The Next Mayor

...in Indianapolis.

I bring this up for a number of reasons but most importantly because in this one, somewhat short, newspaper article the reader gets perhaps one of the clearest renderings of the debate between the importance of prevention vs. the importance of enforcement.

Enforcement:

Officials say the drop shows crime-fighting efforts are having an effect.

Mayor Bart Peterson this week pointed to the reduction in homicides during a speech asking for a $90 million income tax increase to fund 100 new police officers, improve the court system and partially pay off debt in police and firefighter pensions.

Here's a city where the desire for more enforcement has led to the mayor - the first Democrat elected mayor of this predominantly Republican city since 1967 - to call for a tax increase to pay for it.

On the prevention side:

Police and community leaders have worked harder than ever to find new ways to attack the social problems, said Olgen Williams, a Westside community activist who runs Christamore House in Haughville.

"When given the right structure, young people and adults can make better choices," he said. "That impacts our whole society."

Which side do you fall on? Or better yet, is there a way to get both? How do we make the investments needed for the long term payoff that would accompany more job opportunities and better educational options while also finding funding for the short-term payoff of locking up criminals and making our entire criminal justice system work more efficiently and effectively?

Social scientists are skeptical of the drop in homicides in Indianapolis, rightly pointing to the need for more data before establish a trend. So we'll have to keep an eye on that city and others nationwide to see what the homicide trends are.

Ok, here's something I never thought I would say: I think the pendulum of power might be swinging toward...Philadelphia teachers.

Yes, those same teachers who bravely go to work in schools where some students appear interested in beating them to a pulp. Those same teachers who, in many schools, are teaching with paltry supplies and old books. The ones who are dealing with high-stakes testing of students in a district so packed with impoverished kids that they just give everyone free lunch.

Actually, it was Elmer Smith who got me started on this crazy train of thought. He wrote about the power of the National Education Association, which is convening in town, and crooked its finger to summon Hillary Clinton and John Edwards to speak to it Monday. Barack Obama, Mike Huckabee and Joe Biden will follow Thursday. The NEA and the American Federation of Teachers (which includes the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers), he wrote, have 4.5 million members; the NEA, in particular, withstood a Republican effort to brand it a "terrorist" organization.

This got me thinking about the Philadelphia teachers' union, which sat out of the mayor's race, voting to not endorse any of the candidates. (Wise move, since the winner of the primary ranked fourth in the PFT's voting.) I think the PFT was just deeply conflicted, tied to several candidates and unwilling to make an enemy. Especially when larger battles lay just ahead...

And that's where they are now, and where, shockingly, public opinion is solidifying behind them. There's a battle beginning to brew over the state control of the school district. Particularly with the painful exit of Paul Vallas, among higher test scores but a huge deficit, factions in the city ranging from parents' groups to Mayor Street are exploring whether they can argue the schools back into city control. Michael Nutter, the Democratic candidate for mayor, is more explicit: He has said he wants city control of the school district.

And that's soooo interesting. Just a little more than five years after John Street allowed/was incapable of stopping a school district crisis that led to the takeover, there's a growing cry for city control. What a good time to be a big teachers' union, which can rally support both for Nutter and his cause of local control.

And now the PFT has a new, but battle-tested leader in Jerry Jordan, and a fight they believe in looming before them...

A friend of mine passed this along and I couldn't resist sharing.

Click Continue Reading for a hilarious send up of the recent Street-iPhone saga.

If you're up for a little not-so-light reading, check out this post on Young Philly Politics from a South Philly resident whose block just had the welcome distinction of becoming officially blighted. It's a long complicated tale, chock full of twists and turns, deception and redemption. If you're on a block facing a similar fate, it may help to hear someone else's story.

I'm sure there's a lot to this story that hasn't been said, including the perspective of the city officials involved so read it with some skepticism.

Philadelphia Forward, an organization that counts "ethics reform, governmental integrity, and budget reform," among its mission points, has sent out its newsletter with a scathing indictment of Mayor Street's latest version of the city's 5-year financial plan. Among the charges:

During the past budget season, Council threatened to slash some of the Mayor's pet programs until the Mayor agreed to increase funding for agencies like Fairmount Park, the Free Library, and the Recreation Department. After the budget is passed, it is one of the powers reserved to the Mayor to determine how - or how not - to actually spend budgeted funds and now that the budget is passed, the Mayor has decided to simply ignore the wishes of City Council and not spend the additional money.
...
Now, the Mayor will use the extra revenues from this year and additional projected revenues in the future to close the holes caused by his free spending.
...
One more way the Mayor balances his Plan is to ask us to believe that something will happen in the future (when he is no longer Mayor) to close additional holes.
...
The Plan's assumptions on the costs and revenues associated with the coming of casinos to Philadelphia are questionable and the Plan includes no funding for the work of recently established, voter-approved Commissions. Most important, it makes no provision for increased funding that will surely accompany new contracts for the city's unionized workforce next spring.

