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Description
Council President Darrell L. Clarke (5th District) delivers his speech during the Inauguration Ceremony held January 6, 2019 at the Met Philadelphia.
A
Good
morning
it's
an
exciting
day
and
this
will
be
an
exciting
year.
I
want
to
thank
everybody.
Who's
come
here
today
for
the
investiture
and
the
organization
of
City
Council.
This
is
truly
democracy
in
action
and
I
hope
that
you
find
today
not
only
a
pleasurable
one
but
an
interesting
one,
and
it
will
be
that
we
are
proud
to
bring
this
inauguration
to
the
met
Philadelphia
for
the
first
time
and
celebrate
the
continuation
of
the
North
Broad
Street
Renaissance.
A
It's
Charak
INSAT
sitting
right
in
front
of
me.
They
strategically
placed
you
can't
I
ask
that
to
be
done
so
before
we
begin.
I
just
want
to
take
one
moment
to
express
my
sincere
gratitude
and
appreciation
to
four
very
special
people,
not
only
to
me
but
of
all
of
us
council
members
who
are
concluding
their
term.
They
leave
a
legacy
that
will
be
truly
written
in
stone,
councilman
bill,
Greenlee,
Councilwoman,
Blondell,
Rennels
brown,
council
member
L,
taubenberger
and
council
lady
Janie
black.
Well,
let's
give
them
a
hand.
A
A
A
And
lastly,
I
just
want
to
say
it
is
truly
an
honor
to
have
allowed
me
and
it
privilege
to
serve
as
your
council
president
for
the
last
four
years.
I
want
to
thank
my
members
for
again
give
me
this
awesome
opportunity
guys.
Thank
you
all
so
much.
We
look
forward
to
continuing
some
very
good
things
for
the
city
of
Philadelphia,
so
to
all
of
you.
Thank
you.
So
much.
A
Okay,
now
the
work
begins
so
four
years
ago,
I
stood
on
stage
at
the
last
inauguration
and
I
made
a
number
of
pledges
as
we
sought
new
ways
to
grow
our
city's
economy,
while
helping
more
philadelphians
participate
in
that
growth
and
we've
made
some
progress.
I
said
we
wouldn't
unveil
a
comprehensive
energy
strategy
to
help
homeowners,
businesses,
city
government,
increase
efficiencies,
reduce
costs
and
create
10,000
jobs
over
the
next
decade
and
I
got
kicked
three
four
times,
while
my
staff
and
said
Darrell.
What
in
the
world
are
you
saying?
But
I
meant
it?
A
No,
we
didn't
get
10,000
new
jobs
yet
but
I'm
happy
to
say
that
with
the
Philadelphia
Energy
Authority
in
the
office
of
sustainability
of
Philadelphia,
we
have
more
than
1,000
new
jobs
and
it's
very,
very
awesome.
Energy
efficient
projects
coming
on
job
more
Philadelphians
have
actually
installed
solar
systems
in
their
homes,
and
over
100
million
dollars
has
been
invested
by
companies
and
government
agencies
to
retrofit
their
buildings
to
become
more
energy
efficient.
Our
comprehensive
energy
strategy
is
saving
energy,
reducing
utility,
krauss
and,
more
importantly,
creating
jobs.
A
This
program
is
also
helping
to
stabilize
our
middle
neighborhoods
and
we're
returning
money
to
the
city.
Now
frequently,
we
spend
money
and
it
doesn't
necessarily
come
back
in
this
program
in
return
of
8
million
in
grants.
The
city
actually
realized
four
point:
Phil
five
million
dollars
to
the
city
and
real
estate
transfer
attacks.
That's
nearly
a
60
percent
return
on
an
investment,
that's
a
win-win
for
everybody,
but
this
is
no
time
to
rest
on
our
laurels.
