Dear Mayor Nutter,
I voted for you because I thought you best represented what the City needed. I had my doubts, but thought that you’d be the best man for the job. I felt sure of it when I shook your hand after your victory at City Hall station on my way to work.
A year later I wasn’t so sure. You and I had an awkward interaction at a Fels event. I asked you about the casino. You were upset and gave your rote answer. I don’t even remember it. I tried approaching you afterward not just to explain myself, but to give you a chance to turn on the charm and connect with a voter. You didn’t. You tried to avoid me. When I caught up to you, you told me if I didn’t like the casino, I could move. “It’s a big city,” you said.
Another year passed. You managed to survive a tricky winter, despite the fact that the streets were in awful condition. Mayors in Chicago lose elections over stuff like this. The city streets were an insurance nightmare! I know it was record snowfall, but doesn’t that mean city services should rise to the challenge in the name of public safety, or was it enough to don an Action News cap and give us updates?
You have about a year to turn this thing around. I know that the budget’s a mess, but you haven’t done a great job of accentuating the positive. Going after the libraries was a dumb move, even as part of brinksmanship. You lost credibility with the geek crowd from whence you came. You accepted an award from the library the night you threatened to close neighborhood branches. It sickened me and many people in my neighborhood. It really hurt those of us who thought that you’d have a greater degree of sophistication than your predecessor.
Whatever happened to the bully pulpit? Where’s the passion, man? What did you truly believe in in the first place? Was it all just a progressive facade?
You know what? I started writing this letter to condemn your campaign. I wanted to blame you for giving us false hope. But that’s not good enough. I want you to prove me wrong. I want you to wow me in the time you have remaining in office. Do you think you can? Do you think you can go to bat for Philadelphians and show them that you are indeed the bright bulb we thought we elected?
I know your job isn’t easy, but you knew that, too. Don’t just throw these difficult decisions in voters faces. It’s childish. Rise to the occasion and show us what you have. We still want to know about your ideas on technology, on your plans for the waterfront…heck, tell us more about bike lanes! Show us where you want to go. All hope isn’t lost, but you need to step up and lead. Can you?
Really great sentiments, J.T. I agree. I want real leadership. To see this city function as we know it can. To have it clean and safe (I’d take safe, first). I hope the Mayor gets a chance to read this. It’s from a concerned citizen who cares.
I think he’s got the safe part down for the most part, or at least the
perception that it’s safer than it was under Street. Just wish he could get
back on message, not that I even remember what his message was.
I’m writing an open letter to Barack Obama next. That’ll be a doozy. I think
these guys seem to believe that they can just take progressives for granted
and then spend all of their time courting conservatives. It’s time they get
a rude awakening.
J.T. You’re right about safety…but I was on the subway this morning and school’s back in session. I hope that crap from last spring doesn’t flare back up.
I do think there are a lot of parallels with Obama. (And I don’t mean their race.) I so believed in what they were saying. It was a message of hope and change. What happened? Screw those consertvatives…they lost. We won. Let’s do the things we know need to be done!
I hear you on dodgy subway rides. I’ve had some pretty hairy ones, but none
that involved school-age kids.
Agree completely on the parallels between Obama and Nutter. Have you seen
the 2005 documentary “Our Brand Is Crisis?” It’s about a Carville-led
campaign in Bolivia that ends disastrously. Their message? “Yes We Can.” It
gave me chills. What empty rhetoric! I was an Obama critic before the
election, but I was prepared to eat my words. I’m still waiting.
Check out the City of Philadelphia’s Facebook page…lots of good information on there about what the City is doing with respect to some of the issues that you bring up…bike lanes, the first re-write of the City Plan in decades, etc.
Appreciate the comment, but suggesting I check the City of Philadelphia’s
Facebook page isn’t really the cure for what ails me. Mayor Nutter is losing
the PR battle before anyone else has even stepped into the ring, and that’s
what I think he needs to address. He’s been invisible to me since the
snowstorms. Where’d he go?