It's now in PICA's hands to determine whether this plan will be approved or if Mayor Street will have to rework it, yet again, to deliver the sobering, if realistic, fiscal situation facing the city.

I was relatively freaked out when I read this story in the Daily News about an 11-year-old who told his friend that he was going to "down" his friend -- for no apparent reason -- and then made good on his threat.

The boy is being held in a shooting that perforated his friend's bowel. Because he's not 14, he can't be charged with murder; but he will go to St. Gabriel's Hall in Audobon and could stay there until he is 21.

And then I read this story out of Camden.

Good Lord.

It its 2007 Report Card, Philadelphia Safe and Sound said it best: "The incidence of youth violence and homicide continues to increase at alarming numbers and there is no escaping the tombstone shadow that guns continue to cast over the young victims and perpetrators of violent crime."

The question is, how do you stop something like that? I won't start in on easy answers, but there has to be a combination of heavy-duty policing and education reform for our toughest neighborhoods that could make a difference. Something that makes crime and guns a more difficult option for young people to choose.

I got wind of this story in the Washington Post from a pop culture blog with local proprietorship. The blogger uses this very telling quote from the WaPo's architecture critic as his title:

Just about every mistake that a city can make has been made here -- and the consequences are increasingly apparent.

It strikes me that that can be said about so many decisions made in Philadelphia in the last 50 years. However, before I let some beltway-insider-hoity-toity architecture critic beat up on my town, I'd like to point out that Philadelphia - both the government of and the people of - has also done a lot of things right.

Just on the planning and architecture front we have:

Breaking through the "gentleman's agreement" that barred developers from building anything that exceeded the height of William Penn on City Hall. Starting essentially 60 years late, Philly has caught up nicely and is rapidly getting one of those iconic skylines that will allow people to identify the city easily with the "establishing shots" used in television and movies.

Avenue of the Arts - How many people think that the area between City Hall and Washington Ave on Broad Street is better now than it was just 20 years ago?

Schuylkill River Waterfront - Same question except change 20 years to 7 years ago.

On other issues:

Wireless Philly - we started first and many have followed. The only unfortunate part is that many have already surpassed but we'll get there soon.

Society Hill - one of the true success stories of urban revitalization. This area has served as a model, both in what to do and what to beware of, for several other neighborhoods. If that model could be copied while protecting current residents from being priced out, Philadelphia could be said to have made every correct decision that a city could make.

That said, the jury is still out on a lot of potentially good things:

School reform - when young families start moving in to Philadelphia so that there kids can go to school here, then we'll know it's really working.

Penn's Landing - 13 acres with more unrealized potential than Samuel Dalembert.

And, to bring us back full circle, the President's House - Will the Park Service (not technically under city control but close enough) ask for changes to the design so that the current dig is permanently incorporated into the site? They should learn from the experience of the past six weeks during which thousands of people have perched on a little, makeshift platform (that probably cost all of two hundred bucks) to look at actual history, rather than see some museum-ified, touristy version of history.

So, scholars of historical and contemporary Philadelphia, what has this city done well or not-so-well in the last 50 years? Have at it in the comments.

Sorry, folks -- we have briefly turned off comments as our system guys install new comment-filtering software. Hopefully, they will be back on soon.

We should have known that this nice, clean election was too good to last.

There's a bill that has passed the state House that would eliminate the simple requirement that campaigns file lists of donors electronically. Instead, the lawmakers propose marching bravely into the past, requiring only paper filings.

Which would, of course, make any funny stuff -- washing over-the-limit donations through other donors, giving as Joe Q. RichGuy and J.Q. RichGuy, for example -- sooo much harder for the press and the city Board of Ethics to spot.

The Committee of Seventy is outraged, as it should be. So is Philadelphia Forward.

ETA: This is even worse than it seemed. Here's why we are talking about undoing a key concept in campaign finance reform, according to Bob Warner's story in Friday's Daily News: Computers are hard on old folks who work on campaigns.

