Michael Nutter seems to be the off-stage actor whose victory in the
primary is driving a lot of the tensions. It's interesting that,
according to the City Paper article, at the First Thursday meeting
Jannie "accused the nonprofit of secretly supporting Michael Nutter."
I hadn't seen that mentioned before, though it was implicit. This was
just after the election, when emotions were raw and the various players
were calculating their winnings or losses.
In that context, UCD made a big mistake by firing Fenton. Within a few
weeks people could have gotten past their feelings from the election.
Either there were deeper tensions that were already building up (Penn
secretly backing Nutter, or friction between Fenton and UCD/Penn
higher-ups, or whatever) and this was just the trigger, or it was just
a stupid move. Now it's "war," but in the longer run most people know
they're got to work out their differences in order to get things done.
Things may be on hold now until Mayor Nutter takes office, when the
constellations realign around him, his people, and his policies.
Remember, Nutter got 57% in the 27th Ward, and 51% in the 46th (west of
45th St.), while Knox got 13% and 16%.
Before all this happened, Fenton was on the side of the angels and
Blackwell was regularly disparaged on this list. But I guess things
are a *little* more complicated than that.
On Jul 12, 2007, at 11:04 AM, S. Sharrieff Ali wrote:
The UCD..for its own sake should stop playing power games with
Councilwoman Jannie Blackwell. Whoever was responsible for the
Knox/Fenton debacle..lets just say..they were flawed in their
strategy…and the results weakened their already unstable position with
Blackwell and the broader community.
UCD probably thought they were fighting in the same weight-class. But
their weight comes from Penn, which has a somewhat different agenda (!)
and more reasons to work things out amicably.
The reality is UCD lost a major player in John Fenton. It would have
been smarter to use his relationship to bridge the organizations with
Councilwoman Blackwell. Not only did they lose his organizational
capacity, but now the bridge is blown.
So who are the real players, and which are the bridges, etc.? I think
the comment about Councilmember-at-large Fenton gets to the larger
point. UCD itself has become the bridge between Blackwell and Penn,
and the now question is whether either or both sides see any reason to
keep it up.
--
Kirk Wattles
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
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