Meet some of the men
who would be mayor

Kids Stuff
By William Feldman

Welcome to Kids Stuff. Today’s column, the first of two parts, includes a brief review of some of the candidates running for mayor of Philadelphia.
Five of the seven Philadelphia mayoral candidates recently attended a hands-on educational experience, student-run forum at Central High School, located at 1700 W. Olney Ave. About 75 to 100 people attended, along with Dr. Sheldon Pavel, our school president; vice principals Reginald Speir, Jackie Betof and Lynada Martinez; and social science teachers Michael Horwits, William Graham, Stan Levy, Michael Reichert and Nicholas Kosiek. This forum was co-sponsored by the Committee of Seventy, a non-profit, non-partisan, government watchdog group; radio station Power 99; and Pennsylvania Cable Network.
The purpose of this forum was to allow students to see how their voices can make a difference and impact local policies. The forum directly addressed local policy issues and strengthened the link between "public servants and their constituents."
The moderator for the event was student Daniel Pearson; Round 1 questions and lancer lightning round were initiated by students Corey Abramson, Ricki Dean and Sarah Dekker; Round 2 questions were from the student audience, and student co-chairs were Rajany Mathew and Ashley Gearhart.
The mayoral candidates who attended the forum were four Democrats: U.S. Reps. Chaka Fattah and Bob Brady, businessman and former Deputy Mayor Tom Knox, and former City Councilman Michael Nutter, and the only Republican candidate in the race, Greater Northeast Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce President Al Taubenberger. Two other Democratic candidates, Milton Street and state Rep. Dwight Evans, did not attend the forum.
EDITOR’S NOTE: As the Times went to press, Milton Street announced his intention to run for City Council at-large instead of mayor.
I decided to split this mayoral event into two columns, mainly to give the readers many full and detailed highlights from each candidate’s two-minute opening statement, as well as from the round of questions. I personally do not like to read two-sentence excerpts from anything, because it was what someone else decided to include and exclude, which could sway someone’s opinion on a candidate or for that manner, any topic. Also, longer statements allow the reader to feel and understand each of the candidates’ thought processes of why he answered what he did.
The candidates were shown a yellow card when time was almost up and a red card when time was up.
Congressman Fattah began, "It is a pleasure for me to be back here at Central High School. Two of my children are graduates of Central. My daughter is a practicing attorney here in Philadelphia and was a member of class 252. My son is at Drexel University now and was a member of class 259. I spent a lot of time here as a parent."
Second Tom Knox commented, "I noticed from the mayor’s budget that he just cut funding for Community College. Community College is the last resort for people that are most in need in Philadelphia. I support Community College. I think we should be fully funding it. The city of Philadelphia only puts in 50 percent of the money it is supposed to put in. The state does not put all of its money in. We need to fully fund Community College, and as mayor I guarantee that this will happen. We also need to make sure that we fund the endowment fund that they have. If we can raise 68 million dollars for one painting in the Art Museum that only one percent of us will ever see, then we should be able to fully fund Community College."
The third candidate, Mr. Nutter, commented, "One of the best decisions of the School District of Philadelphia was to make Central a co-ed school. I have been a big supporter of public education all of my public service career. I am pleased to be here, but I am especially proud that the Central School students decided to have this forum. Thank you for this invitation."
And fourth. Mr. Taubenberger happily remarked, "I am very proud to be here. I am even more proud to be here as a parent of a student here at Central High School. I am glad that Sarah Taubenberger is in her seat. Most of my time was spent looking at Central from the other side. I went to Northeast High School. I spent my sports career trying to beat Central. But now that my daughter goes to Central, you have no bigger fan than sits right here. It’s a great school and I think what you are doing is a wonderful thing.
"To sit here and participate and have the candidates here, asking questions and participating in democracy, is a wonderful thing," Mr. Taubenberger continued. "One thing I would like to leave you with: it is an honor to be here but it is the process that is most important. The reason that we have this process and not every country has it is because people are willing to put their lives on the line and defend it. So, whenever you see a serviceman, give them a special thanks, because without their involvement, this forum would never exist."
Kids Stuff note: Mr. Brady’s responses are not in Part I. He apologized for being late: "I would not have been that late, but your security guard did a great job and secured me from getting here. I had to walk around the whole building to get here."
I agree with him — Central has incredible security guards.
First question: What measures would you take to avoid communication breakdown like that which occurred on Interstate 78 when many motorists were stranded after the ice and snowstorm? Below are some highlights:
Congressman Fattah: "I believe anyone who contemplates leading a major city has to be prepared for emergencies, either man-made or natural emergencies. We have been involved, from the earliest stages in my effort, a review of all of the emergency preparation activities of the government. I am very thankful for the additional review that the Street administration has put forth, which is a two-million-dollar initiative to review every single step involved with dealing with disasters that could develop in the city and put in the leading national experts on this. I met with the team and reviewed their report. We have made additional suggestions about what can be done to make sure that we can communicate with citizens in the city and needed personnel. The other thing of major concern is that we need a health care system that can deal with mass casualty events, and we are not yet there. My policy of development of procedures that we are working on some things, some of which we will make public, and some of which we will deal with in a different way. It is an important issue and thank you for raising it."
