After Nutter

[drive carephilly]

Rendell and Street were mayors during the boom times. Almost all of Nutter's tenure has been under the worst economic times in 80 years.

I'm no fan of AVI but it's easy to criticize Nutter but if we had any other mayor things would be way worse. We don't live in a wealthy city in the best of times and given all the other cities in the country that are declaring bankruptcy or cutting 1/3 of their police force or teachers to make ends meet, things are much, much better here.

All that said, I'm really disappointed in the prospects. Clarke is the best bet but every connected to city politics right now - or even the state reps/senators are just too slimy. Clarke practically grew up in City Council. He's too into "deals" and the art of the council person as "mayor" of his/her district leaving and that's good for people who want to play the game (great for well connected, big developers for instance) but not good for redevelopment or the city on the whole.

A lot of Nutter's term has been dedicated to taking the uncertainty and vagaries out of opening a business or building something in this city by taking it out of the hands of council (aka, corruption) and making it uniform. We're going to see major backsliding over the next mayor's first term.

[southbound_295]

Originally Posted by drive carephilly

Rendell and Street were mayors during the boom times. Almost all of Nutter's tenure has been under the worst economic times in 80 years.

I'm no fan of AVI but it's easy to criticize Nutter but if we had any other mayor things would be way worse. We don't live in a wealthy city in the best of times and given all the other cities in the country that are declaring bankruptcy or cutting 1/3 of their police force or teachers to make ends meet, things are much, much better here.

All that said, I'm really disappointed in the prospects. Clarke is the best bet but every connected to city politics right now - or even the state reps/senators are just too slimy. Clarke practically grew up in City Council. He's too into "deals" and the art of the council person as "mayor" of his/her district leaving and that's good for people who want to play the game (great for well connected, big developers for instance) but not good for redevelopment or the city on the whole.

A lot of Nutter's term has been dedicated to taking the uncertainty and vagaries out of opening a business or building something in this city by taking it out of the hands of council (aka, corruption) and making it uniform. We're going to see major backsliding over the next mayor's first term.

Fast Eddie inherited a god-forsaken mess. The national boom helped some, but while he did a fantastic job stabilizing the city, he wasn't able to fix certain things, namely replacing the holes in the city & local economy left by the loss of the mills & the big factories, like Bryers. The city had also lost about half of it's population with those losses. Nutter inherited a god-forsaken mess from Street & a near-Depression, national economy.

Most of the mills went to NC & are now overseas. Many of the mill workers followed their jobs. That's all water under the bridge.

Obama wants to bring jobs back. Fast Eddie just might want to do the one thing that he wasn't able to do, & snag some of those companies for the city. That's why I think that he might be "persuaded" to run.

[2e1m5a]

I'm more worried about who will follow that POS in Harrisburg. When is Corbett up for reelection? Ugh.

[phillies2011]

Originally Posted by phillies2011

haha yea it seems people are having a little difficulty answering your question and are instead want to go off topic to trash nutter.

I'll try and get this back on track. First off. Ed Rendell? Love the guy but he ain't running to mayor of Philadelphia again. Period.

Mayors often come from the council, so the best candidates would likely be Blondell Reynolds Brown and Bill Green (who is the son of former mayor and congressman William Green). Darrell Clark is the council president but if rumors are to believed he isn't interested in running for mayor. He's sort of the big wild card. Viewed as a protege of John Street which can be a positive or a negative depending on how you view street, Clark has been a lot less flamboyant than street and honestly doesn't remind me at all of Street. Clark is sort of a hard person to peg down, very private. If he actually ran I think he has as good a shot as anyone other than the next guy.

And that guy is state senator Anthony Williams. I think he'll run and I think he'll likely be our next mayor.

Chaka Fattah would be a really strong candidate but I don't think he wants to give up his seat in congress.

We're still awhile away so it's hard to tell but these would be my odds.

Anthony Williams 3:1
Blondell Reynolds Brown 6:1
Bill Green 8:1
Darrell Clarke 8:1
Jim Kenney 12:1
Alan Bukowitz 12:1
Chaka Fattah 24:1
Maria Quinones-Sanchez 50:1
Larry Farnese Jr. 50:1
Janine Blackwell 100:1
Kenyatta Johnson 100:1
Ed Rendell 1000:1 (I know I said never... but you can never truly count fast Eddie out)

welp looks like my number 2 contender for mayor has just shot herself in the foot. Brown's chance of being mayor now look to be somewhere between Ed Rendell's and myself. In other words: nonexistent.

[pman]

Originally Posted by southbound_295

He was a great mayor! I think that Nutter has been an equally good mayor. I was sorry that Lynne Abraham never made the transition.

Mr. Abraham was a loud mouthed DA who never really did anything to improve the city.

Originally Posted by frankgn87

Very true tin. Philly was a better place under rendells watch

this isn't exactly true. the reality is there are fewer fires so we need fewer firemen. the unions don't much like nutter but he's been a decent mayor, far better than street (under whose watch crime skyrocketed, pension fund obligation ballooned, not much was accomplished...all during good times for the nation). Fat eddie did some decent things but he had some high profile flops..like issuing debt to invest in tech stocks in 1999 to shore up the pension fund.

Bill green has made it clear he's interested, seems like a decent candidate.

[southbound_295]

Originally Posted by pman

Mr. Abraham was a loud mouthed DA who never really did anything to improve the city.

this isn't exactly true. the reality is there are fewer fires so we need fewer firemen. the unions don't much like nutter but he's been a decent mayor, far better than street (under whose watch crime skyrocketed, pension fund obligation ballooned, not much was accomplished...all during good times for the nation). Fat eddie did some decent things but he had some high profile flops..like issuing debt to invest in tech stocks in 1999 to shore up the pension fund.

Bill green has made it clear he's interested, seems like a decent candidate.

Really? You lost your credibility with that one. She is not a Mr.

[rotodome]

I think it was a joke

[southbound_295]

Originally Posted by rotodome

I think it was a joke

If it was supposed to be a joke, it was in poor taste, given her history with the city.

When Lynne Abraham was a judge, she was probably the most popular with the citizens & least popular with the criminals. There was a reason that she was voted in to be the DA at a time that a female DA was noteworthy.