Committee Hearing, March 31, 2005

COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA PUBLIC HEARING COMMITTEE ON COMMERCE AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT - - - Room 400, City Hall. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Thursday, March 31, 2005 2:10 p.m. - - - RESOLUTION 040827 - A resolution authorizing the Committee on Commerce and Economic Development to hold hearings to review the findings and recommendation of the Philadelphia 21st Century Economic Development Summit... RESOLUTION 041017 - A resolution authorizing Philadelphia City Council's Committee on Commerce and Economic Development to hold public hearings to investigate residential and commercial development in Philadelphia... PRESENT: COUNCILMAN W. WILSON GOODE, JR., Chair COUNCILMAN DARRELL CLARKE COUNCILMAN FRANK DICICCO COUNCILWOMAN BLONDELL REYNOLDS BROWN COUNCILMAN MICHAEL NUTTER COUNCILMAN FRANK RIZZO COUNCILWOMAN DONNA REED MILLER - - - V A R A L L O Incorporated Litigation Support Services 1835 Market Street, Suite 600 Philadelphia, PA 19103 (215) 561-2220 2 I N D E X STEPHANIE NAIDOFF MARISA WAXMAN 30 MAXINE GRIFFITH 54 KEVIN HANNA 67 MALCOLM LAZIN 91 GILBERT ROSENTHAL 96 HARRIS ECKSTUT 108 JUDITH ROBINSON 118 3 3/31/05 - COMMERCE - RES. 040827 AND 041017

This hearing is called to order. This is a public hearing of the Commerce and Economic Development Committee for Resolution Nos. 040827 and No. 041017. My name is W. Wilson Goode, Jr., chair of this committee. A quorum is not necessary, as this is a resolution. Attending the hearing at this point is Councilman Frank DiCicco and Councilwoman Donna Reed Miller. We expect other committee members to show up at some point. The title of Resolution No. 16 040827, authorizing the Committee on Commerce and Economic Development to hold hearings to review the findings and recommendations of the Philadelphia 21st Century Economic Development Summit, to take public testimony related to the Street Administration's proposed Economic Development Blueprint and Investment Fund and further authorizing the Committee to issue subpoenas to compel the attendance 4 3/31/05 - COMMERCE - RES. 040827 AND 041017 of witnesses and the production of documents and other evidence; title of Resolution No. 041017, a resolution 5 authorizing Philadelphia City Council's Committee on Commerce and Economic Development to hold hearings to investigate residential and commercial development in Philadelphia, including waterfront development and the Building Industry Association of Philadelphia's recommendations to encourage new construction in the city. Our first witness will be the commerce director, Stephanie Naidoff. Good afternoon, Miss Naidoff. Please state your name for the record and proceed with your testimony.

Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman and Members of the Committee. I'm Stephanie Naidoff, and I am Philadelphia's City Representative and Director of Commerce. I'm pleased to have this opportunity to provide additional 5 3/31/05 - COMMERCE - RES. 040827 AND 041017 testimony on the recently completed Economic Development Blueprint in response to Councilman Goode's resolution. I also have a secondary objective today. I hope to demonstrate how the blueprint speaks to another issue on the committee's agenda, Resolution 10 041017, which focuses on the issue of development in the city. There are several City departments represented here today in order to provide detailed information regarding residential and commercial development in the city. The Blueprint speaks to the way in which these issues are divided between departments and provides the larger framework for coordinated policy planning and improved service delivery. The Blueprint presents the administration's goal to improve development in the city through transparency, coordinated policy planning, and a shared vision for 6 3/31/05 - COMMERCE - RES. 040827 AND 041017 encouraging development in Philadelphia. At our last meeting to discuss the Blueprint on March 3, I presented the initial administrative priorities coming out of the Blueprint process and outlined the administration's plan to present the full document last week. Since the March 3 hearing the administration has worked to flesh out the remaining objectives and complete the administration's comprehensive vision for economic development in Philadelphia. We also provided the opportunity for the public to comment on the executive summary via the Internet. We have kept to the Mayor's proposed schedule and I'm pleased to be here today to present testimony and answer any questions you may have. In my testimony to this committee earlier in the month I presented the first four Blueprint objectives: Expansion of the City's knowledge industry, support for civic and 7 3/31/05 - COMMERCE - RES. 040827 AND 041017 cultural development, making Philadelphia a national model for MBE/WBE participation in the local economy, and continuing and growing the successful development of Philadelphia's 38 miles of waterfront. Consistent with our objective to make Philadelphia a model for MBE/WBE participation, the Mayor issued an executive order committing the City to achieving equitable participation for minority and women-owned businesses especially within City government but also within the larger economy. As the Mayor pointed out, increased participation for minority and woman-owned businesses is good business. To the original four objectives we add now six additional objectives: Sustain advances in neighborhood economic development; make City government incentive programs more predictable, objective and equitable; continue business attraction and expansion 8 3/31/05 - COMMERCE - RES. 040827 AND 041017 efforts; continue to reduce the cost of and barriers to doing business in Philadelphia; increase educational opportunity and access to literacy services; and, sixth, maintain fiscal responsibility through strategic tax allocation and tax reduction. I will go over these six now in a little more detail. Sustain advances in neighborhood economic development. Philadelphia is truly a city of neighborhoods and the neighborhood transformation initiative is making our neighborhoods better places to live and do business. The program has gained national prominence as an ambitious neighborhood revitalization strategy that has transformed the role of government when it comes to housing, community and economic development. NTI has stemmed the spread of blight and has been the essential vehicle that enables all sections of Philadelphia to utilize many 9 3/31/05 - COMMERCE - RES. 040827 AND 041017 of the City's commercial corridor support programs.

These coordinated efforts to address the quality of life in Philadelphia communities has restored confidence in our neighborhoods and contributed to a 30 percent appreciation in real estate values over the past five years. Our challenge going forward is to sustain and build upon these advances. Better and more efficient delivery of economic development services, increased attention to and investment in neighborhood commercial corridors, sustaining the advances already made under the NTI program to provide a basis for growth and a renewed commitment to the preservation of historic assets are all strategies for improving our neighborhoods. To achieve this the administration will review and align our community and economic resources to achieve maximum impact through better 10 3/31/05 - COMMERCE - RES. 040827 AND 041017 coordination of our existing resources, leveraging available state resources and forging new financial partnerships with other levels of government as well as neighborhood-based partnerships with CDCs and business associations. Commercial corridors provide the backbone for our residential neighborhoods. The Blueprint recognizes that strengthening commercial corridors builds stronger, more vibrant and stable neighborhoods. Business attraction and expansion efforts will include small and neighborhood businesses with a particular focus on commercial corridors. Better marketing of our incentive programs, coordination of our technical assistance and outreach efforts, building connections between small businesses and traditional lending agencies will help neighborhood businesses and jobs grow. In partnership with community-based organizations and business groups, the City can improve 11 3/31/05 - COMMERCE - RES. 040827 AND 041017 land use, facilitate the use of vacant parcels and historic buildings and, where appropriate, consolidate corridors to the strongest remaining blocks in order to assure viable commercial corridors for growth. NTI's successful blight removal efforts will continue to create a safe, welcoming environment for new investment. The City will work to give the public the tools it needs to foster commercial and housing development projects by both private and nonprofit developers. Through NTI the City is streamlining its land acquisition and disposition processes, supporting development activity, and creating conditions for reinvestment in neighborhoods. The City will reorganize housing and neighborhood activities to improve services to developers of commercial and housing project. It will also complete the unified land records database and vacant 12 3/31/05 - COMMERCE - RES. 040827 AND 041017 property management information system to improve public access to information about available land and development. The Blueprint recognizes that Philadelphia's cultural legacy is partly expressed through the architectural variety found in our residential neighborhoods and commercial districts. Well-preserved historic properties increase neighborhood and location desirability, and the administration believes that careful consideration of historical assets should continue to guide neighborhood and commercial corridor redevelopment efforts. Next is make city government incentive programs more predictable, objective and equitable. Incentives are tools the City has to encourage certain types of business activity such as job creation, improvement to real property, or historic preservation. The Blueprint recognizes the need for transparency in economic 13 3/31/05 - COMMERCE - RES. 040827 AND 041017 incentive delivery in order to ensure that inventive programs are predictable, objective and equitable. To accomplish this, the administration will analyze current economic development incentive programs administered by the Department of Commerce, PIDC and PCDC.

The department will also analyze the organizational structure of the City's economic development agencies to determine whether existing and future programs may be delivered in a more efficient manner. With better information the City can ensure investment and incentive determinations are objective, transparent and provide equal access. New performance measures that result from these analyses will be made public and presented in an annual economic development performance report that addresses performance across economic development agencies. Third is continue business 14 3/31/05 - COMMERCE - RES. 040827 AND 041017 attraction and expansion efforts. Through the combined efforts of the City, PIDC, the Chamber of Commerce, Center City District and the Commonwealth, Philadelphia has retained over 98 percent of the major commercial office tenants with office leases that expired over the past several years. The City will build on this successful team approach in its efforts to help local businesses remain, grow and prosper. Going forward, the City's job will be to collaborate with the business community and support the efforts of Select Greater Philadelphia to market the region's economic and quality of life assets to attract new firms and grow the businesses that are here. The administration will work to make Philadelphia a premier choice for conventions and trade shows and will use these conventions as an opportunity to market Philadelphia as a great place to 15 3/31/05 - COMMERCE - RES. 040827 AND 041017 do business. We will also work to increase international trade opportunities for Philadelphia businesses. The next is continue to reduce the cost of and barriers to doing business in Philadelphia. The administration is committed to making it easier and less expensive to do business with the City. From service delivery to zoning rules, the City will examine the impact that its regulations and processes have on the business community. The managing director's office has already made significant strides towards achieving this goal. They have incorporated suggestions from a number of sources including an internal task force review, cooperative focus group meetings, and an independent report commissioned by the Building Industry Association of Philadelphia, the BIA. The administration will build 16 3/31/05 - COMMERCE - RES. 040827 AND 041017 on these efforts to improve City service delivery at the point of contact for many businesses. The administration will create and give wide publicity to new publications, Web sites, and other information outlets that explain clearly what needs to be done to begin or expand a business in Philadelphia including permits, licenses and zoning. The ultimate goal is to consolidate and simplify City services related to business development. The administration will provide trained government services representatives for outreach efforts to civic groups and trade associations to provide education and feedback on regulatory requirements for small entrepreneurs and startup businesses. We will continue to implement the recommendations of the BIA report to streamline construction industry's specific processes. 17 3/31/05 - COMMERCE - RES. 040827 AND 041017 For large development projects the administration will form a committee under the direction of the managing director's office comprised of high-level representatives from the City's operating departments. This committee will serve as a single point of contact when the permit and review process of large-scale projects begins in order to reduce time and expense for the City review processes. As was demonstrated at the Pennsylvania Convention Center, Philadelphia's economy is tied to good working relationships with organized labor. To identify and explore labor-related issues that, if improved, could benefit the City and the region, the administration will enhance the services provided by the Labor Relations Office.

