Philadelphia has worked with the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society (PHS) to stabilize vacant lots through cleanup, tree planting and fencing, and then through the maintenance of stabilized and unstabilized lots by both nonprofit and for-profit organizations. The program returns $224 in housing wealth for every $1 spent. Philadelphia’s LandCare Program was recognized in 2011 by Harvard’s Kennedy School as a “Bright Idea” for addressing a pressing public issue with creative and innovative programming.
Since the start of the program