Michael Nutter

Tom Knox, the millionaire businessman who finished second to Michael Nutter in the Democratic mayoral primary in 2007, will chair a task force to look at current and alternative uses for about 2,000 city-owned buildings. Nutter signed an executive order Wednesday creating the panel. Its 13 members will be appointed by the mayor, with members to be drawn from universities, the Bar Association, the Building Owners and Managers Association, the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce, City Council, and commercial real estate brokers.

It's getting harder and harder to find signs of the mayor that Michael Nutter wanted to be. The man who won office as the city's greatest tax-cutting champion is now the guy who is disappointed when City Council raises property taxes only 3.8 percent, instead of doubling the price of soda as he'd asked. The mayor who made education the central theme of his inaugural address was forced to resort to a nine-page temper tantrum - CC'd to the world - to remind his own school board appointees that hello, he is the mayor and he does matter.

Somewhere in East Falls, Ed Rendell is howling. He's on the phone with John Street, wondering how a mayor could have so little juice that he couldn't persuade City Council to tax Snapple so poor kids don't have to hitchhike to school. Street cackles back that in politics, it's better to be feared or revered than liked. So which, if any, is Mayor Mike? Fresh off a primary in which a clownish ex-con grabbed 24 percent of the vote, Michael Nutter finally listened to critics and went to the mat for something - only to be defeated by hubris and Teamsters.

FIRST, the mayor says the city can't afford a new contract with city employees because there is no money! But - voilà! - he wants to give the bloated and over-administrated (and highly overpaid) school district $100 million. What chutzpah! Hey, Comrade Mayor, both you and the councilcrooks don't make the city work, we the hardworking employees do. City employees have been giving back for two decades, and we are cut to the bone. Meanwhile, our "leader" continues to pad his executive staff with six-figure salaries.

THREE QUARTERS of the city's voters reaffirmed a likely second term for Mayor Nutter. The bad news: One quarter voted for a stunt candidate who owes the government more than $1 million in back taxes. Still, Nutter now has a choice: to make it a second term in which he has lots of free time because he can't get anyone to do anything . . . or a second term in which, having nothing left to lose, he lets it rip. We prefer the latter. Here is our advice: The mayor should forgo green and eat more red meat : Nice Mike should acquire a taste for blood.

FOR MAYOR   Democrat: MICHAEL NUTTER   Republican: JOHN FEATHERMAN   COUNCIL AT LARGE   The Democrats:   ANDY TOY EDWARD NESMITH JIM KENNEY BLONDELL REYNOLDS BROWN BILL GREEN   The Republicans:   MALCOLM LAZIN JOE McCOLGAN STEPHEN ODABASHIAN DAVID OH AL TAUBENBERGER   COUNCIL DISTRICTS   1st District: JOE GRACE...

FOR MAYOR   Democrat: MICHAEL NUTTER   Republican: JOHN FEATHERMAN   COUNCIL AT LARGE   The Democrats:   ANDY TOY EDWARD NESMITH JIM KENNEY BLONDELL REYNOLDS BROWN BILL GREEN   The Republicans:   MALCOLM LAZIN JOE McCOLGAN STEPHEN ODABASHIAN DAVID OH AL TAUBENBERGER   COUNCIL DISTRICTS   1st District: JOE GRACE...

FOUR YEARS AGO, our endorsement of MICHAEL NUTTER ran with a one-word subhead: "DUH!" The choice in the general election was that obvious. Republican Al Taubenberger offered only token resistance, and Nutter had emerged from an impressive field to win the Democratic primary in this one-party town's de facto mayor's race. This year, he is virtually unopposed for the nomination (sorry, Milton), and his overall record has earned him our enthusiastic endorsement. The mayor had barely finished repeating the oath of office before he was forced to wield a budget ax and collect more money.

YOU HAVE GOT to be kidding! Street vs. Nutter, Nutter vs. Street? Are these the only options? Is this the best Philly has to offer its hardworking, taxpaying citizens? If I vote for the old crazy guy who owes more than $1 million, I make Nutter look bad. If I vote for Nutter, I make myself look bad and disappoint my fellow residents. We should all strike and not vote for anyone. Maybe then someone with better qualities and credentials will come forward, and we can cast our vote for him. It should be somebody who's not so well-known in our area as Milton or Michael.

Already boasting the support of two city labor unions, mayoral candidate T. Milton Street Sr. sought the backing Tuesday evening of a third, but failed. Delegates from District Council 47 of the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees, which represents Philadelphia's white-collar government workers, voted at their Walnut Street headquarters not to endorse either Street or Mayor Nutter in the May 17 Democratic primary. Nutter was not invited to the meeting.