Power Lunch: Sam Katz and John Street: Friends At Last

We never thought we’d see the day. Here, ex-Mayor John Street opens up to his onetime 
nemesis (and almost-maybe mayor) about his legacy, his distrust of the media, and why he thinks Michael Nutter is pretty much the Worst. Mayor. Ever.

 

That seems strong.
Business people supported a guy they thought would implement a pro-business agenda. He turned out to be a tax-and-spend Democrat. Latinos have been excluded from decision-making. The African-American community heard a lot of commitments. He’s not kept a single one.

Let’s talk about the race factor.
Good. First, I never said he wasn’t black enough. I did say many people in the African-American community don’t see him as a black mayor — they see him as a mayor with dark skin. It’s not playing the race card. It’s truth-telling. It’s the policies he’s proposed — the sugar tax, the police stop-and-frisk, the flat trash tax, abandoning the libraries, wanting to close curfew centers.

It does seem like the economic crisis was a lost opportunity. What would you have done differently?
When the fiscal problems became apparent, Nutter should have gone on TV to lay out the problem and set a clear path for getting through it. Sure, there’d have been a fight, but the public would have been on his side, and we’d be talking about the promise of his next four years. People want to know that the pain is being shared fairly. Fairness is key. Library cuts weren’t fair. Tax increases weren’t fair. If he’d been decisive and showed strong leadership, you wouldn’t have talked to me about a primary challenge.

In terms of policy, what have been the major issues?
He refused to support gaming projects, costing the city hundreds of millions. He failed to fix the assessment problem. He’s wimped out on confronting the unions on benefits and reconfiguration of the workforce. [Union leader] Pete Matthews once called me a “gutless pig.” It gets to be a knock-down-drag-out. But you have to have the fight. Nutter made the biggest mistake of his career when he put off the new union contract as a newly minted mayor. He had political capital. Now where is he? He signed off on the police arbitration. SEPTA workers got their raises. Why won’t everyone get raises? Well, they will. He has no leverage. He frittered away his chance to make changes.