Could the story of two South Philadelphia street vendors shed light on how a big city runs and why some people think the Nutter administration has stumbled? It might, if you're into tales about long-standing traditions, newfangled inflexibility, and a battle-scarred mayor turning a deaf ear to one of his few allies.

The adventure begins at 10th and Oregon, where Eddie Ellis sells produce and Phil D'Amor runs a curbside crab stand. The vendors had business licenses and paid taxes.

Six days a week, for decades, the vendors earned a living selling to regulars drawn by low prices and familiar faces. Many customers are elderly folks who don't drive and are grateful to find fresh food right around the corner. Eddie even won a 1997 "Readers Choice" award from the South Philly Review, which noted that he braved "all kinds of temperatures . . . closing only when it snows."

Last month, the Department of Licenses and Inspections received an anonymous complaint about an unlicensed vendor who'd begun selling produce eight blocks away at 18th and Oregon, near an Acme supermarket of all places. An L&I inspector told the rogue he had violated a little-known ordinance banning street vending in the area.

The ordinance, passed in 2001, was meant to scare off ticket scalpers and T-shirt hawkers around the proposed new stadiums, said City Councilman Jim Kenney. As longtime local fixtures, Eddie and Phil were presumed to have been grandfathered into the law. "It's been my experience in 18 years," Kenney said, "that preexisting businesses that were not a nuisance will remain."

The law's the law

The ordinance went largely unenforced for eight years, until that L&I inspector cited the unlicensed vendor and conducted a sweep that sent Eddie and Phil packing, too.

(I asked to talk to both vendors, but they politely declined. They don't want to make a fuss. They just want to get back to business.)

Kenney got involved along with Council President Anna C. Verna, who represents the area. Kenney asked L&I to let the men stay. That's what City Council intended, even if the law didn't spell it out.

L&I Commissioner Fran Burns felt bad for the vendors, but not enough to compromise.

"Sometimes the law isn't extremely clear. In this case, it is," she said. "For me to make any decision based on empathy or understanding, I unravel a whole lot of things."

So Kenney asked Burns for a 60-day reprieve while he ushered through legislation on the vendors' behalf. Such delays are granted all the time, or at least they used to be.

"No law is perfect," Kenney said. "We often have to adjust them."

Burns replied that "there's never any assurance the law gets passed." Her answer was no.

"The employees who work for me need to understand I can't be bought, sold, or compromised," Burns told me later. "There's a balance we seek. How do you provide good customer service? How do you remain ethical? How are you a reformer? How do you change the image of L&I being corrupt?"

Tough times

Stunned but undeterred, Kenney called Nutter. The two men worked together for years, and Kenney may be Nutter's only friend and ally on City Council.

"These are tough times," Kenney reminded the mayor. "Government shouldn't be in the business of putting taxpayers out of work."

The mayor wouldn't budge. Not for Kenney, whom Nutter owes. Not for Verna, whom he needs.

Should voters cheer or sneer the mayor's tough stance? Nutter did promise a "new day, new way." Is absolutism what "new" looks like?

It's possible to make deals without breaking laws, isn't it? This is politics, after all. Aren't accommodations key to passing reforms?

Kenney is still steamed over the crab controversy. He believes government must be nimble and responsive. Plus, everyone knows the difference between pay-to-play favors for VIPs and using common sense to help the little guy.

"This was way over-the-top unreasonable," Kenney told me. "Everyone in that neighborhood suffered more from this governmental action than anyone did before it."

Last week, as promised, Kenney and Verna introduced a bill to tweak the street-vending ban. It's hardly controversial, so passage seems inevitable. With any luck, Eddie and Phil will be back on the corner by Thanksgiving.

Contact Monica Yant Kinney

at 215-854-4670 or myant@phillynews.com.

Read her recent work at http://go.philly.com/yantkinney