The Next Mayor

Now this is interesting. Mayor Street and City Council passed a budget yesterday in the style of a family with a new credit card at Christmas: It gives everybody everything they want. And, in Mark McDonald's story about this today, Darrell Clarke notes:

"Unless we're going to dramatically cut services, we are going to have to start talking about raising some revenue," he said. "It may call for some minimal tax increases."

Obviously, he's right -- but the problem is (as Rob Dubow of PICA, the city budget watchdog, points out in the same article) that we are facing more than just a budget with too much under its tree -- we're looking at structural budget problems AND new union contracts that must be negotiated immediately after the next mayor takes office.

These two things are NOT directly connected. However, is it a common sense -- or smart negotiating -- to head into what should be a difficult, painful time of renegotiating contracts with a budgetary attitude of, "Hey, whatever you want!"?

I couldn't help but read the whole paper today with a sense that we're ignoring some structural problems. The schools budget is "balanced" with the imaginary support of money from Harrisburg, though lawmakers have said they aren't going to give it. The city budget is "balanced" this year, though the spending it in "utterly imbalanaces" the city's five-year plan, as Mark reports.

Meanwhile, DHS just realized that its failure to deal with kids in its care a generation ago is leading those now-grown people to kill their own kids today.

You know how, after too many of those Christmases, families that have lived an unsustainable high life for too long have to sit down and figure out a way out of debt?

Well, in the next mayor's term -- perhaps when those union contracts are up for renewal -- the city will find itself having to do something similar. We're already in debt at a level that worries budget analysts, so more city borrowing really isn't the answer. The answer will be hard choices, something we don't seem quite ready to accept.

The always outstanding Clout column in today's Daily News gives us all KINDS of updates on election matters...

On Traffic Court nominee Wayne Singletary and his issues with traffic fines/filling out campaign disclosures

On how a Penn grad student who thought he was doing community service ended up working a Tom Knox event

On Bob Brady's new role as Mayor of Capitol Hill

And on Terry Gillen's new role in the Nutter campaign.

Go read it!

A couple of recent stories have given glimpses of what slots actually do to a community. They are just glimpses, but in many ways I find them more realistic and revealing than the generalities that predictions based on studies or coming from other states give us.

That's because they are based on the real stories of what's really happening in and around the slots parlors at Philadephia Park, in Bensalem, and at Harrah's in Chester.

For one thing, petty crime is up. And it's targeted at the very people who we all knew would attend the slots: older gamblers.

These crimes aren't violent -- we're talking swiping winnings or purses -- but they do take up cop time and upset the victims,

But for another thing, at least around Harrah's, local purchasing is - anecdotally - up. This is a significant change. Chester is a devastated, very poor community. Despite the support of local institutions such as Crozier-Chester Medical Center and Widener University (where students can now see Harrah's blinking lights from campus), there was no real hope of getting the kind of massive investment that the community needed -- until slots parlors emerged as an option.

From the Inquirer story Sunday:

"It has hired 222 Chester residents at what the city estimates is an average annual salary of $30,000. By year's end, Harrah's will have paid debt-ridden Chester an expected $9.4 million in taxes - more than a quarter of the city's $35 million budget. Most will go for debt payments."

But it hasn't been easy...

"Today, 20 percent of the 1,113 employees at Harrah's are from Chester. A total of 65 percent are from Delaware County, according to the casino."

"Nevertheless, the results have not fulfilled a pledge made three years go by Harrah's local partners, who said 60 percent of the workers would be from the city. That number was never believed by local residents, and is no longer cited by the casino."

"As predicted, some Chester residents couldn't negotiate the exhaustive application process, or pass stringent background checks imposed by the state."

I'm not promoting slots parlors. But I do think these two recent stories have been instructive because they are real -- they aren't hypotheticals, and they give us an idea of what slots can do, and can't do.

Finally, and from the perspective of civic budgets, Stu Bykofsky has rendered his verdict on casinos...

Discuss!

My hat's off to Wendy for doing such a wonderful job with the blog while I was off in Israel last week for a friend's wedding plus a tour of a lot of great historical sites. I've been trying to catch up with the news for the week and it seems that not too much happened last week, though this post about the budget worries me a little bit.

The Phillies were a .500 team when I left and as of yesterday they're still a .500 team.

Did anything exciting happen last week? Can someone send my the Cliff's Notes version of last week's events so I can stop combing through all of the headlines and just focus on the important stuff?

Thanks folks. Hopefully I can get back to blogging this afternoon after I clear out my email inbox and make the dozen or so phone calls I need to make.

After reading Ronnie Polaneczky's column today, I am wondering if Philadelphia has invented Casino Correctness. You know, the feeling that you can't possibly support slots parlors coming to Philadelphia because 1) none of your friends, or people that you would like to hang with, do 2) you'll be called an apologist for the gambling industry.

Peer pressure is not exactly the best way to conduct public business.

Now, please don't fill up my e-mail box. I am not expressing a pro-slots-parlor position here. I am not sure whether the advent of slots would be a mere nuisance or a really incredibly bad, city-altering decision. The only decision I've made is that I am unlikely to spend a dollar there, because gambling really isn't my thing.

I am just a little alarmed by Casino Correctness, and the reaction that some Fishtowners have faced (as described in Ronnie's column) when they expressed their support for the slots. It was a typical smashmouth Philly reaction to someone voicing a view opposed to the popular one. But this is hardly the way to have a reasoned discussion about the pros and cons of slots parlors,

Of course, if we'd had a actual debate in the state legislature about slots -- with time for the neighborhoods to have their say -- we wouldn't be in the situation anyway.

Philadelphia city government is really bad at a lot of things. Streets remain in disrepair, often for months, as potholes grow ever more gaping. Folks who are trying to do simply, permit-requiring, home repairs often tell stories of the difficulty they have in securing thost permits from the city. Most of the time, the failures of government result in minor annoyances.

Sometimes, however, the results are tragic.

The Department of Human Services has been in the spotlight recently, (not the good spotlight like at a play, but the bad spotlight like in an interrogation room) because of an alarming number deaths of children who under their care. Apparently, 52 have died since 2001 and the number continues to grow as more are discovered.

The mayor commissioned a report to study DHS and explain why this has happened.

Today on Radio Times with Marty Moss-Coane, Marty talks to three of the authors of the report. Here's the promo copy:

Between 2001 and last year, 52 Philadelphia children -- whose cases were among the Department of Human Services files -- died. A panel of experts convened by Mayor Street to investigate the Department’s failings released their report last week. We talk panel members CAROL WILSON SPIGNER, FRANK CERVONE of the Support Center for Child Advocates, and pediatrician CINDY CHRISTIAN.

You can listen live here. Later on, I'll put the link to the podcast in case you missed it.

(edited to add)
As promised, the podcast.

Seventy is writing a wrong. Not a huge wrong, no, but one that does affect me personally when I am anxiously trying to hail a cab on Broad Street, running late as usual...

Admit it: You were surprised at the margin of Michael Nutter's victory in the primary.

Even among those of you who thought he'd win -- the polls were pointing in that direction, at the end -- did you really think he'd nab 36.6 percent of the vote, while the next-highest voter getter, Tom Knox, managed 24.6 percent? And that Nutter would win wards all over the city?

Apparently, the doubters were in good company -- the Nutter campaign was surprised by the margin too: "We internally saw how we could win, but we thought he'd have to dig out a three- or four-point lead," says Nutter adviser Dick Hayden in a revealing story in today's Daily News.

The story is about how the campaign bucked conventional wisdom in its successful effort. And it's very interesting. Olivia -- the star of the commercial that seemingly turned the tide -- turns out to be a small (if telegenic and generally charming) part of a longer trudge to the top that began back when Nutter quit City Council.

Along the way, the techniques drew derision from what Catherine calls "local political know-it-alls."

Admit it -- you wondered, too, when Nutter commercials stayed resolutely off the air or the candidate said he was counting on volunteers for the get out the vote effort. Well, the proof is in the official vote count, and Philadelphia elections don't always run by yesterday's patterns.

Now that the intensity of the race has faded and fewer people are paying attention, I have to admit I'm finding it difficult to find inspiration for substantive, issues-based blog posts. Even poring through the day's headlines hasn't really been doing it for me.

That said, there are a couple things in today's collection that, unintentionally or not, made me laugh.

From today's City Paper interview of Michael Nutter on "Important" LGBTQ issues:

CP: What piece of clothing can you not live without?

MN: Generally my pants; I tend not to travel too much without my pants.

I find that one wool sock can make up for a lack of pants in an emergency.

The headline of this article in today's Metro reminded me a lot of the famous, apocryphal question put to Mary Todd Lincoln, "Aside from that, Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play?"

Here's an Inqling that you may have missed:

There'll be a mayoral challenge at the Rosenbach Museum and Library as Nutter and Republican hopeful Al Taubenberger plan to be among those reading James Joyce's tongue-tripping Ulysses on June 16 at the museum's annual Bloomsday Celebration.

This may be one of those situation where Taubenberger would probably be willing to wave the equal time rule. What if, instead of reading from Ulysses, Nutter and Taubenberger interpreted it through performance art with the help of this woman? Now that I'd go and see.

This has basically nothing to do with the politics or issues of the mayor's race or the City Council elections. I just thought it was interesting.

