Perspective | A more collegiate City Hall

As Mayor-elect Michael Nutter prepares to assume office in January, he hopes to change the way things operate in City Hall.

Running a campaign against corruption and Philadelphia's rising murder rate, Nutter promises a break with the past and fresh new ideas to revitalize the city.

And Penn and other local colleges may provide the brain power to do just that.

But to take advantage of Philadelphia's academic resources, Nutter will have some work to do repairing relationships that some say have been lackluster at best under outgoing Mayor John Street.

"It was clear when I talked to people that there wasn't much communication going on" between colleges and City Hall, said economic consultant Basil Whiting, who did a study for the Pew Charitable Trusts research foundation in February on the problems Philadelphia faces.

The study, entitled "Philadelphia 2007: Prospects and Challenges," said the city was run by "bifurcated leadership," with civic and business leaders on one side and City Hall on the other, each trying to tackle community problems without much collaboration.

As the city government failed to communicate with a growing field of urban professionals, "the two groups grew apart," Whiting said.

Others believe that the current mayoral administration was effective at reaching out to universities - when it wanted to.

"I'd give the Mayor a B," said Richard Gelles, dean of the School of Social Policy and Practice. "He didn't ignore the University, but he was choosy about what he'd ask for."

Street consulted Penn experts such as Gelles when trying to reform the city's scandal-plagued Department of Human Services, but the mayor refused advice on some issues.

"One of those issues, unfortunately, was gun violence," said Gelles, who later became a vocal critic of the administration. Street "just did not want to take the evidence-based recommendations because that would put him in conflict with his police chief."

"Street is more of a product of the political system in Philadelphia," Whiting said. "His personality is fairly insular and not conducive to reaching out to civic leaders."

Gelles thinks politicians are generally unreceptive to criticism, and he pointed to himself and prominent Criminology professor Lawrence Sherman as experts with whom Street has had public disagreements.

"When you yell out that the emperor is naked, you're not likely to be chosen as his fashion adviser," Gelles said. "Politicians sometimes just roll their eyes at the advice we give."

Street did enlist Penn's help in one critical area - coming up with a plan to redevelop the Delaware riverfront.

When prodded by city Councilman Frank DiCicco, Street reached out to PennPraxis, the consulting arm of the School of Design.

The result was a multi-pronged effort to rethink the recreational and commercial opportunities that a revitalized riverfront would provide.

The city has also called upon Penn's expertise in other areas related to city planning: Gary Hack, dean of Penn Design, served as head of the city Planning Commission, and Anne Papageorge, vice president for Facilities and Real Estate Services, is currently on the commission to reform the city's zoning code.

Still, during his research, Whiting said many leaders complained about the lack of effort by the administration to establish relationships.

"I talked to one business leader who said that he called the mayor's office six times about a development issue and never got a call back," Whiting said. "One civic leader I talked to told me that [they] don't even bother calling the administration when [they're] planning something. It's a matter of outreach."

Street's office did not return requests for comment.

At the same time, Nutter may be more willing to reach out to Penn professors for guidance given his history in city politics.

As a councilman, Nutter reached out to then-Wharton Dean Patrick Harker for advice on tax-reform legislation, said Dawn Maglicco, director of Penn's Office of Government and Community Affairs.

He has also enlisted the help of Sherman in developing his crime plan, including its controversial stop-and-frisk policy, designed to reduce the murder rate in the city's most crime-ridden areas.

This is in noted contrast to Sherman's relationship with Street.

"There was a clear disagreement between the mayor and the recommendations I gave to all mayoral candidates," said Sherman, who also serves as director of the Jerry Lee Center of Criminology.

Nutter's campaign has also been courting Penn professors to enlist their help in the next administration, says Don Kettl, director of the Fels Institute of Government.

Nutter expressed this sort of sentiment in a speech last week calling on members of the city's leading business and nonprofit organizations to serve in government.

The incoming mayor also plans to creating an Office of College and University Relations to coordinate the efforts of all the city's various colleges.

"I want to meet regularly with university presidents to support the great research and economic development that they're overseeing," Nutter said in an interview. "People seem to forget that Philadelphia has one of the highest concentrations of higher-education institutions."

This office will hopefully help government officials find relevant university experts and research, said Eugenie Birch, chairwoman of Penn's Department of City and Regional Planning and co-chairwoman of Penn's Institute for Urban Research.

In addition to his plans to engage administrators, Nutter also wants to expand internship and mentoring programs for regional high school and college students. He plans on having university officials run these initiatives.

"The city should be actively recruiting college students to serve in the government," Nutter said. "We need to be on every campus like most other private companies."

In addition to his proposals, Nutter's reputation as a policy wonk improves his ability to reach out to the educational community, Social Policy and Practice professor Chad Dion Lassiter said.

"He's an intellectual who's open to reaching out to the best and brightest," says Lassiter, who served on a crime and safety-policy advisory committee for the Nutter campaign. "He understands policy on various micro- and macroeconomic levels, and he's a social reformer who sees the strength of institutions of Penn."

Nutter's ability to effectively translate his previous support for ethics reform into a less-corrupt administration will also play an important role in encouraging civic engagement.

"Civic leaders were turned off by the current administration because of the pay-to-play corruption associated with it," says Whiting. "There was a perception that you were going to be extorted."

On its end, Penn needs to "lend its best and brightest" to Nutter by maintaining an open dialogue and making professors and administrators available, Lassiter said.

And the opportunities for collaboration on issues like tax reforms, zoning changes and crime fighting has generated enormous excitement among academic officials.

"We are going to have a flowering of the potential that has never been developed," Sherman said. "Nutter's going to put the whole university-city partnership on steroids."

Each week, The Daily Pennsylvanian takes an in-depth look at an issue affecting the community. Look for Perspective every Tuesday.

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