Mr. Knox: "On the emergency preparedness, I have been reading the reports that have put out by the city and by the news, and Philadelphia is not prepared for emergencies of a major event. However, we do get to plow the streets, and people consider that an emergency. A mayor’s first responsibility is to keep the streets safe. The second responsibility is to keep the streets clean, and that includes snow and the removal thereof. I am prepared to make sure that this is a commitment that my administration will make."
Mr. Nutter: "As Congressman Fattah mentioned, a significant amount of work has been done by Mayor Street and his administration pulling together a great team to review what the city can and cannot do. By sheer coincidence, and I did not know what question you would be asking, later today we will be releasing for the Nutter campaign an emergency preparedness plan. Clearly, having a joint command center, being able to communicate underground which we cannot do at this moment among our various police and fire personnel, is top priority."
Mr. Taubenberger: "Route 78 as we all know is not Philadelphia. But, I think what needs to be done on a consistent basis is that all the departments need to talk to each other. They have to go through scenarios and drills of possibilities and how all of these things can be worked out. But also taking something from a book that many mayors have done but one in particular, but one that constantly did it was Mayor Frank Rizzo, who was at the scene himself. Mayor Rudy Giuliani did that as well in New York City. The city is not that big. I think that the mayor of Philadelphia could be at the scene of any major incident very quickly."
The second question centered on the crime rate and the safety of the city. What specific steps other than adding additional police officers to the force would you take to make our neighborhoods safer?
Mr. Knox: "There are both short- and long-term solutions to crime. Long-term solutions all center around education. Education of our prisoners before they leave. Education of our students and giving them options to keep them in school, 45 percent of them are dropping out. We need to give them career-training options to keep them in school. I believe if we do that, people will lay down their guns, stop selling drugs, pick up their books, go back to school, get career training and get good-paying jobs. We also need to get our police force into the twenty-first century. Cameras on the streets are a good idea. Those cameras should be able to be viewed by police officers in their cars. We need to get a deputy mayor for public safety. We need to get community-based criminal justice centers. We need to make sure that we lobby Harrisburg for tougher gun laws. You know, one gun a month is fine; one gun a person is better."
Mr. Nutter: "First the target enforcement zones in probably the twelve most crime-ridden areas of the city, provide additional social service support for many or our families that are struggling in those same neighborhoods. Focus on repeat offenders and those who have violated probation and parole. We must put police and probation officers together on a regular basis to monitor those on probation or parole. But also, secondarily, to get those who have violated their probation and parole out of the communities. Lastly, focus on re-entry, those who are coming back to civil society who have a criminal record or background. It is very difficult to get a job in Philadelphia if you have a criminal record. We have to work with our employers to make sure that we are providing the maximal opportunities to get people back to work, off the streets and back on the road to self-sufficiency."
Mr. Taubenberger: "Education is always a cornerstone to stopping crime. An educated populous is something that we all desire. But when it comes down to the nitty-gritty of really fighting crime, I think enforcing the gun laws that are currently on the books is paramount. Increasing the amount of police is important. The police themselves have asked for a minimum of six-hundred that are needed."
He said a bill in the state legislature last session, which will be re-introduced this session by state Rep. John Perzel, would give 10,000 new police officers in Pennsylvania, 1,400 of whom are earmarked for Philadelphia.
"I think it is something that should be supported and embraced," Mr. Taubenberger said. "Also, parole officers should be increased and their duties empowered. In this regard I think police should be able to stop a convicted felon even though he is on parole and see if he has weapons on him. It is not an easy thing to do, but I think it is a proactive way on stopping crime as well. And lastly, jobs are very important, something I fully understand as being the president of the Northeast Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce."
Mr. Fattah: "Over the last couple of months we have instituted some programs that have enabled us to get four-hundred, ninety-seven guns off the street. We have also set up an anonymous tip line with the Citizens Crime Commission with a payout of one-thousand dollars immediately if anyone reports someone with an illegal gun and that person is arrested and that gun is confiscated. This has nothing to do with the next election. We have to work together. We should not politicize violence. This is about saving people’s lives. I support everything the others have said and what they have done."
I would like to thank Dr. Pavel and Mr. Horwits for inviting me to the forum.
Next week, Part 2 will cover school administration and safety, candidates’ pledge of honesty, pay-to-play, and comments from some of the staff at Central, along with the three contest winners who won four tickets each to a Philadelphia Wings game.

SPRING FORWARD
Reminder for the first time ever, Daylight Savings Time is coming early. Don’t forget to set your clocks ahead by one hour on Saturday night (Sunday morning).
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Answer to last week’s cryptogram:
A HEALTHY DIET USUALLY EQUATES TO A HEALTHY, LONG LIFE.
Columnist William Feldman can be contacted by e-mail at wmkidscolumn@aol.com