1 May 07: I LIKE MIKE (TOO)!



Philadelphia Magazine likes Mike. The Philadelphia Inquirer likes Mike. A Smoke Filled Room likes Mike. Dovate likes Mike. According to a Pennsylvanians for Effective Government, more and more people like Mike. And now, with exactly two weeks before the primary election, if I may be so presumptuous to represent a team of friends that includes Steve in Haddington West Philly, Nathaniel in Bella Vista, Mark in South Philly and Michelle in South Philly, and B Love in G-Ho . . .

Philly Skyline likes Mike.

Here's why. Michael Nutter is every bit as progressive as he is labeled. Michael Nutter is intelligent and well spoken. Michael Nutter is quick witted and charismatic. Michael Nutter is so concerned with the increase in shootings and murder that he wants to declare a state of emergency in the neighborhoods that need it most, yet realizes that recognizes the absolute necessity that is prevention -- prevention of initial crime and prevention of repeat offenses. Michael Nutter is fiscally minded enough to have served as chair of the Pennsylvania Convention Center (whose expansion is the largest capital project in state history) while wanting to phase out the business privilege tax. Michael Nutter is concerned for the state of public schools in Philadelphia, as his own daughter currently is enrolled in one. Michael Nutter has not resorted to attacking his opponents; while they have been attacking each other, he has stayed above the fray. Michael Nutter's integrity is such that he stepped down from his fifteen year position as a city councilman.

The other four candidates (sorry, Larry West, next time) consist of three other elected officials who are campaigning while simultaneously representing their constituents, and a man who has so much money he very well may take the "for sale" sign off of City Hall because he bought it himself. Those four candidates also own bits and pieces of Nutter's traits and, put together, could probably create a better candidate. But the May 15 primary election is not a color-by-numbers, it is about choosing the best candidate, and the best candidate is Michael Nutter.



I've met Mike three times. I've met Chaka Fattah. And I've watched the other three speak and debate and I've visited their web sites and read the press.

Bob Brady is a great man and wants to hire more police NOW. I like him a lot. He has served his constituents well and, if there is going to be a labor dispute, it's likely that Brady is going to mediate and resolve it. He has been a good head of the city's Democratic Party. But, in spite of his genuine goodness, that same party has become a grotesque machine, and -- whether he admits to "spinning the shit" -- he spearheaded John Street's re-election. I like Bob Brady, and though I would vote for him if he were my Congressman, I will not vote for him for mayor.

Chaka Fattah is a nice man and has great ideas to help the poor and bridge the enormous gap between the haves and have nots. I have voted for him for Congress. However, his congestion fee idea is ridiculous. Though highways in the Philadelphia region are indeed archaic and in need of upgrade, Center City is neither an island like Manhattan, nor a centuries old city with an amazing transit system like London, and the last thing the city's battered relationship with the suburbs needs is what amounts to another tax, and to people who don't even live here. One example of archaic infrastructure that Congressman Fattah has had a chance to fix is our beloved South Street Bridge. The Bridge's reconstruction has been coming down the line for at least ten years, and Fattah has represented the Congressional district entirely in which South Street Bridge resides for twelve years.

The Bridge is crumbling and the on-ramps need to be brought up to modern standards, i.e. oriented so that they're not left-side merges. The pedestrian and cyclist experience is not only unattractive and dangerous, but it also adversely affects motorists (who, despite so many arguments to the contrary, are first in the pecking order and affected most by SSB's condition). Consider then the eastward expansion of Penn and the growth of G-Ho and the southwestern end of Center City, and the chance for the literal bridge between them to be iconic, a new landmark for for the new city. All of these things -- every last one of them -- could be harmoniously brought together with money, and yet the total budget for South Street Bridge is merely $50M, a drop in the federal spending bucket. Boston's Big Dig brought in $15 billion of federal money. If SSB had just one percent of that money, its budget would triple. Alaska's "Bridge to Nowhere" is proposed at over $300M, six times SSB's budget, to serve a population one tenth of one percent of Philly's size. All SSB needs to be the landmark it should be is someone to step up to the plate to retrieve the money it deserves. Congressman Fattah -- PA's 2nd Congressional District representative, who also serves on the powerful House Appropriations Committee -- has not been that person. When I asked him about that, he told me that there are a lot of bridges that need attention and that, if elected, he'll do his best to see that they're all done right. Eh. I like some of Chaka Fattah's ideas, but I dislike enough of them that I will not vote for him.

