whatisnti

What is NTI?
In April 2001, Mayor John F. Street unveiled the Neighborhood Transformation Initiative (NTI), a strategy to preserve and rebuild Philadelphia’s neighborhoods as thriving communities with clean and secure streets, vibrant retail, recreational and cultural outlets, and quality housing. Through NTI, the City has taken a multi-faceted, comprehensive approach to neighborhood development.

NTI has also increased opportunities for government and citizens to work together, restoring civic pride and building community spirit. A no less critical NTI goal has been the implementation of a fundamental change in how the City coordinates in a way that supports healthy neighborhoods and communities.

Between Fiscal Years 2002 and 2006, NTI has organized its work in the context of:

Planning.- to facilitate and support community-based planning that reflects citywide and neighborhood visions.

Blight elimination – to improve streetscapes, abate debris-filled lots, remove abandoned cars, litter and graffiti;

Redevelopment through land assembly – to improve the City’s ability to assemble land for development;

Neighborhood preservation – to stimulate investment in Philadelphia neighborhoods.

Leverage resources -- to leverage resources to the fullest extent possible, investing them in neighborhoods strategically.

NTI was designed to be resilient enough to adapt to changing conditions. While achieving positive changes, the City has also learned lessons that have informed NTI’s ongoing work. The ability to be adaptable to the market, replicate best practices and other lessons of NTI inform that the work will go forward.

The creation of new housing opportunities in many communities has stimulated a demand for increased investment in neighborhood commercial corridors to provide retail and other services to these communities. NTI began to address this need for commercial corridor investment by funding the Commercial Corridor Support Program in FY06. During FY07 more than $1.8 million was awarded to 29 projects across the city. More than $65 million supports the ReStore Philadelphia Corridors Program.

NTI Going Forward:
Being Resilient and Adapting to New Markets
NTI has created a new framework, building upon earlier achievements and lessons learned. The new framework includes supporting sustainable community development to ensure that Philadelphia’s neighborhoods are economically diverse, culturally rich, and desirable places in which to live, work, learn, shop and play. NTI will also continue to help the City “work smarter” by improving business practices.

Sustainable Community Development
Sustainable community development will be achieved through strategies such as strengthening neighborhood markets, planning and developing open space, managing neighborhood change, and propelling transit oriented development. NTI will focus on creating sustainable community development through the ReStore Philadelphia Corridors program (ReStore), GreenPlan Philadelphia, the New River City Initiative, and the implementation of the Equitable Development Strategy.

Working Smarter
NTI will focus on “working smarter” by continuing to use planning as an investment tool, incorporating the “best practices” of NTI into the demolition strategy of the City’s Department of Licenses and Inspections (L&I), reorganizing the City’s’ housing agencies to create efficiencies, instituting land banking principles to facilitate new development, and improving City practices to build opportunities for disadvantaged firms and workers.

Guiding Principles
Transforming City Government
Economic Opportunity
Emerging Contractors Program

Guiding Principles
NTI’s funding priorities have grown out of deliberate, data-driven planning. NTI sets high standards for quality neighborhoods and seeks to capitalize on market strengths. The allocation of federal, state, and local resources for NTI is guided by six principles for investment in neighborhoods.

1. Use planning as an investment tool.
2. Balance affordable and market-rate housing.
3. Invest public funds to stimulate private market activity.
4. Foster competition to get the best product.
5. Maximize private capital and minimize public dollars.
6. Link housing with other public and private investments.

Transforming City Government
The key to NTI's progress is transformation of the way the City does business. NTI has:

1. Fostered interagency cooperation;
2. Improved technology; and
3. Streamlined processes and systems.

By coordinating different departments of city government and improving processes and procedures, NTI is enabling the City to cut through miles of red tape and speed up activities.

Economic Opportunity
The City recognizes that NTI's demolition program can create opportunities for disadvantged businesses and individuals. The NTI Economic Opportunity Plan (the Plan) seeks to identify opportunities and set participation goals for small businesses historically underrepresented in the procurement of government contracts, particularly those owned by minorities, women, and the disabled. In addition, the Plan sets employment goals for Philadelphia residents.

The goals for participation are:
35% minority-owned businesses
12% women-owned businesses
2% disabled-owned businesses
80% Philadelphia residents

Emerging Contractors Program
This program of the Technical Assistance Center for Emerging Contractors (TAC) helps businesses with annual revenues of less than $500,000 bid as bonded, prime demolition contractors under NTI. They are trained to demolish dangerous houses through intensive classroom and hands-on demolition experience.

The program assists African-American, Hispanic, women and other disadvantaged contractors in all aspects of their construction related business. Contractors receive business training including financing, bonding, technical and management assistance.

TAC’s Emerging Contractors Fund is a consortium of eight banks and financial business institutions - The Asian Bank, Citizens Bank, Commerce Bank, Fleet Bank, PIDC, PNC Bank, Sovereign Bank, United Bank and Wachovia Bank - that have pledged $18.5 million in secured lines of credit for qualified contractors participating in the program

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Accomplishments
Since August, 2006 the results are:

37.2% minority-owned business participation
8.9% women-owned business participation
79% of the hours worked on demolition sites performed by Philadelphia residents
74% hours worked by minorities and females

The fact that such goals were greatly surpassed shows that NTI is working to include all of Philadelphia's citizens in its programs, particularly those who have been traditionally underrepresented and disadvantaged.