The Interview: Milton Street

T. MILTON STREET SR.'S fighting spirit has not died, and neither has his desire to be mayor. The former state senator, 75, says he's poised to announce another run at the city's top job.

Street garnered 36,000 votes in the 2011 Democratic primary. That's a not-too-shabby tally for a guy who served time in federal prison in 2008 for three misdemeanor counts of tax evasion. Street, the brother of former Mayor John Street, says he'll once again run on a platform to fight violence and empower the city's poor and downtrodden - those disregarded as "throw-aways."

Daily News reporter Wendy Ruderman recently caught up with Street at Hope Plaza in his North Philly neighborhood.

Q You've run for mayor before and lost. Some consider you a long shot. Why run again?

Because the value of a postage stamp lies in its ability to stick to one thing until it gets there. The value of Milton Street lies in his ability to stick to one line of endeavor until he's translated it into a fact.

Q In 2007, during your failed bid for a City Council seat, you dragged a

coffin to City Hall and draped yourself over it while singing the hymn, "If I Can Help Somebody." Now you are shopping around for a funeral home to announce your mayoral candidacy. What's the thinking behind that venue?

The reality is in 2007, I had a coffin out on the side of City Hall, stood behind the coffin, saying "If I Can Help Somebody," and people thought that was, like, bizarre, like there was something wrong with that. Since then, over 1,000 mothers have lost their children to this violence.

One thousand mothers have gone to a funeral parlor and looked in a coffin at their child because of this violence. And what I'm going to do if I possibly can is get people to understand the pain and the suffering and the passion that mothers have for their children who are just snatched from them.

You can't get people to understand a person's pain unless they understand the person's love that they have for their children. OK?

So it was kind of disheartening that people would say, "What is he doing?" when all I'm saying is, "There's no more coffins." We don't deserve this.

Q Do you expect a crowd of supporters?

From the support I have now, I probably won't be able to find a funeral parlor that's large enough - that can seat enough people.

Q What do you say to people who don't seem to take you or your

candidacy seriously?

Chris Brennan of the Daily News just wrote, Milton Street's campaign is "a sideshow." All I've ever done is dealt with issues that affect the poor.

Mayor Nutter once said, Milton Street needs to stop "the clown act." Who's he talking about? My issue is that these people have a right to be at least recognized.

It's not a clown act. This is not a sideshow. I'm not talking about me. I'm talking about the people.

Q What do you see as the most pressing issue facing the city right now?

Violence. Violence in the community.

Violence in the schools.

Q How will you stop the violence?

Do you have a plan?

The plan is, the only people who can stop the violence are the people who live in the community, so we're going to have the street patrol.

I'm going to give people jobs from the community that they live in to patrol the community that they live in, which will be connected directly to the Police Department, which will serve as a quick-response and an enforcement tool.

So it costs $40,000 a year to keep a person in prison. I can give them a job for half that, a little less than half that. This is going to be a pilot program to start.

Connected with this program are going to be training programs, educational programs. We're going to have a chess team. We are going to have a martial-arts team. We're going to have a cycling team. We're going to have activities for young people.

Q Your strategy for winning is to mobilize voters who often struggle -

the poor or disabled, older veterans, ex-offenders, people who suffer from drug or alcohol addiction. But can you win

without the funds required to finance a campaign?

I think I'm going to win the race. I don't think that people who are running are in touch with the community. I think they are out of touch.

I think they feel that if you raise some money, you can win. If you don't have money, you lose.

I think if you have issues that touch the pulse of the people and you can connect with where the people are, money won't matter that much.

Q If you get elected, who do you think you will pick to serve in your cabinet?

Haven't thought that far yet.