The Citizen’s 7th annual Ideas We Should Steal Festival presented by Comcast NBCUniversal on November 15 began with an acknowledgment of the moment: It was 10 days after an election that signaled the return of President Donald Trump, when city leaders and residents were reeling from the uncertainty of what is to come — and what just happened.
It ended with a rousing call from Rev. Michael Eric Dyson to seize this moment, embrace the “church of love” and get out there to fight, support and empower each other to create the communities we want to live in.
In between, more than 400 audience members heard from 30 problem-solvers, urban thinkers and innovators about how to change our political discourse, create opportunities for all Philadelphians, build wealth and well-being and specifically address the myriad crises facing all cities — including climate change, poverty, housing, jobs and safety.
What happens now? Or, as Citizen Executive Director Roxanne Patel Shepelavy asked the audience as the day got started, “What are we going to steal from today’s event?”
See below for a recap of what we heard and saw from each panel — and calls to action.
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- What We Can Learn From Chicago’s First Black Mayor.
- How to Quiet Our Politics In The Age of Trump.
- Wanted: Voters Who Shower After Work.
- Give Local.
- Cracking The Code on Housing.
- When Public Meets Private.
- Thriving After Prison.
- Power for the People.
- Building the Human Rights Economy.
- The Key To Philly’s Growth? Regionalism.
- How To Return Democracy to Voters.
- What Would King Say Today?
What We Can Learn From the Election of Chicago’s First Black Mayor.
The Festival kicked off with a special opening screening of Punch 9 for Harold Washington, a documentary about the trailblazing, coalition-building, odds-defying and widely beloved late Chicago mayor with filmmaker Joe Winston. After the film, Winston, New Yorker author and MacArthur “Genius” Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, former Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter, former Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed and Citizen Co-Founder Larry Platt talked about the lessons in grassroots democracy and how local engagement and city policies will get us through the next several years.
Watch the video of the live taping.
How to Quiet Our Politics In The Age of Trump.
Jon Grinspan, author of The Age of Acrimony: How Americans Fought To Fix Their Democracy, 1865-1915 joined MSNBC’s Ali Velshi and The Citizen’s Larry Platt to put the recent 2024 election into historical context. Turns out, 2024 has a lot in common with 150 years ago. Grinspan notes the political culture back then was more acrimonious — with voter intimidation and fraud to boot. (It was also, he writes, the era of Mantua’s own William “Pig-Iron” Kelley, an abolitionist, U.S. representative and friend of President Lincoln, who risked life and limb for civil rights.)
An angry electorate is a voting electorate, said Grinspan. The trick, then, is to create an environment of calm and civic engagement. For this, the author and Velshi urged patience and action. “You can hide under your bed for a few weeks if you’re upset about the election results, but that’s all you get,” said Velshi.
Ideas We Should Steal:
- Stop wallowing.
- Get out and do something.
Watch the video of How To Quiet Our Politics in the Age of Trump.
Wanted: Voters Who Shower After Work.
Batya Ungar-Sargon, author of Second Class: How the Elites Betrayed America’s Working Men and Women joined former Democratic Congressman and Undersecretary of the Army Patrick Murphy (who repped Northeast Philly and Bucks County), to address the prevailing story of the 2024 election: The will of working class voters.
A former Bernie Sanders progressive, Ungar-Sargon traveled the country talking to non-college educated Americans of all races and parties about what they want — and found more similarities than differences: 1. No more foreign wars. 2. Immigration restrictions to protect jobs. 3. Trade deals and tariffs that favor the working class. 4. Socially moderate policies, such as abortion access with some limits. These values, Ungar-Sargon says, used to belong to Democrats — but not anymore.
Murphy noted one reason why politicians are disconnected from their constituents: Congresspeople are among the richest Americans. The Harris-Walz campaign failed to connect with voters, which should make Democrats take stock of where they are — and where they need to be.
Ideas We Should Steal:
- Elect leaders who “get stuff done,” Murphy said, and who are thinking about the needs of regular people — not just the wealthy.
- Advocate for open primary elections, so independent voters — including the 1.3 million veterans who are registered independents — can participate.
- Pay attention to our national debt, whose interest alone is the second-largest line item in the U.S. budget.
Watch the video of Wanted: Voters Who Shower After Work.
Give Local.
Piper Stege Nelson of I Live Here I Give Here introduced Amplify Austin, a wildly successful, one-day, giving event that has raised more than $140 million for 1,507 nonprofits in 11 years — often through small donations from Texans.
Ideas We Should Steal:
- Other big cities — including New Orleans, Sacramento — dedicate a day of giving to local charities. Austin’s started with one person — who might be that one person here?
Watch the video of Live Local.
Cracking The Code on Housing.
Bruce Katz, director of Drexel’s Nowak Metro Finance Lab and of the new National Housing Crisis Task Force, kicked off a panel of housing experts — Dr. Andre Perry (Brookings Metro), Sonja Trauss (Yes In My Back Yard Law), and Mark Ethridge (Charlotte’s Housing Impact Fund) — with a good news/bad news overview of the nation’s housing crisis. Bad news: The crisis has “metastasized,” moving beyond the hot job markets (New York, San Francisco, Seattle) and moving up the income scale. Also, Katz added, “The federal government really hasn’t done a damn thing since ’08-’09.”
