Let's take a quick run through the news before we get down to work for the day, shall we?
The big story with city government and the new administration seems to be the rounding out of the mayor's cabinet with the appointment of a permanent Director of Commerce (who will also serve as the Deputy Mayor of Planning and Economic Development. The lucky guy (Andy Altman) comes to us from... Germantown (?! a local, how cool!) via Washington D.C. which should now be considered the training ground for future top-level Philadelphia officials. Daily News, Inquirer and KYW 1060 AM each provide some details. An official announcement, a possibly another swearing-in ceremony like the one Altman's colleagues enjoyed on Inauguration Day will happen this afternoon at 4pm.
Speaking of Nutter's schedule, today at 2pm, he'll be announcing his choice for "Chief Education Advisor/Director of the Office of the Public School Family and Child Advocate." It looks like Governor Rendell will be joining him. Undoubtedly, the press will have plenty of questions for the Governor about his recent revelation on a Pittsburgh radio station that their sister city to the east (that's us) has a habit of "selectively enforcing" the collection of certain taxes. Rendell was referring to the the "liquor-by-the-drink-tax" that Philadelphia has had for a while and that is coming soon to Allegheny County. The good governor was apparently just trying to soothe some small tavern owners by letting them know that it might be ok (wink, wink, nudge, nudge) if they skip those payments for a while. As anyone who reads the comments to this blog knows, this city has been selectively enforcing the collection things like property taxes for a long time.
Michael Nutter had breakfast with a blogger on Friday morning. I'd like to extend the Mayor an invitation to breakfast with this blogger, his wife and two web-savvy cats. Yesterday's fare was banana pancakes, waffles and 12 hrs of America's Next Top Model on MTV. A truly wonderful day.
The Daily News has a little "he said, she said" going on in its opinion pages today. The topic - casinos. The "he said" side of the argument is apparently pro-casino but I stopped reading at the "E. Digby Baltzell's Puritan Boston and Quaker Philadelphia" reference. You lose me any time you blame this city's problems on the fact that a few Quakers had some meetings back in the late 1600s.
In case you missed it, Tom Ferrick, giving some thought to what the oncoming recession could mean for this city, had some advice for Philadelphians in his column on Sunday - get out while you still can. Ok, so he didn't exactly say that but, jeez, Tom, you didn't do any favors for the digestion of my Sunday morning pancakes with such a "cheery" column.
YPP informs us that incumbent State Representative Tony Payton, Jr. could have just as difficult a time with his primary election this spring as he did when he was first elected - when a guy handing out rubber stamps with his name on it almost beat Payton as a write-in. By most accounts, Payton's only misstep that cost him the endorsement of the Democratic machine was the fact that he beat the Democratic machine in his first election. Not so much with the forgive and forget, eh? We'll have to see how this one plays out. Payton could be helped by the fact that the Democratic primary for President may still be in doubt when it comes time for Pennsylvania to vote in April. High turnout always hurts the machine since they are less able to make sure that only folks who are voting for their candidates show up. It should be interesting to see what the progressive blogosphere can do for one of their own in a state rep district that would seem not to be the most digitally connected in the city. That race could show us whether that same progressive blogosphere has made any gains in power, influence and the ability to marshal volunteers since 2006. Stay tuned.