A
We
must
build
on
all
of
the
positive
momentum
happening
in
the
Philadelphia,
particularly
in
our
downtown
area,
from
the
Comcast
Technology
Center
to
the
FMC
tower
in
West
Philly,
our
skyline
is
growing.
Our
economy
is
booming,
look
out,
New
York,
we're
coming
for
you.
Alright,
our
world-class
academic
institutions,
temple
Penn,
Drexel,
LaSalle
and
st.
Joe's
are
producing
thousands
of
college
graduates
ready
to
take
on
the
world,
and
increasingly
these
graduates
are
staying
in
Philly,
drawn
to
our
neighborhoods,
our
affordability,
our
vibrant
arts
and
culture
and
restaurant
scene
that
continues
to
grow.
A
That
momentum
is
real
and
we
should
take
a
moment
to
celebrate
it.
But
this
is
not
the
only
story
happening
in
the
city
of
Philadelphia.
We
also
are
home
to
400,000
people
living
in
poverty.
I
want
you
to
take
that
in
for
a
moment,
that's
one
and
every
poor
person
in
the
city
is
living
at
or
below
the
poverty
rate.
That
is
hovering
around
twenty
four
percent.
That's
unacceptable
to
me
and
I
assume
that
it's
unacceptable
to
all
of
you
in
this
room,
so
City
Council
took
its
first
steps
to
address
the
significant
problem.
A
Council
released
a
report.
It's
called
narrowing
the
gap.
You
can
go
to
council
phl
comm,
a
shameless
plug
to
look
at
that
document
and
it
talks
about
strategies
aimed
at
alleviating
poverty
in
the
city
and
it
utilizes
best
practices
from
around
the
country
and
around
the
globe.
Next
council
created
a
special
committee
on
poverty
reduction
and
prevention,
and
we
put
top
people
in
charge:
councilmember
Kiana,
Sanchez,
Eva,
Gladstein
of
the
Kinney
administration,
Charmaine
Matlock,
Turner
of
the
Urban
Affairs
Coalition,
and
my
good
friend
Mel
wells
of
one
day.
At
a
time
this
past
fall.
A
The
special
committee
met
at
City
Hall
and
in
neighborhoods
around
Philadelphia.
Hundreds
of
citizens
and
stakeholders
participated,
lending
their
best
ideas
to
create
jobs
and
develop
additional
strategies.
I
want
you
to
get
this
next.
One
Philadelphians
are
currently
eligible
for
over
four
hundred
and
fifty
million
dollars
in
federal
and
state
benefits.
That's
four
hundred
and
fifty
million
dollars,
but
for
various
reasons,
they're
not
receiving
those
benefits.
We're
working
with
experts
to
develop
an
actionable
and
I
say
actionable
plan
to
get
these
benefits
to
eligible
Philadelphia.
A
Can
you
imagine
the
impact
of
poverty
when
we
obtain
several
hundred
million
dollars
in
benefits
for
Philadelphians,
it
will
be
significant
soon.
The
Special
Committee
will
meet
again
to
issue
a
complete
set
of
actionable
recommendations
for
the
city
to
help
lift
100,000
people
out
of
poverty
by
2024,
and
we
believe
in
setting
goals,
as
I
like
to
say
in
the
1960s
and
I'm
not
sure
I
was
around,
then
somebody
told
me
about
it.
I
know
folks
would
be
on
that
Twitter
trying
to
figure
out.
You
know
how
old
is
this?
A
Guy
country,
our
country,
we
rally
together
to
send
a
man
to
the
moon
and
everyone.
Academics,
engineers,
political
leaders,
everybody
work
together
in
America,
achieved
its
moonshot.
This
is
our
city's
moonshot.
We
must
resolve
this
very,
very
troubling
problem,
so
I'm
calling
on
everyone,
the
business
community,
our
top
universities,
colleges,
nonprofit
organizations,
city,
government
and
all
of
our
citizens
to
work
together
to
achieve
this
goal,
that's
an
effort
worthy
of
a
world-class
City,
and
that
is
just
the
beginning
of
what
we
can
do
and
must
do
to
working
together.
