City Services

Two years ago, the City of Chicago decided to create a website, tracking the live locations of its snowplows as they moved through the city after storms. "We just wanted to counter this idea that snowplows go to the aldermen's streets first, or they're just hanging out at McDonald's," said Chicago's chief technology officer, John Tolva. The website broke all of their tracking records "instantly," Tolva recalled Thursday at the Mayors' Innovation Summit at the Westin Hotel on South 17th Street.

THE MORE I talk to taxpayers, the more I hear the same complaint: With taxes so high, wouldn't it be nice if we the people at least received our money's worth in services? Philadelphians deserve a city government that is effective, cost-efficient and responsive to their needs. That gets the job done right, on time, within budget. That's accountable to all residents and all neighborhoods. And here's how: City Service Reform. Getting there means implementing an innovative and highly successful performance-management strategy called CitiStat.

By Jim Kenney City Council will soon begin discussing one of the most important questions it's dealt with in a generation: how to create a more equitable property tax system. But as part of this debate about how we are levying taxes and collecting revenue, we should address an equally important issue: what we're spending taxpayer money on and whether we're getting what we're paying for. The city's Actual Value Initiative has initiated a reassessment of the nearly 600,000 commercial and residential properties in Philadelphia, some of which have not been assessed since the 1980s.

Residents of North and West Philadelphia soon won't have to come to Center City to pay real estate taxes or order a copy of a birth certificate. Managing Director James S. White said yesterday that within two months those areas will have mini-city halls, modeled after the Northeast Municipal Services Center that opened in September 1985. White said final sites have not been chosen. But he said the city's goal is to place both service centers in locations "where people would normally go while taking care of other business.

'What changes would you like to see in your neighborhood once the new mayor takes office?" That's the question we're asking people from neighborhoods all over Philadelphia. Below is the second of a series of 11 "Neighborhood Dialogues" that will run right up to voting day. Participants were chosen from among folks involved in the Citizen Voices project. Our focus in this second dialogue is South Philadelphia. Charles Baltimore and Scott Drake live in different parts of South Philadelphia.

Philadelphians are a tiny bit less satisfied with city services this year than they were in 2000, but they still seem much more pleased than they were five years ago. In the latest annual citizen survey and report on city services, about 62 percent of 1,100 respondents rated themselves either "very" or "somewhat" satisfied with how the city was doing its job in fiscal year 2001, down from 63 percent in fiscal year 2000. That compares to only 41 percent who gave city services a positive review in 1997.

Are we moving to a state of genocide here in Philadelphia? City officials, under the Home Rule Charter, are supposed to provide services to the citizens in such a way that their health and well-being are maintained. Are we being provided adequate services when our Police Department is understaffed; when our fire stations are closed and not replaced; when fire engines needed to fight fires are used to answer emergency rescue calls; when our health centers are being privatized, understaffed and under-supplied; when our Streets Department workers no longer sweep our streets?

Even as his administration's snow-removal procedures were being assailed in City Council, Mayor Goode said yesterday that he would fare well if Democratic mayoral challenger Edward G. Rendell made city services a campaign issue. "April, May, . . . the issue will not be snow removal," Goode said. "The issue will be trash pickup, police protection, fire protection, public property services. And I'm saying, look across the board at all of those and you will see absolute improvement.

As negotiations with striking city employees resumed yesterday there were indications that a settlement might be imminent under terms similar to those that were discussed publicly by Mayor Goode over the holiday weekend. They included substantial increases in wages and in city payments for health and welfare benefits. The city would get new authority to audit health and welfare expenditures and retain the right to contract city services to private firms. What is most important to the people of Philadelphia, though, is what they can expect to see in the way of improved municipal services, including trash collection, and more imaginative use of private contracting to cut government costs.

With tempers still flaring over Mayor Nutter's decision to stop using city dollars to cover the cost of parades and street festivals, one event has been quietly allowed to get a free ride: Welcome America, the nonprofit group that is host to Philadelphia's Fourth of July party. In the days after last year's celebration of the nation's birth, Welcome America's executive director vowed to repay City Hall $300,000 for crowd control, cleanup, and police and emergency-medical services. That commitment was in keeping with a new and controversial administration policy that requires organizers of the Mummers Parade, the St. Patrick's Day Parade, and other traditional events to absorb the costs for city services.

