J. Willie Reynolds Unveils "Winning Our Neighborhoods" Platform

Before a small but enthusiastic crowd at West Bethlehem's Clearview Park, Mayoral candidate J. Willie Reynolds unveiled his "Winning Our Neighborhoods" platform yesterday afternoon. Reynolds and his opponent, Bob Donchez, are focused on an issues oriented campaign, following the example set by the City's first Mayor, Archibald Johnston.

"Winning our Neighborhoods" is a detailed program that proposes (1) a committee outreach to supplement existing neighborhood associations; (2) City Council district seats that will make government more democratic; (3) a battle against fracking, which Reynolds contends will endanger the City's drinking water; (4) "Serve Bethlehem", a promotion of volunteerism and community service; and (5) An "Our Streets/ Our Home" plan to improve the quality of housing stock. You can read the text of reynolds' speech below.

Reynolds conducted is news conference at Clearview Park to draw attention to the kinds of neighborhoods that work in Bethlehem and also to stress that West Bethlehem, like the Southside, has no representation on City Council. Districted Council seats could solve that problem and make government more representative. A continuation of at-large seats should prevent the parochialism that often comes with a district seat.

City Council candidate Adam Waldron, who was at Reynolds' new conference, is from West Bethlehem and tells me he's the only candidate from that area of the City.

Reynolds' final prong of his platform, relating to housing stock, should prove controversial. He wants all rental units inspected every 3-5 years, even if the same tenant is there. He wants to be able to force problem tenants out of rental units with a three strikes policy for criminal citations. This could make a wife being abused by her husband reluctant to call police, especially if she has children.

But I have to commend Reynolds. Instead of pious platitudes or vague generalities, he's throwing out some very specific ideas. It might be bad politics, but it's good government.

Here's his speech.

Winning Our Neighborhoods (W.O.N.)

Introduction:

I would first like to thank everyone for coming out and joining us today. The City of Bethlehem is a special place. When my parents bought our house on Linden Street as a young couple, they did so because it was a neighborhood you wanted to raise a family in. They raised their five children there because our neighborhood had everything a family could want. Safe streets to ride your bike on. Clean parks to walk to with your friends. And good schools within walking distance of our half of a double on Linden Street in which they still call home. It was the type of middle class neighborhood that makes Bethlehem the city want to grow up in. As I have gotten older, I have realized the little things that add up to make our neighborhoods what they are. It is the little things that matter when it comes to quality of life in our City. When I ran for City Council, I did so because I believed in our neighborhoods. I believed that we had to invest in our neighborhoods as they faced new challenges and obstacles. I am proud to say that during my time on City Council, I have fought for our neighborhoods.

It is with that backdrop that I am proud to stand here in Clearview Park and announce what is the cornerstone of my Mayoral campaign, a comprehensive neighborhood strategy called Winning Our Neighborhoods. I have developed this plan from years of knocking on doors, talking to residents, and thinking about what makes Bethlehem special. It is time for a new kind of economic development in Bethlehem that gives city residents the ability to increase the well-being of their own neighborhood with the full support of the office of the Mayor and City government. This is the core of the Winning Our Neighborhoods Strategy; the development of sustainable grass roots infrastructure on the neighborhood level which can give citizens the resources to make a difference on their own block.

Winning Our Neighborhoods is centered on five key areas in which to protect and build our neighborhoods.

1. Creation of Winning Our Neighborhood Committees

WON looks to build a committee of invested partners in a neighborhood that will work towards maintaining and building those connections that make neighborhoods livable and attractive. The WON Committees, to meet on a regular basis, would include

Community stakeholders:

1. Residents of the neighborhood
2. Business owners in the neighborhood
3. Representatives from neighborhood elementary school (PTA members, teachers, principal, etc.)
4. Community leaders, activists

Representatives and department heads from City Hall

5. Mayor
6. Police Chief (and other Community Police officers serving the neighborhoods)
7. Public Works Director
8. Community and Economic Development Director

What would be the goals of the WON Committees?

