Charter Schools To Get City of Wilmington Bond Funding?

Charter Schools To Get City of Wilmington Bond Funding?

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Inside we have the proposal that is on the agenda for tomorrow's City Council meeting -- an authorization for the City to help with the financing of the MBNA buildings that are supposed to be converted to Charter Schools. But take a look at this: Charter Schools that the City will have no control of and can't ask for any accountability from are looking for financial help from the City. Even though City residents certainly are paying school taxes already and provide additional funding via the income taxes we pay to the state. Besides, I thought that these schools are meant to operate more cheaply that public schools -- which apparently won't be asked for here, since they are asking for Bond funds from the City to get started.
Please, Wilmington City Council, Do More Than This!

Please, Wilmington City Council, Do More Than This!

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Last night, one more young person was shot and killed in Wilmington. It is one more tragedy in a city that can't really take much more of this. But the other thing that the city really can't take more of is its leadership not facing this issue head on. Last Thursday, the Wilmington City Council passed a resolution asking for the CDC to come to Wilmington to study the causes of violence here.
Wilmington Breaks Its Shootings Record

Wilmington Breaks Its Shootings Record

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Over the past several days, Wilmington lived through another rash of shootings resulting in a new shootings record: 147, surpassing the 2010 record of 142. On Monday, I returned home from seeing The Godfather on the big screen at Penn Cinema to multiple flashing red lights at 6th and Madison Sts -- 2 women had been shot sitting on their porch earlier that evening. Earlier on Monday, the WPD reported arresting a man carrying an illegal gun not far from this spot -- on the 500 block of W 5th -- and credited the community with reporting this guy. On Friday, a man was shot in the 600 blk of W 6th St. Other shootings up on Lea Blvd AND at the Riverfront made this a heartbreaker of a Thanksgiving weekend for Wilmington.
Another Year and We Are Still Not Close to Fixing Wilmington’s Violence Problems

Another Year and We Are Still Not Close to Fixing Wilmington’s Violence Problems

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This Sunday featured one more Special Report from the NJ on the current state of violence in Wilmington: A Legacy of Crime Threatens Wilmington's Progress; Wilmington Mayor Wants to Overhaul Police Force to Reverse City's Crime Trend; and Florida City's Police Force Gets Out From Behind Desks is the reporting package on offer. There's alot to think about here and I'm not sure that I can do one more piece on using the policing assets we have better. But I have a few random thoughts:
Policing Downtown Wilmington at the Expense of the Rest of Wilmington

Policing Downtown Wilmington at the Expense of the Rest of Wilmington

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For many years (at least many of the years I've been in Wilmington), neighborhoods in Wilmington (certainly those neighborhoods under siege) have been clamoring for more WPD officers on the street. What was asked for was a Community Policing strategy -- a deployment that would put officers on the street in neighborhoods, regularly patrolling and patrolling 24/7. Jim Baker was openly dismissive of this plan -- even while he and his Police Chief used this plan to get City Council to authorize additional force strength and more equipment. Interestingly, the place that really did get Community Policing was Downtown. The part of Wilmington where people weren't being shot and not a location of the drug business. Now we find that Mayor Williams is continuing in the Baker mode -- actually expanding the number of uniformed officers who will be walking a beat -- walking a beat! -- in Downtown Wilmington:

The 6th Most Dangerous State in America

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That's Delaware's ranking in 24/7's most recent ranking of violent states based upon FBI's Uniform Crime Report (2012). They did this last year too, and we were 6th then. Even though violent crime has mostly been on the decline, that decline hasn't hit all areas of the US evenly. They use the FBI's definition of violent crime, which includes: violent crime includes murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault. Both Maryland and Delaware make both lists, even though they both have relatively high educational attainment and relatively low poverty. What makes both states outliers is the violent crime that persists in sections of our biggest cities -- Baltimore in Maryland and Wilmington here in Delaware.
Foxtail Highlights Wilmington’s Ethics Problem

Foxtail Highlights Wilmington’s Ethics Problem

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Monday night's marathon hearing of the City Council Joint Committees turned out to be the longest Council Meeting ever. You'll recall that this meeting was convened to probe how it happened that the City paid for WPD, WFD and Public Works resources used at the Foxtail Festival. I was there until about 10PM, so missed some of the later testimony. It was demoralizing sitting through this -- between the deflection attempts by Velda Jones-Potter, the disregard of the City's Ethics policy by pretty much everyone including members of City Council and the clear lack of command and control within the Administration. The meeting room was standing room only and many of them came sporting safety orange shirts. Not sure what the shirts were meant to do -- for a minute it looked like I had stumbled into a convention of the traffic safety folks that wave you through traffic at construction zones.
Violence and Wilmington

Violence and Wilmington

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Last night, there was a quickly called meeting by Herman Holloway, Jr. to get "community leaders" to discuss Wilmington's violence problem. Specifically, Holloway wanted to talk about strategies to get…

Wilmington as the 8th Unfriendliest City in America?

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This is the result of one of those Conde Nast Traveler surveys, which asks its readers to rate hotels, resorts, airlines , cruise ships and even cities. There is even a category for Friendliest and Unfriendliest City, and Wilmington made the Unfriendliest City list, ranked at 8 Wilmington, the state’s largest city, didn't appeal to our survey takers as much as Delaware's better known beach areas. One reader says he “would rather avoid” the city that is only “necessary to visit on business.” Other readers say Wilmington is a place with “not much charm” that “needs work.” What do you think about this? The NJ reports on this and got plenty of reaction from locals, mainly of the cheerleading variety.

WHYY Sponsors Wilmington Voter Forums

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WHYY will sponsor another round of voter forums designed to let Wilmington voters frame the issues that they want Mayoral candidates to address in an upcoming televised debate. This is NOT a candidate forum, but this is a place where voters can come together to provide input to the kind of questions they want Mayoral candidates to answer. They did this in 2010 in prep ration for televised debates for DE Senate and representative races. Both Pandora and I went to the one held in the city that year and we were impressed with this process and what came out of it. If you have the chance to go, I highly recommend it.