And that's what the bill's sponsors say. Bob quotes co-sponsor Rosita Youngblood:

"I received numerous complaints from treasurers ... It was a hardship upon them, having to file electronically. In a lot of cases you have seniors that are treasurers; they're not computer-literate."

The other co-sponsor, John Sabatina Jr., is hardly more charitable:

"My concern is the little old guy who has to go downtown to two-finger-type his contributions."

He goes on to tell a story about his treasurer which certainly doesn't reflect well on his campaign; I hope Sabatina's treasurer is going to take issue with being called barely functional by his boss. But that's not the real point. The point is, these two are successfully sneaking a bill through the legislature that undermines one of the major reasons that the mayoral campaign was as clean as it was.

According to a statement from the Board of Ethics, the bill "would essentially gut the city's 2003 campaign finance law and reverse the progress Philadelphia has made toward greater transparency and accountability ...and preventing large campaign contributions from corrupting city government."

This is a sneaky, dirty bill. It's a holiday week, people. There was no public hearing on this bill. One House member, Delaware County's Greg Vitali, has already said the bill was not described accurately to state representatives.

Let's hope the State Senate doesn't allow the wool to be pulled over their eyes as easily.

Thanks to Wendy for bringing up the state's latest affront to good government, transparency and home rule.

If anyone's interested, here's a link to the text of the bill which includes the names of all of the co-sponsors. I may as well make them known here:

INTRODUCED BY YOUNGBLOOD, COHEN, CRUZ, THOMAS, SABATINA, McGEEHAN, MANDERINO, PARKER, BLACKWELL, W. KELLER, JAMES, ROEBUCK, BISHOP, WATERS, DONATUCCI, KENNEY, MYERS, M. O'BRIEN, OLIVER, PAYTON, J. TAYLOR AND WILLIAMS.

How ridiculous is it that on this issue, of all things, the city's state reps come together (including Republicans) and get the support of every state representative (except for my new hero, Steve Samuelson of Lehigh/Northampton Counties).

Now, to Rep. Vitali's point that he was duped. You'll note the link above is the final version of the bill as it was when it the votes were cast on July 3. There appear to have been three versions of the bill. By looking at the changes made between that the original version and the final version, we may get a sense of what the Philly state reps. are trying to accomplish:

Here's version one:

Campaign Report Format.--No city of the first class shall require any committee for a candidate for office of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, or a committee of a party organization representing a ward in the City of Philadelphia, to file campaign reports in an electronic format instead of a paper format. (emphasis mine)

Oops. As read, this would seem to cover only those seeking election as state representatives, state senators, governor, etc or ward committees that raise money and contribute to candidates. It almost makes sense given that I have no faith in any of the city's state house delegation to have people who can figure out how to use a computer. Since most of these folks are also ward leaders, it makes sense that they'd want to relieve their friends, relatives and well-wishers who volunteer as ward treasurers of the whole typing burden. But I don't think that's what they were looking for, nor does it cover other folks who may have found electronic filing to be especially... burdensome. So we get version two:

Section 18.1. Campaign Report Format.--No city of the first
class shall require A CANDIDATE FOR ELECTION TO PUBLIC OFFICE, TREASURER OF A POLITICAL COMMITTEE OR OTHER PERSON WHO IS REQUIRED TO FILE REPORTS WITH THE SECRETARY OF THE COMMONWEALTH PURSUANT TO ARTICLE XVI OF THE ACT OF JUNE 3, 1937 (P.L.1333, NO.320), KNOWN AS THE PENNSYLVANIA ELECTION CODE, TO FILE COPIES OF SUCH REPORTS WITH THE CITY in an electronic format instead of a paper format.

Ah, ok. So now that we've rephrased it to "candidate for public office" and thrown in that reference to the Pennsylvania Election Code (which I won't bother to look up), I'm guessing we now cover municipal and county offices as well - mayor, city council, city controller, district attorney, and all the row offices. Hmmm... do we remember any candidates for mayor or council who seemed to have problems with the electronic filing requirement? That may be a place to go to look for the answer to the point brought up by Ethics Board Chairman Richard Glazer in the Inquirer story:

"It's such a step backward... Maybe there is some reason beyond the obvious conclusion that someone negatively impacted by this wants to do away with it."

If there was, he said, he didn't know about it.

