No. They were -- There were new housing permits for new construction. And that's -- A lot of it has to do with your efforts in developing low and moderate income housing. So the total number of new housing 65 040797 - Housing - 12/13/04 permits were 223. I think it's two years, last two years?
Yeah. We're doing stuff all over my district. At any given point I had developers who are 7 ready to go. 8 You've also mentioned on coalitions with town watch group and dealing 10 with crime prevention. 11 And I wanted to know what your role 12 is in that arena. And crime prevention 13 obviously involves local police district, 14 neighborhood volunteers, et cetera, et 15 cetera, and how PCDC is involved with those 16 organizations and agency, and how you see 17 your role therein. 18
Well, one of the 19 things -- And we have to deal with the 20 reality of budget cuts, just like every other City department, when we start talking about firehouses closing and police being laid off. Our budget was also cut. We used to be the premier, premier anti-crime organization for small businesses. 66 040797 - Housing - 12/13/04 We can't continue to do that. We used to do security rebates for small businesses that added the roll-down gates and things like that. We do a lot less of them. How many did we do...
We only did seven because our budget was cut. But one of the things that we want to do is work with CDC's to create these town watches, connect them with the business associations because -- I don't know. If you read the papers lately, a lot of the NTI impact has driven a lot of the drug dealers off of the corners, but they've taken up new vocations. And one of the new vocations is robbing our inner city merchants. If you read the papers, not a month goes by without somebody being robbed and seriously harmed. And we need to address that, through working together, to try to deal with that. We were in Council -- No. State representative Curtis Thomas had us at 67 040797 - Housing - 12/13/04 Germantown and Lehigh, up there dealing with issues up there. And these businesses are risking their lives in these corridors. And one of the things that we want to do, and with the S.E.P.T.A. money that we're using, is create cameras that actually are security cameras, that are associated with those bus stops, to try to at least stem some of that crime. And that's what we've been --
Well, we would like to have that discussion. One year we even shut down 52nd Street ourselves, took all the vendors, closed them down, pulled down all the grates and painted them to get rid of graffiti, cleaned it up, power washed and all of that. But again, those were just initiatives we believed in. We're always begging up and toughen up all the help we get. But we never feel that there's anybody we can collaborate. We just decided to do it. We took it upon ourselves, shut it 68 040797 - Housing - 12/13/04 down, cleaned it out, power washed it, and painted it all. And all that graffiti has not come back. But crime and security and those security gates are an important issue to us. Having said that, let me defer to someone else. I have other questions, but let me defer to Councilman Clarke.
I want to follow up first on some questions early from the Chair, with respects to your budget. You're funded to the tune of 80 percent by the City. Is that primarily from CDBG dollars?
The contract that you have, is it an annual contract? 69 040797 - Housing - 12/13/04
We have -- We have indeed a contract, and it has performance standards: The number of loans, the number of rebates, the number of technical assistance provided. It is spelled out specifically.
Is that contract open to any entity or is it just solely a contract renewal with your organization? Say, for instance, Joe Blow, not to, you know, imply that's the type of organization you're running, but for lack of a better term...
...was interested in providing a similar service as you are, your agency is, would they be in a position to apply for the grant you get?
All right. Is it an RFP or... 70 040797 - Housing - 12/13/04
We do an application to the City of Philadelphia. That application is either accepted or rejected by the Commerce Department.
Has there ever been any discussion within your organization, providing additional services? Sometimes... Part of the problem in government is that we, I think all of us, get stagnant, as we sometimes don't change with the climate, change with the times, particularly on these annual renewable type of arrangements, when an entity knows they're going to get funded because they always have, and there could sometimes be no need or no 23 thought process that makes them change to address the different concerns. As an example -- And I've spoken to 71 040797 - Housing - 12/13/04 you on a couple of occasions and other individuals about our inability to have businesses flourish in some of our low income neighborhoods, the actual organizations be developers. Earlier I referenced PHDC which is kind of a quasi housing agency that works in the City of Philadelphia, where we put that particular agency in a neighborhood where there is no strong non-profit CDC that provides housing. And we normally require that they form a partnership with a non-profit entity, in hopes of building the capacity of that non-profit neighborhood entity, to ultimately develop properties on their own. And we've been successful in several locations. Have you ever given any thought to focus more from a development perspective, as opposed to just simply a lender, or simply technical assistance or entity? So we are not subject to the whims of some national chain or some statewide chain who may or may not be interested in developing some of our 72 040797 - Housing - 12/13/04 communities.
