September 18-24, 2003

pretzel logic

Can Do

by Howard Altman

If Patrick Henry were alive and in Phila- delphia today, I imagine his most famous speech might have turned out quite differently.

"Give me liberty or -- oh, what the hell, it’s too difficult. We can’t create a nation here. How can we compete with Boston? It’s too hot. Too many flies. Do we really want to piss off the king? Forget liberty. Just give me a cheesesteak, wit."

For a decade, I have lived and worked in this city and for a decade, I have been both amazed and puzzled at the no-can-do atty-tude that permeates this wonderful place.

Enough.

Philadelphia is at the crossroads and the time for handwringing and naysaying is over.

Wake up people.

This is a world-class city.

Act like it, for crying out loud.

I have done my part, I am sure, to contribute to this malaise.

I am as nattering a nabob as anyone who slings ink. Which makes it especially interesting for me to be part of something called the Greater Philadelphia Regional Roadmap.

The brainchild of the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce and Innovation Philadelphia (IP), the road map concept was created to fire up the local economy by bringing civic and business leaders together. The objective?

"Hot Teams" of 10 or 20 folk with track records who can put heads together to find ways to accelerate growth.

For some reason, I was chosen to be part of the "Creative Community" Hot Team -- a very eclectic and highly talented blend of artists, dancers, web designers, opera singers, a university dean, a record company president, new media wizards, geniuses of all types and, well, me, even though what I know about business can fill the space in the period at the end of this sentence.

Forget that so-called road maps aren't doing so well these days (just ask any Israeli or Palestinian). This project, which has taken a few hours a week of my time (and many, many hours of some of my Hot Team cohorts), seems to be just the kind of Vulcan mind meld that this city needs.

The past several months have given me tremendous insight into how economy-building ideas bubble up.

The road map is not scheduled to be drawn before the middle of October.

There is a public unveiling of the road map process today at the National Constitution Center.

But already, ideas are surfacing.

The cancer research Hot Team, chaired by three top cancer research people, struck up a deal wherein BioAdvance -- billed as "the region's biotech greenhouse" -- will seed a clinical research organization designed to find ways of reducing the cost of drug testing.

Big potential benefit to a local economy that is surprisingly ripe for innovation.

"We have significant assets within this region," says IP president Richard Bendis. "Once we have people connected, the image of Philadelphia is going to change."

It has to.

"At the end of the proverbial day," says former Governor Mark Schweiker, now Chamber president, the no-can-do atty-tude "harms our chances for becoming a global leader in these areas."

My colleagues on the creative community "Hot Team" are not just doers, they are believers with the kind of Tug McGraw heart that sometimes makes this city go (even if Tugger, God bless him, is yet another guy to come from -- oh, forget it).

We have cooked up what I think is a very exciting plan for something called a "Creative Convergence Center" consisting of 1) a virtual network that maps and connects regional assets; 2) a greenhouse for business development; and 3) an annual international conference for arts and technology that would make Philly a global magnet.

Like Bendis says, there are resources here. The "creative class" -- as defined by Richard Florida, it's a mélange of people in the technology, arts, entertainment, journalism, finance and manufacturing fields whose presence helps build cities -- has a foothold in Philadelphia.

But we also have our blemishes.

We are only 61st in Forbes' Best Places for Business index, for instance. And only 17th in the nation in Florida's overall index for cities over one million.

The Creative Convergence Center has tremendous potential to change that by bringing together technical innovators with artists with marketers with angels to find ways to start new companies. Centers in New York, Boston and Austin, Texas -- handling only a small segment of the creative fields -- have produced tens of thousands of jobs and created tens of millions of dollars in new business.

The potential exists here to do even better.

I believe.

Perhaps, but I am still a reporter.

Skeptical, curious.

There are many brilliant people involved in this process, but nearly all of them are white.

There's more to the city.

It will be very interesting to watch what happens here, to see if this group can turn things around.

Come out to the meeting, 1 p.m. today at the National Constitution Center. If you can't make it, check out the website: www.greaterphillyroadmap.com.

"Within 60 days, over 150 people working together, most who never met each other before, are demonstrating that, when you set your mind to it, Philadelphia can do anything."

Now that is an atty-tude.

I'll keep you posted.