Making no reference to protesters outside the Westin Hotel, Mayor Nutter welcomed 32 mayors and more than 200 other municipal officials Thursday to a three-day conference on innovation in city got government. The "Mayors' Innovation Summit," cosponsored by the city, the U.S. Conference of Mayors and Temple University's Fox School of Business, is designed to let cities share ideas and accomplishments in using technology to improve city services. In opening remarks, Nutter touted some of his administration's own steps, including an open data initiative to share government data with the public, a 311 smartphone application for citizens to report problems and ask questions of city government, and creation of an Office of New Urban Mechanics to try to spur innovation throughout city departments.

Two years ago, the City of Chicago decided to create a website, tracking the live locations of its snowplows as they moved through the city after storms. "We just wanted to counter this idea that snowplows go to the aldermen's streets first, or they're just hanging out at McDonald's," said Chicago's chief technology officer, John Tolva. The website broke all of their tracking records "instantly," Tolva recalled Thursday at the Mayors' Innovation Summit at the Westin Hotel on South 17th Street.

DETROIT - Detroit may be broke but it will soon have a first-rate motor pool, featuring 23 new ambulances and a fleet of 100 new police cars. Some city parks also are getting tender loving care. New fruit trees and shrubs have been planted, and mowing crews are beginning to make the rounds to keep the green spaces tidy. One of the surprising things about Detroit's descent toward insolvency - so dire that a state-appointed emergency manager recently took over - is that public services haven't collapsed as completely as some might have expected.

Saying he wanted to provide better service to Philadelphia's growing immigrant population, Mayor Nutter signed an executive order Thursday establishing the Mayor's Office of Immigrant and Multi-Cultural Affairs. The office will seek to improve access to city services for people whose English is limited. It also will help develop economic opportunities and educational resources. Nutter named Jennifer Rodriguez executive director of the office. She will be paid $100,000. Fernando Treviño-Martínez will serve as deputy director and will be paid $90,000.

After Hurricane Sandy, Gov. Christie made an obscure service famous when he urged people in need of social services to call the 211 hotline. In Philadelphia, that gubernatorial endorsement only drove home the absence of a similar service across the river from New Jersey. But on Monday, officials with the United Way here announced the launch of a 211 hotline for the five-county Philadelphia area. Jill Michal, president and chief executive of the United Way of Greater Philadelphia and Southern New Jersey, said the current economic climate and recent nearby crises such as Sandy prompted the Pennsylvania United Way to finally fund the service.

PARX CASINO and New Penn Financial have signed on as the two major sponsors for Philadelphia's new professional-cycling race, together pledging $700,000 for this year's race and the next. U.S. Rep. Bob Brady announced Thursday that the Parx Casino Philly Cycling Classic had secured enough funds to fill the gap left after the Philadelphia International Cycling Championship was canceled due to financial troubles. Parx has promised $500,000, he said, while Penn, a national mortgage-lending firm, signed on for an additional $200,000.

Just as dozens of nearly winded cyclists make one last push up Manayunk's steep hill nicknamed The Wall during the annual Philadelphia International Cycling Championship, city leaders must try harder to revive professional bike racing in the city by next year. There's no doubt that cycling enthusiasts, merchants along the racers' route, and officials in the city's visitor industry will miss the June 2 race, now cancelled by event organizers after the loss of the title sponsor that had provided the lion's share of funding.

MANAGERS of the famous Philadelphia International Cycling Championship owe the city big bucks from last year's race, including costs for cops and cleanup, according to the event's founder and city officials. Pro Cycling Tour announced Monday that it was canceling the annual race in Manayunk - initially scheduled for June 2 - due to rising costs and a loss in sponsorship. The group still owes $321,000 for the 2012 race, for traffic control, sanitation, police and emergency management, Fairmount Park event support and food-service inspection, said mayoral spokesman Mark McDonald.