Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter Speaks at Global Mayors Forum

“Mayors pay attention to what other mayors are doing,” said Michael Nutter, who should know. As mayor of Philadelphia, Nutter said, he looks at the New York City website on a regular basis and feeds off of ideas coming out of other cities across the United States.

He even made a startling confession.

“I love New York,” said Nutter, who added after the briefest of pauses, “I just happen to love Philadelphia a little more.”

Nutter’s remarks came at the sixth Global Mayors Forum on March 4. Since since its launch in 2009, the forum has brought municipal leaders from around the world, including the mayors of London and Karachi, to Morningside Heights.

Professor Ester Fuchs, director of SIPA’s Urban and Social Policy Program, welcomed Nutter and praised his work in the City of Brotherly Love. She also highlighted the importance of paying attention to cities and local governance around the globe.

Nutter was sworn in for a second term as mayor of his hometown—America’s fifth-largest city—on January 2, 2012. He noted that Philadelphia is currently the largest city in the United States to have an African-American mayor and, he underscored, the only city among the nation’s very largest to have had multiple African-American mayors. (Nutter is the third such mayor.)

Public safety has been one of Nutter’s key priorities since taking office.

“Even though crime is down, every life matters,” Nutter said.

Philadelphia currently has the lowest number of homicides since 1967, but Nutter said the murder rate is still too high and that 75 percent of those killed have been African-American males.

“We have to come to grips with violence in this country,” he said.

Nutter, who also noted that seven police officers have been killed during his tenure in office, stressed the need to build bridges between the police and local communities,

Nutter also talked about the direct ties between violence, poverty, and education, and said he’d taken the position that the children of Philadelphia are like his own children. While the high school graduation rate has increased from 53 percent to 65 percent, Nutter said more students need to attend and graduate from college; the city is nowhere near where it should be in this regard.

Since taking office, Nutter has also focused on making Philadelphia a safer, healthier, smarter, cleaner, and greener city. With his GreenWorks Philadelphia initiative, Nutter embarked on his goal of making Philadelphia America’s greenest city.

He described how 160 out of 164 initiatives have been completed by GreenWorks, noting that a sustainability office he created by executive order will remain active after he leaves office. He has also focused on making Philadelphia more walkable and bikeable—the city’s bicycle-sharing program, scheduled for launch next month, will be the nation’s first that will not require credit cards. GreenWorks has also created jobs,he said, citing growth in recycling that has led plants to hire more workers.

Nutter now has less than a year remaining in office, and cannot run for re-election due to term limits. An audience member asked why more mayors don’t seek higher office after serving.

“There’s an assumption that that’s higher office,” he said, disputing the underlying premise. As mayor, “I get to do something every day that affects people’s lives.”