But in this version, it's still pretty obvious that the object of scorn was the electronic filing requirement so the latest version of the bill was changed to this:

Section 18.1. Campaign REPORTS.--No city of the first class shall require a candidate for election to public office, treasurer of a political committee or other person, who is required to file reports with the Secretary of the Commonwealth OR THE COUNTY BOARD OF ELECTIONS pursuant to Article XVI of the act of June 3, 1937 (P.L.1333, No.320), known as the Pennsylvania Election Code, to file copies of such reports with ANY OTHER OFFICE OF A COUNTY OR CITY OF THE FIRST CLASS.

Hence, St. Rep. Vitali's difficulty. Now, there's no mention of the electronic filing (of course, the link to the third version shows with strikethroughs that it was in there before). If state reps only see that final version or, even better, if they don't even read it but depend on what they're told about it, then it's possible to construe this change as meaning that Philadelphia's (the only city of the first class in the state) elected officials wouldn't have to file their reports with two different agencies. The catch is, the state does not require campaign finance reports to be filed in a searchable, electronic format. So by making it so that all candidates for public office, only have to file with the state, they made it so that those candidates wouldn't have to file electronically - unless, of course, the state starts to require that, but what's the likelihood of that?

I'd love to have been a fly on the wall for the conversations that led to the final version of this bill. With only these three versions to go on, as well as basic reading skills, it seems like an intentional attempt to put one by everyone. Did they learn nothing from the pay raise thing? I guess since none of the Philly state reps were affected by the pay raise, the answer is no.

Whaddya think? Will this be allowed to stand? Can people in Philly be mobilized to tell their state reps/ward leaders to suck it up and learn how to use a computer?

So, I guess I am hours away from not being able to call PennDOT to ask what I should do if I lost my little license plate sticker that I got with my latest car registration, huh?

And yet, I could still get a ticket for driving without it.

Here we are again, with the legislature and the governor locked in an important battle of wills, and in the balance -- again -- is the ongoing business of government in Pennsylvania, as well as paychecks for 24,000 state workers. If the governor and the legislature can't strike a deal by the end of tonight, the state government must partially shut down.

According to the last Associated Press update (thanks, Marc Levy and Mark Scolforo, for keeping us posted), the problem is not the bulk of the budget any more; it's an energy plan that Rendell says must be included or he will not sign.

Hey, I am all for energy plans and for sticking to your guns (on both sides.) What makes me furious is that an overlarge state legislature can't get this work done before the delays lead to furloughing all non-essential state workers.

WE PAY YOU ENOUGH MONEY TO DO THIS ON TIME, legislators.

Meetings are ongoing Sunday night. We'll see what happens.

Also, those of you who care about casinos: the five slots parlors are applying for a special exemption from the furlough. (Slots parlors would have to close if their state inspectors are furloughed.)

Awww, I feel waaaaay worse for giant casino operators than for the PennDOT workers who live paycheck to paycheck, and should be processing my plate-sticker problem Monday.

One more thing: I did think that we were done with the sneaky bill-passing-in-secret stuff. (Remember all that righteous anger over the pay raise?) But I guess I was wrong.

We will update the progress of the campaign-finance bill tomorrow.

Meanwhile, check below the jump for a list of what will be open or closed in the event of a partial government shutdown.

From the AP...

HARRISBURG, Pa. - Gov. Ed Rendell has ordered a range of state government services shut down and is placing about a third of the state workforce on indefinite unpaid furlough.

The measures came after frantic last-minute negotiations failed to break a budget stalemate.

Rendell, appearing outside his Capitol office, said the shutdown would go forward but he and legislators will continue to work toward a deal.

Read our earlier post, including the agencies open and closed, here.

There's a thoroughly interesting story in today's Daily News comparing the campaigns of Nutter and Taubenberger, right now.

One thing I will say: Good for Taubenberger for his affable attitude and general sticking power. However, the summer is slipping away, and $25,000 is really not going to cut it.

Isn't this the time to get serious about raising some money?

So the casinos stay open....

This weekend shed even more light on the clear and present danger that hovers over Philadelphia.

As of Friday, 209 murders have been committed in Philadelphia, two more have occured since then, reaching a tally of 211 . This is, unfortunately, a record setting rate, and perhaps the highest in the country. The City of New York has a tally of 232 Murders this year compared to our 211, but they also have upwards of 8 million people, we don't have 2.

This cannot go on!

It seems a little bit ridiculous that this can continue. L.A. has less at 187 homicides, and they have over nine million lives in their jurisdiction, so why is the rate so high in Philadelphia... why is it neccessary for people to carry guns in plain view?

