Live From ...

The interview is over, but here's how it went down at 8 a.m. this morning:

Milton Street, the oft-maligned brother of the mayor, is stopping by to chat on WIP with another animated character, Angelo Cataldi. Now there's a recipe for lively conversation. Gonna try to transcribe as much as I can.

Cataldi says he's supporting Milton in the race for and "his brilliant new strategy."
Street: "We have to mobilize people to stop the crime. ... There' s more good people in the community than the bad people. .... If I become mayor of this city, we're going to start with block captains ...and we're going to give them arrest powers. ... We're not going to give these people guns, but we're going to give them power to detain. .. But more important we have to get people to go down to the courts and testify." Street continues, go after the clients and the drug dealers will leave. "When the drug pushers leave, the guns are going to leave."
Cataldi: Why haven't you gotten together with your brother?
Street: Milton says he does things his own way. Take abandoned houses. Other people tried to find the owners. Milton explains his idea: "You move people into houses, let the owners find you!"
Cataldi: "People are afraid of you because you're radical. Do you believe that?"
Street: Says he's "strong." "You have a lot of candidates out there that's using news clips and tlaking a lot of gloopedyglop and doesn't get to the meat of the issue. ..."
Cataldi asks about Milton's troubles.
Street: "I fight my fights one at a time ... I'm not going to allow the fact that I have to go down to Sixth and Market and fight that fight [to stop me] ... I'm not going to be like some big fuzzy teddy bear and go somewhere and hibernate. ... Michael Nutter can't relate to the people who need him most. ... Black people need to stop killing up each other ... Stop blaming white folks .. You're never going to take white's folks taxes ... and put 'em in the black community so black folks can stop killing each other."
Cataldi: "You are now listening to a visionary. ... Why is the media on your case like this?"
Street: Says he doesn't worry about the media ... or Nutter. "Black people vote against. They don't vote for. ... They [his enemies] want me out of the race. ... They're going to find a political judge that's going to make a ruling to get Milton Street off the ballot." He talks about a rally on Friday. Hopes thousands will turn out.
Cataldi: "Why would they do that to you in Jersey the other day? ... They waited for nine years to arrest you?"
Street: "They want to kick me out of political office ... They lie ... Representative Evans says he's going to hire 500 cops the first day he's in office. How the hell he's going to do that?"
Cataldi: "You have my endorsement. You have my vote."
Street: Wants a big turnout at the rally. Doesn't have to be 5,000. "We need to impress the courts that here's a man who's got support out there, and you all need to make a legal decision and not a political decision."
Cataldi: "God bless you, Milton."
Hugh Douglas: "That was a shame. That was a shame. I don't even know what to say after that ... You know, two crazy people on the radio shouldn't talk to each other. ... It's ridiculous. I can't believe you did that."
Cataldi: "I look out for my city. That's my man."
Douglas: "You just egged him on."
Cataldi, shouting: "DID I EGG HIM ON?"
Joe Conklin: "I want to be a block captain."

A little later, Rhea Hughes points out that Cataldi doesn't live in the city so he can't vote for Milton Street. Cataldi makes a crack about residency not stopping Street from running, so it shouldn't stop him from voting.

Ten minutes before noon: Nobody's here except for the media and Milton Street's setup crew. He said he'd quit his bid to be mayor if 5,000 people didn't show up for his noon rally. Not looking too likely.

Before the rally, Street stops to talk with a protestor. Quickly cameras and reporters crowded around. Later learned the Mohawked man was Larry West, who's also running for mayor. (See larrywestformayor.com.)

Street took the podium and admitted there weren't 5,000 people here. But, he said, he's been getting a lot emails and phone calls ... so there were a lot of people behind him.

I shot some video that will be posted later as he spoke of "black on black" crime as a problem the community has to solve, because no way politicians are going to tax and raise the millions it would take to fully police the streets.

Street mentions he has a website, too: tmiltonstreet2007.com.

New York has fewer killings than Philiadelphia even though New York has "quadtriple" the population.

To make his point, he has a casket wheeled near the podium

"You gotta have a passion for life ... that's why I' m here and that's why I'm running for mayor.... I saw to you without any fear of contradiction that I can clean up the killings in Philadelphia"

.. with the help of citizens. "I'm going to deputize 10,000 people in the neighborhoods." They can work together using modern electronic communications, so that drug dealer can't escape, he says.

When a heckler says, "You're going to jail," perhaps a reference to Street's indictment in December, Street says guys like that are the problem, even says people like that want black people to kill each other.

He leans over the casket and prays. "You told me Heavenly Father that if I had the faith of a mustard seed, an itsy bitsy little mustard seed, I could move mountains."

His booming voice begins a hymn ...."If I can help somebody, then my living will not be in vain ..." (At least I think he's singing "help.")

Lyrics here.

"I said I would not run [if 5,000 people didn't show] ... but THERE'S SOMETHING WITHIN ME! There's something within me! I gotta keep on going, I gotta keep on pushing. ... I know where I get my strength from ... Take your Bibles and turn to Matthew the fourth chapter. ...The spirit led the Savior to the wilderness .. he was out there 40 days and 40 nights ... then came Satan... 'Get now behind me, Satan! Man does not live by bread alone!' "

"I'm staying in this race. ... but I'm not running a campaign, I'm running a critical revival! ... I'm going to make it possible so your grandfather, your grandparents will feel safe walking down to the corner store"

"All I ask you to do is ... let me put my agenda before the voters, and let the voters make their decision.

Who could be against me? he says.

"I am" says the protestor with the Mohawk and the "Guns N Roses Appetite for Destruction" jacket. (Later he says his name's Larry West, and he's running for mayor, too. Has his own Website, larrywestformayor.com.)

"I've never had a home in Jersey," says Street, who was recently arrested for tickets in New Jersey. "So prepare yourself for the legal battle. I'm going to ask all of them, 'Where did you sleep last night?' "

He talks about his fun side and his spiritual side. "Thank you, God, for a sound mind... I have miracles in my life that you don't know about." Doctors told him he had multiple sclerosis, his mother started praying and he's been walking ever since.

"Hallelujah," says a sarcastic onlooker.

Street: "Don't tell God what He can do."

Warren Bloom takes the mike. Says Street is letting him talk, even though they disagree on issues.

"If you want to stop the violence, you have to stop violating yourself," says Bloom. Drinking, drugs, overeating,("I gotta watch that one," he adds) "intimacy outside of the marriage bond" ... "I want to bring this voting thing into the 21st century. You should be able to vote on your iPod."

"OK, that's it, thank you for coming," Street says. Sign the petitions, he says. And the dozens of people who stopped to listen start walking away, except for reporters interviewing people.

Alan: "We're friends of Milton. We cycle with Milton. I've known Milton for years. He's a friend. ... Obviously it's an uphill climb. ... But I'm not sure who the frontrunner is." He lives in Rittenhouse Square and says he'd vote for Milton. "The message itself was real. The presentation was entertaining."

David, laughing: "I think he ought to concentrate on his legal defense. And maybe letters to the editor. He's a nice guy. I have to get back to work."

Alan: "What's your rush? You're a city worker."

A story on the rally is already up on Philly.com. It's by one Inquirer City Hall reporter, Marcia Gelbart. Another, Michael Currie Schaffer, shares his own take on the Mayorpalooza blog.