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December 19-25, 2002 pretzel logic Street at the CrossroadsIt is Halloween night 2001 and the Marriott Hotel is filled with African trade ministers, ambassadors, business people and the prime minister of Cote d'Ivoire. There are representatives from dozens of Philadelphia businesses and civic leaders like Police Commissioner John Timoney, Tommy Muldoon of the Convention and Visitors Bureau, Commerce Director James Cuorato and A. Bruce Crawley, the man whose vision brought the Corporate Council on Africa's biannual summit to Philadelphia. At stake for the city is a billion dollars' worth of international trade from Africa. But despite the gravitas of the players and the size of the potential windfall, Philadelphia Mayor John Street -- who would later talk about how "the brothers and sisters are running this city" -- is nowhere to be found, leaving an irate Secret Service, African leaders and the head of the Corporate Council wondering how the mayor could be AWOL from such an important event. And it was on this night that I began to doubt that John Street is really the right man to lead Philadelphia. In the months before the 1999 mayoral election, I was the only member of City Paper's editorial board to champion Street's candidacy. He was smart and savvy and understood the concerns of the neighborhoods. I pointed out that as a resident of the Yorktown section of North Philly, he had a view of Philadelphia that none of his opponents, Democrat or Republican, really had. And during my conversations with him, I got the sense that he really understood what it takes to fix an old city like Philadelphia. Because I'd gotten to know the mayor in a way no other reporter had, I saw beyond his prickly side to the wise-cracking, practical-joking, folksy family man with a fondness for six-wheeled monster vans and telling stories to his kids. I genuinely like John Street. But I also knew that he had problems. His ego gets in the way. He is easily wounded. He is secretive. And listening to people is something he just doesn't do -- unless they have bags of money. At the close of 2002, John Street is at the crossroads. Though nobody from his own party has so far shown any indication that they really want war with the mayor, Sam Katz has signed on for a rematch (I propose a debate at the Blue Horizon). There have been successes. Streets were plowed in the neighborhoods his first winter. Abandoned cars were towed. Public school test scores are increasing, crime is decreasing and Street practically raised the dead, convincing at-large Councilman Thacher Longstreth to introduce legislation putting the kibosh on district Councilman (and Vince Fumo puppet) Frank DiCicco's plan to keep IKEA off the waterfront. But there have also been spectacular failures. During Street's watch, the state has taken over the Parking Authority and the Convention Center, which has become a travesty under Street, a wholly owned subsidiary of Union Inc. Thanks to the unions -- particularly the Carpenters Union, which has refused to come into the labor tent Street hastily erected to make the Convention Center a less hostile place for conventioneers -- convention planners are avoiding Philadelphia and the state legislature is justifiably unwilling to kick in an extra half-billion buckos for a much-needed expansion. The whole Convention Center fiasco speaks volumes about Street's "pay-to-play" attitude. While it is laudable that he is at least honest about the fact that his friends and campaign contributors are going to get the biggest slices of the pie, the end result -- Philadelphia getting screwed -- is inexcusable. In a similar move, caving to expediency, Street allowed more then $1 billion to be invested in stadia in South Philly, in a location where the vast majority of fans will zip in and out of town without adding the kind of value to Philadelphia's economy that would have been offered by a Center City baseball stadium. Though the mayor just asked to front-load $50 million to take down more abandoned properties, his grand vision of NTI might as well stand for Nothing Truly Inspiring because, despite years of efforts, what was a good idea has languished. While public school students' test scores have improved, it wasn't until the situation was already well out of control that Street woke up and chained himself to a fence, a fitting metaphor for his deadline machinations. What did he achieve? A state-imposed solution to the school mess -- bringing in independent contractors to run the city's worst schools -- that's already showing signs of breaking down. Let's not forget the surprise announcement that the city is facing a huge deficit. And there are many cases where the mayor's intransigence, his need for respect above all else, has cost this city severely. Over the next several weeks, in a series called "Street at the Crossroads," City Paper will examine the mayor's record -- pro and con -- and lay out a course of action he needs to take to show that he deserves re-election. We will look at his vision, his secrecy, his planning, his development policies, his political power game and how Street is playing in the street. And we are hoping that, given what we are finding, someone will arise from the Democratic ranks to mount a serious challenge. Otherwise voters won't get a real chance to weigh in on the mayor for almost a year. 
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