The Next Great City Initiative
The Next Great City
Philadelphia is on its way to becoming the country's Next Great City. Philadelphia's downtown has seen the strongest retail, tourism and residential growth in a half century. Housing markets that were stagnant are now moving again and, for the first time in decades the number of Philadelphia building permits exceeded that of some of its suburban neighbors. Blight that had advanced unchecked for decades is on the run, more than 3,000 lots have been cleaned and greened and 100,000 abandoned cars have been removed. Philadelphia, however, cannot become a great city by fighting blight and strengthening our downtown alone. To become a great city, all of Philadelphia's neighborhoods must be good, safe and healthy places to live and work served by an efficient, effective city government.
Funded by the William Penn Foundation and made up of community, public health, environmental and civic organizations, the Next Great City initiative came together in the fall of 2005 to address the environmental and public health issues that are harming Philadelphia’s economy and quality of life.
It has come up with a list of 10 specific, realistic action steps for the city to improve itself. Marc Stier responds in a Metro article (1/25) to the release of their report:
| When Marc Stier looked at the “Next Great City” report to be released today by PennFuture, it jumped out at him that a reported 21 percent of city homeowners have experienced some flooding in the last year, mainly because of an outdated sewer system.
“That, I think, is going to wake people up,” said Stier, an at-large City Council candidate. “It’s widespread and now they know it. Now they’re going to demand we do something about it.” |
What You Can Do to Help
- Read the 10 actions they suggest to make Philly a great city. Put pressure on your council member to follow those actions; and elect council members who will support their implementation.
- Join their listserve to keep up-to-date about events
