Something work-related is definitely a lame first post, but the organizations behind this (including my own employer, Penn IUR) represent a tip-top Philly meeting of the minds w/r/t cities, design, architecture, and urban policy. For the politically-minded who live in the city, this event will be worth attending, although if you are politically-minded and live in the city, your decision ‘08 is almost certainly all Obamade up. Oblig food/drinks reception afterwards.

Next American City and AIA Philadelphia are proud to sponsor University of Pennsylvania’s Institute of Urban Research’s inaugural lecture of the Philadelphia 360 series will feature a representative of the John McCain and Barack Obama campaigns to discuss how each candidate will treat urban issues in their administration: what are the key issues; how best to address them; why they are important to the broader national challenges including the economy and jobs, climate and environmental conditions, and national security and international relations; and more pointedly, how do aging industrial cities like Philadelphia factor into the national picture. These issues provide the broad frame for thinking about planning and economic development policy in Philadelphia, serving as a platform for the later discussion in this series that will focus on anchor institutions. The event will take place on Monday, October 6 at the Philadelphia Center for Architecture, 1218 Arch Street, from 6-8 pm.

More info after the jump

On the left: Paul C. Brophy is a principal with Brophy & Reilly LLC, a Maryland-based consulting firm specializing in housing, community development, and the management of complex urban redevelopment projects. Mr. Brophy has been involved with housing, economic development, and neighborhood improvement in the United States since 1970 as a practitioner, an author, and a professor. In addition to his consulting practice, he currently is a Nonresident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution, a Trustee of
Enterprise Community Partners, and a Lecturer at the School of City Planning at the University of Pennsylvania, where he earned a Masters in City Planning in 1969.

On the right: Michael P. Moreland is Assistant Professor of Law at Villanova University School of Law where he will teach Torts I & II and Bioethics. Prior to his post at the School of Law, in 2005, he joined the White House staff, where he served as Associate Director for Domestic Policy. Professor Moreland received his B.A. cum laude from the University of Notre Dame, his M.A. from Boston College, and his J.D. cum laude from the University of Michigan Law School. He is currently a candidate for his Ph.D from Boston College. Following law school, Professor Moreland clerked for the Honorable Paul J. Kelly, Jr. of the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit, and later worked as an associate at Williams & Connolly in Washington, D.C.

Moderated by Genie Birch, professor of City & Regional Planning at Penn. Introductory and closing remarks by Susan Wachter, professor Real Estate Finance at Wharton. They are the co-directors of the Penn IUR.