It may sound like a cliché, but John F. Street’s ascension to mayor is a true African-American success story — the poor boy that pulled himself up by the proverbial bootstraps to lead the nation’s fifth largest city.

It’s a story of what a person can do through education, hard work and well-connected friends.

His numerous supporters are quick to point to his accomplishments as mayor: The revitalization of run-down neighborhoods, the construction boom in Center City and efforts at community policing. Programs such as MORE, the Mayor’s Office for the Re-Entry of Ex-Offenders, are considered national models.

But his opponents respond that while Philadelphia is in the middle of rebuilding itself, the economic windfall hasn’t really translated into benefits for the African-American community. Some of those opponents have said that John Street failed the Black voter and didn’t do all he could have done to improve the quality of life for African Americans, who put him in office.

And then there’s the mainstream media, which has had a long-term love-hate relationship with Street that some have said has been racially biased.

But isn’t that the way it is with any African-American elected official? According to critics, it seems that in America, a Black elected official faces much more scrutiny than their white counterparts.

“When I think of the legacy of this administration, three things come to mind: Neighborhoods, education and children,” Street said. “A legacy item is something that stands above all other things and represents a primary focus of an administration. There are some people who say that building the new stadium is a legacy for me. That’s not a legacy issue for me — that’s just one of the economic development things we did. A legacy represents those things for which this administration will always be remembered and highlighted. There are issues in this city that are of great importance to minority residents and are only theoretically understood by others who don’t live in those neighborhoods and have the same practical experience, which makes all the difference in the world. I understood that in the starkest terms when one local reporter started referring to the original Operation Safe Streets program as a ‘pet program’ of the mayor. A pet program! I said to myself, ‘Here’s a person who never lived within 10 miles of an open-air drug market or she wouldn’t refer to something that shut down 309 open air drug markets as a pet program of the mayor’s. A pet program is something like a cultural or artistic venture. This administration will be remembered for what we did in the poorer communities. When I ran for mayor in 1999, I said we would turn our attention to the neighborhoods without turning our backs on Center City. The neighborhoods of the city were sort of neglected in previous administrations.”

Street has been a figure in Philadelphia’s political scene since the 1970s when he was a community activist advocating fair housing opportunities for the poor and firing off at the Philadelphia School District to spend more on students and less on administration.

He was elected to City Council in 1979, eventually became Council president and in 2000, Street was sworn in as Philadelphia’s 97th chief executive and second Black mayor. Now, having served two terms, Street is scheduled to hand over the government to Mayor-elect Michael Nutter.

Like the other mayors before him, Street inherited a city plagued with problems but bursting with potential. He inherited an underdeveloped waterfront, a limping public school system, run down working-class neighborhoods and rising violent crime, which admittedly is a problem across the nation.

“I voted for Street and I’m not sorry that I did. He was visible and tried to do his best for Philadelphia,” said Germantown resident Michael King. “You have to look at his overall terms as mayor. He probably did some things he shouldn’t have and there are always things that an elected official can do better. But overall, I think Street was a good mayor. He could have done more to fight crime though. I believe he thinks he did all he could do, but we’ve got to stop all the killings.”

Kitty Walker, a resident of South Philadelphia, echoed those sentiments.

“I’m not all that up on politics, but I think Street was at least as good a mayor as the ones who preceded him,” Walker said. “He certainly wasn’t the worst and I believe he did his best for the city.”

FBI agents descended into Philadelphia’s corrupt pay-to-play system in 2003 and through Street’s longtime relationship with attorney Ronald White, a scandalous situation surfaced when a “bug” was found in the mayor’s office during an election year.

Instead of destroying his political career, it translated into an overwhelming defeat for Sam Katz, who ran on the Republican ticket. Street was never indicted but Kemp and several others were tried and convicted.

As a city, Philadelphia is not out of the woods, but it can be argued that Street would depart the office of mayor having left the city in better shape than his predecessors.

For evidence you only have to drive around Center City. It has become a growing patchwork of traffic detours around the numerous construction sites. Broad Street, south of City Hall, is now the Avenue of the Arts.

But Philadelphia’s makeover is not confined to Center City. Run-down public housing developments are swiftly being replaced by new low-income homes.