On that note, have you ever had the privilege of waiting for the El at 12:30am and seeing the "money train?" It's pretty cool if you haven't and it also signals that there's only one more El train coming through. Last time I saw it, the train was made up of 6 of the old style El cars - the ones I used to ride in high school - except instead of windows, there's armored plates.

The train rolls into the station and from one end the custodial staff jumps out (oh yeah, did I mention that there's no doors either?) and grabs all of the trash bags from the cans on the platform. They tie up the bags and toss them into the car where dozens of similar trash bags are piled. From the other end of the train come two of the most bad-ass, jacked-up looking mofos that you'll ever see on a SEPTA train. In each hand they carry two lock-boxes (Al Gore would be proud). As they walk past, briskly but not looking rushed at all, the pounding of their feet on the platform seems to shake the entire station. They disappear up the steps to the cashier booths and less than a minute later reappear with their boxes full and jingling with thousands of coins and tokens.

Within 2 minutes, everyone is back on the train and it pulls out to head to the next station. Both times I witnessed it, the train was heading westbound, most likely where it delivered its contents to the the armored cars that would carry the money to "nondescript fortress in a secret location" mentioned in the article.

Am I the only one who read this and immediately became curious about the location of this fortress?

Anyway... just thought it was interesting.

It's been a few weeks since I brought up the ticking time bomb that is the municipal worker pension issue.

It's clear that within the next few years, the amount of money the city will need to meet its pension obligations is going to eat up a significant portion of the budget. However, did you also know that currently, in some places, public employees attempt to "spike" their pensions in order to get a higher payments during retirement?

Governing.com columnist Girard Miller explains it best but essentially since the amount that a retiree receives each year in his or her pension can be a percentage of their last (or highest) annual salary, the worker will work a lot of overtime or cash in several unused sick and/or vacation days in order to inflate that number well above where it should be. The city (or county or state) ends up paying much more during that employees retirement than they would if such spiking didn't occur. Ultimately, though, the taxpayers are footing the bill since that's where the money comes from in the first place.

I don't know if such a thing happens in Philly (or if the "diluted" version that Miller talks about happens) but it wouldn't surprise me. There are ways to fix this problem and Miller explains a few - including diverting "sidecar" deferred compensation plans that would contribute to 401k-type plans a percentage based on income that is above the base salary.

But... like all seemingly logical solutions, once political considerations are taken into account, the math seems to get a lot fuzzier.

It's time to meet another mayor - Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. This one's easy, since 13th Floor already compiled a bunch of interesting links for me that provide both glowing praise (here, too) and harsh criticism of Mr. Villaraigosa. Granted, 13th makes the point that the harsh criticism is more about the man himself and not his policies.

Villaraigosa is one of a number of mayors (like Bloomberg in New York and Daley in Chicago) who attempted to "take back" or take control of their city's school districts. For Villaraigosa, it didn't exactly work out but his attempt can be instructional for anyone else who wants to do the same in their own city.

Interesting trivia... his last name was originally Villar but he blended his wife's name, Raigosa, into his own to get Villaraigosa.

Leave it to City of Gotham to be employing technology in its crime fighting efforts that would make Bruce Wayne proud. Following up on the success of the Comstat crime tracking program, the NYPD has begun using high tech approaches to gathering and storing information and putting that information at the fingertips of officers and detectives in the field.

Using a combination of an advanced database, wifi and a Google-like search capability, detectives can search for obscure details given to them from witnesses and be put on a suspects trail in minutes. Facts and notes that were once stored in vast warehouses, tucked away in boxes, file folders and other detectives' notebooks, are now available on-line.

There's no statistical way, at this point in time, to prove that the new system is having a dramatic effect on crime fighting but the NYT article gives several pieces of anecdotal evidence.

Crime fighting appears to be just one of many different benefits that city's are discovering about citywide, municipal wireless internet. Among those are "automated traffic monitoring, parking enforcement, and meter reading" and using wireless video cameras to watch for vandalism.

Bottom line... no matter what happens for consumers when Wireless Philly is up and running, if the City does it right and takes advantage, we could be in for a whole new era of smart government. (Or at least an era in which the phrase "smart government" doesn't cause some to chuckle or roll their eyes.)

Then tune in to The Next Mayor next week!

We are delighted to announce that we will host two special live chats with the major party candidates:

Democrat Michael Nutter will be LIVE on our site Tuesday at 1 p.m.

And Republican Al Taubenberger will be LIVE on our site Thursday at 10 a.m.!

Come back to chat with them directly! And if you think you'll miss the chats, just comment here with any questions you'd like us to put to the candidates.

Boy, Marcia Gelbart sure has a good story in the Inquirer today about attacks on Bob Brady's position in the Democratic party...

Every time I start to think that the future of the city is bright and we're moving to a time when we'll all be able to work together to solve the major problems that confront all of us, all I have to do is peruse the letters to the editor in The Northeast Times. Scroll down to the seventh headline. There's no way I'm going to reprint any of it here. I'll just give you a warning that what you're about to read is some of the most racist, ignorant, hateful words ever sent to (and printed by) a newspaper. It's instructive only in that I can't imagine that the letter writer is the only one out there with those feelings and when I think about that, a little part of me dies. It also makes me sad when I think about how DUMB someone must be not to see their own vitriol for what it is AND set those thoughts on paper AND send it to a newspaper.

Free speech and the marketplace of ideas being what they are, today's crop of letters in the Northeast Times has plent of rebuttals (and one agreement, sigh again.) Scroll to the bottom.

My legislative body is trying to put together a taste test to determine the fate of several small bakeries:

The original bill's [banning trans fat] sponsor, Councilman Juan Ramos, asked Krajewski to hold the amendment or withdraw it; to which Krajewski replied, "No, I want these bakeries to come in and testify in front of City Council."

Krajewski plans to bring in several of the independent bakeries to offer Council Members a taste of their prize winners, with and without trans fat. They'll taste the difference, she notes.

I'm ok with this tactic but I hope Krajewski and O'Neill don't plan on using a similar method to provide evidence for their opposition to the Water Department's proposed sewage holding tank.

I'm a former suburban kid and a closet environmentalist so I'm always readingup on the ways that other cities and regions are working to curb sprawl, reduce air pollution and strengthen the connections between the core city and the surrounding region.

In this fascinating article from Governing magazine, you can read about the evolution of transit-oriented development in the historically auto-centric city of Charlotte, North Carolina. Apparently, a lot of it was spurred by the fact that many former Philadelphians (and folks from other older cities) moved down there during the wave of bank consolidations and headquarter relocations that happened in the nineties. Who knew that nostalgia for the El could result in $5 billion in infrastructure development?

This article is replete with people saying the right things when it comes to long term planning:

“Planners use acronyms and words like ’density’ and ’R6 zoning,’ ” [Charlotte Mayor Pat] McCrory says. “People can’t relate.” The mayor liked to present two competing images of Charlotte’s future. One included tidy tree-lined streets with bikeways and sidewalks. The other showed “traffic lights every 15 feet, strip malls and unlimited pavement.” More than anything, McCrory stressed the idea that a transit system isn’t intended to be a quick fix but rather a long-term investment.

As if to underscore that smart growth and environmental awareness isn't a partisan issue, it should be noted that McCrory is a Republican and was among those advocating for a half-cent sales tax increase that covered the 25 percent local share of the overall cost. Another 25 percent came from the state with the remaining 50 percent coming from the federal government. Kind of makes we wonder what we could do here to extend transit out to King of Prussia or Bucks County if our regional delegation in Harrisburg could get on the same page.

It seems that everyone needs to be on the same page to accomplish such and effort. Here's another quote from a very "on message" advisor to the mayor:

Voters have supported transit several times in the past, and city officials, from the planners to Mayor McCrory, have worked hard to build support within the community. Tina Votaw, a planner with the city agency in charge of light rail, says it’s important to convey a big-picture message to the public. “You have to be honest and say, ’You’re right. This transit line might not help you. But it might help your neighbors. It might help your children.’ ” Votaw adds that traffic congestion isn’t going away, and that adding lanes to busy freeways is a short-term solution to traffic problems. “We’re not traditionally good at taking the long view,” she says. “But you’ve got to impress that upon people one by one.”

Charlotte is among many sunbelt cities following this trend along with Austin, Dallas, Orlando, Phoenix and Sacramento.

So, let's say they all succeed and are able to replicate, in some measure, the walkability, convenience and car-independent thing that we have going on here in Philadelphia. And we can take it one step further and say that such success spurs the development of thriving arts and culture scenes, eclectic mixes of people and vibrant hospitality industry. If you add this to the fantastic weather, cleaner visual environment and efficient delivery of city services and lower tax rates, what's stopping ANYONE from moving from here to one of those places? Our mega-successful sports teams?

Here's hoping that the competition pushes us to achieve even greater things.

I'm not a big fan of the voter as customer metaphor but if you are, here's an interview with the author of a book titled, The Price of Government: Getting the Results We Need in an Age of Permanent Fiscal Crisis.

The quote from the title of this post is his and he seeks to give lessons from the retail world to government officials.

On one of the campaigns I worked for, the candidate made what I thought was a very convincing argument that when we treat voters like customers, or more accurately, consumers, we end up ignoring that citizenship and being a part of a commonwealth or city requires some sacrifice on our part for the common good. That's not to say that the sacrifice should come in the form of sacrificing our expectations for the efficient, predictable, courteous and consistent delivery of basic city services. The sacrifice comes from paying your taxes knowing that not every cent is going to benefit you directly.

