Beth Finn

In my 20+ year technology career, my job is to make sure we’re solving the right problems.

I started as a computer programmer and web developer. I quickly advanced into management and eventually moved into project and program management. I’ve worked in many industries including advertising, entertainment, financial services, IT services, pharmaceuticals, and healthcare analytics. I now manage a multi-million dollar portfolio of projects for Elsevier, a large healthcare analytics company building tools using the latest in Machine Learning, AI, and Natural Language Processing.

At 26, I was diagnosed with a life-threatening brain tumor. I had access to excellent doctors, treatments, and more than a small amount of good fortune, so my outcome was incredibly good. This is not the case for so many brain tumor patients. I ultimately realized that I better make my time count. I began volunteering with the National Brain Tumor Society as a co-chair of the Race for Hope Philadelphia, an annual 5K that raises close to $1 million each year. I also joined NBTS to lobby Congress for more funding for brain tumor research. It was through this experience that I learned how powerful our voices are.

In 2016, I was shaken to my core when I heard then-candidate Trump talk about a national Muslim registry. As a Jewish woman, “Never again” means taking action. I volunteered for the Hillary campaign and knocked on nearly 2,000 doors. Shortly after the election was over, I organized with fellow women in our city to create Philly Women Rally, and am a co-founder of the Women’s March on Philadelphia. It has been a powerful, life-changing experience. The planning and day of the annual march have provided me with an incredible set of learning opportunities to see the beautiful diversity and heart-breaking disparity that exists in our city and our country.

My Top 3 Priorities

1. 1. Reinvesting in Our Infrastructure: Investing in infrastructure is at the core of how we make sure all Philadelphians have access to the same opportunities.I support the creation of a public bank for Philadelphia to maximize our limited funds for infrastructure by recapturing millions of dollars currently lost every year to bank fees and interest payments and eventually offering banking services to low-income residentsWe must be proactive in repairing our critical systems – like our almost century-old water mains – while they are still manageable challenges and before they become big crises. We must protect the health and safety of students. Lead paint chips are falling from the ceilings of our children’s schools. 75% of our public school buildings don’t have air conditioning, leading to unsafe conditions during the hotter months. Our public transportation must be reliable, safe, and convenient. Technology can help address some of these challenges with things like real-time bus schedules and a user-friendly transit app.Investing in public works isn’t just the right thing to do. It’s the smart thing to do.
   2. Affordable Housing: Our supply of housing stock must keep up with demand across the city. The Affordable Housing Trust Fund must be focused on building homes for families earning 80% of AMI and lower. We also must increase our percentage of mixed-income housing from the current rate of 13% to at least 30%. For comparison, Boston is at 38% and Hoboken is at 32%. The improved quality of the environment changes the behavior of the residents: reducing crime and unemployment, breaking the cycle of poverty, creating upward mobility, and strengthening local businesses. When our neighborhoods have diversity of race, socioeconomic status, and culture, they are sustainable and vibrant places to live, work, and visit.
   3. $15 Minimum Wage: Earning a livable wage to afford basic necessities is a crucial component of affordable housing. People should not have to work two or three jobs (or more) to afford to put food on their table or a roof over their head. I support expanding on Mayor Kenney’s plan for $15/hour minimum wage for city employees. Because of state law, the city cannot mandate a minimum wage. We can encourage businesses to do the right thing. My approach is to start with our large non-profit medical and education institutions. If they agree to pay their employees a $15/hour minimum wage, we leave them alone about not contributing into the PILOTs program. This is a win/win/win: People benefit because they have more money to spend at our restaurants, local businesses, and incredible cultural institutions. Employers benefit because employees are more loyal when they have a living wage, saving on turn-over and new hiring processes. The city benefits because our city wage tax base increases.

Living free of poverty is a human right. We need to change the conversation about poverty away from being the fault of an individual and address the underlying inequality in our system that has resulted in these tragic levels of poverty in our city. The United Nations states that every person is entitled to adequate living standards. I will push our city council to add language to our mission statement that declares “living free of poverty is a human right.” I suggest looking to the City of Edmonton for inspiration, who recently did just this.

Breaking the cycle of poverty requires a multi-pronged approach that addresses income, housing, education, healthy lifestyles, transportation, and quality of life.

Accessible and affordable public transportation allows people to engage fully in their communities. That’s why I support a low-income monthly transit pass for qualifying residents.

Working with the city’s network of RCO’s, we can match community needs with new economic development grants to attract businesses to move here and support the construction of job-creating business centers in low-income areas of the city. Dallas has some of the country’s highest levels of income inequality and enacted these programs that resulted in new construction and hundreds of jobs in poverty-stricken areas of the city.

We need to adopt a single application for residents to apply for all of the subsidized city services and programs available including property tax assistance, low income transit pass, and assistance for seniors. The City of Calgary’s Fair Entry single application program has been very successful in connecting record numbers of residents with the services they need and has also helped reduce government waste.

I support grants for early education like GreenLight Fund’s Parent-Child Home Program, where parents are given the tools and resources to ensure their children are school-ready. I also support grants for organizations collaborating with communities for things like farmers markets and community events, urban gardens, greening and beautification projects.

