Today, John Street rises from his bed as Philadelphia mayor.
Tonight, he sleeps unelected - for the first time since 1979, when BlackBerrys and iPhones were still years out of his reach.
What will be toughest for Street as he gives up the throne and returns to private life?
No more ribbon-cutting invites?
No more frequent opportunities to remind people to drink their water?
No more microphones shoved at him for him to announce that he's having a great day?
Well, nothing that specific, says Carl Singley, former mentor and current antagonist of the outgoing mayor and ex-City Council president.
Singley views what now lies ahead of Street as something like this:
"Can you imagine after having somebody show up at your house in the morning for 16 years in a car, one that's waiting outside of your office whenever you walk out to take you to your next appointment, one that's waiting outside to transport you after that appointment . . . can you imagine what his life is going to be like after Jan. 7?"
Can you?
- Marcia Gelbart
Instead of leaving open two positions on the five-member RDA board for new Mayor Michael Nutter to fill, Street late last week appointed attorney Roxanne E. Covington and old ally Asia Coney to five-year terms.
Covington, a member of the Human Relations Commission and a former city attorney, and Coney, director of Tenant Support Services, Inc., a nonprofit contracted by the Housing Authority to coordinate a host of services for its residents will replace Shawn Fordham, who resigned earlier in 2007, and Sharmain Matlock-Turner.
Street made another interesting appointment quietly about six months ago.
He named himself to the five-member Philadelphia Housing Authority board for a five-year term, insuring himself a place at Mayor Nutter's table.
Under the housing authority's bylaws, the mayor of Philadelphia is entitled to make two of five board appointments. But the bylaws are not crystal clear about whether those appointments begin simultaneously with a new mayor's term, or when a seat opens.
