Pulse: Chatter: Politics: Street for Mayor?

Except for his political science students at Temple, nobody’s heard much in the way of politics from ex-mayor John F. Street since he left office in 2008. Then Michael Nutter proposed the sugar tax. Suddenly, Street found his soapbox, waving an empty Coke bottle as he publicly denounced the idea. “When he took this visible position,” says former City Councilman Angel Ortiz, “people’s antennas went up.” Street — who by most accounts remains happily resigned from politics — won’t go on record regarding talk of another mayoral run; nor will rumored contender Bill Green. But since Street’s outcry, barroom chatter among politicos has grazed on everything from the plausible (Tom Knox gearing up for another run — as a Republican?) to the unlikely (Green and Street both running, to split Nutter’s vote?) to the wildly improbable. “All we’d need then is Rendell,” Ortiz says. He laughs. “Of course, Rendell would win in a walk.”