We need to encourage minority- and women-owned businesses by providing incentives, workshops on available city services, continued preferences in the contracting process, and streamlining the business loan process.

I support the Mayor’s recently announced program, Fueling Philadelphia’s Talent Engine, setup through the Office of Workforce Development. Just as universities have internship programs with industry, we must support job training programs and vocational training that meets market demands and incentivize businesses that provide train-to-hire programs. This is about creating a win/win for businesses and the community.

We need to show young people living in poverty what the possibilities are for their future. A good-paying job is one of the best ways to break the cycle of poverty. Throughout my career, I’ve partnered with TechGirlz to mentor middle school girls in STEM. In my current day job, my employer, Elsevier, partners with the non-profit Together for West Philadelphia and West Catholic High School for an impactful 5-week program teaching students about careers in technology. Students learn coding and engineering that culminates with a final showcase. Government can provide the space for these partnerships to thrive.

I support a housing first policy through tiny homes, rehabbing our abundant stock of old homes, and the creation of large community complexes like the Paseo Verde Project.

We must end councilmanic prerogative. The current system goes against transparency standards and allows one individual to control all zoning decisions within a district. This practice empowers a city councilmember to determine the sale of properties in their district in exchange for favors, like campaign donations. Councilmanic prerogative is closed-door backroom deal-making at the expense of what’s best for the city as a whole.

Land trusts ensure the long-term affordability of neighborhoods facing gentrification by allowing residents and businesses to own and control their properties. We’ve seen good outcomes with the current 36 rent-to-own units on trust-held land. I would use my office to promote the land trust model, like the Community Justice Land Trust, and expand it into other parts of the city.

Land banks are supposed to make it easy for purchasing city-owned properties. We need to commit a portion of profits from land bank sales to the Affordable Housing Trust Fund. We need to end the 10-year tax abatement on property taxes for new construction. I’m in favor of the previously proposed 1% construction tax. The currently optional Inclusionary Zoning provisions should be made mandatory. We also need to make sure that Licenses and Inspections can properly enforce those regulations. I would use my office to organize community events that bring together assistance programs that address food and housing security like Bethesda Project and mental health services like Healthy Minds Philly.

Increasing the minimum wage to $15 an hour and indexing it with inflation increases revenues for the city. I would also consider implementing the 1% construction tax, and, in conjunction with other poverty-ending programs, a tax refund on the city wage tax for low-income residents who qualify to support breaking the cycle of poverty.

When looking at our government budgets, we pay for the things we value. I value public education. I would advocate to increase the funding pot from the state and federal level and support converting our school board from appointed to elected.

Our schools were taken over by the state as a distressed district and it took over ten years to get control back. The status of our schools is deplorable and made worse by the significant drain of resources by charter schools. Though charter schools seem to have attractive benefits, like an escape from the burdensome standardized testing curriculum and outdated education goals, they do more harm than good. Charter schools undermine our teacher unions and aren’t held to the same standards and requirements as our public schools.

I support policing practices based on community-centric partnerships. Stop and frisk is not effective and it is racist. I support focused deterrence policing, which studies have proven it to be a highly effective practice when applied to address specific challenges in a community (i.e. drug dealing, gangs, gun violence, etc.). I also support hot spot policing that uses data and community dialogue to focus on high-crime areas, which are as precise as one city block.

Public space is for the public good. The Franklin Square Fountain and Dilworth Park’s Pulse art installation are wonderful projects supporting these areas as community spaces. Dilworth’s pending coffee kiosk is not the best use of our community space. Purely from a design perspective, greenery and a buffer from the busy street is great. But is a Starbucks kiosk on limited public space really what we need? In addition to being on public space, Dilworth Park is next to City Hall and so this space should highlight the values we hold most dear. Instead of partnering with a massive coffee corporation, the city should partner with a local roaster. Better yet, instead of adding yet another coffee shop to an area filled with coffee options, we should install a small library, public restrooms, a parklet, a mural, or a rotating art installation.

To ensure public space is used for the public good, I propose the creation of a Public Space Commission. The board would have equal representation of residents and business owners and offer non-binding recommendations to City Hall on projects impacting public spaces.

Regarding undocumented immigrants, I support Philadelphia’s positions as a sanctuary city and refusal to work with ICE. Regarding immigrants with legal status, I support policies that prefer using vendors that are minority- and women-owned.

Environmental justice is about public health. Our environment has serious impacts on our health, quality of life, and longevity. The air we breathe, the water we drink, the safety of our neighborhoods… all these things affect our health.

Lead and asbestos in our schools and homes is a solvable problem that should be addressed immediately. Residents in low income neighborhoods have higher incidences of asthma and other respiratory issues. The remediation of these hazards is a top priority for me.

I support Philadelphia moving to 100% renewable energy in the next 10 years. We need greater incentives for solar panels and proven low-cost green building practices like rooftop gardens and water reclamation. Our climate has changed and if we do nothing, it will only get worse. Our policies must be equal to the challenges we face.

We must explore the building of a recycling plant in Philadelphia. China is refusing our materials to be recycled and so the city now has 50% of our recycling incinerated, contributing to poor air quality and wasting useful materials.