Thank you. The Chair recognizes Councilman Kenney.
Thank you, Madam President. Just quickly, I would like to offer my support for the comments made by Councilmember Nutter. I do admire the way in which the Administration has brought this issue forward and the vision that they are attempting to show. But I'm sure that Councilmember Nutter is concerned about reading that his neighborhood is in transition. I was even more concerned to read that my home and my colleague and neighbor's home was in a distressed neighborhood. The housing values in that neighborhood have maintained themselves. As a matter of fact, SPEECHES there's a number of houses that sold in that community lately for more money than I had anticipated that they would sell for. We do have some minor drug problems, as many neighborhoods do. We have some doggie doo problems where people don't pick up after their animals. But as neighborhoods go, this neighborhood in South Philadelphia, around the Passyunk Avenue shopping strip, which is, I think, a vibrant and becoming an even more vibrant restaurant area and shopping area, is anything but distressed. I know there's areas of South Philadelphia east of Sixth Street, west of Fourth that have been designated an area of reclamation, and in some instances, I think that that may be accurate. But, again, my concern, as expressed by Councilman, which I share, is that, you know, people reading the paper today that may be looking for a house in South Philadelphia in that neighborhood would think that it may be not a good investment to invest in a distressed area. And I would think that anyone who's worked on this project that's even set foot and walked down East SPEECHES Passyunk Avenue or walked down 11th Street or walked down Tenth Street, if they've been there at all, I don't think the word "distressed" would necessarily be the word that would be used. So I have some concerns over the process which was followed to make these designations in the first place, and I'm willing to work with the Administration and the Council to work ourselves through this process, but I think there's a lot of work that needs to be done, a lot of examination of this proposal. If we get more meat on the bone of this particular issue, we can analyze it, have the Council President's staff and tech staff analyze it perhaps through the course of the summer and come up sometime in the fall with something that's workable. But these initial designations are very concerning to me as a resident of a particular area that I think is a pretty decent neighborhood and that has now been determined by the Neighborhood Transformation Team as being a distressed community. And I think it's anything but the case. And I'd like to thank Councilman SPEECHES DiCicco. As a matter of fact, our streets are actually cleaner than they've been over the last number of years because of the street-sweeping program. (Councilman DiCicco responds off-mic.)
Well, I do thank him for it, and I don't mind moving my car once a week; I think it's a small price to pay for a clean street. So with that, I'd like to just, you know, as a word of caution and a desire to work through this process and get it accomplished, I have some major concerns as we move forward. Thank you.
Thank you. The Chair recognizes Councilman O'Neill.
Yes, Madam Chair. I'm thinking in similar ways to my two colleagues. But I'd just like to start out by saying it's amazing that this city has gone this long without any kind of strategy, and I think the Administration is to be applauded for coming forward with the beginning of one, and I think SPEECHES that's what it is right now, and we should recognize it. And just as people are in one category or maybe they should be in a category we would call above that, I've seen a lot of places that are in categories that should be below that. So somebody's going to be looking at a house and maybe thinking, Boy, the NTI group says this is a good neighborhood -- and maybe it's a neighborhood with a lot of problems that needs a lot of attention. So I think our fleshing out with the Administration the areas within even a census tract that might have three different kind of determinations that could be made. You can have a neighborhood that's in transition that's only two blocks long, and it may be because of an apartment house that is run down and no one wants to live near it. Two blocks away, where it's just homes, everybody's happy about it. Two blocks further down, there's a Conrail lot that doesn't get taken care of, or some other government property that causes people not to want to live near it, and prices are down and houses don't sell as fast. SPEECHES So it's very difficult to paint a broad brush across an area, and I think it's going to be incumbent on us, who know these areas much better, to work with the Administration to make sure that we narrow those down in a much more microscopic way than is now on the blueprint. And I think it's important not because so much somebody might think, Well, I live in this neighborhood instead of that neighborhood, 'cause I don't think most people will go that far with it, but there's going to be different strategies and different tactics when you're dealing with a distressed area versus a transitional area versus a steady area, or whatever it's going to be called. And that is really the key. If we're going to have a strategic plan, we better have the areas identified properly so we're putting the right resources and the right kinds of programs in. And I think it's a little easier to know the mistakes we've made in the areas that are designated reclamation, because mistakes have been made over the years, and government's been a big part of it. SPEECHES The other categories have, for the most part, never been touched by the government in any strategic way. So it's all new ground there, and I think we, the District Councilmen and the At-Large Councilmen all over this city can really be instrumental in helping the Administration not only identify in much smaller areas what the color or the title or the description should be so that the strategy applied is the right one, but also working with people that live in those areas to make sure that they're a part of this. If this is the top down and we tell them what's good for them, it's not going to work and we're going to waste a lot more than just the quarter billion dollars, and we're going to waste a lot of time and energy and hope that people have. I think we have to be talking to the people who are in an area that may be distressed and can tell us why, because it may just be a very short stretch within an area that seems to be magnified when somebody at City Hall's looking at a map or some statistics, and there could be very good ways of dealing with that if we just talk to the people that are most affected, the people that SPEECHES live in those areas. So I think we're off to a good start because we're off to a start, and it's a start that was a long time coming. Thank you.
