If there is to be a road to victory for Katz, it runs through the overwhelming white and blue-collar wards in the Far Northeast, and nine other wards in places such as Mayfair, Frankford and Holmesburg. Katz won more than 75 percent of that vote four years ago. He needs to do that again and better.

For Street, the path to keeping power runs through the 10 wards in North Philadelphia that he carried with more than 90 percent of the vote in 1999, as well as in the eight in West Philadelphia where he won more than 80 percent. All of those wards are overwhelmingly African American.

So there it is: two cities, one largely white and one largely black, separate and equally powerful – but that depends on who turns out Tuesday.

Read the rest in The Philadelphia Inquirer.

Of course, instead of listening to calls of corruption from Katz or calls of victimhood from Street – you could study their stands on the issues . The issues matter. At the local level our representatives have huge responsibilities and can do much for positive or negative change.

Philadelphia Inquirer: Street said to be probe ‘subject’.

Inquirer: Chris Satullo: Citizens raise their voices about Philadelphia.

A great place to get informed on the upcoming mayoral election (just a terrific effort here!): IssuesPhiladelphia.

A few days after Sleeping Angel’s fundraiser, PhillyBlog is holding it’s first birthday bash. I really like PhillyBlog. It truely is a worthy successor to my old PhillyFuture effort. Lots of participation and great talk. Check it out.

Is the following article real?!?!?!

By MARYCLAIRE DALE
The Associated Press
Saturday, September 13, 2003; 8:51 AM

PHILADELPHIA – In Philadelphia, the latest turf battle involves street
corners – and who gets to distribute newspapers there.

Under a three-year-old law the city plans to start enforcing Monday, papers
that don’t publish at least once a week will have to move their boxes to a
mid-block location.

“That’s a far inferior location for any paper. The foot traffic is a lot
lower. People aren’t really stopping and pausing,” said Mattathias Schwartz,
24, who last year started The Philadelphia Independent, a quirky, monthly
broadsheet whose design conveys an 18th-century feel.

Some people question the timing of the crackdown.

Democratic Mayor John F. Street, whose administration ordered the news box
crackdown, remains in a tough re-election fight with less than eight weeks
to go in the race.

“When anything happens this close to election time, and when the main
victims are going to be the smaller, infrequent publishers, the
independents, one gets kind of suspicious as to why,” said Councilman David
Cohen.

“Under the bill, the big press owns the street corners,” Cohen said.

City Council passed the ordinance, which also sets fees for the boxes, in
1999, following prompting from a group that advocates beautifying the city.

But the new rules have gone largely unnoticed, allowing for the usual array
of free newspapers, foreign language papers and apartment guides to appear
on Philadelphia’s street corners.

According to a city spokeswoman, Managing Director Phil Goldsmith detected a
problem after a recent move to Rittenhouse Square, a high-rent neighborhood
downtown.

“The managing director has decided that there’s a need to improve the way
our city looks by removing a lot of things that are … blighting the city
and are also creating public safety hazards,” spokeswoman Luz Cardenas said
Friday.

Some boxes have been chained to fire hydrants or block handicap access, she
said.

“There is no intention to violate anybody’s First Amendment rights or cut
out the smaller papers,” Cardenas said.

Bruce Schimmel, who started the free weekly Philadelphia City Paper in 1981,
said the paper wouldn’t have gotten off the ground under the current rules.

The paper started as a monthly before becoming a biweekly and then, in 1985,
a weekly. Schimmel sold the paper – which today has a circulation of over
100,000 – in the mid-1990s.

“To me, that’s what makes the life of the city, the ideas you can get on the
street all the time,” Schimmel said. “(It’s) the only public green we have
left … and they want to license it. That’s wrong.”

Schwartz, a Portland, Ore., native believes the law exemplifies the problems
inherent in media consolidation.

“We want to make sure that Philly remains a place – it has been for hundreds
of years – where anyone can find their voice and present it to the public in
the tradition of (Thomas) Paine and (Benjamin) Franklin,” he said.

Philadelphia has more murals then any other city. Nice to find a site to share some of them with you. Pictures do not do them justice. via Metafilter.

Swiss Cheese? Kerry continues to unimpress.

And hey – Whiz is overrated! If you come to Philly and that is too much, try Provolone or American ok? No one will look at you cross-eyed. Promise.

Good News! Looks like Retired Gen. Wesley Clark is preparing to run!

See Freddie Hubbard at The Philadelphia Clef Club of Jazz and Performing Arts on Friday August 15th and Saturday August 16th at 8pm and 10pm. Related link: The Urban Sound. Posted by request. Sounds like fun.

Go and sign the petition.