Let me do a couple of things in answering that question. Number one, our mission is to start fires of development, meaning economic development activity; build capacity for someone else to continue to keep that development going. Good examples where it works really well is like when you have a strong business association, a development association like Ogontz Avenue Revitalization Corporation, their first planning grant they got from us. OARC took that, ran with it, and became masters of development, to the degree that I send my staff up there to learn from them.
Well, Representative Evans would say that he was the one who was the...
No. He got some of his start-up money from us. That's a matter of 73 040797 - Housing - 12/13/04 public record. And he will tell you. We provided -- When other people didn't believe maybe as much as they do now, we were the first monies in. And that's a fact. We also have been that kind of firestarter with a number of organizations. What we hope to do is, there's so much work that needs to be done, if you had ten PCDC's, it would still not be enough to deal with all of the work that needs to be done. So our job is to, in cases where people want to get technical assistance, want to become developers, to work with them so that they can eventually branch off and do the development job that needs to be done. So, we will change our role to assist in any way that you guys here dictate. We will do it. We're not trying to hog it. We're not getting complacent. We don't believe we're going to sit back on our laurels because the second that we do that, you know, we have to -- 74 040797 - Housing - 12/13/04
Are you prohibited under your contract to be a developer?
No. But there are other organizations within the City structure that has taken that mantle because --
You're focusing in on neighborhood commercial corridors.
And frankly speaking, PICD, if you don't talk about seven-figure deals, they act as if somehow they don't want to be involved in it.
And what I'm saying is, in local neighborhoods, small 75 040797 - Housing - 12/13/04 development deals... You know, the fortunate reality is that the ability of local non-profits to become developers is extremely limited. So, I'm saying --
We would love to fill that void. I mean, that's the best way I can answer it. But it is not by circumstance that we do not. And that's what I can tell you. It's not by coincidence that we have not. And that's the best I can tell you.
We would love to be the agents that helps to do strip malls and small developments in neighborhoods. That has not been our role. We are at this point --
I mean, have you asked anybody could you? I mean, you say you're not prohibited in doing it in your 76 040797 - Housing - 12/13/04 contracts. I mean, have you attempted to do it and somebody said no?
Well, there was... Under a different administration we tried to do some things where we got state dollars to do those kinds of organizational grants. And it wasn't until the Street administration that we were even allowed to apply for state dollars. We were told specifically that we couldn't go after certain types of development dollars. One of the advantages that our counterpart agency PIDC has is that when their money gets lent out, there's a certain pool of it, that when it comes back in, they have discretion about how they use it. Us, when we use CDBG do not. What goes in must be lent out, specifically. So that gives them a --
That doesn't prohibit you from changing the nature of your 77 040797 - Housing - 12/13/04 mission. What I'm trying to get you to focus on is this whole development opportunity...
who has technical capacity within house, whereas other local neighborhood groups don't.
What I'm trying to get a sense, if you're saying -- Earlier in your testimony -- I want to ask you about that in another direction, about how you were having difficulty developing the small businesses within communities because we were being basically enveloped by national chains. Then why don't you all do it?
We do do it. And if you look at the -- If you look at the list of 78 040797 - Housing - 12/13/04 businesses...
I'm talking about PCDC as a developer, where you all go out, do a development plan, you go out and get funding, you build, construct the facility that you own.
No, you didn't do 29th and Dauphin. 79 040797 - Housing - 12/13/04
We were involved -- Wait a minute; wait a minute; wait a minute. We were involved.
Okay. We also loaned money to -- Wait a second. Wait a minute. Heritage Shopping Center. So we're involved in it from that capacity.
I understand that. I'm just trying to get you to think out of the box.
Because you -- I mean, it's clearly we have troubled neighborhood commercial corridors. So, we got to do something different. 80 040797 - Housing - 12/13/04 You know, I mean, you spoke earlier about public policy determining the direction of businesses, in your earlier testimony.
