Tuesday evening, I attended the Inquirer’s Great Expectations Project at Holy Family University in the Northeast. For those of you are unfamiliar with the project, the Citizens' Forum is an attempt by the Inquirer and some civic partners to ensure that the upcoming Mayoral election is issue based, and somewhat more ambitiously, an attempt to allow citizens input into politics until the next mayor is elected and beyond.

Chris Satullo, Tom Ferrick and a couple of others reporters and event organizers were present, as well as an experienced team of group discussion facilitators. Mr. Satullo gave a good introduction in which he stated that the project had a bias: its organizers firmly believed Philadelphia could be the next great American city if political leaders and regional citizens make the right choices. I applaud the Inquirer for undertaking the project because it is projects like this that suggest the constructive role the media can play in society. There will be many more sessions before the end of February so please attend one of them to contribute to the conversation.

There is no doubt that the questions asked by the facilitators were difficult ones. The facilitators did their best to allow the 3 or 4 dozen attendees to share their opinions and leave feeling like they had made practical suggestions to improve Philadelphia. I co-opted my group a little to try and get away from talking about crime or public education to the extent that I could—and we’ll seem if my group’s suggestion makes it into the forum summaries.

During the evening, I was asking myself, why is Philadelphia great? Why do I want to live here? It was extremely troubling to me that the best answers had nothing to do with logic or quality of life. The truth is that the main, indeed, perhaps the only reason I’m in Philadelphia is because my family and friends are here. Yes, I do love big five basketball but aside from that I could think of few other things that I could live without.

I don’t know if it is just me at the end of a long day or what but the sense that I got from participating in the forum is that people are overwhelmed. They are fearful. They feel disconnected from City Hall and the energy that is in Center City. They are uninspired. I asked my workgroup if they knew of anyone who had ever attempted to start a business. They looked at me like I was an alien. The best strengths to build on that most individuals could think of for the city were the old standbys of quality hospitals and educational institutions. I hesitate to share too much of my experience at the event because I want you to attend and have your own experience.

What I know for certain is that Philadelphians need to be inspired; they need enthusiasm and they need a reason to trust their government. They need to know that the future is bright and twenty reasons why it is bright. They need to know that the future is worth sacrifices today. They need to be engaged and involved, and they need to be reminded that it's okay, indeed, necessary to take risks. And no 5 gazillion pound position paper on crime is going to sway their votes.

I'm optimistic about this Mayor's race because I think there are a few good candidates, maybe even one or two who are extraordinary. I'm hoping that just maybe they'll remind me of how great Philadelphia is and how much better it's going to become.