Halfway there: A mid-term grade for Mayor Nutter
Sunday, January 3rd, 2010
Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter reaches the midpoint of his term this week. Chris Satullo, WHYY's Director of News and Civic Dialogue grades His Honor on his work so far…
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Two years ago this week, lines snaked around Philadelphia City Hall as citizens welcomed Michael Nutter in as mayor.
Chances are, a goodly number of those people would now welcome his being ridden out of town on a rail.
Such are the tribulations of a big city mayor during the Great Recession.
I still believe Mike Nutter, to revamp a famous old line, is not as bad as some Philadelphians say he is.
Like Barack Obama on the national level, Nutter suffers from having a political base stocked with naïve, dilettantish liberals. These are people who, by and large, don’t understand economics; nor do they grasp that governing in the real world involves hard choices and messy compromise.
Like his counterpart in the White House, Nutter has achieved more than even his friends, let alone his enemies, tend to admit.
Serious crime is down 10 percent, year over year. His GreenWorks environmental strategy is impressive. After a terrible start, he got the city through a fiscal crisis without draconian service cuts. There’s been no whiff of scandal.
That said, Nutter at mid-term is a bit of a disappointment. Here’s an irony that sums up the problem: The smart guy he hired to craft that GreenWorks plan resigned right after the plan was released.
The Nutter administration seems full of smart, earnest people who are great at dreaming up big plans, but not so adept at making them happen. Big brains, limited managerial oomph. Think tank bull sessions about how to fix a city are one thing. Actually doing that gritty, exhausting work is another. Particularly in a place as cantankerous and parochial as Philadelphia.
Nutter also has botched relations with his old colleagues on City Council. Some members who hailed his election now spit his name like a curse. Yes, council is a leaderless, clownish group, but a mayor still has to do better.
My midterm grade on Michael Nutter? Let’s say B-minus. Okay, I’m a softy, but somebody has to remember that the Great Recession which has constrained Nutter’s dreams simply was not his fault.
Chris, I agree that the Mayor gets too little credit and, to use the word irony correctly, your column is an example of the thing you criticize. Rather than an irony, my tour of duty in the Administration is a minor proof that things can function reasonably well with a Mayor who understands people. In a well-functioning complex organization, people have particular roles to play while respecting the roles of others. Yes, I helped design Greenworks. But resigning after the design was completed and the plan launched wasn't ironic; it was a recognition that implementation is the work of the Managing Director and Deputy Mayors, coordinated by the Mayor's Office of Sustainability. The plan is being implemented under their capable leadership and managerial oomph. The only potential irony might have come from me sticking around for implementation, under the delusion that writing about things is the same as doing them! Thanks.
Hey Chris,
I guess I am one of those people you referred to as a naive dilettantish liberal. You appear to be yet another member of the church of the savy – a smug group-thinking subset of media people that cynically look down on those of us who actually expect the politicians to FOLLOW THROUGH on their campaign promises. How ignorant of us. Yeah I know there is a recession going on but I am not clear what that has to do with making government more transparent, dislodging special interest, etc. And lets not even get into specific things they promised like card check or no mandates for health care… And as far as the knowledge of the economy goes most liberal economist (e.g. Paul Krugman) seem to be of the same mind as the rest of us backwards idiots.
Since only a complete barefoot rube would actually take the time to consider what a politicians specific policies and positions are I wonder how you decide who to vote for. Who you want to have a beer with? Who has the whitest teeth? What so ironic is how savvy media people like you are always complaining how the public is not really concerned with serious policy issues.. that we only want to hear about the gossip aspects of politics. It is clear from your little essay that this too is all that really interests you.
in the case of Obama it is a radical thought Not only does this faux worldliness,which is mistaken for wisdow, mask some pretty
No the problems is not that I/we don't live in the real world it is that the rhetoric