Great Expectations recently asked the Philly mayoral candidates this question about Pennsylvania’s massive brain drain problem:
Imagine that you meet a bright young senior at one of Philadelphia’s colleges, like the students who attended Great Expectations forums at Penn and Temple. This young person is trying to decide whether to stay in the city and make a life and career here, or to move elsewhere. You have two minutes to convince him that Philly is the place to be. Give us your pitch.
I’ve got a real problem with both this question and with the candidate’s answers.
First, this question presumes that the only reason college graduates are fleeing Philadelphia is marketing and image. College graduates aren’t leaving Philly because it’s being marketed wrong, they’re leaving it because it has major endemic problems that aren’t getting any better.
The crime and murder rate is skyrocketing – visitors and residents alike simply don’t feel safe in Philly. Corporate investment is stagnant – state government was desperate to keep Comcast in the city. Over the past few years other firms have consolidated operations and often closed or reduced their Philly presence. The city government is so corrupt that people are excited to vote for less corrupt candidates and see no point in dreaming about stamping out corruption altogether.
They’re right, it’s just a marketing problem – Philly’s a dream for college graduates!
Second, although Philly has its share of arts, culture, and high-end niceties, it’s important for Philly advocates to realize that EVERY OTHER CITY DOES TOO. It’s incredible that people talk about five-star restaurants (like recent grads can afford them, anyway!) as if no other city’s got those. I’ve got news for you – everything Philly has other places have too.
Is Philadelphia a special, interesting place? Of course. But it’s got more than a marketing problem on its hands. Good marketing and good media are a complement, not a substitute, to real change.
The candidate answers reflect the silliness of the question. All the candidate answers talk about the marketing, the nightlife, and other Philly attractions.
Bob Brady thinks that you’ll never have a problem planning a Friday night, but neglects to mention that you might have to spend that time looking for a job since the market isn’t especially booming down there.
Dwight Evans talks about the colleges and universities. Ummm, did he read the question at all? Oh, and there are parks!
Chaka Fattah’s answer starts off terribly but really does start to get at the heart of the matter. He talks about five-star restaurants, but then moves on to talk about Philadelphia as a community and actually mentions the job market! Compared to the rest, this is an A+ answer.
Tom Knox does a decent job, but for some reason mentions the tax burden, which seems a bit weird. College grads don’t think about taxes. They should, perhaps, but don’t.
Michael Nutter thinks a vote for him is a vote for changing history itself. Many college students/recent graduates don’t vote, and particularly in municipal elections. I think he was busy talking to Dwight Evans rather than reading the question.
In Philly and Pittsburgh
In Philly and Pittsburgh it’s all about jobs and opportunity…or the lack thereof. A young person (and a middle-aged one, too) only has to do a search on Monster or Indeed.com to see just how few good jobs there are in their respective communities. Jobs are the engine of change. With a strong job market, all the rest just falls into place. Without it, all the restaurants or clubs or coffee shops won’t do diddly. In fact, they’ll eventually just go out of business.
And it’s not just about THE job, it’s about the next job and the next. In a labor market where employers regualarly shed workers like cicada dropping their husks, citizens have to constantly be on the prowl for their next gig — because it’s unlikely that they’ll last at any one company for more than a few years. What this produces is a worker who must seek out a region with the largest “opportunity pool,” and that, my friends, ain’t PA.
Pilt
Yes, exactly
Young people (and middle aged, and older) are leaving PA. It doesn’t have to be a fact of life, but changing it does require fundamental shifts in the way we do business in PA.
Let me add this...
While Philly is now being called Murder City, Pittsburgh just won “most livable city” honors again. While you can argue with that publication, it makes an important point; Pittsburgh (and I’ll concentrate on it here) has a lot to offer. It IS a great city. People love it here. I’ve always said that people either, a) never leave or b) come back after having gone elsewhere. The city hasn’t expanded as many would like, but it also hasn’t seen the boom and bust cycle of other cities. It hasn’t sprawled the way a lot of places have. It has retained a great deal of its character. In some way, however, that has held it back.
Here’s my point; Pittsburgh has everything it takes to be a wonderful city — except, perhaps, the political will to step into the 21st century. While it isn’t the uber-solution, it certainly would help if the 900 (exaggerating, but not by much…) municipalities in and around the city of Pittsburgh would merge and create a single, strong entity, rather than the fractious glut of tiny fiefdoms that now predominate.
Pilt
It's the same in Phila
Pilt, you’d be surprised to learn the exact same feelings you cite about Pgh and not wanting to leave or to come back are shared by the vast majority of native Philadelphians about their city. For all the “Negadelphia” talk, people born in this area never stray very far and when they do, they pine just as much for Phila. Then again, since the census shows that 80% of Pennsylvanians never leave the state, I guess a lot of people feel the same about their hometowns.
pd
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