Committee On Technology And Information Services, April 26, 2024

PHILADELPHIA CITY COUNCIL COMMITTEE ON TECHNOLOGY AND INFORMATION SERVICES Friday, April 26, 2024 10:00 a.m. ATTENDANCE RUE LANDAU, CHAIR MARK SQUILLA, VICE-CHAIR MICHAEL DRISCOLL, COUNCILMEMBER JIM HARRITY, COUNCILMEMBER NICOLAS O'ROURKE, COUNCILMEMBER JEFF SERRA, LEGISLATIVE DIRECTOR COMMISSIONER KEVIN BETHEL KRISTIN K. BRAY PILAR OCAMPO KEVIN THOMAS NISSIM LEBOVITS MJUMBE POE REVEREND GREGORY HOLSTON DR. OREN GUR NICOLE LEVY CHANTAY LOVE REUBEN JONES DR. DOROTHY JOHNSON-SPEIGHT STAN SHAPIRO EMILY DOWDALL PETER WINSLOW KAY LASKER P R O C E E D I N G S (10:00 a.m.) CHAIR LANDAU: Good morning, everyone. (Chorus answer.) CHAIR LANDAU: This hearing is called to order. This is the public hearing of the City Council Committee on Technology and Information Services. The purpose of this public hearing is to hear testimony on resolution number 240043. I recognize the presence of a quorum of committee members. Members of the committee in attendance are Council members Driscoll, O'Rourke, and Harrity. We expect Councilman Squilla, who is the vice chair, to be here soon. Mr. Serra, will you please read the title of the resolution?

Resolution number 240043, authorizing the City Council Committee on Technology and Information Services to hold hearings examining data to most effectively implement place-based strategies and appropriate technologies to reduce violence through the targeted investment of resources, services, and environmental improvements. CHAIR LANDAU: Do any members of the committee have opening remarks? Okay, nice. Just a couple of comments from me. Thank you so much for being here, everybody. Philadelphia is facing a crisis, an epidemic of gun violence that is overtaking our communities, particularly those historically and wrongfully neglected and marginalized, especially black and brown neighborhoods. We must change this trajectory of our city's future. And utilizing the ample data and technology at our fingertips is our first step to fully understanding the scope of this issue and bringing forth meaningful policy solutions that can help address it. Today's hearing aims to go right at the most pressing issues facing our city using a data forward lens. And I look forward to the testimony from the experts, community members, and city officials who will come before us today. Philadelphia is full of imaginative, powerful community leaders who are organizing every single day to combat the gun violence epidemic that continues to take the lives of our young people. We can and should use every single resource at our disposal to support and uplift their efforts, and that means being creative and strategic with how we use data and technology across the city. Let's talk about the data for a moment. Since 2015, Philadelphia has seen at least 250 homicides annually, including 410 in 2023. In 2023, there were 1,293 nonfatal and 373 fatal shooting victims in Philadelphia. In 2021, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported that nearly 94 percent of the 10,000 people shot since 2015 were black or brown, according to the city's data. In fact, it's no secret that the most affected neighborhoods are black and brown communities. The 57 plus blocks identified as hotspots for violence are not just geographical areas, they're neighborhoods filled with Philadelphians who deserve better. Let's be clear. This is about the families who were torn apart, about the lives that were shattered, and about the communities who were left to pick up the pieces. These numbers, they represent mothers, fathers, sons, daughters. They are individuals who too often are presented in the media as statistics in a growing epidemic. Today's hearing recognizes the tireless work of community leaders, including the 57+ Blocks Coalition, which is represented here today, who have been fighting to make their neighborhoods safer and also recognizes the need for data driven solutions and community centered approaches to tackle the root causes of this city's violence and reinvest in our neighborhoods. Today, we will hear from experts, advocates, and community members in order to best explore innovative solutions and hopefully inform future policy. Today is our chance as council members to listen, to learn, and to act together, united in our commitment to Philadelphia. Thank you all for your testimony and for my fellow council members for your participation today. Mr. Serra, will you please call the first panel to testify?

Kristin Bray, Commissioner Kevin Bethel, Pilar Ocampo. CHAIR LANDAU: Good morning, everyone. Can you please state your name for the record and proceed with your testimony?

This is Kevin Bethel, Philadelphia Police Commissioner.

Kristin Bray, chief counsel to the Mayor and director of Philly Stat 360.

Pilar Ocampo, interim Injury Prevention Program manager, Philadelphia Department of Public Health.

Kevin Thomas, executive director, PBD Data Analytics and Technology.

Again, it's probably a little bit unorthodox, but we wanted to do a presentation to you showing you just how we in the Philly Department use data to drive how we deploy across the City of Philadelphia. But I do want to commend you and the committee for having this conversation because we recognize that this takes a holistic approach. It is not the policing in and of itself is going to solve the root issues that you described, Councilwoman, to be able to change the dynamics of this city. And it is through the partnerships that we developed that was going to have that capacity to do that. So we appreciate the opportunity to come in to talk about how we go through the process of deploying and how we look at the city. And so I'll start to move into the first slide. And you will see -- I think oftentimes it's hard for people to understand the sheer level of violence. So when you describe those shooting victims, when you look at it on a map, I mean, it is very, very significant. And if I add it -- we couldn't add two or three more years on it because the map, we just wouldn't even see it. But you also recognize, and I don't think I need to give anyone a demographic map, that most of those dots you're seeing are in our African American, Latino communities. 5 victims are shot on a daily basis. But we also recognize that percent of the city areas account for 50 percent of our victims, percent of 4 the city areas account for 50 percent of the illegal 5 guns we recover. And so we are really engaged in what we call smart policing. Smart policing really embodies asking the who, the what, the when, the where, and the how. Who is in there? What is there? When is there? And so when I see the partners in the room -- and that's what they're working on, right, trying to get behind the scenes some of those root issues that we oftentimes do not have the capacity to do. But I can put cops in these dots. I mean, that's part of the work we do, but it's going to take a much more comprehensive approach to do that. So let's start big picture, macro, the city. Where do you put them? And what we do now, you'll see in this next slide is where we really -- next slide. Yeah, it's going to phase three times. It's going to change, so -- come back again. So you'll start to see, when we went from the big picture, same slide, same context on the left side, we can now start to really drill into those specific areas that really, really have high concentration of violence. And so what you see is we're starting to really start to, in our policing work, and we've been doing this for some time now, is really, really saying, well, where do we focus our efforts? Because we cannot do all of it. And so the next slide. So then we move into what we would call these micro pockets of crime. And so we use the 22nd District as an example, where we have 54 people per 1,000 homicide rate. 5 square mile area, has a homicide rate of St. Louis and San Juan and Detroit and others even higher than Detroit and some are New Orleans. So we know in the 22nd District we have to be very, very laser focused on how we deploy. When you break down the 22nd even greater, you see the single district accounts for 12 percent of the citywide violence. 5 square mile area. And so part of that is being focused on the work. 50 percent of the shootings in the district were concentrated in three. So what we do then, part of our data is really now drilling into where in the 22nd. 5 miles area, we have the park to the left, we have other areas that do not require our deployment. And so what we do now is really, really start to laser focus into our district. So you see under the graph, we take the area of the 22nd District, and then to the right, you start to see three of the grids that we have in the 22nd District that account for a substantial amount of that violence. And so we use our analysts to really do that work to start.

And you'll see in our model, we use hexagons, very similar to -- actually, I was talking to Pastor Holston earlier, where he does a quarter mile. So it's about that same kind of radius, just maybe a little bit bigger than ours, where we really can focus and see over a concentrated period of time, where do we constantly see violence in the city. So I think you're right on point when you say, if we can get focused and get all the groups to really focus on these core areas and really look at the systemic issues we're having there, we can make a long term difference. It's not police led. It's a community now activated to be able to take that on. We got to do some plowing though. Right? That's the reality. Right? It goes to prevention, intervention, enforcement, but the community groups can have a substantial process in that. And so you'll see it as not limited to just law enforcement as we think through this work. And then we start to move down to the block level. When we get to the 22nd District, we can now say -- when we go into one of those grids, we can now drill into the victims are less concentrated than they may seem. Right? So when you look into that grid, what you just saw now took you from big back to the back row picture, brought you down to a more micro look. Now we're getting even deeper into those grids where we can start to see the movement and where these areas are. And so that's why it's so important when we do the work. You'll see that we had multiple victims on some of the blocks, 1,600 block of CB Moore. So that's going to count. But if we just stay there, we're not going to encapsulate the others just to the north of that and around that pocket, so being laser focused. I'm working with a group now. Some of the men and women are in the audience today. I went to the men and women -- a group of men and women in the 22nd District, sat down with them and tried to formulate a group to say, "Here's the area where I need you to focus on the double 22nd District. " They're working through that process now and bringing community members and others into that. So I think, again, I'll keep echoing the importance of this dialog around "Here's the area". And so as we think through moving and grants and other opportunities, if we can just focus, because you need to do a multi-pronged approach in there, I can't stop that with just policing now. I had 250 foot beats back in 2009, and we were able to put a lot of men and women on the ground. But it's systemic and it has a lot of underlying issues that I know many of the people who will be speaking after to me will talk to. And that is the work. It is why we just recently did a program with the school district where we're doing a project around trauma, and doing a do no harm project where when we have violence, we notify the schools in the 22nd District and let them know that a child may have been exposed to the violence. So then we contain a drill as you'll see in the next slide. Part of our strategy is really rooted in the area specifically because that corners move. So and above that, you'll see that to the left. We'll start in 2021 where we look at the corners and the streets where the dots are. And then as you look in 2022, they move. Now they move around a little bit, but we're still in the same pocket. Right? And then we see 2023, we start to see that they move again. And so part of the why we look at our data is really being focused on -- I can't just sit an officer on a corner that may have some impact for that, but part of our work where we deploy our men and women, we deploy them into these pockets with the understanding that they're working that entire grid with the purpose of trying to address their violence and it's totally and really working to address that. So go to the next slide. And so I kind of walked you through that process. Right? And so that's how we got to our pinpoint grids. This is a model that the department had started.

Before I left the department, we had, I just call them areas or grids. They made it all fancy now, pinpoint grids. But you'll see that we did not change -- when I came in, I did not change the pinpoint grids because they were exactly where we needed to do some refining. And so part of how we drive the police department and drive our men and women is looking at that map as we started earlier, creating these pinpoint grids. We have around 40 plus grids across the city. We can tell you that within those grids, around 10 of them represent almost 33 percent of all of our violence of our 40 something grids. We can tell you that in 21 patrol districts, 10 of my 21 patrol districts represent 77 percent of all of my violence in the city. And so, again, being laser focused with our strategy being very focused, and then using the data we have is then where we do our collaborative response. And so you see on the map I pinpoint grids. We can see where, whether it be commercial corridors, areas of focus that we need to make sure that we have what we're seeing patterns. Covering where we see that there is space to do that is part of our work as we move through. We do that pretty much on our weekly crime briefings to make sure that we're being laser focused on those areas that we see the highest level of violence. Next slide. But I also want to share with you we just -- I mean, part of our work, as I indicated, we use a CompStat model. It's one of our most effective meetings for us. And you'll hear Kristin talk about the 360 model that's going to come on top of ours. But we're very focused in data. Data drives our accountability, and data drives measurable results for us. And so we're always using -- you'll hear a common conversation, a SARA model, where really is you broke it down into those four elements, and we're always scanning, we're triaging and looking for crime problems, looking to identify patterns. We're always going through that analysis. And I think I shared with you when I talked about the who, what, when, where, how, and why of the data. And you really see in the slide, what time do I need to deploy my men and women? What are the locations they need to be going to? Who are the victims, the offenders? So when we're doing our focus work, we're looking at specific offenders. We're really being very, very understanding of that. And then developing our response. And one of the biggest things we do too, is we're always assessing whether we're having impact. We can see oftentimes when -- if we have an area that's been very hot, we get a hotspot, all of a sudden something flares. We can see if I move men and women into that area that we can cool that down. Now, that's not going to solve the immediate issues or the underlying issues, but it is our ability to get in and be very effective. And we're doing this constantly. So you see those graphs across the bottom? We're tracking everything. You'll see in the top slide, the middle slide, this kind of subset of the three. Those are the time periods. What time? 10 o'clock at night, 8 o'clock at night. Most of our violence starts around 8 o'clock and will end around or o'clock. But some districts are different. And so we can use and pull deployment -- and we even track. You'll see in the bottom right is the recidivism rate for the diversion program do. As you know, we started our program in 2013. We were arresting 1,600 kids a year. Last year was 150. So we reduced those number arrests by 90 percent, but we also tracked that. Right? What is the recidivism rate for those kids? Are they coming back? And so we are not doing anything in the department now. And we started before here, and my team is behind me. Commissioner Stanford, he knows that work as well, as well as Fran Healy and all my team, Mike Cram. But we are not doing work that we can't evaluate to see is ineffective. And so that's how we really operate. That project is with Dr.

Naomi Goldstein from Drexel University, who's been evaluating that work for the last 10 years. Next slide. But I also want to share with you -- I know we talked about violence, but the mayor's charge has always been about all things crime across the city. And I know that impacts all of your councilmatic districts, not just about crime. And so you'll see we use that same analytical and forward thinking and evidence based approach even when we talk about retail theft. So recently, you saw that we put in our 100 day plan retail theft. Using data, using the intelligence that we have and the technology we have -- and Kevin Thomas to my right does a phenomenal job -- we can look at that and say, "Where are we? " So we didn't give you the addresses because we didn't want to offend any of the businesses, but you'll see the businesses down the left side. Those business 10 represent 15 percent of all our retail theft in the city. That's why data is so important. It's not every story that's being impacted. If we use the data to say where we should be focusing our work, we can have it, but not just good enough to say where they are. What time is that happening? And so we can really look at the time period. So as we go about doing our strategies, we can start to make some really directed and very focused positions on where we're going to go, what time should we go. So you'll see on the left side, I don't need to be there at 6 o'clock in the morning, but if I'm there at 6:00 during those mid hours, 4, 5, 6 o'clock, we can have a significant impact on our data. Midweek. What time during the midweek, why during the midweek, and asking those questions about why we should be deploying that way. Next slide. And so Kevin and his team did an excellent job of actually framing out a case where you took a burglary analysis. You start in the left and you start to see the burglaries. You start to see, oh, all of a sudden, hotspots. There's an incident happening down around Temple campus. And then as the men and women go through that analytics, we also start to bring in other things, qualitative and other assessments to your point. It's not just about the police department now. It's about, well, what could we do in this scenario using the data to inform us that we have a problem. And in this case, as you walk through the pictures, they recognized that the alley was an issue where individuals burglarizing the properties were walking through an alley. So next slide, you'll see then that we now move and use other city services. And I know, Councilman, this is where you're getting at, using other services and even got the citizens to help and do kind of a fast track cleaning service. And then all of a sudden, you can see, in the bottom right, the crime go down in that area. And so this is a little bit of an older version, but it just shows you how you can use the data to really, really inform how you move your men and women, but also work in partnership with the community to address that. Next slide. So I also wanted to share with you, as you talk about technology as part of this work, even when we do our work around our license plate readers, where we're going to have stationary license plate readers, or in our work and our cameras, you can see plotted here are the 1,700 cameras that Council has helped the department to be able to fund, to be able to put into our communities. As you can see, many of them overlay into those same strategic areas that we need them. And they are becoming more and more a very effective tool for us to be able to use as we go through and be able to link these cameras together. As we've been able to put more and more into our space, it's been very effective for us. It'll form -- next slide -- our other work as well.

" And if you have a crime in this particular area, we're able to reach out to that individual in that community and ask them if they can look at their cameras to see if they have -- so again, getting community partnership in there, and these are individuals that we map out that we can see. So we're definitely using the technology in a very effective way. Next slide. We use Street Department, just giving you, again, another layer. All these cameras, the technology that exists today, particularly with the Genentech system that we have today, where we're able to use almost up to 6,200 cameras. We have around 1,700 of our own with the other cameras that we get from the community, as well as SEPTA's and PennDOT and others. We are creating and using that technology to be very effective. With the license plate reader, we're actually going to move to stationary license plate readers. So they'll be stationed across different parts of the city. That, again, will help us using technology to inform our work. Next slide. And so quality of life, the same thing. As we look at our quality of life, looking at the data, again, you'll see along the left side, over the last 365 days, where we have quality of life issues, city ordinance violations, gambling violations, drunkenness, all of that. And then as we circle, we can see those hotspots where we need to -- where we look at our abandoned vehicles over the last 365 days. So we can see where many of the concentrated issues of abandoned autos are. And so where we can really -- we do abandoned autos across the city. So that hits every council matters every end of the city. However, we need to do really big sweeps in some of these more concentrated areas where we're constantly seeing the volume. So again, data across the board, data focus, using our men and women effectively to address those issues. I think that's it. One more slide. That's it. I think that's on that last slide. I'll stop there. I don't know if you want me to transition over 360 and stop or just stop for questions here.

Thank you, Commissioner. And seeing the data is important to understand how to address the issues, how does it coincide or work with the likes of previous focused deterrence or GVI moving forward? Is that something that we use this data to then engage that?

Yeah. I think that's an excellent question. The first thing I did when I came on board, I met with a group from GVI, Adam Geer and his team, and said, "You do great work. The GVI is an effective part, is another layer of the strategy. However, I need you to focus on these areas." And so I met with Dion and Sanders and the team there. They came to our crime briefing, and I shared with them, "Focus here on these areas, and I think we can have greater impact." And that's what they're doing. So they didn't shift their model. They just said, "You can't boil the city. Right? I need you to be in these really focused places." And what we also did is we presented this to the District Attorney's office where we're focused on our efforts. We presented to our -- I did all of the federal partners. The US Attorney hosted a meeting. So I went in there, I presented to them, "Here's where we're going. Here's where we see our highest concert of violence. What efforts are you going to put in here? I don't need you to be over here. I need you to be here." And so we are using all of that focus on a little bit of different dynamic. As you know, we did that in South Philly when it was very effective. We think that's an effective strategy, but it requires a little bit more intensive partnership.

