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Little_Noodles t1_j6nzm8z wrote

Reply to comment by Ng3me in Gym bashes Union League, goes to cocktail party there next week by MagnusUnda

That’s where I stand too. My biggest complaint with Krasner is that he and his top level staff are all big-idea people, and aren’t really interested in the boring work of management and bureaucracy. I support his big ideas, but that boring work absolutely has to be done for those big ideas to succeed.

I think that’s especially true for mayor. I’ll happily take someone that’s a more moderate progressive than I am if I think they’re good at and interested in the boring thankless work that’s invisible labor if you do it right but still really, really needs to be done.

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Ok_Act5122 t1_j6o7zuv wrote

The older I get, the more I agree with this. I fall pretty far to the left on the spectrum, but the more I see things shake out, the more I feel that high-level government (Federal, the President) need to be the ones going big on stuff like civil rights, healthcare, social Justice, and the mayors need to be technocratic moderates who can actually take care of the little things that are in front of them.

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Little_Noodles t1_j6ob8z9 wrote

I mean, I’d like to have a mayor that’d be a little more than moderate if there’s something practical they can do in response to bad legislation, especially in this state.

So talking the talk does matter a little to me. But otherwise, yeah. Most of the mayor’s power is not in tackling state and nationwide issues. The most they can realistically do there is help rally for state and federal politicians.

Their actual job, if they’re doing it, is making sure boring shit gets handled correctly and keeping a bunch of different special interests with competing agendas not too unhappy, which mostly comes down to being good at financials.

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ParallelPeterParker t1_j6o3q21 wrote

>My biggest complaint with Krasner is that he and his top level staff are all big-idea people, and aren’t really interested in the boring work of management and bureaucracy. And that boring work absolutely has to be done for those big ideas to succeed.

Which candidate for mayor has offered anything approximating this? I haven't really seen one. They just bloviate.

As a counter: How does a candidate do this? It's hard to message "boring work" to voters.

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Little_Noodles t1_j6o4j9j wrote

It is hard to demonstrate to the public. But one way of doing that is by actually having chosen to do it and showing up with a track record of experience in a relevant field. Like, say, Rhynhart, who is currently high on my list.

City Controller is traditionally not a high profile job, and is exactly the kind of bullshit I’d like a mayor to be good at. Same for Budget Director, and she did good work there under Nutter.

The fact that she and Kenney seem to hate each other is just a bonus.

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apathetic_panda t1_j6o6b1j wrote

List of one.

I know why we're having a debate. But, it's like watching a class of kindergarteners try to pull off an Amistad.

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Little_Noodles t1_j6o745f wrote

You asked for “one”, not a list. And yeah, it’s a mess right now, I’ll agree to that.

I’ll be glad when the pettier bullshit like this dies down and we can see who is left standing to actually make a decision about. At the moment, unless it’s revealing an actual problem (like say, the Jeff Brown article posted earlier), I’m not bothering with any of this high school bullshit in my evaluation.

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apathetic_panda t1_j6og44c wrote

Um, I think you're responding to somebody else- I'm not even registered for the primary-

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Little_Noodles t1_j6oguzl wrote

Ah, the person I was responding to in the post you responded to asked for “one”. So I should have said “they”.

And if you’re not registered for the primary, it frankly doesn’t matter what your opinion on any of the candidates is.

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apathetic_panda t1_j6on6lk wrote

I'm aware of that. But, if you're going to mute me because I don't want your stupid clubs' fundraising mailers coming to my house- you're not going to like the outcome regardless since the people left would do something asinine like elect Domb.

Seriously people, why go from a slumlord president then say hey, that was awful... let's have all of those bad ideas executed closer to home.

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Little_Noodles t1_j6op8pn wrote

Who said anything about muting you?

I just said that your opinion here, which is that you can be chased out of the electorate by the threat of recieving mail, means that your opinion on the primary isn’t worth taking seriously

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apathetic_panda t1_j6oqyw9 wrote

I didn't say I wasn't voting. I just won't register to a party whose politics I don't respect. The ballot questions actually matter more.

The closed primary format is muting me- it was just presumptuous of me to assume that you support it.

