I think one of the finest achievements of the Planning Commission in its history has been a report that you issued some years ago on the impact on neighborhoods of institutional placements of all kinds. I don't know what you called it, but it was a study that showed --
Well, it might have 1395 2/22/99 - WHOLE COMM. - Bill No. 990023 had that innocuous title, but it revealed a lot about the city, it showed us the neighborhoods that were heavily impacted, those that were most heavily impacted, every neighborhood was probably impacted a little -- but some just a little and some much more heavily. And at the same time, in my judgment, it's been the most widely ignored publication probably that the Planning Commission ever put out. Because sometimes its interests run against various developers. I think it would be important to kind of update it and to get recommendations from the Planning Commission as to how it might be used. For example, it appears that if anything, the movement to continue to impact the same neighborhoods that are already heavily impacted, that movement has, if anything, accelerated. And the reason your reports don't get -- that particular report doesn't get wide circulation is a lot of people like to forget that it ever exists. You know, I think it's a very important picture of what the neighborhood is. And with respect to stability, we spend 1396 2/22/99 - WHOLE COMM. - Bill No. 990023 a lot of time in Council talking about how we stabilize neighborhoods. And I think if we paid more attention to that report, we'd do a better job because what's happening is that certain neighborhoods are getting increasingly destabilized. And even after we do a lot of hand-holding and get people to invest in homes, this process has continued and has accelerated. So I just hope you can do something to enrich that. One general question. It seems to me also ignored -- and I don't know of anything you've done on this, though you may have and I may be unfair to you, but I'd like to know if you haven't, haven't has anybody else done a study of what is a neighborhood? Meaning, what does a neighborhood need to be a neighborhood? A lot of us have different subjective ideas. I'm going to, among other things, be presenting proposed resolutions, maybe legislation to City Council calling upon the City to assume a burden on economic development, say, of supermarkets 'cause in my -- in every neighborhood because I find that people believe they're kind of 1397 2/22/99 - WHOLE COMM. - Bill No. 990023 less citizens if they have to leave their neighborhood to go somewhere else to a supermarket. Same thing is true -- maybe to a little lesser degree -- about a shoe repair shop, you know, or a dry cleaning establishment or a dress shop or a place where a family can celebrate somebody's promotion by buying a better suit for a child. Very few of those things exist in many areas of the city. Has there ever been a study done on that kind of thing by your commission or by any others?
We have not done a study like that, and I have never seen one. But I understand the issue that you're driving at, you know.
Well, we're working in my home neighborhood. Ever since a supermarket which had been there under different ownerships for more than 50 years at Broad and Godfrey and Stenton all coming together, but that has raised a lot of concern in the community about what's happening to the whole community if we lose the 1398 2/22/99 - WHOLE COMM. - Bill No. 990023 supermarket, what else are we going to lose? At one time, many years ago, they talked about movie theaters that way, and that passed, you know, the neighborhood movie houses, though that's beginning to come back in some areas. I would very much appreciate it if the Commission could consider doing some work in a area. What is a community and neighborhood for the purpose of seriously talking about neighborhood economic development. Because I think that's what's involved, you know, the neighborhood businesses, little entrepreneurships along the way that might very well employ some local youngsters. The thing could spiral, could develop, I think, greatly. But I think we have to have some guidelines, some boundaries. So I'll appreciate whatever attention you can --
I think it's a very difficult issue because, you know, a lot of the locational -- the decisions that are made about where certain types of businesses that provide these service are willing to locate, you know, 1399 2/22/99 - WHOLE COMM. - Bill No. 990023 they're beyond the city to influence in many cases. I mean, we try wherever we can, and we have particularly tried on supermarkets. But it's, you know, the supermarkets have a certain formula, and it doesn't always fit, you know, what's available in the City. I think this might may start to change. It's like everything else. Once you start to saturate the suburbs, if you're still interested in making money, you come back and you rediscover the city. I mean, I think that has happened with a lot of retail development in the last ten years. And I think the people are starting to consider locations for supermarkets that they might not have considered, you know, 10, 15 years ago, are starting to think that, you know, just because you have to have a supermarket of 65,000 square feet in the suburbs, it doesn't necessarily mean that you need that in the city, where you're going to have walk-in traffic and a greater population density within a certain area. So I think there's some rethinking of that. And, in fact, there are -- I think it's the Reading Terminal Market Trust, interestingly 1400 2/22/99 - WHOLE COMM. - Bill No. 990023 enough, that has started to look -- and we have been working with them to start to look at the whole issue of what it would take to attract more supermarkets throughout the city but particularly in the inner city where so many of them have left in the last years. 8
When you think of 9 the concept of the City's economic health, it 10 ought to go beyond stadiums, gambling, theaters, 11 hotels, that kind of thing. It seems to me that 12 supermarkets -- maybe even a whole series of 13 retail shoe shop. 14
We have assisted 15 supermarkets in the past and, you know, I think we 16 will probably continue to do that again to get 17 them to go into certain locations. And I think, 18 you know, that may be the outcome of this work 19 that's going on, to say, all right, if it takes A, 20 B, C, and D, you know, what can the City contribute to that effort? The other thing is, I think with this Keystone Opportunity Zone effort, and I understand there's going to be an announcement by the Governor this week, either Wednesday or Thursday 1401 2/22/99 - WHOLE COMM. - Bill No. 990023 -- I heard two dates, without one having been the absolute date. Hopefully, we will be selected for that program. And I think that the, you know, removal of taxes in these areas, I think should give us a leg up in trying to attract some of these kind of businesses because I totally agree. I mean, where you live is, you know, it's not just your house. And if you can't get a whole package of services that most people associate with the neighborhood, you know, you may feel disconnected and want to go elsewhere. So I think we certainly recognize that that's very important, and we continue to try to do whatever we can to try to attract a full complement of those local services.
I think on the question of jobs, with the huge layoffs that just keep continuing from the large companies, it makes clear that when people said small companies were really creating the jobs, I think it's truer and truer of the smaller companies. If we could develop a whole row of neighborhood shops, small entrepreneurships, that would, I think, supply an enormous number of jobs 'cause most entrepreneurs, 1402 2/22/99 - WHOLE COMM. - Bill No. 990023 if they have any success, are going to need one, two, three, maybe five or six workers, and maybe that's where the jobs are, in the neighborhoods. So by building the stores in the neighborhood, we can start employing the people from the neighborhood in that community. So I think from every point of view, the concept of what a neighborhood is and maybe the concept of a form of economic self-sufficiency -- obviously, it's not a complete one, but people ought to be able not to have to go out of their own neighborhood for the most basic necessities of life. That's the reason I just urge any attention to that because I think it could pay off heavily in favor of the city. Thank you, Madame Chair.
This concludes our hearing for today. We will stand in recess until tomorrow, Tuesday, February 23, 1999, at 9:00 a.m. 1403 2/22/99 - WHOLE COMM. - Bill No. 990023 Thank you. (Adjourned at 5:05 p.m.) - - - 1404 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 Monday, February 22, 1999, were reported fully and accurately by me, and that this is a correct transcript of same. RE: COUNCIL COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE BILL NO. 990023 __________________________________, JOSEPHINE CARDILLO, Registered Professional Reporter