And the national trend right now, as the local trend is, is to develop strip shopping malls. There was a story recently in the Daily News to talk about the advent of all of these malls in the City of Philadelphia. Talked about Delaware Avenue, talked about Whitman Plaza. And the City seems like it's supporting those efforts. So, I'm concerned that, understanding that and giving the impression that that's the direction that the City would like to go, who is going to help the small neighborhood commercial corridors, beyond what we're currently doing? Because based on what I'm seeing in the neighborhood commercial corridors that I'm interacting with, it's not nearly enough. I mean, you know, we're putting some money on the table. As a matter of fact, one 81 040797 - Housing - 12/13/04 gentleman, as an example, he actually tried to develop... expand his operations up at Ridge and Cecil B. Moore. And he went to you. That's something else I want to ask you about, this $25,000 maximum loan. More often than not I'm told that's just not enough.
It's not our maximum or our larger loan program. That's our micro loan program.
All right. So what I'm trying to understand is why can't you think out of the box and become a developer, such as PHDC?
We can. We can. Simple answer is that we can. We have not done it but we can.
Well, it's 82 040797 - Housing - 12/13/04 about the neighborhood commercial corridor development, before you move off of that.
Mr. Jones, in your testimony on , about the fourth, fifth paragraph down you talked about the International Council of Shopping Centers.
And their interest in coming into the inner city. And I guess by that I would mean the results of a survey.
That 150 people were interviewed from Fortune 1000 companies that are interested in coming into the inner city?
What happens with that type of information? Is that something that Commerce should pick up on or PCDC? I mean, what happens if there are people that are interested, there are 83 040797 - Housing - 12/13/04 companies interested in coming in to an inner city, than tell me what happens once you find that out, once the City of Philadelphia finds out there are people that are interested in coming into the inner city.
It really depends on what door that information comes through. If we find out about it, based on our capacity and what our area of expertise, we share that often with PIDC or we share it with Commerce. And we let them kind of take the ball and run with it. If they're doing the big strip mall, that's their role. If we're doing the individual transaction between the merchants, that's our role. So, we kind of work with them to do those kinds of things. It really depends on what door, if it's a PIDC deal, what door it comes through. But your point is well taken, that there's no 22 central depository of information, where everybody can kind of say, well, I can help out with this portion of the deal. It doesn't happen. 84 040797 - Housing - 12/13/04
Right. Because I would wonder, okay, if Commerce is pretty much focused on the large strip malls, I think you called them, and you guys are doing more of the individual business development --
-- who is looking at the strip itself, just in terms of developing that? Would it be -- Certainly not the business association. So, it sounds like if there is a business that's interested -- You know, sometimes I go shopping. And if I go into a store that I think I'd like to see in my district, I give them my card. I'll find out who to call. When Krispy Kreme opened on Cottman, I found out who the owner was. I called the owner of Krispy Kreme, and said, hey, I have a strip. I have a place that you could come to, you know, even though they really wanted to be where there's lots of vehicle traffic. And Delaware Avenue... You know, 85 040797 - Housing - 12/13/04 the owner took a lot of time with me, explained, you know, why and where they look. They wanted to open up on Delaware Avenue because of the number of vehicle traffic, and all this other kind of stuff. But who is recruiting businesses -- I guess that's my bottom line question -- to come to the inner city commercial -- neighborhood commercial corridors? Or is it nobody?
Well, no. It's definitely not just us. It's people within the Commerce Department and other agencies. It would depend on where -- what kind of facilities somebody was looking for. If somebody wanted to do a Krispy Kreme and they need a $10,000 -- 10,000 square foot of parking, along with a building, that may not be something that is available in any of our 43 commercial corridors. If that's the case, we would refer them over to Commerce or either PIDC. We would try to help find that individual a 86 040797 - Housing - 12/13/04 location, even though it wasn't in our corridors.
