John Street's vanishing legacy

The Inquirer today asks a question that has been on the mind of many political watchers: What on earth is happening to former Philadelphia Mayor John Street's legacy?

Street left office in January after a second term that saw his popularity dip drastically as the city's murder rate climbed and he was assailed for spending a morning waiting in line to buy an iPhone. His successor, former City Councilman Michael Nutter, won office in large part by campaigning as the anti-Street.

Nutter and Street have always been political foes, and many say their dislike of one another extends outside politics and into the personal. But when Street left City Hall to make room for Nutter, he probably didn't expect that so much of his time in office would be deconstructed so fast.

First, Nutter immediately reversed Street's decision to grant a controversial license to a planned waterfront casino. Meanwhile, Street's initiative to make Philadelphia the first wireless city, lauded nationally, seems near its end (though it was saddled with problems before he left office) and the city-funded child welfare organization he turned into a powerhouse is on the verge of closing its doors.

And Street's favored program, the anti-blight Neighborhood Transformation Initiative, has been halted while the Nutter administration audits the program.

They'd warred for year, but it looks like Nutter is in the position to strike the final blow, though he waves off any suggestion that decisions have been made because of his feud with Street.

"I would say that is, at least for today, the most absurd thing that I've heard," he said. "This is a very serious issue. It has nothing to do with personalities, or, you know, ideas, or legacies or anything else."

Street, who now teaches at Temple University, defended his programs in a statement to The Inquirer.

"No program is perfect, and if you look hard enough you can always find things to complain about," he said. "I stand by these programs as having been good for thousands of Philadelphians and worthy of continued support. I can only hope that the new administration will be fair to the program recipients who are depending on the services, and the managers involved who I believe are dedicated public servants who only want to do a good job for the citizens of Philadelphia."