He went on to say that when we treat citizens as consumers, they treat their elected officials like salesmen, voting out any of them who even consider raising a tax. Of course, this has more to do with federal tax policies than local tax policies. But we don't call the occupant of room 215, the CEO of Philadelphia, we call him (or someday her), the Mayor. There's a lot more to that than just managing the dollars and cents.

If you're a time-shifting television watcher and you haven't seen the series finale of The Sopranos yet, and the only reason you came out from hiding under that rock this morning was to check our blog, rest assured we won't give anything away here.

Buuuut...

In the category of "Vacation Experiences That I'll Never Have," there's this story about Tom Knox and his recent boat trip Sopranos star James Gandolfini. It even includes some great snapshots that beat the heck out of the ones of me and my college roommates on our recent wedding/reunion trip to Israel. Gandolfini wasn't the only celebrity that Knox spent time with in the Bahamas over last New Year's Eve:

It was a star-studded vacation for Knox at the exclusive Ocean Club in Nassau. While hanging out at the pool on New Year's Eve, he struck up a conversation with a man who asked what Knox did for a living.

"How about that?" responded the stranger. "I'm mayor of Chicago." Knox invited Richard M. Daley to join him and his new friend Jim Gandolfini for dinner that evening.

While it's true we don't have Knox (or Brady or Fattah or Evans) to kick around any more, I can't help but feel a little relieved that someone who (at least by this account) didn't know the mayor of Chicago (aka "The Mayor) before being told "I'm mayor of Chicago," didn't end up as mayor of Philadelphia.

Oh and by the way, if you really want to know what happened to Tony use your mouse to select the block of blank space below:

In the final scene, with both FBI and rival mob bullets flying throughout the diner in which Tony and his family had been dining, an autistic child holding a snow globe in one hand guided a 1950s-era chopper to the ground. Tony got into the chopper and as he flew off, he read the words "Good Bye" spelled out with a number of large stones on the street below. As Tony drifted to sleep in the airborne chopper, he was suddenly roused from sleep to find himself back in his bedroom with the sound of the shower coming from the bathroom. He entered the bathroom and pulled back the curtain to find Patrick Duffy lathering up at which point he realized... it was all a dream!

(A nod to Adam B. for the formatting idea for spoilers. He's "a friend of ours" which in blogosphere mafia speak means "another person with a blog," who writes a lot about pop culture and, therefore, often walks the spoiler line.)

Tomorrow we welcome Democratic nominee for Mayor of Philadelphia, Michael Nutter, to our virtual press conference, except by "press" we mean people wasting their employer's valuable time chatting at work or taking a break from afternoon courtroom television shows. All are welcomed to join in this chat with the man who, many believe, has a better-than-average shot at being the next mayor.

Make sure you check out the main page at 1pm tomorrow for information about how to participate in this Q&A session.

Al Taubenberger will join us in the "virtual family room" for a chat on Thursday.

Last Friday I waxed philosophical as I explored the role of the mayor as the leader of the city and as the manager of the city government. To sum up, I said I was a bit skeptical of instances in which voters have been treated to and appealed to as if they were consumers searching for the lowest prices.

The good folks at the Economy League of Greater Philadelphia wrote to me today to provide a counterpoint. I respect their work a lot and on many points I agree, especially the idea that they've been talking about for long time - that the city budget is the best and most clear way for the mayor to demonstrate his priorities and overall philosophy on governing - that is, if the budget itself is clear and easy to understand. Since I can't do justice to their arguments, I'll share with you the email from Marisa Waxman, Senior Associate and policy expert.

Click on "Continue Reading" to check out the email.

It's a brave new world in Philadelphia politics and it starts this afternoon at 1pm on the official website of The Next Mayor project.

Democratic mayoral nominee Michael Nutter will participate in a live web chat from the offices of the Philadelphia Daily News. I'll be there too but you don't really care about that.

Anyway, there's a lot on my blogging plate for today but I'll wait until after the 1pm event.

And I would be remiss if I didn't remind you that your opportunity to get to know Republican mayoral nominee Al Taubenberger will be this Thursday at 10am. But please, do your research before you jump into that chat. It'll be embarrassing for me, you and Mr. Taubenberger if the first question is reminiscent of the Springfield Shopper's Dave Shutton ("Who are you? Where are you going?").

Vance Lehmkuhl, on-line editor of the Daily News, just told Nutter that he's getting "Bill Conlin-like chat numbers" and that a vast majority of the questions were coming from all different people. In technical speak, that means we could see the IP addresses of the users and they were all unique for different names.

Yep. We just wrapped up the first Next Mayor live chat with the candidate and I guess all of our fears about not getting enough questions were answered early on. Before Mr. Nutter could sit down, we had about 10 questions and it was all he could do to keep up with the stream of questions that came in.

Anyway, if you missed it, we'll be putting up a transcript of the session that puts his answers directly after the questions that they refer to. Wendy is working on that now and will post it on the blog and the site.

Thanks to all of you who participated and used your employer's valuable time to ask Candidate Nutter a question. (Just kidding folks, I know you all scheduled your lunch break so you could participate in this.)

Remember Al Taubenberger on Thursday at 10am. Come by the site for an informal chat with Republican mayoral nominee.

Wow, that was HUGE. Concerned citizens deluged Democratic mayoral candidate Michael Nutter with questions for today's chat. An edited version of the session -- which puts the questions and answers together -- is below the jump.

It was hard to follow the answers to the questions as the chat progressed, so perhaps this will be easier to read.

Now, I am sorry to say that the questions came so thick and heavy that Nutter did not get a chance to answer them all. He did get to most of the major points, however...

ETA: Here's the unedited version of the chat. It's tough to read because it's not in order, but it's the complete transcript. I am still working through the rest of the transcript. I will be posting an update tomorrow. - Wendy

Philadelphia Business Journal's survey of the week is "grade recent graduates in the workforce." While the grades themselves fall into a pretty typical collegiate-like curve, skewing towards the "Gentleman's B," the more revealing part of this survey can be found in the comments. Here are some of my favorites:

Motivation and commitment level are average at best even if they have great knowledge and skill. A few shining stars, but most feel the world owes them something and therefore, they don't feel they should have to work hard to achieve success. They feel entitled. This is what our culture and schools/unversities are producing today for the most part, and it's a shame.

Motivation and commitment level are average at best even if they have great knowledge and skill. A few shining stars, but most feel the world owes them something and therefore, they don't feel they should have to work hard to achieve success. They feel entitled. This is what our culture and schools/unversities are producing today for the most part, and it's a shame.

Their writing skills and knowledge of contemporary history is sorely lacking.

Does anyone else see the irony in that last comment? Doesn't take a college graduate to know subject-verb agreement.

Anyway, are their any employers out there who want to say something positive about recent college grads? Do you think employers in cities that are well-known for attracting the best and brightest college grads are having these same issues? Are their any recent college grads who want to respond? My sense is there's a certain amount of the curmudgeonly "in my day..." at work in these comments but it could be true that things are actually worse in this department than they were a generation ago.

Food for thought.

I haven't been following the Kim Byrd story all that much. Byrd, a Philadelphia police officer, was promoted a couple years ago to be Commissioner Johnson's chief of staff. Rumors of favoritism spread throughout the department and there was some degree of controversy that eventually died down - or at least wasn't covered in the news. Recently, Byrd won the prestigious George Fencl award, the MVP award for cops. With Johnson as a judge for the award, the same favoritism issues were brought up again. Soon after, Johnson promoted Byrd to "executive officer," a move, apparently, that brings more responsibility but no upgrade in pay (what was second place? two such promotions?).

Anyway, to outsiders it probably seemed like the jealousy and negative reactions among police officers were due to typical issues of seniority with a little sexism mixed in. But, according to this Tribune story, racial tension in the police department is a serious issue.

I'm especially troubled by this quote from an anonymous source:

“We have a new mayor coming in and no decision has been made yet as to who the next police commissioner will be. If it’s a white commissioner, then God help us,” the officer said.

I'm not even sure what this officer means by this. What don't I know about the internal workings of the Philadelphia Police Department that would make a statement like this true? Or could this just be the rantings of one loudmouthed, disgruntled cop and not reflective of the attitude of the vast majority of cops?

Either way, it's disturbing.

There's a saying about government that goes "a billion here, a billion there and pretty soon you're talking about real money." I've always wondered why some government services cost sooooo much. This sidebar about the $38 million price tag on the rehabilitation of the Ada H. Lewis Middle School could shed some light:

For example, the district estimated a cost of $2,500 per door to be placed on existing frames.

"I've done prison work, hospital work, and a fire-rated, prefinished door, I can get for $250," he said.

Apparently the School District also has aspirations to host an NCAA tournament opening weekend at the gym:

Kirby also said the estimate for replacing the Ada Lewis gymnasium floor was overpriced at $40 per square foot.

"Unless you're at the Palestra, you're not going to spend $40 per square foot," Kirby said. "You could do a middle-school gym floor for $10 to $12 a square foot."

Or you could just use linoleum like some of the floors I played on in grade school.

Imagine if every budget item for every government expenditure could just as easily be revised downward by seventy to ninety percent.

