MAY 21, 2008
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Congressional candidate Michael Livingston attended the Monday candidate’s night sponsored by the West Girard Supermarket Coalition and used the occasion to discuss both neighborhood and city-wide development issues.

“Government assistance programs can play an important role in supporting neighborhood supermarkets and addressing the problem of fresh food in urban areas,” he explained. “But the larger issue of economic development requires a change in governing philosophy. Only a Federal, State, and local partnership to reduce taxes, control crime, and improve public education can bring the benefits of renewed development to the city as a whole. The people of Philadelphia have demanded these changes at a municipal level; it is time to demand them in their elected representatives, as well.”

Among the programs mentioned by Livingston were tax-increment financing; the Pennsylvania Fresh Food Initiative; and several Federal nutrition programs. Successful projects have typically involved a “layering” of Federal, State, and local programs together with private financing, he added.

Livingston’s opponent, Rep. Chaka Fattah (D-Pa), did not attend the program.