One must question where the law is, and of course, the government is closed today due to a Rendellian vacation which does not do anybody any good, and while they are arguing the state's budget in Harrisburg, here in Philadelphia, we must adjust ours as SEPTA once again raises its transit fares.

It would seem that whoever is in charge here in Philly, now and in the future, will have his hands full for a while unless some major steps are taken to revise the current system.

Larry West, who is too young to serve as mayor but says he is running nevertheless, is a bit peeved that he wasn't mentioned in the tale of two campaigns story in the Daily News (and on our site) today.

He wants to stress that he is indeed running this fall. In fact, here's his Web site.

Here's his response:

Imagine my reaction today when I saw the headline on the Daily News this morning reading, "Mayoral CamPAIN". As someone in the race myself, I know the feeling; The Philadelphia press has basically ignored my campaign, and the AP Story that went out about me going to Mayor Street about his iPhone all neglected the important fact that I wasn't just a citizen, I was a citizen running to replace him!

But the Philadelphia Daily News today continued it's praises of Democratic PRIMARY Winner, Micheal Nutter. What I thought was going to be an article focusing on what Al Taubenberger was doing to win instead focused on Nutter and the anticipation the paper has for their "Golden Boy", the man THEY picked, was going to do when, not if, WHEN elected.

As someone running against Nutter myself, let me state that I have given him a run for his money and I plan on beating the man in November! Despite what you may read, be it either in the papers or on this forum, approval for Nutter is not universal. I have had numerous people from all walks of life come up to me and tell me how pleased they are to have someone running against Nutter! They are sick of him taking away rights such as skateboarding and smoking in bars, and they oppose his Crime Emergency plan in full force! This has come from people both living and not living in areas that would be effected by his plan.

Again, I urge everyone to not simply jump on the bandwagon that is being given to Nutter and instead look at what his opponents want to do. Many people have simply dismissed his opponents in November based on little more than a name, a look, or party affiliation.

And a state budget, as well. So it's back to work tomorrow, PennDOT.

If you're closely following the public schedule of mayor-elect-elect Michael Nutter (officially known as the "Democratic Mayoral Nominee"), then you may be interested in this bit of information.

Nutter Addresses Graduates of Men’s Community Program

WHERE: Community College of Philadelphia, Bonnell Auditorium, 1700 Spring Garden St.

So, the Daily News scribes have been spending the day figuring out what Philly got out of the $27.37 billion budget deal and related political games. Here's what we've gathered so far...

The big news: SEPTA, obviously, got its dedicated funding. The Associated Press quoted Rendell as saying new spending on highways and mass transit will average a total of $946 million a year over the next decade. That will be funded by a 25 percent toll hike on the Pennsylvania Turnpike in 2009 and by tolls added to Interstate 80.

SEPTA is very happy with its portion of that large pie, telling the Daily News: “We believe that what the governor and legislative leaders announced will take us out of the crisis mode we’ve been in for years and give us a workable operating budget for the next five, six years. We feel comfortable that the numbers are going to be there, the income is going to be there, so we can plan for the future and operate the system without having to frighten the public with the possibility of draconian fare hikes and service cuts.”

But there were lots of other little plums in the budget deal for Philly.

The needed legislation to allow for slots revenue to fund the state's portion of the Convention Center expansion was agreed upon.

There's a new tax credit for filming movies in Philly.

There's money to provide laptops for schoolchildren and additional early childhood education, both of which will help ease the School District's burdens a bit.

The campaign finance legislation (what our fellow blogger Josh Cornfield has called the "Sabatina Senior Citizen Treasurers Protection Act") will wait for the Senate in the fall, when there's likely to be hearings and a much better debate than has occurred so far.

Meanwhile, Philly's smoking ban is still in the air...there could be a statewide ban passed, though our reporters say it seems more likely Philadelphia's stronger ban will remain in place here.

Finally, Eagles fans: A little-known and widely ignored state cap on how much resellers can charge for tickets online was eliminated.

As to the problematic energy bill: The AP reports that Rendell said the Legislature will convene a special session Sept. 17 to address state energy policy, including assembling a $750 million fund for alternative energy and conservation efforts.