1. Helping to establish connections between neighborhoods and schools (e.g. planning “neighborhood” events a year)
2. Dealing with public safety issues (traffic, pedestrian, problem areas)
3. Code violations and problem properties
4. Leaf, snow, and trash removal concerns
5. Beautification efforts (trees, lights, etc.)
6. Neighborhood recreation opportunities
7. Unwanted neighborhood development (recent examples in Bethlehem include ongoing litigation over drug rehab centers and the efforts by Holy Family Manor to demolish historic buildings)

In 2004, the Elm Street Program was created to bolster the older historic neighborhoods located within walking distance from our revitalized Main Streets. The idea here is that a full development plan, and the most successful kind, addresses our downtowns and the surrounding neighborhoods with equal levels of planning and support. As Pennsylvanians, we have seen Governor Corbett cut Elm Street funding in cities such as ours. While the funding has disappeared, the needs of our neighborhoods have not. WON Committees hopefully can help to fill the needs left by the reduction in support from the state of Pennsylvania. It is also important to note that the Committees are not looking to replace any existing neighborhood organizations but rather supplement the current work that is being done with increased involvement and support from City Hall and the Office of the Mayor.

The boundaries for WON Committees would be based loosely along the boundaries of the elementary schools in the City of Bethlehem. This is advantageous to the program for several reasons

1. Elementary school boundaries are smaller and more manageable than simply breaking up the City into north Bethlehem, west Bethlehem, etc.
2. Many of our older and most at risk neighborhoods surround some of our elementary schools (Thomas Jefferson, Calypso, William Penn, Buchanan, etc.)
3. The importance of tying one’s neighborhood into the neighborhood public school

One of the biggest challenges we face is finding ways to attract and retain young middle class families to Bethlehem. The WON Committees create a strategy for improving our neighborhoods and providing residents with support over the issues that affect their daily lives while also pro-actively encouraging citizen participation at the grassroots community level.

2. Creation of City Council Districted Seats

The City of Bethlehem has long elected its seven City Council members through an at-large process. This has traditionally led to the majority of Council members being elected from only a few areas of the City. For example, west Bethlehem has not a Councilman in 16 years and South Bethlehem has only had one Councilmember in the last 16 years and none in the past six years. The City of Bethlehem, however, is a unique collection of neighborhoods with distinct qualities, concerns, and issues. A new system of electing Council members is necessary in order to reflect the unique nature of each area of Bethlehem.

Winning Our Neighborhoods calls for the creation of a hybrid system of electing Council candidates from a combination of at large and districted seats. This would not only guarantee representation from every area of Bethlehem but would also remove several barriers to the democratic process. Importantly, creating districted seats would allow candidates to focus less time on the financial side of running for office. Running a serious campaign for City Council often costs in excess of $10,000 and breaking the City into sections would substantially reduce the amount of money that a candidate would have to raise in order to get their message out. This would also increase the time in which candidates could visit their local small businesses and talk with their neighbors about important issues facing Bethlehem. Several local municipalities and school districts already utilize such a system including the City of Easton and the Bethlehem Area School District.

3. Increased efforts to battle potential impacts of fracking on Bethlehem’s drinking water

One of Bethlehem’s most prized assets has always been our drinking water. Our drinking water reservoirs are located approximately 40 miles away from the City of Bethlehem in Penn Forest Township and Tunkhannock Township. According to the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection Bureau of Gas and Oil Management, the Marcellus Formation covers approximately 64 percent of Pennsylvania. This includes much of Carbon County where the Penn Forest Reservoir (our water supply) is located. In the past several years, more and more attempts at natural gas extraction have occurred in Pennsylvania. While there have been no Marcellus Shale wells drilled in Carbon County as of now (even though the extent of the Marcellus Shale covers much of Carbon County), there have been multiple wells drilled in the bordering county of Luzerne. These wells, of course, use the process called “fracking” to remove the natural gas from the Marcellus Shale. While there has been much debate about the effects of fracking on our environment and our drinking water, it is reckless to continue to potentially damage our environment without knowing the long terms effects of the process on our state and our water supply.

As a City, we must step up and help lead the fight to stop this destructive technique. Part of being an elected official on any level of government is lobbying for governmental changes that affect one’s citizens and constituents. As a City Councilman, I authored a letter to our state leaders in Harrisburg in an effort to repeal Act 13 which took away local zoning rights from municipalities as it concerns fracking and the extraction of natural gas. We need to join the fight statewide and in Pennsylvania municipalities to suspend all fracking operations until further studies can be completed that can accurately take into account the environmental damage to Pennsylvania. We also need to lobby at the state and federal level to change fracking’s current exemption from the federal Safe Drinking Water Act which currently does not mandate public disclosure of chemicals used in the fracking process.

