Candidate Profile: Andrew Lofton

Editor's Note: This is the last in a series that ran throughout the week in which we published question and answer sessions with each of the seven candidates in the . Each candidate answered the same five questions. We also ran videos of the candidates talking specifically about Chestnut Hill issues.

One of today's featured candidates is Andrew Lofton. Watch his video here, and remember, Election Day is May 17.

Tell us about your background and about why you’re running for City Council.

I'm a lifetime resident of Mt. Airy, 8th Councilmanic District. Born in Chestnut Hill, Chestnut Hill Hospital, grew up in Mt. Airy and graduated from Germantown High School. Went to Henry elementary school. The only time I haven't lived in the Mt. Airy area has been when I was in college. All my recreation growing up was in Mt. Airy, Chestnut Hill, Germantown. I played with the Bantams, I played Mt. Airy Baseball, I played football with Germantown High School. So I'm deeply rooted and invested in my community. I was a member and still am a member of St. Luke's Church in Germantown, grew up here, was a member of the youth theater fellowship, which was a theater group, and we traveled around the world. We visited Haiti, Bermuda, Detroit, North Carolina, a whole host of places doing different performances.

When I left Philly, I went to Greensboro. I majored in communications—that's what my degree is in. Broadcast production, minor in forensics, speech. Came back to Philadelphia, and one of my first jobs after coming back to Philadelphia was teaching in what amounted to a trade school, and then I obtained a position at the Greater Philadelphia Urban Affairs Coalition, teaching life skills to homeless men 18 to 45.

It was at that point one of the key things that came across to me was—here are skills that these gentlemen were getting at that age which they probably should have gotten early on when there were in elementary school. A lot of the gentlemen did not have opportunity. So that began me thinking about wanting to give back to the community and work with youth to make sure that they had a leg up and get certain life skills that they didn't have, that they weren't getting in the school system.

So with that, speeding forward, years later, I've worked for the Urban Affairs Coalition, formerly the Greater Philadelphia Urban Affairs Coalition, off and on for about 20 years. Over the last 15 years, (I've been) working with the urban coalition in a supervisory role. I've been volunteering hours in the community outside of that, 15, 20-plus hours a week. I've also worked as a youth director at the Y. I've been involved with homeless programs, partnerships, and just an abundance of different organizations that give back to the community.

Around about 16 years ago I started an organization called St. Luke's Recreational Ministry. And that was an outreach arm to the community youth, and it started off with basketball. We incorporated track into the program. We now, also, on our adult side, we do aerobics for seniors, as well as for the community during the course of the week. So it's kind of like giving the physical aspect of a holistic approach to working with the community and individuals. So that's one of those things I've been doing.

If you look at it on the surface, some people say it's wonderful work. In some respects, I look at it as ordinary work, because with the resources that are available I can reach some people, a lot of people, but I can't reach all the people, so looking at the resources and looking at how the resources were being given to the community, or not given to the community, was one of the things that began making me look at running for this specific councilmanic race. As you are well aware, in this community, the Germantown Avenue historic district is underutilized. There's more than 15 historic sites which most people don't really know about.

Six percent of the adults in Nicetown have at least a bachelor's degree. That's not acceptable. Less than 20 percent in Germantown have a bachelor's degree. With the diversity and stuff that makes up this neighborhood, that's not acceptable. That, in combination with things such as over the last census, the population in this district has dropped 6 percent. The only zip code that has had an increase was Chestnut Hill, which was 2 percent. These things are like not even being a lot of times talked about. They're being glossed over.

And the community interest a lot of times is really kind of being taken for granted because they don't have the resources to, per se, invest in somebody's campaign. And what normally happens that I've found is if you have somebody who's putting big money into somebody's campaign, then those are the favors and the things that are being repaid once individuals get in office. And the ones that normally get the short end of the stick are (members of) the community. And so I decided to run in order to make sure and to ensure that the community had a voice.

How would you, as a City Council member, work with the School District of Philadelphia to improve students' performance?