Ed Schwartz has helpfully outlined even more of the budget deal's benefits, with dollar figures. And we quote:

* $75 million to begin Pre-K Counts which will connect approximately 11,000 Pennsylvania children to Pre-kindergarten;
*$25 million to expand Full-Day Kindergarten
*$86 million more for the state’s child care subsidy program.
*$9 million for the child care quality improvement program Keystone STARS which will put two infant mental health specialists in the Southeastern Key and expand merit awards to child care programs
*$26.9 million to reduce by 3,000 the number of Pennsylvanians on waiting lists for mental retardation services;
*Passage of a bill to expand the role of nurse practitioners so that more low-income children and families in the Commonwealth can access needed health care services;
*Early indication of a 3.5% increase in basic education spending;
*$10 million for autism research;
*Increased funding for public transportation which will help avert an additional SEPTA fare increase in September;
*Preservation of the cost of living allowances for human services workers;
*$90 million for Classrooms for the Future to provide 254 more high schools with 83,000 laptop computers and related equipment

150 Million Dollars should seem like a lot of money, especially when the previous year's profit was only a quarter of a million, but apparently SEPTA needs more.

With the money being given to SEPTA in this new budget, one must ask, was Monday's fare hike really neccesary? It would make sense to think that if anything, ridership will continue to rise instead with continuously escalating gas prices. Simply put, the higher the gas prices, the more people will take SEPTA transportation to avoid spending extra money at the pump.

Across the country, gas prices are jumping and expected to do so continually, so again, public transportation seems wise.

Many a daily driver is trading his car keys for a metro pass, and yet, the prices rise.

Maybe SEPTA is taking advantage of the rush of new riders, but that seems unlikely as they seem to never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity. Perhaps then it is poor budgeting or just bad timing, but it seems that the potential revenue of the fare hike should be overshadowed by the millions in subsidies from Harrisburg.

Unfortunately, SEPTA seems to be a leaky vessel as it seems that any changes still lose money. It just seems unfair for the riders to bite the bullet because SEPTA cannot draw a real profit. As it stands, the fares are where they are, let's just hope they do not continue to rise, though seems the trend with transportation costs these days.

We got this from a reader -- who has sent it far and wide to stir up interest in the cause -- but it's an interesting idea.

Now that the State has the funds to expand the Convention Center, demolition of the remaining buildings on the Arch to Race Streets site is expected soon.

I'm especially distressed about the fate of the 1920s era firehouse.

Last week, while on an architectural tour, I asked the group its thoughts about whether this building could be moved to the empty lot across the street, instead of being demolished into oblivion. The building could be converted into a fabulous restaurant and shopping destination for tourists and city residents.

In the past, large stone churches in the city have been lifted off their foundations and moved successfully. (Example: St. Clement's Church on 20th Street.) I wonder if the same feat can't be done for this wonderful building as well?

I also wonder if the other industrial loft buildings can't be deconstructed rather than demolished? Their architectural features can be salvaged and reused possibly within the interior spaces of the Convention Center extension.

As a Philadelphia tour developer, my customers -- conventioneers and families -- want to see the original Philadelphia -- its historic sites, its wonderful architecture -- they want to see OLD.

It's in Philadelphia's best interest to preserve the good stuff and to promote it as part of the tourism experience.

OMG, check out the way that the "Olivia" ad is reshaping local campaigns across the country.

Case in point: The Nashville, Tenn. campaign for mayor.

A guy named David Briley, now a Metro Council member, is running -- and just launched a new ad featuring his "mop-topped 4-year-old son, Sam." He's in fifth place in a five candidate race, but he's "hoping for a miracle finish" -- and, to quell any critics, he's circulating news articles about ... Michael Nutter, of course!

Read the story from the Nashville Scene here.

(edited to add by Dan)
I saw that story this morning (7/12) and was struck by this bit of lazy reporting:

Briley is hoping for a miracle finish for his campaign. To illustrate his optimism, he’s been circulating news articles about the surprise victory this spring of Michael Nutter in the Philadelphia Democratic mayoral primary. Nutter, a former city council member, overcame weak fund raising to rally from fourth place and defeat a millionaire, two congressmen and a state representative—making up 30 percentage points in about 30 days. So, there is a precedent.

This guy can use the Nutter example all he wants, but we all know from following the campaign closely that weak fundraising was not really an issue for Nutter. In fact, he was second only to Knox in amount of money raised and spent and totally blew away the two congressmen. I think by the time people are done using Nutter's come-from-behind story in their own efforts, that story will have been exaggerated so much that he'll have suffered from weak fundraising, low poll numbers, debilitating injuries, a fire in his campaign office and he'll have done it all with no campaign staff while simulatenously curing cancer.

