John Street A Serial Wheelchair Pretender

On Friday, John Street’s legs were kinda tired so he decided to spend the entire day in a wheelchair.

Okay, no, actually, Street wanted to see what it was like to be disabled, and he said he learned a lot about accessibility issues in City Hall from it. However, much like anything else Street does — say, waiting in line for an iPhone to show how in touch with technology this city is — instead of making him look concerned or sensitive, it just makes him look like an idiot.

“I’m having today a sensitivity experience. I’m going to be in this wheelchair all day. This is not the first time I’ve done this, but every time you do it, you really have a renewed appreciation for the problems associated with disability,” Street said. “Even though I’m voluntarily exposing myself to this limitation for the day, already it has been interesting.”

His quote is essentiually: “Even though I’m only doing this for a day, already it’s been interesting.” What, you have to do things for more than one day in order for them to be neat?

Mayor Street Spends The Day In A Wheelchair [CBS 3]
June 29: This Kind Of Sums Up Eight Years Of John Street

John Street Booed At Rally Monday™!

Near the end of the ridiculously-attended Rally Monday™ outside City Hall at noon, Phillies PR guy Scott Palmer said the had checked the statistics and it was the largest rally in the history of Dilworth Plaza. While I’m not quite sure they actually keep statistics on things like that, but it was a pretty good crowd. I’m no good at estimating crowds, but let’s say there were thousands of people there.

The highlight of the day was the lusty boo Mayor John Street received when he went up to give some sort of Phillies speech. Sadly, he cut it short. Also booed: Adam Eaton and, to a lesser extent, Rod Barajas. And Bill Giles and David Montgomery by the more knowledgeable, angrier fans.

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Mayor Street: The Fifth Beatle?

With apologies to, um, everyone.

A recent morning walk by John Street:

We start off at 6:30 in the morning down 13th Street to Spring Garden. Through Community College. Across the Parkway. Along Schuylkill River Park. Past Rittenhouse Square. Up 12th Street back into North Philly.

Seven miles. His short course, he says.

Gotta say, that’s somewhat of an impressive walk.

Annette John-Hall | A long walk shows strides Street has made [Inquirer]
[Street photo by Ron Tarver/Inquirer]

Mayor Can’t Keep Track of All His Wheelings & Dealings

Hey, so remember when John Street tried to get in property tax delinquents? And then he accidentally — whoops! — was delinquent on property taxes himself? Well, how’d that happen?

Good luck getting an answer from the mayor, he has no idea!

At issue are tax bills for two of Mayor Street’s properties that had not been paid since 2003. Street paid the nearly $5,000 bill only after being told of the matter by a reporter last week. In his first public comments on this, Street said there’s confusion over the bills, and said he won’t try to straighten it out in the media:

“That’s personal, and I’m not going to get into how I pay my bills. Legitimate taxes weren’t paid on time, and when I found out, I paid them. And I think that’s good enough.”

Street also overpaid on some other bills, but he’s a millionaire so it doesn’t really matter. Ha ha, John Street is a millionaire! What are you going to tell me next, state legislators make six figures? Oh, shit.

Mayor Mum About Why He Failed To Pay Property Taxes [KYW 1060]

Marian Tasco Says What We’ve All Been Thinking

City Council is back in session, which can only mean one thing: Angry comments from politicians.

Marian Tasco, you’re up. How’s the Street administration treatin’ ya?

“I’m not voting for any legislation generated by this administration - because I don’t trust it,” said Councilwoman Marian Tasco.

Hmm, I appreciate the sentiment, but what exactly does she not trust Street on. Is he going to pull the football away at the last minute and send Marian Tasco flying through the air?

Phila. council is back: Let jockeying begin [Inquirer]

Mayor Street Resurfaces, Complains About Suburbs

Hey, everybody, John Street’s back! Yes, for the first time since he got an iPhone — that price drop has to be making steam come out his ears! — John Street has made a public statement, and it’s to warn all those ruffians making noise that they’d better stop. No, not people shooting other people, but Merion residents suing to keep the Barnes Foundation out of Philadelphia!

Okay, so these lines are getting kind of old, but, whatever, when’s the last time you saw Mayor Street doing anything? After signing the bill that would turn over land on the Ben Franklin Parkway to the Barnes Foundation for the museum’s relocation, he lashed out at the lawsuit filers:

“These are just people who are litigating almost for litigation’s sake.”

