Prof. Street Concludes

Final excerpts from the former mayor's class at Temple.

We hoped this day would never come. But after eight weeks of gracing us with his wit and wisdom, Professor Street is ending his political science class at Temple by holding a simulated budget negotiation (think he misses it?), and then heading off on summer break. As we understand it, the good professor has become a bit more guarded with what he says in class recently anyhow. Still, before he goes, let's have him join us and share just a few more, previously unpublished nuggets. Goodbye Professor Street! We'll miss you!

"I think it got complicated because we all were for it, and then as soon as the new administration took over they fired all the lawyers I had hired, hired their own, filed new briefs, tried to make all new arguments, [laughing] and the court is saying, 'Please.'"

"You can give every wage taxpayer a $50 or $100 reduction in the wage tax and they'll never know it. I've never had a person come up to me and say, 'Thank you very much for reducing my wage tax.' You get nothing out of it. You don't get anything politically ... no one makes a decision to live in the city or not because of the $100 wage-tax reduction. ... Put this money in these children's programs."

"During my eight years as mayor I think we probably had less of those kinds of things, generally, in part because all the people that I knew who did them were in the government. I didn't have to worry about people organizing against us. I just said, 'You're in charge! See if you can make a difference.'"