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Magazine calls Street one of worst mayors
Time's not on his side. Inquirer staff and wire reports According to Time magazine, Mayor Street is one of the country's worst mayors. According to Street supporters, the magazine has it wrong. In an issue that hits newsstands today, the magazine gives props to what it considers the nation's "best big-city mayors" - New York's Michael Bloomberg, Atlanta's Shirley Franklin, Baltimore's Martin O'Malley, Chicago's Richard Daley, and Denver's John Hickenlooper. Detroit's Kwame Kilpatrick and San Diego's Dick Murphy joined Street on the magazine's "worst three" list. Street allies called the ranking criteria "arbitrary" and "inconsistent," and the magazine's analysis "sloppy." "We're a little bewildered by how they could conclude that Mayor Street deserves to be at the bottom," said George Burrell, Street's top adviser. "It's very difficult to look at the article and figure out how any one mayor got to their place on the list." Neither the "best" nor the "worst" are ranked, and the mayors were listed in alphabetical order. The magazine said it consulted with "urban experts" to choose from the 29 mayors of cities with populations greater than 500,000. "It is tempting to judge our mayors for the little things that make city life livable, the depth of the potholes, the smell of the streets, whether or not the traffic lights are in synch," the magazine said. "But the best mayors have also been those who act on a grand scale, building bridges, saving schools, finding the funds that cities lack." Time praised O'Malley for implementing the computerized statistics program CitiStat and Bloomberg for trimming New York's budget deficit and taking control of the public schools. It cited Daley's "near imperial power" in Chicago, Franklin's work on an ethics code for municipal employees, and Hickenlooper's high approval ratings. The magazine criticized Kilpatrick for the city's signing of a $24,995, two-year lease for a red Lincoln Navigator for police to use to drive the mayor's wife and children, despite a multimillion-dollar budget deficit. The issue singles out Street for criticism because of the corruption allegations involving his administration. Former City Treasurer Corey Kemp is on trial over allegations that he took bribes. Jury deliberations in the case are expected to resume today. Street has not been charged with any crime and has denied any wrongdoing in the city corruption investigation. "The scandals have turned Street into a lame duck a year early," the magazine states. The article, also available online, goes on to quote former Philadelphia Daily News editor Zach Stalberg, now the executive director of the watchdog Committee of Seventy: "The city is in a kind of suspended animation as long as the trials go on." Street supporters said the magazine ignored the mayor's role in helping turn around a blighted city. "Crime is down. Taxes are lower. Housing values are up... . But instead they are basing their criticism on unproven allegations," Street spokesman Dan Fee said. U.S. Rep. Chaka Fattah (D., Pa.) agreed, saying the article "had a bad case of selective amnesia. It didn't look at any of the real substantive work of the administration." |
- [UC] Inky report on Time's ranking of mayors -- posted without... Krfapt