Yeah. And basically just a collaborative approach, right, to be able to understand they know what you're doing and you know what they're doing so that open line communications is together, just like if we work with on the ground grassroots, community organizations and being in the right spots at the right time to be able to send you information too. As you give them information, they're able to give you information to address all these challenges.

Yeah, absolutely, sir. I mean, I think the challenge -- I mean, we spend a lot of time on our juveniles rightfully so, but they only represent percent of all of our violent crime. The 9 90 percent and oftentimes that 24 year old is where we 10 need to be. And oftentimes, we really got to get -- we got to get community more focused on that 24 year old kid, or not kid, who's got two felons and what is he going to do. Right? And we have to make sure that we're really being focused now because of our resources, particularly in the police department, as we build back up our numbers. We need the community now more than ever. We need the programs now more than ever, but we need to really have them focus on that group of individuals who have the greatest need.

Thank you, Chairwoman. Commissioner, how are we doing on staffing for people monitoring the cameras? Because having 1,700 cameras is great, but not having enough people to monitor them is something completely different. And I love that we're going in this direction of a thing. I read a study where it said Philadelphia needs to get a little bit more like New York when it comes to their cameras and technology. So what can you tell me about that?

Yeah, I think that, I mean, we do not have the capacity to have individuals sitting at the table, I mean, looking at cameras. We recognize that. We have about 2,400 licenses that we've been able to spread across the city. So we do have the officers in the districts now. We have narcotics that we're able to access where they have drug corners to be able to access those cameras. So we have a larger range of individuals across the city who have been able to use the cameras. Clearly, we can see now the challenges many of the individuals are now covering up because they know we have cameras. So we're seeing a larger number of taking the tags off their cars, putting fake paper tags on them, putting the hoodies on, putting the masks on, wearing gloves to refute that activity. But the men and women are doing a really good job of being able to look at the cameras across the city to help us. But we still believe it's an effective strategy. We still believe it does deter. We have some people who are still trying to undermine that process. And I think as we move into the years to come, AI technology analytics with cameras will probably start to be the game changer, where you'll tell the camera what you're looking for and it will be able to recognize that and be able to trigger something. I think that's the future of these cameras. Coming from the school district and being able to get presentations on the capacity of these cameras, I think that's going to be the future for policing and cameras in general. Not just policing cameras, but community cameras. I mean, you literally could tell the camera you're looking for a white car, or you can even tell the tag that you're looking for, and the cameras will tell you that tag came across Broad & Catherine at 1 o'clock in the morning.

So the people manning the actual search center, can they be nonpolice officers, or is it better to have a police officer in case they have to testify or something like that?

There's two schools of thoughts on that. Some believe you have to have a police officer in that space. I'm not believe that's the case, because if the person understands the elements of a crime and what's occurring, I think we can do that. We do use our restricted duty personnel, people in the offices who've been removed from the street because they've gotten injured or some other issue. We are using them in that capacity. And we have civilians in there now also, as Kevin whispers in my ear, in that capacity now.

So salaries for that, what's that look like? Because I know that we have a big problem with keeping people once we train them. Are their salaries competitive for what they would do with that? People who work in the data field, they make good money. People that are working with the technology, they make good money. Are we able to compete, do you think?

I'll let Kevin talk about the analytical. He handles the analyst side, and he can tell you the challenges and some of the success he's having with bringing nonsworn professional staff, one who do that work.

Thank you. So we do have several civilians that are dedicated to the real time crime center today. They're in analytical positions, so they serve multiple roles. Not only are they surveilling the cameras, but they're also trained analysts that are able to interpret the data surrounding that area so that they know what to look for when they're monitoring those cameras. That goes into the typical intelligence cycle within the intelligence bureau at the DIVIC, the Delaware Valley Intelligence Center, and then that's then pushed out to patrol. But I also don't want to discount, many of our district commanders or all of their officers have access, who have been trained in the system, on their phones to look at those cameras. So our strategy hasn't been just to sort of centralize the use of the cameras, but to decentralize that so folks can be creative with how they use that. And we see that particularly in many districts, including the 39th. Captain Busa is doing really great work in terms of trying to have his officers identify things in real time while they're on the street, sharing that information and then immediately having a response. So I wouldn't just think about it as only a centralized unit that's doing that. It's really decentralized. We have many, many partners, as he said, thousands of licenses that are already deployed. I think when you have this many cameras, I think dispersing that capability, as well as trying to find technology, like the commissioner said, to help flag information inside that video is going to be crucial to getting the most out of it.

Thank you. CHAIR LANDAU: Just a quick question, Commissioner Bethel, do we have you for a while or -- I have a question for you, but I'm not sure if it's for you.

No, you're the boss. You have me until you tell me -- CHAIR LANDAU: Let me put out one question now, and I'm going to hold the rest once the panel is done. I've talked to a lot of community partners and other law enforcement entities that are working on some of this time and place stuff. I believe it was the DA's office. I'm not sure in these conversations that said that they can pinpoint, for example, Mondays at 4 o'clock in the afternoon, a real hotspot, especially for the young people when they're getting out of school, but it's Mondays at 4:00. And one of our recent horrific shootings happened Monday around 4 o'clock. And so if we know this information, what are we doing about that on the time and place?

Yeah. So that data came out of my office. I think I shared, and I'll share again, part of the work that I started before I left for the chief of school safety was to bring in a fellowship with Stoneleigh Foundation to have Dr. Brandy Blasko, who's there now as a researcher, where she had 2,000 students for the last five years who have been either shot, killed, killed someone, or shot someone. Through that data, she's working backwards now to see where the intersecting points. But one of the things we did as initial blends of that data is taking that data and see when were the kids being shot, at what times they were being shot, and where they were being shot. From that data, we could determine that many of our kids are being shot within two hours after school, within two miles of school, many of them in five zip codes. And I apologize I don't have the zip codes with me right now, but most of them in the areas that we know are part of North Philly, West Philadelphia. And so that data actually informed in our 100 day plan. We enhanced our deployment. Now, the incident you described would be kind of outside of that natural process. We never anticipated the kids were being shot now moving from the doorsteps of the school now to the bus stops as well. So with a city of 134 square miles, it creates a significant deployment challenge for us to be able to cover all of those areas. However, again, being informed by the data, Commissioner Cram is here today, and his team, they developed an enhanced strategy where we added another layer of our men and women who are not just working in school areas. We have 68 officers who work our schools. We concentrate mostly in our high schools. We added another level from that 4 o'clock to 6 o'clock after school period of time to enhance that deployment. But again, because we can't do every school, it's 355 schools, and that doesn't count the other 80 plus charter schools, private schools, etc., we really have to use the data to focus us. The unfortunate incident at Caster -- I mean, on Cotton Avenue, it's a commercial strip, it really is not an area we would focus our efforts. Even on Ogontz near Imhotep, that would not be an area that we would have customarily focused our work. So it is stretching us and challenges us, but we are trying to respond to the best of our ability, working with all of our partners. I know the school district has safe paths at about 20 schools now, and we're just trying our best to add another layer to that to minimize these occurrences. CHAIR LANDAU: Thank you. And you're right, it was the Stoneleigh Foundation. And it was the work that you did that was one that dug down deep to find out.

And we're going to continue to dig in that data. I mean, we're monitored. Mondays, we couldn't still with that. We figured maybe because of the conflicts that happened over the weekend, that now they're back at school, neighborhood beefs, word gets out, and then all of a sudden, Monday, it becomes the time where they're going to now coincide. If I'm looking for Kevin Thomas, he's going to be at school on Monday. He may have been beefing online all weekend, but I'm going to see him on Monday. So we think there's some core things that are driving that. CHAIR LANDAU: Thank you. If there's no more questions, we'll -- oh, yes. Councilperson O'Rourke.

Thank you, Madam Chair -- thank you, Madam Chair. Commissioner Bethel, I wanted to ask about this data. This seems very inclusive. How is the department interfacing with community groups like the 57+ Blocks Coalition? I asked this during our budget hearing about how their focus on, from their data, the most impacted communities or actual intersections, how that can be helpful to you all. Are you guys in communication at all, sharing data? Do they know about the data that you have, etc.?

Yeah, I think that's a great question. Actually, me and Pastor Holston had a quick conference before I came on the front to kind of open. I'm just arrived a little over 100-plus days now, and I did offer to him as to how I can be able to use the data to be able to help him inform his work even more and intensify the work that they're doing. I mean, again, when I spoke to him, I was pleased -- we get locked into the 57 blocks, but what Pastor talked about is we do the neighborhood. We could to do this mile radius or quarter mile. I forget. Was it a quarter mile, Pastor, radius? And that puts us exactly into what we say when I take you back to that area of the 22nd District, not just the corner where it starts, but taking a more holistic approach. We are very much open to a lot of the partners you see back there. Mothers in Charge, Dr. Dorothy Speight and her team, we're meeting with them. And there's others in this space that we are working with to be able to provide the data to be able to support them. We are absolutely prepared to provide any data to any community group that wants to go into any of these areas and support the work. Councilman, we would make that open offer to anyone, because I think what oftentimes happens is because we are so seeped into the data and we can provide it, if you go into our open site, you would never know how to pull that data down. And oftentimes they relied on researchers or universities or academics to do that when we could give a graph. I'll give you an example. That 22nd District area that I'm working with, I provided them - Kevin gave me two slides to give them to inform them here's where you go. And so we would be very open to do that. And I just spoke to Pastor, and we will be connecting to be able to provide even more information as he may need it.

That's awesome. Thank you for that. I wanted to be sure that we're using data to target resources to the communities that are most impacted by gun violence without subjecting those communities to overpolicing. Right? Can you talk a little bit about how you all are balancing those two objectives in your strategies, ways to do that without making it overpolicing in that regard?

Yeah. I hear the --

Can I say, Commissioner, also the heart of the question too is also reflecting on all of the systems. I've raised a few questions as it relates to what the plans may be in other parts of the city about do we have the accommodations to receive folks? So as we police and send more folks to jail, we're not even ready to receive them. So I'm thinking about the system in totality, and that's why I kind of asked that question.

No, listen, I will tell you, during my previous time in the police department, yeah, I put a lot of cops in a lot of areas, 22nd District, 350 cops, because there was no one else. Yeah. I mean, when I came to the table, there was not groups that were sitting there doing that, what -- I'll back that up. There were definitely groups doing that work, but oftentimes the challenge was, "Police, you do it." Right? It was not, "You're going to drop homicides by 35 percent and you're going to drop murders by X, Y percent." And that was the strategy was given to the police department. I think now where we are, we and policing recognize across the nation that we cannot do that type of strategy, that we have to have a much more balanced approach. And so I know that coming in the door, and that's why you hear the mayor constantly talk about prevention and enforcement. We cannot take enforcement off the table because that is a part of the triangle, but we also recognize that we have to work with men and women and community groups out there. What we do, though, need those groups to do is be more organized and more focused in that work. And I think that's where we oftentimes will come into a session where we have people who are all doing the 7 same work in a different way and not really getting to 8 the root issue. And so I think as we move through 9 this process, Councilman, I think it's helpful as this 10 group starts to evolve and look at the data to help us 11 to get more focused in that work. But we're not 12 overpolicing, but we do have to make sure that those 13 same communities that are getting inundated with 14 violence each and every day, we work to stop that from 15 happening. And we do want to work in partnership for 16 that. 17 And even when you talk about services, whether it 18 be Kensington or other things, we understand the 19 capacity, what the system will have. We're not going 20 to go out and lock up 100 people and think we're going to be able to move them into treatment. We know that, Councilman. So we're going to be very balanced in our approach as we move through all of this. But I think as we go through, I feel like this resetting period, where we're trying to -- "We don't want the cops, we want this." We're at this point now where I think we can now reset and start to say, where does policing and where does community, and where does all this activity occur? How do we train our community to be able to take on those things that policing have oftentimes done on their own and have a much more effective and sustainable strategy moving forward? And I'm open to working with the council and anyone who wants to go down that path with us.

Councilman Squilla may have asked this question or shades of it, sort of, but to your point around communication, it seems that a lot of the data collection analysis efforts at the city are siloed in different departments that don't communicate well with each other, which seems inefficient. We talked about the cross sharing across departments. And this is really not just for you, this is for everyone. How was that happening to collaborate to the most effective target into work? How are you communicating across departments with that data so we can kind of really target those things in a way that helps address the issue in a real way?

I think that's going to be -- I think Kristin is going to walk through this 360 model that I think is going to really get to, Councilman, where you are talking about, is how do you take -- what we're doing to this data, make it accessible to all departments in the city and other groups as well so they can know what we see and be able to focus. And I think you'll see in her testimony, she'll be able to share with you a model that I think I've always wanted to do in the department and the city. And I think the mayor's taking it toward a more global model of citywide, but I think it'll answer that question for you.

Thank you.

Yes, sir.

Thank you, Madam Chair. CHAIR LANDAU: You're welcome. Please --

Good morning, Chairmember Landau and members of the Technology and Information Services Committee. For the record, again, I'm Kristin Bray. I'm the chief counsel for Mayor Parker, and I'm also the director of Philly Stat 360. Philly Stat 360 is an exciting new initiative of Mayor Parker that is going to use some of the very same data strategies that the police department has been using for years for its CompStat model and applying them more broadly to city services. By using timely and accurate data to make informed decisions on the provision of city services to best serve and build up our neighborhoods is the very purpose of the Philly Stat 360 program. As such, I very much appreciate the opportunity to testify here today regarding this resolution on how Philly Stat will be instrumental in using data to most effectively implement place-based strategies and appropriate technologies to serve and improve our communities. By leading from the mayor's executive level, Philly Stat 360 will be built as a sustainable system that will change the culture of how city services are provided to communities. It will also change how the city communicates about how it provides those services to the community by letting city leaders and the public see what happened and why it happened with timely and accurate data. Philly Stat 360 will do this by working with city departments to help them develop key performance indicators and monitor progress, responsiveness, and effectiveness of the services the departments are delivering. Philly Stat 360, much like the CompStat model, will use real time data against these key performance indicators to ensure accountability and transparency by looking at whether city departments are meeting agreed upon performance goals and if they are not, determine why that is. With regard to data, Philly Stat 360 will also help agencies assess what data is available and whether there are any gaps or need for improvement in that data. Where needed, Philly Stat 360 will help the city departments improve data collection so that Philadelphians can see how their government is working for them. Once key performance indicators are developed, Philly Stat 360's work is not complete. Instead, we will continue to rapidly and routinely reassess those indicators to help city leaders determine, one, what will happen next, two, whether planned responses are effective strategies toward resolving quality of life concerns in communities, three, whether city agencies are operating efficiently and transparently, and four, whether resources are being deployed effectively. This will allow city leadership to quickly pivot and respond to the evolving needs of our communities. Philly Stat 360 will also hold city departments and their leadership accountable through regular and continuous meetings to discuss their performance in real time using that timely and accurate data. In addition to these routine meetings, Philly Stat 360 will conduct quarterly assessments of performance and metrics to ensure that we are looking at the big picture of how communities are being served over time, while simultaneously looking at and comparing real time data to see how a block or community is being served in the moment, much like the police department is already doing with its crime fighting strategies. Both data points, as Commissioner Bethel explained, are very important to appropriately assess trends and ensure that the city services are being deployed to our communities in the most effective manner. In sum, Philly Stat 360 will ensure that there is the effective provision of city services so that the city is meeting and exceeding community expectations.

We believe that the effective use of data and technology through Philly Stat 360 will not only reduce violence through targeted investment of resources, services, and environmental improvements, but it will also ensure that all public services are data driven towards a safer, cleaner, and greener city for all Philadelphians. I very much thank you for permitting me to testify today and discuss this exciting new endeavor of the Parker Administration. And I'm here for any questions that you may have. CHAIR LANDAU: Councilmember Driscoll.

Well, thank you. That's an exciting new initiative. Can you discuss the timeframe that it will be active?

We are already onboarding departments that directly impact quality of life. So we've already had a conversation with the police department about services that are outside of traditional crime fighting strategies, such as the abandoned autos and how they're targeting businesses that are having negative impacts on their communities. We've also talked with the Streets Department, the Sanitation Department, and the Community Life Improvement program. Throughout this summer, we'll be bringing on additional departments, such as licenses and inspections, parks and rec, and the health department. We're trying to do this in a very strategic manner and not just going to every department at one time because we really do believe that focusing on whether we have accurate data is going to make the program more successful. So we're doing a very strategic and thoughtful approach that we're learning from each other and learning how to grow the program as effectively as we can.

Will there be any interaction with 311?

Yes. Thank you very much, Councilmember. We're already working with 311 because we see 311 as a great resource for how the community is telling us how we are doing and what the problems are in our community. I believe when we are here at the budget hearing, Councilmember Gilmore Richardson mentioned some frustrations that some community members have with the 311 system. And we are working with them currently to work out those kinks so that there is a better community satisfaction overall. And we can be sure that when a city department says that it has responded to a complaint that that in fact has happened.

Yeah, that's important because some of my constituencies will say, "Well, I called 311 --" And they will be patient if they think that they're -- they don't know if their complaint is acknowledged, if it's in process. They know if their complaint gets fixed, but they don't know anything in between. So any kind of communication, whether it be a text, a phone call, a letter, I don't know what's most effective, but I think that would really calm down the people.

