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In a mayoral election year, The Inquirer and the University of Pennsylvania’s Project on Civic Engagement, based at the Fels Institute, will convene a regionwide dialogue about what Philadelphia needs to do to deliver on its promise as "The Next Great City." The dialogue will include forums with hundreds of civic leaders and ordinary citizens, to identify the key issues the region needs to work on to get there.
It will include reporting, research and public forums on possible solutions and innovations that have worked, in Philly or elsewhere. It will include major election-related events, including online, radio and televised debates and Deliberation Days in each City Council district two weeks before the May primary. It will include innovative uses of the Web, such as "electronic markets" and online candidate forums. It will culminate in the declaring of a citizen-generated Agenda for the Next Great City to be delivered to the new mayor and Council in 2008. The project is supported by a major grant by the Lenfest Foundation, and other support from Penn, The Inquirer and the Knight Foundation.
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Citizen Journalism blitz
2007
We will recruit, train and equip a team of citizen journalists to cover every election-related event and issue from their perspectives. This will be ongoing project of the Web site.
Electronic Markets
Feb. to May 2007
Sept. to Nov. 2007
On the Web site, we will run two reader-participation “electronic markets/polls,†one on the election horse race a la the Iowa Electronic market, a second “merit poll†using the Patriot Dollars concepts to allow people to vote on which candidates are behaving best/worst on the campaign trail.
Issue Framing
Summer through Fall 2007
The Editorial Board will build upon the citizen input and its reporting to frame the key issues facing the city as a set of choices. Those choices will be presented in paper and online, with a continuous polling mechanism to get usable feedback from the public on which choices they favor.
Fall mayoral and council debates
October 2008
Repeat spring processes.
Agenda drafting
Fall 2007
Immediately following the election, The Inquirer will present a draft Agenda for a Next Great City
Agenda convention
Early December 2007
A regionwide convention to solicit feedback and suggestions on the draft agenda.
Next Great City inauguration event
In the week before the new mayor and Council take office, The Inquirer will publish its final agenda, revised based on public input. At a major event, participants in the Next Great City Agenda project will present the final agenda to the newly elected mayor and council and seek their response and commitments.