Okay. So I understand. I understand all of your answers, but one of the things that's happening, I guess as I see it -- And you said if someone is interested. It sounds to me -- Well, what's happened to me, I believe that Germantown and Chelten which you know used to be the second best, second only to Center City business corridor in the City. And it's almost like the property owners are the people that's driving the -- who they get as a tenant. I have seven dollar stores. We're getting ready to do special controls, zoning overlay, because I can not witness another dollar store opening at Germantown and Chelten, particularly if there's some other type of business that I don't know about, maybe the CDC there doesn't know about. And I would think that Commerce or somebody would be, you know, filtering out 87 040797 - Housing - 12/13/04 that kind of information, so we can start developing these commercial corridors --
You are right on point. And so is your (Indicating Councilman Clarke) comment, but let me explain what I see from this side of the table. First of all, if you look back maybe a decade ago, we were so happy to get anybody to fill a vacancy that we would have took -- As long as their operation was legal, we would let them go and get into the business. But what happened, as you're pointing out, you get a high concentration of the same type of store, and not necessarily a high quality store. We are in a better position today economically to start to be a bit more discerning and a bit more strategic about how we do it. Councilman Cohen asked me at one budget hearing -- and he asked a simple 88 040797 - Housing - 12/13/04 question but it was profound in this respect. He said what does the perfect commercial corridor look like? What is the mix of stores? What is the -- And it depends. The answer is, it depends on what you view it to be, and what the consumers in the area need it to be. You have a situation... For example, a good example is Girard Avenue right at 29th Street. Those stores are going to change radically because of the different clientele that's moving in, the different consumer preferences that they have. You're in a position (Indicating), you're in a position (Indicating) to kind of regulate some of that through zoning, through L & I, and up the standard. Again, before we were so happy to have anybody in some of the inner city corridors, we were taking dollar stores and some of the stop and gos. But today the economy has changed, and the big stores are beginning to come back. The Starbucks of the world want to do 89 040797 - Housing - 12/13/04 inner city development. Aqil was at a inner city development workshop in New York. And the national trend, the national trend is that these folks are coming back. The key, the gatekeepers are you, and to a lesser extent the PCDC's of the world. So we are not too late to develop that kind of criteria. We're actually right on time.
Can you hear me? Good. Thank you. With respect to the specific question of who's responsible and whether or not we can do that, I would think that it would probably be a special resolution of the PCDC board that would give Mr. Jones and his staff the go ahead to look at that. And also there would have to be some consideration for funding such an initiative, because it takes money to actually put additional capacity on the street. And we would be leveraging the talent that exists within PCDC. There's a 90 040797 - Housing - 12/13/04 considerable amount of economic development talent within PCDC, that would just make it easy segue into that type of development.
Also, with respect Councilwoman Miller, to your concern regarding the big box chains and what not, this is a very appropriate discussion right now that we're having because, as Mr. Jones mentioned, I attended a two-day summit that was sponsored by the Inner City Economic Forum, headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts. And they're underwritten in the line with Harvard University, Rockefeller Foundation, the Ford Foundation and Bank of America. And they're in the process now of putting together a billion dollar fund for investment in eleven cities in the urban areas. Philadelphia was overlooked in those initial target areas because we, according to the census data, we had a one percent 91 040797 - Housing - 12/13/04 population drop in the urban areas over the last decade. But they are looking to come in on the next round. They are looking to make their initial investments in June of 2005, for the very same purposes you mentioned, looking at some inner city retail development, strip mall development, and things of that nature. Now, where we have been very helpful to businesses, and what really doesn't get on your radar screen, and probably on the radar screen of the Councilwoman, Councilwoman Blackwell, is that we do -- we conduct -- provide a considerable amount of technical assistance to businesses. Within the West Philadelphia area, within the S.E.P.T.A. area, we assist companies with tax problems with the Internal Revenue Service. We help keep their doors open. We restructure their financial statements and balance sheets. We work with some of the neighborhoods, the groups and the individual businesses. That capacity can just be repackaged 92 040797 - Housing - 12/13/04 in a developmental process and facilitate what it is that you're requesting.
I just want to follow up on one line of questioning real briefly. With respects to your performance standards, is there a component that has a local neighborhood requirement in your loans or can you legally do that? I know in some of the Empowerment Zone initiatives, there was, you know, certain tax credits available associated with loans to businesses. In your loan requirements, do you have anything that talks about the direct correlation between a loan to a neighborhood business and that business hiring somebody from the local community?
We have two federally mandated requirements. One is a concept called Area Benefit which is that if a low and moderate income neighborhood is benefited by virtue of that business, we can do the loan. The second criteria is the creation 93 040797 - Housing - 12/13/04 or retention of low and moderate income jobs. So the two -- the two things that we can make a criteria --
Is that geographically required, a geographical requirement?
When you say low and moderate, I mean, in reality a lot of these smaller stores, they hire their kids. And that doesn't necessarily -- They may be low income, moderate income. But is there -- Is there some --
That is something -- That is something -- Not with federal dollars I don't think that we could possibly do that. But with a different loan fund we could probably mandate that if you tap into this level of funding, then we require that 94 040797 - Housing - 12/13/04 you do something locally. And I think that that's a good idea.