Thank you. The Chair recognizes Councilwoman Blackwell.
Thank you, Madam President. This is not on this issue, so I didn't want to speak if other Councilmembers want to speak.
Thank you, Madam President. As many of my colleagues know and other people in the general public, I spent the last almost 16 months in Council focussed specifically on community development finance, and have actually issued four policy papers in that regard. So this is actually a very exciting time SPEECHES for me to be in Council, and I think I would not have preferred to come to Council at any other time other than this. So I am proud to announce that the Community Reinvestment Commission created by this Council and by executive order did hold its first meeting on Tuesday. And I think the strategy behind that commission is to not only look at investment, but how we leverage private investment from land reuse plans, from Community Development Block Grant spending, from our city depositories, and from the creation of the Philadelphia Community Development (indiscernible) Fund. I'm concerned as we talk about the issue of community development finance that we continue to focus on public investment and not look at the leveraging of private investment very seriously. I am concerned that the banking community was not brought in to discuss this issue beforehand, but it's not too late, and I look forward to the hours of dialogue that we will have on this. But that commission has come together. There was presence of banks there at that meeting, SPEECHES ready to discuss reinvesting in our neighborhoods. But without that private investment, the reason why this issue exists the way it exists is because of the bank redlining of our neighborhoods. The reason why predatory lending exists is because it's a captured market there for people who know that those areas are redlined by banks. We have to address that. But as we bring public dollars to the table to leverage private dollars, we have to also make sure that we're not devaluing those public dollars. It makes a difference when we go into the market for these bonds. It is better to go into the market in the summer rather than the fall. Anyone who knows and does their financial due diligence knows that we can make a political decision to wait on this, but it will make a difference and cost this city millions or tens of millions of dollars by waiting based on the financial markets. So we have to take this very seriously, and we have to put in hours, weekends, suspend our summer recess. We have to also look at when we SPEECHES should go into the market. Thank you very much.
Thank you. Are there any other speeches on the part of the majority? The Chair recognizes Councilwoman Blackwell.
Thank you, Madam President. This is just a reminder. In a few minutes, we will be set up with our speakers across the hall. Deputy Managing Director of Special Needs Housing, Michael Hess, his predecessor, Michael Nardone, and Secretary of Social Services Estelle Richman. So we will be having lunch, so we ask everybody to please hold on. Lunch will be ready in a few minutes, about 15 minutes, although we're finishing a little early. And also, let me say that it has been brought to our attention that sometime last week, apparently -- and I don't even know the day -- you had a birthday. So we decided that we'd like to at least -ADJOURNMENT
So we did want to say happy birthday. Let's all sing Happy Birthday to our president. ("Happy Birthday" sung to President Verna.) (Applause.)
The Chair recognizes Councilwoman Tasco for a motion.
Thank you, Madam President. I move that Council stand adjourned until Thursday, April, 26th at 10 a.m. (Duly seconded.)
It has been moved and properly seconded that Council stand adjourned until Thursday, April 26, 2001, at 10 a.m. All those in favor will signify by saying aye. Those opposed? The ayes have it, and Council will stand adjourned until Thursday, April 26th. ADJOURNMENT Thank you very much. (Adjourned at 11:32 a.m.) C E R T I F I C A T E I HEREBY CERTIFY that the foregoing proceedings of the Council of the City of Philadelphia of Thursday, April 19, 2001, were reported fully and accurately by me, and that this is a correct transcript of same. RE: STATED MEETING __________________________________, JOSEPHINE CARDILLO, Registered Professional Reporter