Street said some of those suing are the same people who battled the Barnes over a whole host of issues: “In years past, if you didn’t know better, you’d believe that they really didn’t want the Barnes collection there. They’re standing there with meters counting the cars that come in. They did everything they could to restrict access to the collection.”

Actually, that’s how I feel about almost all litigation. Anyway, welcome back, Mr. Mayor!

Mayor Sounds Off At Merion Residents Over Barnes Move [KYW 1060]

Mayor Finally Introduced To His Police Commissioner

It may have taken a triple homicide at a bar — and a bunch of shootings over the weekend — but Mayor John Street met with Police Commissioner Sylvester Johnson for a brainstorming session! This marks the first time the mayor has met Johnson, and the two were said to get along pretty well.

And, apparently their solution is to ban alcohol or something.

A couple of recent shooting incidents drew special attention during the meeting with Mayor John Street: “I am really concerned about bars and the proliferation of shootings and violence that are taking place in bars. We had another triple shooting in a bar over the weekend. We had a triple homicide in a bar the weekend before that.”

Hey, the mayor’s doing something, everybody! Gather around, this is about as common as a full solar eclipse or the installation of a new pope.

Mayor Meets With Phila. Police Brass To Address City Crisis [KYW 1060]

I Love The Smell of Napalm In The Morning

As you may have seen on the CBS Evening News With Katie Couric’s Legs last night, Philadelphia is having a bit of a homicide problem. Well, okay, it’s a “homicide problem” in the same way that the Delaware River is “wet.” But anyway, you probably didn’t see it, actually, since like 14 people watch it, and I’m guessing they’re all over the age of 70 and don’t have the Internet.

Anyway, now that the homicide crisis has hit national news (uh, again, right?), the mayor has kicked it into high gear and closed a bar where a triple homicide took place after an argument over the Bernard Hopkins fight. (Well, okay, the ridiculous situation might have a lot to do with it, too.)

Anyway, national correspondent Byron Pitts also wrote a blog post about the story, and, hoo, boy.

I’ve seen war up close and there is no mistaking what’s going on in places like Afghanistan and Iraq. War zones have a certain look. A certain feel. There’s even a smell to it. After spending several days in Philadelphia, I must admit there are striking similarities.

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Finally, An Easier Way To Bug Mayor Street

It was just a few weeks ago when our very own mayor, John Street, got in line for an iPhone at 3 in the morning (at right). “Go back to work!” the critics jeered. “Stop the murders!” But John Street is the lame duck mayor and so there’s not much anyone can do to punish him for, uh, wanting a cool new tech gadget.

Au contraire. You can simply get back at Mayor Street by hacking into his iPhone. Independent Security Evaluators have discovered a simple buffer flow exploit that allows a remote computer to take control of an iPhone if the phone user (in this case, Mayor Street) visits a website designed to do such a thing. In the New York TImes article, the phone follows commands from a remote computer and sends back text messages and contacts.

There are no reports of this exploit actually effecting any phones; right now it’s just more of a proof of concept. But still! The Times says the iPhone could even be turned into a portable bugging device. Now how’s John Street gonna sweep his office for bugs this time?

IPhone Flaw Lets Hackers Take Over, Security Firm Says [NYT]
June 29: This Kind Of Sums Up Eight Years Of John Street

Breaking: Mayor Finally Does Something Useful

Mayor Street and his bodyguards (!) were walking through North Philly (oh) Friday morning when they spotted a house on fire. And so they did what any city mayor would do: Helped make sure two kids were okay and rescue a cat.

Wearing sweats and a baseball cap, the mayor rushed across the street from the fire and made sure the kids were okay, while one of his bodyguards ran into the house to rescue J-Lo the kitty.

The mayor then went down the street, telling people to evacuate their homes, in case the fire spread. (No word if they followed his suggestion.)

“People say the mayor doesn’t do anything, but I really respect him for stopping and caring,” said Ashley Young told the Daily News‘ David Gambacorta. “He could have kept on going, but he gave us his attention. He did a good deed.”

I would like to think anybody would stop to help if a house was on fire, but, hey, let’s not complain. Hip, hip, hooray for Mayor Street!

Street, aides help out at fire scene [Daily News]