Street ponders first year in office

Like a proud father, Mayor John Street watched last night as a video outlining the accomplishments of his first year on the job was unveiled. When asked what he would change about a year that included highs such as last summer's Republican National Convention and lows such as bitter teacher contract negotiations, the mayor replied that he "wouldn't change anything." "I think that we had too productive a year to start second-guessing ourselves," Street said prior to his address at the Hyatt Regency at Penn's Landing. Street began the year true to his campaign promise to focus on neighborhoods, ensuring that unplowed city streets would now be cleared of snow, and overseeing the removal of some 61,000 abandoned cars. His signature announcement was a $250 million Neighborhood Transformation Initiative to fight blight by demolishing decaying houses, giving away vacant lots and increasing financing for home improvement loans. Although planning is underway in various neighborhoods, Street will only go before City Council this month to ask for financing for his plan. "He's starting to lose some of the political momentum that I think is important to dealing with the blight problem," said Mark Hughes, senior scholar with Penn's Fox Leadership Program. "There's only so much before-the-fact planning you can do -- at some point it becomes time to act." Some also say more must be done to fill the vacant spaces in America's fifth largest city, which have resulted from the loss of 500,000 residents out of the city since 1960, along with much of the city's industry. "Mayors should concentrate their efforts on the basics -- getting the schools to work, keeping the streets clean and safe and creating an environment that businesses want to come to and expand in -- not waving magic wands over neighborhoods," said Public Policy and History Professor Theodore Hershberg, director of the Center for Greater Philadelphia. Street has, however, finally sealed the deal on two new sports stadiums. Although the Eagles football stadium was always planned for its current home in South Philadelphia, Street had hoped to land the Phillies ballpark downtown at 12th and Vine Streets -- a proposed site that drew bitter opposition from neighboring residents in Chinatown earlier this year. "If he's supposed to be a 'neighborhood mayor,' what has he done for the neighborhoods other than wreak havoc in Chinatown?" said College senior Kristina Rencic, who interned last spring with the Commerce Department. "I don't know if he's really been in the trenches as much as he's pretended to be." The Phillies ballpark will now be built beside Veterans Stadium in South Philadelphia, with its economic benefits in tow, which is a great loss for the city, according to Hershberg. Street's secretive way of handling the stadium issue -- introducing the approximately $1 billion legislation to City Council only weeks before a city-imposed deadline -- as well as the narrowly-averted teacher's strike have caused some to question his leadership style. "He's very systematical -- perhaps with an annoying pattern of closed door negotiations and last-minute gamesmanship," Hughes said. "The problem is, there's a lot more to do with very little margin for error." Signs of a slowing national economy point to the need for renewed emphasis on creating a city-wide economic development plan -- something Philadelphia currently lacks. "The downtown recoveries that we've seen... are real, but the first recession will expose just how fragile they really are," Hershberg said. To begin that process, last week Street announced the New Economy Development Alliance -- chaired by University President Judith Rodin -- to leverage biotechnology research being conducted in the region. "It's not just a question of vision -- we all share a vision of a city that's prosperous and where everybody's happy," Hughes said. "We need ideas beyond partnerships and alliances -- we need some fundamental big changes. The honeymoon is long over."