The first thing, with respect to safety, is directly tied to programming for the youth. And while they don't directly work for the city, City Council does have influence with respect to the number of dollars that are allocated for the school budget. I think that the city still has a level of influence with whoever's heading up the schools, whether it's with the School Reform Commission or if the city decides ultimately to take it back, which I think, at this point, would be a wrong move. So there are different ways that we can begin to try to influence. And then even doing outside programs that would partner with the school district.

I think one of the keys is giving kids options. I think giving kids opportunity would be a key to being able to cut down the level of violence, and then also opening up their minds to do different things. One thing I would definitely be a proponent of would be trying to find some dollars to work and partner with the schools in doing community garden-type stuff. Doing green spaces, teaching kids how to plant, teaching kids the worthwhileness of planting and growing. And if it gets to a certain extent, and it gets large enough, maybe you can begin taking these things and turning it around and then selling these items.

So it's like a sustainable garden, which in turn would then—these monies could then be returned back into the school district. So these are the types of the things that the kids have a vested interested in. Because if they're working on it on a day to day basis, then these types of things, they'll be less prone to cause destruction because it's their work. Those types of things are what I mean by involvement, and they have to have a vested interest in the community. Right now, a lot of kids, they don't have that vested interest in not just sometimes in school, but in the community, and if you have parents who are single parents who are working two jobs, and then kids get out of school, and they cut out a lot of the extracurricular stuff—now these hours from 3 to 6 (p.m.), what are these kids going to do? Where do they go? Walk around Germantown—you'll see nine, 10, 11 year old kids walking around, either by themselves or in pairs. When I was growing up, that didn't happen. So they don't have the structure situation. So they want something to do.

So what winds of happening a lot of times is that want of something to do turns into a negative something to do because they're only going to emulate a lot of times what they're seeing. So I think it's really imperative that we partner with the schools to have formalized plans for afterschool hours, whether it's at the rec centers, whether it's at the Boys & Girls Club, whether or not it's something happening in the actual school.

In the city's budget, where would you like to see more funding, and where do you think cuts could be made?

That's an interesting question, because one of the first things people talk about is: Yes, our government is not very efficient right now. There are a lot of places where there could be things that are leveled off, or rearranged to be more efficient. We do too much stuff on paper, less stuff electronically, which would speed the process up. The other thing, as far as the government goes—we need to eliminate some of the patronage positions. One of the biggest ones is the register of wills. I think it can go. It's one of the biggest patronage positions in the city, and I really don't understand the need for that office.

City commissioner and the sheriff office, I think there is work that is being done that is viable work in those offices, but I think some of those things can be streamlined and rolled into other positions in order to make things more efficient. Especially when you have the scandal that went on this past year with the sheriff's office. So, I mean, I also believe there could be a cut at the council level. We're spending more than $1 million a year on each council office. Just 10 percent cut across the board would save the city $1 million or being able to be moved into something else.

The other thing—we spend $21 million a year to board up abandoned properties or clean up vacant lots, and I think if we took care of those properties, that we take some of those properties and turn them into affordable housing options, that these things could be able to generate revenue, versus being expenditures, and therefore the dollars that we're using, the $21 million, would not need to be expended. Maybe we expend $10 million. So that's a plus of $11 million there, and then you have the income being generated from the affordable housing options. Because in my proposal, what we would do is we would have individuals living there, whether it's grandparents taking care of kids, or whether it's individuals who are transitioning out of homelessness who have a sustainable wage, pay whatever the amount the property tax is plus a half a point. So that way, what happens is, now you have the property tax being paid for whatever property it is, so instead of it being an expenditure it's now revenue generated. So these types of things, I think, will close the gap.

There are properties right now that are blighted, properties that are city inventory that people are talking about they want to sell, sell, sell. I think that totally is the wrong idea. I think that, while yes, we sell some of the properties, I think some of the larger properties we need to lease long-term for developers to want to do stuff. If we sell them, what happens is it creates that immediate cash flow, but it doesn't account for cash flow five or 10 years down the road. So I think, when we start looking at things, we need to look at things not just for the here and now. We need to look at the long term plan.

One of the other things I would like to explore is doing some of the affordable housing or doing the rehab. We'd be seeing whether or not we can equip some of the houses with solar panels, which in turn would cut down on the amount of electricity being used and then potentially maybe look at selling some of the electricity back to PECO. So, in turn, it becomes a revenue generating situation.