The office will examine the feasibility of a partnership structure between City government and labor representatives to address problems that 18 3/31/05 - COMMERCE - RES. 040827 AND 041017 arise on an ad hoc basis and for joint review of issues of mutual interest. The office will also consider appointing a labor ombudsman and creating a model facilitation approach to labor-related issues between building trades and developers in Philadelphia. The next is increase educational opportunity and access to literacy services. Increased education opportunity attainment for City residents is closely linked with the earlier Blueprint objective of expanding the knowledge industry. Earlier in the month I provided detailed testimony regarding the administration's initiative to attract and retain young professionals in the region. A highly skilled work force is crucial for 21st Century businesses to thrive. As regional college students choose to stay and work in the city, educational opportunities for their children will become an increasingly 19 3/31/05 - COMMERCE - RES. 040827 AND 041017 important factor in their decision to put down roots in Philadelphia. The City supports the Center City district's efforts to market and strengthen public school options and believes these efforts can serve as a model for other neighborhoods where the availability of quality public school choices can help sustain housing markets and encourage population groups. To this end we will continue to work with the Commonwealth and the School District to increase educational opportunities and achievement through enhanced academic standards and instruction, safety, community involvement, and financial stability. Through the City's representatives on the School Reform Commission and regular interaction with the School District's management team, the administration is committed to creating an environment that is conducive to high educational attainment levels. 20 3/31/05 - COMMERCE - RES. 040827 AND 041017 This means support both within the classroom and outside by building and strengthening the safe schools initiative, after school programs, and meeting the physical and behavioral health needs of our children. Through the School Reform Commission and advocacy efforts, the administration continues to pursue long-term financial stability for the school district. Finally, our responsibility for high educational attainment extends beyond the traditional school system to adults as well. The City supports higher education for City students through College Opportunity Resources For Education, CORE, and Philly Scholarship program. And Philadelphia is the only city in the country to offer every high school graduate a freshman year college scholarship. Strong foundation skills are critical to success in Knowledge Economy jobs. Therefore, the City will 21 3/31/05 - COMMERCE - RES. 040827 AND 041017 significantly increase its efforts to provide access for adults to literacy programs. This end will be achieved through Excel Philadelphia, an initiative of the Philadelphia Workforce Investment Board in partnership with the Mayor's Commission on Literacy and the Philadelphia Literacy Coalition. Sixth, maintain fiscal responsibility through strategic tax allocation and tax reduction. The administration is committed to continuing to ease the burden imposed by local taxation in Philadelphia in a prudent, responsible manner that weighs all available evidence and serious scholarship. 1 billion to the taxpayers through tax rate reductions over the past ten years in its unique and unprecedented tax reduction program, including over $200 million in this fiscal year alone. No 25 other state or local government in 22 3/31/05 - COMMERCE - RES. 040827 AND 041017 America can lay claim to this record of sustained annual tax reductions.

The City's resident wage tax rate is almost percent lower today 6 than it was when the reduction program 7 started in 1995 and the nonresident 8 portion is 11 percent lower. The gross 9 receipts portion of the business 10 privilege tax is over 40 percent lower 11 today than it was when the program 12 started in 1995 and by next year it will 13 have been cut in half if the administration's proposals are implemented. However, the City faces significant risks and challenges in maintaining a balanced budget and City services while implementing the tax reductions already planned. The administration has already instituted layoffs and hiring freezes, and studies show that tax reductions that lead to City service cuts undermine the very value of the tax reduction. Therefore, 23 3/31/05 - COMMERCE - RES. 040827 AND 041017 further tax reductions are absent from the Blueprint priorities. Tax reductions in isolation will not grow the City's economy. Further tax reductions will only serve to decimate the quality of the City's services that economists caution are as important as a competitive tax structure. Tax reform must embrace more than simply tax reduction. If the City is to become competitive and maintain essential services, we must pursue a strategy that shifts away from a dependence on onerous business taxes and balances the burden more evenly across parking taxes, property and other revenue services. The administration supports such a shift provided adequate legislative measures are first put in place to protect senior citizens and homeowners who are put at risk by such a shift between taxes. Taken together these ten objectives are the administration's 24 3/31/05 - COMMERCE - RES. 040827 AND 041017 strategic vision for the economic development of Philadelphia. This vision in turn provides the necessary framework to coordinate our efforts both within city government and through public private partnerships for maximum impact. These policy priorities will contribute to Philadelphia's lasting viability as a location of choice for residents, businesses, students, and visitors. Thank you for the opportunity to speak on this important issue, and I will be happy to answer any questions you may have.

Thank you for your testimony, Miss Naidoff. The discussion of the last objective within the Blueprint on Pages and 26, the local and state job tax 21 programs are referenced, and as part of 22 the requirements of those tax credit 23 programs the jobs must be at least 150 24 percent federal minimum wage. Do you 25 think that is something that should be 25 3/31/05 - COMMERCE - RES. 040827 AND 041017 extended to all economic development incentive programs, and, if not, do you believe some other job quality requirements should be imposed on all economic development incentive programs?

I'm afraid I can't answer that question now. I will be glad to think about it and study it a little and get back to you and give you a written response, Councilman?

Thank you. That was my only question. There are questions from other members of the committee. First let me note for the record that Councilman Frank Rizzo is also in attendance today. Councilman DiCicco.

Thank you, Councilman. Good afternoon, Miss Naidoff.

Good afternoon.

The before the last page of your testimony at 3/31/05 - COMMERCE - RES. 040827 AND 041017 the very bottom, "The administration has already instituted layoffs and hiring freezes and studies show that tax reductions lead to City service cuts." Who performed that study and could you share that study with us? I take this to -- it seems to me they are blaming all the layoffs on the fact that we are reducing taxes and not because of the way the administration has been spending its money lately.

I think the reference there is to a study by Professor Lynch, which I don't have with me, but I would be glad to provide it to you, who has written about the fact that tax reductions standing alone, tax reductions that impede the ability to provide high-quality services, do not work to grow the economy. The decimation of services actually has a detrimental effect and you can't just look at tax reduction alone.

I can 27 3/31/05 - COMMERCE - RES. 040827 AND 041017 agree with that, but the way I'm reading this, I take this to mean that because of the reduction in taxes is the reason for the City service cuts, so cuts in services and layoffs. Maybe I'm misunderstanding that or misreading it, but that is the implication I get.

I think the implication there is that as we reduce the numbers of people available within the City Government to provide services, we run the risk that we will not be able to provide services at the high levels that they are being provided now and we would, therefore, mitigate any benefit we might get from tax reduction.

I can understand that, I can understand that, but if you can share with us that study, I would appreciate it.

I'm happy to do that.

Any questions from other members? 28 3/31/05 - COMMERCE - RES. 040827 AND 041017 Councilwoman Miller.

Thank you. Good afternoon, Miss Naidoff.

Good afternoon.

I just had an opportunity to read your testimony, but in skimming it I am particularly interested in work force development. Do you have anyone with you that can explain this Excel project as the point that you make about knowledge base and expanding literacy opportunities for adults? Who is watching what training we should be focusing in on to train unemployed Philadelphians, adults I'm talking right now, through the Work Force Development Corp. or whatever as it relates to employment, employment outlook, the employment opportunities that will be available in the future?

Sally Glickman is the person I think that you would want to speak to and I would be happy to set that 29 3/31/05 - COMMERCE - RES. 040827 AND 041017 up. Sally is the one that could talk to you about that program and specifically about the efforts that the Work Force Investment Board is conducting to make sure that the training programs are focused on the knowledge industry jobs that will be available in the 21st Century. Be glad to set up a meeting.

That would be good. I think we can do all that we can to develop economic development opportunities in neighborhoods through housing, commercial strips, et cetera; however, we don't have a work force -- if we are not looking at the continued development of our work force in more than just the service industry, which doesn't really pay a whole lot of money, then we really won't be strengthening our neighborhoods or the City.

I agree with you, but I think they are focusing on that and I would be glad to set up a meeting so we 30 3/31/05 - COMMERCE - RES. 040827 AND 041017 can discuss it.

Very good. Thank you.

Is that it, Councilwoman?

I did have a question about neighborhood commercial corridors, but I heard you when I was downstairs. I heard you through the intercom and I've lost it, but I will get it back.

I will be happy to answer it.

Thank you.

Any questions from other members of the committee? Thank you, Miss Naidoff.

Thank you.

Our next witness on Economic Development Blueprint is Marisa Waxman from the City Controller's Office. 31 3/31/05 - COMMERCE - RES. 040827 AND 041017 Good afternoon, Miss Waxman.

Good afternoon. Marisa Waxman, City Controller's Office. Controller Saidel sends his regrets that he couldn't be here to day and asked that I deliver his testimony and convey any questions you have for him so he can provide you with a response.

Will you let him know we are happy he is not here, please?

I will be sure to do that.

Just joking.

Good afternoon, Chairman Goode and Honorable Members of the Committee on Commerce and Economic Development. I am Jonathan Saidel, City Controller, and I come before you today to offer comments on the recently released Economic Development Blueprint for a greater Philadelphia. I applaud the administration 32 3/31/05 - COMMERCE - RES. 040827 AND 041017 for endeavoring to craft a strategy to expand the City's tax and employment base while improving the quality of life and financial condition of Philadelphia's firms and families. I have reviewed the Blueprint, and although it contains many important and worthwhile goals, it falls short of a comprehensive approach to solving the City's economic woes. I do not need to detail Philadelphia's challenges for you, our decades of job and population loss. The causes are many, including global economic shifts, changes in federal policies, and our city's own policy choices that have led many individuals and businesses to decide that the services and amenities available in Philadelphia are simply not worth the high costs. While I agree with the goals outlined in the Blueprint, I am disappointed that the plan lacks many of the concrete action steps to be taken by 33 3/31/05 - COMMERCE - RES. 040827 AND 041017 the City to address the challenges cited in this document and numerous reports and symposia over the past several years. This plan is nearly a year in the making and should offer more than promises to develop a system to attract and retain neighborhood businesses or to create a targeted program to attract and retain international knowledge workers. Too many of the recommendations lack a clear delineation of responsibility. Will the City fund the $300 million venture capital fund it seeks to catalyze? Who will be responsible for increasing the percentage of international students? How much will this cost over what time period? Are there consequences for failure to achieve these outcomes? This work should have been done by now. As my office recommended when planning for the Economic Development Summit began, we must first take an inventory of our current economic 34 3/31/05 - COMMERCE - RES. 040827 AND 041017 development activities, review the results and identify which programs are the most efficient and effective. While I had hoped that this work would be undertaken in advance of the Summit and attempts to craft an economic development strategy, I am pleased that the Administration has embraced this notion as part of the Blueprint. Until we truly understand the impact of the City's current economic development initiatives, we have no 14 justification for allocating any economic development resources or the creation of new programs and task forces which may duplicate existing efforts or prove ineffective. Once this work is completed, we must dedicate ourselves to a rational, equitable and transparent strategy for economic development. Furthermore, this strategy should clearly state which initiatives can be undertaken by the City alone and which require outside 35 3/31/05 - COMMERCE - RES. 040827 AND 041017 assistance. Similar to tax, campaign finance, and ethics reform, we cannot wait until others in Harrisburg, Washington and the private sector come to our aid. We must do what we can on our own and do it before the situation worsens. The Blueprint appropriately identifies some of the needs of the city. We can make Philadelphia more open to private economic activity by streamlining our regulatory processes and simplifying our zoning. We need more educated people, native Philadelphians with opportunities to advance academically, recent college graduates who choose to stay, and migrants and immigrants that opt to make their homes here. We need to provide good jobs for these people and opportunities for entrepreneurship.