The good news? “When you have a vacuum in the United States, what happens? States and locals fill it,” he said.
The panelists explored some of those solutions for a housing crisis that’s worsened since the pandemic. Brookings’ Perry urged government and for-profit lenders to scale special-purpose credit programs that help underserved populations purchase a home. “If we can change the underwriting criteria in a way that gets products to meet people where they are,” he noted, “we can have a new generation of homeowners.”
Trauss spoke about the need to increase the supply of housing in middle- and high-income neighborhoods, to avoid the displacement that often accompanies building in lower-income areas. “Don’t let local media be like, ‘high vacancy rates, low rents: it’s a problem,’” Trauss said, “We have to be fighting for abundance.”
Ethridge has been working on the supply side of the crisis in Charlotte, but without focusing on brand-new construction. As in most cities, Charlotte’s affordable housing has suffered from a cycle of developers buying up older buildings, overhauling them, and pricing the new units at a level that’s no longer affordable to most residents. To help “stop the bleeding” of NOAH units, Ethridge said, his social-impact fund is buying up existing affordable units — what’s called “naturally occurring affordable housing” or NOAH properties — and preserving their low rental costs over time. He’s raised over $125 million in private equity to protect NOAH units in Charlotte.
Ideas We Should Steal:
- Protect naturally-occurring affordable housing (NOAHs), like they are piloting in Charlotte.
- Get homeowners’ and civic associations — especially in middle-income neighborhoods — to embrace more housing density.
- Unify all federal housing programs under a single roof.
Watch the video of Cracking the Code on Housing.
When Public Meets Private.
Many Americans believe in the private sector’s problem-solving capabilities more than they trust in the government’s. But how can cities get business leaders to take on big challenges that have traditionally been the domain of the public sector? Dalila Wilson-Scott, president of the Comcast NBCUniversal Foundation, moderated a discussion of how to bridge that gap featuring Kathryn Wylde, the CEO of the The Partnership for New York City, and FS Investments Chairman / CEO Michael Forman, co-founder of the Philadelphia Equity Alliance (and a Citizen supporter).
Wylde described the Partnership as an “un-Chamber of Commerce”: The business leaders around her table leave their own corporate interests aside, and focus entirely on what New York City needs.
One good example of that model in New York is the Transit Tech Lab, which provides a structure for entrepreneurs to solve issues that are plaguing the city’s public transit agency. “Great world cities are based on an aggregation of diverse talent,” Wylde said. “We have to give [CEOs] projects where they — or their organizations — have a contribution to make besides writing a check.”
Forman, who helped launch the Equity Alliance after the murder of George Floyd, noted that the cross-sector group is the first of its kind in the city — and just getting started.
Ideas We Should Steal:
- For the public sector: Engage business leaders beyond just asking them to write a check; invite collaboration.
- For the private sector: Gather civically-minded leaders to meet regularly to share ideas and problem-solve.
- Build coalitions around precise goals and create specific targets on how to get there.
- Leverage public universities as incubators for cross-sectoral work.
Watch the video of When Public Meets Private.
Thriving After Prison.
Laurin Leonard, co-founder of Mission: Launch and R3 Score, laid out some remarkable statistics in a conversation with MSNBC Correspondent Trymaine Lee: 77 million (one-third of all working-age) Americans have an arrest or conviction record — which makes it exponentially harder for these citizens to work, learn or live, since nine out of 10 employers, four out of five landlords, and three out of five universities run background checks. (What’s more, she noted that 50 percent of all FBI background checks are inaccurate or incomplete.)
That’s why Leonard and her mom, who was once incarcerated herself, have created tools to help connect returning citizens with employment. Their for- and nonprofit companies conduct qualitative interviews, urge a rethinking of the background check, refine resumes and put prospective workers in front of employers — including in the energy sector, which is currently in need of 22 million workers.
Ideas We Should Steal:
- Investors: Contact R3. It’s a growth business. (Or, simply donate to Mission: Launch.)
- Employers: Hire returning citizens by considering not what landed them in prison, but by who they are today — including the transferable skills they learned while incarcerated.
- Not quite ready to hire returning citizens? Let R3 know if you might one day consider it. The company is growing a “deep bench,” Leonard said.
Watch the video of Thriving After Prison.
Power for the People.
Volt Energy Utility CEO Gilbert Campbell, a Philly native, built his company from a community rooftop solar installer to a major player in the solar energy industry — all while centering environmental justice into his work. In addition to creating jobs training for Americans underrepresented in the industry, Campbell is striking deals that increase the use and understanding of solar power and also provide resources to communities hardest hit by climate change — particularly Black and Brown urban neighborhoods.
Ideas We Should Steal:
- Campbell made early community connections by explaining energy bills to churchgoers. Sounds simple, but showing up in community is a vital way to create understanding not just around alternative energy, but around energy efficiency.