I think that's great. And we're thinking through even things. If the problem is not really a City of Philadelphia problem, for example, a streetlight is out, it's really a PECO problem, to the community member, they want that streetlight fixed. They don't care whether it's the City of Philadelphia or PECO that needs to respond. But how are we coordinating those services so that the community doesn't have that streetlight nonfunctioning for a very long time? So we're thinking through those issues and how we're communicating to the community and making sure problems are solved.

Thank you.

Thank you. CHAIR LANDAU: Thank you so much for this. As the chair of the Information and Technology Committee, I'm very excited about this. And also, I've worked with you in the past, and I know that if there's someone to do this job of integrating information, it's going to be you, Chief Counsel Bray. Tell me more about how you work with the departments on their key performance measures and how the city is looking at this in an equitable manner. Someone might have a mission, for example, to pick up trash, but the equitable way of creating a process for this would be to look at blocks and neighborhoods that have been disinvested or overlooked for so long and start there. So can you talk to me a little bit about that? And then I also just want to plug for 311 while we're talking about it. A lot of people have given up on it. And so it's really important that we don't look at 311 as the only metric of how people are trying to engage with the city. To be honest, a lot of us would like to not have the phone calls that we get in order to just get the city to do what it needs to do. So a complete rewrite or a holistic look of the process is good, but I would love to know the key performance measures, how you're doing this on an equitable basis, and are you looking at other cities, and is there anybody else who's working on this as well?

Sure. And with 311, we suspect if we do this right, we're going to see a spike in 311 complaints because we believe that people will be invested in seeing that their government works if we do this right. With regard to the performance indicators, we see Philly Stat as a collaborative process. My team and I have looked at every city stat throughout the country, and even some that are in other countries, and what has been successful and what has not. And when you're collaborating together to problem solve, you're going to get the best solutions. Now, we also need to look at that every single neighborhood has its own differences and own challenges. Chestnut Hill might not have the short dumping issues that another neighborhood has. So how are we appropriately dividing resources to make sure that every neighborhood is as clean as it can be? And how are we delivering services in the most important and effective model? And that's where I think using the data and mapping community resources, such as the cameras that Kevin Thomas talked about, will help us know how we're going to deploy those services in the most effective manner. That might mean that you need trash cleanup in one neighborhood more than you need it in another neighborhood. You might need to have more towing in one neighborhood because you have more abandoned cars in one neighborhood. There's certain neighborhoods and districts that we know have very specialized problems in this city. So when we're talking about one Philadelphia and making us the safest, cleanest, and greenest city, we are going to make sure that we are delivering services in the most equitable manner possible and using that timely and accurate data to make sure that we're doing that. CHAIR LANDAU: That sounds great, and thank you for that. Are you also going to work with community partners to inform the priorities?

Absolutely. And that's definitely part of our model. We have already looked at how the community is informing us. 311 is one source of that data. We've also conducted a poll of the police department about what complaints they received the most because our police officers are out in the community 24/7. We're also going to build into our model a series of community meetings. We think once maybe we fix a particular issue in the neighborhood, that doesn't mean that the community still doesn't get served. So how are we meeting those community needs as they are evolving? And we're going to continue to have that community engagement to make sure we're meeting community needs. CHAIR LANDAU: One final question for you. Will the public be able to see the data that you have in Philly Stat 360?

Yes. We are looking into building a website. And there's already a lot of great data that's available within the city, and Commissioner Bethel talked about it. That data is available, but to comb through it, you almost need an engineering degree or an IT degree. So how can we communicate that data to somebody who does not have that engineering degree or technology degree in a way that's simple, comprehensible, and understandable for everybody? So we are going to be looking at how we build that out on a website that's public facing. CHAIR LANDAU: This is fantastic, music to all of our ears. Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Thank you. CHAIR LANDAU: Do you have any more questions for these witnesses?

No. 17 CHAIR LANDAU: Thank you very much for being here. We appreciate it. And Mr. Serra, can you call the second -- no, I'm sorry. Oh, sorry. I forgot there was multiple people. Thank you, Pilar Ocampo. Sorry, we're --

Hello. Good morning. My name is Pilar Ocampo, and I'm the interim Injury Prevention Program manager, Philadelphia Department of Public Health. In the Philadelphia Department of Public Health Injury Prevention Program, we strive to follow the four steps of the CDC's approach to gun violence reduction. And foundational to this approach is the need for a consistent data infrastructure that allows us to collaboratively and continually define and monitor gun violence and be able to use the appropriate data infrastructure so that we can understand who, when, where, why, and the what of gun violence as well. So we can use some tools such as data dashboards, ArcGIS maps to track gun violence metrics. So far, we have the injury prevention dashboard, which brings together data on firearm injury and the social determinants that contribute to violence to find out who is the most impacted, what firearm injury by type, map where they are, and track incidents over time to understand the when. And that really helps to lead us to the why. The roots of the problem, a legacy of redlining, historic disinvestment, and ongoing underinvestment and resource deprivation in vulnerable communities, resulting in economic and educational disadvantage. These are the structural conditions of disadvantage which many Philadelphians may be born into. These are the conditions that can set the trajectory of complex interactions that become someone's story, a story in which we, as government agencies and community partners, have a critical role to play, first, in identifying the risk and protective factors for violence, and second, in prioritizing the strategies that prevent and disrupt these cycles. The public health approach involves concentrating efforts on the conditions and factors that contribute to violence at the population level. The approach must be collaborative and community engaged. It must incorporate lessons of collective experience in the form of qualitative data to make meaning to the numbers, and informed by collective experience, we then examine the quantitative data to effectively implement those place-based strategies and appropriate technologies to reduce gun violence through the targeted investment of resources, services, and environmental improvements. Dr. Ruth Abaya, the founding program manager of the Injury Prevention Program had our team review the evidence based strategies that demonstrate violence reduction according to key sources like John Jay, Giffords, Everytown, and the US Department of Justice. Among the strategies that are evidence based are place-based strategies, like the cure violence model, greening, and improvements to the built environment. The cure violence model helps to stop the spread of violence in communities by using methods associated with disease control, detecting and interrupting conflicts, identifying and treating the highest risk individuals, and changing community norms. This model becomes a place-based strategy as it requires deep work with specific neighborhoods and communities. Our program currently coordinates a community violence interruption coalition. The coalition is developing planning plans for both geographic and person-based approaches to look at what communities have an active interruption presence and at what dose. The coalition of programs that implement the cure violence model and similar interruption models all rely on this geographic data, and collectively, we're strengthening a coordinated violence intervention ecosystem. Additionally, we know that the blight remediation and greening are place-based interventions that can significantly reduce violence in one to five years. Through addressing unkempt vacant lots and abandoned buildings in those areas facing structural and physical violence every day, place-based initiatives are very important to encourage community led strategies and solution initiatives that move the needle.

The public health approach calls for a multidisciplinary strategy to reduce violence and increase community safety. We need the citywide data infrastructure to not just be reactive to violence once it occurs, but to be proactive, to be responsive to the conditions that facilitate violence. And we must do this in partnership with community based organizations like the 57 Blocks engaged in violence prevention every day, so that we can not only see what the numbers tell us, but that we can hear what community voices tell us. A public health approach can be an option as to how we use our data to help reduce gun violence. Thank you for your time. CHAIR LANDAU: Thank you so much for your testimony. It was very, very helpful to know how the health department is working on these issues. Does anybody have any questions? Any questions? I believe you just touched on this, but I wanted to know more about what have you learned about using data at the health department to keep up to date on where violence interruption interventions should be focused?

Yes. So, as you know, through our dashboard, we can look at the social determinants of health. So a lot of what the data shows us, and as everyone else talks about, these conditions overlap. We need to focus on those areas where there's poverty, historic disinvestment, low educational attainment. Also looking for areas where there's a concentration of youth who are underemployed, unemployed, or not in school and who are potentially school age is a really big component of the strategy for violence prevention. CHAIR LANDAU: Fantastic. Is there a way -- and I don't know if this starts at the health department or maybe even goes to Philly Stat 360, but is there a way where you have your Eureka highlight moments, light bulb goes off as saying, wait, we're seeing this trend? What do you do with that when you see a trend that might be unemployed youth? You're the health department. You don't offer jobs to the youth.

Yeah. Well, we do partner with community based organizations who then do that work so we can provide some technical assistance and support. And we're also in constant communication with our partners as well throughout other agencies, so we can talk about collaborative decisions. CHAIR LANDAU: Before now, in previous administrations, has there been a place to share this information where the departments would see deficits or hotspots or focus moments and say, what are we going to do about this collectively?

There have. I mean, there was the 100 shooting review, and in the health department, we had the homicide death review that started in 2019. We team meetings, and it was agencies that were 7 meeting to talk about instances of fatal firearm 8 shootings and the different services and interactions 9 and spaces where there could be some policy changes or 10 practices that could be taking place. Yes. 11 CHAIR LANDAU: Doing as much as possible before 12 the homicides? 13

Yes. 14 CHAIR LANDAU: Absolutely, without a doubt. Is 15 there anything that Philly Stat 360 can do with this 16 information? 17

Yes, Chairmember. I believe that 18 Philly Stat 360 will be the place where we centralize all these information, and we would connect the health department in this situation with commerce and with community groups, and making sure that we're reaching out and targeting youth in this specific instance so that we're bringing all the resources that are out and available to the table to solve the problem and making sure we're connecting people with the resources that are available. We have a great city. We have a lot of community leaders who are out doing great work in the city. But if we don't connect people and make sure that we're breaking down those silos, be it between city departments or between community groups, we can't achieve that greatness. Together, we will be successful. And that's what Philly Stat 360 is going to help to build, that collaboration. CHAIR LANDAU: That is fantastic. We heard even last night at a community town hall, a lot of people talking about the youth, young people in high school who are homeless, who are hungry, how that is affecting them in school and how it affects their behavior out of school. And so those are health determinants. Those are violence determinants. This is also life. Right? Everybody should have housing and food and all of the things they need in order to succeed at school. Oh, do you have any more questions? Thank you so much for being here. Thank you for your testimony. We appreciate it. We're really looking forward -- we're rooting for the administration. We want this to happen, and we're looking forward to checking in with you soon to see how it's going. Thank you.

Thank you very, very much.

That's exciting. CHAIR LANDAU: It is exciting, finally. Mr. Serra, can you call the next panel?

The next panel is Mjumbe Poe and Nissim Lebovits. CHAIR LANDAU: Thank you. Can you just state your names for the record and proceed with your testimony? Thank you.

Nissim Lebovits, founder and project lead, Clean & Green Philly.

Mjumbe Poe, lecturer, urban spatial analytics at University of Pennsylvania.

Sure. Good morning, esteemed councilmembers, and thank you for having me here today. My name is Nissim Lebovits, and I'm speaking to you today as a representative of Clean & Green Philly and member of the 57 Blocks Coalition. I'm grateful to be part of this conversation and excited that city council is giving consideration to place- based interventions to reduce gun violence in Philadelphia. I would like to make one point to you today. We know that cleaning up vacant properties is one of the most impactful, cost effective ways of reducing gun violence in our city. By more effectively using data that are already available to us, we can drive targeted strategic interventions in Philadelphia's vacant properties. We will then find that these properties are not liabilities, but assets that can be leveraged to mitigate gun violence and achieve broader racial, economic, and environmental equity. Dr. Gina South and her colleagues at Penn have shown in several peer reviewed studies that cleaning and greening vacant properties right here in Philadelphia can reduce gun violence by as much as 29 percent in the surrounding neighborhood. These interventions also have a number of ancillary benefits, such as improving residents mental health and reducing heat stress and air pollution. Cleaning and greening is among the most cost effective, immediate responses to gun crime. Frankly, it's a no 19 brainer. The challenge is that Philadelphia has roughly 40,000 vacant properties, each with unique physical conditions, owners, tax liabilities, and so on. Taken together, the challenges of gun violence and property vacancy can easily seem too big and too complex to solve. That's where data and tech can help. Over the past year, my volunteer team at Clean & Green Philly has developed a free and easy to use online tool that combines public data to help users strategically target the vacant properties in Philadelphia that could have the highest impact on reducing gun violence. We take data on vacancy, gun crime, L&I violations, and active land stewardship to highlight which properties are most in need of place-based interventions. org, you'll see a map of all the vacant properties in Philadelphia sorted into high, medium, and low priority. With this approach, we're able to filter the city's 40,000 vacant properties down to a list of fewer than 7,000 high priority sites. On top of that, we help users understand what their options are for getting legal access to a property, whether it's available through the land bank or cheap enough to purchase outright, or whether a private land use agreement might be more appropriate. We let users filter by neighborhood relevant RCO boundaries, and so on. Our goal is to empower someone like Reuben Jones, from whom you'll be hearing later today, to sort through the overwhelming list of Philly's vacant properties and wind up with just a handful of sites where he has the best chance of doing the highest impact work to reduce gun violence in his neighborhood. Finally, we also use data to help people think strategically about what interventions might be most appropriate for their specific situation. We recognize that Philadelphia's vacant properties need to be leveraged for a range of uses. That's why we encourage users to consider options as diverse as creating pocket parks, installing green stormwater infrastructure, creating outdoor seating for local restaurants, or even working to develop affordable housing. In the future, we hope to incorporate data sets that would let us suggest suitable uses for every vacant property in the city, not to tell users what they have to do, but to show them just how broad the possibilities are. I am tremendously excited by the responses to our website so far. The stakeholders we work with repeatedly tell us how useful they think our site will be.

Soon, we plan to add new variables to support more of their needs, like the boundaries of the 57 blocks with the highest rates of gun violence, or a way of assessing how suitable a given property might be for assemblage, or potentially even a model to predict whether a property might be a case of a tangled title. We also plan to share our data directly with key partners like the District Attorney's office, the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, and others. In short, we are very optimistic about the potential for data and technology to help address gun violence in Philadelphia through place- based interventions. But I also want to remind the council members that data and tech can only go so far. What I've heard consistently from community members and other stakeholders is that their biggest obstacle to intervening in vacant properties is not a lack of data. It's that existing policy and law are exceedingly difficult to navigate, especially when community groups are already so limited in their funding and technical capacity. So without improvements to relevant law and policy, and without funding and technical support for community groups, data and tech can only do so much. Nor can this work without partnerships. There are so many people and groups in this city doing outstanding work to reduce gun violence and return vacant properties to productive use. Clean & Green Philly is trying to help bring these people together, like the 57 Blocks Coalition. We built a steering committee comprising representatives from CDC's affordable housing developers, the Land Bank, PHS, and DAO, among others. We're also planning training sessions later this year to bring community groups together to show them how to use our website and to connect them to people who can support their work. We believe that data and technology can bring us out of our silos and into active, sustained collaboration to fight gun violence through place-based interventions. In conclusion, Philly has the immediate opportunity to proactively leverage our vacant properties to reduce gun violence. That means investing in historically marginalized areas by working with community residents to plant trees, create pocket parks, build affordable housing. My tool, Clean & Green Philly, aims to show how we can use data and technology to strategically target those interventions for maximum impact. And hopefully, we can come to view vacant properties not as liabilities, but as assets that can help us build a better Philadelphia for all of our residents. Thank you for your time, and please feel free to reach out if you'd like a demo of Clean & Green Philly. CHAIR LANDAU: Can I ask you -- I wanted to just ask a question that I think wasn't addressed here. I love this concept, how great this is. You take the technology to figure out the, you said, 7,000 hotspots of vacant land, giving people ideas of how to get them into community use. When I have been around the city, including on tours with 57+ Blocks Coalition, we've seen that even when the city makes pocket parks in the neighborhood, that there's nobody there to maintain them. It ends up being a dumping ground. There's more trash there than in other parts of the neighborhood. What are your thoughts -- is there anything that your group works on with that with the community? What are your thoughts on once you transition this space how to maintain it?

Maintenance is a huge issue. We're thinking primarily on the front end of trying to get help to community residents to do those initial transformations. But we also are very explicit on our website that people have to be thinking about maintenance, and I think this entails creating better support structures for community groups, creating forums to talk to them about how to strategically think about maintenance and also make sure we put our money where our mouth is and fund community groups to be able to do that maintenance. I think about Pennsylvania Horticultural Society and the great work that they're doing to maintain vacant lots in the city. The city spends $10 million a year maintaining vacant property, but we have a budget that is many, many times that. And if we could find a little bit of extra money to put towards things like maintenance, then that might go a long way toward resolving issues like that. CHAIR LANDAU: Have you spoken to anyone in the administration about increasing that portion of the budget now that we're going to be -- the request is to put much more money towards TCB and neighborhood cleanups?

I haven't spoken to anybody in the administration about it, but I'd be happy to. CHAIR LANDAU: Thank you. Any other questions? Councilmember Driscoll.

Councilman Harrity and I and cosponsors Landau and Squilla are going to be introducing legislation with regard to Act 135 to target some of the blighted properties and encourage some more affordable housing. So we'll share some of that with you, and we welcome your input on that.

That sounds great. And we have a feature on our website actually to identify properties that are potential cases of Act 135 based on data that we have about them. It's definitely not perfect. We need to do some quality control on our data, and we're doing that with people who actually do Act 135 in the city. But we would welcome that opportunity.

Good. And if we can get your email, we're going to get you.

Absolutely.

Thank you. CHAIR LANDAU: Thank you. Please proceed.