Philadelphia is entering a renaissance, but it is a renaissance that might be hindered by rising incidents of violent crime, which in the end of his second term may underscore Street’s legacy as mayor.

“Like a lot of people, I thought that Street was going to get hauled into federal court,” said Frank Gianetti of Frankford. “Do I think he took money on the side? Yeah, all politicians do. It’s impossible not to. But he certainly covered his butt, you know? I think he could have done more about the crime problem though. I mean they call us Killadelphia now.”

Humble beginnings

Twenty-first century Philadelphia has high numbers of poor, young African-American students dropping out of high school.

In fact, according to the city’s Well Being of Children and Youth 2007 Report Card, one in five public high school students in Philadelphia drop out within four years of entering their freshman year.

But dropping out of school wasn’t an option for a young John Street.

Born into rural poverty, Street knew that his future success was in getting a good education –– something that is unheeded by too many school age students in Philadelphia.

He graduated from Conshohocken High School and worked his way through Oakwood College in Huntsville, Ala.

According to his official biography in 1975, he earned his Juris Doctorate from Temple University Law School and paid for his tuition by working as a sidewalk vendor on the campus.

He started his public career as a community activist. He led efforts for fair housing opportunities for the poor and challenged the Philadelphia School Board to spend more on students and less on administration.

Mayor Street has also been a leader in forging closer cooperation between police and the community in the fight against crime and drugs in Philadelphia’s neighborhoods.

In 1979 he was elected to Philadelphia City Council and for nearly 20 years Street represented the city’s Fifth Council District. Street was chosen to serve as Council president in 1992, and again in 1996. Working closely with former Mayor Edward G. Rendell, Street was instrumental in crafting and implementing a financial plan that passed Council unanimously, and turned a $250 million deficit into the largest surplus in Philadelphia’s history.

By cutting the business and wage tax four years in a row, Street and Rendell helped reverse the 30-year loss of jobs from Philadelphia.

During his time as City Council President, Street worked to promote community policing and for tougher gun laws, while also promoting Townwatch organizations and after-school recreation programs for young people. Reflecting his activist roots and concern for improving blighted neighborhoods across Philadelphia, Mayor Street spearheaded efforts to tear down abandoned buildings that breed crime and to crack down on landlords who allowed their property to be used as drug houses.

During his Council term, Street passed a liquor-by-the-drink tax that resulted in an additional $23 million per year for Philadelphia public schools.

To date, the liquor-by-the-drink tax has pumped more than $100 million into the school district.

The additional revenue has made possible all-day kindergarten for every child in Philadelphia.

Street retired from Philadelphia City Council on Dec. 17, 1998, to run for mayor of Philadelphia.

“The media has been hostile at times, but a man who stops to throw stones at every barking dog will never reach his destination,” Street said. “I came into this office focused on doing things that were important to the neighborhoods and I was not going to be distracted from that. I never get obsessed by the reporting and believe that history will treat this administration very favorably when people who are not responsible for making the news dispassionately review the work that we’ve done. Years from now, people will look back on this and will see in a much more objective way the accomplishments of the various administrations.”

Education and children

When interviewed for this story, Street said more than anything else, education would be his political legacy.

He also said it was his biggest challenge as mayor, for when he took office in 2000, the state wanted to hand the Philadelphia School District over to Edison Schools, which claimed it could run the District with less money and improve academic scores.

Street fought against that plan, believing it wasn’t in the best interest of Philadelphia’s children.

“Getting the schools straightened out and negotiating a good deal with the Commonwealth was one of the major things that we did,” he said. “As you know, I was the first mayor who was able to appoint all the members of the school board and on top of that, I had to negotiate with Gov. Ridge and then Gov. Rendell. The plan was to turn the schools over to Edison and I wasn’t about to let that happen. I fought that plan and I think even though we’ve got some financial problems left behind by Paul Vallas, the schools are much better off than they were when I first became mayor.”

Through a series of tough negotiations, Street was able to form a partnership with the Commonwealth that gave rise to the School Reform Commission. Since that time, although test scores have steadily risen over the last five years, children attending public schools face serious issues according to the Report Card 2007.

“The rating for this desired result is mixed, with inconsistent progress. While considerable progress has been made on some indicators of educational quality such as dropout rates, results for other indicators are less encouraging,” the report said.