According to Frank Fairbanks, award-winning city manager of Phoenix, Arizona, community participation is key (link will work for about a week). Phoenix, by the way, has been recognized a number of times for its efficient delivery of city services. We even have video of Mr. Fairbanks from his visit to Philadelphia, explaining part of how Phoenix does things "faster and better."

Of course, he's using graffiti as his example of a "big problem" for the "low-income" area of Phoenix so his perspective may not exactly fit with some of the major issues that we face in Philadelphia. Still, it's instructive to see how intensely and deeply the city of Phoenix enlists the help of community residents to perform what some might consider city services. Most importantly, the city makes certain promises that it will hold up its end of the bargain:

Graffiti Busters includes:

- A strong city service delivery team to quickly paint over graffiti
- Effective program measurements and accountability to a 48-hour removal goal
- Extensive outreach enlisting community members to report and paint graffiti, using borrowed city tools and free paint to expedite paint-overs and cut costs
- Use of technology through paint color matching, web-based communications, and motion-activated digital cameras to catch violators
- Outreach training for the community
- Financial rewards for tips that help apprehend graffiti violators
- Prevention activities via city ordinances requiring that retailers lock up spray paint and refuse underage sales
- Assignment of three detectives to investigate graffiti cases
- Prosecution of graffiti vandals to obtain restitution and sentences
- A probation program that allows first-time graffiti vandals to paint out graffiti in lieu of jail time
- Advocacy for state legislative action supporting strong, uniform anti-graffiti laws

Again, I realize it's graffiti that we're talking about here and that the City does have it's own version of this with the Anti-Graffiti Network, but the point is that a major theme that was brought up repeatedly during our Next Mayor Community Forums was the desire for members of the community to have a greater voice in service delivery. Phoenix just provides one example.

As an aside, has anyone ever worked with the Philadelphia Anti-Graffiti Network? How responsive and effective are they?

In this case, the machine is your computer.

In about 50 minutes, Al Taubenberger will join us for a live webchat. This may be the first time many of you have gotten to chat with Mr. T. and I pity the fool who misses out on it.

We think we've smoothed out some of the rough edges in the process but like before, we'll make a transcript of the entire thing available later in the day.

Well, I'm off to the Daily News office. Hope to see you on-line.

I just got back from the Daily News where Republican nominee for mayor, Al Taubenberger, conducted a live web chat with participants. There was a good mix of questions including several that had been emailed to us in advance. Al was able to get to 17 different questions in the hour he was with us and he said that he enjoyed the experience very much.

I was a little disappointed that more people didn't take the opportunity to try and get to know Al Taubenberger, "the guy," instead of just treating him like Al Taubenberger, "the candidate." There's still a lot that we have learn about this guy and in the future (and he said he'd welcome the chance to do this again), I hope we get questions that probe a little deeper into his personality and leadership style.

Anyway, you'll find an unedited version of the chat here. Start at the bottom and work your way up. Wendy is working on pairing up the questions with the answers in a more coherent fashion. I'm working on a web-only radio (webdio?) piece about both Nutter's and Taubenberger's experience. Check back here later today and tomorrow for those pieces.

PS. A reminder: here are the edited and unedited transcripts of the Michael Nutter web chat. We welcome your thoughts in the comments, especially if you participated in either of the chats. We'd like to know what we can do better to make these events both more entertaining and informative.

The Inquirer's Great Expectations project has been asking people to imagine that "Michael Nutter, Democratic nominee and likely next mayor of Philadelphia, has materialized at your kitchen table."

You would have his undivided attention for two minutes and would start your conversation with "Yo, Mike! The one thing I really need you to do is..."

You fill in the rest.

Today they have a sampling of some of the 600 or so responses that they've gotten.

Some of it is almost enough to bring tears to your eyes:

"Often people wrote not about a specific issue, but a heartfelt aspiration. Many want to believe that Nutter's primary win was a sign that hope isn't just for suckers. Some comments:

I'd like to feel like a winner."

I happen to be a baseball fan, so for me, news like this is helpful for that winner thing. But seriously, I know exactly what that commenter is talking about. When I was in college - in Massachusetts - I lived with 4 guys who were from different cities all around the country (and world for that matter). Whenever I told someone that I was from Philadelphia, I seemed to get either sympathetic reactions, or "oh, the cheesesteak place" reactions or no reaction whatsoever. On my recent trip overseas, I got similar reactions, albeit with less of the sympathetic and more of the no impression at all, from people from London, Brazil, Chicago, etc. People from New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, even Boston, don't get those reactions.

I don't know if I'll always live here but I'll always answer the question of where I'm from with "Philadelphia." I'm hopeful that the reaction will be more positive in the future.

The more I read stories like this and see headlines like this, the more I realize that the most difficult issue facing the next mayor is protecting vulnerable and at-risk children.

It's important because it's precisely these children who, if not cared for and raised properly from the very earliest part of their lives, are statistically more likely to enter the criminal justice system and be the perpetrators and/or victims of violent crime. And that assumes that they even make it to adolescence and young adulthood. Of course it's even more important that they be kept safe and be given a chance to grow up. But where do you draw the line? At what point do you determine that it's in the child's best interest to be separated from their parents or taken from their home environment? There are probably a LOT of folks out there who shouldn't be parents. Heck, there are probably a lot of people out there who shouldn't have pets. But the fact is they become parents and as such also have certain rights.

The issue is difficult simply for the political reason that the mayor serves for eight years and will spend most of his time dealing with the issue of the day. Much of what needs to happen at DHS and in the care and education of children in general, require actions that focus on the long run - 10, 15, 20 years down the line. The mayor needs to realize that it may be his successor or his successor's successor that actually enjoys the fruits of his labor. How many elected officials do we have who take that sort of long range view of things? More importantly, how many voters are willing to let them?

Anyway, keep your chins up, DHS workers. I know morale must be pretty low with headlines like those screaming at you every day. But since you're the ones who actually will be there in 15 or 20 years, this city needs you.

If I had my own computerized radio disc jockey, I could program it with the very phrase in the title of this blog post and have it play it just about every day.

Today's focus of my ire, the time that esteemed body is spending trying to decide where "The City of Philadelphia" is pro-choice by, ironically, making that choice for everyone in Philadelphia.

So Blondell Reynolds Brown introduced a resolution (which passed) that said that Philadelphia is a pro-choice city. Now, Councilman Brian O'Neill wants a resolution that says Philadelphia is pro-choice and pro-life. If it passes, it seems like we'd be pretty much back to where we were before this whole fiasco started, except that we'd have a couple fancy proclamations (suitable for framing) to show for it.

I've got it, why don't the just pass a bill to put that question on the ballot so we can change the Charter? I wonder what the Committee of Seventy would say about that.

Money, it's a gas.

Yes folks, we get one last look at the campaign finance situation from the 2007 primary. The Inquirer coverage focuses on the crazy amount that Tom Knox spent and breaks down his, Nutter's and Al Taubenberger's per-vote spending. In case you're wondering, Taubenberger spent "spent less than a quarter" for "each and every one of his 17,449 votes."

Inquirer also has a story connecting past donors to Mayor Street to the "One Step Closer" PAC that ran the anti-Nutter ads that were seen (it seems) by literally tens of people. Are we surprised by this?

The Daily News coverage takes a different angle and makes a comparison of the numbers of donors who gave to each campaign. And they'd be able to do it too, if all of the campaigns had filed their electronic records on time for their deadline (DN shakes fist at Fattah and Brady campaigns - but I did find Fattah's filing on the City Controller's website). Anyway, the interesting takeaway from this story is that:

Half of Nutter's donors gave $250 or less, according to his reports. But he had more than 4,300 individual and organization donors - a broader base of support than any of his rivals, twice as many as Mayor Street had for the 1999 primary and as many as donated to Ed Rendell in his mayoral campaigns in 1991 and 1995 combined.

Nutter raised $4.6 million, according to his reports.

Is there any doubt any more about why he won? Obviously he helped to pass campaign finance restrictions that played right to his strength of being able to spend 5-6 hours per day on the phone asking people for money. Duh. Does this mean that Nutter takes the mantle of "state's most prolific fundraiser" from Rendell? What would Rendell have been able to raise with the same limits?

Anyway, the final point about all of this is that if you take away Tom Knox's own personal contributions of $10 million ($10,593,220 to be exact), the five Democratic candidates raised a total of about $14.5 million, slightly below than the $14.7 million raised by the five Democratic candidates in 1999.

If you consider that television ad costs are 15 to 20 percent higher than in 1999 (according to Nutter media consultant Neil Oxman) AND the fact that Taubenberger and Nutter are not expected to come anywhere close to what John Street and Sam Katz raised in the summer and fall of 1999, then we could have the least tv-ad intensive, least expensive mayoral campaign in a long time. Barring any surprises...

FYI: From the City Controller's website, the Cycle 3 (May 1 to June 4) campaign finance reports for Michael Nutter, Tom Knox, Chaka Fattah, Dwight Evans and Al Taubenberger.

For you campaign finance report junkies out there, mark September 25th on your calendar since, according to the Records Department, that's the deadline for the next filing.

Folks: That deadline is for statewide candidates and those who give to them only. Sorry about the error -- Wendy

...because of this?

Bravo, Elmer.