Thank you for the opportunity to submit a few points on this topic today. And most of my points are going to be -- they're from my perspective, both as a lecturer at University of Pennsylvania as well as my experience since 2010 in the civic tech community, both here in Philadelphia as well as nationally. Now, I want to start off by saying that it's important to be realistic -- and I think that many folks up here have been, but it's important to be realistic about what data and technology will be able to accomplish for the gun violence epidemic in the city. I don't believe that there is a dataset that we haven't found yet that will tell us how to fix this issue. And there is no tool that will solve the problem apart from significant social experimentation and investment as Nissim has evidenced by the tool that they've been building. Through the efforts of researchers and the advocacy of groups like 57+ Blocks, we know that contributing factors are -- we know what the contributing factors are, and our task now is to build the social will and implement interventions to combat those factors effectively. That said, technology can certainly be a contributing factor in those interventions, and I want to talk about how from a synthesis perspective. I'll address data analysis first before moving on to tech more broadly. There are a couple things that data analysis is useful for in this case. First, the practice of measuring and surfacing key indicators can be a powerful part of an organizational strategy, and choosing the right indicators and ensuring that you have accurate data that gives you a truthful picture of how those indicators are trending is tricky, but there is priorer to learn from. For example, there is an excellent Kennedy school write up that is cited in my written responses that I'm happy to share with folks as well. Also, a note on this, it's great to hear about the Philly Stat 360 program that's rolling out in the mayor's office. Philadelphia actually had a stat program under a previous mayor, and that stat program had a lot of wins. It also had a lot of shortcomings. I will refer back to my point that it is crucial to choose good indicators and ensure that you have accurate data that gives you a truthful picture of how those indicators are trending. In the previous Philly stat program, the incentives were set up such that the data that was presented was more in line with making officials look good than being truthful about what the indicators were actually saying, what the truth of the indicators actually were. And it's really important to create an incentive structure that encourages that truth. A second way that data analysis can be useful here is in servicing information that would be difficult and/or time consuming to see at scale. A good example of this is, as we just heard from my colleague Nissim, around the Clean & Green Philly project. So beyond data analysis, technology can also play a role in a few other ways. For example, providing easier access to programs and services that the city provides. 57+ Blocks notes that subsidizing home repairs is a worthwhile intervention. Assuming such programs exist and make repairs affordable, then ensuring residents have a smooth time getting access to the services, those services would be key. As such, OIT needs to be properly resourced to deliver on Mayor Parker's second executive order to ensure a local government -- ensure a local government that is visible, responsive, and effective. Another way that technology in general can help is improving the communication capacity between government and constituents. One of the types of projects that I work on frequently is around participatory budgeting. And the particular part within that process that I work on is communication tools to make sure that government can receive thousands of ideas from the public on how to create a better city and is able to sift through those ideas in an efficient manner.

Technology is a good way to help with that task. And a third avenue that technology can help with, and this is kind of on the educational side, but in youth programming. So for example, Coded by Kids has been working for the last years to provide opportunities for youth to get into technology. It is more of an educational intervention than a purely technological one, but it provides a pathway to economic stability through the technology industry as well. So in summary, I feel like it should be obvious, and again, people have been relatively realistic, but I do just want to note again that none of these interventions is successful without a lot of effort put into engagement outside of the technology. For data backed tools used within government, they're only as effective as the strategy to act on the insights that the data surfaces. And for public facing tools, there is no if you build it, they will come scenario. You do have to put in the work to actually get the public involved and invested in the tools that you build. CHAIR LANDAU: Thank you very much. Councilmember Harrity.

So I like what you're saying. I'm a firm believer that we'll really never get rid of this gun violence until we treat the underlying issue, which is poverty. We need to help people take a leg up. And I'm glad to hear you're talking about the housing. I mean, I believe that we should be using the city land bank's housing stock in order to house families, give them that opportunity to create intergenerational wealth through home ownership. You're saying that the technology is a tool, right, but it's not the end all kill all. What's your ideas on it?

On -- I'm sorry. On specifically what tools can be put forward to help with this?

Yeah.

I mean, I think that we have heard some that -- so again, going back to Nissim's project around cleaning and greening Philadelphia and helping to identify the lots that are -- or lots and vacant properties and what we can do with those properties, helping to prioritize which vacant properties to go after and what to do with those, I think that's an excellent example of where technology can help. Another that comes to mind -- that came to mind that is now escaping me -- so I think there are a number of places where we can use technology to surface information that is -- oh, I'm sorry. Yes. So another thing that I mentioned was the second executive order that Mayor Parker put out to improve the service delivery within cities. There are technologists within the City of Philadelphia, not in the city as a whole but within OIT, that are already doing excellent work as far as creating tools for delivering services to residents and making services more accessible to residents, services such as housing subsidies and so on. But there is a lot of additional work that needs to go into improving the usefulness and the usability of those tools. And without sufficiently resourcing the OIT organization within Philadelphia, there's only so far that we can get with that. I have heard that the funding for OIT has remained flat for this year. That needs to be improved. The people who are actually doing the work within the city -- not all of the ideas are going to come from outside of the city, outside of the city organization, the government. The people who are doing the work within the city also need to be supported in the work that they're doing and properly resourced in order to improve the services that we're offering to the public.

I'll tell you what. It's amazing the difference that something as simple as Clean & Green does. I live in Kensington. And while the mayor hasn't really started her full plan yet, the cleaning has been going on. And the difference not only in how the neighborhood looks, but how the neighbors feel. For far too long in Kensington, there was a lack of hope. And there's nothing worse than lack of hope, and there's nothing worse than looking in the face of an eight year old child who has no hope. So I'm looking forward to seeing what more we can accomplish just doing some of the simple things right. So thank you for your testimony. CHAIR LANDAU: Thank you so much. I appreciate your premise that data can't solve these issues, but I do really see the intersection of trying to understand what we know now and how we can add the social component to it and the structural place-based components to it to make sure that we can be successful. As both of you know, it seems in your work, one of the reasons why we held this hearing is it seems some of the cleaning and greening part is low hanging fruit. Let's just do that to start. And I've been saying for so long there's a pot that's on boil, and we can at least bring it to a simmer and then start to figure out the other pieces. So hopefully, not only when we've heard the administration talk about building these structures that we can get them to focus on the easy wins first, the things that have to happen that are basic quality of life issues and move on to the second part. I also wanted to, just for a second, highlight and talk a little bit more about the data in and the data out, because I thought that was interesting. I do know that the CompStat program in the past, through previous administrations, really has had some issues because either the data has been used in the wrong way and/or just extracted to put highlights on the wrong things. And to me, I don't want any of this. And I'm hoping this administration's not making it like a Ouija board. Right? We can't have the answers come out that we want or the projects to be focused on that anybody sees as most important. It's got to be that there's a real honest look at what we're collecting, what we see, what needs to happen, and then, in the most equitable way, hit it at the right time. But I wanted to get more of your thoughts on the data itself, what goes in, what comes out, how you use it, because you're the expert on it.

Let me say that I think that -- as you've heard people speak at length about, there is a lot of data that can help form indicators to help us understand whether we're trending in the right direction with this issue around gun violence as well as other issues. But I think that some of the challenges that we faced in the last iteration of our Philly stat program, for example -- so I believe very deeply in the value of being open and transparent, especially with data that those city reduces. However, it's very important to create conditions that don't limit the frankness of the discussions that can be had within these Philly stat meetings. So I think that within that, there are difficult decisions that have to be made. So for example, the previous iteration of Philly stat meetings were televised, which I think was a great intention. But with that level of publicity at that particular meeting, it created an environment where city officials were less likely to present data that made their departments look bad to the public, even if that data would have been useful to actually know at the time of the Philly stat meetings. So it's those kinds of things -- and there are other lessons that we can learn from the previous iteration of Philly stat as well. More than just the data, I think that as a city, we've done a good job over the last decade plus of building out our capacity to collect and organize data within the city. We've done an excellent job at that. But the question then becomes, okay, what do we do with that data and how do we incentivize using that data in a way that's honest and is separated from the political egos, frankly, of the people who are in charge of collecting and presenting that data to the people who would have to make a decision based on it? CHAIR LANDAU: That's helpful. Thank you. Any other questions for these witnesses? Thank you both so much for being here. Appreciate you. And Mr. Serra, if you can call the next panel.

The next panel to testify is Reverend Dr. Gregory Holston, Dr. Oren Gur, and Chantay Love. CHAIR LANDAU: Thank you. Can you state your names for the record?

Reverend Gregory Holston, senior advisor on policy and advocacy for the District Attorney's office, cofacilitator of the 57 Block Coalition. Thank you very much for this opportunity to be able to come. So many people are here to want to be able to share testimony. Imam Nurdin had to leave. He wanted to give public comment and his support of 57+ Block Coalition as that mosque is a part of the coalition. Data takes courage. My time at the DA's office has shown me that the courage to be able to put out and have data transparency when sometimes the data says stuff that you don't like, or when someone takes the data and manipulates it in a way and tries to punish you politically for it. To really have this whole discussion about data without having real data courage to put out the stuff that's good and also to put out the stuff that's not so good and to admit we're trying to get better is a part of this process. Also, what's a part of this process is to understand what has happened in this last four years to us, what has happened through this pandemic, to look at the data to see and understand what has happened to us. And I don't think if we don't have a real understanding of what happened to us, and that's all of us, not just those who are involved in criminal activity, but all of us. If we don't have an understanding of what happened to all of us through this pandemic too right at this time, we're going to miss what we need to do going forward. And that's a data question as well. We can check the slide real quick, Dr. Gur. All these people, all these organizations are members of the 57 Block Coalition. They are gun violence organizations. They're community organizations. They are churches, mosques, unions, advocacy organizations across the City of Philadelphia that are all together around that community investment is the best gun violence solution. Community investment is the best gun violence solution. We turn to the next slide. I want to stop here for a moment and really spend most of my time looking at the slide. This is from the Philadelphia Center on Gun Violence Reporting, the rolling shooting victims over 365 days. And as you see, it starts around 2016. It takes you all the way through to 2024. And what you want to note is that from 2016 to 2019, gun violence in terms of shooting victims was relatively flat. Little uptick coming up into 2019. And when we get to 2020 and, of course, will you see the great increase. That's March 2020. That's exactly when the pandemic occurred. So we almost had an immediate increase in shooting violence as soon as the pandemic happened happen. Which makes you got to wonder what was the reason for that. Well, of course, we shut down everything. We got rid of every investment in our communities. We shut down our schools. We shut down our commercial corridors. We shut down our rec centers. We shut down our parks. We shut down our libraries. We shut down just about everything. And these elements and these investments were affected most in the neighborhoods that needed them the most. So our schools, which is a what? $2 billion investment we make into communities. Schools that had teachers and coaches and social workers and counselors, people who are gathered there for young people, athletic programs, music programs, a building facility that could be used at all different times for all different community events, all of that was gone. All of that was gotten rid of. And people were told to isolate in their homes, in their families, which were always the best situation for young people. All that happened in March 2020. That was about losing investment in our community. Now, I'm stressing this because if community investment is the best way, then we just had the greatest test case we could ever have to prove that point. You take investment out, immediately, violence goes up, immediately, and it has nothing, and I'm not trying to be disrespectful to anybody, nothing to do with policing.

That is a real big point. If we can see that -- not saying that there's not a role for policing. I am not saying that. There's certainly a role. Is there a role for law enforcement? Yes, there is a very important role. But in terms of whether we're having shooting victims or not, whether we're having violence or not, they're not the best parameter for your resources. Putting your investments in community, that's the best parameter. We see here that it shoots up through 2020. And I'm just looking at the graph. 2021, it continues to go up to numbers we had never had before, 499 homicides in 2020, 563 in 2021, 513 in 2022. And if you look at the second peak, it comes down a little bit and then starts to level out. That second peak is about the time when we put our schools back online and there were full classroom -- I mean, in person classroom participation. The teachers were back, the coaches were back, the counselors were back, the programs were back. It's about at that time we reached the peak and started to level off. " And so they were dealing with all of the issues of the lack of investment and dealing with all the violence that had occurred. It starts to flatten out, and it flattens out through that school year. And then the final peak you see in 2022, where it starts to do a downturn, two things happened then. One, you had the second year of in person schooling begin, and you also had, for the first time, a record amount of gun violence dollars coming from the state and also from the city. The state had about 100 million. 50 million of that came to the City of Philadelphia. 5 million when the program before the pandemic was less than a million dollars. And so gun violence organizations got more resources than they ever got before in the history of the city. And what you see here from this graph, almost immediately, those two things happen and you see the graph go down, and you see the numbers go down. And you see from this graph that we have now almost a 50 percent reduction from the heights of the pandemic to where we are now. And the two most important factors were community investment, both in the investments that were restored and the new investments that were put and deal with gun violence. And so we have a lot to share here, but I'm just willing to lift this one point up to you, to say if we really want to deal with investment -- really deal with gun violence, that now we're dealing with now back to prepandemic level -- we are back to prepandemic levels in gun violence. And maybe even this year we'll go lower, close to one of the all time low numbers of 2013, which was 247 homicides. That if we really want to see gun violence be reduced, it really starts with us being put more investment in these kinds of community organizations that are represented here today and investments in our young people in ways like we never have before. And actually, this investment is more cost beneficial than other investments. You put more money into these groups, you'll get more out. We just gone through this pandemic and the results of this mapping, this graph, tells us this is the best way to move forward. I would finally say to you that as Nicole Levy gets ready to come up to talk about redlining, that really, that's a part of the investment vehicles too that need to happen. We need to invest and have our historical disinvestment that has been occurring in our community change and be transformed. And so we're going to be moving and working on that. Our principles are simple, community led, a real nonlaw enforcement approach, public based, place-based approach, address trauma services, and trauma needs a real public health approach to this, and really dealing with the racial injustice that has created the conditions in these communities for the last few 50 years that have caused this incredible disinvestment.

If community investment is the way to reduce gun violence, then in every lever we need to do that, whether through racial justice or public health or any of these other mechanisms. And so I'm going to turn it over because I think I used up my time to Nicole to come and share a little bit about redlining. Maybe you have questions for me first. I'm sorry. CHAIR LANDAU: I think with your -- thank you very much for that. I think with your particular panel, it'd be great to hear from all three of you first, and we'll hold our questions until the end. Thank you.

Great. Thank you, Reverend. Thank you, everyone, for having me here today. My name is Nicole Levy, and I am speaking today as a member of the community advisory board of the 57 Block Coalition. On this topic of redlining and disinvestment, I have years experience in fair 4 lending and bank regulation. I come from the National 5 Community Reinvestment Coalition. I come from the 6 Philadelphia Fed. I come from the Consumer Financial 7 Protection Bureau, TD bank, where I was the director 8 of fair lending in that small pocket of time between 9 the reveal article that revealed them to be one of the 10 worst lenders to communities of color in Philadelphia 11 and right before they announce their community 12 benefits agreement with Earmarks for Philadelphia. 13 Currently I am a fair lending data analytics 14 officer at WSFS Bank here in Philadelphia. So I'm 15 here with the 57 Blocks Coalition because we are a 16 citywide coalition of people to speak one single 17 truth, and that is disinvestment is the root cause of 18 gun violence. And we know that that violence will not 19 stop and still we see community controlled, 20 place based, radical investment in these communities. In the next 10 minutes of my testimony, what I want us to do is get a better shared sense for the scale of this disinvestment and some pathways towards repair. Next slide. History of redlining is well documented -- do you want to -- I have a shorter slide. TEMIR made me cut it to 10, but we could go to the next slide. So the history of redlining is very well documented. We've all seen the federal hulk maps. Next slide. Federal Reserve recently published this study of racial covenants here in Philadelphia that are private restrictions on deeds. Next slide. We all know stories of eminent knit domain. There are various throughout the City of Philadelphia. Here's a story about the black bottom, which is very close to where I live today in Philadelphia. Next slide. We all know that this traumatic history, and we can think of each one of those actions and the trauma that surrounds the families impacted by them and then taking as a collective, these strategies collectively have shaped the movement of communities across the city and determined where we live as people in a very place based way. And we here in the 57 Blocks Coalition know that this history is the underlying cause of gun violence. This map here is the Inquirer article that gave birth to the 57 Blocks Coalition that shows that 53 out of the 57 blocks were in those neighborhoods that were historically redlined. Next slide. But we're not just talking about history. The redlining persists. And that's what I really want to focus in on developing a scale for. Next slide. I'm going to flip through a lot of headlines. And what I want to say about these headlines is that modern day redlining persists in a new form and it's happening in the light of day. We've all seen these headlines. This is from a few years back. Citibank itself estimated that discrimination is costing the US economy $16 trillion. Now, that number is an impact on the gross domestic product. It's not a number that shows or reflects the impact on our communities, on the community harm that we suffered. And I would expect that that number is even low given that Citibank did the estimate. TD Bank, I worked there. We've seen headlines about big banks gouging and directing overdraft fees at the poorest communities. You can look at bank call report data and see a direct pipeline of these overdraft fees from vulnerable communities going out and paying premium rates to wealthy customers. Right? This happens every day. Next slide. Wells Fargo. I also highlight these are a lot of the big banks with whom the city does business. These are authorized depositories of the City of Philadelphia. These are the banks that we trust our taxpayer dollars with, and we see what they're doing. Next slide. I'll talk just briefly about this Trident Mortgage case.