The reality is that the fracking process is new to Pennsylvania. Too much about the long term consequences of fracking is unknown. It is for that reason that we can not sit back and allow the potential damaging of one of our most important and basic City services to occur. The issue of fracking may not only damage our drinking water but also our environment in a way that could affect generations of current and future Bethlehem residents.

4. Creation of “Serve Bethlehem”

A comprehensive plan for our City and our neighborhoods not only finds ways to fix problems, but also actively encourages positive contributions to our neighborhoods from invested residents. Similarly, we can foster a sense of community and build community based around positive actions to move us forward.

Bethlehem has a long history of community service and volunteerism in our community. One of the hallmarks of our community has always been that people in Bethlehem, no matter their age, have always been willing to give back. It is that sense of service that has allowed the seventh largest City in Bethlehem to feel like a small town. It is not unusual for children, parents, grandparents, and great grandparents to be involved in the same community organizations. Serve Bethlehem looks to build on that idea.

Serve Bethlehem is a volunteer based program (modeled after a similar successful program ServePittsburgh in the city of Pittsburgh, PA) that attempts to recruit volunteers and community partners to participate in service initiatives designed to combat neighborhood issues. The program looks to improve the quality of life in neighborhoods on a daily basis through service projects and volunteer efforts. Several highlights include mini grants for neighborhood beautification projects, an elderly/disabled snow removal volunteer program, increase in community food gardens (and support of Bethlehem Food Co-op and similar efforts), and expanded Adopt a Park/Streets programs. Serve Bethlehem would not look to replace any current efforts in our community but rather strengthen, support, and unify existing efforts in Bethlehem.

5. “Our Streets/Our Homes” Program

One of the aspects of Bethlehem that makes our City unique is the quality of the housing stock in our neighborhoods. Every city must develop and maintain a delicate balance of low, medium, and high density housing in order to possess a high quality of life. Bethlehem residents have always been known for the pride that they have taken in their homes and properties. Unfortunately, there are neighborhoods in our City that occasionally experience “problem” properties or a somewhat declining quality of life. Currently, our Community and Economic Development department does an excellent job of responding to these complaints and holding people accountable for failing to follow our codes and ordinances. It is, however, through my experience on City Council and knocking on our residents’ doors on a regular basis that I am proposing looking at several changes that will increase our ability to say that every neighborhood in our cities have a quality of life that we can all be proud of.

1. Examining a change in our definition of a “regulated rental”.
2. Updating our City’s housing database in an effort to stop illegal conversions of single family homes
3. Requiring all rental properties to be inspected once every three years rather than the current standard of only when the rental property finds a new owner or is sold
4. Examine the “3 strikes and you’re out” rule as it relates to tenants convicted of a crime
5. Developing and encouraging home ownership programs including employee assistance housing programs for Bethlehem area businesses

Many residents in Bethlehem have lived in their homes for 30, 40, or even fifty years. These residents form the backbone of our neighborhoods and our City. The City must improve its efforts to stabilize and build our neighborhoods if we are going to continue to experience the quality of life generations of Bethlehem residents have enjoyed.

Conclusion:

Being Mayor isn’t just about listening. Its about leading. Its about coming up with and fighting for ideas that will make Bethlehem better. Its about representing your citizens on issues that mean something to them. Its about leaving City Hall sometimes as the bad guy. Its about recognizing that Bethlehem has changed. We are a more diverse, younger city that has reinvented itself only because of bold decision making that understood that the best way to respect our past is to build a better future. This proposal does that. We are building for the future by focusing on what makes Bethlehem special and unique, our neighborhoods. We are giving a voice to our neighborhoods, encouraging and supporting participation in city government, and building lasting relationships within communities and between communities and city hall. That is truly good government.  My campaign and Winning Our Neighborhoods isn’t just about who we are. It is about who we can be. As a city. As neighborhoods. And as families. Thank you for coming out today and I will now answer any questions you may have.