Save the Date: Saturday, March 23rd, PNN’s All-Hands Meeting
PNN’s mission is to engage, educate and empower our neighbors to make our City a better place to live. Here’s what’s coming up in each of these areas:
Engage: Meeting on New Police Station in North Philly
Educate: Just 2% of Pension Fund Could Boost Our Economy
Empower: Support New NE Health Centers, Poor People's Campaign Day of Action
Meeting On Planned Police Station in North Philly
Saturday, February 17th, 2:30PM-4:30PM, 2320 Cecil B. Moore Avenue
Without sufficient input from neighbors, the city has decided to build a police station at 2100 W. Diamond Street. If this were an affluent neighborhood, white or gentrified area, there would have been engagement at the thought of a Public Safety Facility, which is what the city is telling people it will be.
However, neighbors who will be directly impacted by this building know that this is another attempt to make decisions without their input. Join our allies for an important information session about the city's plans at Cecil B. Moore Library this Saturday.
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PNN is Hiring!
We are looking for a Community Engagement Specialist to lead immersive work in low-engagement neighborhoods. The Specialist will work as an independent contractor reporting to the organizing director and executive committee.
The Specialist will be tasked with building a series of self-sustaining neighborhood activist groups that can be counted upon to regularly participate in the affairs of government and community. Our target demographic lives in struggling neighborhoods in North and NW Philly that contain chronically low-engagement voters and are often last to receive resources.
Our goal is to build trust within these communities that can be measured by increased community activism, increased voter registration and voter turnout by November 2024.
For details on this position, click below.
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Opinion: Just 2% of Philly’s Pension Fund Could Boost Local Economy
by Stan Shapiro and Peter Winslow for the Philadelphia Inquirer
The primary responsibility of the $8.4 billion Philadelphia pension fund is to assure the continuing financial security promised to city workers upon retirement. The welfare of city employees, along with all Philadelphians, depends on the economic and social well-being of the city itself. Therefore, the Philadelphia Public Banking Coalition has proposed that the city pension fund invest $168 million, 2% of its portfolio, in local economically targeted investments to fund projects that benefit Philadelphians.
These investments would address policy goals while achieving returns as high or higher than many of the fund’s current asset classes. Currently, the 2023 pension fund investment policy describes risky investments in options, futures, forwards, and swap agreements. And there’s a precedent for public policy considerations, for example, in limitations on investments in Russian companies, private prisons, and arms manufacturers. The current portfolio exhibits a strong real estate focus but without preference for Philadelphia projects.
Below are just a few of the possible opportunities for targeted investments that would strengthen the health of Philadelphia’s economy.
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Financing Philly's Future: Deep-Dive on the Pension Fund Proposal
Tuesday, February 27th, 4:30PM-5PM, Online
Want to learn more about how this pension fund investment will benefit our city? Then join us at our next "Financing Philly's Future".
This program will address the proposal for the City Pension Funds to adopt a policy for investment of 2% of its portfolio ($160 million) in an asset class for local Economically Targeted Investments (ETIs). Our guests will be Stan Shapiro and Peter Winslow, co-authors of the above op-ed will advocate for the proposal that was published in The Inquirer.
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Support New Health Centers in NE Philly
Tuesday, February 20th, 6PM, 5500 Langdon St
This city has too few health centers to help low-income people with their health needs. That's why it is important to support the building of two new health centers in NE Philly. Join concerned neighbors on Tuesday, February 20th, 6PM-7:30PM, at Samuel Fels High School, located at 5500 Langdon St in NE Philly as city officials hold two community meetings regarding the new Healthcare Center at Friend's Hospital Campus to continue collecting feedback from community members.
If you'd like to sign the petition, you can do so here.
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Poor People's Campaign in Washington, DC, Harrisburg, PA
Saturday, March 2nd, 8AM
Our friends at the Poor People's Campaign made a National Call for Moral Revival last week and launched 40 weeks of massive voter mobilization across the U.S. On March 2nd, folks will gather at over 30 state houses and in Washington, D.C. for a day of nationally coordinated, simultaneous direct action. Click here to learn more.
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This Week in History
Feb 18, 2010 – Manning Docs Leaked. Wikileaks began releasing nearly 750,000 documents by Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning, shedding light on atrocities committed by American armed forces, painting a far grimmer picture of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Feb 19, 1942 – Japanese-Americans Interned. In one of the sadder moments in our nation's history, FDR ordered the internment of fellow Americans for fear they might harbor spies and saboteurs for the Japanese Empire.
Feb 21, 1965 – Malcolm-X Assassinated. Black leader Malcolm-X was gunned down while addressing his Organization of Afro-American Unity in NYC.
Thanks for your activism!
Tim Brown, Organizing Director