One last question. With respects to your loan fund, do you have a certain job to loan ratio? Is that one of the performance standards or is that --
In our contract with the City, we're required to show that at a minimum, one new job be created for every $20,000.
I'm sorry. John Lenahan. I'm vice president of the Lending Department for PCDC. That's a contract requirement. So, at a minimum we have to be able to show one new job for every $20,000.
Normally we do much better than that. We show normally -- I think last year was one new job for every $8,000 of loan dollars that we put out on a project, so...
And then, depending on whether it's area benefit or job creation, 51 percent of the jobs would have to be low to moderate income jobs.
In terms of those numbers, is there a breakdown demographics, as it relates to race, neighborhood --
-- by race. We have to have an income certification form that an employee signs when they're hired, indicating 96 040797 - Housing - 12/13/04 what their household income was prior to accepting the job. That normally has an individual's name and the address of where they live. And that's compiled into a quarterly report that we send over to the Commerce Department. They put that into their grantee performance report which they send down to Washington.
Can you provide through the Chair a list, say for the last fiscal year --
-- the job to loan ratio created and the demographics associated with race, ethnicity, and the whole nine yards?
I was wondering if at some point we can get 97 040797 - Housing - 12/13/04 together to take a look at the various business strips in my district, and think of a good mix, and strategize on how we can attract or what we need to do.
There are enough agencies where we could start to do something.
I have to thank Councilwoman Blackwell for this opportunity to present these kinds of options to City Council. I look forward to working with each of the members, in each of their districts, to design what we need to do to help you.
Thank you, Councilwoman Miller. Can you list CDC's? If not, you can provide it. That you partner with? We know you have a relationship with, for example, the Partnership CDC.
And CCD's, that you have provided technical assistance to?
All right. Regarding NTI, and its focus on neighborhood development that involves community based organizations, what has your role been, in terms of NTI, in dealing with private investors and other collaborative organizations? Or have you tried to keep PCDC separate or have you been involved with the NTI agenda?
We've attended a number of their meetings, and we've tried to follow where we believe logically some of the housing initiatives will go. Heretofore, though, we haven't really been directly involved with their efforts. And we had in some ways waited for them to kind of catch up to what we've already been involved with. One of the things that I would find 99 040797 - Housing - 12/13/04 helpful is, as we start to acquire some of these properties, particularly on our commercial corridors, if we could batch those properties together, we would be willing to market them to private developers through the ICSC or through neighborhoods CDC's so that they can get developed. Right now we don't have that kind of relationship.
This is another area why it's so important that we work together. At this point, Alissa Sneed, who's my program director, does that. But we create -- the residential neighborhood cannot be sustained in an island of blight without some commercial corridor regeneration. We realize that, and so we work with businesses, investors, family businesses, private businesses, and people who want to help to increase our neighborhood. One hand has to wash the other for posterity or otherwise we're only in this for the short haul. And so that's another reason why 100 040797 - Housing - 12/13/04 it's so very, very important that we work together, so that our businesses and residential community thrive together. They have to. And that's why it is very, very important that we work together. Do you assist neighborhood based minority owned business in preparing for their procurement opportunities, expansion opportunities or other opportunities and make them sustainable business establishments, in that we're talking now about preparing them so that they're able to make application, and they're able to apply for monies with the City or City related where the City's a conduit for funding.
In 1987, when former Councilman Blackwell and you helped me over at MBEC, which was one of my first real City assignments, I had an opportunity to work with a lot of the minority businesses through certification. In fact, I hold the record on the amount of contracts given to minorities and females by the City of Philadelphia during 101 040797 - Housing - 12/13/04 that tenure. In doing so, I became very familiar. And then when I came over to PCDC, a lot of those are the same contractors that needed money. So, we have two programs that I think really help them. One is the Housing Contractors Assistance Program where businesses that have contracts with PHA, PHDC, are able to finance their contracts through PCDC. So that's one way that we help them. Another way that we help them is that we have one of the best business libraries -- and I encourage you and other Council people to come over and take a look at it -- in the country. We have 250 business plans in our facilities. And Mr. Sabur houses that. We work with them individually to increase their internal capacity. When he talked about working on the books, when he talked about preparing them so that they can take the public scrutiny of 102 040797 - Housing - 12/13/04 doing contract work with the City of Philadelphia, we assist them currently to do that. We also have the Comcast loan fund, which was funded when City Council struck the deal for franchising out some of the cable franchises. We received over a million dollars from Comcast to do short-term lending programs which we specifically give to minorities and females. So, we've been working those programs over the years.