• In comparison with 2004-05, math scores increased for grades three and 11, while dropping for grades five and eight. However, in comparison with scores in the 2000-01 school year, math scores have increased for all of the key grade levels.

• In comparison with 2004-05, reading scores increased for grades three, eight, and 11, while dropping for grade five. In comparison with scores in the 2000-01 school year, reading scores have increased for grades five and eight, but have decreased for grade 11.

• Despite improvements over the past several years, less than half of all fifth, eighth and 11th graders have scores that demonstrate proficiency in math or reading.

• The average SAT score for Philadelphia public school students was the lowest in a decade in 2005-06. This decline may be due, at least in part, to the increased number of students taking the SAT.

• After improving over the previous two years, the on-time graduation rate declined by 3 percent points in 2005-06.

• The dropout rate improved for the sixth year in 2005-06, warranting an upgrade in the rating for this indicator to promising, with some progress. The dropout rate has fallen from 31.2 percent in 1999-2000 to 23.0 percent in 2005-06.

• The public school attendance rate changed only slightly in 2005-06. On an average day, 9.6 percent of students were absent without an excuse.

Sandra Dungee-Glenn, chairwoman of the School Reform Commission said in her estimation many of Street’s accomplishments on this important issue are understated.

“I think the mayor has done an especially admiral job on education and has not gotten his just due,” she said. “During Street’s first term, I was named to the School Board, which was in far worse shape financially than it is now. He took a big risk challenging the state for funding but out of that a state and city partnership emerged and over those years $300 million more were gained for the District. Also, the mayor led the fight to keep from privatizing the District and we are on the road to reform. That wasn’t easy at all. Look at the increased after-school programs where 50,000 children are served and the truancy program that was started. Mayor Street was responsible for all of that. He’s been a tangible leader for reform and he’s been consistent and he did it during a time when education was a political football. I really thank him for that. We still have some problems and it’s not a perfect administration but the mayor has taken on some tough issues and we’ve clearly made progress.”

A peripheral issue related to education is truancy and enforcement of curfew laws. According to the mayor’s office, 18 percent of public school students are absent from school without an excuse everyday. In November 2006 and again in February 2007, letters were sent out by the school district to over 6,000 parents of truant children. The letter read in part: “Your child had eight or more unexcused absences during the 2005-2006 school year.”

In the letter it also stated that the child and their parent must attend the meeting at the Liacouras Center or possibly face fines or even jail time.

Street did not receive a warm welcome from those parents. To affect change the city committed $3 million to hire Parent Truant Officers (PTOs) and has 11 operating Curfew Centers.

“Every child must go to school,” Street said. “Truancy is a feeder system to the streets and truant children are more likely to drop out of school and become involved in criminal behavior. Truancy and curfew violations are considered to be among the most powerful indicators for identifying children at risk for dependency, delinquency and violence.”

The FBI investigation

Perhaps more than any other issue the problem of rising violent crime has become an issue unjustly associated with the Street administration.

But not all crime gets committed in rough neighborhoods where thugs shoot it out in petty disputes.

Late in Street’s first term, allegations of corruption at City Hall began surfacing.

In 2003 the FBI was pursing an aggressive investigation into an entrenched system of what became known as “pay-to-play.”

Anyone wanting to do business in Philadelphia basically had to grease the wheels to set up.

The center of the investigation was a prominent Philadelphia attorney and close friend of Street, Ronald A. White. Through their investigation of White, federal agents believed they had enough cause to tap the mayor’s phone lines, which they did. In June 2004 the indictments were handed down.

Street wisely declined to discuss the federal probe during the investigation. Even now, well after Kemp, and all the others involved were either convicted or found not guilty, his statements were somewhat guarded.

“My administration was clearly investigated more than any other in recent history. Now, it’s hard for me to look into the minds of other people, but some think it was partisan: Republican generated and oriented and there are some who think it was racially motivated,” Street said. “They looked into virtually everything that we did and this isn’t just the feds asking questions, this was a grand jury investigation where if you lie, you go to jail. I don’t spend a lot of time worrying about it. Of course it would have been better if everyone had been doing the right thing and there had been no need for an investigation. But one person was convicted in my administration, not two. Any less and it would be zero. I can’t be responsible for the private sector people and what they did and I think it is fair to hold me responsible in some measure for the actions of government officials. Corey Kemp was the only person connected to my administration convicted and this was a far-reaching investigation.”

