This city is run by a mayor who's been in politics for 25 years. That aspect alone should serve to limit his qualifications. Don't you think after that long, he is mired in promises and debts to supporters, out of touch with the real world outside of municipal government and normal everyday you and me's who really keep this place moving? Come on dude, move on and do something else for a living.

John Street is angry at the world, arrogant and secretive. He serves only himself and those closest to him. Ron White? Give me a break. He has the audacity to cry race when his non-profit is not even registered with the state. Of course, he is under suspicion... probably for a lot more than we know. The Ali dude that runs a tax collection service in Mount Airy? He operates out of a building owned by his wife who has not paid taxes in years.

I remember a piece in the Inquirer shortly after Street was elected to his first term. They described him driving to work listening to gospel cassette tapes, proud of the fact that he does not watch the news. This is the fifth largest city in the country, the second on the east coast. Am I the only one who thinks he should keep up with the news, in fact surround himself with news? Nah... he's too busy arranging deals and paying folks off.

In a city this large with so much potential, John Street is the best we can do? Huh?! I'm white by the way, live in one of our most diverse 'hoods and use the term, brothers and sisters -as in- we're all in this together.

You can pick a mayor based on the color of skin, but that doesn't help us progress as a people. Pay attention and snap out of this funk that hangs over our collective heads. Let's build a city that grows, attracts new blood, one that benefits us all.

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~Peace

Do you really think that race will be the major factor in deciding this election?

Morseso than any other mayoral election in any city.

During the debate it ws brought out that philadelphians vote along racial lines more than any other major city in the country!

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I saw that. What does this say about our city?

I can't miss the chance here to point out that, if race is a major factor in the election, it will be so at least partially because everyone is now saying it will be. That is, the media and the incessant yammering of Street supporters trying to spin the federal probe have made it something of a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Here's a wild notion...what if nobody mentioned race in a Philly election - not the candidates, not the media, not the fringe lunatics associated with the candidates? And what if there were one white candidate and one black candidate, with more or less equal qualifications?

What would Philly's vote look like then? I guess we'll never know.

Let me share this fantasy. Someday very soon the presidents of Comcast and Verizon and Independence Blue Cross and Aramark - among others - say to the mayor and City Council, here's the deal...clean up that cesspool William Penn is standing on or we leave town. All of us. And we take our jobs and wages taxes with us. Our thousands of employees won't be eating in city restaurants or shopping in city shoes stores, card shops, department stores, etc. We'll go to Bala Cynwyd or Conshocken or Camden but we won't put up with this c*** any longer.

What would happen?

Here is the question though,

For years, many minority residents of the city have felt overlooked and forgotten. Their neighborhoods went down hill, their schools went down hill, and no one seemed to care. Many people feel that Mayor Street has shown a great deal of concern and has done a great deal of good for many of these neighborhoods. Isn't that also a factor? Mayor Street did not create the issue of race in this city, it has always been here. The question is, how much of an issue should it be?

When you say that neighborhoods went downhill, exactly how do you mean that? In terms of property values? Or do you mean in terms of safety and the general decline of care being taken of houses?

Poor minorities are basically ignored in all cities, and also in rural areas.
I'm all for towing abandoned cars, and getting drug dealers off the streets, but let's look at the root of these problems. When there's no jobs, the only people that are left are there because they can't move out. So crime and drug problems go up. We can throw all the government money we want at these problems, but until the city is growing, really growing, the neighborhoods will continue to slide.

Street has done nothing of substance for the neighborhoods, especially poor neighborhoods. Residents, businesses, and jobs continue to leave Philadelphia or never arrive. Without private sector investment and economic growth, these neighborhoods will continue to be poor.

What did Street do for the poor neighborhoods which he represented in nearly 25 years of government service? NOTHING! They are as bad or worse as they were 25 years ago.

The fact of the matter remains that Philadelphia cannot survive and compete in a 21st century world with a 19th century mentality.