This was the most recent out of very few cases of redlining specific to Philadelphia. Trident Mortgage is a subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway. Department of justice settled with them $22 million for redlining in the City of Philadelphia. I personally worked on this case for four years, and I could tell you we had a lot of attorneys, consultants, statisticians, white professional classes making billions of dollars. I can't tell you how many conferences and stuff I was paid to go to, sitting there drinking cocktails with other white people, talking about the great work we're doing for redlining. The million does not 16 even come close to the harm suffered. And when you 17 look at the fine print of that settlement, it was 18 actually just coupons of up to $10,000 for qualified 19 applicants going forward. Right? 20 This is not a settlement. This is a scam. And 21 I'll say, I'm not here to support WSFS Bank 22 necessarily, but we have banks out there doing and offering the $10,000 down payment assistance without having been sued. Right? I'll also mention that Trident mortgage has rebranded itself as Prosperity Mortgage. And you'll see them out there on the DOSs with our mayor, with our city officials talking about their great commitment to Philadelphia over the years. Next slide. So justice is not being served. There is no accountability, and there are no consequences for the banks with whom the city does business. Next slide. I know we have partners. A lot of these slides come from our partner organizations. This is from the Public Bank Coalition and Power Interfaith Economic Dignity. I think there is a myth in this city that we don't have the money to serve all of our communities, but we're here to say that we do. There are a lot of solutions being put forward by organizations and coalition partners. This slide right here just shows the financial marketplace in the City of Philadelphia, which is something that we, at a local level, and in all respect, the city council, the body, should be paying more attention to, what is our financial marketplace looking like. We collectively as a city have $71 billion sitting in deposit and checking and savings account. Virtually all of that has been handed over to big banks who we just saw in the headlines before. This is a very different picture from other major cities who have a much larger portion of their deposit share in local institutions who we know recirculate dollars locally in the economy. 5 percent of our deposits held by minority depository institutions. When we give our communities control over our money and where they invest it, we see more investment and more access locally. Next slide. Next slide. This just shows the big picture of that $71 billion in deposits. We can see just, say, for example, 9 million or 9 billion that comes back in the form of home loans. It's a much smaller, maybe 1 billion. We could add in that. We could see in public data for small business loans. But we all know how banks work. Right? They take a lot of money in reserve, hold roughly 10 percent of it. The rest of it gets recycled into the economy. Where is our money going? Next slide. This is from our partners Partnership with the Reinvestment Fund. Of the home loans being made in Philadelphia in 2022, we can see a big racial divide in who gets that money. For a city that is approximately equal black and white households, and I need to look at the number there, just 17 percent of all of the loans in Philadelphia in 2022 went to black households. And I want us to think about this number for a minute because it's about $2 billion shortfall on an annual basis. That's what we give our white households to invest in home ownership, in home repair, and all of these things. And that is a $2 billion gap annually. Right? " Next slide. Next slide.

I'll just say that we can also see, when looking at the data, it's not just about discrimination on an individual basis, but you can see black, white, and Asian alike are more likely to be denied if they are in a majority, minority tract of the city. So this is a place-based problem. Next slide. We can also drill down in this public data for both small businesses and home mortgage data into the 57 blocks specifically. We have 79 census tract comprising the 57 block neighborhood. Next slide. And I'm just going to scroll through briefly to talk about some of the things we can see in terms of modern day redlining in these 57 blocks because it's taken on a different picture now, right, where we can see evidence of kind of traditional redlining, where access to mortgages is restricted in 71 out of 79 of the tracts. Next slide. We can see evidence of racialized gentrification, where disproportionate shares of home mortgages are going to white borrowers rather than the demographics of that tract. We can see evidence of that in at least 27 of the census tracts of the 57 blocks. Investors are proliferating our neighborhoods. " And lo and behold, experts are in our community. They know what's going on. We don't need to pay experts outside. But it's true, the data shows it. In 52 out of the 79 tracts, we can see loans proliferating to investors relative to primary residents. Next slide. Next slide. Denial rates, again, we can see disparities along racial and ethnic lines in our 57 blocks. Next slide. And the cumulative toll of all of this -- and remember, we're just talking about home mortgage loans. Right? We're not talking about education. We're not talking about small business loan. Just this little slice, it trickles down. And this is data that comes out of the urban institution that shows the total wealth gap between black and white households in Philadelphia right now is about $134,000. When we think about the bootstraps of wealth, each white family in Philadelphia gets to start out with $134,000 more in wealth. And that is the scale that we are talking about. That's the scale that we need to address. Next slide. Yeah. So I want to say that redlining must stop. Next slide. What we need is a citywide focus on the financial markets serving our city, and we need to bring accountability and transparency to them. It's great that we have cameras pointed at our communities that are being harmed, but let's start pointing some cameras at where the violence is happening and starting. Within the 57 Block Coalition, we have a lot of organizational partners. I'll highlight the Philadelphia Public Banking Coalition, the Reinvestment Fund. And I think a lot of these groups are putting solutions on the table, and I kind of group them into three buckets. The very first step must be acknowledgment and repair of the scale of harm, and there is too much data and analysis out there that is experts acting like experts and not putting a focus on the community impact. And we need to be challenging every headline to make sure that we continue to cut that data the right way. We have a lot of ideas on the table in terms of repairing and accountability, working with treasury, other things. I think the other thing that you'll hear a lot of our colleagues in the 57 blocks talk about is the importance of community led and place-based investments and really making sure that we have unhindered investments in these communities. When you think about the scale of trauma and disinvestment that has suffered and then the solutions and community bonds that are here, just invest in them, just give them money. We don't need experts. We don't need data. Just do it. Finally, reimagining a new future. And the system doesn't work. We know it. It's not going to happen overnight, but we need to begin thinking now and building for a future that is financially aligned to our goals.

And a public bank is one thing that we've been keeping front and center on the table for that future. Thank you. CHAIR LANDAU: Thank you so much for your testimony. Just remember to state your name for the record. Thank you.

Hi. My name is Oren Gur, and I work for the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office. Respected council members, it's an honor to appear before you today with partners from the 57 Blocks Coalition. I'm grateful for today's hearing and this opportunity to discuss the 57 Blocks Coalition with leaders of the city we all love and care so much about. My name again is Dr. Oren Gur, and I'm concluding this panel by talking about the use of data and research to inform the 57 Block Coalition's strategy and advocacy. By way of background, I earned a PhD in criminology, law, and justice from the University of Illinois at Chicago and was an assistant professor of criminal justice at Penn State Abington prior to joining the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office in January 2018 as its first director of research and a policy advisor to DA Krasner. Briefly, I have worked on bail reform, the 100 shooting review, and helped get a grant that allowed us to establish the district attorney's transparency analytics lab, or data lab, which I directly. The grant also supported partnerships with Penn Criminology and Temple Criminal Justice, and we work with many other academic institutions and community based organizations. I am proud to be here today as a cofacilitator of the 57 Blocks Coalition and appreciate the opportunity to talk about how we use data. Before I get on, I must acknowledge the contributions of data lab colleagues to the 57 Blocks Coalition, including Tyrell Mann Barnes, Analyn Salabia and Elias, Christian Smith, Sebastian Hoyos Torres, Nat Lowndes, Kate Kelly, Wes Weaver, Katy Kopnitsky, and more. Today, I'm going to focus on trying to make three points in my comments. Point 1, sharing data about individuals is difficult, sharing data about places is not. Point 2, Philadelphia does not have a comprehensive, place-based, nonlaw enforcement strategy to reduce violence and address trauma. The 57 Blocks Coalition is advocating for that strategy and offering such a framework. Third point, I'm going to explain how we use data to support the coalition. So my first point, in my experience, sharing and linking large amounts of information or data about individual people can be hard for a range of reasons, including technical and resource constraints, legal and ethical considerations, and even concerns related to power and politics. While there is some excellent data sharing in Philadelphia, among some criminal justice agencies, there is no integrated way to share information across all relevant agencies. It can also be challenging for criminal legal organizations to share information about individuals with community based organizations and for community organizations to share data with city agencies. For example, without integrated data systems, it is difficult to know if an individual has received services from one community based organization or from many different organizations and service providers. This has implications for resource allocation, impact, and evaluation. Over the years, I've seen people seated before you and on the front page of the newspaper who have not been able to provide data on their programming, let alone their impact. Without excusing, it can be very challenging to get funding for this kind of technological data infrastructure and the personnel needed to support it, as you've heard from others today. While I am tremendously proud of the progress the Data Lab and DAO have made over the past few years to improve data analysis and access, sometimes it is nice to have options that are easier, and it is very easy to share information about places where there are people in need of support. We all often share addresses with each other and then go meet there, and then engage in an activity or action to improve that place, that community. I've seen you all doing this.

The idea here is that data can be used to identify the places that have experienced the highest levels of gun violence and then prioritize getting all of us, as well as city and community partners, to those places in a systematic and consistent way to wrap our arms around specific places by providing people there with resources, support, and hope. Tragically, there are many such places in Philadelphia, but we can tell you exactly where they are. And this brings me to my second point. We as a city do not have a comprehensive, place-based, nonlaw enforcement strategy for reducing gun violence and addressing the associated trauma and harm it leaves in its wake. There are place-based nonlaw enforcement practices that have been shown to work and shown to work in Philly but have never been taken to scale. Unaddressed trauma can lead to more trauma. Hurt people hurt people, a common refrain. to complement the criminal legal system, we need a strategy that seeks to address the underlying harm and restore communities independent of the criminal legal process. The 57 blocks first identified by the Philadelphia Inquirer in September 2021 and all Philadelphia communities that have suffered persistent episodic gun violence deserve holistic, place-based services and long term trauma support, as well as intentional investment to counter racist policies of the past and present. And we have the data and strategy to help Philadelphia prioritize these communities. I'm going to spend the rest of my time explaining how we've used data to support the 57 Blocks Coalition to date and then close by sharing our plan to make code and other analytical work product publicly available. Initially, we used the 57 blocks identified by the Philadelphia Inquirer based on their analysis of over six years of data downloaded from OpenDataPhilly. Slide please. So those are the 57 blocks. Next slide. You can see the red dots which represent the 57 blocks are nested in areas that also experience high levels of shootings, represented by the white dots on that screen. Next slide. As Nicole noted, and as the Inquirer noted, 53 of these 57 blocks were in parts of Philadelphia redlined in the 1930s. 56 square miles or five percent of Philadelphia's land mass. Next slide please. And next slide. There's that five percent. We then took these 57 blocks and quarter mile radii and linked them with criminal legal data we regularly analyze in the data lab, incident data, arrest data, and court case data. These blocks accounted for percent of all 15 criminal incidents, 30 percent of all criminal 16 homicides. 8 percent result in arrest. When 18 there is an arrest, you can see some of the case outcomes below. And this just represents, on this one slide, how we have data on the whole entire criminal legal system. Next slide, please. This represents what we call overenforcement. 46 percent of all cases on the 57 blocks are drug related, 24 percent drug possession, 22 percent drug sales. The word "cases" is underlined and in bold because if something is a case, that means my office, the district attorney attorney's office, has charged it. If we have charged it, that means every single criminal legal agency in the city is involved. Right? We charge it. There has to be a bail hearing in the basement of the CJC. The PPD are going to have the defendant on a closed circuit television show up in the basement of the CJC. The Defender Association is there. If they're held on bail, they have to be transported up to State Road. The sheriffs are involved. To kind of put it briefly, this means that roughly 46 percent of all of the resources that we invest in the criminal legal system can be thought of as being spent on these types of cases. Right? So we have a police department with roughly $900 million budget, courts, 200, 300 million, prisons, 400, 500 million. 5 billion with just those three agencies. Right?

And just to think that all of the time, energy, intellect of all the people who work in our system, all the efforts to go to school, go to the academy, so on and so forth, are being dedicated to these types of cases, almost half. Next slide, please. We don't get more time in the day just because we spend half of our time on those two types of cases. So that's what brings us to unfocused deterrence. 2 percent of all cases charged on the 57 7 blocks are for homicide, nonfatal shooting, or 8 attempted murder. And again, these are the blocks 9 with the most shootings in the City of Philadelphia. 10 Next slide, please. We are also able to bring in 11 noncriminal legal data. 12 So this is a one year snapshot of 311 calls for 13 services emanating from the 57 blocks. What this says 14 to me is that people are reaching out. They are 15 trying to use the appropriate resources and 16 opportunities to lift up requests for services. And 17 in my view, the 57 blocks and calls from the 57 blocks 18 should be prioritized. They should go to the top of 19 the pile because they're going to have a larger 20 impact. We are also able to look at census data, and this just shows how this model can be used to get to more concrete figures, kind of like Nicole just did. So we are able to tell you that roughly one in five 15 to 19 year olds in the City of Philadelphia live in a census block group that intersects with the 57 blocks radii. That means roughly one in 83 Philadelphians is a to 19 year old who lives on one of the 57 blocks. And the point there, if you know 83 people, you may know a 15 to 19 year old who lives on one of the 57 blocks. Sorry, go back a second. So we would need 18,574 jobs to employ all those to year olds on the 57 blocks. If you want to 9 do summer jobs for 10 weeks, 20 hours a week, $15 an 10 hour, that would be almost $56 million for a summer 11 jobs program, and it would be money well spent. Next 12 slide, please. 13 We know it would be money well spent because of 14 research. Right? Research on place-based 15 interventions that do not involve law enforcement that have been mentioned today, like greening vacant lots, whole home repair, youth social and cognitive skills, mowing and trash removal, summer jobs for youth. That is based on research done in Philadelphia, as are many of these findings. As you can see, four out of six of these buffet of choices are based on research done in Philadelphia and simply have not been taken to scale. Next slide, please. These slides show that some of the key people and labs that are doing this work, including Eugenia South at Penn, are members of the 57 Blocks Coalition. Next slide. PAAN, which does the credible messenger of cure violence model, is also a member of the 57 Blocks Coalition. Next slide. And this just shows what we are trying to do with data here more broadly. I also want to note that the Philadelphia Energy Authority used the 57 Blocks framework to determine 15,000 streetlight locations throughout the city for the priority replacement and boosted light level locations under the Philly Streetlight Improvement Project. And these examples continue to mount of how this strategy can help inform place-based nonlaw enforcement initiatives. So the strategy continues to evolve and be open to community direction. During community meetings in Summer 2022, people kept asking, "How many blocks are there now? The Inquirer analysis came out in September 2021. How many with 10 or more shootings as of today? So we worked to update the data. As of October 24th, 2022, there were 72 blocks with 10 or more shootings. By mid February 2023, there were 77 blocks. Info on these blocks were used by Philly Truce in their Hug the Block Initiative. By August 2023, there were 83 -- there were, excuse me, 89 blocks that had experienced 10 shootings since 2015 as Rev. Holston discussed earlier.

And by December 2023, there were sadly 96 blocks with 10 or more shootings since January 1st, 2015. While we were trying to be responsive to community requests, the changing number caused some confusion, undercut efforts to generate hope, and made it hard to assess progress. How can we know if we are making things better if the number of blocks can only grow? Here's how we've updated the analytical approach to make the 57 Blocks framework more dynamic. The period covered in the original Inquirer analysis encompassed 2,440 days. Can you go back to that last slide? Sorry. And this shows basically that as we updated it, we were analyzing more days of data each time. That's why the number of blocks continued to grow. So what we have basically done, and now go to the next slide, is focused on that 2,440 day time period initially used by the Inquirer. And if you look all the way at the bottom, at the 70 blocks, what that represents is that there were 70 blocks with 10 or more shootings from July 6, 2017 to March 11th, 2024. Right? So if you use the same time period, there are more than there were in the Inquirer analysis. Right? There are 13 more blocks that have experienced 10 or more shootings. My colleague Wes Weaver reran the numbers today, and we are now going down. There are now 68 blocks that have had or more shootings in the equivalent 5 time period. So again, we are trying to update things 6 so that we can be more responsive and also just show 7 our progress in a little bit better. 8 I also want to make it clear that I do sincerely 9 believe the original 57 blocks from the Inquirer 10 analysis deserve thoughtful attention. Some may have experienced a single shooting with 10 victims, others more episodic shootings that may have waned. Yet the intergenerational trauma remains. I'll leave that to expert leadership of EMIR and Mothers in Charge to discuss in a minute. Before I do, the other effort we are working on to support the 57 Blocks Coalition involves creating open source code that can be applied to publicly available shooting data from OpenDataPhilly. The code will create line graphs for all blocks in the data set with 10 or more shootings with time on the x axis and the number of shootings on the y axis. So I understand you can't probably see that, but the idea is this is all of the 57 blocks in one view, and then you can zoom in a little bit more to get better understanding. For example, the number 1 block during this time period was the 800 block of East Allegheny, number 3, 3100 block of Kensington Ave, number 4, the 700 block of East Clearfield Street. And that line graph basically shows how shootings have mounted over time. If you look block by block, you can start to think about them like people. Right? Each block has its unique history, a story of how it got here and needs that kind of individualized attention and focus. Next slide, please. You can also see more episodic gun violence. For example, on the right, 300 block of South Street, the South street shooting, you see a line that goes up because there were a lot of victims of shootings, unfortunately, on one day. You also see the 4100 block of Ogden Street. Next slide. There was a Father's Day shooting there in 2015 where 10 people were shot. That block might need -- and then it hasn't had shootings for a long period of time until it had another one recently. That block might need a different type of response than a block that has more persistent episodic violence, and this allows us to identify that. Next slide. This shows two blocks that are close to EMIR Healing Center. And when we had this data and talked about it with Chantay, as she may say, she knows these blocks. She doesn't need the data. The data supported reaffirmed her experience and the experience of her team. But if you put the next slide, you'll see that these two blocks are approximate to EMIR Healing Center in Germantown. Next slide, please.

These are three blocks that have had shootings during this entire time period since 9 2015. 10 And I just wanted to lift these up to show that even blocks that have had 10 shootings that are on the low end of this kind of framework do have persistent episodic violence. So we want our model to be responsive and we can update it, but we also want to acknowledge that the trauma is still there if it's not addressed in those specific places. So, again, sharing data about individuals is hard, sharing data about places is much easier. Philadelphia does not have a comprehensive place based, nonlaw enforcement strategy to reduce violence and address trauma. And I hope you've gotten a sense of how we've used data to help bring about such a framework. Thank you again for the time and opportunity. CHAIR LANDAU: Thank you all so much for being here, for sharing your expertise, your information. It's so very important as we go forward, try to help you and partner with you on solutions. I want to throw one question out for all of you, really. It starts with, some of your terminology really stuck with me, Reverend Holston, when you talked about having data courage. How have you worked with the administration in the past, and are you being received more warmly now so you can collaborate better on solutions?