Where do you stand on the Deferred Retirement Option Plan (DROP)?

I think it was wrong for elected officials to be able to participate in anything they had a direct vote on. They should not, at any point, in my opinion, be able to have a vote on anything that's going to have a direct benefit to them. It's a conflict of interest. It's not in the best interests of the city; it's in the best interests of the politician or the individuals. I mean, that's just like me voting on whether or not we're going to have a pay increase. Of course! Let's raise our own salaries. Who wouldn't do that? It's only natural. So for us to expect a politician to vote on something that's going to be in the best interests of the city, where they have direct benefit on, is wrong and it never should have happened.

With respect to the ongoing nature of DROP, I'm for having it for the police and the fire department. That's really—from the invention of it, and not necessarily in Philadelphia—but in the country, it was kind of intended for police and fire workers. Giving them a time four years down the road to be able to have the new class be able to be trained and see what's happening on the streets and working with those individuals who have been long-term police officers or fire workers so they could learn the ropes. And then, by the time they retire, they have somebody now who had experience. That's why four years was set up.

So, I'm not opposed to it for the fire workers, the police department, and even, you could make an argument for the rank and file. But we need to reassess the whole program and how it's being implemented and then also look at what the rate of return is, because once the valuations were done, on the tables, back when it was started, it wasn't realistic. That's one of the biggest problems right now.

How would you work to fill vacant properties and revitalize business districts?

It actually goes back to some of the things I was talking about before. First thing I would do—we would clean up the whole Germantown Avenue strip, from top to bottom. And then work with the historical society and the tourism bureau to create brochures and a whole ad campaign, so when people come to Philadelphia, not only do they visit downtown, but we bring them up to Germantown. Now, we have the R7, the R5, the R8, the R1, the R3 that all run to Wayne Junction. So the dollars that are already allocated for Wayne Junction, the remodeling and the rehab of that station, if we can get whatever other dollars we need in order to finish that project. So now you have a nice local Wayne Junction transportation hub. You have individuals get on the train downtown, and we can work with SEPTA about having a special pass for the day or whatever—I think SEPTA already has day passes, but maybe we discount it with some type of funding of a historical nature. Bring them up to Wayne Junction. I would like to see them maybe even reinstitute the trolley car. I mean, I think that would be a nice touch. I think, environmentally, it's also better for our community than running the bus up. Bring them up into Wayne Junction, get them on the trolley car, stop off at different historical sites on Germantown Avenue, maybe some of the historic churches, up to Cliveden, Battle of Germantown, after they finish with their tours, run them up to Chestnut Hill, let them do the shopping, and then put them back on the train up at the top of Chestnut Hill and take them back into Center City.

If you do that on a consistent basis, and you have a schedule, then what happens is you have a whole lot of traffic being driven through Germantown. Then, what happens now is your commercial corridors are being revitalized. When they're revitalized, you have more jobs. When you have more jobs, then people are feeling good about the area, and those type of things are the things that we need to do.

Now, on the houses, and on the abandoned, blighted neighborhood blocks and stuff like that, the affordable housing option again. Take those monies, invest at least $5 to $10 million into properties that are close to being able to be livable, and then what you do is you reach out to people who graduated high school who aren't going to college. You reach out to those individuals who might be coming out of the shelter situation. You reach out to individuals who need to be able to find sustainable employment, and you teach them how to rehab houses. You teach them how to put up solar panels. You teach them how to do green jobs.

And then, when you do that, now you have all these properties that you're working on, you have these individuals who are moving into the neighborhood, and they're paying what amounts to the property tax. These are the kinds of things it would take in order for our communities to begin going on the upswing and those are the type of things I would like to see happen.

One of the other things which has been one of my biggest things is down in the Nicetown-Tioga area. A few years ago, the city put in a bit for the Olympics, and it was turned down. One of the primary reasons it was turned down was because we had no facilities that were on Olympic scale, or international scale. What I would like to see happen down in that Nicetown-Tioga area, where I think there's five to 10 abandoned warehouses, is take that and put in an international sports complex.