John Street

When Ed Rendell took over as Mayor of Philadelphia he took on the unions during contract negotiations and won.  When John Street took over he tried to take on the unions and quickly backed down.  Now it is Michael Nutter’s turn.  Nutter said in his state of the city address he has set aside $400 million to take care of the contracts, but will that be enough?

More PolitickerPA.com coverage: John Street's vanishing legacy

The Inquirer today asks a question that has been on the mind of many political watchers: What on earth is happening to former Philadelphia Mayor John Street's legacy?

Street left office in January after a second term that saw his popularity dip drastically as the city's murder rate climbed and he was assailed for spending a morning waiting in line to buy an iPhone. His successor, former City Councilman Michael Nutter, won office in large part by campaigning as the anti-Street.

Nutter and Street have always been political foes, and many say their dislike of one another extends outside politics and into the personal. But when Street left City Hall to make room for Nutter, he probably didn't expect that so much of his time in office would be deconstructed so fast.