A
So
last
year
much
attention
was
paid
to
the
city's
effort
to
attract
Amazon
to
Philadelphia
and
we
didn't
win.
They
made
a
mistake,
but
we
did
learn
what
happens
when
the
business
community
and
local
government
works
together.
Philadelphia
and
Pennsylvania
put
together
a
very
competitive
bid
for
Amazon,
and
you
know
what
we
didn't
get
it,
but
it
taught
us
a
lot.
A
We
need
to
keep
working
collaboratively,
the
mayor's
office,
the
city
council,
the
business
community,
the
Chamber
of
Commerce,
our
academic
and
nonprofit
leaders
to
attract
more
companies
and
jobs
to
the
city
of
Philadelphia,
and
we
may
not
have
gotten
Amazon
number
actually
number
five
on
the
fortune
500
list.
But
why
can't
we
work
together
and
attract
companies
from
the
Fortune
1000
list?
A
That
would
be
a
goal,
and
one
good
example
is
our
growing
healthcare
sector
companies
like
independence,
Blue,
Cross,
pin
medicine
temple,
help
I'll
employ
thousands
of
people
in
Philadelphia,
but
what
about
all
the
other
companies
emerging
in
the
Biosciences
and
life
sciences
fields?
This
is
what
we
need
to
do
go
aggressively
as
aggressively
as
we
went
after
Amazon.
We
should
go
aggressively
after
those
particular
field,
so
we
need
to
work
together
and
it
means
jobs
and
opportunity
for
all
of
our
citizens.
A
So,
while
we're
talking
about
collaboration,
I'm
gonna
do
this:
let's
put
the
rest
once
and
for
all
any
notion.
The
City
Council
is
somehow
anti-business.
City
Council
represents
a
wide
array
of
constituencies
from
domestic
workers
to
the
largest
corporations
in
the
city.
Every
constituency
deserves
equity
and
fairness
under
the
law
and
council
works
to
balance
those
interests
every
day
in
each
bill,
a
piece
of
legislation
that
we
introduced.
That
is
our
job
and
we
are
for
workers,
and
we
are
for
job-creating
companies
and
for
equity
and
opportunity
for
every
individual
and
industry
in
this
city.
A
So
when
we
work
together,
we
achieve
these
goals.
When
we
stand
divided,
we
achieve
none
of
them.
Our
recent
reform
to
the
city's
tax
abatement
is
a
good
example
and
I
had
to
bring
up
something
controversial
today
in
my
nature,
so
some
stakeholders
wanted
us
to
take
no
action
to
reform
the
abatement
program
and
it's
credited
with
helping
to
ignite
a
building
boom
in
the
last
decade
in
the
city
of
Philadelphia.
That
was
unprecedented
and
other
stakeholders
wanted
us
to
do
away
with
it's
in
its
entirety,
but
what
counsel
did
was
get
to
work?
A
We
kept
the
abatement
in
place
for
commercial
activity,
because
that
creates
job,
so
we
did
the
appropriate
balancing
act
and
we
made
sure
that
we
continue
to
be
competitive.
So
that's
what
we
do
when
we
work
together.
So
as
we
focus
on
an
economic
agenda
that
creates
good-paying
jobs
for
everyone
in
our
city,
we
must
also
pay
attention
to
a
growing
gap
between
the
jobs
created
by
our
technology
economy
and
the
skills
possessed
by
our
adults
in
our
city.
A
This
skills
gap
is
one
of
the
many
issues
associated
with
income
inequality
in
Philadelphia,
and
we
must
narrow
that
skills
gap.
We
need
more
adult
education
classes
and
curriculums
for
citizens
across
our
city.