The defendants in the case were:

• The former Ronald A. White, a prominent attorney and long-time friend of Street. White was charged with conspiracy to commit honest services fraud, 22 counts of wire fraud, four counts of mail fraud, two counts of extortion and five counts of making false statements to the FBI. If convicted on all counts, he would have faced a maximum sentence of 555 years imprisonment and an $8.25 million fine. White died from pancreatic cancer on Nov. 4, 2004, at age 55, before the case went to trial.

 • Corey Kemp, the former city treasurer, was charged and later convicted with conspiracy to commit honest services fraud, 20 counts of wire fraud, 15 counts of mail fraud, two counts of extortion, three counts of making false statements to a bank, four counts of money laundering and one count of filing a false tax return.

• Glenn K. Holck, the president of Commerce Bank/Pennsylvania. Holck was charged and later convicted with conspiracy to commit honest services fraud, eight counts of wire fraud and one count of mail fraud.

 • Stephen M. Umbrell, the regional vice-president of Commerce Bank/Pennsylvania. Umbrell was charged and later convicted with conspiracy to commit honest services fraud, eight counts of wire fraud and one count of mail fraud.

  • La-Van Hawkins, a Detroit businessman and self-made millionaire. Hawkins was charged and later convicted for conspiracy to commit honest services fraud, four counts of wire fraud and four counts of committing perjury before the federal grand jury.

  • Janice R. Knight, a businesswoman and White’s alleged mistress. Knight was charged and convicted for conspiracy to commit honest services fraud, three counts of wire fraud and three counts of making false statements to the FBI.

  • Charles LeCroy, a former managing director of the southeast regional office of J.P. Morgan. LeCroy was charged and later convicted for two counts of wire fraud.

  • Anthony C. Snell, a former vice-president of J.P. Morgan was charged and convicted for two counts of wire fraud.

  • Denis Carlson, a senior vice-president of Janney Montgomery Scott. Carlson was charged with two counts of making false statements to the FBI agents. Allegedly, Carlson misrepresented his relationship with White and his purpose in giving Kemp the free use of a vacation condominium Carlson owned. Carlson was found not guilty.

  • Francis D. McCracken, the pastor of the St. James Chapel Church, Church of God in Christ. McCracken was charged and later convicted for three counts of making false statements to a bank, four counts of money laundering and six counts of mail fraud.

  • Jose Mendoza, a worker employed by McCracken, and who allegedly assisted in the preparation of a false statement submitted to Commerce Bank. He was charged and later convicted for one count of making a false statement to a bank.

  • Rhonda M. Anderson, an attorney who allegedly participated in a fraudulent scheme with Kemp. She was charged and convicted for one count of mail fraud.

During his testimony, Special Agent John Roberts went into the details of how the FBI got permission to put a listening device in the mayor’s office during his testimony. But the listening device didn’t produce anything in the form of pertinent evidence.

“In July 2003 we were granted authority to place a listening device in White’s office and conference room,” Roberts said. “As a result of the investigation of White’s activities and information gathered from wire taps, we determined we had probable cause to put the mayor under electronic surveillance.”

Specifically, investigators were looking for evidence that Street was trading city contracts for campaign contributions.

“We were very interested in White and Street in the days leading up to the election,” Roberts told the jury.

But the feds did not discover any information pertinent to their on-going examination of White and on Oct. 7, 2003, the listening device was found during what was termed as a routine electronic sweep of Street’s office.

“Based on the investigation of White, in September 2003, we got approval to place a listening device in Mayor Street’s office,” Roberts said. “Over the course of the investigation, there were numerous conversations in short phrases between White and the mayor such as ‘I need to see you.’ We did not discover any pertinent calls in Street’s office.”

Street said if more government employees or cabinet members had been indicted then it would be an issue affecting his legacy.

He expressed his regret that Kemp threw away a promising career in city government. He also said that no matter what rules or laws are put in place to discourage political corruption if someone wants to break the law, they will.

