Year dampens Nutter crowd's expectations

In 1988, Anthony Yates saw the worst of Philadelphia when his 5-year-old brother, Marcus, was shot in the head while playing a video game at a corner grocery store, the innocent victim of a drug-trade gunfight.

Last January, Yates saw what he called "the best of Philadelphia" when he and thousands of others thronged City Hall to meet newly sworn-in Mayor Nutter. They waited as long as four hours to shake his hand. Some brought gifts and heartfelt letters. A few were moved to tears.

"It's like the whole city got up and came here," Yates said at the time. "They want a change, and Nutter is going to be that change."

Now, one year to the day after the open house that Yates found "inspiring," what has changed is his perspective on Nutter and on the city's direction.

"We're not progressing," said Yates, 31, an electronics technician who lives in the city's Olney section. "I had these big expectations, and now I'm wondering, 'Did we pick the wrong person?' "

Since the $1-billion-plus budget crisis surfaced in September, Nutter's critics have objected - loudly and often - as he has closed fire companies and public pools and slashed library funding.

But the views of most Philadelphians are not known at all.

For the anniversary of his City Hall open house, The Inquirer sought out 15 people who had been randomly chosen for interviews from the thousands who showed up to celebrate on the day after Nutter's inauguration.

If they widely share one sentiment now, it is quiet disappointment - not so much with the mayoral leadership as with the fading opportunity to transform the city.

Though some said Nutter had stumbled, most said he had managed as well as could be expected, given the recession's devastating impact on the city budget.

All said their hopes for what Nutter could accomplish had dimmed.

"I'm heartbroken. Heartbroken," said Colleen Bracken, a leadership consultant from Germantown. "I really do think we were on a great trajectory, and it's just a completely different scenario now."

Bracken said she still strongly supported Nutter, but no longer expected him to accomplish all she had hoped.

The Nutter supporters interviewed this week said they had been encouraged by his first eight months in office, particularly his appointments of Police Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey and other senior officials. Some also credited him with restoring their confidence that City Hall was ethically run.

Then came the budget crisis.

"It feels like we had the right person at the right time, and then it became the wrong time," Bracken said.

During the mayoral campaign and his inaugural address, Nutter raised expectations with a dizzying array of goals and initiatives. He would dramatically reduce crime, root out corruption, double the high school graduation rate, grow the population, and make Philadelphia the greenest city in the nation, all while cutting taxes. And those were just a few of his biggest ambitions.

Several of the Philadelphians at the open house said they felt he had the ability, and the voter support, to accomplish all that and more.

"I did think Nutter would be able to make some really dramatic changes, and now he can't," said Barbara Lee Kruger, a Center City resident who is a director of communications at the University of Pennsylvania. "I'm glad we have someone like him to guide us through this mess, but it's kind of sad that's all he'll get to do."

In an interview yesterday, Nutter said he still intended to do much more than manage a fiscal meltdown.

"This economic crisis has hit us, but we will work through it. Things are going to turn around," he said. "We may have to slow things down a little bit, but the vision I laid out for the city of Philadelphia a year ago is absolutely intact."

Nutter pointed to the accomplishments of his first year - including a 15 percent drop in the homicide rate, a new 311 call center, and weekly single-stream recycling citywide - as proof he could improve the city amid a budget crunch.

Those and other achievements have been largely overshadowed, however, by drastic cuts to other city departments.

Nutter's plan to close 11 libraries has most enraged his critics. He has held firm, and is fighting in court to close the branches.

But where library advocates see stubbornness, most of the open-house attendees interviewed by The Inquirer said they saw courage.

"I give him a lot of credit for braving all those public hearings," said Barbara Wilcox, an adult-education teacher from the Northeast. "He got lambasted. People were there to tear him apart, but he stood there and took it."

Critics have faulted how Nutter broke the bad news, but Janis Mosca of West Philadelphia commended him.

"He has tried to address the problems and not ignore them or pretend they will go away like some of our past leaders did," she said.

For Anthony Yates, however, Nutter's attempt to close libraries feels like a betrayal. When Yates was a child, he recalled, Nutter was among the public officials who offered support to his family as it struggled to recover from his brother's death.

"His whole platform from the beginning was about education. So he closes libraries? Come on now. Kids need a place to learn, to be safe, and he knows that," Yates said.

At the open house, Yates, like many others, presented Nutter with a written proposal. Yates hoped the city would somehow commemorate the 20th anniversary of his brother's death, which catalyzed major antiviolence initiatives across the city.

The mayor's office never called him back, said Yates, who surmised Nutter was too busy rewriting the budget.

"You've got to do the job that's in front of you," said Bracken, the leadership consultant. "Before, he was reaching for an inspiring vision, reaching for an ideal. And now he's scrambling for the city's survival."