Category: Philadelphia

Looks like the GOP has ponied up Al Taubenberger to run for Philadelphia Mayor.

City Councilman Frank Rizzo, a Republican who had considered a mayoral run on either party’s ticket, said yesterday that he expected Taubenberger to be the nominee. Rizzo said he backed off his own bid because “we have a good candidate in Al Taubenberger, who I’ll be working for, and on the Democratic side, we have some capable candidates also.”

The city’s registered Democrats outnumber Republicans by 5-1, and most GOP leaders concede that a mayoral victory is a long shot. No Republican mayor has been elected since 1947.

Anyone who knows Philadelphia knows the Rizzo name, but I don’t know much about Taubenberger, and we probably won’t get to know much about him, because, as the article says, the GOP has a snowballs chance in hell of winning the race.   Of course, no one thought a Republican could win in New York City either, but they elected Giuliani (I don’t count Bloomberg. He’s a lifelong Democrat riding on Rudy’s coattails).  I may have my issues with Giuliani as President, but he was a great mayor of New York City.  Philadelphia is long overdue for it’s own Giuliani.  Sadly, this guy probably ain’t it.

Apparently the City of Philadelphia is considering its own ban on trans-fat, modeled after that of New York.

Major food retailers such as Starbucks and Kentucky Fried Chicken have banned trans fats. Trans-fat oil, associated with bad cholesterol, is scheduled to be eliminated in New York City by July. A proposed New Jersey ban on trans-fats in restaurants has remained in a legislative committee since October. Philadelphia’s City Council is scheduled to vote today on the fate of fryer oil in restaurants and food carts.

The article is mostly about local universities removing trans-fats from their cafeterias, which I’m all for. I have no issues with restaurants and food service providers removing them voluntarily, through market forces. Apparently my alma mater is getting in on this too:

Drexel University, which also contracts with Sodexho, switched to trans-fat-free oil in January 2006. In addition to its bread, tortillas and cookies, the school will get trans-fat-free doughnuts and cakes, said Marie Faherty, resident district manager for Sodexho there.

Dan Steinberg, Drexel’s Student Government president and a senior graphic-design major, said he hadn’t noticed a change in the food’s taste.

“A lot of that is a mental thing. I’ve been a resident assistant for three years, and coming down here with my residents, the food gets better every year,” he said.

The food is getting better every year? This isn’t the Drexel I went to! When I went, they still had 32nd street open and lots of artery clogging street vendor food, which is where most of us ate. The cafeteria was known as the “all you can stomach” plan, since if you signed up, you could eat as much as you wanted to, but who wanted to? Now, the street vendors are gone, and the cafeteria is serving tasty food with no trans-fats? Crazy.

Tom Knox it seems has come from way behind to take the number two polling spot in the Philadelphia mayoral race. This is good news, because it pushes Nutty Nutter out of the number two spot and replaces him with a slightly more sane candidate. Tom Knox is also cooler because he has a blog. Bob Brady, the City’s top Democrat, has thrown in officially now too, but he’s still polling dead last, behind Fattah, Knox, Nutty, and Evans.

Still a lot of crap, but perhaps some softening rhetoric coming from some of the mayoral candidates.  From Dwight Evans:

Evans, who has focused on crime for much of his 25 years in Harrisburg, began his campaign with a vow to woo former Police Commissioner John F. Timoney back from Miami to run the department again, if he was elected mayor.

I think Timoney was an effective police chief, and I think voters in the city think so as well.  I’m less confident that Evans can really woo him back.

Fattah softening the rhetoric a bit maybe?

“It is not illegal guns, it is the absence of opportunity which is at the heart of” Philadelphia’s crime problems, Fattah said when presenting his crime package this month. Nonetheless, Fattah’s plan, too, calls for more police to target guns, and includes the suggestion that high-tech cameras be used to scrutinize just who might be carrying a weapon in public.

Emphasis mine.  I agree with Fattah on what he said, but I still am not down with the cameras looking for “illegal guns”.  If he had ever carried a gun in pubic, he’d know how stupid this idea is.  There’s a reason they call it a “concealed” weapon.  The lack of opportunity is a direct result of a high wage tax which is killing the city.  The wage tax keeps businesses and people out of the city.

Businessman Tom Knox and U.S. Rep. Bob Brady, who has yet to declare his candidacy, have not yet unveiled large-scale crime plans. But they have grappled with the issue: Brady convened a high-profile summit on crime this summer, while Knox spent money on a petition drive urging new state gun laws.

When those candidates roll out policy platforms, strategists say, it is likely that they will have to strike the same balance between soft and tough approaches while striving for a unique way to discuss the issue.

Hey, I have a unique way to discuss the issue.  How about we talk about locking up criminals and getting them off the streets?

More from Congressman Fattah:

Where Nutter regularly excoriates Street over rising crime, Fattah avoids criticism of city leaders, noting that many cities struggle with crime. Instead, he used his announcement to tout continuing non-police efforts, such as a gun-buyback program he sponsors, and even praised programs championed by his opponents.

Hey Chaka, keep up the gun buybacks, because  have a lot of crap in my safe I’d be happy to take your money to get rid of.  Do a 200 dollar buyback, and I have some scary shit I might be willing to part with that you can hold up in front of the camera, and tell the folks how great you are for getting my scary looking, non-functioning POS off the street.  Just keep in mind if there’s any press hanging about, I’ll be sure to tell them I plan to use the funds to buy a brand new Kalashnikov if they bother to ask.  It’s a fair deal though.  You get good PR with the city folks, and I get a new rifle.