Oh, it's very real. It's probably one of my more successful loan funds. In fact, I think in all of the years that we've had it, we've only lost, what, $800, I mean, and compared to our other programs, that's phenomenal.
Sorry. 103 040797 - Housing - 12/13/04 Please take the microphone.
I'm sorry. In the brochure in the back of the booklet, 2003 year accomplishments, gives a breakdown on the Housing Contractors' Program and the Comcast and the PMBDA Loan Fund program. Comcast and PMBDA are designed to assist certified minority women owned businesses obtain short-term working capital financing, to fund the up front cost of the contracts that they receive either from the City, the state, or the Federal Government. And it's low interest money, and it revolves on a assignment of contract proceeds basis of the payments come into PCDC. We re-lend the money out until the contract is completed. Then any free proceeds go back to the contract. It provides them with the capital they need up front to go after contracts they wouldn't necessarily have the resources to go after otherwise.
We can't 104 040797 - Housing - 12/13/04 hear you at all.
One of the things that we note -- A lot of times when we do stale statistics, you don't really understand or at least a lot of people don't understand the impact of giving them that money. That relates to maybe close to a thousand housing units that were -- closer to 1500 housing units that minority contractors were able to complete, based on them having the working capital to do that. So, the money that we got, based on what City Council did with the cable companies, was empowered those minority contractors through that program.
As you know, I have Urban Cable Works, as does Councilman Nutter. So that's a whole 'nother story. So we don't have the ability -- We don't have the programs that Comcast does. And we have other programs that we have problems that we've tried to let the owners of the cable company know about it. That's a 105 040797 - Housing - 12/13/04 whole 'nother issue. We won't bring that up today. Mr. Sabur. We talked to Mr. Sutton, and et cetera, and those involved, but we still have the issues.
I'm sure you do. There is one bright spot with Urban Cable Works. Most recently we deployed the first $125,000 of $250,000 obligation that had, you know, after ten years. It's just come around. But what we've done is basically put on the street within the last -- the last six weeks close to $100,000 in micro loans to businesses in the West Philadelphia area, 19139, 19143, 19131, et cetera. And pretty much most of the businesses that we funded are in your district. And the model that we used could be replicated with respect to the businesses in the S.E.P.T.A. area. These are no interest loans. The maximum has been about $20,000 per business. 106 040797 - Housing - 12/13/04 They pay up front fees. They pay a one percent fee for commitment fee and administration fee. Then there's a technical assistance fee of three percent. So all they pay is five percent on the loans. And then they pay back the principal over a two-year period. We work with them to make sure that their books are in order, that they're managing the cash properly, that they're filing their tax returns, and that they're really establishing a banking relationship with these dollars. And we feel extremely comfortable that this looks to be a success, with respect to this program. So --
So this isn't about cable. This is about small business loans overall.
We're talking about retailers, fruit and vegetable retailers, restaurants, security companies, cleaning systems. There's one company, a very inspiring story, a young lead by the name of 107 040797 - Housing - 12/13/04 Florence Thompson. She received initially a $10,000 loan from us, received another $4,000 last week. She has a contract to clean the bridge over at 40th and Walnut. And she's employing nine people. And the work has gone so well thus far that they've given her an additional carpet cleaning contract. So... And we're working with her to develop some other contracts in the University City area. So, these -- And these small amounts of dollars are really nothing to sniff at because we have internal studies that support the fact that the average business gets started with about $7500, and most of your Fortune 500 firms got started with less than $10,000. So, we're just really just building on a tradition of entrepreneurship, doing what they do best, and having the capital available to assist them in that regard.
