oliver_babish

oliver_babish t1_j5t9a6r wrote

That's some nifty Wall Street accounting trick to let you simultaneously claim "he’s not on her campaign team" but "he is providing expert advice from his experience on a daily basis to my campaign."

I don't know why a Rhynhart supporter would want to minimize Mayor Street's role if they're proud of having his endorsement.

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oliver_babish t1_j5rrapw wrote

He's on her campaign team.

>“He is providing expert advice from his experience on a daily basis to my campaign,” Rhynhart said. “Mayor Street is a huge asset to my campaign with the endorsement and then also, his time, energy, knowledge and constructive criticism.”
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>“I am going to be in meetings. I’ll go to the wards,” Street said. “I will be helping with public policy. I am going to do whatever I can.”

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oliver_babish t1_j5quno4 wrote

It is incredibly early right now; no one's going to be voting for at least two months before mail ballots are issued.

Read the Inquirer every day, read Billy Penn, read City and State PA, the Philadelphia Citizen, etc. The information will come to you. There are many talented candidates in the field and only a few (Amen Brown, DeLeon, Bloom) who are truly unworthy of consideration regardless of ideology.

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oliver_babish t1_j5qlvk2 wrote

I don't know that Street was personally corrupt. I don't believe he enriched himself. But he didn't know, or didn't care that others like Ron White and Corey Kemp certainly did.

>The indictment alleges that White corrupted City Treasurer Kemp, from January 2002 through October 16, 2003, by making payments and giving other benefits to Kemp. In exchange, Kemp followed White’s direction regarding the decisions Kemp was required to make regarding the employment of financial service companies to carry out bond transactions, and other matters. Kemp’s decisions created large financial gains for White and those White favored....
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>The indictment states that, throughout 2002 and 2003, White showered Kemp with payments and other gratuities, with the intent to influence Kemp in his official actions. These gifts included at least $10,000 paid in 2002, a $10,350 deck for Kemp’s house in 2003, a trip to the Super Bowl in San Diego in January 2003 (including transportation by private jet and limousine, and a ticket to the game), tickets and limousine rides to all three days of the NBA All-Star events in Philadelphia in February 2002, and numerous other meals, parties, and choice tickets to sports and entertainment events. The indictment asserts that White also held out the promise of vast future riches, assuring Kemp secret participation in what White represented would be lucrative financial opportunities in the development of the Philadelphia International Airport and a racetrack/casino proposed at the Philadelphia Naval Yard....
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>The indictment states that in exchange for these benefits, Kemp permitted White to direct Kemp’s decision-making as Treasurer of the City. On a daily basis, White instructed Kemp regarding which providers to select for participation in City transactions, and which to exclude, and Kemp followed those instructions. Kemp successfully recommended that White himself be hired as counsel in City bond deals, more frequently than any other attorney, earning White $633,594 in fees during Kemp’s tenure. Kemp also repeatedly recommended the selection of a printing company nominally controlled by White’s paramour, defendant Janice Renee Knight, which earned $308,632 in City bond deals during the same period. On one occasion, according to the indictment, Kemp told a financial advisor to the City that White would be paid $35,000 on a deal “just for the hell of it,” even though White “didn’t really do anything.” Kemp then informed White of the same thing, saying, “you got your boy sitting in, in the Treasurer’s seat, man . . . that’s what we do, man, take care of each other.”

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oliver_babish t1_j2edzv6 wrote

I'll say this much: there's a lot of analogues there -- they have a Stuffed and Mounted Animals and Dinos Museum, so do we. They have a great Art Museum, so do we.

What they have, and we don't (among other things), is Second City. An amazing comedy institution. And amazing architecture tours of a city wholly rebuilt after The Fire. Enjoy their river.

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oliver_babish t1_j26o3h1 wrote

On 2, those neighborhoods changed in ethnic composition mostly; the economic change is much more recent and that's what disrupts. 25-30 years ago, Queen Village and Graduate Hospital did the same. The Northeast, by contrast, has only changed in ethnic composition but never in economics.

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