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uptown_gargoyle t1_j9jvcji wrote

I'd prefer for the Inquirer to spend fewer words describing how aggressive or confrontational they perceive Nutter to be in these series and more words on the actual substance of the exchanges themselves.

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PHL852 t1_j9khdqs wrote

Agree. Inquirer’s mayoral election coverage has been a joke.

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internet_friends t1_j9l3ib2 wrote

I was just reading their page earlier today on all the mayoral candidates. They have a paragraph or so for each candidate, and a full sentence of the paragraph is about the vibe that candidate gives off. I'm gen z but this doesn't appeal to me, please give me a better breakdown of what the candidates have and haven't accomplished in their previous roles and what policies they're interested in putting in place if they become mayor

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ADFC t1_j9lcqug wrote

Philadelphia citizen has done some solid coverage for the mayoral race if you haven’t had the chance to check out their page.

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Barmelo_Xanthony t1_j9l7jai wrote

It seems like they went downhill drastically very recently. I was a paying subscriber to them for a long time and thought they were by far the best coverage of the city but just recently cancelled.

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Ng3me t1_j9jw0gr wrote

I agree with your critique of the way politics is covered generally but I also think Nutter is obscuring the issues by being overly aggressive. He isn’t running for mayor. He shouldn’t be there to debate the candidates. But he is sucking up the headlines and attention after almost all of these events. He’s performing on a stage too much at these events. When candidates for mayor speak to the public, the former mayor shouldn’t be up there trying to steal the headlines. It’s a difficult task but they need someone who can challenge candidates without making it about themselves.

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flamehead2k1 t1_j9jy1t0 wrote

He's grabbing headlines because asking tough questions to candidates is newsworthy these days.

After Kenney, we need to be asking tough questions. Nutter seems to be the most willing and able to do so.

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14FunctionImp t1_j9jyd9m wrote

Which explains why I didn't even know he interviewed Rhynhart.

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flamehead2k1 t1_j9kgv1h wrote

I didn't see it and can believe he was easy on her but I suspect it was just a boring conversation because she's an accountant focused on boring details.

While I think that's something we need in city hall, it unfortunately doesn't grab headlines which are needed to win elections.

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ConfiaEnElProceso t1_j9kj1gs wrote

I mean, all of the interviews including that one are available online. Ignorance isn't really an excuse here.

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I was there. He asked one remotely tough question of Rhynhart, which was more sexist than anything else, about what she would say to people who think she isn't tough enough. I thought it was offensive and sexist, but she reacted like she expected it, to the point that my friend suggested that they had agreed on it ahead of time. The rest was all softballs.

He was clearly more aggressive with Domb, trying to reign him in and cut him off. Then last night was next level as he really got under Parker's skin, digging into the residency requirement stuff, and then everything that happened with Gym.

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flamehead2k1 t1_j9km854 wrote

I'm not claiming to watch every video. Explicitly stated as such and even said I believe he was easy on her.

Are you suggesting people need to watch every video to comment?

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ConfiaEnElProceso t1_j9kn9gt wrote

How can you take issue with a characterization of an interview if you don't watch the interview? That seems basic.

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flamehead2k1 t1_j9koc17 wrote

I wasn't taking issue with it. I was simply responding to a comment that was directed at me using the information I had available.

I qualified my statement by saying I didn't watch it. And I wasn't using my lack of watching it as an "excuse" in any way.

Not sure what your problem is but I've said all that I have to say on the issue. Enjoy your day

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bukkakedebeppo t1_j9lovfd wrote

The Gym video is not on that youtube page.

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ConfiaEnElProceso t1_j9lppk3 wrote

We are literally talking about the rhynhart interview, not Gym.

It will be up shortly, I'm sure. It sometimes takes them a day or two. I see the Parker video was recently uploaded.

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bukkakedebeppo t1_j9lu4jk wrote

You said "all of the videos are there" and called the person asking about it ignorant for not bothering to look. So, not wanting to be an ignoramus, I looked. You don't need to be hostile to everyone.

It's fine if these things take time.

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ConfiaEnElProceso t1_j9lv704 wrote

Huh? He opined without bothering to watch the video, and i provided a link to very video he didn't watch.

