Council opens budget season with SW Phila. community meeting

For the first time in two years, City Council took its show on the road Wednesday night, kicking off the budget season with a community hearing in Southwest Philadelphia.

Unlike in past years, there was no galvanizing issue or populist anger, but the standing-room crowd in the St. John's A.M.E. Church basement still brought plenty of passion to the microphone.

The issues stretched across the range of citywide grievances - crime, jobs, blight, affordable housing, economic development, city services - and touched on some of the problems specific to the Southwest community, such as the historic tensions between African and Caribbean immigrants and their African American neighbors.

A few speakers mentioned the Actual Value Initiative - the city's move to assess properties based on their market value for tax purposes. Mayor Nutter is proposing to embed a $90 million increase in AVI, and some homeowners in historically undervalued areas could see big jumps in their tax bills.

After one speaker expressed the worry that older people could lose their homes in the process, Council President Darrell L. Clarke acknowledged that AVI discussions would be "the cornerstone" of this year's budget process.

Tracy Gordon, a community activist and former Council candidate, gave a fiery talk on the need for minority hiring and the ills of bad landlords, and lamented the trashing of Cobbs Creek Park - one of her signature issues.

"Our parks are so infested and dangerous . . . Where is the money for our district and our health?" she asked. "I went down to West River Drive and they were jogging and there wasn't even a cigarette butt."

Another neighbor, Tyrone Beverly, complained about homes sinking on Lindbergh Boulevard and uneven development around the city.

"We have areas out here where we're paying high taxes and children don't even have a place to play," he said. "We just want a piece of the pie. We don't need the whole pie. We just need a slice."

The meeting was initiated by Clarke, who is in his first year at the helm of Council.

"I figured, why not?" he said before the meeting. "The reason is to maximize the participation of community residents by having these hearings out in the neighborhoods."

Clarke noted that in past public meetings, residents mostly discussed needs for services, and Council wanted to keep those concerns in mind during the budget process.

Nutter gave his annual budget address only a week ago, and there were few of the types of controversial proposals that raise the ire of the community, such as closing libraries or pools. Testimony at budget hearings generally gets more intense and focused later in the process, as proposals begin to coalesce.

Council must pass a budget by the end of June.

Clarke said he planned to have other community meetings throughout the city, but was not sure how many. No other community meetings have been scheduled.

"They're to send the signal that what you say matters to us," Clarke said.