I agree that to achieve these goals we must ensure greater economic participation by women and minorities and invest in the cultural and civic institutions that 36 3/31/05 - COMMERCE - RES. 040827 AND 041017 nourish our souls and feed the City coffers. The Blueprint is a failure on the subject of tax reform. I have never asserted that tax reform will act as a panacea to our economic ills, but it is clearly a vital part of the solution. At the Economic Development Summit five of the eight working groups placed tax reform or lowering the cost of doing business as the first item on their timeline and two other groups made it their second action item during the Action Headline Exercise. From this I gather that the groups viewed tax reform as a precursor to other strategic actions, a clear priority, and an intervention that can be and must be implemented in the near future. These people, referred to in the document as the City's most involved, pragmatic and resourceful citizens, stated that tax reform and high-quality government are not mutually exclusive. 37 3/31/05 - COMMERCE - RES. 040827 AND 041017 Surprisingly, the administration's final Economic Development Blueprint states that absent from prioritization is further tax reduction even though a recent report to the administration from Professor Robert Inman of the Wharton School credits recent tax reductions with preserving 22,000 jobs in the last decade. Vast sums of taxpayer dollars have been spent on summits, review forums and commissions to investigate tax reform. Each time the conclusions have been the same: Philadelphia's crushing tax burden contributes to the economic hardships felt throughout our neighborhoods. Each time these panels have issued their reports, the administration has said no more can be done. We know the problems. We have identified the solutions. We do not need any more blue ribbon panels. What we need is comprehensive tax reform. The Blueprint says we cannot 38 3/31/05 - COMMERCE - RES. 040827 AND 041017 afford additional tax reform, but it fails to project the costs for the numerous programs and changes proposed, nor does it identify revenue sources to support these initiatives. Government undertakes many tasks that are hard to quantify. How can we place a value on teaching a child to read or preventing crime against persons or property? Economic development, however, is the most businesslike government endeavor. We must understand the costs and benefits of various actions so we may achieve the best possible return on investment. Tax reform has provided Philadelphia with well-documented returns. I had hoped the Blueprint would offer a roadmap to guide future decision-making and state clearly what the administration intended to do to promote the economic health and vitality of the City and its citizens. While the Blueprint has fallen short, I remain 39 3/31/05 - COMMERCE - RES. 040827 AND 041017 ready to work with other elected officials, community and business leaders to ensure that Philadelphia's future is one of economic opportunity and quality. Thank you.

Thank you, Miss Waxman. Thank you for offering that testimony. I have a couple questions. In the controller's tax structure analysis report he called for the creation of a local job creation tax credit. Based on the state's program the legislation has been passed and amended and, as I mentioned to the commerce director, has a requirement that all jobs have at least a minimum hourly wage of 150 percent of the federal minimum wage. My question is: Does the controller's office support extending that job quality standard to all economic development incentives.

We are actually in the process of reviewing that. There are the trade-offs on the one hand. You 40 3/31/05 - COMMERCE - RES. 040827 AND 041017 know, you want to assure that everybody has a job that pays that they can live on hopefully with other amenities such as healthcare. On the other hand, there are the concerns that that could reduce the number of jobs and total available and we are currently looking at that situation.

Have you reviewed any of the impact studies from other job quality legislators around the country, particularly living wage?

We have looked at some of those; not in depth yet. We are currently in the review stage.

Because none of the impact studies show a loss of jobs or a loss of job quality.

We have not completed that research yet, but if you have information, I would love to obtain that.

Could you actually forward a formal response to that question? 41 3/31/05 - COMMERCE - RES. 040827 AND 041017

Sure.

The second questions is when can we expect a small business lending update for 2004?

I believe that usually the updates from the federal data come out in the summer, so as soon as the federal data is out, that's when we will do our annual review, so you can expect that over the summer.

Okay. Thank you. Any questions from other members of the committee? Thank you, Miss Waxman. Miss Naidoff, could you please approach the witness table again? The Chair recognizes Councilwoman Reynolds Brown.

Thank you. Good afternoon.

Good afternoon.

Please forgive me for not being here during your 42 3/31/05 - COMMERCE - RES. 040827 AND 041017 testimony. I was actively listening upstairs. I had a couple questions with regard to your testimony. Number one, on there is much discussion of and I quote, assists with planning and financing Parkway and Avenue of the Arts projects and encourage vibrancy of the public spaces. Given the idea and the anticipation to improve the Avenue of the Arts, would it not follow then that we should continue to be serious about our investment in the Philadelphia Museum of Art, particularly when we stack that against what is being proposed in our budget this year.

I think the administration is very serious about it. I think we provide support to them, but we have a lot of the arts and cultural institutions that we are trying to balance and, quite honestly, as you know, the public resources at all levels are 43 3/31/05 - COMMERCE - RES. 040827 AND 041017 not as available as they have been in the past, so one of the things the Mayor is very focused on is trying to find other avenues for dedicated funding for the arts, and we have a process going that has been going since late December to do that. So I think with respect to any one particular institution I would say that the answer probably lies in the success of that effort.

That is a segue into my very next question which is to give us an update on where that is. And is the intent to create a plan over the next three years or to actually implement a plan over the next three years?

I would think that our hope is that we will implement something over the next three years, and we are making substantial progress. We have been meeting on a fairly regular basis with a very broad group of civic 44 3/31/05 - COMMERCE - RES. 040827 AND 041017 leaders who are very committed to this, very committed to the arts and committed to helping us find ways to find dedicated funding.

I would imagine they represent disciplines across the board, the civic leaders that you're speaking of?

When you say "disciplines," I'm not sure what you mean.

Business, the arts, businessmen and women, community group heads.

Probably not as broadly as you are describing it, no. We put the group together looking at business leaders. It was originally a project that came out of discussions we were having with the Chamber, and it is business leaders and people who are, we think, capable of helping to identify the sources for dedicated funding but as well have a passion and track record of 45 3/31/05 - COMMERCE - RES. 040827 AND 041017 commitment to the arts, and we think that is really what is driving their interest and their enthusiasm for this.

Are the counties represented amongst this group?

Yes, they are.

And are you at liberty to say at this juncture, is there talk of a plan, a written plan? Where are you in the process?

I think the best answer I can give you at this point is we are looking at a number of plans. We are looking at a number of plans that involve both public and private resources. We have at least three or four that are on the table. We have some subcommittees that are looking at specific plans, so we are making a fair amount of progress on this.

Is government represented besides the Department of Commerce on that group?

No; I think it is 46 3/31/05 - COMMERCE - RES. 040827 AND 041017 all business leaders.

Thank you for your testimony. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

The Chair recognizes Councilman Rizzo.

Commerce director, good afternoon.

Good afternoon.

I would just like to add also that the Art Museum is very important to you, to me, but there are some extenuating circumstances I believe there that the budget cuts can really have some dramatic effects. And I knew the word yesterday, but I'm trying -- I can't remember it today where various museums throughout the world will hesitate to give their collections like we have the various collections on display now. And without adequate security many of the collections are in jeopardy. And learning, I think, from your department the significance of 47 3/31/05 - COMMERCE - RES. 040827 AND 041017 this museum and what it brings in economic development to the city where our sports teams don't bring the room 5 nights and the dining nights that this museum does, that it seems so shortsighted to tinker with a moneymaker, to cut it back and to cut it back even to the degree that it is being cut back to jeopardize so many of the potential works of art that will not be given us because I understand they do a survey, they want to know exactly what the situation is with staffing levels before they give up -- I can understand why they would want to be concerned, and if we are running 50, 40 security people less, it could have an effect and we might not get the wonderful expositions that we get here in the City of Philadelphia. So I just can't imagine any -- and this is not said with any disrespect because I know it is not you -- intelligent person that would tinker with a moneymaker and potentially affect the 48 3/31/05 - COMMERCE - RES. 040827 AND 041017 quality of a product that is there. So I don't know whose advice this was, but I don't think it was good counsel.

I will take that message back. We all appreciate and admire the extraordinary ability of the Philadelphia Museum of Art to put on really wonderful exhibits, and its own collection is truly one of the most extraordinary in the world. We are very fortunate to have it here, but the truth of the matter is we have an extremely rich arts and culture community and we have a lot of organizations that can't afford to sustain themselves, so we need to look at all of them, and that is the reason that the Mayor is pursuing this arts and culture funding initiative.

You know, I heard, and I can't point my finger to who made the statement, that the board of the Art Museum should be doing more. I mean we have some very dedicated people there 49 3/31/05 - COMMERCE - RES. 040827 AND 041017 and that was an insult I think indirectly to the people that sit on that board to think that they should cough up more to pick up the slack on the City's responsibility that I believe they have. And I think many of those board members when they left this Council chamber were offended by -- and I can't recollect who made that statement, but it was offensive to me. I kind of sat back in my chair when I heard that. To suggest that -- and I'm not suggesting you are suggesting that, but I think you just said something about the wealth of the art community, suggesting maybe that they should be doing more. I think they do a lot. When you get gentlemen and ladies of the caliber that sit there and spend their time, I think that is impressive in itself and I think they quietly spend a lot of their own money at that museum and I think, again, this is one Council member, and I think my colleagues have suggested to me, that 50 3/31/05 - COMMERCE - RES. 040827 AND 041017 this is going to be an issue that we are going to have to I think -- I don't like to use the word "fight," but we are going to fight over this one.

I understand your position.

Thank you.

