Philadelphia Mayor John Street gave his first major public address on his "Neighborhood Transformation Initiative," a $250 million dollar plan to demolish dangerous buildings, clean lots and rebuild the city's crumbling neighborhoods. (3/5/01)

• "You can clean up all the vacant lots that you want, but if you don't have viable options to crime and drugs...maybe we aren't doing everything we need to do." [Listen]
• "If we don't (fix up the neighborhoods), we will not have done our job and we will be unfulfilled and folks in the neighborhoods will have a right to question our commitment to them." [Listen]

Pat Smith, director of Neighborhood Transformation Initiative aka "the blight czar"

• "Even though the numbers (of vacant lots and homes) are absolutely breathtaking, on the ground you can see more opportunitites." [Listen]

Philadelphia City Solicitor Kenneth Trujillo speaking with WHYY's Brenda Jorett about the proposed neighborhood transformation initative. (2/14/01)

• "Economic development and the neighborhood transformation initative are on parallel tracks." [Listen]

Kenny Gamble is the founder of Universal Companies, a nonprofit and for profit conglomerate working to redevelop parts of Philadelphia near South and Broad Streets.

• "You got to start from the bottom: go to one house, to the next house, to the block and come up with a concept that will benefit the residents. That's number one." [Listen]

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