From today's Metro:

Carey Dearnley, a public relations consultant contracted by the SRC, has been singled out by the group several times. She contends that the $162,000 she receives over two years is well worth it.

“We’re not duplicating work done at the district, we’re supplicating [for] the work done at the district,” said Dearnley.

Yes, Ms. Dearnley, you very well may be "supplicating" for the work (and the money you get paid for the work) done at the school district. But what kind of public relations work are you doing? In this case, not very good.

No insult intended to the power of politics, but I really think the movement of money is a more powerful force in our city (and our nation, but that's another blog).

And I think mayoral administrations run well when they understand the enormous importance of managing the city budget successfully. That means not just living within the budget's limits, but also investing in goals and ideas that the city wants to acheive or make real. Like more robust economic development. Or an improved education system.

I sure wish we could spare some time right now thinking about what we'd like to invest in.

Unfortunately, we are going to have to spend the rest of the Street administration wondering how we'll squeeze the five-year plan back into balance, without devastating the city programs we care about.

Here's the problem: the city budget for 2008 is balanced only because the city is using some of the surplus built up over recent years. And, after that, the city's plan is seriously out of whack, spending more than we'll collect in tax revenue. Budget watchdogs are already sounding the alarm -- even talking about exercising their perogative to withhold wage tax revenue.

From Mark McDonald's story last week:

Rob Dubow, PICA's executive director, said yesterday that there's a "hole in the city plan that is hundreds of millions of dollars."

Joyce Wilkerson, Street's chief of staff, said, "We still don't have a good sense of how far off the five-year plan is right now."

Yikes. And there's more:

In the last few weeks, the mayor and City Council have agreed to new spending for the city schools that put the city's long-term finances deeper in the red: a real-estate tax shift that will cost the city treasury $97 million over five years and a $10 million payment for 2008.

Council also restored roughly $16 million of proposed spending cuts in the 2008 budget, but the problem is that the revenue isn't there in future years to support it.

The crisis shouldn't surprise anyone. Budget watchdogs PICA identified serious concerns in the current five-year plan long before the 2008 budget was decided.

Certainly, mayoral candidates Al Taubenberger and Michael Nutter know about it. They also understand that the person who wins office in November will have to present a five-year plan shortly after taking office, and then will have to negotiate new contracts with the city's labor unions. Both have mentioned opening early negotiations with the unions, given the seriousness of the situation.

But, stories like Mark's notwithstanding, I am not at all sure the rest of the city gets how serious this problem might be for Philadelphia. And I am not sure City Council helps when the budget for 2008 wins passage by avoiding tough choices.

Wow, wish I had realized this when the stop-and-frisk bashing was at its peak in the campaign:

PHILLY COPS ALREADY USE STOP AND FRISK.

So says everyone -- including Mayoral Candidate Michael Nutter, who kicked off a storm during the mayoral primary when he suggested using it -- quoted in Catherine Lucey's story in the Daily News today.

Nutter explains that he wants to emphasize that we do use it. He doesn't say this exactly, but part of the reason for using new or noteworthy or even controversial police tactics is to make a big deal about them publicly, which reminds the city that the cops are indeed working hard to stop crime.

OK, that was a bit cynical. As is the fact that the police commissioner and current mayor let the bashing of Nutter's idea continue unchecked through the end of the campaign. But I digress.

I found the most interesting part of the story to be the fact that we have seen a steep increase in stop-and-frisk-type stops in 2006: 132,765 were made, up from just 87,812 stops in 2004. Last year's numbers equalled nine stops per 100 residents.

That's a lot of frisking.

Again, it's just a little surprising that, with all that frisking going on, no one said, at the end of the primary, "Why is this so controversial? We do this now -- a lot, in fact. And no one has said boo."

Oops. Got a bit cynical again. Sorry.

Let's take a quick look at what's going on in some other cities, shall we?

In the Steel City, Mayor Luke Ravenstahl, who ascended to office after the tragic death of Mayor Bob O'Connor, has asked for the resignation of 10 of the city's department heads. Wunderkind Ravenstahl, who is only a few years removed from becoming old enough to rent a car, says that the voters in Pittsburgh's recent primary election, in which he ran unopposed, sent a strong signal for change. Sound familiar? He had delayed putting more of his own people in place because of the unfortunate circumstances which elevated him to the position of mayor. Now he appears ready - and very eager - to start marking his territory.

The Philly-Dallas rivalry continues as our favorite football foils from the great state of Texas, did something that this city declined to do last May - elect as mayor a businessman with no political experience. Tom Leppert, a retired construction company executive who has lived in Dallas for almost 4 whole years, will be sworn in as mayor in eight days and will have to get started right away on the city's budget. In this runoff election, Leppert defeated Ed Oakley a city councilman with "nearly two decades of political experience and encyclopedic knowledge of municipal government." Again, does that sound familiar? Oakley won more districts throughout the city than Leppert (9 of 14) but Leppert won huge in the districts that he did win, carrying him to victory. As an interesting aside, if he had won, Oakley would have been the first openly gay mayor of one of the nation's top-10 largest cities. Dallas faces similar challenges to Philadelphia, high crime rate, "fragile economy" and city services in need of improvement. So for all of you Knox supporters out there who are still smarting from the loss, you can jump ship and go root for Dallas, where a guy with a similar background gets to be starting quarterback of his team.

Finally, in several school districts nationwide, unionized teachers are starting to come around on the concept of merit pay. Teachers have long been hostile to merit-based pay because it could open the door to having a wide variety of criteria - the whim of a school administrator or the family conditions of their students - determine their compensation. Of course, proponents of the move believe that teachers will work harder to help their students learn if there is a financial motivation. The state of Minnesota is giving it a go by enlisting the teacher's union from the jump to help develop the merit pay program. The rest of us can sit back and see how it works out there. Thanks, Minnesota, for doing that "democratic laboratory" thing that the founding fathers envisioned when they gave us federalism.

Tune in now to hear Marty's conversation with an actual Street administration official!

You won't want to miss it. These kinds of bookings are very difficult to get.

Click here for ways to listen live on the interweb tubes.

(edited to add)
Ok, now that it's over, you can download the podcast and listen to it at your leisure. The link should work by about 12:15pm at the latest so check back if it's not working for you.

Feel free to comment here.

The Economy League of Greater Philadelphia, whose offices, in my imagination, look like Santa's workshop except the elves all have laptops and produce very high-quality position papers about every issue you could imagine, is catching the Quizzo wave with a Philly-issues-based version of the popular bar game. Unfortunately, I don't think Johnny Goodtimes - who has also starting working in an anti-violence/pro-mentoring message into his Quizzo sessions - will be there, but it's still worth going.

Here's the info:

If you know the City Budget Director's name or the room number of the Mayor's Office, there’s a prize for that! Join the Economy League and other holders of arcane knowledge information essential to everyday life for IssuesPhiladelphia Quizzo! Bring a team, join one there, or make snarky comments from the sidelines – there’ll be giveaways for all!

TONIGHT, Tuesday 19 June 2007 from 5:30 – 8 pm.
Quizzo game #1 starts 6:15, #2 starts 7:00

Lower level of Barristers Bar & Grille, 1823 Sansom Street (closest to 19th St.)

We expect several teams and many hangers-on from many of the region’s major civically-engaged nonprofits, authorities, consultants, and others – some formerly employed by one administration or another. For those who don't want to try Quizzo, we created an IssuesPhiladelphia crossword.

Launched in March 2007 by the Economy League of Greater Philadelphia, IssuesPhiladelphia is a primarily web-based resource that seeks to focus government on efficiently and effectively providing the results that matter to city residents. The polls, best practices, articles, and analysis can help residents see the impact that budget and policy decisions have on their everyday lives. A March IssuesPhiladelphia/Temple Institute for Public Affairs poll revealed that 73% of Philadelphians believe that the City does only a “fair” or “poor” job. Closing that disconnect between what people want and what the City provides is one of the project’s goals.

For more information about IssuesPhiladelphia and to see the impact that budget and policy decisions have on your everyday life, check out this fact sheet and visit IssuesPhiladelphia.org.

I really wish I could be there because I would undoubtedly, you know, win.

It's unfortunate that murder in Philadelphia has become so commonplace that it very rarely makes the cover of the major newspapers or the lead story on the local news. I try to read each and every story that the Inquirer or Daily News do about these murders, no matter how small or lacking in details (which, of course, is because there often aren't many details to be had).

Anyway, in case you missed it, there was something just a little different about murder #186. Specifically, this murder seems to have uncovered the existence of a strange little band of nomads who gather in Philly during the summer from all parts of the country. The neighbors in the area around the abandoned apartment building at 49th and Locust have long known about this group, who move in for the summer like so many Jersey-shore renters, and party until all hours on the roof of the building:

"It's a building that's known for people to squat and party," [Homicide Sgt. Anthony] McFadden said.

"Every year, they are here."

The story doesn't mention it, but I guess that means that once the summer is over, they move on, perhaps to find abandoned buildings in warmer parts of the country. If anyone knows anything about these folks, I'd love to learn more.

It looks like now that murder is involved, the party could be over for this wandering band of rooftop partygoers.

Show me numbers. If you want to convince me of something, just show me some numbers.

Well, the numbers are bad. And, like the Daily News Editorial board, I'm convinced.