Well, the previous administration, we were pretty much a critic of much of what they did. This administration is new and scrambling to deal with this crisis. I'm hopeful that my hearing from Commissioner Bethel today that he will actually come and get a full presentation. I know he left off Captain Cram -- I don't know the titles -- here to make sure he heard all of this. And I think we need a -- with all the data that you've seen, we really need a full conversation about the strategies that are necessary to reduce gun violence. And we have not had that conversation as of yet. CHAIR LANDAU: Have you been interacting with our new public safety officer, Adam Geer?

Yes, I met with Adam about this. We spent about a half an hour on some of this data, but I don't think it was really reflective in the issued report on public safety they just did. They didn't really take this into account. I think he wants to, but it just didn't. CHAIR LANDAU: I look forward to you sharing this full presentation, all three parts of it, with them, along with community members as well. What do you see -- I appreciate also very much you talking about having a place-based strategy and that there is no 11 comprehensive plan in Philadelphia. And the dream of mine is that with our new public safety director, that this is part of what we can do. They're supposed to be coordinating a lot of our data and effectuating it as well. So many people have asked me where to start. Where do we start? There's so much to do. The historical context of redlining is just so striking. I saw it when the police department started first and put up their maps about where the shooting was. You could see the red lines there around Temple. I was teaching a housing law class at Temple Law School, and I did these maps, and I was like, here's the problem. And then you can see the shootings and the violence happening up there. Where would you suggest to the administration where they start, where we start, where we help to fund?

Well, the first thing I would say is we've been advocating for more resources for organizations like EMIR, Frontlines Dad, Mothers in Charge, and all the other organizations. And I've been advocating for that since 2017. We have seen an uptick from the city of 13.5 million. But if we did much more -- and really what we need to do is build them as institutions, not organizations that are dependent upon the grant this year, but they didn't get it last year, so I got to let staff go and I can't continue, and I'm building staff, but I'm losing them because I lost my grant. That kind of stuff really has to stop. They need a direct line item, which is what the 57 Block Coalition is saying, in the budget, so they know have reliable, credible resources so they can plan three years, five years, 10 years out. And so when a crisis comes, as this crisis came, everybody was saying, "Well, what's the community going to do?" Well, if you defund the community, then you can't expect the community to respond. And in 2008, Mayor Nutter came in and defunded all the community organizations. So we need to really fund these organizations for real. We need much more than 13.5 million. We put a proposal together of million just to deal with some 4 of these 57 blocks, and I believe that is a credible 5 proposal. It goes in great detail about what we need 6 and how we're going to do and work on these various 7 different strategies that, as Dr. Gur has said over 8 and over, have been proven to be effective. We have a 9 strategy. We have a way of doing this. We just need 10 to fund it. 11 And then we start with funding that piece first, 12 and then we dare to challenge our financial 13 institutions, our banks, to stop the redlining 14 practices that are not just historical, but are 15 present day as well. I think if we worked on those 16 two things together, Council and this 57 Block 17 Coalition, we could really make a real change in our 18 community and talk about drastically reducing gun 19 violence even more. I'm going to turn to everybody 20 else here. I think they want to answer that question. 21

I just wanted to add that when groups 22 like EMIR are defunded, it also negatively impacts and 23 retraumatizes victims, because it doesn't just mean 24 that they can't keep their personnel, it means that 25 they can't keep their personnel and their personnel can't keep those caseloads. They might have just been developing rapport, making breakthroughs with people, and suddenly there's no more support. So I just wanted to lift it up in terms of retraumatizing the very people we're trying to help.

And just one other addition too, throughout today's hearing, I hear a lot of questions about how is the police reaching out and working with community groups? How is public health reaching out to community groups? We need to make sure that these community groups have the funding to give their time and expertise to these as well. That needs to be part of the funding plan.

Yeah. And they have to lead this. It can't be the government comes up with a solution or a plan, which happened in the previous administration two times, came up with a plan without community input, and they said, "Hey, community, take the plan." No. These organizations should be leading it. They should be writing the plan. We put together a plan, but it was all their input, and the input of 75 community organizations roughly, conversations we had, they have created what is here. It didn't come just from us. I really think we need to start to respect the leaders that we have here in the City of Philadelphia. Dr. Dorothy is known all over the nation but can't get this respect to even bring together her advocacy about a plan of what to do by our own city government. We always, in Philly, disrespect those gifts and those talents of people that are right here, that across the nation are respected, but not respected right here in their own city. And that has to stop. CHAIR LANDAU: Thank you for that. Within the city government, what programs are working and what do you think needs additional investment or focus?

I would say quickly -- and then I see Oren wants to jump in, but I would say quickly, the program you heard from Pilar earlier and Dr. Ruth Abaya and her work that created that program was the kinds of programs that we really need to be doing. In other cities, the Department of Health is the center of gun violence, not the police. They look to the Department of Health and they treat it as a public health crisis. Public health crisis means that we all are infected. The infection here for all of us in terms of violence is the trauma that we've all experienced over the last four years. I heard Councilman Johnson say a couple of days ago, "The numbers are going down, but I don't feel it." He didn't even recognize. That's not just a media perception. That's also the effect of trauma, that we're still traumatized even after we're safer, and we're still feeling the trauma of what we experienced two years ago. If we don't even see that we are traumatized in this and need help to process all of what we're going through, then how are we going to help other people? A public health approach understands that all of us are traumatized. We all have to do certain things. There are some that are more at risk that have other things they have to do. There are some that are deep involved or have the infection and we need to do them differently. But a public health approach looks at all of it comprehensively and not just from a law enforcement approach. So what they're doing in the Department of Health is really a major part of the plan that needs to be lifted up.

Yeah. I would just reiterate some of the points from the buffet of choices. Right? Greening vacant lots has been shown to work in Philly. Double it, triple it, do it more often. Home repair. Whole home repair, we know that's going off at the federal level as well. More of it. Partner with Eugenia South. She's doing it now. She got a big federal grant to do it in West Philly, the Deeply Rooted Project. Mowing and trash removal, more of it. Right? Just go to the places that are getting that and do it twice as often. Double the number of people, for example. The summer jobs for youth, that has been shown to work in Philadelphia, 80 percent decline in juvenile incarceration, declines in property and total arrests among young people, 33 percent decline in child protective services, 31 percent decline in mental health and substance use services. So by investing in the front end, you don't have to pay for those other things on the back end when somebody gets into contact with the system. So my understanding is there are roughly 8,000 summer jobs for young people across the City of Philadelphia. We showed that you need 18,000 just for young people on the 57 blocks. So double, triple, quadruple, whatever -- I can tell you what the math is, not top of mind, but that's what I would recommend.

And the one thing that I'd add to this is, as I mentioned, we all know that the root cause here is disinvestment. And we see panels of community groups, panels of police, but we don't see a panel from the financial services industry here. They are a big -- they need to be a big part of the solution. If we're all scrounging to find money and find resources, we need to be calling those partners to the table too to volunteer their time to think about how they can do better and invest in the ways that our community is asking for. CHAIR LANDAU: That's absolutely right. Your work with banks, that was eye opening again. I've been in many of those lawsuits and situations where you watch that you're sitting there in disbelief and just wish you could have gotten ahead of the harm because whatever is happening in that lawsuit is not fixing the damage that was done and the historical damage. So the goal is to get ahead of it, to make sure that none of these bad actions can happen, and also to show the return on the investment when you actually invest in communities. You got to give them the belief.

Yeah. I've used the analogy over and over, that we have a very strong -- we have two arms. We have a real strong muscular arm called enforcement. And that's really been beefed up, and it should in some way be effective in beefed up and strong. But we have another arm called prevention, intervention, and really transformative justice, and that's really the redlining piece, that is very weak, very feeble, really of no consequence. You can't go in a fight and win the fight when you only got one arm. You need to have both. And that means we have to beef this arm up a lot more than what we've been doing. And that takes courage. That takes courage because that looks at that budget as a moral document and say, "What in this budget do I need to change? And if I need to change drastically, how do I do it? And how do I do it in a way that people understand it and are not offended by it and deal with all the politics of it?" And I guess this is the clergy part of me that's coming out right now. It's really a challenge to you morally about what we're going to do. If we know this is the data, we know what Dr. Gur is saying is the truth, then when you see the truth, how do you respond to the truth? And that's really on you guys as a part of writing that budget, because it's not about the words you say. It's about the money and the dollars you put in it. My scripture tells me where your treasure is, so also is your heart. And so where's your treasure right now? Where is the moral budget of the city, which is the treasure of the city? What are you saying with that budget? And if all of this is true, we have to change what we're doing. And we can do it together without offense, without anger, without rancor, without anybody being upset, because we all have to do it. As the mayor has said, we have to be one Philly. We have to do this together, but we have to have a plan that we all can grab a hold of and feel that we're all included in that plan. (Applause.) CHAIR LANDAU: Thank you so much. Councilperson O'Rourke.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Blessings all. I wanted to ask, it was interesting to me to hear during our budget hearings that the data that came out of the 57 Blocks Coalition was read as maybe passe or fluid and there had not been any indication or at least didn't seem to me that folks were aware of updated intel and data that had come through. Is there anything still outstanding that you feel like has not been heard by law enforcement or other bodies in this city? I can't agree with you more about needing both arms to be successful. We have heard until we are blue in the face the need for us to have enforcement, enforcement, enforcement, enforcement, enforcement, enforcement, enforcement. Is there anything that you feel like is not being received, heard as it relates to investments that you all have talked about and all of these things that we know actually defined that needs to be set on record so people can hear from you all?

I'm going to let Dr. Gur go first.

I think in some respects the public safety plan that was released recently just underscores why we need this plan as well, because it really does focus on law enforcement. It does not include words like redlining or trauma or intergenerational. Right? So it's a policing strategy. And policing should be dynamic. Right? Their strategy needs to move around, as you heard earlier. But the trauma doesn't go anywhere unless it's addressed. So in my mind, this is something that is complimentary and is about bringing resources to places after something has not been prevented. And unfortunately, regardless of how well our law enforcement is put out there, not everything can be prevented. So it's really about what happens after something really tragic happens and how do we work intentionally, systematically, consistently to restore communities.

Yeah, I would agree with that, except, as I kind of said earlier, we have not had a good sit down meeting two or three hours and just, "Here's all the data we have, here's all the data you have. Where can we find common ground? Where can we agree?" I'm looking forward to that conversation. Now, I'm hoping this hearing will help that conversation. Like I said, I did meet with Adam Geer. We did have some conversations. It's important to know we did, but with Commissioner Bethel and his staff and his team, we really have not had that full conversation. And we really do need, and I believe we will have it.

I was going to say, do you feel confident, given your encounter today, that there will be on the book some time for you to have that sit down?

He's made a commitment to do that, and I know him as a man of his word, and I know that he'll do that.

Thank you, Reverend Holston. Thank you, Madam Chair. CHAIR LANDAU: Any other questions for this panel? Thank you so much for sharing with us. And with that, Mr. Serra, can you call the next panel?

The next panel to testify is Reuben Jones, Dr. Dorothy Johnson-Speight, and Chantay love. CHAIR LANDAU: Thank you for your patience. Thank you for being here. And can you please state your name for your record before you testify?

I got you, so I'm going first.

You came in first.

Good morning. My name is Reuben Jones -- (clears throat) excuse me -- for the record. So I prepared a lot of notes, which I won't read. You have it on the record. I'm going to try to follow my own guidance and make a few points about the clean and greening component of focused -- I'm sorry -- 57 blocks. That was a fault and slip. I apologize. But first, let me just take a minute or two just to introduce myself so that we have some cover for what I'm about to say. So my name is Reuben Jones. I grew up in North Philadelphia. I did my undergraduate work at Millersville University, where I studied psychology. I have a graduate degree from Lincoln University in counseling human services. I served on Mayor Kenney's transition team, the public safety committee, on the presidential war from President Barack Obama back in 2015, and was the social service coordinator for the focus deterrence gun violence reduction strategy in Philadelphia back in 2013, in which we had the lowest gun violence rate in 50 years. So I say that just to kind of set the table so that we have a real understanding. We've heard a lot of data. We've heard a lot of emotions. Thank you, Reverend Holston, for that. We've had a lot of common sense conversation, and we had some law enforcement input. But I just want to have a conversation. I just want to talk about some things that I think the elephant in the room, and I want to talk about the needs of the people that's represented by the elephant in the room. So first, specifically, thank you, Nicole, for the whole redlining conversation. So violence doesn't exist in a vacuum. Right? People don't wake up one day and decide to be violent. That violence is cultivated through a culture of acceptance, social promotion, and a reward system. Right? And if we're clear on that, then we can follow the trajectory of violence not only in Philadelphia, but across the country, as it relates particularly to poor black and brown communities. So when we add that redlining component to and we talk about deliberate and intentional government neglect. Right? How do we write the course? And I want to be clear when I say these things that we are having a dialog, so I invite questions. So there's been a lot of positive aspects to prevent gun violence in Philadelphia over the last couple of years, particularly through the infusion of financial investment. But what's really needed? Right? " We've seen data that says that most of the gun violence in Philadelphia stems from argument or disagreement. Right? So we're really talking about changing that course. We got to talk about changing the culture of Philadelphia. Right? We got to talk about what goes into having a person change their mind from being violent and antisocial to being more communal and prosocial. Right? What does that mean? It's a bunch of rhetoric. Right? But the environment has a contribution. I remember when I was younger, we used to watch the kung fu moves at the theater on Sundays and we came back and clap our mom's broomstick to make nunchucks after seeing Triple Irons or Bruce Lee or whatever. Because the environment influenced us. We listened to music. And I see young people walking around reciting rap lyrics all day long with their headphones on, disconnected from the world because the environment contributed to that mindset. Even during the pandemic, we told the world to put on masks to protect themselves and protect the people around them, and people adopted that as a way to hide from accountability. Right? So we've seen these things, we know these things. So when we start talking about cleaning and greening the community, I just want to take a second to give you -- Dr. Oren Gur did spend some time talking about those statistics.

So this is part of the research -- I just want to talk about return on investment -- that I did while working for focused deterrence while we seeking solution when they had this multi-agency collaboration, when we talk about infusing resources in the community and identifying the people that was most at risk to be a victim or perpetrator of gun violence. And I found this piece of research from the University of Pennsylvania. Right? So let me just read this real quick. "A major key to cartel and gun violence is the clean and greening the blight. By transforming vacant lots into a community based safe space and improve the lighting, improving overall community aesthetic, the goal of the clean and green initiative is to create a public space that serves as a symbol of hope and transformation for the communities coping with gun violence. Clean and green in neglected neighborhood focused on healing by transforming these blighted spaces in high violence prone areas from an eyesore into an oasis of peace. Transforming those blighted areas will help to bring the community together, celebrate life, and promote hope by creating a sacred space that will be co-designed, co-owned, and fully maintained by the community coping with laws. This transformed space will provide a safe green space for neighbors and will serve as a communal symbol of peace and hope that will help maintain a safer neighborhood. When people feel cared about, they begin to care more about themselves and their community. " Renovated lots and homes may reduce neighborhood gun violence by as much as, get this, 39 percent. We talked about those 57 plus blocks representing 30 percent, 30 percent of the gun violence in this city. 30, that's a phenomenal number for me. And you don't have to be good at math to understand it if we could somehow address the violence in those areas specifically, then we could reduce gun violence in the city by 30 percent almost overnight. Now, that doesn't mean that we don't have other areas of concern. It doesn't mean that we put all eggs in one basket, and this is the end all be all. After all, they got palm trees in California. They got beaches in LA. They still got gang violence, right? So what we talk about is not just beautifying the space and giving community ownership. We're talking about investing in human beings, which historically has never been done. I grew up in North Phil over 24th and Lehigh, right on 2700 block of Judson Street, right around the corner for 157 block 2800 of Bonsall. And growing up, we had a industry. We had Tasty Cake in the city. We had Budd Manufacturers. We had Botany 500 right there at Broad and Lehigh. We had the Philly Stadium at 22nd Street and a Penn Fruit. There were jobs, there was opportunity. 22nd Street was like our black Wall Street. We had business up and down 22nd Street, whether it's the barber shop, the bakery, whatever. But for some reason, all those employers are gone, all those industries are gone, all those businesses are gone. But we've seen the influx of cracks, guns, unemployment, lack of housing. And then we wonder why that's one of the number 1 hotspots for gun violence in the city. It's not a no -- it's a no 16 brainer. This is not complicated. In difficult circumstance, we need bold leadership. Not words, not speeches, not photo ops. And a lot of times, it's hard for me to hold back the emotions, because, I'll be honest with you, no 21 disrespect to anybody, especially the preachers sitting here, but a lot of times, I feel like it's a bunch of bullshit. Everybody want to push the right button, to get reelected, to get financial support, donations, to be welcome into a community that you haven't even visited beyond the election, to be welcomed by a bunch of people that you wouldn't dare sit at the dinner table with. And I say this not as an accusation or disrespect. I say it as plain English because I live in -- well, I don't live there anymore, but I work in that community every day.

