Geoff Kees Thompson digs into one component of this old city's proposed mayoral platform for Philadelphia: the need to organize the city's alphabet soup of planning agencies under one director and give the Planning Commission teeth.
The public space- and Philadelphia-focused blog This Old City released a proposed mayoral platform late last week, issuing policy briefs on categories like transportation, public space quality, and clean streets.
This week, the platform's author, Geoff Kees Thompson, drills down on a few of the recommendations, including those under the headings of governmental reform, zoning and land use, city planning and infrastructure, and more. The government reform policy point, for instance, produces a call to "[place] the Planning Commission, Streets Department, Parks & Rec, Water Department & and the Land Bank under a new Department-level Director."
The platform and its corresponding blog posts provide broad and profound insights into the current politics of planning in the city of Philadelphia.
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