As reported in coverage by the Daily News and WHYY, Councilwoman Donna Reed Miller and Councilman Darrell Clarke are suing the state legislature of Pennsylvania contending that:

the state General Assembly has created homicidal conditions on city streets by not enacting tough gun-control laws or by not getting out of the way and letting Philadelphia write its own laws.

What do you think? Is there any shot for this to work and even if, by some miracle, it does and Philadelphia is given the power to regulate gun sales, will that be an effective short term solution to the current homicide crisis? Sound off in the comments.

Because they keep coming up with new and different ideas. On Monday, for example, they're announcing that they will reimburse SEPTA rail riders when they then connect to a Philly Car Share vehicle.

In other words, ride the Regional Rail from Center City out to Chestnut Hill the city, jump in a Philly Car Share for your trip to the 'burbs car and all you pay for is Philly Car Share.

Cool.

A major part of The Next Mayor project that has so far gone a little unheralded has been the video platform of this "multi-platform" undertaking. If you're a frequent viewer of WHYY TV-12 you may have noticed a number of our Next Mayor "interstitials." These are 2-3 minute-long videos that run in between our feature programming, mostly during the news and information time.

The first set of these videos are known as "Counter Intelligence." These reports were gathered by an elite crew of WHYY staffers working on The Next Mayor project. We traveled all throughout the region, other cities and to special events to ask anyone who would talk to us what they think the major issues for the city and region are and what qualities they consider important in a leader. We also looked for their personal impressions of the city, its government, the region and the relationship between the city and region.

It took some work but I've finally been able to make all of those videos available on thenextmayor.com. If you go to the main page, you'll see a section at the top of the right side that says "Video from WHYY." Just click on "Counter Intelligence" to see the currently featured episode and find links that will take you to the archice with all 21 episodes.

Beginning this week, we're releasing a new series of videos known as "Issues Forums." Using what we learned from our Counter Intelligence excursions, we identified 16 different issues or qualities of leadership that were most important to people in the region. We then assembled panels of experts for each of those issues and brought them to our WHYY conference room.

They talked about best practices in other cities, ideas that haven't been tried here in Philadelphia. These experts explained in great detail just how complicated and potentially troublesome the issues are. In many cases, they also had suggestions for the next mayor about how to go about tackling these problems.

We'll be releasing two videos a week for the rest of the summer. You can see them on WHYY TV-12 starting on Mondays of each week. I'll make them available on thenextmayor.com on Wednesdays and Fridays. This past Wednesday we talked about economic development and today we have quality of life (litter, nuisance law enforcement, small time crime, etc.)

Finally, these videos have given us a chance to step into the latter half of the first decade of the 21st Century and experiment with video podcasts. All of the Counter Intelligence videos are available for download as video podcasts using iTunes or some other podcasting software or RSS reader. In fact if you have iTunes on your computer, just click here to launch iTunes and be taken directly to the Counter Intelligence podcast.

Unfortunately, "experiment" is an apt word. I screwed up encoding the videos so they won't play on a video iPod, after downloading them, you take the additional step of "Converting Selection for iPod," an option you find under the "Advanced" menu of iTunes.

The podcast for the Issues Forum just started up yesterday. Here is its iTunes link. Having learned my lesson about video encoding, these videos will go onto your iPod without the need to "convert" them.

I think they look pretty good on the video iPod. They sound good and the video is crisp, clear and sharp. It's possible that a certain current mayor can also watch them on his new phone.

And don't worry, I'll have them all up on our YouTube site soon so that you can share them on your own blogs.

So stay tuned. We have 14 more videos to go. I'll even give you a hint about Wednesday - the "t word."

This week should be an interesting one for those with a deep interest in the question of whether two Philadelphia slots parlors should be built

First of all, the state Supreme Court is about to end its term, and it has pending before it a request from the Foxwoods casino. Foxwoods (the one near Pennsport) wants the court to force the city to issue building permits. A decision could come very soon, perhaps today.

Second, on Tuesday, Foxwoods has a hearing before the city planning commission on whether the city should allow construction to proceed. Specifically, as the Inquirer reported last week, whether the city should accept Foxwoods' development plan and whether it should create a special zoning district for the slots parlor. SugarHouse has already been approved by the planning commission.

Excellent information about Foxwoods and its plans are on the PlanPhilly site, here.

This follows the amusing escapade of Vince Fumo on Friday, who put a bill in to require a 1,500-foot buffer between casinos and homes, schools, churches, playgrounds and other public areas -- and then spend an astonishing number of words in a press release saying the bill had no shot at all.