“Frankly speaking, like we say, one is too many but I’m gratified that we didn’t have huge numbers of city employees all caught up in the probe,” Street said. “There was not one member of my cabinet that was indicted, much less convicted. Kemp was not a cabinet member. Kemp was not a protégée and I didn’t even know him when he was recommended to be treasurer. I had no previous knowledge of Kemp. I’ve had no contact with him and he threw away a promising career. I feel very sorry for him but he clearly violated the law and is paying a heavy price. In terms of ethics reform, I think the things we’ve done are good. There are all kinds of things the city and City Council can do but at the end of the day people have a responsibility to be honest. You can’t make a person honest simply by passing rules. You can theoretically make it more difficult for people to be dishonest but if someone wants to break the law, you can’t stop them. We’ve had an honest government and the fact that we’ve withstood the scrutiny that we’ve come under is evidence of that. I think the whole business of the investigation is something people will talk about but it’s not a legacy issue. If 20 or 30 people had been hauled out in handcuffs, it would be different. We had two city employees charged; John Christmas and Corey Kemp, one was found not guilty and the other was convicted. Given the thoroughness of the investigation and the people dragged before the grand jury, that’s not a bad record. I think the city government deserves credit because we answered every subpoena, cooperated fully and everyone who was asked to give information came forward. We governed through the whole thing.”

Crime and violence

Since the start of 2007, Philadelphia has averaged one murder per day.

Most of the victims are young Black males between the ages of 17 and 25 who kill each other in what can be considered an undeclared urban war against themselves.

Unfortunately, innocent victims like Faheem Thomas-Childs and Cashae Rivers often get caught in the crossfire. Philadelphia’s crime problem is rooted in layers of other social issues.

Elijah Anderson said in a recent interview that crime and violence is driven by a street culture that has its own code of conduct and its own rules.

It’s a culture where disrespect — real or perceived — must be responded to with violence. In his book “Code of the Street — Decency, Violence and the Moral Life of the Inner City,” Anderson, defined what social forces created the subculture of the streets.

“There’s a perception in the Black community that the civil law is weak,” he said. “And when the civil authority is weak, street justice fills the void. Street justice involves street credibility and a reputation for being able to follow through.”

It’s a subculture where illegal drugs, hustling and other underground activities are perceived to be the only game for young African Americans who find themselves marginalized out of mainstream society.

It’s also a subculture where deadly violence can be precipitated by the slightest insult and where young Black men are being gunned down. As of press time, there have been more than 360 murders in Philadelphia in 2007 as of the first week of December and most of the victims are Black males killed in arguments.

“Understand something, a lot of these young men are walking around broke,” Anderson said. “The street culture is energized by a stagnant economy where industrial jobs have gone overseas, fueling the illegal drug trade. You have people without money, and that drives tension and stress in these communities. All this is going on without civil law. People in the Black community don't trust the cops and they don't trust the legal system. But they respect themselves. When young men have guns, they feel empowered. Underlying a lot of these arguments in the street are drug issues.”

The Street administration rightly pointed — without offering excuses — that past administrations had higher rates of homicide.

Four times during Frank Rizzo’s term, the number of murders went past 400. In 1990, during Wilson Goode’s administration, the number of victims reached 500 and six times under Ed Rendell the number of murder victims passed 400.

Also, according to the Philadelphia Police Department, 85 percent of the violent crime in the city is committed by individuals with a history of past arrests or incarcerations. Likewise, most of the victims also have a history of past run-ins with law enforcement.

As of Tribune press time, there have been 369 murders in the city, a slight decrease from last year’s total of 373 for the same period.

Street recognized that problem and in June of 2005, established the Mayor’s Office for the Re-entry of Ex-offenders. A second office opened this year.

“If you ask people if they’re safer today than five years ago, well, they’ll say ‘Oh I’m scared,’” he said. “But in part that’s a reflection of the reporting, but five or 10 years from now, when people who are not involved in reporting the news are now looking to analyze this and previous administrations, it will be hard to say it was less safe. We’ve had one year out of eight when we’ve had over 400 homicides. The previous administration had over 400 murders six out of eight years. We don’t have enough rehabilitation going on in our prisons. We don’t have enough ex-offenders programs or substance abuse treatment programs designed at keeping people who have issues out of trouble. People get discharged from prison and many don’t have a permanent residence and no decent job. This is a huge national issue and we have to take the needs of that community seriously because they have the greatest risk of either being victims or perpetrators of crime. It’s not like these people are going to go away. We’ve already put them away. We need long term solutions to help them.”