So the question, Mssrs. Nutter and Taubenberger, is what are you going to do to improve our grades when it comes to the health and welfare of children and youth?

(My other question is, do we have report cards for any other indicators of quality of life?)

The Symphony House condos on South Broad Street (sorry, The Avenue of the Arts) are well on their way to completion and the Inquirer celebrates that in today's paper. Read the article if you want, but the reason I bring it up is to point out the massive amounts of vitriol to be found in the comments. I've long felt that the comments section after news stories on philly.com are only a step up from the behavior that used to go on in the 700 Level at the Vet during Eagles-Redskins games. These comments are (or were, see below) no different.

You could read them but, unfortunately, it seems that the Inquirer has decided to bring them down. Maybe some of them hit a little close to home. I wish I had cut and pasted some of them because it was pretty classic.

Did anyone else happen to see them?

OK, not so much the rest of the site (there is no rest of the site), but it's early yet.

www.MayorAL2007.com

How dismayed was I when I clicked over to Attytood and found this message:

I'm going on a long vacation this year, and as was the case last year I am putting you people in charge.

Ahhhh!

He also points out that one of my other favorite blogs, Philadelphia Will Do is also currently on hiatus.

Don't worry, loyal blogo-nauts, The Next Mayor blog will be here pretty much every day through this hot, sticky summer and we'll have something to say whether this guy or this guy do anything or not.

We'll be here no matter what for one simple reason. I don't get vacation time. If I don't come into work, I don't get paid and the cats need cat food.

Got some good stuff to blog about today, as I suspect will be the case on most days. So The Next Mayor blog will continue to be your place for a frank - and sometimes irreverent - discussion of the issues facing this region and the candidates who want to work on those issues.

Attytood readers, feel free to check us out.

Shameless self-promotion over.

You ever hear the joke that goes, "I went to see a fight and a hockey game broke out?"

Well, in New York City, it appears that for at least the next year or so, people who attend the mayor's press conferences (on things like, say, New York's awesome 311 system) will get presidential candidate press conferences instead.

There are rules, however. According to New York Times blogger Sewell Chan there is "the City Hall protocol that the first round of questions at a news conference be directed at the topic of the day."

Lost in this whole thing is the fact that the press conference was nominally about New York's 311 system taking its 50 millionth (!) caller.

(edited to add)
Speaking of Bloomberg, I picked up this week's Time Magazine with him and the governator on the cover with the headline "Who Needs Washington" (or something to that effect). I haven't read the article yet, but it is available on the web if you want to try and beat me to it.

Or so says JOHN C. LORE, co-director of the Children's Justice Clinic at Rutgers University who wrote the recent op-ed in the Philadelphia Inquirer calling curfew laws a waste time and money.

Of course he used many more, longer words to explain his point to Marty Moss-Coane on Radio Times earlier today.

Taking the pro-curfew side, LAURENCE STEINBERG a nationally recognized expert on the psychological development of teenagers at Temple University says that curfews, while not perfect, can still be a useful tool to keep teens safe (ie don't suck that much).

Many of the callers provide an interesting perspective as several folks from neighborhoods, which seem to be terrorized nightly by roving bands of young people, throw their full support behind the Mayor's recent curfew initiatives despite the lack of statistical evidence to back up their effectiveness.

And there's the rub. Many crime reduction techniques that criminologists claim are ineffective based on the hard numbers also have many anecdotal examples of the way they are changing people's lives for the better. If one person or one block or one neighborhood feels like nighttime has been more peaceful because of a curfew crackdown, does it really matter that, statistically, there have been just as many incidents of crime or vandalism citywide as there were before the action was taken?

The same goes for programs like Congressman Fattah's Groceries for Guns. From the very beginning I pointed out that most criminologists point out that such buyback programs do nothing to decrease shootings. But I have also been quick to point out that if turning in a gun gets some family two hundred bucks towards groceries, I have no problem with that. Just don't call it an anti-crime program. Call it an anti-hunger program.

Anyway... give the show a listen and let me know which side you end up on.

The good (and apparently still necessary) folks over at IssuesPhiladelphia have posted the questions from last night's first ever IssuesPhiladelphia.org Quizzo, a report about the night and pictures of the festivities.

Judging from the pictures, it looks like a good time was had by all in a space that looks curiously like my parents' basement (from which many people think I produce this blog).

While Time magazine cover boys Bloomberg and Schwarzenegger say they don't, apparently Mayor Street thinks we do. In this morning's report about the Mayor's release of the children health and welfare report card (.mp3), WHYY's Susan Phillips says:

Mayor Street says the blame can't be placed completely on the city's shoulders instead he points his finger at the federal government's lack of interest in fight poverty, and bad parenting.

Mayor Street:

These are huge systemic problems. It is very difficult and so much of the work that we do today, we do it as almost a substitute for responsible parents.

I completely understand that Mayor Street and the city of Philadelphia are playing this game with a totally different set of cards than Bloomberg in NYC and Schwarzenegger in California. New York is the largest city in the country with the cache of being the financial and media capital of the free world. Schwarzenegger refers to California as a "nation-state" and it's the 8th largest economy in the world. Clearly, both of them have the luxury of being able to tackle problems using local resources that Philly could never hope to have. It's like sitting at a poker table with a 2-7 off suit while the guys next to you have pocket aces, or suited high connectors and a flop with at an ace or two (sorry, just watched the U.S. Poker Championship last night).

Ok. I get that much. But for some reason it still irks me to hear the excuse that because the federal government is sending fewer resources our way, the city can't solve these problems. Frequent commenter and child welfare expert Susan Badeau commented yesterday that:

The important point here is that it is not an "either/or" proposition that is often reflected in public and political discussions - with some saying - "we need MORE money" and others saying "we have enough money we just need to manage it better, use if more wisely."

The real answer is BOTH/AND. These report cards demonstrate that when we do manage the resources wisely and make strategic investments on children based on the information the data provides, we can get better outcomes. So, yes, we need to spend WISELY, but we also need MORE resources so we can get these improved outcomes in many areas.

She isn't speaking specifically to the point that we need more federal government resources, just more resources in general. If those resources come from the city and we spend them wisely, we could see improvements within a few years if not sooner.

The Mayor's second point, that the city has to act as a substitute for irresponsible or bad parents, is even more disturbing. Afterall, a new president could come into office with an urban agenda that directs these necessary resources to cities. But bad parenting and people becoming parents who aren't quite ready for it will continue. I'm almost inclined to respond to the Mayor's lament about the city substituting for parents by saying, that's how it's going to be, so get used it and figure out how to do it right.

The blog will be a little quiet today since I'm going offsite for an interview this afternoon but before I leave I wanted to share this article that I found on Governing.com's blog, The 13th Floor.

The article profiles Youngstown, Ohio, which has lost over half of its residents since the early 1970s. While most cities in this situation have fought tooth and nail to figure out ways to bring population levels back to their peaks, Youngstown has actually decided that size really doesn't matter.

"We’re on our way to accepting some obvious things about what the city is and isn’t going to be,” says Jay Williams, Youngstown’s 35-year-old mayor. “It was unrealistic to think we’ll be a 100,000 person city. But why not be an attractive city of 80,000 or 85,000 that offers a quality of life that competes with other cities across the state and across the country?”

Youngstown, with a pretty large stockpile of abandoned buildings and property, has decided that rather than thinking of ways to redevelop these areas for the influx of people who may will never come, they would "de-develop" them and essentially return them to the land. That includes removing infrastructure such as roads and utilities to create more green and open space. It becomes a win-win-win. The city has fewer streets to maintain, blighted buildings are removed, and more open space is created.

(As an interesting aside, 13th Floor also has a post featuring a book about what would happen if this Youngstown tactic were taken to the extreme - if all of our infrastructure were "returned to the land.")

I'm not suggesting that Philadelphia can't rebound and start to grow again. I'm not even suggesting that this city can't claw it's way back into the top 5. It is, however, instructive to know that there are viable alternatives if we ever figure out that our city, which is still has some holdover infrastructure and buildings from a time when we had 2.1 million people, is comfortable with 1.4 million.

Can't call it homework because I'm assuming most of you are reading this at work.

While I'm gone, check out today's news. If you're a baseball fan AND you like it when kids have a safe, fun place to play AND you, like I, think that Strawberry Mansion could be one of the best neighborhoods in the city, then you'll love this one.

Unfortunately, the day after the Daily News features a great story about the revival of youth baseball in Strawberry Mansion, we are greeted with a cover story about 8 (8!) murders from late Wednesday to the end of yesterday.

As if that weren't depressing enough, that has raised the year-to-date homicide total to 194 in 172 days. I did the math and that puts us on a pace for 411. But wait, it gets worse. At this time last year there were 173 murders. That projected to a year end total of 367. We're probably all aware that the year ended with 406 homicides, which means that we can probably expect the pace to pick up this year.

This problem has been serious for about 4 years now, ever since the numbers started to climb after reaching a relative low point of 220 288 in 2002. At this point, I'm at a loss to figure out what it's going to take to reverse the trend.

Lest we fall into the trap of treating these homicides like simple statistics, here are the names, where available for each of the eight victims:

Raheem Haines, 20
Diana Patrick, 31 (Diana's sister Jennifer, 29, was also shot and is in critical condition)
Bruce Burman, 22
Bobby Lundy, 24
Sean White, 19
Theophilius Mason, 46

Two others haven't been identified yet.