Dwight Evans is also a good man. There is a sincerity about him that few elected officials possess, and he has a record of compatriots that includes John Timoney, Paul Vallas and the GLBT community. He has represented the West Oak Lane area well in Harrisburg. And, I think he should stay there. As the Inquirer suggests in its endorsement, the positivity and good ideas that Nutter as mayor and Evans as a seasoned representative could collaborate on might start chipping away at the divide that is Philadelphia vs Pennsylvania. As well, Evans doesn't seem to be able to exude the charm and quickness that I honestly believe is vital to a hold so high an office. Even his tv ads seem memorized or read from cue cards, not intuitive. I like Dwight Evans, but I will not vote for him.

And of course there's Tom Knox. Tommy the Loan Shark and other Knox detractors have made their claims so I'll leave the payday loan stuff well alone. My opinion of Knox is, like so many others, based on about five months of tv introductions that include the desire to take the "for sale" sign off of City Hall and the buzzkill crying mother / dying brother spots. But I've seen him speak, notebook in hand, and there just doesn't seem to be any substance. As Ed Hertzog suggested in his Skyline contribution, the arts & culture forum was all I needed to know about Knox: he seemed vapid at best, annoyed to be there at worst. And what's up with the hair? I'm serious here: never mind the fact that he could afford some better hair dye. If he is that insecure with himself that at 66 years old he must dye his hair, why should I believe he has the confidence to lead a city of a million and a half people? I will not vote for Tom Knox.

So, all this said, the unashamedly bald Michael Nutter is our man. We've railed on recently about the power of clear thought. Think. Reason. Michael Nutter embodies these easy but essential principles. He has the momentum, he has the personality, he has the vision, and now he has our vote. We hope he has yours too.



I sat down with him last week for a discussion on topics not covered on his web site or in his team's many many press releases. That interview is just below.

Be sure to be educated on the topics by visiting the following excellent mayoral web sites/blogs:

The Next Mayor (Committee of 70, WHYY, Daily News)
Fight for Room 215 (Metro)
Mayorpalooza (Inquirer)
Great Expectations (Inquirer)

And also the five candidates' web sites:
Michael Nutter
Dwight Evans
Bob Brady
Chaka Fattah
Tom Knox


2 May 07: I LIKE MIKE (2)!

Marty Moss-Coane concluded her interview with Michael Nutter this morning by asking him if it was true that he used to be a disco DJ, and he responded, "yes, it's very true . . . it's my understated way. Put a turntable and a microphone in front of me and i might surprise you." How great is that? If there is a quality I'm looking for in my mayor, it's how he can move the crowd from behind the 1 and 2.

I also had a chance to sit down with Mix Master Mike last Thursday, and I wanted to talk to him about some secondary issues that were not near the top of his agenda, because those things are well covered by the media, are what he can fit into 30 seconds for expensive tv ads, and are what are clearly illustrated in the issues section of his web site. This was our conversation.

B LOVE: So, here we are, two weeks away . . . how do you feel? What does May 16 (the day after the primary election) hold in store for you? Vacation? Cruise?

MICHAEL NUTTER: Thanks for being here. I feel great, I really do. But come May 16, I plan on catching up on my sleep.