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jmajek t1_j9kpglv wrote

This right here. I'm all for it Nutter. Kept asking tough questions and hold them to answers.

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uptown_gargoyle t1_j9jxb5j wrote

I think he shouldn't have let Gym dodge his question about her conflict of interest in voting against the pharma rep bill. If being perceived as aggressive is the only way of preventing a politician from dodging a perfectly reasonable, important question, then I think a responsible moderator needs to be aggressive.

Maybe Nutter could have held Gym accountable by some means other than apparent aggression. Something about catching flies with honey instead of vinegar. But, as a voter, it's much more important to me that they do it than how they do it.

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ConfiaEnElProceso t1_j9kj6vp wrote

I mean, Alan Domb's entire campaign seems to be a conflict of interest and Nutter let him off way easier than Gym.

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ADFC t1_j9lcf1y wrote

Except one of them answered how they’ll avoid conflict of interest and the other candidate dodged the question

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ConfiaEnElProceso t1_j9lcqmo wrote

He said he would announce a plan. I didn't find that answer convincing.

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Cadiz215 t1_j9z844m wrote

He actually did announce a plan though

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Barmelo_Xanthony t1_j9l6jn6 wrote

Is he there to “suck up headlines” or is he just pissed that the city that was in its best shape in history when he left in 2016 has reversed most of its progress?

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TheNightmareOfHair t1_j9lef6y wrote

I'm sure there are a lot of pieces to this claim, but I'm just going to take the one I'm most knowledgeable on: "Homicides and violent crime hit record lows during my administration" (specifically 2013). Guess what? Homicides and violent crime bottomed out nationwide in 2013-14, then started trending up again everywhere after that (including in Philly, including in the last two years of Nutter's administration).

I'm tired of politicians who take credit for being in the right place at the right time. That's a signal that doesn't need boosting.

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UndercoverPhilly t1_j9pvc5l wrote

Were you living in Philly from 2008-2016? If you were you at least saw the physical changes that were made in Center City (can't say that North Philly experienced the same) during that time. I moved to Philly in 2006 and it had changed for the better, including decreased crime in 10 years. The number of restaurants, businesses had increased in Center City as well.

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TheNightmareOfHair t1_j9qcbf8 wrote

I was not living here, but the city that I was living in also changed greatly for the better during that time -- as did downtowns across the country.

So, just to be clear: I'm not saying that Philly didn't change for the better under Mayor X or Plan Y. I believe you when you say that it did -- and, specific to 2008-2014, I'd be a little surprised if it didn't. What I am saying is that if you're going to subscribe to a Great Mayor Theory, there's a higher bar than, "the city followed trends seen in most other American cities during that time." You wouldn't keep paying a financial advisor whose investments on your behalf merely tracked the market, even if that meant you got a 20% return, because an index fund would have accomplished the same thing.

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UndercoverPhilly t1_j9rwal7 wrote

Okay. So it seems that you are attributing all the positives in cities during 2008-2014 to ex-President Obama then. It was a much better time for sure.

Back to Nutter. Was he better than Kenney? Check. Better than Street? Check. Better than Rendell? (Maybe not--I wasn't here before Street so I don't know, but people say Rendell was a great mayor). Better than Rizzo? Check--so racist that people wanted his statue removed. Better than Wilson Goode? Check. (MOVE bombing was his claim to fame).

That's going back about 40 years, and other than Rendell, Nutter was one of the best. Granted, the bar is low for Philly, but it is a city with a lot of problems.

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TheNightmareOfHair t1_j9u9ea6 wrote

>So it seems that you are attributing all the positives in cities during 2008-2014 to ex-President Obama then.

Not really, no. I think there are some large-scale social phenomena that are just tough to explain. Going back to crime data (which, as I mentioned earlier, is what I know more about, so this is what I feel more comfortable dealing with -- and I also think crime/safety has a lot of knock-on effects that result in things like business development and cities "getting better" etc), there was somewhat of a global downward trend in homicides from 1990-2015 that no one has a particularly good explanation for either. Less pronounced than in the U.S., but still very noticeable and definitely statistically significant.