I came across this in a post over at Young Philly Politics:

If a bioterrorist attack happens in Philadelphia, large numbers of people may need medicine quickly to prevent sickness.

This is only a test. There is nothing you need to do.

Yay! An empty box! I can put beer... er uh... sodas in it.

Anyway, the person who posted it on YPP did it with the intention of sparking a debate about the usefulness of such an exercise vs. the expense to taxpayers vs. this being another scare tactic to remind us of the war on terror. So far, no one has taken the bait but there is a good amount of activity in the same debate over at Daily Kos.

Just because I've been accused in the past of opening completely irrelevant cans of worms, I'll ask the question, will the people who receive these cardboard boxes be able to put them in the weekly recycling?

If you have a strong feeling about whether this exercise is necessary or a waste of time and energy I encourage you to go the YPP post and participate. If you want to talk about cardboard recycling, comment here. I'll brace myself for the flood of comments.

We've discussed the topic of women in politics in Philadelphia before but it remains an important issue. Pivoting off of today's Metro Section, page 1 headline in the Inquirer, "Council-at-large: It's a Man's World," my question is:

Of all of the many talented and accomplished women in leadership positions throughout Philadelphia, whom do you think is most likely to become Philadelphia's first woman mayor?

If you're inclined to think that it won't happen for a while (and we know it won't happen for at least 8 years) you may throw out the names of some younger people who, in 8 or 16 years, could be ready for the job. Note, this question is slightly different from asking which prominent Philadelphia woman should/could be mayor now.

Enjoy.

Is there anything more depressing than periodic SEPTA funding crises?

The lead up ... It's a real crisis! For real this time! They're gonna send fares sky-high! The ugly middle, when more interesting problems are surfaced, and not addressed ... The city cries suburban stranglehold of the board! The suburbs cry mismanagement! No, it's the unions' fault! The system is old and decrepit! What's that smell in the Race-Vine station anyway?

And then the stopgap solution: Here's some pennies from H'burg, guys! See you next crisis!

As an attempt at "governing" this is as suspect as allowing trains to be late because leaves fell on the tracks. THE PROBLEM IS THAT SEPTA IS TOO DEPENDENT ON THE VAGARIES OF LAWMAKERS IN HARRISBURG, who, I should point out, are no more dependable than is the actual arrival time of the R5. Only one mass transit agency in the nation gets a higher percentage of its money from state government: Massachusetts' Bay Transportation Authority. Here, local governments have little flexibility in how they raise money for SEPTA; the power rests with the legislature, one of the nation's least efficient lawmaking bodies.

It's a recipe for this kind of periodic kabuki theater.

And if SEPTA is to end the cycle of crises, the legislature's regular involvement must end. At the very least, a stable source of money -- I know you've heard it before, but that's because it's true -- has to be found so that the system isn't running to lawmakers in a panic on a regular basis.

There is the tiniest bit of hope for that right now, though not more than that.

The state House is debating a transportation bill this week. It is a little insane, calling for all manner of nutsy ways to raise money -- ranging from leasing the turnpike (I still don't completely get that one) to taxes on oil companies (dead on arrival, no matter what the governor wants). State Rep. (and former Mayoral candidate) Dwight Evans says he will not allow a budget to proceed without a transportation funding solution, and the legislature must pass a budget by June 30. So there's lots of work being done right now.

At the same time SEPTA, which says its shortfall is $129 million, is planning to raise fares July 1. For a look at what SEPTA's cuts and fare increases would mean to the local economy, check out this analysis from the Economy League of Greater Philadelphia.

Except.

As John Baer points out in his excellent analysis of this situation, the transit-minded Dems may rule in the House, but any transportation bill must get through the Republican-controlled Senate. Which pretty much rules out the ideas being pitched in the House.

Except. (And this is where the sliver of hope comes in.)

There's a Senate idea for transportation funding, being pitched by indictment-be-damned Vince Fumo, who suggests putting tolls on I-80 to create a stable source of transit funding (this is also addressed in Baer's column). Hmmm.

It's simple. The tolls wouldn't come immediately. And the plan gives a little something to everyone -- money to SEPTA and other transit agencies, money for roads and bridges in the hinterlands, the preservation of patronage toll-taker jobs for Fumo.

As Baer reports, this plan is "not hated" by Senate Republicans.

Could something like that provide the stable funding that SEPTA desperately needs? And, if SETPA should get such a windfall, will it truly be able to move away from panic-mode management and instead think about ways that it could improve the system? You know, making trains and buses more convenient, better for the environment, launching more cool things like this live train schedule watcher -- maybe even extending the subway to the Navy Yard?

It would be such a relief to stop talking about funding crises and begin talking about better transit.

This doesn't exactly have anything to do with the mayor's race so we'll just file it under media critique. The top story on philly.com right now is "Philadelphia archdiocese offers indulgences" and it's filled with all kinds of useful information, like:

An indulgence, according to the church, allows Catholics to avoid or shorten time in purgatory if they undertake certain prescribed acts.

and

What indulgences don't do is forgive sin or spring souls from hell, says William Madges, a theologian and the academic dean of St. Joseph's University. "Indulgences kick in for sins that have already been forgiven" by shortening time in purgatory.

Duh, anyone who's seen Dogma knows was a plenary indulgence is. It's a practice used by fallen angels to get back into heaven.

Is today a slow news day or something?

This story's positioning as the "Top Story" on the front page of Philly.com has gotten it a lot of views and (yay!) a lot of comments, one of my favorite features of Philly.com. Let's see what the denizens of the virtual 700-level have to say.

Click on "Continue Reading" to get some choice samples.

On WHYY this morning, Joel Rose reported that today was supposed to be the deadline set by the Pennsylvania Intergovernmental Cooperation Authority (PICA) for the City to submit a proposed, non-fantasyland version of the 5-year fiscal plan.

Rob Dubow, PICA's director, using his classic, understated style, says that there are "some real issues with [the current version of] this plan."

PICA has within its authority the power to hold back hundreds of millions of dollars in state funding if the City fails to comply with the requirement of turning in a realistic 5-year plan.

As an aside, I've read the plan before, actually several of the plans, and it seems like they've just been working off the 1991 5-year plan and making some changes to some numbers and graphs. All of the references to how "that new show Blossom is going to be awesome" were a dead giveaway.

To us Upper Darby natives, PICA('s) refers to an awesome pizza restaraunt on West Chester Pike (pronounced PEE-kah's), but to everyone else in the region, it's the agency, which very few people have heard of and that's going to drag the city, kicking and screaming, into fiscal responsibility this budget season.

When the executive director of that agency uses phrases like "substantial risks," "real issues," and "challenges," we should all start to get a little antsy. We'll see what the city delivers to PICA this week and keep you updated.

This program note for Radio Times with Marty Moss-Coane:

A conversation with two Philadelphia School principals. BARBARA ADDERLEY, principal of Stanton Elementary School in North Philadelphia and STERLING GARRIS, principal of Blaine Elementary School in Strawberry Mansion have been lauded for dramatic academic turnarounds in their schools. We talk with them about how they have achieved success despite enormous obstacles.

The program is currently underway. Given how many people are tuning out local television news because of how "repetitive," "superficial" and "not nutritious" it is, it's nice to know that some programs do occasionally devote time to people who are making a difference in the community and give them a chance to explain thoroughly how they are doing it.

I'll put up the podcast link when it's available. And here is the podcast. Feel free to comment.

Wow. Chalk this one up to very coincidental scheduling. On the same day that Radio Times talks to two educators about the work they've done to turn their schools around, Fresh Air (a nationally distributed NPR program produced here in Philadelphia) has this:

Frank Burd and Ed Klein are Philadelphia public school teachers who were attacked on the job. Both Burd, a math teacher, and Klein, a music teacher, talk about the difficulties of teaching in inner city schools.

Fresh Air doesn't often talk about local Philadelphia issues, so it'll be interesting to see where they go with this long-form and in-depth conversation. This will air today at 3 and again at 7 on WHYY 91FM. You can also listen live on the internet and or sign up for the Fresh Air podcast.

Does anyone disagree that this an issue that the next mayor should be concerned about?

The FOP is ... already ... endorsing Michael Nutter.

Text of the endorsement is below the jump.

If you haven't seen it, check out this op-ed by Greg Heller in today's Inquirer. It features a clear, succinct criticism of NTI while acknowledging its successes. The writer then offers suggestions for moving forward with neighborhood investment which he calls "best long-term strategy for combating crime, improving our schools, and attracting businesses, jobs, and residents."

I can't help but wonder what could have been accomplished with NTI if it had first featured a pilot project in a much smaller, carefully selected neighborhood. The neighborhood would have to have been one of the cities most challenged so that the city could have figured out whether such a massive intervention would even deliver the kinds of results they were looking for before they committed such massive amounts of bond money, which will ultimately be financed with taxpayer dollars.

You may have seen that new security measures go into effect at City Hall today. The $6.5 million security system has been in the works since shortly after the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center.

Daily News story is here. The WHYY-91FM story includes the perspective a security expert who calls the new system "eyewash."

What do you think? Is this new security system necessary and if so, is it worth $6.5 million? Does it go too far in restricting access to City Hall or not far enough?