In short, these looming decisions are another key battle in the to-casino-or-not-to-casino fight. By the end of this week, we'll know a lot more about Philadelphia's gaming future.

Yogi Berra said, " If you don't know where you're going, you might wind up somewhere else." This statement emulates the problem with Philadelphia casinos, the people in charge are new at building casinos. Granted, there are a lot of sides to every issue, but this is an especially polarizing problem. Especially when the city, both its government and its people, is having trouble figuring out the effects of casino's in their city.

A number of casino's have already been granted their gaming licenses and building permits, including Foxwoods and Sugarhouse... not to mention the Harrah's that already exists in nearby Chester County.

The Sugarhouse Casino has won some supporters by sponsoring local T-Ball teams, as well as by promising to bring 1100 jobs into the neighborhood directly for the Casino, plus roughly 4500 additional jobs in its stores and restaurants.

There are just as many opposed, however, which has the politicians in befuddled bunches on each side of the issue, though not neccesarily by fault of their own, it is just complex.

The proponents say it will build up the areas and create hundreds of needed jobs. Those against the casinos say that these benefits will be negated by the problems that will come with the Casinos, like crime and traffic and a general lack of safety.

The question now is, do these gigantic "slot parlors" become upscale or lowscale? Do they attract the wealthy, Casino Royale clientele? Or buses of the elderly with sacks of nickels? The next, and current, mayor need to figure out what they want, and who they want to attract. The mayor must also decide if he wants simply slot machines or perhaps, cater to the current Texas Hold-Em phenomenon with table games as well.

In other words, will people stay here for slots, or will they be willing to drive, or even take the train from 30th Street for 8 dollars for the same slots plus poker and craps? The mayor, and the state, will have to decide where they want to the draw the line now that they have the casinos as an innevitability... just slots? Tables? Both? Shakespeare said, “Through tattered clothes small vices do appear; Robes and furred gowns hide them all.” The administration needs to decide which vices it will let slip.

Thus, the question is this, will the Philadelphia Casino's create a Vegas or an Atlantic City? One a greatly succesful oasis of jobs and opportunities in a desert, the other a crime ridden which is best known for being featured in a 50 year old board game, and an area that is only now starting to get its act together years after its establishment. So, which do we become? I say, Viva Las Vegas!

A Few Stories from WHYY (a shameless self promotion)...

Foxwoods casino designs go before Planning Commission

This is a story about opponents and proponents to the Foxwoods Casino, and talks about traffic and convenience. What do you think? Can the Casino's manage traffic on Delaware Avenue?

Phillyblog discussion of "sidewalk grab" becomes free speech battle

This is a story about bloggers being threatened by a developer. The developer says that the blogs left the realm of free speech when they made personal attacks against him. Of course, this is a claim of libel, or written slander, but is it? What do you think?

PPD gets training on mentally ill

Police will be trained in detecting and dealing with the mentally ill. This seems like a good idea, although, I think that the police should be trained in every possible thing that will make them more efficient and better equiped officers. They should be able to handle every situation, or there should at least be special forces with specialized training, much like the Army. A Unit for everything. Thoughts?

After HOURS of yelling at the City Planning Commission today over the matter of Foxwoods' plan for a slots parlor, the planning commission...

Cue drum roll...

TABLED THE MATTER.

Apparently, they want more information from its own staff on the impact of Foxwood's traffic -- and, it would seem, the accuracy of Foxwood's traffic study -- and on whether it can really build without using the riparian controlled by the state.

Philadelphia Business Journal has a cool new feature - daily video rundown of today's headlines and major news stories. Check out the anchorwoman's interpretation of Governor Ed's last name.

(edited to add: Ok, Business Journal, please change that video feature so that the reader of a blog that embeds it can CHOOSE to play it rather than have it start automatically on page load.)

And while we're at it... where's the love Tasty Baking Inc.? You wouldn't even have to pay me to get me to type "Live from the Tastykake Blog Headquarters" at the top of every blog post. Though I would require a lifetime supply of the butterscotch topping that you put on top of the krimpets. You can deliver it in a bucket or plastic bags, whatever works best for you.

(If you're not looking at this post on Wednesday 7/18, scroll down to the video for that date.)

...this is ridiculous.

Thanks to D-Mac at Philly Will Do for covering Al Taubenberger and Michael Nutter's latest idea to settle the choice for mayor: eating contest.

He even got a picture:

Taubenberger bested Nutter 3/4 hoagie to 1/2