End stop-and-frisk. Implement universal pre-K. Send tens of millions of dollars more to
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* Mayor to seize control of Philly schools -- and pay for them
* Declaring a disaster in opioid-plagued
Create family-sustaining jobs.
Make the city a place where your zip code isn't your destiny.
And do this all not by raising property taxes but by selling tax liens, increasing the land assessments of abated real estate, and saving money through "zero-based budgeting."
Since becoming mayor,
Other bold, flashy promises faded after
On his 1,000th day in office,
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The
Defendants are appearing for court 95 percent of the time, thanks in part to text and phone call reminder systems -- that's light-years ahead of the abysmal court-appearance rates of a decade ago. Also highlighted: The city has for the first time identified the one-year recidivism rate (33.9 percent) and set a clear goal for reducing it (to 25.4 percent by 2021).
The reduced reliance on money bail -- largely through a program to bring low-level offenders who can't make bail in front of a judge within five days -- is a Band-Aid on a bail system that's been flagged as unconstitutional by the
The administration cited efforts to reduce
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No doubt, the mayor's top focus has been schools, and it shows. Though there was a long grassroots push for local control of the
The relationship between the city and its school system has long run hot and cold (especially around budget time); the new governance structure was designed, in part, to bring the two onto the same page, permanently. It's early days, but the promise of more programs like one that put 22 city-paid social workers into high-needs schools can benefit the school system significantly.
Twelve district schools have been named "community schools" -- given more supports and partnerships, along with a city-paid coordinator to manage them. And 4,000 students are enrolled in free pre-K programs for 3- and 4-year-olds, crucial to moving the needle on
Community schools and pre-K are puppies-and-rainbows priorities: Nearly everyone likes them. But they haven't worked out exactly as pitched. A challenge to
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>> READ MORE ON THIS TOPIC: Mayor to seize control of Philly schools -- and pay for them
Advocates in
Mayor
The city has also cleared several major heroin encampments in
After the mayor's report was released, the city declared a disaster in
One of the city's major goals to combat the crisis is to increase access to medication-assisted treatment, considered the gold standard of opioid addiction care. As the city notes, people who use opioid-based treatment medications like suboxone and methadone, or an opioid blocker like Vivitrol, have a much better shot at recovery than patients who opt for a straight detox. The city says it has expanded suboxone slots from 100 to 1,000 over the last several years, and this summer began treating inmates in Philly prisons with suboxone to prevent overdoses among this high-risk group.
The mayor's report says about 9,000 people receive publicly funded MAT. But the city funds a total of 12,836 MAT slots, and 3,338 of those slots are still open. Historically, a lack of identification has prevented some people from accessing MAT, but the city's new 24/7 walk-in center, which opened in July, doesn't require ID to start. A trickier barrier to overcome is the pervasive stigma against these treatments -- the idea that MAT patients are simply replacing one drug with another.
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>> READ MORE ON THIS TOPIC: Declaring a disaster in opioid-plagued
The
The administration has been slowly decreasing the assumed rate of return from 7.75 in 2015 to 7.6 in 2018.
The pension fund remains dangerously low on cash. It has only 45.3 percent of the money needed to make future retirees whole, a tad above the 45 percent funding rate when
The city still allows for overtime to be used to boost pensions for thousands of employees. The city also kept two pension bonus programs that drain the fund of millions each year. In addition, pension experts say, the city's 7.6 percent assumed rate of return is still too high and risky, making it difficult for the city to achieve its projected 80 percent funding by 2029.
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>> READ MORE ON THIS TOPIC: Philly city worker triples salary with overtime, adding to record OT bill for year
The accuracy of the city's property assessments unquestionably has improved, and the system has become more transparent, since assessments now are aimed at representing 100 percent of actual market value, the result of the "actual value initiative" conducted by the
More than one-third of
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>> READ MORE ON THIS TOPIC: 165,000 Philly homeowners may be paying too much in property taxes. Is the city assessing property fairly?
