Katie Monroe has drawn a map for herself that has taken her from the neighborhood blocks of Philadelphia to the citywide transportation systems in Canada. While living in Boston for graduate school she was known to her professors and friends as the person who was obsessed with Philly. Today, she works for SEPTA as their Customer Experience Director for Information, making sure riders have the information they need in a timely and useful way.
After moving to Philadelphia for undergrad, Monroe stayed and worked with the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia doing community engagement around the launch of Indego bikeshare. Her work focused on how to make bike sharing more equitable and inclusive. This led her to the Citizen Planning Institute.
Monroe loved meeting others who were just as obsessed with the city as she was. Even with the different entry points, they all had that shared opinion. She recounts, “it … remains to this day, the most meaningfully diverse group of people who love Philadelphia that I have ever been part of and I’ve done lots of different leadership development and community programs and I still think CPI is the bar to which I compare everything when I go to those things.”
At the time of finishing CPI and leaving Bicycle Coalition, Monroe was living in the Fairmount-Spring Garden neighborhoods and was curious what could be done to support her immediate blocks. She worked for Fairmount CDC, now Park to Broad, enjoying the ability to “dig a little bit deeper in a neighborhood-based work.”
Monroe left Philly for graduate school, where she studied public and urban policy and explored disability justice, continuing to ask who gets included in transportation decisions. During her time in Boston, she explains the pride and homesickness she felt during the Eagles win of the 2018 Super Bowl against the Patriots. Never being too far from the city she loves, Monroe shares a well-meaning regret from a summer fellowship at the City of Boston. She left behind her CPI binder, hoping maybe someone will take it off the shelf and [be] inspired one day by it.
Not ready to move back to Philly just yet, Monroe moved to Canada to work for a public transit app, where she got to learn about technology and data. She returned to Philadelphia 4 years ago to work for the public sector, in part due to CPI’s model of exposing her to the different departments and jobs that operate and maintain the city. Monroe says, CPI “open[ed] my eyes about the different types of jobs and the different type of work that public servants are doing in Philadelphia every day.”
Katie working during one of the FIFA matches at NRG. Credit: SEPTA/Nathan Langer
One of Monroe’s takeaways from her path thus far is that the most meaningful work comes when you truly engage with, care about, and love the place you live in. She continues describing the importance of what a program like CPI provides in sharing information about how cities work. Monroe explains it as, “we move through a city that planning has an impact on whether we engage with that process. And the process has historically not always made it easy for people to participate. So, I understand when people don’t participate in the process, but it’s relevant to everybody who lives or works or exists in the city.”
Influenced by her knowledge of equitable access, Monroe continued this point of meeting people where they are at. “We have no lack of passion in Philadelphia, but sometimes people lack resources and information that they need to channel that passion to be the most effective, to advocate for what they need, and just like handing people the tools instead of keeping the tools to ourselves and saying, check this box to give your input, but actually like, no, let’s all be part of the same conversation,” says Monroe.
A lot of cities do a lot of engagement that has a lot of breadth. And then that's also important to touch a lot of people with a little bit of information but recognizing and investing in people who are interested in having a lot more information and doing the depth part of it and not just the breadth part of it is like the value that CPI adds. And that's meaningful relationship building that actually changes the game. Katie Monroe
Monroe’s vision for the city of Philadelphia is fast, affordable, reliable, clean, and safe transit options that work for people’s lives, no matter their transportation option. She describes transportation as the glue that connects the city and people to its resources. For a city to be safe and economically just transportation needs to be thought of and invested in.
Getting there, she says, will require funding the system, and beyond this, affordability programs for riders, planning work on the street like bus lanes and transit priority signals, and better coordination and communication on street closings and detours. “Philadelphia deserves nice things,” she says.
The next destination on Monroe’s map includes getting people involved in a new pilot program for digital screens at bus and metro stops that will give real time updates on the schedule. If you are near any and have a smart phone, there should be a QR code on the screen to scan and fill out a survey. The more data received on rider’s opinions of the screens the better chance they can be implemented across the city.
And on the road ahead, Monroe shares her hope to meet the neighbor that placed some benches and tables in an abandoned lot and to get involved in the new use of the space. “I thought [it was] very CPI energy, someone did this. This is so cool, and I am excited to get connected with whatever group or individual is behind that and support,” Monroe adds.