Editorial for November 15, 2007 edition:


Dear gentlemen

Dear Mayor-elect Nutter: Congratulations on your really, really, really, big win. Getting 83 percent of the vote and sweeping all 66 wards is more than a landslide victory. It’s an overwhelming mandate for change that the new City Council had best heed.
As you said at your election night victory party, it’s a new day and a new way in Philadelphia, indeed.
Something tells us you’re not going to be like the guy that you’ll be replacing in January. For one thing, you know how to spend money wisely (and will say "NO!" when necessary at contract-negotiation time). Unlike John Street, you’ve never gone bankrupt or fallen behind on repaying school loans and utility bills. And we have a hunch that if you visit an NAACP convention, you won’t brag that the brothers and sisters are still running the city. That’s not your style. You don’t wear labels on your sleeve.
Dear Al Taubenberger: Hang your head as high as possible. You are a true gentleman who gave it your best shot.
Your deep roots in Northeast Philly were irrelevant in your bid for mayor. It was an impossible mission all along, and you knew it, but still, you took one for the team.
You and Mike did something Philadelphia hasn’t seen in a long while. You stayed on the high road and conducted your campaigns in a decent and honorable fashion, sticking to the issues, not searching for character flaws. If your new pal offers you the job of city commerce director or city representative, take it. You’re the right man for the job.
Decades from now, when your grandchildren read about what their grandpa did back in ’07, they’ll be mighty proud of you. When all is said and done, that’s as important a legacy as any. ••

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