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August 7, 2008
by Stephanie Marudas
 Earlier this year, Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter and the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce pledged to get businesses across the 11-county region to provide 2,000 paid internships this summer for the city's youth. At a press conference in March, Nutter announced he would double the number of internships compared to last summer's total of 1,049 internships. Here's what the Mayor said: "I put out an ambitious goal of essentially doubling what had been done in the past. We cannot be afraid of challenging ourselves. We are a great city and region and we have the resources to do this kind of thing. As good as we did last summer, we know that there are still young people out there that need these opportunities."
But with the summer program wrapping up tomorrow, it appears the Mayor has fallen short of his goal by 555 internships. The Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce tells us area-businesses only chalked up 1445 internship positions this summer. While you might think the Mayor would be deflated about this, he's not. Apparently, the chamber tells us the Mayor believes he can do better next year and is hinting towards setting an even higher goal. But maybe the Mayor should first work on his swing before trying to hit a grand slam, and figure out how to entice more businesses to get involved in the summer internship program.
Philadelphia Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey has scored some points with a summer camp in South Philadelphia. The top cop kept his word that he would stop by the Freedom School summer program after hearing from Emily Sowell, the camp's coordinator, two weeks ago at a police town hall meeting. Sowell told Ramsey about a racial spat that erupted between her campers and a group of neighborhood kids, and how the incident had left her campers shaken. When she asked what the police could do about it, Ramsey promised he'd stop by to talk to the campers about what happened. Today, Sowell tells us that Ramsey and the 4th Police District captain did show up to the summer camp on Monday and spoke to the campers for 20 minutes.
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