Your 3 minutes are not quite up

When Councilman Wilson Goode Jr. halted the public-comment period of Thursday's Council meeting to ask the previous speaker to return to the lectern, there was that feeling in the chamber of two combatants about to square off.

The previous speaker was Ori Feibush, the feisty Point Breeze developer, and he had just spent three minutes blasting a bill to create affordable housing as a bad plan and a waste of money.

Goode, who can be downright prosecutorial with witnesses, asked Feibush if he thought the 10-year tax abatement on new construction was a waste of money as well. (Goode has introduced a bill to reduce the abatement - credited with reviving the city's real estate market, but also seen as a huge boon to the wealthy - to five years.)

"A public subsidy is a public subsidy," Goode said. "Whether it's affordable housing or a 10-year tax abatement."

Feibush didn't get off much of a response, mainly because someone in the crowd shouted to Goode, "Your salary is a waste of money!" But he did answer that he supported the 10-year abatement.

Goode asserted Feibush therefore supported subsidies, "as long as certain people get the subsidy." Goode then said he was done with his questions.

"Thank you," Feibush said. "May I be excused?"

- Troy Graham

Mayor Nutter is in China this week, and he's taken to social media to explain why he's making the voyage. One of his first forays was on this tumblr link http://phlinchina.tumblr.com/, where he says that while researching the trip he learned that "Philadelphia was one of the first cities in the new world to send merchant ships to China."

His goal, he said, is the same as that of those merchant ships, "to promote the trade of goods, services, and ideas between Philadelphia and China."

To see him talk about the trip, check out this YouTube video, shot just after Nutter talked to a group of students at Philadelphia's Folk Arts Cultural Treasures Charter School last week: http://goo.gl/IxsYn.

The Paulson Institute, a think tank founded by former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, invited Nutter to China as head of the U.S. Conference of Mayors and because Philadelphia has gained a reputation as a sustainable city. Trip organizers hope Nutter can share ideas about how Chinese cities, such as Philly's sister city of Tianjin, can manage rapid growth.

Select Greater Philadelphia will pay travel costs of about $8,500 for Nutter and several staffers. With him are officials from organizations including the Philadelphia Orchestra who paid their own way.

The mayor and members of his staff will be tweeting about the trip. Follow @Michael_Nutter or check out #PHLinChina. - Miriam Hill