The
Community
College
of
Philadelphia
is
playing
a
role,
but
we
need
more
access
to
classrooms
for
adults
who
want
to
work
but
need
to
learn
the
skills
to
get
the
technology
and
healthcare
jobs.
Up
today
on
a
recent
trip
to
Baltimore
I
met
with
mayor
young
and
I
learned
what
they're
doing
on
this
particular
issue
by
the
end
of
the
year.
A
Seventy-Five
percent
of
Baltimore's
public
schools
will
be
Community
Schools
and
over
half
of
them
offer
robust,
robust
financial
literacy,
job
training
and
workforce
development
for
adults
living
in
that
neighborhood,
that's
important.
Our
expansion
of
Community,
Schools
and
Philadelphia
is
encouraging
and
I
want
to
thank
the
mayor
mayor.
Thank
you.
So
much
from
that
time
we
wrote
on
that
little
rickety,
I,
don't
know
what
you
call
it
on
that
River
in
Cincinnati,
when
we
saw
her
first
community
school
and
we
were
holding
our
breath.
Thank
you
for
keeping
your
commitment
for
this
community
school
initiative.
A
And
another
issue
that
arises
from
a
lack
of
economic
unity
is
crime
and
although
violent
crime
declined
slightly
and
Philadelphia
last
year,
unfortunately,
shootings
and
homicides
did
not
more
than
100
people.
100
people
younger
than
the
age
of
18
were
shot
in
2019.
We're
talking
toddlers
we're
talking.
Children
we're
talking
infants.
That
is
totally
unacceptable.
A
So
council
has
done
a
few
things.
What
we
want
to
need,
all
of
you,
council,
has
taken
action
to
protect
our
citizens,
prohibiting
guns
at
playgrounds,
making
making
more
difficult
to
allow
individuals
who
have
protection
orders
to
get
weapons.
We
funded
with
the
administration
a
significant
amount
of
millions
of
dollars
to
ensure
that
we
have
violence
prevention,
programs
in
the
city
of
Philadelphia,
meaningful
programs
and,
most
importantly,
in
2020,
we
will
support
our
new
police.
Commissioner,
Danielle
outlaw.
A
But
she
said
herself
last
week:
she
cannot
do
this
alone.
She
needs
all
of
our
help.
We
need
all
of
your
help.
So
together
we
can
make
our
neighborhood
safer,
but
we
must
work
together.
These
issues
all
intersect
with
each
other
400,000
people
living
in
poverty,
a
growing
skills
gap
for
people
who
want
to
work,
but
they
lack
the
skills
needed
in
today's
economy,
a
lack
of
hope
too
many
guns
on
our
street
too
many
people
willing
to
use
them
so
to
every
citizen
out
there
watching
this
inauguration.
A
Who
might
think
cynically
that
nothing
will
ever
change.
I
simply
say
this:
there
is
nothing
we
cannot
achieve
if
we
work
together
working
together,
we
can
live
100,000
people
out
of
poverty
working
together.
We
can
create
access
to
adult
education,
it
narrows
the
skills
gap
and
helps
individuals
get
on
track
to
find
jobs,
paying
a
living
wage
working
together.
We
can
support
our
new
police,
commissioner
and
our
efforts
to
reform
our
criminal
justice
system
and
make
all
our
neighborhoods
safer
for
all
our
citizens.
A
A
A
These
are
challenges
that
require
us
to
look
forward,
not
backwards.
That's
important!
We
got
to
look
forward,
so
let's
look
forward
and
craft
solutions
that
make
Philadelphia
more
thriving,
inclusive
and
a
safer
City
for
everyone.
So
today,
I
want
to
thank
everyone
who
has
come
to
the
met:
Philadelphia
North,
Broad,
Street
right
in
the
heart
of
North
Philadelphia.
For
this
awesome
inauguration
and
I
want
to
thank
all
of
you
for
continuing
to
love
our
city
of
Philadelphia.
God
bless
you
all.
Thank
you.
So
much.