Under
The number of shootings by police has declined, from 62 in 2007 to 29 in 2014 and 13 last year.
Menos says the new unit has communicated well with the commission and family members of those who were shot. Under
The mayor's report touts the reduced number of police pedestrian stops in the city, but as a mayoral candidate
Under Commissioner
Since then, the
And while the mayor's report briefly acknowledges "an uptick in homicides so far in 2018," it devotes more space to saying that
Overall, violent crime has been decreasing in the last quarter-century because of data-informed policing strategies and the national waning of the crack cocaine epidemic, among other reasons. But
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Mayor
After raising the issue during his campaign, he followed through by increasing the
Nevertheless, the destruction continues virtually unchecked. The task force's 18-month time frame is considered laughably drawn out given the steamroller of development fueled by the city's 10-year property-tax abatement.
Thousands of important buildings remain vulnerable because the city has never gotten around to surveying its holdings to see what is worth protecting.
The commission still relies exclusively on citizen volunteers to do the hard work of nominating buildings for the historic register. All three of the new historic districts were initiated by volunteers.
If the task force embraces a demolition delay procedure and comes up with incentives to make renovation competitive with teardowns, it will be considered a success. But many preservationists remain pessimistic.
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The
Opening the Hub of Hope engagement center for the homeless in the
The city's dedication to strengthening workforce development was lauded by Philabundance, the region's leading hunger relief agency. "The administration's been fabulous," said
While the
While the city touts its role in helping 20,000 people apply for public benefits since 2016 through BenePhilly Centers, professional hunger fighters say that's minimal, considering nearly 500,000 Philadelphians receive food stamps, a benefit that requires frequent sign-ups. Also, clients complain that some centers don't perform as well as others. Experts estimate that only 70 percent of Philadelphians who qualify for food stamps actually get them.
Cities (and mayors) have limited influence over poverty, because of its incredible complexity. "Big, poor cities depend on the state for policy on minimum-wage rates and education, which cities can't control," said national hunger expert
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>> READ MORE ON THIS TOPIC: Around the country, incomes are rising. In Philly, they're falling.
The administration released a workforce development strategy for the city, focusing on training and connecting Philadelphians to blue-collar jobs in seven sectors: retail and hospitality, business and financial services, manufacturing and logistics, construction and infrastructure, tech services, health care, and early childhood education. It's an ambitious program that prioritizes city residents who have been left behind by the city's resurgence.
Longtime workforce development leaders, such as
The plan coordinates workforce efforts across
The gains are slow, as most are with workforce development programs -- the 2017 inaugural class began with 36 apprentices and next year, it'll recruit 36 more -- but the apprenticeship has been successful enough that it is now being re-created in
A major promise -- and selling point -- of the mayor's
Still, there's work underway to meet these goals. Philadelphia Works is piloting pre-employment programs that recruit and train people of color that could be used as a model to create a pipeline for Rebuild work.
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Earlier this month
The administration also is rolling out a tax foreclosure prevention program to complement the largely successful mortgage foreclosure prevention program. In the last three years, 2,500 homeowners have avoided foreclosure with city help, although that program has existed for a decade.
The city has also made progress stemming evictions. Following reports that one in every 14 Philadelphia renters faced eviction in 2016,
The affordable-housing package is a Council-administration compromise. It isn't guaranteed to bring in as much money as an initial version funded through a controversial construction impact tax. Some advocates have criticized the new program, which will be available to some working-class homeowners, for not prioritizing the city's poorest.
On the whole, Council has been leading on the issue. Councilwoman Maria Quiñones-Sánchez started the push more than a year ago. The success of the program depends largely on how the administration implements and promotes it.
Regarding evictions, what becomes of the many studies and recommendations remains to be seen. In January, the city, at the behest of
"The money put into eviction court remedies is minimal," said
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The administration touts small, new offices of Vanguard and JPMorgan Chase, along with
Cities are in vogue. Unemployment fell faster in
With the city as its job engine, the region has added education, health care, and hotel and restaurant jobs faster than the national average. But the region trails the national economy in new manufacturing, information, and business-services jobs, three key private-sector growth areas.
