No one can be at every mayoral forum during this campaign forum. I give huge props to the reporters at the Daily News, Inquirer, Metro, KYW 1060, the Evening Bulletin, the Philadelphia Tribune, the Weekly, the City Paper, and countless other smaller community papers for getting to as many as they do.
But still, some go uncovered by the MSM - that's mainstream media for first-time visitors to the blog world. That's where bloggers come in. Last Sunday, while many of us were bailing out our basements during the latest "storm of the century," a number of people gathered on the Parkway for the a forum on arts and culture presented by The Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance and the Arts & Business Council of Greater Philadelphia.
The only coverage I could find was from a blogger named "TragicHipster." (I have since also seen this posted at YPP.) Warning: the writer is not a journalist so objectivity is pretty much out the window. However, I do think that if more mainstream journalists would feel free to write about and comment on the answers given by the candidates at some of these forums and the way those answers were delivered, the public may get a more complete picture of each of these candidates. It may also make the writing a little more interesting and humorous, two things that will be necessary if we're ever going to get people to pay attention to city politics. For example, check out what TragicHipster has to say about Knox and which American city Fattah would use as a model for how to promote the arts.
You can judge for yourself how the candidates did at the "It's About the Arts" forum since, lo and behold, the entire thing can be found on video here. Nice work, GPCA! I'll be adding this to our growing collection of mayoral forum videos.
Comments (2)
TragicHipster raises an important point. Chaka simply does not understand how to form relationships with the suburban communities. He sees these communities as "the enemy", and that they are somehow not doing their part.
If anything, those communities have flourished because of an oppressive tax structure which Chaka has no interest in improving.
If Chaka does not see Center City as important, does not wish to substantially revise the tax structure, and instead wishes to dream about "punishing" slacker suburbanites, how is he going to LEAD the WHOLE City?
To me, everything he says sounds like a lot of pandering, without any real substance.
Posted by Jill | April 19, 2007 11:04 AM
I was at that forum, and TragicHipster is right on. Fattah made no sense, and Knox came off like a strange, uninformed dinosaur. He was actually making people uncomfortable, in that "I'm embarrassed for him, can someone please make him stop talking" way.
I'd be surprised if anyone came out of that forum not wanting to vote for Nutter, and hoping like heck everyone else in the city would too.
Posted by phillyc | April 19, 2007 4:44 PM