Councilwoman Miller.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Miss Naidoff, I do remember my question now. And I have a particular concern and interest in the small neighborhood commercial corridors. And it seems like those corridors that are kind of small and have someone there like a CDC or a pretty strong business association have probably some of the necessary people around to help them develop and continue to expand and attract certain businesses. But then when you have other corridors; for example, in my district we 51 3/31/05 - COMMERCE - RES. 040827 AND 041017 have Broad and Erie, Germantown and Erie. Councilman Clarke and I share that area. And we have been trying over the years to get them organized, but they are not organized. So now if I call Commerce, can I get someone to help me do what needs to be done at Broad and Erie, go down there and provide the technical assistance that is needed, taking a look at that corridor? And then we have some other commercial strips in my district that perhaps we could figure out how to market that area, what we can do different to attract a different type of business to that area. Many of the commercial corridors are turning into general merchant stores -- turning into places that have a whole bunch of general merchandising stores, meaning the dollar stores, the stores that sell hair. Does Commerce provide or will this Blueprint provide an opportunity to utilize what 52 3/31/05 - COMMERCE - RES. 040827 AND 041017 you guys have learned? You go to the retail fairs. I don't believe we have to be the experts because that's why we have a department of commerce, correct? Once you get that information, then how is it disseminated? Who at Commerce decides whether this strip gets to be recommended for Elm Street or Main Street. My office wrote a proposal to get some of the money from PennDOT because we learned of that opportunity at a meeting I attended a year ago that had nothing to do with the City of Philadelphia. Had we not attended that meeting, we would not have known that those funds were available. So my office took the time with another person and wrote the proposal, and that's how we were awarded about 800,000 when they gave out the money, the safer route's money, a couple weeks ago here through the deputy secretary from PennDOT. How does that happen? What is 53 3/31/05 - COMMERCE - RES. 040827 AND 041017 the process? How will that Blueprint make sure that the resources that come into this city are available citywide? When I arrived to the city it seems to me that certain neighborhoods are targeted for certain resources and other neighborhoods are not getting it, and I don't know how we are going to strengthen our commercial corridors, our commercial corridors out in neighborhoods without, I believe, a fairer distribution of the resources that are coming in to this City of Philadelphia for those types of activities. And you don't have to answer that today, but that has been on my mind for quite some time. In fact, I had a meeting with a couple people from your staff a few months back to express my concerns. Because I shouldn't have to be the expert. I shouldn't have to go out here looking for resources. You guys do this, and if we are not going to work together as a partner, then something is 54 3/31/05 - COMMERCE - RES. 040827 AND 041017 not happening here.

I think you are identifying something that we have committed to in the Blueprint and that is to make the resources available in a more transparent, objective, and fair way, and Mr. Trailer I think was here, here he is, and I think maybe one of the things we ought to do is set up a meeting to discuss this with you, and Mr. Trailer's responsibilities within the department would allow him to bring together all of the resources that would be necessary to answer your questions.

And the people from Commerce that deal in all of those various areas.

Right, and make it collaborative as well, uh-huh.

Thank you.

Are there any other questions from the panel? Thank you again. 55 3/31/05 - COMMERCE - RES. 040827 AND 041017 Our next panel will deal specifically with waterfront development. That panel will consist of Maxine Griffith and Kevin Hanna. Good afternoon. Please state your name for the record and proceed with your testimony.

Good morning, Councilman Goode and Members of the Committee. My name is Maxine Griffith, Secretary for Strategic Planning, and Executive Director of the Philadelphia City Planning Commission. I'm joined today by Rich Lombardo, Deputy Executive Director of the Philadelphia City Planning Commission. I am here this afternoon to testify on Council Resolution No. 21 041017. Last year Mayor Street announced the next component of his vision for Philadelphia: Philadelphia, the New River City. This strategy serves 56 3/31/05 - COMMERCE - RES. 040827 AND 041017 to create a framework for the City's planning and development efforts along the waterfront as we reclaim and revitalize these critical assets. The strategy also seeks to focus public attention on Philadelphia's waterfront renaissance and to assist in the prioritization of public funds. Philadelphia's history, culture, economy and industry were tied to its rivers, but after decades of focus on the rivers' importance primarily for industry and port uses, the City is now working to both connect these important assets to existing neighborhoods and to use the Delaware and Schuylkill waterways to anchor new, mixed-use communities. As you know, during the tenure of this administration Planning Commission staff completed an ambitious strategic plan for an 11-mile stretch of the North Delaware Riverfront. We have also been pleased to support and participate in the development of plans 57 3/31/05 - COMMERCE - RES. 040827 AND 041017 recently completed for both the Lower Schuylkill and the Philadelphia Navy Yard. Our city is now poised to capitalize upon large expanses of undeveloped waterfront land along 7 miles of our rivers. 8 Elements of the New River City 9 Initiative include the creation of new 10 riverfront recreational resources that 11 enhance the quality of life and add value 12 to existing and future communities; 13 improving and maintaining the quality of 14 life in adjacent neighborhoods by 15 providing better access to the water; 16 promoting and marketing of the waterfront 17 in terms of development opportunities as 18 well as a place to create new 19 communities; reclamation of thousands of 20 acres of vacant port and industrial land 21 to create new communities; encouraging 22 the creation of contemporary communities 23 with housing, retail, and work space for 24 technical and research companies; the 25 creation of a riverfront network of 58 3/31/05 - COMMERCE - RES. 040827 AND 041017 trails, open space and active recreational uses that serve neighborhood residents and regional tourists; the development of waterfront recreational opportunities that will attract knowledge industry jobs and residents; the augmentation and enhancement of pedestrian and vehicular traffic and transit systems; an effort to raise awareness of the riverfront's potential as local, regional, national and international destinations by promotion of special events; support of development with expedited review and permitting and appropriate rezoning; an effort to ensure that existing viable industrial uses are also accommodated. I would like to spend the next few minutes talking about what the administration has accomplished thus far along its rivers and obviously specifically with regard to planning. The North Delaware Plan study area encompasses 11 miles of the Delaware 59 3/31/05 - COMMERCE - RES. 040827 AND 041017 Riverfront east of I-95 and extending from just north of the Benjamin Franklin Bridge to the Montgomery County line. This area enjoys spectacular views up, down and across the river and features a mostly green and wooded New Jersey side and the Center City skyline. However, access to the river is mostly isolated and very difficult to get to. The riverfront features gentle banks, some beaches and tidal flats.

It is an ideal place for fishing, boating and walking, but few of the nearby residents have experienced these features because it so difficult to get either physical or visual access to the river. The area consists of over 3500 acres, approximately 1000 of which are vacant, including some large assemblages of contiguous land and is adjacent to ten communities, including Fishtown, Kensington, Port Richmond, Bridesburg, Frankford, Wissinoming, Tacony, Holmesburg, Upper Holmesburg and 60 3/31/05 - COMMERCE - RES. 040827 AND 041017 Torresdale. The area also offers easy access to the northeast corridor via highway, including I-95, the Pennsylvania Turnpike, the New Jersey Turnpike, US Route 1, and rail connections like the SEPTA Trenton line connecting to New Jersey Transit and New York and Amtrak via 30th Street Station. C. The primary objectives of the North Delaware Plan are to develop strategies that will revitalize the 11 miles of predominantly industrial shoreline along the Delaware River to expand riverfront access and recreation opportunities for adjacent neighborhoods, to retain and strengthen existing industrial areas where appropriate, and 61 3/31/05 - COMMERCE - RES. 040827 AND 041017 to expand the availability of land for housing, commercial and modern industrial development. Thus far there has been significant progress along the North Delaware. The Pennsylvania Environmental Council has secured funding and begun the assemblage of the former K & T Railroad right-of-way for the creation of a biking and hiking trial. PEC has also received funding for open space planning and design. Key Span, the owners of the former Philadelphia Coke site, after an RFP process, has selected a partnership of K. Hovnavian and Westrum Development as developers for the site. Together they propose to construct approximately 1200 units of market rate housing. If I may, since I know this is also going to be territory covered by Secretary Hanna, perhaps I will allow him to expound on development in the area and go on to the Navy Yard. 62 3/31/05 - COMMERCE - RES. 040827 AND 041017 Philadelphia Navy Yard Master Plan. In 2004 the Master Plan for the redevelopment of the Philadelphia Navy Yard was released. This plan encompasses miles of river frontage and 522 acres 7 of land located east of Broad Street. It envisions a vibrant, mixed-use waterfront community that includes industrial development, offices, retail, waterfront amenities, research and development, mass transit, and possibly even residential development. The plan capitalizes on the Navy Yard's unmatched assets including its unique turn-of-the-century architecture and landscaping, its frontage on the Delaware River and its proximity to interstate highways, International Airport, and Center City. And again there is a listing of elements of the plan, and I note that the plan's authors are also here and will probably speak to that in detail. So going on to the Lower 63 3/31/05 - COMMERCE - RES. 040827 AND 041017 Schuylkill, the Schuylkill River Development Council, SRDC, was created in 1992 by riverfront residents who saw an opportunity where others saw only a post-industrial wasteland. Established on June 6, 1992 as a nonprofit organization, its first mission was to complete the City's plan to create a public park on the banks of the tidal Schuylkill. It was envisioned that the River Park would enhance Philadelphia's already world-famous parks and dramatically transform the soul and spirit of the city. In 1995, working in partnership with the Philadelphia Streets Department and the Fairmount Park Commission, the project was awarded more than $8 million in federal funds and $2 million in private funds for planning and construction. The River Park Project received support from federal and state legislators as well as support from Wachovia, CIGNA, PECO, Sunoco and others. 64 3/31/05 - COMMERCE - RES.

040827 AND 041017 This plan envisions the creation of a new Schuylkill Riverfront for six miles -- I should say a lot of that has already been accomplished -- 4,125 acres of land between Fairmount Waterworks and the former Naval Base. It recommends the creation of new riverfront destinations between the Waterworks and the South Street Bridge, the creation of greenways and trails along the river, improvements to the connections to the riverfront from adjacent communities and the promotion and marketing of the Schuylkill River as a unifying presence in the region. The plan anticipates two phases with Phase encompassing the area from Waterworks to Bartram Gardens being improved between 2004 and 2007 and then Phase encompassing the area from Bartram Gardens to Fort Mifflin being improved between 2008 and 2020. The new Cira Centre office building, the Hospital of the University 65 3/31/05 - COMMERCE - RES. 040827 AND 041017 of Pennsylvania and Children's Hospital expansion plans, the redevelopment of the Post Office and several new residential development proposals are all examples of the vitality of this area of our waterfront. Penn's Landing. The Penn's Landing program area is delineated by Market Street, Christopher Columbus Boulevard, Walnut Street and the Delaware River. As you know, as part of a request for proposals process jointly sponsored by the City and Penn's Landing Corporation, Planning Commission staff drafted and promulgated land use and urban design criteria so as to guide developer proposals. When the developer selection process did not yield a viable applicant able to implement the proposal without extensive City subsidy, the Planning Commission was asked to develop an interim capital improvement plan. At the request of Penns Landing Corporation and 66 3/31/05 - COMMERCE - RES. 040827 AND 041017 in consultation with the commerce director, the Planning Commission recommended $500,000 for a variety of critical needs in the subject area. The details of this plan can be found in the recommended 2006 to 2011 capital program document recently issued by the commission. As guided by the administration's economic development policy, we will continue to assess approaches to long-term planning for the area. We believe that Philadelphia's increasingly robust real property market may yet yield opportunity for development and enhance public amenities without significant subsidy. We also note with interest a recent plan for the area by the prominent planning firm of Wallace Roberts & Todd. Although more specific and prescriptive than the guidelines and criteria developed for the previously mentioned RFP, we are aware of significant 67 3/31/05 - COMMERCE - RES. 040827 AND 041017 concurrence in thinking. Rich Lombardo, who will succeed me in the position of executive director agrees it would be useful to continue a dialogue with WRT and with the planned sponsored entities. Finally, we have been encouraged by our work on both Penns Landing and the North Delaware Riverfront project to explore the prospect of waterfront zoning. These special land use regulations could recognize and be informed by proximity of a given development to the water. Issues such as accessibility, view corridors and easements, connectivity to existing communities and other environmental factors could be provided for in a consistent and predictable manner. I am sure that Rich Lombardo along with Tom Chapman, our director of development planning and zoning, look forward to working with Council members to explore these possibilities. 68 3/31/05 - COMMERCE - RES. 040827 AND 041017 Although the New River City Initiative brings unprecedented clarity and intergovernmental coordination to our work along the waterfront, there have been a number of excellent planning efforts that predate NRC and that have already provided a foundation for successful development.