And a couple years ago -- for the last three or four years, we were doing surveys in that very community around gun violence, around public safety, around political accountability. You know what they said -- according to the surveys that we did, which was going door to door, talking people on the street, going to the supermarket, going to the barbershop, you know what one of the number one problems was that they identified? Trash. We did a walkthrough from 29th to 22nd, from Indiana to Huntington, and we found one public trash can in that whole area. One. And that was at Dobbins at 22nd Lehigh High School. One public trash can. One. But do you know what we found? An 80 year old grandmother who'd been living in that neighborhood for over 50 years who got a fine from the city for trash that coincidentally, there's about 30 of these little corner stores where you -- you know the stuff you go buy, and people come out with their sodas and sandwiches and potato chips, and then they walk into the bus, they go on where they go and toss on the ground, and the wind comes along and blows up against my step, my sidewalk, my property. And she got a fine. You know what her fear was? "I live on a fixed income. " I think it was like $56 or something. But guess what that fine turned into. A lien on your property for this 80 year old grandmother who helped raise everybody in that neighborhood, who paid her dues, who don't even eat potato chips, who don't even drink Pepsi. Where's the accountability for that? Who's going to stand up and say, "You know what? This ain't right. I'm going to make sure that we either add an additional trash day, we're going to send a crew out to pick up this we're going to add some cans or something"? And it sounds like a story too good to be true because we know they just clean a lot of -- ain't trash can, ain't a panacea. Right? But we got to do it in conjunction with other things. We got to make sure that we invest in human beings. Those children got to walk to school every day over, around, and through those bloodstains, across that vacant lot with the rats, the broken glass, the shell casings. The lack of investment shows we don't even care about them. I don't know what kind of heart that this city council has -- and let me just say this while I'm on the city council, because I know I probably won't get this opportunity again. " So again, I had a bunch of bullet points. I'm not going to go through them all, but I do have two or three that I just want to highlight real quick then I'll pass it to my colleagues. So I'm going to talk about the lots and alleys real quick. So at the 2700 block of Judson Street, you know how it is in Philly, there are alleys vertically, but the top of the block, excuse me, there's a horizontal. It was not necessarily an alley, but there were two adjacent vacant lots between Bonsall and Judson. And there was a couple of shootings there on this block. And one of the neighbors -- not just one, but some of the neighbors complained that what's happened is if you live in the area, you been create a maze, an escape route where they do these shootings and immediately they can zigzag and go through these alleyways and vacant lots to get away. So even by the time the police get there, there's no evidence, there's nobody to apprehend. So the neighbors wanted to fence it up. These people live on the block, and they were told that you can't put a lock on gates because it's a fire hazard for firemen. It's a hazard for firemen if there was a fire. And they were outraged at that. So you sacrifice a life. And don't get me wrong, a fire is a tragic situation for people who's their problem. But we got to come to some type of conclusion, some type of solution to say, how do we circumvent this violence that's permeating this city with reckless abandon. So that's one thing. The nonlaw enforcement strategy, I think is important for us to recognize.

Nobody here is devaluing or disrespecting the role that law enforcement plays, but let's also be real. Law enforcement comes after there's a victim. Law enforcement comes after somebody's been shot. After somebody's dead, somebody calls 911. We're talking about prevention. We don't want it to get to the level that somebody gets shot. If we can somehow create a space where people do the investment in mental health, education, job creation, stable housing, transportation, and eliminating these food deserts, as people's needs are met, as related to Maslow's hierarchy of needs -- right? You get what I'm saying? I think there is less temptation for them to engage in that kind of behavior that ends up victimizing somebody. And I want to think of that lighting because that's important. Most of these blocks that we're talking about are poorly lit. You have people come home from 11:30, 12 o'clock at night from work, walking three, four, five blocks from the bus stop, maybe carrying groceries or a bag, and it's not well lit. Women are being victimized in those situations. Children are being victimized in those situations. I think, if anything, if nothing else, we could explore solar powered lighting if cost is an issue. But at the end of the day, those are some of the things that we want to commit to with this cleaning and greening. So I think I'll stop there. I don't want to outweigh my welcome, but I appreciate the time and the opportunity to speak, and I'll be happy to welcome any questions at the end of our panel. So thank you. CHAIR LANDAU: Thank you.

I was going to say good morning, but it's actually good afternoon. I've been here since 9:30. Thank you for the opportunity to give testimony this morning. I have something I prepared. We had to send over our testimonies. I'm going to do that first. So anyway, first of all, my name is Dr. Dorothy Johnson-Speight. I'm founder and national executive director of Mothers in Charge, have been in this role since May of 2003. My year old son colleague Jabbar Johnson, 11 graduate University of Maryland Eastern Shore, working 12 at Pickett Middle School as a counselor for children 13 with diagnosis, was shot and killed seven -- shot 14 seven times over parking space. Devastated my world. 15 Didn't think I was going to survive his death, but at 16 some point I knew I had to get out of that dark space 17 where I was with the pain and grief and the trauma of 18 his death and do something. 19 So Mothers in Charge was the vehicle that helped 20 me live that I founded in 2003. Mothers in Charge has 21 been an advocate for peace in Philadelphia for over 22 two decades. We are teaming with the 57 Blocks 23 Coalition to continue the work we do to reduce gun 24 violence and to advocate for the underserved in our communities. We all know there's a gun violence crisis in our city. We often hear about the violence. However, not enough is said about the long term effects and the violence it has on men, women, and children that are directly and indirectly experiencing the aftermath. Gun violence leads to trauma in people's lives. Trauma can lead to long term, long lasting devastation. Trauma defined is deeply distressing or disturbing experience. It may lead to shock and sometimes long term effects. The effect of untreated trauma is often played out in our streets every single day in the City of Philadelphia. The grief work we do at Mothers in Charge exposes the results of how untreated trauma can lead to self destruction behaviors. People tend to self medicate with drugs. I did that because the pain was like that. Alcohol or other unhealthy behaviors. The children suffering from trauma may have a hard time concentrating, even in school, or realizing their full potential. Have a hard time sleeping because some of them hear gunshots, and they hear it so often that they know whether it's a glock or this or that. Every night, they feel unsafe in this world. Children may also act out in school as a result. As the 57 Blocks Coalition has shown, some areas of Philadelphia see more than their share of violence. People are walking around on high alert, which may lead to high anxiety. Some appear shell shocked, a term often associated with war torn communities. Countries, I'm sorry. The 57 Blocks Coalition is advocating for more resources for the communities that have been underserved for many, many, many years. A continued lack of investment in the areas most highly affected by violence has caused ongoing stress and problematic behaviors. Our aim is to reduce crime and to clean up these areas. We'll make a concentrated effort from city government and community partners. There needs to be medical care to address the mental, physical, and emotional wellness. We've had the food desert conversations for years. It's time to give people access to fresh fruits, vegetables, and meats without having to travel outside of their neighborhoods. It's part of time that we invest in people. The youth need after school programs that will stem violence, swimming, chess, coding, homework, help. All these things would make a difference. It's simple. Parents need jobs that pay a respectable living wage, affordable housing and childcare. The safety of our citizens can no longer be ignored. Gun violence is a public health epidemic. It's time for Philadelphia to show the world that we can live in a safe and secure environment. Investing in neighborhoods is the way to a safer, cleaner, and greener city.

I want to thank our member Renee McDonald, who had to leave, but who wrote this. I want to talk about these mothers standing here. I joined 57 Blocks and learned all of the data that you all have heard. It makes me angry to think that all this knowledge is out there and nothing is being done about it. Who is responsible for my son's death? The shooter and the deinvestment. That's what caused these lives to be taken. Sheila Ward's son murdered. See, I'm having a senior moment, and I know this mother real good. Tell me your name and your son's name.

Angela Melbourne. My son's name was Amir Boston.

Crystal.

Crystal Arthur. My son, Christian Hamilton Arthur, was murdered in July 16th, 2017.

Pat Connolly (phonetic), son and grandson murdered in the streets of Philadelphia.

And another thing, just Monday night, the person that was murdered at 5th & Tabor, I know him and I know his --

It's on. Talk into it. We want to start it over again. Give it to Sheila. Start over again, ladies, please. This is what it's about. That's why we're here. We've been here since 9:30 this morning. You need to hear us. Every councilmember need to hear us. The mic's not working. Come up here, ladies.

It's on right here.

This trauma is painful. This grief is painful. But every single day, these mothers get up to make a difference in this city to save other mothers and fathers and families from experiencing this. For 20-plus years, we've been on the front lines with no real resources and supports. I have a chapter in San Francisco, LA, Kansas City. Most of my resources and supports come from another place, not in the city of brotherly love and sisterly affection, where we are living and paying taxes every single day. Go ahead, Sheila.

My name is Sheila Ward. My son is Wayne Ward. He was 30 years old when he got killed. He had a wife and four kids, and his wife was pregnant with the fourth child when he was murdered. And it hurts every day. It was in 2005, and I don't know how without Dorothy help that I get up and I do the work that I do with Mothers in Charge, and it's insane. I don't want my enemy to feel the way I do. I get shrimp from these other women. They knew they just coming in, and I helped them. But we need more help. This is insane. I don't want this to happen to you, to you, to you. And if you feel this pain, you'll never regret helping us so you don't feel the pain.

My name is Michelle. My son Jamil was murdered in front of his house on March 26, 2019. His youngest daughter was in the house. She was only two, and she remember her dad being killed. And every time I get my grandbaby, she asks me, "Grandma, do you know the bad man that killed my daddy?" That hurts so much. It hurts, it hurts. Lord knows it hurts. It hurts so bad. Oh, man.

My name is Angela Melbourne. My son, Amir Boston, was murdered October 29th of '20. We are now raising his seven year old son, another black male without a father. I remember seeing a movie of a little black girl being raped and dragged. And at the end of the movie, the lawyer said, "Close your eyes and picture this little black girl being white." And I asked you to close your eyes and picture having to go to the hospital because your child was murdered in the City of Philadelphia of brotherly love. Just picture that's your child. Picture how you would feel. Picture the pain and the grief. Picture standing there at the kitchen sink, like I was, and I heard them gunshots just for minutes 9 later the police would be ringing my doorbell telling 10 me my child was just shot dead in the street. Picture that.

Hi. My name is Crystal Arthur. And my son Christian, he was murdered July the 16th, 2017. He's my only son, and it's not a good feeling to be where we are right now. I wouldn't wish this even on the parents of the children that killed my son. Can you please help us? Because we need a lot of help. It's not easy living day to day. We need all the help that we can get.

My name is Pat Connolly. My son, Jason, my youngest son, he was 38 years old. He was murdered September of 2014. It'll be 10 years this coming September. He left one son who was 14 years old at the time of his death. I tried to do everything I possibly could do to help raise him and to protect him and keep him from this happening to him, but just my worst nightmare came true. November the 19, 2023, my son's son, my grandson, he was murdered. He was only years old. And it's just 5 been really rough for my family. 6 At the time my grandson was murdered, I was 7 already a member of Mothers in Charge, and now this, a 8 second time. Just Tuesday, I was working on the 9 election polls. We had a committee of five people. 10 Three mothers of the five people there lost their son 11 to gun violence. Three out of five. 12 Just Monday night, at 5th & Tabor, the young man 13 that was murdered outside the bar, I know him, I know 14 his mother, I know his family, and I know what they're 15 going through. This is just hitting a lot of us 16 really hard, and it's affecting so many people, too 17 many people, and it's just got to stop. Thank you. 18

So you all have heard just 19 a few of the mothers who've come through our doors, 20 who are hurting every single day with trauma. They 21 say, "Well, try to imagine", but I'm going to say to 22 you, there is no way you can even imagine the pain of having to bury a son or daughter because someone made a conscious decision to take their life. Gun violence. And you sat here this morning, you heard all of the statistics and all of the data. I was impressed with the commissioner's data that he's doing now and all the things you heard from 57 Blocks, the data. But that's not news. That information is not rocket scientists. You know that these things are happening. You know that there's a way to fix it or at least make a difference with it, but it's not being done. Why? Everyday in our office at 990 Spring Garden, we get a list of homicide victims that we have to reach out to. We go to their houses, we have them come into our office providing grief support. Little support from the city to do this, but we have it in our heart to do it because we know the pain and grief of what is happening with these families. So we do everything we can to identify resources, usually outside of Philadelphia, to get the help to continue the work. Every Monday and Wednesday, we mentor kids from Carson Valley, hoping to keep them on the right track. I've had a relationship with Carson Valley over 20 years. These kids come every week. Now they're telling me they're closing Carson Valley because they don't have money. We go to the youth study center. We have a program -- we go in there with the little money we got from CEG. We work with the juveniles there. They're sleeping on the floors. They're fighting one another. What's going on? These are our children, our precious gift from God. But everybody seems to have turned their head and their back on them. Why? Maybe because they don't vote? I don't know, but it hurts. I've been doing this for years, and I still feel the pain and 8 grief of my son's death being shot seven times because 9 of a parking space. No one really came to me and 10 brought me any resources or support. When does it 11 change? 12 All this data, all this information, how many 13 blocks, and all this, you know this already. It's 14 clear. 57 Blocks has made it common knowledge. It's 15 out there, but it's being ignored. I really don't 16 understand why. I really don't understand why. We 17 need your help. We need your help to save lives, to 18 save this city. I'm inspired now. A new 19 administration. I'm hopeful. I'm really hopeful. 20 I served on Josh Shapiro's transition team. I served on Cherelle Parker's transition team. I've been doing this work, committed to this, not for any rhyming reason, but because I understand the pain and grief of it and I want to see something different happen in the city that I'm born and raised then. And I don't want to see mothers keep coming through our doors like these mothers who are grieving the pain and grief of having to bury a son or daughter. It's the worst pain in the world. There's no words to describe it. And we're tired of seeing so many of them experiencing it. Please, let's do something about this now before it's really too late. Thank you. CHAIR LANDAU: Thank you so much. Chantay, if just -- yes. (Applause.) CHAIR LANDAU: Just quickly, before you proceed, I just wanted to thank you so much, Dr. Speight. And also thank the mothers who are here for sharing with us. It is so painful to hear their stories, and I can hear and feel the grief from them. I know it touched all of us. We're so very sorry, and we know how hard it is also to share to us. But thank you for that. And I just want to also give you your space, Chantay.

My colleagues, I appreciate them. Because we work together, I won't talk long because my sinus and asthma flared up all night. And so I think my sister, that as to the cake, can you do it all? And I want you to know that when we're looking at the trauma and the community trauma, that we have to have a solution. And because we do have the solution, it's worth us investing in the human spirit. It's worth it. I know that it's challenging, but what we do want to -- what I do want to say is that I don't want no 4 more blood on our hands. That by not doing the right thing, we actually help pull the trigger. And if we don't want to pull the trigger anymore, in the countries watching us, they're watching how we're going to fix it. I will say trauma support for community healing works. People say people don't want to get help. I will tell you in six months we have wind up doing over 1,400 sessions of counseling for people experiencing this. So I'm going to close so I will have -- so I can breathe some more, is that we're in this together. And people see Dorothy and myself, EMIR Healing Center and Mothers in Charge, similar lived experiences, wanting the same outcome. And we always unite, and we asking that you all unite with us to make this work. Thank you.

I just want to add one more thing. When you look at the budget -- when you look at the budget for investment in communities, because as you heard, communities is the solution. We can do this, but we need investment in our communities. When I think of the shooter who took my son's life, and now, having been a part of 57 Blocks, getting all the information and data about blocks and redline and all that, who's really responsible for these babies that are dying? Is it the shooter or is it deinvestment? That's really what I feel. This knowledge is common knowledge. If you know it, do something about it. Invest in the communities. We're doing the work -- the decrease you've seen in violence in the last year or two is because of the work that we're doing. We can't arrest our way out of this. Thank you. (Applause.) CHAIR LANDAU: Thank you all so very much. I have a quick -- just one quick comment to make right now is that I've worked with all of you in a variety of capacities. And I want you to know clearly we brought you together here because we want to get humans and data together to help the city move forward and to fix this problem. I have volunteered side by side with many of you. I know you do not want to spend all nights, all weekends giving out food and counseling and all of yourselves. You would rather have the problems solved and take care of yourselves. And if we had the investment in the communities, with food and with investing in our schools, in our homes, and in all sorts of ways, when we have the flourishing community, then we don't have to do the back end of this. So we are aware of, very obvious for us, I think, those of us, to see the front end investment that needs to happen in order to resolve this. And I think the tension then gets there in between about who sees what investment as valuable. Do anybody have a comment?

Thank you, Madam Chair. Dr. Speight, working in an institution now for four months, I have realized that there was a lot of formality, which I guess by nature slows movement down a whole lot. Coming out of organizing activist movement spaces, I find myself struggling to perform surprise in this chamber because of what you said. When the data itself might be new this year, the bottom line is not new. We know, and I know that your frustrations, while I may be a bit annoyed by the performance of surprise around things that have been repeated ad nauseam for years, your frustrations are much deeper as this isn't just a practice and argumentation for you. These are lived experiences. I wanted to thank the mother who was working the polls on Tuesday. Thank you for your service to our democracy, as you are the mothers who have lost. I believe I heard someone say that you've lost your son and your grandson. And you are still giving back to society. Thank you. And even in doing that, that you heard three out of five folks there had lost loved ones. So I'm saying this to say that I'm annoyed by having to pretend like I'm surprised by hearing the information, but I know that you are much more frustrated and pained in having to wait so long to see any action on it. I think I can -- I think it's fair to say that you're talking to folks up here who will be advocates on these things. I think all of us are fairly new to this chamber. And so for whatever it's worth, do know that that is heard, that resonates. And all that we can do in terms of making sure that actual investment to save lives, because that's part of what drives my annoyance. So much of us are passionate about saving lives when the answers are there. And so yes, for the salvation of life and preservation of life, know that you have an advocate here to fight with you. Thank you so much for your testimony today.

Thank you for those comments. I appreciate it so much. Thank you. CHAIR LANDAU: Thank you. Thanks for being here and for sharing with -- I'm sorry.

