A sweeping proposal HOW TO FIX PHILADELPHIA'S BLIGHT PROBLEM

You know that Japanese TV show on the food channel called "Iron Chef"? The one where the soothing, semi-monotonous activity of cooking is hyped into a goofy frenzy of spectacle and competition? Well after the last two weeks - two weeks in which I've spoken to more people than I usually do in an entire year - I feel like I'm on "Iron Planner."

Two weeks ago, I issued a challenge to Mayor Street, stating that it was possible to meet City Council President Anna Verna's request for a concrete plan before her deadline tomorrow, and that to prove it I would present a plan on these pages.

Here it is.

Maybe offering a concrete alternative will make the mayor's plan, when and if it comes out of the back room, look good in comparison. Maybe, if the mayor's plan looks bad in comparison, this alternative will prod some improvement and move us toward what we all want: the best possible blight plan.

Either way, Philadelphia is better off.

This plan relies on the analysis released by the mayor's staff and consultants, which for the purposes of this plan I'm going to assume is correct. I will try to be clear and complete by offering just enough detail to convey its purpose without getting bogged down in the mud of aimless information. The mayor has a 112-page Powerpoint presentation, and no one knows what his plan is about. (I guess it's worth stating the obvious: the administration needs a tutorial on how to "break through to the simple" rather than hiding or getting lost in mumbo-jumbo.) After you read these four pages, you will know what this blight plan is about.

No one in the whole city will agree with every choice and action proposed here. I want to be clear at the outset about the plan's high-octane content.

In other words, there's something here for everyone to worry about.

Let's start.

Gather your forces

Under my plan, various actors and tools to fight blight are consolidated under one agency, making the effort both more powerful and more accountable. The agency: The Redevelopment Authority.