That certainly was how it played out in this election. Center City, Philadelphia's downtown, has seen tremendous rebirth and many neighborhoods have stabilized. Crime, despite some questionable number juggling by the police department, is in fact down. But Rendell, despite his popularity, did not solve all of Philadelphia's ills. The schools are in poor financial shape.
Crime remains a sore point.
Racial tensions were heightened by the election, but a horrific murder exacerbated the situation before Street was sworn into office. In December 1999, Philadelphia Daily News columnist W. Russell G. Byers was stabbed to death during a robbery as he walked with his wife near their home in the Chestnut Hill neighborhood on the far northwest side. The Byers murder sent shock waves through Chestnut Hill and all of white Philadelphia, reinforcing stereotypes of race and crime and immediately putting Street on the defensive. A few blocks from where Byers was killed, Marisol Greenberg stopped recently to talk on Germantown Avenue, a street lined with upscale antique shops and clothiers running through the heart of this posh, predominantly white area. She voted Republican for the first time in her life in the recent election.