It is the successful implementation of these earlier plans, completed in partnership with the Council, that give us confidence in this larger, multiagency effort. We have summarized these plans in the attached document entitled Addendum A. This completes my testimony, and both Mr. Lombardo and I will be pleased to answer questions.

Thank you, Miss Griffith. Mr. Hanna.

Good afternoon, Chairman Goode and other members of the Committee on Commerce and Economic Development. My name is Kevin Hanna. I 69 3/31/05 - COMMERCE - RES. 040827 AND 041017 serve as Secretary of the Office of Housing and Neighborhood Preservation of the City of Philadelphia. I'm here today to testify on Resolution 041017, which relates to residential and commercial development including waterfront development. In my written testimony distributed to you and introduced into the record, I give an overview of the administration's efforts to date in housing development. I also review in particular our efforts to encourage large-scale housing construction especially along the Delaware Riverfront, which has become one focus of new housing construction. Finally, in that written testimony I provide a summary of the Office of Housing and Neighborhood Preservation's efforts in working with developers to navigate the development process such as our work with Toll Brothers in facilitating construction of 70 3/31/05 - COMMERCE - RES. 040827 AND 041017 its long-awaited Naval Square development. What I would like to do here today is introduce all of that testimony into the record, but only review verbally just now that portion dealing with riverfront development, and if you are follow along, it skips all the way back to of my testimony. In highlighting residential, large-scale development, which is now planned or occurring along the North Delaware Riverfront, that area has been engendered by Philadelphia's strengthening housing market, the availability of land in the area, the attraction of riverfront living, and the planning and zoning efforts led by the Philadelphia City Planning Commission. During the summer three former industrial sites were purchased by housing developers. Transactionable Property Solutions, which specializes in brownfields developments, purchased both 71 3/31/05 - COMMERCE - RES. 040827 AND 041017 the Northern Shipping sites as well as the Tacony Army warehouse, opening up more than 85 acres of residential development. Transactionable Property Solutions is a brownfields redevelopment specialist. A partnership between Westrum Development Corporation and K. Hovnaian purchased the former Philly Coke site, a 67-acre parcel in Bridesburg near the Tacony-Palmyra Bridge. Initial plans called for more than 700 homes as well as 70,000 square feet of retail space on this site. These developers have together reserved space for the planned North Delaware Greenway, a public recreational walkway along the river. Philadelphia is beginning a renaissance on our river shores with waterfront development planned and underway for other parts of the city as well. The master plan for the former Navy Yard includes, as you've heard before, the rehabilitation of historic 72 3/31/05 - COMMERCE - RES. 040827 AND 041017 structures into apartments and condominiums as well as the creation of a new community focused on the river with more than a thousand housing units. The Schuylkill River is also attracting new residential housing development, particularly in Manayunk. Housing is an integral part of the Mayor's New River City initiative, which will bring resources for infrastructure for redevelopment on the banks of the Schuylkill and the North Delaware Rivers. I have distributed to you for your review and information certain marketing tools that we distribute or provide to developers to give them some idea or some flavor of various markets in and around -- well, throughout the City of Philadelphia. Again, the rest of my testimony is before you. If you have any questions about it or any of the issues that I have touched on here, I and my deputy will be 73 3/31/05 - COMMERCE - RES. 040827 AND 041017 more than happy to address them at this time.

Thank you, Mr. Hanna. Are there questions from members of the committee? Councilman DiCicco.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Good afternoon, everyone. Miss Griffith, I appreciate your testimony, and please don't take this as any disrespect for the job that the Planning Commission and you have done for the City of Philadelphia, but when I look at your statement and listen to it, to me it appears more than like a mission statement than an actual plan. To me a plan is when a developer walks into my office and has a set of blueprints, some sense of what the development will look like, artists' renditions. To me that's a plan. And I'm a layperson; I'm not a planner, but it is something I can look 74 3/31/05 - COMMERCE - RES. 040827 AND 041017 at, put my arms around, and really get a sense of what the project will be. We have had these discussions, as you know, you and I and other members of your department as well as administration along with a team of community representatives -- Mr. Malcolm Lazin is here today and he will be testifying -- over the last couple of years, and from time to time we hear from the administration or others that we are working on a plan. The plan will be the New River City as an example and it's a great catch phrase. It is a great idea, but again I just don't see that -- there aren't any details, details that I think would be important to attract developers because much of what I have seen in the city in the ten years or so that I have been a Councilperson representing my district -- a district that probably has more economic development activity than all others combined -- most of what I have seen, if not all of it, has really 75 3/31/05 - COMMERCE - RES. 040827 AND 041017 been developer driven. And I don't mean that, again, to be disrespectful to your department or the people that worked there. I was hoping today that we would see some details of the plan, some zoning maps, maps of zoning, some ownership and evaluation marketing studies, who owns what along, in my district I'm talking about, the area from Allegheny area south to approximately Oregon Avenue, because I think if we had that stuff, I think if we had a sense and a blueprint, if you will, laid out, a lot of the things that are going on and the questions that are being asked of me and throughout the community, both the development community and the residential community, we have an answer for them. We wouldn't be looking at creating the Gaming Task Force possibly today. Although I still don't know what, if any, role the city will have in site selection, we will make recommendations, 76 3/31/05 - COMMERCE - RES. 040827 AND 041017 but they may as good as the recommendations we make the administration aware to spend money that we appropriate. I'm sorry. I can't help myself today. But, in any event, you know, for me I look at the Navy Yard and I think there is a sense of a plan there much more than there are in other areas. You have a parcel. You have aerial views and you are showing a lot of different places where things may fit in, and that's good, but for the district that I represent along the Delaware I don't see that. If you have it, we would like to see it because that's kind of what we have been asking for for a while. So we can look at it as a community, the organization, the people can look at it and sink their teeth into it and have some input, not necessarily erase what you have done and say we don't want that; we want something else, but it works. I, on many occasions, have 77 3/31/05 - COMMERCE - RES. 040827 AND 041017 taken developers through my district and literally point to land, Hovnanian many years ago, I pointed to the parcel that is under discussion in the Fishtown section of my district along the river that has received some negative publicity of late as a possible casino site, as possibly a site for housing. I took them out there. I don't know if it works. I don't know what the condition of the land is. And I have driven through Port Richmond, South Philadelphia with various developers and said, "How about this?

Will this work? I think housing would work. " Again, I was hoping today that we would have something more substantive to look at and kind of like what was out here at the previous hearing with the Navy Yard. I wasn't a part of that hearing, but something like that. So if you have it, it would be certainly helpful, and if you don't and it is being formulated, that's fine, but when I hear 78 3/31/05 - COMMERCE - RES. 040827 AND 041017 the plan, for me as the layperson, the nonarchitect, the nondeveloper, I kind of look for a map. I kind of look for a sketch, an artist's rendition with some layouts of housing and public space and recreational areas. That to me is a plan.

If I can respond, Councilman, I think not only in the Navy Yard but in the North Delaware and certainly along the Schuylkill --

Well, it connects to the Delaware.

-- you will see that kind of vision plan with imagery that speaks to the layperson and that someone can put themselves into. As you know, there was a different approach; for instance, in Penn's Landing. That approach did not bear fruit, at least the approach that we were involved in.

You are speaking of the Simon project? 79 3/31/05 - COMMERCE - RES. 040827 AND 041017

I'm speaking of the Penn's Landing RFP process.

I'm sorry.

I missed Simon.

Unfortunately I put seven years into that one.

Yes. And what is happening now, as I said in my testimony, there was an interim plan, not a vision plan, but to ensure that that area did not suffer from the fact that the development plans did not move forward, so money was -- has been produced to shore up piers and to do maintenance and repair, et cetera. In terms of the long-term planning, the vision plan or the imagery or the more detailed plan needs to set within the administration's policy framework. In other words, what is it that the City wants of this parcel of land. And we have already had very fruitful conversations with the Director 80 3/31/05 - COMMERCE - RES. 040827 AND 041017 of Commerce. I expect that Mr. Lombardo will continue those given this very rapid change in the market and very robust and hot market about what possibly could happen in the area. I also note in my testimony and will underscore for the record our interest in pursuing some of the concepts in the Wallace Roberts Todd plan. It is a very expensive plan the way it is laid out now; however, in concept and in sort of the broad objectives we don't see any conflict. So it may be that as we continue to vet through policy and come to some closure on policy, we can then go on to do a specific plan. In the plans that you have noted such as the Navy Yard and North Delaware, what predated the drawings was a decision about what should happen there and how it is going to be financed and how it was going to be paid for, and I think that's where we are now. I would add that in a robust 81 3/31/05 - COMMERCE - RES. 040827 AND 041017 market, as long as appropriate zoning is in place, there is also nothing wrong with having a developer-led process. If it's an appropriate development and a development that fits within a land use envelope that has been discussed and vetted and agreed upon, in a way that is the best kind of planning. It doesn't require a great deal of City subsidy or assistance, but I concur with you that there are probably parcels along your stretch of the waterfront where more in-depth planning that would yield a specific visual that could then be marketed and promoted might be of use. And one of the reasons I asked Rich to come up with me is I realize we are in a transition period and wanted to make sure that you understood that to the extent that I can I'm speaking for conversations that Rich and I have had and concur in.

Let me make it clear that I'm not opposed to 82 3/31/05 - COMMERCE - RES. 040827 AND 041017 developer-driven projects. I would be foolish to say that. But developer driven projects are basically a result of what the market at the time is interested in doing. A master plan sometimes I think could be the stimulus that drives developers to want to come to look at. We do tax incentives. That's a reason I would say why sometimes developer do things because they see a benefit to the economic benefit as a result of the tax credit or tax abatement or whatever, and that's okay. I think we as a government have that role. You referenced Wallace Roberts & Todd, who will be here also to give us some thoughts today, and the conceptual overview of what they saw, which is expensive, and we all agree on that, but the difference is they came up with a conceptual visual image of what they thought may be an appropriate use. Whether we agree or not that that is the appropriate use, there was something to 83 3/31/05 - COMMERCE - RES. 040827 AND 041017 kind of look at, again, to get your arms around, and work from. It was all about what that concept could mean to future uses along the Delaware Avenue/Columbus Boulevard corridor, so, again, not to sound like a broken record -- and I know you won't be here much longer; is that correct?

Those are the rumors. Those are the rumors.

If I'm correct -- I should save this I guess for the next person, Mr. Lombardo, but you are not going to be here that much longer either from what I understand. Whatever. But you all hear what I'm saying anyway, and whoever is out there who may follow in their footsteps, please take note.

And we don't -- I don't think we disagree.

