20 Ways to Make Philadelphia the Best Damn City in America

15. LEGALIZE POT.

Last year, Philly State Rep Mark Cohen introduced a bill in Harrisburg to legalize medical marijuana. Pennsylvania may lean conservative, but 80 percent of residents support legalizing medical marijuana use. Still, don’t hold your breath that the legislature will move on it anytime soon. It’s up to us. Problem is, “Philly generally strikes out when attempting to pass special laws for the city,” Cohen says. But somebody in City Council needs to stand up and introduce a bill to let sufferers from HIV, multiple sclerosis, glaucoma and Crohn’s get relief with a few puffs of the benign weed. At least that would start a debate with the state lords of jurisdiction, pitting them against what four-fifths of their constituents actually want. And such a move just might make City Council (imagine: City Council!) a catalyst for Philadelphia entering the 21st century.

16. HAVE CELEB CHEFS TAKE OVER PUBLIC-SCHOOL CAFETERIAS.
We’re home to heaps of phenom chefs who’ve built careers on fresh, local, good food. So say those chefs redesign school menus, and get local farmers to grow for schools. Say they teach kids (and parents) how to cook fresh food. That’s actually the plan restaurateurs Jeff Benjamin and Marc Vetri are trying to push through thick layers of red tape. There’s hope: This year, at least one local school will get the Vetri treatment. It can’t happen fast enough for all our kids.

17. DUB NORTH BROAD STREE THE "AVENUE OF THE SCIENCES.”
By Jane Lipton, executive director, Manayunk Development Corporation

Broad Street south of City Hall is known as the “Avenue of the Arts,” bolstered by the Wilma Theater, the Kimmel Center and the University of the Arts. Though city cheerleaders attempted to extend the identification north of City Hall, it never stuck. Therein lies a tremendous new branding opportunity for our city.

North Broad already boasts a critical mass of noteworthy centers of science, education and medicine. Temple University educates the largest body of professional practitioners in Pennsylvania, and is among the nation’s largest educators in the fields of medicine, dentistry, pharmacy, podiatry and law. The Honickman Learning Center, just off North Broad, is an advanced learning facility serving low-income populations. North Broad is home to Hahnemann University Hospital, Magee Rehabilitation Hospital, the Shriners Hospital for Children and, farther up, Temple University’s new hospital.

What’s in a name? Plenty! By promoting the “Avenue of the Sciences,” we could attract like-minded industries there, and maybe even stop our post-college “Philadelphia brain drain” phenomenon. Local, state and federal incentives could be designed to support the brand, attracting national companies to this prestigious address. Imagine the “Apple Center for Scholastic Technology Integration” (we’ll call it the “Mac Museum” for short), and the “GSK Biomedical Research Institute,” and the “Drexel University Museum of Architecture and Engineering.”

We Philadelphians are a people at home with our scientific origins. We’re the city of Benjamin Franklin, after all. We’re a city founded by adventurers whose passion for discovery and innovation led to the founding of a nation. Let’s follow the “Avenue of the Sciences” to future scientific discovery, innovation and enrichment.