Public policy analyst Mark Hughes has proposed a new way to attract new residents to Philadelphia: break up the city.
He called Center City "the finest 100,000-person city in North America," noting it is one of the richest urban areas in the country, albeit one that is obscured by the working-class environment of the outlying areas of Philadelphia.
"There is a grimness, a dimness" outside Center City, he said. "But inside, there's an arts scene, a music scene and everything else that's culturally wonderful."
He added that, when people witness this dynamic of Philadelphia, they often ask if removing the industrial sections of the city and expanding the downtown area would improve Philadelphia's chances of attracting prospective residents.
Hughes is a weekly opinion columnist for the Philadelphia Daily News and a senior fellow at Penn's Fox Leadership Program.
Hughes explained that both Boston and San Francisco have been more successful than Philadelphia in attracting urban professionals because they do not have large, depressed industrial neighborhoods.
The problem, he says, lies in the mindset of those upper-class citizens living in the suburbs rather than those residing in city centers.
The poor who make up the majority of inhabitants in many of those neighborhoods should be aided by everyone, not just Philadelphia residents.
"People have the opinion that a rich person who shares the first three numbers of the zip code with someone in Strawberry Mansion [a lower-class section of North Philadelphia] has a much bigger responsibility for that poor person in Strawberry Mansion," he said.
In order to combat this perception, Hughes explained, the city must convince potential upper-class residents that they will not be burdened with supporting the lower class, which he said would draw more people from affluent suburban areas.
"One way to do that would be to break up the city into smaller sections," he said. "That way, [the rich] have some limited responsibility for that person in Strawberry Mansion."
While that proposal may seem detrimental to members of the lower class, Hughes explained that bringing in wealthier citizens to Philadelphia can only help the city's residents.
"We have to grow the city more to bring in more revenue that can aid the poor people," he said.
Students were taken aback by the nature of Hughes' argument, as well as his reputation in the public-policy field.
"I think Mark is one of the most innovative public policy gurus in the country," College senior Jason Oberman said. "He makes changes [to public policy] as opposed to simply critiquing it."
