15 Responses

1. I am truly undecided even at this late date. Mr.’s Kenny & Oliver have made it to the top of the list as I continue to research the pool. As part of the forgotten middle class we are barely keeping our heads above water yet we have no debt except a mortgage. I have been laid off 2 times in the last 2.5 years by Philadelphia giants who do not always pay what they owe in taxes. As for the “Observer” who feels all the republicans are voting for Williams; Sir/Madame, please stop judging and one size fits all classifications. We already have enough of that going on in this world. This Republican has never voted according to her party and has changed parties in order to vote for the right person. @ Arnold S. Although I do not agree with all you wrote or your backed candidate, you did write a very good piece and brought many concerns that we all worry about.

2. I’m voting for Jim Kenney for Mayor of Philadelphia on May 19th! Ballot #68.

3. The next mayor needs to deal with a number of important issues. before he/she can deal with them they must understand what they are. 1. police abuse: is it a racial issue or is it really a training/hiring issue? I submit it is the latter. Nobody should be hired as an officer without first undergoing a battery of psychological testing to determine how they behave in pressurized situations. The police should have yearly/bi-yearly training on how to properly respond in pressurized situations. 2. Schools: the next mayor has to first deal with funding issues for public schools/public charter schools. people should know charter schools are public schools. next he should deal with school performance. under-performing schools need special attention. they either begin performing or we close them. people need to accept that charters are a viable alternative to under performing schools. the charters too must be required to perform or close. there needs to be greater regulations/oversight of charters to insure performance. in addition there must be salary limits on charter executives. it is unacceptable for charter executives/employees to be paid more than public school employees. 3. Business/taxes: the next mayor has to focus on bringing new business to our city. he/she needs to make our city business friendly and incentivize new businesses. the business privilege tax needs to be abolished and the wage tax thrown under the bus. a new mayor has to focus on getting small/medium sized businesses to come to our city as a way of increasing the employment/tax base. the key is a larger tax base so the tax bill is spread over more people. 4. abatements: they are good in the short run, however they must be limited to 5years/less. there is no reason for comcast to get a pass on taxes. in addition the large non-profits which now are very much profit oriented (see university city) must be forced to contribute there fair share.
   to date no mayoral candidate has really addressed these issues. we need a business person who is used to meeting the “bottom line” to step up and run. career politicians all pretty much are the same.
   i will vote for williams because he has been a business-person and recognizes the need to make our city business friendly and has a real plan to do so. other candidates who were in city government had a chance to make our city business friendly but DID NOT. in addition anthony william’s deeply cares about public education, which include both traditional public schools and charter schools and as a state senator he has the contacts to get more education funding for philadelphia public schools. Williams also recognizes the need to improve community-police relations. he understands the need for more psychological testing and better training and yearly retraining of police on how to better handle stressful situations.
   Williams is the best candidate because of his business experience, his commitment to public education, and policing.

4. Have you all actually listened to these candidates? The only one that is truly genuine seems to be Mr. Oliver. Unfortunate that we don’t listen but vote for the person with the most money.

5. I’m voting for Doug Oliver

6. I recently attended one of the mayoral debates. Mr. Kenney shared thoughts on how police officers could be trained to better work within the African American communities.His strategy ” Have the officers watch Selma so they can get a better understanding about Blacks”. All of the candidates evaded the questions asked by the moderators. The only person who answered honestly was Mr. Street, his response to a question about how to fix the economy in Philadelphia, was “I don’t know”.

7. I’m voting for Doug Oliver. He’s running on a shoestring and has energy and drive and is not beholden to special interest groups. Consider Oliver for Mayor.

8. Unfortunately for the majority of Philadelphians, the probable winners of this race will continue to give lip service to fixing our crippled schools; why? because they are beholden to groups who don’t care about the inner cities, and groups who will ride them until they fulfill on the special interests of those who paid for them to become Mayor. We have to have a better pathway to the most important job in the city.

9. This is a horrendous field for mayor. I honestly wish everyone would turn to Lynne Abraham mostly for one cynical reason: she will be a one-term mayor and then maybe next election we will get some candidates in the race who wouldn’t be the threat to be a two-term disaster that Kenney and Williams are.

10. My main concern is getting a better education for my children my daughter deserves to be in the school she wants to be in and not wait listed for years because of the neighborhood she lives in or because im not rich and cant pull strings in that school to get her in her grades attendance and behavior show that she deserves it and shows she works hard to get to where she wants to be and also as for my son i wants more and better schools to offer services such as emotional support tss and sts and programs for children with disabilities and children who just need a little extra help they should be awarded the same programs as any other children
    Also the Philadelphia elementary public schools need to offer children more extra curricular activities to be involved in this would give the children incentive to do the right thing and feel like they are apart of sonething and this is coming from west Philadelphia elementary schools students that have told me this there self
    Thats just the beginning of many issues but these are some things that i myself am passionate about to help my children and the children in my community that look to me with questions and exspect a answer
    Mrs k.diggins-johnson

11. Tony Williams has zero accomplishments to show for nearly 30 years in public office. He assumes higher office is a birthright. Um, no. Jim Kenney for Mayor.

12. Tony Williams great guy with a big heart and love his community.

13. Going for williams. Want someone who has been consistent not somebody who just needed an ambassador to find north philly and Germantown

14. Oh good, another “Observer” happy to copy-paste overused, tired, and untrue lines. Way to commit to the Kenney2015 campaign media strategy.

15. I’m sure most of the votes for Williams are from Republican readers, since he is as Republican as they come: bought and paid for by billionaires, hell-bent on destroying our public schools.