Street hopes to cut the fat

The former City Council president emphasizes sound fiscal policy in his campaign. John Street has a simple message for improving the city: Lay off the cheeseburgers. It's advice the frontrunner in this year's Philadelphia mayoral election said he once needed to follow himself. "I was just a big man," the former City Council president recalled in an interview last month. "I needed to make some lifestyle changes in order to lose that weight and keep it off to become the lean, mean, physical specimen that you see sitting in front of you today." And why is the man who could succeed outgoing Mayor Ed Rendell talking about cheeseburgers? "In this city, we were basically fat and out of shape and we weren't doing a lot of the things we knew we needed to do in order to be able to control our financial health," Street said. "And Ed Rendell and John Street basically shaped us up financially as best they could and put this city in a position where we now can reasonably talk about doing some other things." Using the philosophy of fiscal conservativism as his guiding light, Street has led the five-way race for the Democratic nomination since its onset. But this week, The Philadelphia Daily News and Fox-TV released a poll placing Street in a first-place tie with attorney and lifelong politico Marty Weinberg, whose television advertising blitz has vaulted him from last place to the top of the pack in just a few short months. Street's campaign maintains that the Daily News poll -- which surveyed 349 Philadelphians likely to vote in the Democratic primary -- did not take a broad enough sample and that the latest results are not of great concern. Despite being the longtime frontrunner, Street has struggled with high negative approval ratings. He also mentioned last month that turbulent polling is sometimes the nature of the politics business. "Elections are contests and they're made out to be contests," Street said. "That's the way it is. There are some people who may disagree with me on an issue here and an issue there who think it's in their best interest to try and get somebody in office who agrees with their particular issues. They are the vast minority of the voters." In 1992, Street assumed the role of Council president just as Rendell was handed the reins of an ailing Philadelphia, where annual budget deficits of over $200 million were the norm. And so began a mutually beneficial partnership that has spanned close to eight years, with the city on the right track for improvement in almost every area. Street, who had spent 12 years on Council prior to Rendell's arrival in City Hall, is not shy in taking much of the credit for the accomplishments of the 1990s. "I think I brought a measure of experience and know-how that was indispensible to the progress that this city made," Street said. "I respectfully think I knew a whole lot more about how to do my job than [Rendell] knew about how to do his job and I went on a mission to make sure the two of us -- and therefore this city -- were as successful as we possibly could be under the circumstances." At Street's official campaign announcement in February, Rendell spoke enthusiastically on behalf of his former colleague, proclaiming that there has never been a more qualified candidate. According to Rendell, much of his support stems from the belief that Street "has been a fiscal conservative and will be a fiscal conservative" as mayor. Street noted that the next mayor will face some "new challenges" but solidifying a steady economy is necessary before even attempting to tackle other problems. "We talk about progress and moving forward and dealing with jobs and neighborhood development and all of that, but the foundation to be able to do all of that is making sure we're fiscally responsible and the city is on sound financial footing," Street said. Improving public education, reducing crime and furthering business development by slowly cutting the wage tax sit at the top of Street's list of immediate goals because, he said, each of these issues "works hand-in-hand." "We believe that public education is probably about as important an issue that exists and it would be difficult to say one is more important than the other since they are so closely related," Street said. "People want to talk about violence in the schools, but the violence in the schools really is only part and parcel of the violence that's in the neighborhoods. So if you deal with violence in the neighborhoods, you're also dealing with violence in the schools." "And when we talk about having a bright future for this city, you have to improve the quality of public education if you're going to have the workforce that you need in order to fill the jobs and attract the businesses that you'd like to attract to this city.? We have to work on all of these things simultaneously." While Philadelphia's economy has come a long way in just a few years, Street warned that the city can easily return to the dark days of old, which is why fiscal restraint will be the cornerstone of his administration. "Eight years ago, we had a $250 million deficit," Street said. "And today, although we're not out of the woods, I like to say any municipality, including this municipality, is always one double beef Whopper away from being fat and out of shape. So we have to always watch and be vigilant."

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