Street’s opponents

Two of Street’s most prominent opponents were former friends and allies such names as A. Bruce Crawley, president and principal owner of Millennium 3 Management, and Carl E. Singley, an attorney with Wolf, Block, Schorr and Solis-Cohen.

Both said that in their opinion, Street has failed the African-American voters.

Singley maintained a three-decades-long friendship with Street until shortly after the mayor was elected to office in 1999.

The two had a public falling out and Singley supported Street’s Republican opponent, Sam Katz, when the mayor ran for re-election in 2003.

“Apart from any personal differences that we had as former friends, when I first expressed a view about his performance as mayor, prior to his re-election in 2003, it was in terms of important leadership qualities and attributes,” he said. “And I concluded in 2002 that he failed in those categories that I thought a mayor should have. Here we are, five years later and my conclusions have been confirmed by his second term. When you have a situation where the mayor, in terms of stating his accomplishments, makes reference to removing 50,000 abandoned cars as one of the centerpieces of his administration, well, he did that during the first 90 days of his first term. As important as it was, he should be able to point out much more substantial accomplishments with a more substantial impact. My criticism is principal, not personal. I think Street has been a disappointment to every last one of us who had expectations of him as mayor. He’s exhibited an incredible arrogance and ethical tone-deafness and an unwillingness to open his mind to new ideas. History will probably regard his eight years as one of the worst in recent history of Philadelphia.”

As evidence of his claims, Singley pointed out the scandalous federal probe.

He said the fact that the feds had enough probable cause to bug Street’s office indicates that the corruption in City Hall went right to his doorstep.

“You had two dozen people, many of whom were close to the mayor that were involved in massive political corruption,” Singley said. “I don’t think there’s been a mayor in recent history in Philadelphia at least, whose administration was tainted and tarnished by that kind of widespread political corruption that went all the way up to his office. The notion that the FBI bugged the office of the mayor, after having convinced a federal judge tells you that although he has never been accused by the federal authorities of any wrongdoing or any authorities for that matter, it’s clear the corruption went all the way to the front door of the second floor of City Hall. No one has ever made that suggestion about any other mayor in recent Philadelphia history, not Jim Tate, not Frank Rizzo or Bill Green or Wilson Goode or Ed Rendell.”

Singley said while Street may leave the city with a financial surplus, one has to consider the surplus he inherited.

He also slammed the Neighborhood Transformation Initiative.

“Where is N.T.I. now?” Singley asked. “If you look back on his initial term, he touted N.T.I. as a major way to alter the poorer neighborhoods. What are the substantive accomplishments of N.T.I.? I’m not talking about a few private developers who went into those neighborhoods with their own resources. There’s a lot of taking credit for individual development efforts that N.T.I. had nothing to do with. I’d be interested to know what those people who are around him and are in charge of articulating his legacy for them to be very specific about what N.T.I. has achieved.”

Crawley said Street did not put enough political pressure on the building and construction trade unions, which is a way for ex-offenders to re-enter society and build their lives. Crawley, who was instrumental in organizing two recent protests pointing out alleged inequalities in hiring of skilled minority construction workers, said he has not heard from Street on this important issue.

Crawley also said Street was silent on the incident in October when a white construction worker allegedly dangled a noose in front of a Black construction worker.

“No, we haven’t heard from the mayor on this problem and didn’t hear from him on the noose incident either, I don’t know if any one else did,” he said. “This was a horrendous story and there was no reaction. We will need that kind of leadership in the next administration. I hope that Michael Nutter will live up to his claim that the construction sites will look like a microcosm of the population of this city. I don’t know why Mayor Street hasn’t but I look back to a news story that in 1999 John Street was elected with 96 percent of the African-American vote and within two weeks after the election, he was quoted in the mainstream media that had it not been for the labor unions and the building trades, he would not be mayor. The Tribune wrote an angry editorial about that, effectively saying how dare you say that? He has been committed to his relationships with the skilled trade unions and has not been willing to be engaged in meaningful dialogue with the construction industry on behalf of African-American people.”