Philadelphia Community Access Coalition
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MR. BROWN: Good evening. My name is Ken Brown, and I don't know what I can say after that, I really don't.

COUNCILMAN COHEN: The first thing you can say is what your name is for the record.

MR. BROWN: I did say I'm Ken Brown. My name is Ken Brown, for the record, and I'm going to be very kind to the reporter 'cause I know she's tired. At any rate, I'm going to restrict because I don't have a prepared statement, and I just want to go on record as being an advocate of the public access.

Just some personal observations. I think that public access could be a lot more than just someone shooting films or actors and writers and things. I was driving down 16th Street, taking my daughter to class, she's about to take the bar. And we were looking at people going in and going to work, and they were in a hurry, and some were taking their time and some were big and some were small.

And I turned to my daughter and I said, "What's missing here?" And he she said, "Well, I think what I see is Afro-Americans and Hispanics." And I said well, you know,"What do you think the ratio is there?" She said, "Well, it would seem to me it's about 95 percent majority and about 5 percent minority."

And I dropped her off and I went to the parking lot and I parked the car and I walked to the Criminal Justice Center, which is approximately two blocks away from where I dropped her off at, and the ratio was reversed. When I walked into that building, the ratio was entirely reversed; it was now about 95 percent Afro-American and Hispanics, and about 5 percent black.

Something's broke there. Something's wrong. And if it's broke, it needs to be fixed. I believe that public access can be a part of fixing that problem. I don't know when the last time anyone in this room has heard a " say-no- to-drugs" message. There's a real problem here. And the biggest business in this country now seems to be prisons. That's the biggest industry. Something's going on. Somebody is making a great big living off certain types of people going in and out of the Criminal Justice Center.

What's the responsibilities for public access channel? The public access should be advocating something. It's more than just someone to do films. Let me just say a figure. I remember Mr. Riddle from New York saying that they had 5,000 producers that came through the Manhattan Neighborhood Network, 5,000 people who probably, a certain percentage of them probably be doing something else criminal. If we had 5,000 producers in Philadelphia doing public access, at least, I would say, 25 percent if they weren't doing that would probably be doing some kind of criminal activity.

We must give people an opportunity or a bigger view of life, a bigger understanding of what's available to them other than a life style that they and their friends go in and out of prisons. Something's wrong with that. There's something wrong when I can go drive down 16th Street and see people enjoying the American dream, and two blocks away, I see a certain segment of that population enjoying the American nightmare to them. That's what it is.

So it's not just shooting films. But the public access -- you see, all you have to do is to start a corporation. The issue of pornography has been decided by the Supreme Court, the issue of obscenity has been decided, the issue of whether or not the cable channel can censor anything on the public access has been decided, and they can't.

If we could have a public access corporation, people are concerned about the funding, how are we going to fund it? New York Neighborhood Network, the Manhattan Neighborhood Network, they assess each subscriber about $3 a year. Their budget is of 1.5 million. In Philadelphia. If we assessed each subscriber -- forget about the fees because the federal law says that's not a fee, an assessment is not a fee. But a 25 cent per subscriber would fund it. That is, 25 cents per subscriber would give you approximately $1 million to run it.

So everything that you need to have a good public access system is in place. We only need to activate a corporation. Just say yes to public access. That's what we're saying.

I'd like to thank Councilman Cohen. I really appreciate you making this opportunity. I remember you in years gone by standing up in this very chamber and speaking out against the Vietnam War. And I saved that tape and sometimes when I'm driving in to work, I listen to it because it was very important then, and I hope that you'll be able to rise to the occasion now and make public access a reality in Philadelphia.

Thank you.

COUNCILMAN COHEN: We hope so too. Thank you very much.

(Applause.)

COUNCILMAN COHEN: Next speaker.

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