Well, we would like to have a list of those people. And we would also like to have, if you have a 108 040797 - Housing - 12/13/04 general statement or that kind of... or written down that kind of story that goes, the Horatio Alger theme that you can make it. We would really like to have that. We meet with businesses. We've had a lot of -- As you know, we've had two Echoes From Africa that we sponsored in our District. And we have an increasing African population. We've had many meetings with them. We usually meet at University Sciences. We meet with the universities. We met with Penn. We had some problems with people, some individuals, who will remain nameless for the purposes of this hearing, who were harassing these businesses, and calling L & I on them. And, of course, the people who were doing that are no longer in -- no longer have retained their positions who were fighting African businesses because they decided they didn't want them in University City. Those people are gone. But my point is that we're 109 040797 - Housing - 12/13/04 meeting -- we meet with these businesses. We have an ongoing relationship with them. So we really need the opportunity to be able to let them know that they have opportunities to invest, other than those that we kind of independently try to come up with. Thank you. Alissa Sneed, again, is the point person for our African relations. We meet with them regularly. We do a lot with them. And, you know, thank God they're still hanging in there. But we really need the assistance that the City offers, to help them and to help keep them going on a wider scale. I think I've just about completed most of my questions, especially after I got sidelined on questions dealing with the homeless. That always keeps me going. We are very pleased to read about the types of businesses that you do support in my district. I see the pictures. But like I said, we would just like to be included. Many of them -- I use them 110 040797 - Housing - 12/13/04 if they're in my district. You know, I use the district. I go to the Bridge Movie. I shop at places. Of course, one person is a former opponent. Short of that, we want to work with everybody. We just want the opportunity to work cooperatively. You know, I'm in this for the long haul. We're committed to our district. I'm committed to my City. I'm committed to people who live, move here, work here, and I believe in it. And I know it's what God has given me to do. So, we are going to do it anyway, but it just makes it a lot easier when we don't have to fight about helping people because we're going to do our part. And we are going to -- And it's what we're supposed to do. But we're all in the City together. We know there are three branches of government, the executive, legislative and judicial. But we have to try to work together to improve the quality of life for people 111 040797 - Housing - 12/13/04 here. We've done -- You know, God has blessed to do a fantastic job. We've had a couple billion dollars invested in West Philly. And we on the move. We have more meetings today. We you know, I'm on the PHA board. We fought to be on that board. I'm for anybody doing anything on development. And we are going to be there, and we're going to work with people. You have to. And the market is better. You know, people are buying, and people are trying to get housing. People want to develop housing. We have small developers who want to buy one or two or three or eight or ten, on up, properties. They want to invest. We need a little bit of capital. We have private -- We work a lot with the -- with minority contractors, from electricians to you name it, plumbers, to people who want to do drywall, the painters who want the opportunity to work. We're always dealing with the pressure of that relationship, to try to keep 112 040797 - Housing - 12/13/04 them going, and then to try to grow minority developers.
And we're happy to do all of that, because it takes all of us together to help everybody. And it's what we have to do. You know, none of us has the ability to do one thing at a time or to do just one issue, to deal with one issue. We have to deal with all of it because all of it makes up a whole life. And leadership is expected to do that. We've had these hearings only to say that we want to work together, you know. I don't like to fight. I only fight if you make me, but I will fight if I have to. But I'm here. You know, I'm here. I'm trying to do the right thing. And Lou used to say, the late Lucien Blackwell used to say, open rebuke is better than secret love. So I think after these years, that it's time to, you know, put it on the table to say, let's start from here. Let's try to work together, collaboratively, to help people. 113 040797 - Housing - 12/13/04 As you know, again, this is the third time, Alissa Sneed is my project developer. She's out there all the time. We're doing it, you know, one way or the other. And when one door closes, you know, God always opens another. So, we're going to work with the City one way or the other. And after a while, you know who's who. You know who works. We all know who works in government, and we know who doesn't. You know where you go and where you don't go. And you know if you have to go from the back door or front door. But we want to be here. We believe in it. We created this Committee. As you know, it's a new committee, Housing and Neighborhood Development and the Homeless, for this very purpose, so that we have an opportunity to deal with these issues that affect neighborhoods. And we just want the ability to work together to accomplish those ends. So having said that, is there anyone 114 040797 - Housing - 12/13/04 else who would like to testify? )
Is there anyone else who would like to make any statement with regard to the Committee or this Resolution? (No response.)
All righty. We will then recess, subject to the call of the Chair, and we will try to, from here on out, work it out so that we can move on together. Thank you all very much.
Thank you, Madam Chair. (Hearing concluded at 4:35 p.m.) 115 CERTIFICATE I HEREBY CERTIFY that the proceedings and evidence are contained fully and accurately in the stenographic notes taken by me upon the public hearing of The Philadelphia City Council, taken on December 13, 2004, and that this is a true and correct transcript of same. _____________________________ DAVID A. DEIK, RPR and Commissioner of Deeds (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.)