User login
Event Calendar
Navigation
SYNDICATE CONTENTMy Philadelphia
In the My Philadelphia contest, students from Philadelphia shared their visions of the city. Check out the winning entries.
Film Contest
Great Expectations challenged area filmmakers to tell us their hopes and fears for Philadelphia. They spoke about their aspirations, their concerns, their prayers for the city. Watch the films.
Other Features
Talking with Tom
As part of the Great Expectations project, team member Tom Ferrick Jr. (right) sits down with community members and leaders to talk about the 2007 city elections and the future of Philadelphia.
Tom will be adding to his collection of podcasts throughout the project.
.jpg)
Chris Satullo: Listen in
Chris heads the Great Expectations project. He talks about The Inquirer's endorsement interviews and how the process behind Great Expectations has influenced those interviews. For example, the Great Expectations forums helped journalists taking part in the endorsements frame questions from the citizens’ point of view.
Paul Levy: Listen in
Paul runs the Center City District. Paul discusses the state of Center City now compared to 10 years ago. While the neighborhood has long had strong office, health-care and education sectors, he says, it has in the last decade really added to the tourism and arts and entertainment industries. The streets have come alive, attracting new downtown residents, and those residents are younger and better educated than in previous years.
Colleen Puckett: Listen in
Colleen is a longtime community activist known for her work in the Queen Village neighborhood.
David Hardy: Listen in
David has served as a teacher and administrator in charter schools in Philadelphia for the last 15 years. He is principal of Southwest Philadelphia Academy for Boys, which is scheduled to open in September.
Mary Tracy: Listen in
Mary has long fought against billboards. She talks about the problems of getting an unresponsive city government to enforce existing laws. A big obstacle, she says, is the city's Law Department, where cases against violators of zoning and building codes go to die.
.jpg)
Graham Finney: Listen in
Graham is a city planner and local activist. In the 1980s, he headed the city Planning Commission that allowed buildings to rise above City Hall. In looking at the next four years, Finney says the city has to find a way to meld government, business and the nonprofits to create a common agenda.
Rob Dubow: Listen in
Rob is executive director of Pennsylvania Intergovernmental Cooperation Authority -- the state board that oversees Philadelphia's budget. Dubow led the budget office under Mayor Street and knows the inside story on the city's budget. Here, Dubow outlines some of the budget problems the next mayor will face during the first year in office, plus he discusses long-term trends when it comes to spending and taxation in Philadelphia.
Joseph McLaughlin: Listen in
Joseph is a Temple professor who was a lobbyist and aide for the last four Philadelphia mayors: Bill Green, Wilson Goode, Ed Rendell and John Street. McLaughlin is a Mayor Street fan, and he outlines some of the good things the mayor has done during his seven years in office.
Liz Dow: Listen in
Who better to talk about leadership than Liz, president of Leadership Philadelphia? One of the organization's key initiatives is the Philadelphia Connectors project, which aims to identify the city's true leadership core.
Robert O'Donnell: Part 1 and Part 2
Robert was the principal author of legislation that set up PICA, the state's financial oversight board for Philadelphia. In Part I, Tom and Robert focus on how PICA came to be. In Part 2, they discuss the financial challenges that the city faces during Mayor Nutter's first term.
