Philadelphia Community Access Coalition
				Home | About | Join | Act | Contact | Search | News | Calendar

COUNCILMAN COHEN: The Law and Government Committee of the Council of the City of Philadelphia is now in session for the purpose of taking testimony and conducting a public hearing on Resolution No. 980979, a resolution authorizing the Council Committee on Law and Government to conduct an investigation into the reasons for the City's noncompliance with Ordinance 1963 (approved December 28, 1983) calling for the establishment of public access television managed by a broadly-governed, nonprofit corporation, and to determine and report to the Council on all steps needed to bring about implementation of the ordinance, and its goals, at the present time.

Let me recognize the members of the committee that are here. Others will be joining us. We express our regrets for starting so late, but the regular Council session didn't finish until a few minutes be 1 o'clock, and even Council memories have to attend to things like getting a bite to eat and maybe other natural functions.

But we're underway. We have a long list of witnesses. I'm going to urge everybody to be very brief. Make your points, but just be considerate of all the others who are here to testify.

I'm going to identify the members of the committee who here. To my immediate left Councilman Angel Ortiz. I'm Councilman David Cohen, Chairman of the committee, and Councilman Ortiz is the Vice Chair. To my right is Councilwoman Jannie Blackwell and Councilman Richard Mariano, and other members of the committee will be coming in.

We're going to begin with having a group of individual artists make a very brief presentation, I believe, in the form of a skit. And whoever they are, will they proceed. That will set the right tone, I believe for the rest of the hearing.

(Skit performed for committee and audience.)

(Applause.)

COUNCILMAN COHEN: Thank you very much. And on that hopeful and optimistic note. . .

Let me first announce the presence now of Councilman Frank Rizzo in addition to the other members previously announced.

We are now going to proceed with the formal hearing. And we're going to proceed in a series of panels. There are four pages that I have listing membership of the panels. Again, we're going to urge everybody -- we know everything everybody has to say is very important, but please try to avoid repetition as much as possible. Your presence here today is very important 'cause this is the largest group I think I've ever seen assembled in all my years in support of public access.

(Applause.)

COUNCILMAN COHEN: And we're going to want to know your views, and we're very anxious to get to the bottom of why an ordinance passed in 1983 is, as of this date in 1999, still totally unenforced and non-implemented.

The first panel is going to consist of if -- I mispronounce names, please excuse me, I'll do the best I can. We have:

Gretchen Clausing, of the Philadelphia Community Access Coalition.

Bunnie Riedel, Alliance for Community Media.

Ed Herman -- I knew him as "Professor Edward Herman" -- of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

And David Haas.

And Lawrence Richette.

Will the five people called, if they're present, please come forward. I think everybody is here except for Mr. Haas is --

MS. CLAUSING: Actually, Louie Messiah will be testifying in place of David Haas.

COUNCILMAN COHEN: Okay, very good. All right, please proceed in whatever order you choose to. And let me just state this: don't fight the microphone because the acoustics here are not good. And speak with the microphone as close to your mouth as is possible, and then everybody will be able to hear what it is you're saying.

Go ahead. And each person testifying first states their name and any identifying organization that you're representing, if you are representing a group.

MS. CLAUSING: Okay, thank you very much, Councilman Cohen. My name is Gretchen Clausing, that's C-L-A-U-S-I-N-G. I'm an independent media maker and activist. And I'm also a member of the Philadelphia Community Access Coalition, which is a grass-roots coalition of individuals and organizations concerned about the lack of community media in Philadelphia.

Our members represent a broad spectrum of interests, including civic groups, business and technology, arts and cultural institutions, labor unions, religious organizations, and health-care, peace, community and media activists. At this point, we have over 70 organizations that have joined our coalition and countless individuals.

I see today's hearing as being a chance to look back and about envisioning a future for Philadelphia as a national model of community media. We hope today to gain an understanding as to how a City Council that had such foresight and vision 15 years ago got derailed and how we have evolved to a point that we have a mayor whose position is downright combative towards this issue, and where it appears that the interests of such a multibillion corporation as Comcast are held above those of Philadelphians.

First let's take a trip back in time. In 1983, the City of Philadelphia made public access a promises to its citizens. Back then, an enlightened Philadelphia City Council -- and some of you were there to witness this -- had the savvy and foresight to pass an ordinance, Bill 1963, to set up a nonprofit corporation that would oversee public access facilities, including citywide and neighborhood facilities, fully equipped with mobile vans and five noncommercial channels for public use. The 1983 Councilmembers knew that public access could be a positive force in our community, and that Council had vision, but somehow that vision got clouded, and we've been left with an fulfilled promise.

So now I want to fast-forward, and let's try to bring Philadelphia into 21st century. Let's imagine walking into a beautiful, state-of-the-art multimedia facility with the latest computer, Internet, and video equipment, and feeling welcome there. Imagine people from all walks of life -- young and old -- being taught how to produce video, research topics for school, design Websites, and enter into the global dialogue on the Internet.

With the recent advancements in technology, Philadelphia's public access centers could be outfitted many digital cameras, like the one over there, and mobile editing systems on laptops. We envision an integrated technology center that would combine the Internet and cable access where Philadelphians could broadcast their ideas to neighbors and the world.

On a recent visit to Manhattan Neighborhood Network, I saw, as you enter into their building, they have a main studio that's like open on all four walls, and it gives you the impression of walking into a town square. It's this kind of space that we imagine where Philadelphians could hold public forums, old-fashioned town meetings, arts performances, and all these could be televised live to residents watching at home. And, gosh, maybe even Council people could have their own TV shows.

Comcast yesterday got yet another endorsement from this current administration. Their purchase of Greater Media has more or less been rubber-stamped. For those who weren't there, I can't resist pointing out that they had this really glitzy, power-point presentation, and they chose to show their commitment to public access with a picture of the Love Statue in the background.

I think what Comcast loves is money, and they have influence. All the talk in their presentation was not about serving the public interest, but about catering to consumers. The bottom line is, Comcast doesn't provide Philadelphians with a way to communicate and dialogue with one another, as public access television and new media technologies we envision could.

I'd like to see Comcast and also Wade Cable to stop being so passive about their commitment to public access. Comcast should be working on our behalf to help City Council comply with the ordinance they passed 15 years ago, land also not provide inflammatory videotapes that misrepresent the content of public access television to Council.

In closing, I want to say that when the City entered into these franchise agreements with the cable companies, they also entered into an agreement with the public. The City has prospered from these agreements, the cable companies have certainly prospered, but what about the public? You know, how have we been served and what do we have from these agreements?

The beauty of public access is that the possibilities of services it can provide and how it can be used are virtually limitless. In fact, the possibilities of public access are limited only by our imaginations.

The Philadelphia Community Access Coalition is here today to demand that the City set up the public access system that they've been promising to us for the last 15 years. We demand it today so we can start sharing our stories tomorrow.

Thank you.

COUNCILMAN COHEN: Thank you very much.

(Applause.)

COUNCILMAN COHEN: Go ahead. Please identify yourself.

Previous

Index of All Testifiers

Next (BUNNIE RIEDEL)