Policy Brief: On July 1, 2009, the State Government Committee of Pennsylvania's House of Representatives narrowly passed House Bill 1500, "the Pennsylvania State Police Municipal Patrol Services Act." If enacted by the full legislature, the bill would charge new fees to about 1700 municipalities that currently rely on state police coverage instead of paying local taxes for local police services.

Policy Brief: On September 18, 2009, Governor Rendell negotiated a deal with the leadership of the state house and senate to raise additional revenues for his long-stalled state budget. The governor was determined to secure new tax revenues in order to forestall deep cuts in education, health care, and economic development. However, he was unable to win sufficient support from legislators of both parties for broad-based tax increases. Republicans in the state senate in particular argued that comprehensive tax increases would push the state further into economic recession.

Our Where We Stand annual report monitors eleven dimensions of community life, selecting a few critical indicators to tell us where we stand on those dimensions as a region and within individual local communities.

In the current economic downturn that touches the lives of many households in greater Philadelphia, we are more conscious than ever that the citizens of this region share a common future. No matter where we live or work, all of us depend on a job market, a quality workforce, a transportation system, a housing market, a wealth of cultural and educational resources, and air and water sheds that are regional in scope. To strengthen those shared assets, we must connect local issues and concerns to the larger regional picture.

All the information from our past annual reports along with hundreds of new indicators are now accessible via MetroPhilaMapper, our interactive map making application. You can make your own maps, explore the data in tables and take the information to use in your own reports and presentations. Just click on the Making Maps/Explore Data link above and start mapping!

In partnership with the Chester Youth Collaborative, MPIP and Temple’s UCCP are collecting survey data on adult engagement in the city of Chester. The survey, which is largely based on the Saguaro seminar’s survey at Harvard University, is being administered to adult residents in Chester by youth from the community. The data from these surveys will be used to formulate focus group questions with the hope of stimulating larger community interest and dialogue around the issues of adult engagement.

MPIP researcher David Elesh presented an analysis using MPIP data at the annual meeting of the Urban Affairs Association in Baltimore on April 24, 2008.  Using data on the average verbal and mathematics scores of 8th graders in 148 school districts in Greater Philadelphia, he explored the characteristics of school districts that succeed and fail. 

In March 2008, MPIP researcher David Bartelt presented data and maps to the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission’s Regional Citizen’s Committee that demonstrated the range of communities served by the region’s rail network (SEPTA, PATCO, and New Jersey Transit). The presentation focused on measuring the regional rail system as a community asset that benefits the households and communities of the region; it examined the relationships between rail ridership and housing values, the community tax base, and community vitality.

In addition to surveying households within the Greater Philadelphia region, Temple researchers have also surveyed households across the state of Pennsylvania, asking them the same questions we asked within the Philadelphia metro region. A new report looks at whether Pennsylvanian's attitudes about their communities differed systematically depending on the type of community they live in.

The National Neighborhood Indicator Partnership (NNIP; http://www.urban.org/nnip) has become a key data partner with The Reinvestment Fund as they represent Philadelphia in a national partnership of 22 sites to further the democratization of data in the service of community needs assessment, program development and new initiatives for community development.