Mayor vows to retain neighborhood plans He says the U.S. probe won't have an impact on city government, and the campaign won't lead to racial divides.

One day after the most dramatic victory of his political career, Mayor Street yesterday pondered the challenges of a second term and promised that his expensive but popular neighborhood initiatives would stay largely intact.

Street, his voice growing hoarse at times during a news conference at his campaign headquarters in Center City, credited his overwhelming victory over Republican Sam Katz to his neighborhood programs, such as Operation Safe Streets, and the Democratic Party's massive voter-registration drive.

"I do believe that at some point in time during this campaign, notwithstanding everything else, our message started to resonate with the voters of this city," Street said, "such that even before the infamous incident we thought we had a significant lead."

The mayor was referring to the FBI bug found in his office Oct. 7, a month before Election Day. It revealed a continuing federal probe, made the campaign national news, threw the election into chaos, and fueled Street's big lead, which carried him to a landslide triumph.

Street cautioned critics, who believe that the timing of the probe into city contracts was the sole force behind his big victory, to think again.

"I'm just mildly concerned that there's this kind of a theory out there that one day our campaign was on its back, then there was a probe, and then all of a sudden we end up with a 16-point victory," said Street, citing the margin from early returns. "That is much too simplistic an analysis of what happened in this election."

The mayor said he did not believe the FBI probe would have much of an effect on his government, which will seek to work with City Council and push forward in a couple of weeks with new plans for his neighborhood-reinvestment and anti-blight program.

Even with future belt-tightening budgets, Street said, his antidrug program Operation Safe Streets and the Neighborhood Transformation Initiative will still meet their objectives but could be adjusted. He declined to be specific.

Street, who dominated Katz by almost 78,000 votes in Tuesday's election, kept a brisk schedule yesterday. He held his postelection news conference, appeared at the Thanksgiving Day Parade kickoff party, was interviewed on CNN's Inside Politics, and thanked evening commuters at the Broad Street and Olney Avenue SEPTA stop, before a nighttime prayer service at his church.