Every time I visited City Hall, I was surprised by how easy it was to wander, unescorted through practically every part of the building, including right outside the mayor's office. (Heck, some of today's elected officials got their starts in politics by hanging around in the halls of that building).

Perhaps such measures are necessary in this day and age simply because if it ever were struck by some sort of attack, the first thing people would wonder is why it didn't have more restrictive security measures.

Remember Rick Mariano? During one of the more intense moments of his drawn out legal battle, he was encountered by a media scrum in City Council chambers which resulted in his inadvertent encounter with a swinging metal gate that hit him right at knee level.

We just got an audio file of his refreshingly expletive-free reaction. I'm not going to say much else because I'm conflicted on making fun of a guy for getting injured but at the same time he did deprive the people who elected him of the honest use of his government position. He got hard time and you get a new sound to alert you when you have an email.

Come on, indeed.

I missed the story about the new parking meters in Headhouse Square when it was first posted yesterday* but D-Mac over at Philadelphia Will Do had his characteristically humorous take on the inability of many Philadelphians to embrace change:

We Philadelphians hate the machines because we're too [bleeping] stupid to use them. The Inquirer's Katie Stuhldreher in my favorite story of the day:

"I've lived around here a long time and I just want to know what the heck is going on. What was wrong with the old meters?" said Hilda Schoenwetter, a retired teacher who parks frequently at Head House Square. [...]

Ed Gray, a driver looking for a space, said he didn't like having to walk over to the meter in the middle of the block instead of having one right at his parking space.

Maryann Dolan, seeking a space so she could bring her dog in for a doctor's appointment, looked at one new meter and said: "I don't know what I'm doing here. I think it's just ridiculous."

Yeah, those meters sure are hard. So hard that 95 percent of Portland's meters use the technology and the city has descended into a pit of lawlessness.

Setting aside the seminal question of do Philadelphians (in general) fear change more than other cities and if so, why, I'd like to ask why it seems like the Parking Authority is the only government, or quasi-public, agency that seems to embrace the cutting edge of technology for performing their jobs? Just off the top of my head I can think of three innovations, not including these new multi-meters: (1) smart cards for the existing meters, (2) credit card readers in taxi cabs and (3) the new ticket writing devices used by the meter readers. Each of these has, in some way, improved efficiency, provided better customer service and showed an acuity for best practices being done in other cities.

I realize that the PPA is technically under state control and not governed directly by the mayor or City Council (did I just answer my own question?), but they still perform an essential service for the City. Do they get more funding than other city agencies? Are they more visionary? Is it a function of having been relatively recently taken over by a new set of managers?

Maybe mayor-elect-elect Nutter's recent visit to Baltimore to check out how they do the whole city services thing is a sign that the City might stop complaining about governing authority of PPA and start following its lead.

*To give credit where credit is due, The Philadelphia Public Record had a story about the meters in their June 21st edition.

Freshly compiled in the Headlines archive are all of the stories from today's news that are in some way related to important Philadelphia issues.

Here's the 5-second round-up of some of the notables:

Nutter gets FOP endorsement, says he'll look first in Philly for new commissioner, (if he's fortunate enough to get elected).

City's new 5-year fiscal plan, better but not quite there yet. Oh, and BPT foes are not going to be happy.

Christian Science Monitor prints op-ed with reference to Nutter's electoral success and attributes that success, in part, to ethics reform. No mention of the Olivia ad.

Meanwhile, Al Taubenberger gets a little ink in the Northeast Times. Hey, every little bit helps. (Sorry, the rest of the letters to the editor are disappointingly normal.)

Stu Bykofsky: outsiders like Philadelphia, why can't you? Oh, and Bill O'Reilly is a punk.

We're number 6! We're number 6! Phoenix proudly waves it's #5 flag and celebrates at a uniquely Phoenix eating establishment called Bennigan's. Once global warming makes it so that we don't get snow, we'll pick up again.

SEPTA to raise fares one way to the other:
You can either hear the bad news by clicking on this podcast of the story, or...
Read the bad news in the Metro or Inquirer. You're pick.

The School Reform Commission loves EMO. That's Education Management Organization, not this guy. SRC votes to extend contracts of all 38 private managers, including 12 that the SRC itself said were not meeting expectations. Maybe Emo should be running things. Daily News story is here. If you prefer to listen, try this WHYY podcast. Here's some of the reforms that the SRC can use on selected failing schools.

More public school graduates than expected were accepted into apprenticeship programs with the Philadelphia Building Trades. More people building things means less people shooting other people, or so we hope.

And finally, you gotta love the Coz. A particular poignant bit in the article:

He told the audience a story of a friend who had been teaching science for 16 years. One day a boy in her class appeared to be angry, Cosby said.

Cosby told the future teachers they would have to know how to handle stories like the one the boy told.

Both San Francisco and Atlanta are making news on the healthcare front, albeit for vastly diverging reasons. In San Fran, the city will launch its new initiative to provide health insurance coverage to the 82,000 residents who are currently without such insurance. Cities all over the country will be watching closely to see how this works out.

Meanwhile, in Hot-lanta, their public hospital system is on the verge of collapse. Remember when Philadelphia had a public hospital? It's been a long time.

You think SEPTA is the only public transit system that's having budget problems? Chicago's right there with us and they're looking for two hundred million dollars from the state.

And in New York, they share some of our difficulties with park management. There is one difference:

The report also indicated that despite budget increases in recent years, the Parks Department is not doing enough strategic planning to manage its parkland properly.

A blogging planner (as opposed to a planning blogger) coins a new term known as "brewpub regionalism" based on the experiences and teachings of Denver mayor John Hickenlooper. He also throws in a slightly more derivative term to describe regional cooperation: "no mayor left behind."

Finally, some mayoral candidates in Nashville decide to be homeless for a night. The discussion at 13th Floor, Governing.com's blog, centers on whether such stunts are useful for bringing issues in the public spotlight or self-serving, political stunts that are ultimately offensive to those who experience these problems every day. It's the same discussion that we have when people suggest that the Mayor and City Council ride SEPTA to work every day, a suggestion which I still am unsure of how I feel.

According to the media advisory from the Nutter campaign:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 29, 2007

MEDIA ADVISORY

DEMOCRATIC AND REPUBLICAN MAYORAL CANDIDATES TO MAKE JOINT STATEMENT ON TAX CUTS

WHO:
Michael Nutter, Democratic Mayoral nominee
Al Taubenberger, Republican Mayoral nominee

WHEN:
Friday June 29, 2007, 12.30pm

WHERE:
North East Corner of City Hall

WHY:
Democratic Mayoral nominee Michael Nutter and Republican Mayoral nominee Al Taubenberger will make a joint statement on the City’s five-year budget plan and the issue of the Business Privilege Tax.

# # #

I'm heading out to the joint Nutter-Taubenberger press conference so I don't have time to provide the 10-second wrap up of all of today's important news. I've gathered all the links in one place so feel free to start the discussion yourselves and I'll join in.

Buzz words of the day:

"Consent to search"

"No more transfers"

"Money for the arts"

"Happy Birthday, Michael Nutter"

Catherine Lucey of the Daily News was there and brings back this report.

It was a regular love-fest between Michael Nutter and Al Taubenberger outside City Hall today. The Democratic and Republican mayoral candidates gave a joint press conference to slam Mayor Street’s recently revised five-year plan, which proposes to end reductions in the gross receipts portion of the business privilege tax in 2010.

“The five-year plan is a plan, not the law,” Nutter said. “If I am elected mayor of the city of Philadelphia we will continue the tax reduction plan.”

Taubenberger agreed, saying the gross receipts tax is “something we need to get rid of.”

(edited to add by Dan)
We also captured the historic moment of the Democratic and Republican nominees together on video. Here are some video highlights of the event. (requires QuickTime)

Just before the press conference began, Street walked by. He was still in the weather-proof rain gear that he had been wearing all morning as he sat in line to buy the new Apple IPhone. Street spoke to Nutter and Taubenberger for a moment and when he heard what the press conference was about, he walked away, saying jokingly “I’m not in that discussion!”

Nutter and Taubenberger also ribbed Street about the iPhone.

“Somewhere today someone will get killed or five people will get shot,” Nutter said, adding that he thought the mayor had more important things to do than wait in line for a phone.

Taubenberger said he would use an aide or a family member to make such a purchase.

I haven't really posted on the Street-iPhone thing today, because the folks of my day job, the Daily News, has been covering the crap out of it (as well they should.)

I do have to say, I am amused by it, but a little less offended than some have been (check out the comments on the Daily News link above.) Hey, the mayor is a fanboy. Fanboys sit outside of stores and movie theatres when the gadget, game or movie they love is coming out. Everyone knows sitting outside is half the fun. So yes, he could have sent someone else (and half the day, there was someone else there) but then he would have missed out on the gratifying approval of other fanboys and fangirls, who have been praising the mayor for showing his personal interest.

Plus, as the Mayor told the Daily News, he's getting more work done out of the office than he does in it, a phenomenon that I can certainly identify with:

“There’s a fundamental misunderstanding on how work is done these days,” said Street. “I am on duty 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Some people in the normal workforce don’t understand that. …

“People should be educated. To suggest that the mayor, or other people, are not working because they aren’t in City Hall is ludicrous.”

And if you want to share in the party, there's a fund-raiser tonight at 9:30 ....Read below the jump ...