Anyway, I'll stop here, because I feel like you think I'm trying to fight with you. I'm really not. You might be right, for all I know -- maybe Nutter really was better than Street. IMO he was probably better than Kenney even under my stricter criteria, because most recently under Kenney Philly has actually been defying the national violent crime trends (and very much in the wrong direction). Ultimately I am trying encourage people to probe a bit more into the question of what indicates a "good mayor" and why. I appreciate you for engaging.

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UndercoverPhilly t1_j9uu3gb wrote

You are basing your opinion just off of statistics, since you weren't even living here. A mayor is more than just crime statistics. They are the leadership, public face of a city, they choose the police commissioner in Philly, and many other things related to quality of life in a city. What and how we experience life in a city is important. You can look around your neighborhood and see if businesses are booming, more are starting up or they are closing. You can gauge how safe you feel, how many bums are on the street, etc. These are quality of life issues, and of course they are subjective, but they matter, and these are the mayor's legacy. Most people when they decide to move or stay in a city, they are considering quality of life issues, not statistics of what was going on in the world or other cities in the nation.

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[deleted] t1_j9jypfu wrote

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uptown_gargoyle t1_j9k1ve9 wrote

what makes you say that?

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[deleted] t1_j9k2b1j wrote

[deleted]

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dotcom-jillionaire t1_j9kdscm wrote

did nutter actually say "i'm exploring a run for mayor"? that whole 2 week episode just seemed like political gossip, which then required nutter to come out and say "no" so he could put an end to it.

as for brand, i know he was an occasional talking head on CNN but not sure he's even doing that anymore.

i feel like former politicians, who definitely have their own interests, can make for good hosts in these types of forums. journalists really don't play hardball or hold the subject accountable, especially when it comes to politics, lest their organization be denied some kind of access down the road (which is its own conflict of interest).

EDIT: thanks for the downvotes i guess?

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a-german-muffin t1_j9kw50l wrote

> did nutter actually say "i'm exploring a run for mayor"? that whole 2 week episode just seemed like political gossip, which then required nutter to come out and say "no" so he could put an end to it.

Nutter didn't, but those in his circle/the wider Democratic party were somewhere between nudging and pressuring him to jump into the race, which was largely what those stories were about (and which arguably represented a part of the push, since the publicity didn't leave much room for him to continue to chill on the fence).

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RoverTheMonster t1_j9kc9yy wrote

Ya I agree with this. Another run for mayor could damage his brand because he’s be walking into such a shit show that he couldn’t possible clean up

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FifteenKeys t1_j9lpvnp wrote

It seems like there are not a ton of exciting paths for ex-mayors. The obvious next step is governor, but other than Rendell, when was the last time a Philadelphia mayor was able to pull that off? I think it'd be particularly hard for a Black mayor.

There are federal cabinet or agency positions, especially if a Democrat is in the White House. Buttigieg and Julio Castro come to mind. Nutter would be the right age and was based in a neighboring state to Biden, but I never saw his name tossed around when Biden was making his appointments.

There's also consulting and the private sector, but that doesn't keep you in the limelight. So I guess staying active in the media is what Nutter has to do if he wants to maintain some relevancy.

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ClintBarton616 t1_j9kqihz wrote

Exactly. If you as an ex-elected want to be involved in debates like this, you need to be able to have some humble pie and expect that your choices might be criticized. It is not the place for you to relitigate your own record

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bukkakedebeppo t1_j9ou07t wrote

I just saw the video - it is finally up - and he's not really confrontational at all. He's asking uncomfortable questions, to be sure, but he's cool as a cucumber. Helen is the one that gets hepped up.

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uptown_gargoyle t1_j9ozi89 wrote

lots of people can't tell the difference between aggression/abuse and normal reasonable conflict anymore

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CoffeeCrisis t1_j9jw28x wrote

I'd prefer any actual substantive rigorous journalism over the partisan shills that infect every level of news nowadays.

Edit: really hit a nerve lamenting the death of journalism huh lmao

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ParallelPeterParker t1_j9kk7p7 wrote

>I'd prefer for the Inquirer to spend fewer words describing how aggressive or confrontational they perceive Nutter to be in these series and more words on the actual substance of the exchanges themselves.

I completely disagree. It goes to the substance and value of what nutter is doing. If he's putting his thumb on the scale, then just endorse someone instead of doing this song and dance.

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