Great Expectations

As I write this, Anna Verna has been unanimously re-elected as City Council President and is giving a speech. Verna is a wonderful woman, but not a public speaker, so the mind wanders as she speaks.

The stage is filled with a whos-who in Philly politics -- virtually every elected official and mahoff in the city.

And it makes me wonder. If you could spray some truth serum onto that stage, wait for everyone to inhale deeply, and then asked: Everyone here who is glad John Street will soon no longer be mayor of Philadelphia please raise your hand

Who would raise their hands?

Strike that. To be more accurate, who would not raise their hand?

So far, just scanning the crowd, I count two or three whose hands would not shoot up. Street. Councilman Darryl Clark, maybe Jannie Blackwell. Though I not sure about her.

I'm also not sure about Gov. Rendell. Knowing him, he'd raise both hands.

-- Tom Ferrick

Verna's speech did include a pat on back for the outgoing mayor. She thanked Street by name for "his commitment to the city's neighborhoods..." which earned a round of applause from the audience.

It also included a veiled slap at the mayor by making an oblique reference to his often fractious relationship with Council.

Here are Verna's exact words: "The people of philadelphia have our pledge that we will work together. Politics at its best is about making good choices and making these choices together. we must build alliances by seeking what unites us, not what divides us...needless to say there will be disagreements but our focus must always be on the common good, which is to make our city a better place."

Verna also said that "if I could pick a buzz word for today, it is optimism."

-- TF

All of the city's living former mayors are at the ceremony.
They are sitting in the 2nd row, behind Nutter and his family.
From right to left: Ed Rendell (1992-2000)...John Street (2000-2008)...Wilson Goode...(1984-92) William J. Green 3d (1980-84)

Two of those men have sons on Council: Wilson Goode Jr. and Bill Green 4th, who is being sworn in today. Street's son, Sharif, lost his bid in the primary to win a seat on Council.
Rendell's son, Jesse, is a former rock musician, now in law school. No word on his political plans.

-- TF

Anyone who has listened to Michael Nutter over the course of the campaign knows that his inaugural speech resonated with familiar themes: an open and honest government, a concern about growing Philadelphia, a desire to improve public education.

It differed in three major ways.

For one thing, he came up with a phrase to serve as an envelope for the program – The New Philadelphia (a nice rhetorical touch).

For another, he talked – and talked a lot – as if he also yearns to be a regional leader, and not just Philadelphia's mayor.

Third, he set very specific goals in three areas:

One. He said he wanted to reduce the homicide race by 30 percent to 50 percent in the next three to five years. That is an ambitious one. The last time homicides were below 200 a year was in 1963.

Two. He wants to double the city's 18 percent four-year college graduation rate over the next five years. That's the percentage of city residents who have graduated from four-year-colleges. I believe that may be mathematically impossible to meet such a goal in that period of time, but let's wait to see. Remember: that figure is based upon the entire adult population of the city. Iti s in part a reflection of the fact that we have a high percentage of those 65 and older, many of whom did not graduate from college.

Three. He wants to reduce the public school's drop out rate by 50 percent in the next five to seven years. It currently is 45%. His goal would take it to 22%. In my memory, the drop out rate has never been that low.

One problem is that as mayor, Nutter does not control the public schools. The district is, in effect, in receivership, and controlled by the state. He can propose, but the School Reform Commission disposes.

-- TF

It is rare to hear such specifics in an inaugural, but Nutter took the risk.

-- TF

When we started this project of civic dialogue and issues journalism a little more than a year ago, we dubbed it Great Expectations, fully expecting that its message would serve as a minority point of view through a raucous and nasty election year.

When we decided early on to culminate the project's first year by writing and presenting for public debate a draft Citizen's Agenda for Philadelphia's Future, we fully expected this to be a renegade document, a counterpoint of ambition, optimism and idealism to what we expected back would be the cramped, backward-looking pragmatism of the winning candidate.

Well. Turns out Great Expectations are the order of the New Day declared by new Mayor Michael Nutter, who was inaugurated today. Who'd a thunk it?

As for the Agenda, By the time we were done scarfing up the best ideas from Philadelphia citizens, the best notions of local experts, and the best practices from other cities, and distilled them into the document, it ended up bearing more than a family resemblance to Nutter's own platform.

There's hardly an ambitious, innovative or progressive idea we heard about that doesn't pop up in some Nutter action plan or policy paper.

It's been an odd situation; the Agenda at times has felt less urgent a piece of work, simply because Nutter's staff was getting to all the same places, the same ideas and aspirations. But it was a good kind of odd, because when was the last time Philly was run by people who were that embracing of innovation, optimism and stretch goals?