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.
Comments (2)
So difficult to escape the pen of downsizing.
http://blacknews.com/pr/naacp_downsizing101.html
Without a straight purpose , membership , a budget and reality. The Philadelphia NAACP and surrounding county branches are destined for the same steep shortfalls , shrinking development revenue and impressions of no future improvements , if circumstances aren't already there.
Posted by Jasper Zeigler Jr | June 19, 2007 10:10 AM
Have a moment Dwight Evans will answer questions that may have you nervous.
http://www.philly.com/inquirer/ask/guest/inquirerforum4
Posted by Jasper Zeigler Jr | June 21, 2007 4:01 PM