He is "not a black mayor. He's just a mayor with dark skin," Street, who is also African American, told Paul Davies, deputy editor of the The Inquirer's editorial page.
Nutter said he would not respond to such an "undignified" statement. But in an interview Friday, he questioned what he called "these very personal, seemingly political" attacks, and their timing as a scandal unfolds at the Philadelphia Housing Authority, which Street chairs.
"It is really astounding to me that at a time of great economic distress, the former mayor, seemingly in an obsessive fashion now, would spend so much time focused on racially divisive comments and statements with seemingly no background, no detail, no verification, just talking. Just running his mouth," Nutter said.
Street, elected to two terms, said he had no plans to challenge Nutter in the spring Democratic primary. But he has been openly encouraging others to run, clearly focused on rendering Nutter a one-term mayor - and influencing Nutter's legacy just as Nutter influenced his.
"There's a deep-seated animosity between the two of them that goes both ways," said Phil Goldsmith, who dealt with Nutter when Goldsmith was Street's managing director and Nutter was a city councilman. "I think it is a reenactment of Moby-Dick. They are both trying to kill the whale - but there are only so many times you can kill the whale."
Street has emphasized that he deliberately said little about Nutter and his administration - until now.
That is despite early actions by the Nutter administration that took aim at key elements of Street's legacy. For instance, the administration launched a financial review of Street's blight-fighting Neighborhood Transformation Initiative and disbanded the child-welfare organization, named Safe and Sound, that Street's wife once ran.
