Friday Agricultural Factoid: One Day Late

According to the Commonwealth's Department of Agriculture, Pennsylvania has over 700 golf courses, generating $1.1 billion in economic benefit. The industry supports local agriculture businesses like greenhouses, nurseries and sod farms.

Creating an Office of Neighborhoods for Philadelphia

While everybody says that Philadelphia is a “City of Neighborhoods”, it is surprising how little attention and support they are given from the Mayor’s office and the City of Philadelphia’s government generally. Philadelphia neighborhoods aren’t quaint abstractions, but real places that have “organic jurisdictional form”; that is, they don’t have the legal standing of a separate municipality, but they have issues and concerns that distinguish them from other neighborhoods. Despite the reality of neighborhood differentiation, the structure of City government does very little to recognize this form or to support neighborhood-based and focused community organizations.

While economies of scale are important to achieve, the ineffectiveness of service agglomeration for a city government trying to serve a socio-economically diverse constituency City presents its own set of problems; one size does not fit all.

Mike Nutter's Acceptance Speech

It was a great night and a great speech; watch it here.

Nutter Wins!

Photo of the Philadelphia flag is from Phillyskyline; Mike Nutter has won the Democratic Primary and will likely be the next Mayor of Philadelphia.

Nutter Endorsements

They're not just coming from the major dailys anymore, many local blogs have endorsed Nutter. Here are just a few:

Phawker
Booman Tribune (a nationally known blog that is Philly-based)
Laepplehertzog
Truth, Justice, and Peace

And of course, even before America's Hometown was a blog, we've been endorsing Michael Nutter for Mayor since 2003.

Chris Bowers on the Mayor's Race and Politics in Philadelphia

Commentary from Philadelphia's own Chris Bowers on the Mayor's race over at MyDD can be found here.

A Union Endorsement for Nutter

From the Philadelphia Inquirer: "Nutter also received the endorsement of Local 835 of the International Union of Operating Engineers, which represents 1,975 skilled tradesmen at area universities and cultural institutions."

Michael Nutter' Latest Television Ad

Michael Nutter's latest ad is here. It presents the deluge of endorsements he's recently received.

The Fallser Endorses Mike Nutter for Mayor

The Fallser - East Falls' community newspaper - has endorsed Michael Nutter for Mayor. Said the Fallser:

More than any other candidate, Mr. Nutter’s plans have both depth and substance. He is the brightest, most knowledgeable about Philadelphia and adjacent suburbs, and best able to articulate his plans for the city.

Mr. Nutter pledges to use the City’s economic development resources to create opportunities for all Philadelphians, including small business owners and middle class residents, now being squeezed out by Philadelphia’s shrinking job base. “I understand how to create neighborhood jobs,” he says, “I’ve been doing it as a District Council member for 15 years.”

P.S. East Falls is a fairly large neighborhood with more than 10,000 people.

Hot Places, Cool Spaces

Check out this link for some very neat, environmentally conscious developments in the Fishtown/Northern Liberties sections of town.

Michael Nutter's Latest Ad

Michael Nutter's latest television ad is here.

When Republicans Attack

Has anybody heard about the Republican review of Governor Rendell's appointments to the Department of Environmental Protection and Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, Kathleen McGinty and Mike DiBerardinis? If not, there's a post over at Young Philadelphia Politics that does a great job of explaining what's going on and why we need to speak up. The post on YPP is here; I'd also urge you to send an email to State lawmakers here.

Michael Nutter Continues to Surge

News from the Nutter Campaign:

He's raised $3.4 million so far, likely more than any of the non-self funded candidates. He's raised $325,000 in the last four days!!

Also, the latest NBC10 Survey USA poll confirms Nutter's position as "co-frontrunner" with Tom Knox. The SurveyUSA poll has Knox with 29 percent and Nutter surging into second with 27 percent, 13 points better than the last poll for NBC10. Fattah stays at 18, Brady falls to 11 and Evans to 9.