Watch the video of Power For the People.
Building the Human Rights Economy.
Devin Cotten, founder & CEO of Universal Basic Employment & Opportunity and Dr. Amy Castro, co-founder of the Center for Guaranteed Income Research and associate professor in the School of Social Policy & Practice at the University of Pennsylvania discussed the truths (and myths) around two new-ish ideas.
Cotten’s program would ensure every worker in Cleveland, even low-credentialed, earns $50,000 a year — giving them a middle class income in the Ohio city. This satisfies the bipartisan American belief in the value of work, and allows people the dignity of a job that can support their families.
Castro’s research projects around the country have supplied low-income participants with $500 monthly in unrestricted cash, regardless of job status. This has resulted in economic, mental, physical and even community well-being for the recipients. They spoke with Dr. Fareeda Griffith, managing director of the Wharton Coalition for Equity and Opportunity.
Ideas We Should Steal
- Follow the research from both speakers, with an eye to creating a federal — or local — basic income policy to fight poverty and precarity.
Watch the video of Building the Human Rights Economy.
The Key To Philly’s Growth? Regionalism.
Philadelphia is the only major city in the U.S. with no regional economic strategy. Brookings Metro’s Marek Gootman pointed to a recent Opportunity Insights report that ranked our city’s economic mobility at 50 out of 50, that provided local context to a conversation about two very different programs that bring together regional leaders to spur growth.
Kathy Etemad Hollinger, CEO of Greater Washington Partnership, described how, after working together on an Olympic Games bid for Washington, D.C., a small group of CEOs founded a non-governmental organization that now includes business and university leaders, working together for the greater good.
Illinois Governor JB Pritzker Chief of Staff Anne Caprara described Intersect Illinois, a public-private partnership that engages the governor himself in personally reaching out to businesses and CEOs interested in moving or expanding to Illinois, with a focus on quantum computing, electric vehicles and batteries.
Ideas We Should Steal:
- Leaders interested in growing their regions’ economies through business development must provide a personal touch and consistent follow-through.
- Leaders interested in growing Philadelphia would do well to remember that the “economy does not stop at 69th Street,” said Gootman.
Watch the video of The Key to Philly’s Growth? Regionalism.
How To Return Democracy to Voters.
It’s only been 15 years since the Supreme Court’s decision in Citizens United, which opened the floodgates to virtually unlimited spending in our elections by special-interest groups, wealthy donors, and corporations. But that doesn’t mean the current state of affairs — including all those creepy television commercials funded by Super PACs — has to be our future too. Ali Velshi of MSNBC moderated a conversation with actor and activist Debra Winger, along with Jeff Clements, the CEO of American Promise, both of whom are on the frontlines of a movement to get an amendment to the U.S. Constitution that would (once again) limit spending in politics.
So far, 22 states have called on Congress to pass such an amendment, which requires at least 38 legislatures to be ratified at the federal level. This past election — which featured Elon Musk’s wealth and record amounts of spending on down-ballot races — was an illustration of a political reality that the panelists would like to erase. Pennsylvania is poised to become the 23rd state supporting the For Our Freedom Amendment — unless Wyoming gets there first! — after the State House approved the measure earlier this year. (Come on, folks, we can do this!)
It also happens to be one of the few issues that has broad bipartisan support. “About 90 percent of people see money in politics as a threat to democracy,” Clements said, adding that “about 80 percent support a Constitutional amendment.”
Ideas We Should Steal:
- Sign the pledge supporting American Promise so state legislators can see Pennsylvanians support it.
- Contact your legislators to encourage them to get behind this popular movement.
- Advocate for additional reforms in the meantime which could improve transparency around “dark money” and campaign spending.
Watch the video of Returning Democracy to Voters.
What Would King Say Today?
The day ended with an epic statement from professor and author Dr. Michael Eric Dyson: “I stand with those who believe in the church of love and the god of compassion for their fellow citizens.”
As an ordained minister, for Dyson, pledging allegiance to not a denomination but to an interrelation is an … affirmation of all that The Philadelphia Citizen stands for. The message wrapped a finale discussion of the life and legacy of the civil rights icon featuring Jonathan Eig, author of Pulitzer Prize-winning King: A Life and Rutgers law professor Stacy Hawkins. Hawkins, Eig and Dyson traced the arc of King’s life, where his own experiences with racism and white supremacy radicalized him.
Their inspiring, end-of-festival thesis: Realizing King’s dream calls us to keep at it. Keep protesting. Keep speaking truth to power, standing up to racism, recognizing our own racism, and, like King, facing our fears.
Ideas We Should Steal:
- Read Eig’s and Dyson’s books, but also …
- Find and support the Kings in your community, in our city. Who is defying the powers that be — not just politicians, but also big money — in order to represent the rights and desires of the least listened to among us? Whom have you written off as too “radical,” “progressive” or even “backwards” to take seriously? Where can you make a difference, with your allyship or contribution of time or money?
- It’s all about, once again, doing something.
Watch the video of What Would King Say Today?
