Community Revitalization Desktop Guide

Kenneth Westcott, Mayor of Washington, PA Part-time Mayor | Elected in 1999 | Former Councilman The timing is perfect for towns in Philadelphia to start pushing redevelopment opportunities forward. We have a Governor in ofﬁce who is hepped up on urban revitalization. Governor Rendell is looking for opportunities to help older towns to thrive. In my town of Washington, when we had a chance to attract a new employer, Governor Rendell got on the phone and called them to persuade them to come to downtown Washington – it helped. The Governor’s ofﬁce and the CAT team have also been fantastic resources, helping us to strategize around approaches and ﬁnd the money to make it happen, and the League of Cities has been a great forum to hear advice from other experienced Mayors. I see my job as Mayor as making sure people stay here and creating new opportunities for new jobs. So you need to seek out opportunities for your community. If you sit back, it isn’t going to come to you. You need to go out and get it. I work part-time but I make myself available to anyone who wants to invest in Washington. When someone wants to talk to the Mayor of Pittsburgh or Philadelphia you can’t get the Mayor on the phone, but when you call me, I answer. That means something to people. Then I meet with them to discuss what they have in mind. Assuming it isn’t bad for the community, I let them know that they have the full support of everyone in the town – that we will do the leg work with government, residents and businesses to make sure everyone is informed and on board with the plan. This is very important to the developers. It helps them feel comfortable that community opposition or regulations won’t stand in the way, so will get their project done in our town. Now sometimes public opposition to a project is inescapable – like a takeout pizza delivery restaurant that wanted to move to a residential area. The neighbors were too worried about cars coming in and out, but most of the time, I can help shape the project to meet concerns. I talk to the community and tell them: we need this new business, so how can we make it work? I don’t want to force my will on anyone. Community input is important. I ran for Mayor because I didn’t think my voice was being heard by the Mayor and City Council, so I want to hear from people and ﬁnd creative ways to satisfy everyone. Sometimes you have the opportunity to cultivate interest and that involves creativity again. We know that we need modern housing stock around here. Well, we have commitments from local building industry companies who know construction to develop a parcel. Local people who care about your community are key to revitalization, so we didn’t wait for outside developers to appear. We have a few entrepreneurial people who want to see what they can do. And interestingly, their conﬁdence to take a risk and develop a parcel was based upon a large developer coming in and doing a $35 million dollar project in town. Once you get that kind of major investment into your town, it makes people inside and outside of your town stand up and take notice and wonder if they should invest their money as well. You need to be ready to cultivate those opportunities and to tell everyone why they should invest in your town. I have been Mayor for 7 years and it is a great job and a big responsibility. I am responsible for making Washington a better place to live and I take that responsibility seriously. Chris Doherty, Mayor of Scranton Full-time Mayor | Elected 2001 I was elected the full-time Mayor of Scranton in 2001. I came into ofﬁce with three goals: to straighten out Scranton’s ﬁnances, revitalize our parks and generate signiﬁcant economic development. Everything else, including crime prevention, I delegated to experienced staff. I did this because I felt strongly that the most important contribution I could make as Mayor was to lead the effort to attract new jobs and people to the city. With the Mayor at the helm, people would understand that Scranton is serious and committed in its economic development efforts. Unlike many Mayors, I am not a believer in taking the time to create a written action plan. I have a four-year term and I wanted to make my mark in the ﬁrst 18 months, so I was in a hurry to get started. I had read all the plans that Scranton had commissioned over the years and felt we had been studied to death. The reality was that we wanted to attract people and jobs. People make choices on where to live and run their business based on where they can ﬁnd a nice, safe community. Therefore, to attract them, I needed to invest in Scranton and improve its appearance, ﬁll vacant properties with businesses, and jumpstart the real estate market, as well. To do this, I needed money, so I pulled together existing resources and borrowed from others. I targeted all of this investment into downtown because that is where people get their ﬁrst impression of Scranton. The Keystone Opportunity Zone was important to our economic development strategy. We could save businesses thousands of dollars in taxes if they located in a KOZ. Of course, I had to get them to come out and see the space ﬁrst. I felt a bit like a used car salesman but I was conﬁdent I could sell them the product if I could get them in the door. And that proved to be true. INTERVIEWS WITH PA MAYORS 24

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Community Revitalization Desktop Guide

PA Community Revitalization Desktop Guide Table of Contents How To Attract High Impact Investment to Core Communities Goal One: Choose One Asset-Rich Redevelopment Area Interviews with Pennsylvania Mayors Goal Two: Prepare Redevelopment Area for Market Interviews with Developers who Have Invested in Pennsylvania Cities and Towns Goal Three: Welcome Investment Interviews with Developers who Have Invested in Pennsylvania Cities and Towns Goal Four: Apply Strategies That Work Conclusion

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