It's all right. My heart does go out to you. Nobody should have to bury a child. I buried my first son not because of gun violence, but because of medical issues. And it's hard. And I commend you for having the strength to come up and talk about it because I almost had to leave the room 9 myself because it brings up them same feelings again. I ran because of the gun violence in my neighborhood. I live in Kensington. I don't have to live in Kensington. And it's kind of funny. People don't get it because they ask me, "Why do you live in Kensington?" And I tell them that's where the work's at, but they don't get it. So I appreciate you guys, and I thank you for the work you're doing. And as my colleagues said, we may be new, but we're looking to get to this. I ran because I was tired of burying my kids. And when I say my kids, I mean the kids in my neighborhood. I talk to them. They're good kids. So we definitely have to do a better job of using all the resources that are available to us. Before I became a councilman, I was Senator Street's chief of staff, and we paid for 200 repasses in one year from the district. That's outrageous. From one district. It's just outrageous. So I appreciate that you had the strength to come here and share your experiences and your story. And we are willing to look at everything. We want to make sure that we're using every tool in that toolbox. And trauma, I talk about it. My colleagues know I talk about it every day. The trauma these kids are facing now, just on their way to school, is what's going to turn the next bunch of addicts like myself. I'm recovering years, but the reason I got there 11 was for not dealing with the trauma I had, first as a 12 child and then from losing my child. Before I lost my 13 child, I had 12 years of sobriety. And after losing my child, I never went to deal with that because I'm a man, we just go on our way. And I've learned from experience that that's not the way to do it. You need to be able to get that out in order to move on. It's not like you're going to forget.

Never.

But you need to move on with your life, and we need to treat that trauma. And that's why I came here. And so I appreciate you all. Thank you.

Thank you for the work you're doing. And please allow me to extend my deepest sympathy to you and the loss of your child. Although it wasn't violence, it was the death of a child. And there's no right way to lose a child. I had a two and a half year old daughter that died of bacterial meningitis before my son was murdered. So the pain and grief and trauma of having to bury a child is the worst pain in the world. There's no pain in the world like it. And I have a mother who has your story. She was clean for many years, and after the death of her son, John John, she started using again too. But she's clean today and a part of the team that goes out every day to make a difference in the city. Thank you.

Can I just add one last word? I just want to say, we live in a democratic city. Right? We live in a city where 12 or 13 of our city councils are African American. We live in a city where 80 percent or more of these gun violence deaths are African Americans. People who have suffered loss and are doing this work to save lives and to prevent other mothers from crying shouldn't have to sit up here like Vegas to get the city to put money into the city's budget to permanently fund violence prevention efforts. Thank you. CHAIR LANDAU: Thank you all so much for being here and for sharing your stories with us. And thank you for your incredible work. We will do everything that we can to support you. There is now public comment. And is there anybody here for public comment? Mr. Serra, can you call the names of the folks who are here for public comment?

The first speaker is Stan Shapiro. CHAIR LANDAU: I'm so sorry. Can I just say one more thing while this panel is still here? While two of our committee members did have to leave for other meetings that we are on, know that they can and are probably watching it from a different space. And I will make sure -- I promise you this, I will make sure that I take the clip of this session and make sure to share it widely with all of Council and make sure to share it with the Mayor's office as well and just tell them how important it is that they watch this committee hearing.

Is there any way that we could also get a clip? CHAIR LANDAU: Yes.

Thank you. And you're welcome to come back to Mothers in Charge anytime. Thank you. CHAIR LANDAU: Can't wait to see you again.

The next speaker is Emily Dowdall.

Ready? CHAIR LANDAU: Thank you so much. Please state your name for the record.

Emily Dowdall. Hi, good afternoon. At Reinvestment Fund, we are acutely aware of the harmful and unjust outcomes associated with a lack of equitable investment in specific communities, and for black and Hispanic households in particular. Our commitment to reinvest in effective neighborhoods is, of course, in our very name. We are a national community development institution headquartered here in Philadelphia, and I run the policy solutions team, which uses data and analysis to support strategic and equitable policy and investment decisions. It's been said that mortgage and home improvement loans are the lifeblood of housing, and without those dollars, housing markets, not to mention the quality of homes and neighborhoods, will inevitably decline. My team regularly analyzes Home Mortgage Disclosure Act data to understand where this lifeblood is flowing and where and for whom it is constricted. We find that deeply, unequal access to mortgage financing persists. The most recent census of mortgage data showed that while 40 percent of Philadelphia's households identify as black, only percent of mortgage loans to purchase, refinance, or improve primary homes went to black borrowers. And because black Philadelphians, on average, have lower incomes and less wealth, they tend to buy less expensive homes, which means that as a group, they're receiving an even smaller share of all mortgage dollars, just percent. 9 This pattern is partly explained by lower rates 10 of applications for mortgages and also by denial 11 rates. The denial rate for black applicants across 12 all types of primary home mortgages was almost twice 13 the rate for white applicants, and the denial rate for 14 Hispanic applicants was also above average. We also 15 found disparities when we looked at mortgage flows and 16 the racial and ethnic makeup of census tracts. Denial 17 rates were higher in majority black and Hispanic tracts for borrowers of all racial and ethnic groups, even while the general pattern held that black and Hispanic borrowers had higher denial rates. This dynamic echoes historic redlining where loans were denied based on neighborhood demographics. One reason that access to home loans is so important for advancing racial equity is that homeownership is still one of the most common paths to wealth building in this country. But not all mortgage loans are for owner occupants. Our analysis also shows that in a majority black and Hispanic tracts, a much larger share of loans are for investment properties rather than primary homes compared to majority white neighborhoods. This raises the specter that prospective homebuyers may be getting crowded out of the market by investors. These troubling patterns were more pronounced in the 57 blocks where mortgage originations were constrained in 90 percent of the 57 blocks where black and Hispanic mortgage denial rates were more than one and a half times the denial rate for white applicants in half the tracts, and where mortgages for investment properties accounted for a greater share of all loan activity, at more than a third of originations compared to percent citywide. 18 Altogether, our analysis supports the case for 19 targeted resources for public and private sector in 20 areas that have long been underinvested, more active enforcement of fair housing and fair lending laws, and the need for increased responsible lending to households of color. Thank you. CHAIR LANDAU: Thank you so very much. And thank you for all the work from the Reinvestment Fund --

You're welcome.

The next speaker is Peter Winslow. CHAIR LANDAU: Please state your name for the record. Thank you.

Good afternoon, members of the Committee on Technology and Information Services. My name is Peter Winslow. I'm a Philadelphia resident. Thank you for this opportunity to speak to you today on behalf of the Philadelphia Public Banking Coalition and as vice chair of the Public Banking Institute in support of the 57+ Blocks Coalition and resolution 12 number 240043. I last saw Damon Taylor in the hallway of the Imhotep Institute Charter High School about an hour before he was shot and killed at the Septa bus stop at Oakland and Godfrey. Like all Philadelphians, I feel the presence of gun violence deeply and personally. I also mourn the death of Carol Hemingway, who is my friend and Philly thrived colleague in Grays Ferry. She died way too young from disease caused by air pollution from the refinery she fought against until her dying breath. The approximate cause of these deaths or deaths like these may be a bullet or toxic air, but the underlying cause is failure of our society to assure that, for everybody, our inalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. The pain we experience due to violent death from guns, slow death from environmental degradation, death of the spirit, death of hope is the result of systemic inequities. Data presented today confirms the correlation of gun violence, shortened life expectancy, poor education, poverty, environmental degradation, and other metrics of misery within specific neighborhoods. These conditions were created systemically by historic practices such as redlining. The system, specifically the financial system, perpetuates these conditions. The system doesn't incentivize investments targeted to benefit the 57 plus block neighborhoods. The system creates gaps in the availability of credit and capital on fair and equitable terms. The system works fine for some, but not for all of us. But the systems of American democracy of, by, and for the people began in Philadelphia. The United States financial system was invented in Philadelphia. Leadership, the spirit of William Penn and Benjamin Franklin and Alexander Hamilton, remains in Philadelphia's DNA. Mayor Parker voted to establish the Philadelphia Public Financial Authority when she was a councilmember. She can fulfill her mayoral responsibility to implement the law by appointing the initial PPFA board today. Establishing the PPFA, precursor to a public bank, will inject a catalytic agent into our local financial ecosystem. The PPFA will democratize money. The PPFA will empower stakeholders in our community. The PPFA will promote public benefit over private profit. The PPFA will direct our money for our prosperity. The PPFA will assure access to finance as a human right for all Philadelphians. Fix the system. Establish the Philadelphia Public Financial Authority. Thank you. CHAIR LANDAU: Thank you. Can you please state your name for the record?

Madam Chair, nice to see you. It's been a while. Members of Council, my name is Stan Shapiro. I'm a member of Philly Neighborhood Networks and also a member of the Public Banking Coalition. I work closely with Peter and others on trying to change our financial system so that it actually responds to the needs of people and all of the issues that we've been hearing today. We are not a poor city. We are constantly being told that we are a poor city. We are not a poor city. What is true is that the resources and wealth that we have is poorly distributed. Not enough people have enough to access what is good in life, and others have much more than they need. And there are many businesses which have much more than they need and some that are struggling. And we can turn that around. It's not inevitable. For instance, in terms of wealth, the city and gas workers pension funds, they contain $8 billion in reserve. The budget of the city is less than that. So a budget and a half is contained within that fund. The primary responsibility of those funds, of course, is to assure the continuing financial security promised to city workers when they retire. Nevertheless, the ultimate welfare of city employees at any age depends on the economic and social condition of the city itself, and we've seen that today far too graphically. Critics voice concern, however, that there is too much risk if the fund invests in local Philly enterprises and infrastructure, which is pathetically wrong. This is a thriving city with tremendous potential, and to suggest that the pension fund cannot find sound investments in Philadelphia is insulting, and this has been done in other places. The concept of focusing and targeting local pension funds is known as economically targeted investment. It's been a feature of New York City pension funds for 30 years. Yet we're told that investing locally is not safe. But the reality is the pension fund is not managed in a way to keep the investments safe. A report by the city controller in 2021 indicated that it has investments in options, futures, forwards, swap agreements, all of which are speculative. Private equity investments, for instance, are targeted for percent of the pension fund. Those 12 are highly risky. Everyone knows that. There is no 13 reason for taking such risks above the minimal normal business risk of investing in Philadelphia neighborhoods. And the pension fund does respond occasionally to the notion that it needs to consider the public good when it makes its investments. That's why it excludes investments in certain Russian companies, private prisons, and arms manufacturers, and cigarette manufacturers. Moving unproductive investments into Philly centric investments would be totally consistent with a portfolio aiming for safety and return with an extra moral bonus. We've talked about the morality of the situation we have. Those investments can build up struggling communities all around the city. So let me give some examples. As I said, New York has had a targeted investment program since the 1980s. 3 billion in affordable housing in New York. 3 billion. The program allocates two percent of its pension funds toward economically targeted investments, addressing market inefficiencies by providing liquidity to underserved communities and populations citywide. A federal GAO office report in 1992 found 12 public pension fund investments in affordable housing, 13 most of which involved collaboration with other 14 programs. There may be fewer of those now because 15 pension funds have been privatized. Democrats, and I don't mind confessing to be a Democrat in this environment, have for decades talked about the fact that we need investments in people, and that was a feature of public pension funds for decades.

But Wall street stepped in, found this huge amount of investment capital, and convinced bodies all around the country, including in Philadelphia, because I was actually on the staff of city council in the eighties when Council first decided to move from safe investments in municipal bonds to the stock market on the same basis that we're told that Social Security funds should be invested in the stock market, because that's where you make money. And that's also where you have incredible risks of losing money and you support all kinds of ventures that do nothing for the City of Philadelphia and in many ways directly harm the people of the city. There are other investment opportunities in environmental sustainability, and Peter is an expert on that, and if you'd like, I'm sure that he could elaborate. But the Philadelphia Green Capital Corporation could leverage financing from the pension funds for programs promoting renewable energy and energy efficiency, and those funds could be targeted to areas where there is particularly need. The pension fund could also help the PGCC leverage grants and capital investment from private sources. For example, a PGCC grant under the Inflation Reduction Act could implement a clean communities investment accelerator program that collateralizes loans from the pension fund, thereby further expanding their capacities. Financial incentives provided by the Inflation Reduction Act and other recent legislation now emit 30 percent to 50 percent of renewable energy and energy efficiency project costs in the form of tax, credits, or direct payments. Because such projects require upfront capital outlays, the availability of financing from the fund would expedite program implementation tremendously. And there are also investment opportunities in co-op development projects. And co-ops are a great source of capital that improves communities on a permanent basis. Co-ops do not pick up their assets and move to another city. They don't move to Malaysia. They are made up of people who live in the city, who have a stake in the city, and who can advance the interests of all the people in their communities. So if we can help co-ops, we're helping people in communities. The fund can make standalone investments in co- ops, as it has done with the Weavers Way Co-op expansion to stores in Ambler and Germantown for smaller scale co-op ventures. Credit unions, which are a form of co-op organization for financial purposes, have created investment vehicles in other countries. They could do that here. Community land trusts could hold property of a size and for a purpose suitable for investment by the pension fund. Financing very long term investments in community land trust properties could be extremely useful as a capital source for refinancing expiring use properties. Those properties which were required by FHA to remain low income, which are expired, and we've heard about many of them over the last few years, we need capital to preserve those in the public domain. This could be a source of capital for that. There are many other possibilities. Employer assisted housing programs for city employees. They are living in neighborhoods all around the city. Geriatric focused, federally qualified health centers, and senior housing that diverts people from nursing homes, PGW energy conservation activities repaid with PGW loans, neighborhood improvement district lines of credit for capital improvement, energy conservation, or stormwater management. The bottom line is clear. $160 million from the city pension fund, just two percent of its portfolio, that's the percentage they use in New York, could easily be invested in economically targeted investments here in Philly, where this fund was created, its coffers are filled and taxpayers continue to contribute along with city workers.

These safe and sound investments can stimulate the local economy, expand jobs and economic opportunities, and thereby improve the city's tax base and support the beneficiaries of the pension fund in the present as well as upon retirement. Thank you. CHAIR LANDAU: Thank you so much for sharing. Please state your name for the record.

My name is Kay Lasker. I wanted to speak on behalf of one of the programs that we have developed jointly with Power and the Philadelphia Public Banking Coalition. We have labeled our efforts Bring our Money Home. The concept is to have Philadelphia residents and other organizations, such as church groups and other charity, move their bank deposits from the big banks to the local community banks, including the minority oriented banks and also credit unions. We believe this will enable a more positive relationship between local financial institutions and the community. It can also increase the circulation of local dollars through the community. What can local community banks offer that big banks have not? These small banks mostly offer the same array of services at lower costs and often better interest rates on savings and better terms on credit cards and other loans. Small and mid-sized banks control less than one quarter of all the assets, yet they account for more than half of all the business lending. Key decisions are made locally by people who live in the community and therefore are stakeholders, thereby having a personal interest in their local community. By backing institutions that share the commitment to Philadelphia, then more the communities prosper and the local banks also benefit. Usually, big banks use their deposits to invest in other regions of the country and abroad, also other Wall street interests like the fossil fuel industry, thus neglecting the local community. Albert Einstein tried to teach us the fallacy of repeating an unsuccessful practice and hoping to get a successful outcome. And Buckminster Fuller advised us that if a model is not working, get a new model. Wise people who came before us warned us not to forget the lessons learned from history. Yet we have permitted our city to become entrapped in the big bank debt spiral, thereby never having enough resources to lift people out of poverty and provide all the residents with a better quality of life. There are studies by economists who asked an important question, why have certain families managed to acquire great wealth and also managed to maintain this wealth and successfully passed it on to the newer generations? Do all of these various groups have a common practice that has significantly enabled their success? And the one common practice they found was they positioned their financial activities so that they collected interest over long periods of time. However, Philadelphia each year pays out a high interest load to large banks, money that could be redirected toward the city's benefit and, by the way, of a Philadelphia public bank. Big banks do not direct profits towards investing in Philadelphia. The pension fund investments, along with the community bank investments and a more efficient management of Philadelphia finances can be a game changer and enhance the economy of the city. All it takes is to adopt a new model for managing investments and financing the city and a more efficient way for Philadelphia future and through the public bank, an adequate number of community banks sprinkled throughout the city. Thank you. CHAIR LANDAU: Thank you so very much.

Do we have Donna Jones or Reverend Jeanette Doris? Chair Landau, there are no more names for public comment. CHAIR LANDAU: Well, thank you all so much for being here. As chair of the Technology and Information Services Committee, I want to express my gratitude to everybody who provided us this incredible information. The depth of insight, the richness of experience, the commitment to change that we have witnessed here today is truly inspiring. We delve deep into data, examined the stark realities facing our city, the alarming rates of gun violence, the historical disinvestment in black and brown neighborhoods, and the disproportionate impact of gun violence on black and brown communities. But amidst these sobering statistics, I hope that we've uncovered some opportunities, as well as a chance to use the nexus of data, technology, and community insights to drive meaningful change. Thank you to everyone who brought your testimony before us today. As we bring today to a close, we cannot lose sight of what's right in front of us. The time for investing in innovative and longstanding solutions is now. I look forward to continuing this important work together, collaborating across sectors, breaking down silos and forging new pathways towards a brighter future for Philadelphia. Thank you all very much. Really appreciate it. (Applause.) CERTIFICATE OF TRANSCRIPTIONIST I, CHRISTY SWEENEY, Legal Transcriptionist, do hereby certify: That the foregoing is a complete and true transcription of the original digital audio recording of the testimony and proceedings captured in the above-entitled matter. As the transcriptionist, I have reviewed and transcribed the entirety of the original digital audio recording of the proceeding to ensure a verbatim record to the best of my ability. I further certify that I am neither attorney for nor a relative or employee of any of the parties to the action; further, that I am not a relative or employee of any attorney employed by the parties hereto, nor financially or otherwise interested in the outcome of this matter. IN WITNESS THEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this 9th day of May, 2024. ______________________________________ Christy Sweeney