Blazing Saddles in Philladelphia???

With apologies to Mel Brooks,.....

Ringside: Street speaks - mostly of Mayor Nutter

Ex-mayor dissects, criticizes his longtime rival's tenure.

For more than two years, John F. Street refrained from commenting on Mayor Nutter because he said he wanted to give him a chance.

But now the former mayor says the muzzle is off.

In the interviews, Street called Nutter's first budget "pathetic" and said the city's five-year financial plan was "not worth the paper it is printed on." He said Nutter was a "micromanager" who didn't have any "political convictions" or "priorities."  (This coming from a mayor who thought it bext to stay on vacation when Pier 34 collapsed?)

Street saved his harshest critique for Nutter's relationship with the African American community. He said Nutter had "turned his back" on blacks in the neighborhoods.  (As opposed to you, Mayor Street, who turned YOUR back on the white neighborhoods??)

Specifically, Street pointed to the Police Department's "stop-and-frisk" policy, which appealed to white voters at the expense of harassing mostly young black males. (When white kids start texting each other to start riots on South Street, I'm sure the police will "harass" them, too!)

Perhaps. But if faced with a choice on Election Day, will blacks support Katz or another white candidate over Nutter?

"ABN," Street said, which is short for Anybody But Nutter. "There are people out there who can't wait to vote against him."

Street said the mostly white mainstream media were not in tune with the depth of disdain for Nutter in the African American community. He said Nutter was "not a black mayor, he's just a mayor with dark skin." Street relayed an anecdote of a black man who stopped him on the street and asked if the city would ever have another black mayor.