It is the first time in my political career that I actually feel more secure than people that are civil service employees 84 3/31/05 - COMMERCE - RES. 040827 AND 041017 actually.

We don't disagree. And, as you know, many folks in our agency have been there 20, 30 years. They are not going anywhere, at least not in the next couple of years, and they have been part of this process, and we have Warren Huff and Tom Chapman who at least tell me they are not going anywhere. And I think we can encourage Rich to stay around a little while longer as well. But you are absolutely right. There are many ways to approach development. The approach that was taken by the administration at Penn's Landing initially was to see if we could get the vision and the funding and the financing in one package and moving forward together. That was not successful, and I think the administration is open to trying other avenues, other avenues. And, as I said, I was encouraged by the fact that although we 85 3/31/05 - COMMERCE - RES. 040827 AND 041017 may disagree about details and expense, in terms of the important things, which is the connectivity of communities and the connectivity to the waterfront, the need to have a very lively and robust and energetic waterfront that is filled with people and activity, there is nothing between those two plans that are anathetical (ph) and I think it gives us something to work with within a policy framework that is going to be developed by our economic development agencies led by the Commerce Director.

As you know, the Wallace Roberts & Todd report was paid for by a grant that was awarded to our organization through Senator Fumo. We were actually considering extending that, that initial report, with another 50,000 grant, which I'm not sure if it is even still available, but we never actually told the waterfront association folks that we are not -- I didn't think we should even spend that money because 86 3/31/05 - COMMERCE - RES. 040827 AND 041017 we don't want to spend totally a hundred thousand dollars between the two reports when the Planning Commission may have a plan. Let's see that plan. But, you know, we never heard back from anyone since that initial meeting that was convened in the Mayor's office well over a year ago.

Again, as I mentioned and as you know, this administration is very collaborative and we work within a policy framework on economic development matters that is set by the economic development cabinet, and it so happens that Rich is our representative to that cabinet. So we don't necessarily go off and vision on our own. It is very much tied to policies that are developed jointly amongst the agencies, and what I am suggesting is that this might be a very timely period to engage the consortium of organizations that I know that you work with and yourself and others in a 87 3/31/05 - COMMERCE - RES. 040827 AND 041017 discussion not only of a vision but of a policy that that vision would actually make concrete.

I'm working on some legislation that will hopefully set some guidelines for future development that would include public space as part of the development, and I found out meeting with two developers from Hoboken, New Jersey about a week ago who have a very ambitious project they are proposing along Delaware Avenue just north of Spring Garden that there are a lot of federal dollars that are available for riparian rights and other public amenities, and I will get back to you once that legislation is sent back to me that they have been using in other parts of the country. So I will work with the Planning Commission developing that legislation that will make it a requirement, which will not be an onerous requirement on the developer. If 88 3/31/05 - COMMERCE - RES. 040827 AND 041017 anything, I think it will add to the amenities and enhance the project when it is completed because of the public space that it will provide. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you.

Thank you.

Any other questions from the panel?

Yes, please.

Councilwoman Brown.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Hanna, thank you for your testimony. You gave a lot of discussion to the meetings in the workings with developers. Where appropriate, share with us how you address the spirit of the Mayor's executive order around MBE/WBE participation.

Brewerytown is one of the first developments that would come 89 3/31/05 - COMMERCE - RES. 040827 AND 041017 to mind. At Brewerytown there has been, as you probably know, some level of acrimony within the neighborhood by certain folks who think that the development of market rate housing in that neighborhood might engender or create some level of gentrification. There was also the concern that once stuff got started or coming up out of the ground, to paraphrase one of the neighborhood members who came to one of the neighborhood offices, they were afraid that a lot of pickup trucks with Jersey tags would be parked along the streets. Pursuant to the Mayor's executive order, we made it clear to the developer that we needed, we absolutely had to have, minority participation, that there should not be a bunch of Jersey tags on pickup trucks around the site.

Could I ask you to pause there one moment? How is that communicated? Verbally for sure, I would imagine and in the exchange in 90 3/31/05 - COMMERCE - RES. 040827 AND 041017 the meeting, but is there written -- is there provision in the agreement with the developer that stipulates that that's not optional as required?

No, because in this particular situation the developer bought -- the City helped assemble, but the developer bought the land at fair market value. Now, there is a provision in the development agreement between the developer and the RDA which speaks to that, but, to finish the story -- so that's -- I guess that's the legal nexus between developer and City. Most, however, most of the discussion did take place verbally. As a result of that -- and I spoke to the councilman on this very issue not ten days or so ago -- as a result, the councilman is ecstatic because as it turned out, somewhere upwards of 60 percent of the work being done out there is being performed by 91 3/31/05 - COMMERCE - RES. 040827 AND 041017 minority, or there is a 60 percent minority participation at the Westrum site at Brewerytown and, again, all of that stemmed from the Mayor's executive order and, aside from the executive order, the fact that it is a very important aspect of what the Mayor is looking to do citywide as articulated in the Blueprint. Brewerytown, as I say, was one of the first -- in fact, was kind of in the process as we were having those kinds of discussions. They got it very quickly and, if nothing else, it also proves the fact that there are minority contractors and subcontractors out there if in fact the right amount of effort is made to try to locate and then employ them.

It certainly also suggests that yes, it can be done if there is the will for developers to figure it out. So Westrum becomes a clear, in-your-face example of what's possible, which I would hope make 92 3/31/05 - COMMERCE - RES. 040827 AND 041017 all the other developers who are now in line recognize that it's possible.

You can bet on the fact that we are going to point to Westrum each time we go out and develop some of these development agreements between the RDA and the prospective developer.

Very well. Thank you for your testimony.

Yes, ma'am.

Any other questions for this panel? Thank you very much. Our next panel will also deal specifically with waterfront development. If Mr. Lazin and Mr. Rosenthal will come to the witness table. Please state your name for the record and proceed with your testimony.

My name is Malcolm Lazin, and I chair a committee of eleven community organizations up and down the central waterfront district. 93 3/31/05 - COMMERCE - RES. 040827 AND 041017

I'm Gilbert Rosenthal. I'm an architect and a planner with Wallace Roberts & Todd, the author of the plan we have heard a little bit about in the last few minutes.

Last evening totally by accident I had to walk along the central waterfront district and, as a result, Chair of the Committee Goode, I thought of your dad because in 1984 I made a proposal to David Brenner, who was then the commerce director, for putting out an RFP for Piers 12 through 24 at a point in time when no one believed that the waterfront could be developed. They put out a bid and the company that I represented and was president of was the only bidder on all of those piers because nobody else believed in it. We developed the first full-service marina, rehabbed Pier 19, which is now where Magiane and others are located, created the first waterfront club, and literally started the 94 3/31/05 - COMMERCE - RES. 040827 AND 041017 renaissance. We formed then the Philadelphia Waterfront Developers Council. And so one of the reasons why all of this was brought to mind was back in 1984 Delaware Avenue was a pothole ravine. It was probably the quickest way you could possibly get to China. It was a trucker's freeway, and so what we recognized was at that point in time the City really had no one who was paying attention to the infrastructure. Philadelphia Port Corporation had supposedly that authority, although their interest was obviously in the industrial, and therefore we started to do that kind of planning. And one of the very first things we did was we brought in Wallace Roberts & Todd to take a look at Delaware Avenue and what could be done, and as a net result of that we made a proposal based upon their recommendations for infrastructure planning to then secretary of transportation, Jerusalem, which then 95 3/31/05 - COMMERCE - RES. 040827 AND 041017 got into the nine-year plan, and what you see today on Delaware Avenue is exactly the work of Wallace Roberts & Todd. Now, the reason I raise all that is that the only way -- first of all, one, Philadelphia clearly has a history of complete and utter failure in terms of trying to develop Penns Landing. You would think based upon that failure the City would say to itself why have we failed so miserably in spite of the fact that we brought Bill Rouse to the table and Simon DeBartolo to the table and lots of other people to the table. Maybe there is, one, a flawed process and, number two, maybe there is some infrastructure that needs to be addressed because in terms of a central waterfront district for a major urban city, other cities have been able to do it including Baltimore's Inner Harbor, which obviously was probably one of the very worst areas in one of the worst cities in the country before it got developed. And how did 96 3/31/05 - COMMERCE - RES. 040827 AND 041017 that happen? Because they had an infrastructure plan. And who prepared the infrastructure plan? Wallace Roberts & Todd. Now, I'm not here as their PR person, but I am here to tell you that until the City of Philadelphia develops a plan for the development of the waterfront, you are going to have more of the same and, therefore, in terms of the eleven civic organizations that came together around the most recent development of the waterfront, it was to ask the City to come up with a waterfront plan. I listened to the testimony of the current City Planning Commission executive director and it is very nice to hear about we want a waterfront that is going to be user friendly, increase the quality of life, interface with the neighborhoods, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, but, unfortunately, from my viewpoint as a representative of all 97 3/31/05 - COMMERCE - RES. 040827 AND 041017 eleven adjacent community organizations we have not seen such a plan and, therefore, what we did was we went to Councilman DiCicco and Senator Fumo and asked them to support our retaining Wallace Roberts & Todd to take the very first step in that very important process. And so what I would like to do is now turn it over to Gil Rosenthal to tell you about that plan that, by the way, all of those community organizations have embraced.

Thank you. Thank you, Malcolm. Thank you, Committee. Thank you, Councilman. I was going to begin with a brief overview of my credentials. I think my colleague has done that very well and I will move on to the second paragraph. And I have written this testimony and will probably follow it very closely, although I do tend to ad lib from time to time. 98 3/31/05 - COMMERCE - RES. 040827 AND 041017 Since I arrived in Philadelphia in 1983, I have been engaged five times to prepare a plan for Penns Landing. The first four were for developers -- Bill 6 Rouse the first, Malcolm Lazin I think was the third. There were a lot of developers involved. There were no 9 rules. We worked with inventive programs and unlimited budgets, developer budgets, not architectural budgets. These were all big-scale visions proposing huge attractions intended to make Penn's Landing a tourist destination. Our drawings, like those of other designers, showed mega complexes for retail and entertainment, Worlds Fair-like exhibition halls, towering commercial buildings and parking for thousands of cars. Not one recognized any relationship to the scale or social fabric of Society Hill or Old City or Queen Village. Rather, these were highway developments aimed at the 99 3/31/05 - COMMERCE - RES. 040827 AND 041017 tourists operating at the pace and scale of I-95 and the vast open space of the river. You could pin up those four plans we drew over the past two decades alongside the seven or eight proposals submitted to Penn's Landing Development Corporation two years ago and, with few exceptions, they would all fall into the same category: Huge, tourist-related, out of scale with the city. But our most recent planning assignment has been very different. First, our client was not a developer this time nor was it the City, but rather an organization of eleven community groups who felt it was necessary to take a more comprehensive look at the entire waterfront from Penn Treaty Park to Washington and Oregon Avenues. Second, perhaps because this was not developer driven, we abandoned the goal of a megascaled tourist 100 3/31/05 - COMMERCE - RES. 040827 AND 041017 destination in favor of neighborhood projects that would be easier to implement and might extend the fabric of the river wards all the way to the river they once lay beside. Our goal was to reconnect those neighborhoods to their river, east-west, to create an interconnected river neighborhood, north-south, and to offer waterfront amenities that might serve these neighborhoods as well as all the residents and the visitors of Philadelphia. This third point, that the goal of the planning study was to make Philadelphia more livable rather than visitable is essential to citywide economic development. I have no report to confirm that. That's my opinion. We have a tremendous opportunity to take advantage of a growing trend towards in-town living, allowing us to attract new families to our city. Perhaps Paul Levy, who we had 101 3/31/05 - COMMERCE - RES. 040827 AND 041017 hoped would be here today, could speak in more depth about that and his analysis of attracting families Center City to reside. Finally, this assignment was not about creating a plan, although we do have illustrative plans that are included in my handouts and I have larger boards with me, but rather about compiling a set of evaluations and observations coupled with some creative thinking about what might be drafted in an illustrative format so that the community, our client, and the City might be able to establish criteria with which to evaluate all development proposals. So we are looking at a combination of creating a framework of evaluation which then welcomes developers to participate in the process. We asked some critical questions that we have not seen addressed before: One, if the market in Philadelphia really has the depth to 102 3/31/05 - COMMERCE - RES.

