July 5, 2007 Issue                                       

©2007 The Chestnut Hill Local

Opinion

Issues underneath SEPTA financial crunch

The subject of the region’s transit authorities fare hikes has been widely covered and editorialized. There is little left to say and cries from either advocates for the poor, who will be disproportionately affected by the increases, or mass transit die-hards, who no doubt see the rising fares as a set-back to any hopes of expansion, have already begun to fade.

But with the recent, to coin Al Gore’s phrase, “vigorous and meaningful” debate, our city engaged in during the Democratic primary over some of our most pressing and complicated issues, it may the right time for Philadelphians to seize this latest transit crisis as an opportunity to address some of the issues underneath SEPTA longtime financial crunch.

According to the Pennsylvania Transportation Funding and Reform Commission’s study, the public transportation funding crisis has been building for nearly 15 years. While fuel prices have risen at alarming rates, as have health insurance premiums, transportation funding has remained stagnant. Both at the state and federal levels attempts at increasing revenue have failed and SEPTA has faced annual shortfalls of at least $240 million. It makes logical sense that if we, the consumers, ordinary citizens, are feeling the crush at the pump and doctor’s office, large institutions, like SEPTA, are feeling it even more.

It is not difficult to understand the urge to blame SEPTA. Whether it is our own experience with lousy service from the transportation authority or in-depth knowledge of big budget management, it is certainly understandable to hold public institutions accountable for their operations. That is precisely what the moment calls for – an educated, informed outcry against wide-spread apathy that elects leaders who allow gas prices to skyrocket, which has a ripple affect into every corner of our society and who refuse to take on the delicate task of regulating health insurance companies.

These industries provide vital services to us as both consumers and citizens. And just as they allow us to function, they can also cripple our efforts as ordinary citizens. With next year’s presidential election looming as well as local and state elections, our recourse is to take as active a role as possible in the vetting and electing of leaders who will not just debate these issues but tackle them in a vigorous and meaningful way.

Jennifer Katz

Editorial Note: The staff of the Local extends its most heartfelt congratulations to Pete Mazzaccaro and his family on the birth of a new son, John, Monday morning. We think his deadline day entrance signifies a sense of humor befitting the son of a newspaper editor. Much luck and health to the family.

NIM: A best-kept secret no more

Sometimes you don’t know how special something is even when it stares you right in the face. In a way, all of Northwest Philadelphia is like that – known in many circles across the country for its diversity as well as its physical beauty, but sometimes unappreciated by us who live here.

What’s true for the Northwest is, I have learned, also true for NIM — the Neighborhood (formerly Northwest) Interfaith Movement, which I have had the honor of leading for five years. I frequently meet folks who say, “I’ve heard of NIM, but what exactly do you do?” We are, it seems, the neighborhood’s “best kept secret.”

I thank Local editor Pete Mazzaccaro for encouraging me to use this month’s column to let you know more about NIM, which might be described as the quintessence of what Northwest Philadelphia is all about.

Founded in 1969, NIM continues the work begun by individuals — many of them clergy and congregation members — in creating an integrated and progressive community in Mount Airy. But NIM has always reached beyond “integration” and the boundaries of 19119. Our 60 congregations — Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Unitarian — and other faith-based institutions are in most of the zip codes this side of Roosevelt Boulevard; our programs are as numerous as the neighborhoods we serve.

In working with its member faith institutions, NIM offers or coordinates a wide variety of services and programs. Through our Children and Families department we:

• Train 1,700 childcare providers annually in topics as diverse as classroom management, obesity prevention, and fire safety. We serve especially families in at-risk neighborhoods desperately in need of trustworthy childcare.

• Maintain a Resource Room filled with NIM-created educational, multicultural learning kits (books, toys, and more) which childcare providers, parents, and grandparents can borrow.

Our Older Adults department:

• Provides ombudsman services to the residents of half of the city’s nursing, personal care (assisted living), and domiciliary homes.

• Is planning to launch an Older Adult Referral Service (OARS), which we hope to nurture to be a model for serving senior citizens. Recognizing that the number of older adults needing assistance to remain in their homes is growing fast, NIM has convened a broad coalition of agencies serving that population to create OARS, a one-stop shop to which seniors can turn to find everything from health referrals to home repair to transportation, education, and socialization to … you name it.

Meanwhile, NIM Congregations and Community department sponsors —

• Increase the Peace, a “positive” response to violence, providing many ways people can start making a difference. We partnered with Philadelphia Reads to train some reading coaches for Emlen School; started organizing to eliminate nuisance businesses, and began searching for ways to support and grow grassroots anti-violence efforts such as the Germantown Clergy Initiative at Germantown High. We co-sponsored the Interfaith Walk for Peace and Reconciliation, the largest such interfaith peace walk ever in Philadelphia.

• Walking the Walk: Values in Action, a service learning project for teens. Thanks to this exciting program, conceived by the Interfaith Council of Greater Philadelphia, with whom we are proud to partner, Christian, Jewish, and Muslim teens learned about one another and performed community service together.

• Act Out for Peace, a summer theater program cosponsored with BuildaBridge International, which uses the arts to engage in conflict resolution work.

• Sustaining Creation, which aims to increase environmental awareness and promote sustainable practices. Recent programs included screening Al Gore’s film, “An Inconvenient Truth,” in several congregations; promoting citywide weekly curbside pick-up of recyclable materials including plastic; convening an Energy Workshop that introduced practical ways to improve energy efficiency in congregations and homes.

• an annual Martin Luther King Jr. Interfaith Celebration

• an annual Interfaith Thanksgiving Service, where people of all faiths share music, dance, and uplifting words

• an ongoing Race Dialogue group

• workshops on topics as diverse as “Unique Perspectives on Islam,” “Women in the Civil Rights Movement in Mississippi,” and interfaith discussion groups

And we join with Northwest Philadelphia Interfaith Hospitality Network (NPIHN) in sponsoring Interfaith Advocates, bringing information and calls for action on poverty-related issues to congregations. If you’re saying to yourself, “Can one organization really do all that?” you’re not alone. NIM is unique in the work it does in the name of faith, building (in the words of NIM’s mission statement) “a more just and sensitive community through advocacy and service.”

There are, of course, many agencies doing fabulous work assisting the neediest among us. NIM is proud to partner with many of them. NIM’s uniqueness lies in its being home-grown in Northwest Philadelphia and in its conviction that faith can lead to the creation of equal opportunity, respect, and fairness for people of every age, race, color, gender, and creed.

You can read more about how NIM and its faith partners work together on our Web site, www.nim-phila.org. Or stop by to visit us at 7047 Germantown Avenue.