In the news:

Check out the Great Expectations' archive of citizen essays, columns by Chris Satullo and Tom Ferrick, and Inquirer editorials.

Or, visit the Radio Times archive to listen to Chris and Tom's Feb. 20 discussion of the project.

Project description:

In this mayoral election year, The Inquirer and the University of Pennsylvania’s Project on Civic Engagement, based at the Fels Institute, are convening a regionwide dialogue about what Philadelphia needs to do to deliver on its promise as "The Next Great City."

The dialogue will include forums with hundreds of civic leaders and ordinary citizens, to identify the key issues the region needs to work on to get there. It will include reporting, research and public forums on possible solutions and innovations that have worked, in Philly or elsewhere.

It will include major election-related events, including online, radio and televised debates and a citywide Deliberation Day two weeks before the May primary. It will include innovative uses of the Web, such as "electronic markets" and online candidate forums.

It will culminate in the declaring of a citizen-generated Agenda for the Next Great City to be delivered to the new mayor and Council in 2008.

The project is supported by a major grant by the Lenfest Foundation, and other support from Penn, The Inquirer and the Knight Foundation.