Honorable Mention: John Street / Philadelphia

By Sean Scully/Philadelphia Sunday, Apr. 17, 2005
    • JAY L. CLENDENIN / POLARIS

    PHILADELPHIA: Mayor Street is joined by his granddaughter and Senator Kerry at a local fundraiser

    John Street came into office in 2000 with an ambitious agenda to improve Philadelphia's worst neighborhoods, and even his critics agree he has made considerable progress. But, says Otis White, of the public-policy consulting firm Civic Strategies, "whatever his grand visions have been, he will not be remembered for them. He will be remembered for the corruption [around him]."

    There has been no evidence that Street, 61, himself is corrupt, but federal prosecutors say the mayor's close friend and fund raiser, Ron White, partially took control of city contracting and turned the process into a naked shakedown for donations to Street's 2003 re-election campaign. White died before going to trial, but former city treasurer Cory Kemp, a member of Street's administration, and four other defendants await a jury's verdict. The scandals have turned Street into a lame duck a year early. "The city is in a kind of suspended animation as long as the trials go on," says former Philadelphia Daily News editor Zack Stalberg.