An assumption that is sound. So again, you can dismiss my opinion- as it's no more valid than anyone else's - it'll just be funny when people wonder why nothing improves here and all the same people in charge are doing exactly what their predecessors were 40-50 years ago

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Little_Noodles t1_j6ot14h wrote

Unless you’re very new here, you know as well as I do that in Philadelphia, the primary is the mayoral election. By that point, when it comes to your vote for this office, you’re either absent or a rubber stamp.

Whether or not you like the primary system is irrelevant. You’re not teaching anyone a lesson by refusing to participate in it.

Refusing to participate and then bitching that everyone who did did a bad job isn’t the principled or unique stand you think it is. Most of Philly doesn’t vote, and most of the ones that do don’t vote in the primary. THAT’S why it’s the same assholes getting in over and over again. Because they’re being elected by the same sliver of the population that’s willing to do shit like, say, throw out mailers sometimes

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apathetic_panda t1_j6ov3pt wrote

I'm not new here. Unless you're going to point out a local primary that turned on fewer than 300 votes instead of a greasy palm, your point is just as impotent.

If I cared that my nonparticpation were unique it actually wouldn't matter, but since that population outnumbers the primary electorate you make my argument for me

For the record, I do throw out the mailers. If you were going suggest something actually effectual it would've been to run myself or volunteer- but as it turns out you like circlejerking as much as I do

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Little_Noodles t1_j6ovj0k wrote

And again, if you’re not going to shit but bitch about the people that are pulling their weight, and how it doesn’t matter that you’re not doing shit because too many other people also don’t do shit, then your opinion holds about as much weight with me as the vote you’re not casting weighs in the outcome of the election.

The people you’re complaining about are going to pick your next mayor, just like they always have, and they’re going to do it because you and people like you are too salty to just make an effort. You think they give a shit that you’re sitting this out? They do not.

I frequently don’t like my choices come the general. But sometimes I do. Sometimes they’re even the person I helped collect signatures for, or donated to, or voted for in the primary.

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apathetic_panda t1_j6oxu25 wrote

You really like to repeat yourself don't you.

Wow, is that a salad 🥗.

The people pulling weight in the primary aren't the electorate, genius.

But yes, look at a 12% turnout and say yeah, the people rejecting the process due to the persistent corruption of the nominating bodies and the long-standing policy in place specifically to supress voting generally- they're the problem

Do you really think I'm trying to change your mind?

A stranger on the internet 🤣😂🤢🤮

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ParallelPeterParker t1_j6o8asw wrote

I appreciate your response, but I'm struggling to see how what Rhynhart did as Controller is all that different from say, Gym. In fact, I often feel like Rhynhart was wielding the office to run for mayor specifically.

Ultimately though, neither shows the public why they're better than another candidate (experience!) or why "their plan" is better than anyone else's.

Sorry to be all nihilistic, but no candidate seems to even come close to something I appreciate which is a Liz Warren style "I've got a plan for than".

ETA: I don't even like Warren all that much.

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KFCConspiracy t1_j6ol2l7 wrote

The job of controller is specifically to audit and expose government waste. Unfortunately, she found a lot of it because Butkovitz, her predecessor, did not do that job for a decade. The controller, by the nature of the position, cannot implement anything, only audit and report.

Are you suggesting that Kenney was NOT wasting city resources and inept?

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Little_Noodles t1_j6o9ehk wrote

I’d agree that she was using the last office strategically and in the last stretch, higher office was part of it. But the Budget Director office? That’d be a reach.

And even if she was, I’d still rather someone whose political aspirations started in smaller, lesser known offices where they spent years acquiring substantial understanding of how the city’s bureaucracy works (or doesn’t) and using their skills and experience to produce paper trails of documentation re: mismanagement in the system and areas that need attention and reform.

I haven’t seen anyone else running produce research and reports (which are, effectively, her way of announcing what her “plan is for that’, especially if you believe she was using that office as a springboard).

And yeah, a lot of them have been targeted at the PPD, because that’s where a lot of the big waste and mismanagement is at. But she’s done the same for much smaller - ACCT comes to mind. Not even the council person assigned to ACCT gives a shit about ACCT.

Edit: And you don’t have to be in love with any of the candidates. But one of them is going to be the next mayor.

There’s no option C where if you’re salty enough about your choices, the universe has to deliver a new candidate that’s also your new best friend.

You can pick your least worst choice or sit it out and let other people pick one for you. Those are your two options, short of running yourself.

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