Frank Cristinzio

What is one life experience you have that voters should know about?

I am a life long resident of Philadelphia and of the Harrowgate-Kensington section of the city. I have witnessed, first hand, the Philadelphia City Government's failure to properly enforce both state criminal laws and the various local ordinances regarding trash, short dumping, noise ordinances and illegal unlicensed ATV and Dirt Bikes and other quality of life issues turn a once proud neighborhood and other neighborhoods like it in this City into urban nightmares.

What would be your top three policy priorities in office?

1. Fully funding and staffing the Philadelphia Police Department

2.Utilizing the "Broken Window" model of Policing throughout the city of Philadelphia. Until the City Government regains control of the streets of every neighborhood, the City as a whole will continue to decline and lose population.

3. Removing both illegal guns and illegal gun owners or possessors off of the streets. Convicted felons that are precluded by PA State Firearm Laws from owning or possessing firearms, particularly hand guns, need to be incarcerated. A great number of the murders that occur in this City are committed by previously convicted felons whom are prohibited to own or possess firearms/ handguns in the first place. Properly enforcing state gun preclusion laws could not help to reduce the homicide rate in both the City of Philadelphia and the neighborhoods ,like my own, where murders, or gun shot wound victims, unfortunately, are an almost daily occurrence.

What sets you apart from other candidates?

I believe what sets me apart from most other candidates is that the different perspective that I would bring to City Council. As a graduate of both Northeast Catholic High School and Spring Garden College, two institutions that I might add that no longer exist, I watched this City decline throughout my lifetime. I grew up a neighborhood where at one time employment opportunities for all were plentiful. I received my Bachelor of Science Degree in the operation systems of both construction and heavy industrial machinery. I saw what happened when the factories that provided employment to generations of Philadelphians moved out of the City and then out of the country. I listened to our ruling party tell me that the future of the city was in Finance, Insurance, Real Estate.(Fire) or everyone was going to be trained to be computer programmers or that being that Philadelphia was home to many great colleges and universities that was going to be our salvation and restore growth to our City Unfortunately, the panacea never happened. Accordingly, the majority of our residents became poorer. It is obvious that one Party rule since 1952 has failed. It is time to try some thing different.

How do you plan to work across ideological lines to achieve shared goals?

I am willingly to work with any member of our City Council that wishes to make a concerted effort to improve the lives of ordinary Philadelphians. I believe that safe, clean, crime free streets are necessary to put Philadelphia on an upward path. I will work with any member of City Council that wishes to allow parents to make the choice where they want their children to attend school. The per capita funds that are appropriated to educate each child in Philadelphia should follow that child instead of automatically consigned to the public education bureaucracy complex that has operated in this City for too long. I am willing to work with any Council Member to insure that parents are the ultimate decision makers in how and where their children educated and not the education bureaucracy which has failed too many of the children of Philadelphia for too long.. I will also work with any Council member that wishes to repeal obsolete ordinances that clog our ordinance books and make it difficult for ordinary people to understand what the law actually is. Finally, I will support any member who agrees that City Council should stop passing laws that it has no intention of ever enforcing.

The Committee of Seventy has partnered with the Carter Center to promote the Candidate Principles for Trusted Elections to improve the voting process, encourage honest leadership, and promote civic engagement. Do you support the Candidate Principles?

Yes