The administration is quiet about big employers that got away, like the Army Futures Command headquarters.
The city still needs to convince managers that it's viable long term. Population growth has been mostly fueled by immigrants and millennials. But when they get older and start relying on the schools, many move. The big questions are: Can Philadelphia fix the schools and its heavy tax burden?
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>> READ MORE ON THIS TOPIC: Back to normal: Suburbs now growing faster than cities, except in Philly
The report credits the
The city touted adding a second paving crew to the
Vision Zero, which advocates using education, engineering, and enforcement to eliminate traffic-related deaths, launched as promised with the release last year of a three-year action plan. Streets projects are underway under the Vision Zero umbrella, but it's also worth noting that the city's approach to street safety has become more holistic. For example, the
The report makes no mention of ride-share companies like Uber and
One of
Bike lanes also aren't highlighted in the report, a surprising omission from an administration that promised 30 miles of protected lanes by the end of
While the report states the city is upgrading its large vehicle fleet with side guards, 360-degree cameras, and enlarged side mirrors designed to prevent drivers from killing cyclists and pedestrians in blind spots, what's not said is that city vehicles make up only a percentage of the many trucks on city roads, and those private trucks have no obligation to equip their vehicles with the same safety protections. Other cities have mandated all large trucks operating within municipal limits have these safeguards.
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>> READ MORE ON THIS TOPIC: With bus service no faster than walking, a new approach to clear up
Environmentalists give the
The city has a Zero Waste and Litter Cabinet. Good thing, because it has a big litter problem in its neighborhoods and along its rivers. The city has a litter index to identify dirty areas. It has aggressively sought to cut down on the amount of waste at big events and oversees a single stream curbside recycling program.
There's also a Clean Energy Vision Action Plan to cut carbon pollution and use "clean energy." But
The plan for trimming municipal energy use, which costs
A campaign promise to institute street sweeping has gone unfulfilled. As for recycling, much is out of the administration's control with a poor market for recyclable materials coupled with tons of unusable material entering the stream that gets diverted to landfills.
The administration has also yet to sign a deal with a renewable-energy provider, though
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>> READ MORE ON THIS TOPIC: Miles of trash: Litter detectives stymied by illegal dumping on Philly's riverbanks
The city prevailed in a highly contentious "sanctuary city" case against the Trump administration, slugging through nearly a year of litigation before a federal judge ruled in favor of
In the Gayborhood, where racial discrimination had stirred outcry, the city ordered bars and nonprofits to undergo training on implicit bias and fair business practices.
The administration touted its efforts to hire a diverse workforce but didn't mention a report earlier this year from
The administration also highlighted
The report states that
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A new, easy-to-use application called Atlas allows people to type in an address and immediately have access to a property's deed history, assessed value, zoning documents, permits, and violations. The administration has continued to post the one-page annual forms that top officials must fill out describing all forms of income and any gifts received in the previous year. Now members of boards and commissions are among those who must disclose this information. (One problem is that the forms are self-reported and not everyone who should file has filed.) Also, the administration has posted 41 new data sets to the Open Data Philly website, which now totals more than 300 digital records, from Licenses and Inspections violations to city-employee salaries.
While the
Since 2014, the city has been ready to launch an online tool that would allow people to view the city's financial data such as the amounts and recipients of payments. But the administration has not yet opened the online checkbook to the public, citing delays in what is a small team in charge of the tool.
And there have been several stories in the last year that have raised questions about the city's management of taxpayer money -- from a record year in overtime expenses to technology failures, and, most recently, a decision to move employees to a 7.5-hour pay schedule without knowing the cost of the decision. And don't forget about the missing
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>> READ MORE ON THIS TOPIC: Philly's new payroll system to give workers a pay bump: 'That sounds crazy but ...'
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