B: We met over a year ago at Ten Stone, at 21st & South, six blocks from the South Street Bridge. That Bridge has been crumbling for years and is finally scheduled for reconstruction. The final product has been decried by neighbors, advocates, and Inquirer architect Inga Saffron because it is severely underwhelming and is a major missed opportunity. That is entirely because of its budget, which is less than fifty million dollars. We still have a chance to make it the icon it deserves to be as a bridge between an eastward expanding University of Pennsylvania campus and a growing Center City, over not only our beloved Schuylkill River but also a federal interstate highway and several passenger and commercial rail lines. What do you think?

MN: Bridge projects are always complicated. I've been through a few myself -- Strawberry Mansion, Falls Bridge, and the I-76 interchange is coming up in the district I used to represent -- they are tremendously complicated, there's no doubt about it. I think what's important is to make sure you have real dialogue from the neighbors, and the users, and then what other goals do you have? Are you trying to light it? Are you trying to highlight it? Can you make an easier passage for pedestrians? Will there be lighting elements underneath that fit into a larger strategy about bridges and how we sell them, because they hold a certain place in our hearts and our minds.

So, I think the most important component of a project like this is making sure there is as much input from nearby neighbors and users as possible and that everyone understands what the game plan is, including of course the start and finish.

South Street Bridge has a lot of history and character, and it needs to be addressed. The on-ramps are two of the worst.

B: No doubt. For bringing people into the city -- as far as bringing population back . . . have you thought about using famous faces? For example, you look at Kevin Bacon and Blythe Danner's "you're gonna love the arts in Philadelphia" ads . . . something like that. Or maybe athletes. Ryan Howard, Pat Burrell, and at least until recently, Peter Forsberg all live in the city.

MN: We need to retain more of the young people who come to school here, too. All of this goes to the three main issues I've talked about in terms of the quality of life: crime, education, jobs. I think if we attack those three issues aggressively, simultaneously and with a sense of urgency, people are going to feel safer, we'll have a more educated population, and businesses will want to be here. When you help facilitate the creation of jobs, it also creates a greater tax revenue and improves the amount of services.

Fourth after that is that we need to be more immigrant friendly. We can demonstrate that in a number of ways. The way we print our materials -- [we can do it in] a number of languages. We should print most things in at least ten different languages. That word of mouth starts to spread. We need a liaison for the various ethnic communities working right out of the mayor's office. What happens then is that people start telling their friends and relatives that this is a great place; it's friendly to us. Boston, Chicago, New York and a number of other places have been able to capitalize on that.

B: Ray Nagin's comments last week . . . that seems to be one of the major current events that hasn't been covered in a Nutter press release. The way I see it: yes, it was out of line and yes, he had no place to say that, but the question is: was he right?

MN: Well, two comments. One, I think it's unfortunate that when a city hosts another city's official or delegation . . . whatever your general observations are whenever you come to town, you thank people for the hospitality you've received and reserve any critical comments. You don't need to say something about everything. It's like going to somebody's house for dinner and then criticizing the meal. Not the nicest thing in the world.

But. As I've traveled the city, it is very clear that the city is dirty. It really is. So, [Nagin] said the right thing at the wrong time. It's inappropriate for him to say it but he's right on the issue. One of the things I plan to do is to not only clean up City Hall figuratively, in terms of corruption and crime, but also clean that building and its perimeter. I also want to have hundreds of thousands of people out throughout this entire city on a day, cleaning up Philadelphia. It needs a literal cleaning, it needs a figurative cleaning. It's a symbolic cleaning because I want people to understand that now that we've cleansed the place . . . once you've established a baseline of what is acceptable, then that should be our standard as we move on, and it's unacceptable to go back to a dirty, filthy, grimy kind of place. That's not who we are and that's not what we are about. That's what I'm trying to change.
It was at this point that the door opened and his staffer let in City Paper staff photographer Michael T Regan (whose excellent portfolio based web site is HERE and more regularly updated blog is HERE). Mike, Mike and I let loose for a second and joked about Nutter's crazy schedule. I mentioned that I was leaving there on my way to the Phillies (business person special) game (which they lost, to freaking Washington). Nutter actually said "believe me, I wish I could join you but somehow I think they have plans for me today."


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