In this long, wide-ranging piece in today’s Daily News, Catherine Lucey digs around, trying to get a bead on exactly where Mayor Michael Nutter stands, just about two years into his administration. As you might suspect, the news is mostly bad. In broad strokes, he’s doing perhaps better than John Street — no FBI bugs, sure, but on the other hand, even Street had his legacy-building projects like the Neighborhood Transformation Initiative in place by the two-year mark — and nowhere nearly as good as once-and-possibly-future mayor Ed Rendell. And yes, Nutter’s term thus far has been fresh hell, to say the least: Spurred on by the economic crisis, so far, his story has been about putting out one fire after another (library and pool closings, state budget, SEPTA strike, etc.), and sometimes not even very well. Worse still, he can’t even very well hang his had on Bad Timing/This Economy, either, because that’s everybody’s story right now. On the upside: That gnarly, pestering murder rate is way down on his watch, and there’s been some small victories here and there (see the post below about Creative Industry Workforce Grants, for example). But even that washed-up blowhard Buzz Bissinger is right when he says that the Nutter Admin has lacked focus overall, and has been hemorrhaging brains that, due to the economic situation, just aren’t being replaced. (It’s a Brain Drain in miniature!) Still, though, Nutter’s got two years left on the clock — and maybe about a year before Councilman Bill Green finally tells everybody that he’s gonna run against him. Like Nutter has been forced to do for the last two years, at this point, Green’s still bunting.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 17th, 2009 at 3:37 pm.