Ace classes, get diploma, leave for New York City - four challenging years at the University of Pennsylvania can be pretty simple for some students.
However, in the not-so-distant future, the last of these steps just might change: Instead of a one-way ticket to New York, Penn students may soon be buying Septa tickets across the Schuylkill to stay in Philadelphia.
After an October 2005 National Geographic Magazine article named Philadelphia "The Next Great City," the Next Great City Initiative was formed to make the lofty prediction a reality.
And last month, the Initiative released a list of 10 items the group says can be the first steps to making the city "great" and, in the process, make Philadelphia more attractive to the thousands of college graduates who leave the city each year.
"We're trying to put our attention to the small things that really help make the city more attractive and more liveable," said Christine Knapp of the Initiative. "It will be a better place to work and a better place to visit."
Some of the items on this list include improving transit stops, creating public riverfronts, replanting neighborhood trees, adopting modern zoning, maintaining healthy parks and expanding recycling - all steps Knapp says are within the city's direct authority, cost-neutral or fundable though an identified source and can be accomplished within the next mayoral term.
"Philadelphia has so many universities but doesn't retain students that come here," said Knapp. "We want to make the city more attractive for kids after they graduate."
This sentiment was echoed by Aaron Couch of the nonprofit organization Young Involved Philadelphia, one of the 70 groups in the Next Great City Coalition
"Improving the waterfront [and] making Philadelphia more liveable, prosperous and successful is something that is going to make college students want to say here," said Couch, who is a Penn graduate.
The next step in the project will be a forum Feb. 15 in which mayoral candidates will directly address the Next Great City Initiative.
The list was intentionally released as the city's mayoral race has heated up and looks to be a focus of Philadelphia's next political chief executive. Most mayoral candidates have put their support behind the work that the Next Great City Initiative is doing.
"The best estimates agree that simple improvements to the city's recycling program would save between $17 to $25 million dollars a year," Councilman Michael Nutter wrote in an e-mail in reference to the project's plans to transform the city's recycling program.
Dwight Evans's campaign spokesman Tim Spreitzer said many ideas are "a no-brainer," and Tom Knox's spokeswoman, Susan Madrak, said Knox "supports everything that's in there [the initiative], with some exceptions on the specifics."
Spokesmen for Bob Brady and Chaka Fattah did not respond to requests for comment.