040827 AND 041017 absorb more than a billion dollars of investment, as at least one of the Penn's Landing proposals suggested, should we as a city try to guide where that investment might best serve us. Let's look at market depth as a limited resource and spend it wisely. Rather than concentrating our next decade's development potential on skinny acres 11 between Market and Walnut, might we be 12 better off if we can steer it to other 13 sites to complete the rest of the waterfront or the Avenue of the Arts or fill out the vision for the Benjamin Franklin Parkway. These are just ideas offered. If Penn's Landing is to be a development site, which we agree it could be, our second question would be is there still a need for large, open park space on the river or a series of smaller park spaces directly related to their neighborhoods to the west? We made some suggestions about where they might be and 103 3/31/05 - COMMERCE - RES. 040827 AND 041017 how big they might be, but this question requires much more public participation. Three, while it is currently possible to meet all zoning requirements without any need for real public access to the waterfront, we considered how a linear park or riverfront walkway similar to those my firm created along the Hudson River -- that would be Hoboken -- might benefit all of the parcels as well as the city and what route it might take. It's not easy to create a linear walkway with all the pier constructions, but there are larger parcels where a pier can be jumped or where a walkway can go out to the edge, but right now there is no requirement t do so and developers are generally choosing not to do so. Four, most planners have tried to address the issue of crossing the width of I-95. We now have long, empty bridges and small underused parks. Some developers and some planners, including 104 3/31/05 - COMMERCE - RES. 040827 AND 041017 ourselves, have proposed expensive covers to the highway's length, but we have also examined this problem of the separation of the waterfront from the rest of the city. We felt it might be prudent to first focus not on I-95 but rather on Columbus Boulevard, which is being used as a service access road to I-95, sort of a continuation of the work we were doing that Malcolm identified earlier. This access condition of Columbus Boulevard greatly exacerbates the separation. Together, along with the railroad tracks down the center, they comprise a 21-lane chasm. Is it possible, we asked, to find a way to change Columbus Boulevard into a city street or, might we say, back to a city street rather than a highway-scaled commercial route? Without yet quantifying this, we examined approaches to new infrastructure that would create development parcels that might in turn 105 3/31/05 - COMMERCE - RES. 040827 AND 041017 support the cost of that infrastructure. Our goal was to create value through the infrastructure and have the value of that parcel pay for the infrastucture itself. We do not believe it's essential for large public expenditures to make some of these items work. We identified a series of steps that could be taken to modify streets in a careful, frugal, incremental way. For example, we think it is possible to slope Columbus Boulevard up northward beginning at the Hyatt Hotel to the height of Front Street so that Walnut and Chestnut can simply be carried across I-95 as streets at grade and level, making this new, raised Columbus Boulevard the new waterfront street, literally extending the fabric of Society Hill. This new Columbus Boulevard now at the level of Front Street would then gently slope back down to pass under the Market Street Bridge, and the drawings 106 3/31/05 - COMMERCE - RES. 040827 AND 041017 explain this three-dimensionally.

We think it is possible to build reasonable parking garages beneath this raised level so that buildings that front on the new, raised Columbus Boulevard would present a retail or residential face back toward Front Street rather than the blank garage facades earlier developer proposals have had to deal with. Less intense development on these parcels would also lessen the need for gargantuan garages, and the drawings illustrate these and other diagrams -- other ideas. So where do we go from here? We think it is time for careful examination in greater depth than we were able to do in our short study of two major components, public policy, which we have heard a lot about and we believe this report that has just been issued does address, but this includes the issue of livability versus visitability, for example, what are we trying to achieve 107 3/31/05 - COMMERCE - RES. 040827 AND 041017 with this incredible resource we have, and, secondly, urban design goals such as waterfront access and scale and the city's definition along the river's edge as well as criteria for determining where residential, commercial or other uses, other uses such as gaming, might best go in a way that serves the city and the river wards and the developing river front community that has been growing incrementally all by itself. This study should take into account market potential. As I said before, I consider that an asset that the city has, but market potential for the whole city with some designation of preferred areas of growth, a sort of urban-smart growth plan or, as Maxine called it I think, prioritization. It's a great idea; secondly, financial impact on both the costs and revenue sides of the equations. You have seen a lot about the cost side of the equation. We want to 108 3/31/05 - COMMERCE - RES. 040827 AND 041017 look at the revenue side. If you build a street that creates property, can we then sell that property for enough money to pay for the street. I think so. Infrastructure that addresses traffic without succumbing completely to its demands -- reclaim Delaware Avenue in particular and I-95 if we could -- and, finally, zoning that really represents the wishes and vision of the city within the rights of landowners and can be relied on by planners and developers. Thank you.

Thank you both for your testimony. Are there questions from members of the committee?

I just want to publicly thank you, Malcolm, again and Gil for all the work that has gone into this. We heard some of the testimony and some of the questions went back and forth. I think Miss Griffith is shaking an affirmative before I even got 109 3/31/05 - COMMERCE - RES. 040827 AND 041017 it out. I think we have an understanding that maybe we need to regroup and start talking about some of these things, and whatever we, the public sector, myself can lend to the Planning Commission, we are certainly available. So thank you. I really appreciate you taking the time to come here.

Thank you.

Thank you both. Is Harris Eckstut here? Please approach the witness table and identify yourself for the record.

Harris Eckstut, Philadelphia Board of Realtors. Just so you know, I have never met the architect from Wallace Roberts or Malcolm, but my testimony will be similar. It is kind of unusual to be here. I had a restaurant for years on 23 South Street, MontSerrat, as the 24 councilman knows, and I have never seen 25 the place empty before. Usually the 110 3/31/05 - COMMERCE - RES. 040827 AND 041017 liquor tax and the smoking bills get a bigger crowd. So it's nice. Good afternoon. My name is Harris Eckstut. Again, some of you might remember me as the owner of MontSerrat Restaurant on South Street for a couple of decades, and I was also the founding chair of the South Street/Headhouse Business Improvement District. And, yes, I am still around. The Councilman knows that. Today I'm a realtor at Plumer & Associates, a Philadelphia family real estate firm in continuous operation actually on South Street since 1923. Since closing the restaurant, I've been working at other challenges, selling real estate, commercial and residential, in Philly and consulting on independent restaurants for developers, bankers and investors in the Middle Atlantic States including Strubels Bellows Eckels in Baltimore Inner Harbor as well as brokering new restaurant 111 3/31/05 - COMMERCE - RES. 040827 AND 041017 independent businesses. I also assist my brother's firm, Ehrenkratz Eckstut & Kuhn Architects, EE&K, in its public relations efforts. ; Los Angeles and Shanghai, China. As the architect who designed Battery Park City in New York, brother Stan has become known around the world, as the American Association of Port Authorities called him last year, the waterfront architect. Working on the firm's public relations and having been active in the South Street/Headhouse Business District and participating in the public discussions on a number of Penn's Landing's plans and projects, I have applied this past experience and interest with some current duties to become familiar with many of EE&K's waterfront projects around the world. These include the San Pedro waterfront of Los Angeles, America's second largest 112 3/31/05 - COMMERCE - RES. ; East Pointe, Providence, Rhode Island; Newark's Passaic Waterfront; a mixed-use plan on Huang Pu River on the Bund in Shanghai; and in New York, besides Battery Park City, Newport, Jersey City, the Peninsula at Bayonne Harbor, the Yonkers Waterfront, Arverne by the Sea; and many more. These all have or are now being built, and one thing they all have in common, they are all very different. There is not one proven way of how to get the projects designed and built, but there is the commonality that it can't be done on an island all by itself. If you know of anyone from the Rockaways Peninsula in New York and you mention that Arverne has become the most 113 3/31/05 - COMMERCE - RES. 040827 AND 041017 desirable, middle-income housing purchases in all of New York City, after that person stops laughing, he or she will tell you how full of it you are. In fact, in the early '50s a government official called Arverne in the Far Rockaways the atomic bomb site. It remained so until two years ago. I have had people tell me for years that nuttin will ever get built at Penn's Landing and on the waterfront because of all of the Philadelphia speculators, money grubbers and politicians and all of those unkind things they say about politicians. Well, that's not what holds up the development of the Philly waterfront because I found that all of the other cities in America, and probably the world, have speculators, money grubbers and politicians and all of those unkind things they say about politicians. Then there is this I-95, oh, no, we can't do it barrier. Since the 114 3/31/05 - COMMERCE - RES. 040827 AND 041017 days of the construction of I-95 and the long-forgotten almost Walnut Street exit of I-95 for the 3rd Street Independence Park Welcome Center, I have heard that Philly's waterfront development is handicapped by I-95.

