Along with the $21k are they also getting paid tuition for their degree, paid fees, or a housing allowance? Or just $21,000 salary and they have to pay tuition and fees too?

What makes you say Gym is the queen of vibes at this point in the race? I don't plan on voting for her, but I'm curious as to what makes you say that. In my opinion almost all the candidates currently are running on vibes, and Gym is no different (but not worse) than several other candidates.

I mean she just makes it so easy.

I think there's more overlap between the establishment white Dems and flaky progressives than you might be assuming here. I'm personally hoping MQS will be a dark horse and end up building the largest coalition, but really... anybody but Gym.

The entire nutter schtick is a joke. The “just asking tough questions” except to his two preferred candidates. Rhynhart is particular is egregious because she worked for him.

The only reason people even care about nutter is because Kenney is so terrible he mades Nutter’s shit job look a lot better in comparison.

I'm not the person who wrote that comment but I do like Helen Gym and do not plan to vote for her for mayor. I agree with the previous commenter that I really liked her start into politics and my values align closely with hers; I also like the focus she puts on Philly's school system, which is a fucking trainwreck. With that said, I don't plan to vote for her because I haven't seen any substantial plans from her on how she'd tackle a variety of issues if she was mayor. I was also extremely put off about the whole Union League debacle and finding out about her husband/that pharma bill from 2019. I think the most off-putting thing about her to me is that much of her platform is built on accountability, which I find extremely important, but haven't seen her take much accountability herself.

This is the thing. I wasn't for the stadium if the neighborhood was against it, but the much bigger problem is the private student housing that keeps pushing further out into the neighborhood and affecting property values and housing costs.

I thought a solution could have been Temple agreeing to construct more student housing on campus (significantly more, like another Morgan sized building) and requiring all non-commuting freshmen and sophomores to live on campus in exchange for the stadium. Seems like that could've been a huge win-win.

> has endorsed former City Councilmember Cherelle Parker to be his successor, a decision that Parker described as a “game-changing” moment in this year’s wide-open mayor’s race.

>Ryan Boyer, who leads the council, acknowledged that Parker is at the moment not a frontrunner in the race to win the Democratic nomination.

I would strongly suggest reading the whole article if you can or getting a promo subscription to the Inky for the mayoral race.

This article is short in length but has a number of details surrounding the union endorsements and war chests.

I wasn't saying that he was aggressive, because I watched the videos, too. I appreciate anyone who can cut through the bullshit and ask the tough questions. I think you and I are in agreement, for this much.

But if I were someone who was reading The Inquirer alone? I would have thought that Mayor Nutter was personally waterboarding Gym, live on stage. "it was tense", "he kept asking her questions, shown by the repetition in paragraphs". I mean, shit, I get that newspaper articles are supposed to be simple to read, but a responsibility of a journalist is painting a picture. And the journalist was painting *a picture* that some folks who are historically in the majority will get, and a wholly different picture for people not historically in the majority will get.

Could he be less confrontational about his questions to Helen Gym? Sure. Why not? The fault is still on her for running a ✨vibes✨-based campaign.

Rhynhart and Domb? I'm not gonna say they have no chance because in a crowded race you can win without broad support but I will be very surprised if Domb is more than a blip and Rhynhart has a very narrow path.

I was just reading their page earlier today on all the mayoral candidates. They have a paragraph or so for each candidate, and a full sentence of the paragraph is about the vibe that candidate gives off. I'm gen z but this doesn't appeal to me, please give me a better breakdown of what the candidates have and haven't accomplished in their previous roles and what policies they're interested in putting in place if they become mayor

I was a graduate student in chemistry 10 years ago at a much smaller university and department in the Philly area and my TA stipend was ~$21K. It's absurd to me that that is what Temple offers. Also, just dug through my email for other places I had applied to at the time and those stipends were all in the mid-20s basically a decade ago. They don't really have an excuse especially if they actually want to maintain decent graduate programs.

Great guy, intolerable voice.

Well done, sir.

I don't see why you're being downvoted.

Presenting a contract you know won't be approved is a pretty normal and part of the negotiation process.

Additionally Temple is vulnerable to all the problems and headwinds that are coming at the higher education system in general, in addition to location specific issues they have. Cost containment is absolutely an issue the school faces.

However they're looking at it wrong, the grad students produce actual value for the school, and they should be paid for it.

Where the school can look to cut costs is the bloated administration, which is full of bullshit jobs that should be eliminated. College administration bloat is a well known phenomenon, and adds a significant cost to tuition.

I mean, it's REALLY good money...

...if you were an employee in 1884 (The year that Temple U was founded). smh nobody wants to work anymore.

I don’t think any college/university dining hall meets with local health standards

I love how Temple has lost the plot of why it was started as an university but still pays the same.

Gym is the Marjorie Taylor Green of the left, a master of performative politics, feigned outrage and shameless hypocrisy. So try to interview her and that's what you're gonna get.

Oh, I know about the deeded land. The thing that is most frustrating still, is the problems that Temple still has to deal with, when it comes to their neighbors (landlords taking advantage of the real estate, trash, etc) in order to be "good neighbors" outside of the lip service that they do once a year for MLK Day of Service or whatever.

Nobody wants to work on long-term solutions to these problems, though. That's why gentrification (and what we saw on Super Bowl Sunday, with car-flipping) is still happening without the new stadium. And a new stadium is still not a good idea.

Right. Nutter ran against the machine-endorsed candidate and won because of strong support from white liberals and black professionals. He was the candidate of competency, not centrism.

Staying with this theme, Gym was an exceptionally competent and effective agitator, activist, and advocate for our public schools before she ran for office. As a councilwoman, however, she's been an embarrassment. I identify as a progressive but above all else, I want honest and competent governance. I have little faith that she's up to the task.

Genuinely concerned the cold snap this weekend will ruin the bloom.

Not that $21K is enough to live off of but they also get tuition reduction and free health insurance, along with other benefits offered to students.

> building a whole new stadium that will already displace the people who live in North Philly

The dead proposal was entirely on Temple-owned land — the issues were trash, noise and the stadium consuming an entire block of 15th between Norris and Montgomery.

Meanwhile, you have two landlords owning almost the entire stretch of 16th north of Montgomery, a bunch of LLCs snapping up properties along Norris, Carlisle, etc.—that displacement's happening regardless of the stadium, unfortunately.

Gonna have to bump the cherry blossom festival up.

Nutter was significantly more aggressive in questioning both candidates last night than he was with Domb and Rhynhart. He pressed both on specific issues and legislation that they supported (Parker the residency requirement stuff, Gym the lawsuit against the city by the school district.) I wonder if he got feedback that he was too soft the last round, or if those candidates just aligned more with his moderate, pro-business values.

That said, the animosity felt real and personal when Gym went on the attack against his record as mayor in terms of supporting schools. It was only after that he dropped the line asking whether she said the quote about systems of oppression falling away, when she entered the Union League. It felt like a low blow. It was certainly fair to ask about the Union League but in this context it felt like a punchline to get a rise out of the audience and Gym. I also thought that he pressed her way harder on the potential conflict of interest with the pharma bill than he pressed Domb about his potential conflicts of interest.

Didn't they mention possibly trying to set up a second round of interviews focused more on policy? I would certainly attend. This format was more effective than listening to a stump speech while offering more depth than a traditional debate.