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Originally Posted by 3rd&Brown
I think Helen Gym has actually done a lot of good (previously). But like you said, these are not problems Philly can fix alone.
Philly needs a technocrat who has a genuine interest in running the city well. Making improvements to the day to day stuff we see. I think Kenney's heart is in the right place but he literally doesn't have a operational bone in his body. I'm certain he doesn't even know what the term metric means.
In the past, I would have said Rhynhart and Domb were my first choices.
I now think it's Green and Rhynhart in that order. Go forward, I'm not voting for any boomers in any capacity in any office anywhere because it's time for them to move on and step aside. Domb can continue in a leadership capacity on council as he adds genuine value there but we also need creative problem solvers, ingenuity and vision.
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Originally Posted by cardeza
Again, it comes down to who has a plan and how they would implement said plan. Just having the right image or the right stance on one or two issues on council isn't sufficient for the challenges we are facing. Many people who are great one issue councilpeople are not great mayors. Whoever has the strongest, most cohesive message on crime will resonate- it's that simple. I can tell you there is minimal appetite for an anti crime message that is totally focused on social programs and supports. I mean there is still a lot of love for that in and around center city (where crime is lower) but not in the rest of Philadelphia. I would not be surprised if Gym reads the tea leaves and stays on council.
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I generally agree with both of these posts. Ideally, I think we need someone who is going to be effective at running the city (to a large degree, this involves being able to hire the right people - the Mayor isn't personally overseeing 25k+ employees, billions of dollars in city contracts, etc.). I also agree that while a basic "tough on crime" message still won't really get someone elected, candidates better be prepared to talk about their plans to handle crime and poverty. I don't really know if I have a personal favorite candidate yet, though. I want to like Green since he actually has some city employment/operational experience prior to joining Council, but I'm not really sure of what his policies would be and I don't really think he's going to end up with more than 5% of the vote. And nothing against Rhynhart but I think she's benefited from the combination of a relatively unpopular Mayor and being in a role where your job is to be a counterweight to the Administration - whoever was Controller right now would be getting talked up for Mayor, and I think we're early enough in the process that I think we need to keep our minds open and consider all the different candidates who are running. To her credit, she has generally done a good job of acting as that counterweight (and I've heard good things from people who have worked with her) and I don't want to sound like I wouldn't vote for her (I really don't know who I'd vote for, right now) - I just think that, rightly or wrongly, she's benefitted from being in the right place at the right time.
Re: Kenney, while it's in part due to the pandemic, I think part of the problems with his administration that go un-talked about are that he had some pretty heavy turnover in his administration (i.e., Chief of Staff, etc.). A lot of his initial hires were either Nutter holdovers or campaign people who were not really "Kenney people," while over time he's replaced them with people who he'd worked with longer (or promoted those people into more prominent roles).