It's time to get rid of this Philadelphia negativity or, as one of the sports announcers calls it, Negadelphia. I-95 is not a handicap. Rather, it is a challenge. And every waterfront development in America has challenges, not exactly this one, but a multitude of others. Battery Park City in New York had the World Trade Center Towers. A. Waterfront, has the dilapidated commercial area as well as a multitude of residential issues, and Baltimore Inner Harbor, as was expressed earlier, had Baltimore, and the list can go on and on. It is not that they had a problem or a handicap; they just didn't look at it that way. Rather, these were 115 3/31/05 - COMMERCE - RES. 040827 AND 041017 challenges that they chose to deal with. In fact, I don't think our challenge is I-95, but what the roadway points out, that Old City Philadelphia and its neighbors are multiple stories higher than the Philadelphia waterfront at Penn's Landing. So there. I-95 is not a problem anymore, but the height difference of the waterfront and the old city is a great challenge for creative and visionary professionals. Did you know that Battery Park City, which is built on the landfill created by construction of the World Trade Center, went 14 years and dozens of proposals, some from the biggest developers and top architects in the world, and none went anywhere. It wasn't until the State of New York's financial support for the Battery Park City Authority was running out and the Authority was near bankruptcy that Stan drew up the original idea for the master plan of one of the great waterfront 116 3/31/05 - COMMERCE - RES. 040827 AND 041017 achievements on a beverage napkin on an airplane. The plan was as simple as the napkin. Let's not do something grand and different. Let's do what we already know is great. In this case it was Manhattan. So they planned the waterfront esplanade like on the East River, a destination center like Grand Central Station, buildings built from the same stone as those built on Central Park West in earlier times, Upper West Side at another time, street lamps that lined the streets of Manhattan in the '40s, and so many other architectural elements of that city. What was/is the key to the fiscal and physical success of Battery Park City? By the way, today it is known as New York's cash cow, funding many other city residential developments. The key was not to reinvent the wheel. In other words, I'm saying let's stop trying to reinvent Philadelphia. It's a great 117 3/31/05 - COMMERCE - RES. 040827 AND 041017 city. Let's use our city, use our heritage and our culture. I'm not an urbanist. I don't know what makes Philly great, but I have a good idea. Small shops with residential use above, great public squares for public places, a lively walkable street life. I'm sure professionals in urban planning and design can explain more that just this old restaurateur. We can also avoid reinventing the wheel and another half century of nothingness by speaking to people at the successful waterfront agencies, governments, and communities and find out how they worked it all out and intermeshed and strategized all of the components, money, politics, land, management, et cetera, that made their projects happen. Once this is digested, then there should be consensus among the stakeholders as to the best way to have the Philly waterfront happen. 118 3/31/05 - COMMERCE - RES. 040827 AND 041017 I have attached Stan's published article on the guiding principles of large-scale architectural design including waterfronts. A lot of this consensus-building, local culture philosophy is detailed there. What I have learned from the history of other waterfronts around the country is that sometimes, just like here in my city, it takes a little longer to get a large-scale urban waterfront to happen. There might be a few roadblocks and nasty pratfalls, but with dedication, vision and professionalism the waterfront can and will happen.

It is up to you, our elected officials, to gather the people from government, appropriate agencies, and community with vision, understanding, and, most of all, what I feel has been the most lacking in the history of our waterfront, professionalism. Then we have the ingredients to make this the one and only Philadelphia waterfront. 119 3/31/05 - COMMERCE - RES. 040827 AND 041017 Thanks.

Thank you for your testimony. Are there questions from members of the committee? Thank you. Let me note for the record that Councilman Clarke was here and had to leave and Councilman Nutter has also joined us. Miss Judith Robinson, please approach the witness table. Good afternoon, please state your name for the record.

My name is Judith Robinson. Thank you all for the opportunity to testify today regarding Resolution 041017. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. It is 040827 is what I'm here to testify on today. Thank you for the opportunity. I just wanted to clarify that I am clear that this is regarding the 21st Century Economic Development Summit? 120 3/31/05 - COMMERCE - RES. 040827 AND 041017

That's correct.

Because I see that there is a blueprint and I understand there is another blueprint going around I think from the state level. Is that one and the same or being combined somewhere?

No. As a result of the summit, there was a formal Blueprint document that was developed and released last week and this is a hearing on that document.

Okay. Well, I did read the whole 21st Century Economic Development Forum Review. I did read that. And, respectfully, I say that I looked at the members of each committee and it was heavy on lawyers. With all due respect, average citizens have great ideas that can be of value. I know it was not convened by this body, but I just want to say that to you all. Please be respectful of every idea. You never know 121 3/31/05 - COMMERCE - RES. 040827 AND 041017 where it might come from, maybe even a child. If we are respectful of each other, maybe we could solve some of these problems. I have been coming here for many years regarding every economic project and I'm going to say greetings from the neighbor-Hood. I have come here for OHCD hearings, Comcast, the School Board, et cetera, et cetera, most important you all know my favorite, the Neighborhood Transformation Initiative. Every project, every program has some economic development stimulus package attached to it, so you all claim, or so the claims were. If that be the case, it shouldn't be that hard to try to make these things work. Chairman Goode, I read your testimony or your, yeah, testimony, as it relates to this process overall, and I, like you, am concerned about enforcement and monitoring of what folks declare they are going to do when they come to this 122 3/31/05 - COMMERCE - RES. 040827 AND 041017 body and before us regarding these economic stimulus package. I think what you propose were some great ideas to monitor that process and I would just like to see it, in fact, happen. I'm going to just briefly go over some of the testimony from Controller Saidel and also the City representative and Director of Commerce. All these years that the controller has been in office he states that he hopes that this Blueprint will offer a roadmap to future decision-making, okay, to promote the economic health and vitality of the city. Not to be disrespectful, for many years the controller has been in a position to better monitor or be more of an enforcer of whether each of these projects that you all agree to finance or agree to get out of the committees out of this body through the voting process, he has agreed to keep the money flowing so to speak. So I hear him per his 123 3/31/05 - COMMERCE - RES. 040827 AND 041017 testimony. He won't be here anymore, but maybe in the future we can allow a controller to be everything they can be and truly monitor this process. I only remember one time Mr. Saidel stopping some very disrespectful spending. It was in the Rendell administration. It was over on Osage Avenue. Remember that mess? That's the only time I remember payments being stopped for a project. I guess it was so darn ridiculous that it had to be stopped. That is the only time I remember him doing that. I'll leave that alone. Secondly, regarding the City's representative -- I want to call her the Director of Commerce -- just to go over her testimony, this Blueprint, they have objectives and I'm real clear that we are now trying to move towards a city that is going to extract the best and the brightest and use the knowledge industry to build economy. I would hope, because 124 3/31/05 - COMMERCE - RES. 040827 AND 041017 I'm a voice from the neighbor-Hood that you will make sure that you leave no 4 children, no people behind, nobody from my neighborhood because we have knowledge up in the Hood and I want to make sure that as we give these colleges entree all over our neighborhoods, expanding as they are, that we are not so disrespectful of the people that live in those neighborhoods that we don't even offer them an opportunity to attend those institutions as we expand them into our neighborhood. Just Thursday I read where Temple University in my neighborhood of north Philadelphia is going to the state for increased funding.

I'm sure that's a good thing per their request; however, I'm concerned that these institutions are expanding into the community, begging for more money, but not looking to those very communities for brains, knowledge, power. That's one of my terms. Secondly, according to the 125 3/31/05 - COMMERCE - RES. 040827 AND 041017 representative's statements, testimony, the second objective of this Blueprint objective is the economic development. I think we need those who are the decision-makers to expand your groups. Stop listening to the same voices. We are not getting it done now. Maybe if you open up your ears you may be able to hear that there are some ideas coming out of the mouths of those that are not appointed, annointed or part of the clique. You just may get the answer. Remember, it could come from anywhere. In addition, and it is sad to me, but I knew this would never be the first thing that would be considered, but making Philadelphia a national model for the MBE/WBE process, after 20-some years of having MBEC in place, it is just truly unfortunate that we can't get this right. We can't be respectful that each and every one of us citizens of Philadelphia can bring something to the process and to exclude those people that are of value to 126 3/31/05 - COMMERCE - RES. 040827 AND 041017 our community, those that could be even more of taxpayers than they are already. It is just such a sad thing for us, and the better we are about dealing with that ASAP would be of value. This program, this Blueprint, is supposed to sustain advances in neighborhood economic development. Well, I live and soon I will have a business in the heart of North Philadelphia. As a business person, I never requested any of this money from the Commerce Department. I guess my self-sufficiency just makes me go on about my business to try to do this, but as I look at our commercial corridors, whatever money has been put towards that process has not really been of value to the communities. The stores on our corridors are mostly dirty food stores with people as proprietors that are from outside of our community, so the dollar goes out, not in. If we are truly trying to do 127 3/31/05 - COMMERCE - RES. 040827 AND 041017 economic of scales and trying to be of value to those of us that live in the communities of these neighborhoods, we would do a better job of monitoring how dollars are spent and what value are they bringing back to us. We know that over 300 and some million dollars, bond money, not money that we can use as grant money, money that will have to be paid back in the future was used in the name of transforming communities. Houses were built. Houses were torn down. We have a bunch of land. But somehow with all the building people didn't think about supermarkets. They didn't think about economic development and helping people from these communities participate. I hope we can make a correction in that regard. In my community -- in our community, but mostly in the North Philadelphia community that I live in, there is lack of opportunity for our 128 3/31/05 - COMMERCE - RES. 040827 AND 041017 males, and my -- and I'm sure you all heard this one before. My mother would say it all the time. Out of mind playground of the devil. And it's obvious. I'm going to leave that there. But as we get expansion of student housing, as we get all of these PHA redevelopments, et cetera, going on, there is no true economic development stimulus as relates to every one of these projects. I will just digress for a split second to say that I encourage you all and this economic development committee to be supportive of my councilman, Darrell Clarke, as he will come back before this body soon in the name of 1600 North Broad Street and, again, we are talking about economic stimulus. I'm going to move on because I want to finish up real soon, but I want to say this: In the Commerce Director's testimony I see where they are talking about preserving historic properties.

129 3/31/05 - COMMERCE - RES. 040827 AND 041017 Some of the best historic properties are in the heart of North Philadelphia being destroyed, so if you all are really, truly interested in preserving historic neighborhoods, let's be respectful of all of them. Making city government incentive programs more predictable, objective and equitable, that would be a good thing. What are we going to do about it, you all? In addition, let's not just -- again, I keep challenging you all to listen to all voices. Go out and talk to somebody you never talked to before because to just use independent report commissioned by the Building Industry Association, who I respect very much, BIA, they have a program, but you need to listen to those others that are not part of those groups or part of unions, et cetera. Correct me if I'm wrong, but there is no law that says that all work 130 3/31/05 - COMMERCE - RES. 040827 AND 041017 has to be done by union employees.

That's correct.

Is that true?

That's correct.

So then there should be no good reason why we can't have my brothers from the Hood working on these projects without any major problems about this, okay? In closing, increased opportunities and access to literacy. Yes, we do need to deal with that, safe schools, all of that. And as you build those schools, $1.5 million, another economic development program that I think if we continue to move forward and being the best we can be and we are truthful with each other and we are trying to make sure we move toward this Blueprint and make sure we follow all the guidelines, then, you know, we could move forward in being the best Philadelphia we could be 131 3/31/05 - COMMERCE - RES. 040827 AND 041017 by sticking to guidelines, really, truly pulling in everybody to make sure everybody is included in the economic development process. Thank you all very much. Let's work together.

Thank you. And if you don't have a copy of the latest Blueprint, I would be more than glad to give you this copy.

I would love to have it.

Does anyone else want to testify on these resolutions? Seeing none, this hearing on both resolutions is recessed to the call of the Chair. (The hearing adjourned at 4:25 p.m.) 132 CERTIFICATE I HEREBY CERTIFY that the proceedings of the Committee on Commerce & Economic Development are contained fully and accurately in the stenographic notes taken by me on Thursday, March 31, 2005, and that this is a true and correct transcript of same. ______________________________ Cynthia A. Whyte, RPR (The foregoing certification of this transcript does not apply to any reproduction of the same by any means, unless under the direct control and/or supervision of the certifying reporter.)