For John Street, a whole new world

Today, John Street rises from his bed as Philadelphia mayor.

Tonight, he sleeps unelected - for the first time since 1979, when BlackBerrys and iPhones were still years out of his reach.

What will be toughest for Street as he gives up the throne and returns to private life?

No more ribbon-cutting invites?

No more frequent opportunities to remind people to drink their water?

No more microphones shoved at him for him to announce that he's having a great day?

Well, nothing that specific, says Carl Singley, former mentor and current antagonist of the outgoing mayor and ex-City Council president.

Singley views what now lies ahead of Street as something like this:

"Can you imagine after having somebody show up at your house in the morning for 16 years in a car, one that's waiting outside of your office whenever you walk out to take you to your next appointment, one that's waiting outside to transport you after that appointment . . . can you imagine what his life is going to be like after Jan. 7?"

Can you?

John Street will not be mayor by the end of today but he guaranteed his presence will be felt with a couple of last-minute appointments to the Redevelopment Authority and one not-so-last-minute pick for the Philadelphia Housing Authority.

Instead of leaving open two positions on the five-member RDA board for new Mayor Michael Nutter to fill, Street late last week appointed attorney Roxanne E. Covington and old ally Asia Coney to five-year terms.

Covington, a member of the Human Relations Commission and a former city attorney, and Coney, director of Tenant Support Services, Inc., a nonprofit contracted by the Housing Authority to coordinate a host of services for its residents will replace Shawn Fordham, who resigned earlier in 2007, and Sharmain Matlock-Turner.

Street made another interesting appointment quietly about six months ago.

He named himself to the five-member Philadelphia Housing Authority board for a five-year term, insuring himself a place at Mayor Nutter's table.

Under the housing authority's bylaws, the mayor of Philadelphia is entitled to make two of five board appointments. But the bylaws are not crystal clear about whether those appointments begin simultaneously with a new mayor's term, or when a seat opens.

What is clear is that Street, in meetings with Housing Authority residents, has said he intends to stay on the board - for the next five years.

Last week's last-minute Inspector General's report on new City Councilman Curtis Jones Jr. essentially characterized his severance package with the quasi-governmental agency he used to head as a sweetheart deal that allowed Jones to run for Council.

Jones, former president of the Philadelphia Commercial Development Corporation, got a $31,000 parachute and was allowed to take over the lease of the car he drove. The extent to which these were legitimate decisions by the PCDC board was hotly debated by outgoing Inspector General Seth Williams and PCDC president Aqil Sabur, as well as Jones, who said everything was done properly.

But one action that didn't appear appropriate by anyone's standards was PCDC's payout for a 20-foot-long vinyl banner, hung in front of Jones' campaign office at 63d Street and Lansdowne Avenue. While PCDC was mentioned in the banner, it was the "Curtis Jones Jr." in bold letters that inspired PCDC to bill Jones the $380 it cost for the banner. Jones paid the bill.

But Williams wanted to know: Why would PCDC pay for such a banner - nominally a PCDC banner but clearly a Jones promotional sign - in the first place?

"The expenditures of PCDC for them purchasing a banner of a potential campaign for anyone is inappropriate, regardless of whether he pays them back," Williams said in an interview.

Jones, who takes his oath of office today, called it "an error in judgment."