GUEST COLUNIST: Tough choices for Phila.

Philadelphia came very close to smelling worse than a Quad restroom in the wee hours of a Sunday morning. Fortunately, the well-publicized negotiations with the City's two largest unions of government workers, one of which represents workers who operate and maintain the city's garbage truck, resulted in an agreeement.

If cutting a deal with the city employees for the next few years and averting the vermin Valhalla that the city has become during past municipal strikes as trash piled up in residential streets were the Mayor's only concern at this point, he would seem politically well-positioned. Unfortunately for the Mayor, events beyond his direct control, along with what now appear to be his own errors, have put him in a position from which more missteps and unwanted contingencies could render him a one-term Mayor in a city in which such a fate seems impossible for a Democrat.

Attempts to settle with the unions have been made more difficult by Street's own blunder of prematurely putting the issue of new stadiums for the Phillies and Eagles on the table. The projected total cost of new facilities was around a billion dollars, and although city taxpayers would not foot the whole bill, cost overruns that occur on so many City projects would ensure that taxpayers are still saddled with a large contribution.

Street's willingness to spend vast sums caught the eye of the municipal unions, the state (which has twice granted additional aid to the insolvent School District of Philadelphia) and parents of the district's children. If the Mayor can find money to pay for stadiums, their reasoning goes, he'd better have taken care of real needs first. Other problems with Street's stadium proposal, such as the proposed site in Chinatown, and uncertainty over the need for new stadiums, have rankled many Philadelphians.

Aside from these issues, the Mayor must quickly decide upon a course of action following the unsightly arrest of Thomas Jones, which by itself could "Welcome America" to a city with a tarnished image ruinous to its attempts to host future conventions. He must also ensure that protests -- which are sure to occur during the Convention -- don't rock the Casbah too much before a national audience.

If the Mayor is thinking responsibly, he will also recognize that less immediate issues, like the slow-but-steady loss of dissatisfied taxpayers from the city, are also being exacerbated by immediate problems and need to be handled.

The obstacles to Street's success are many, but can be overcome, if not completely, than at least sufficiently to prevent him from having to flee to Switzerland.

The Mayor must reevaluate his position on stadium construction. He must more thoroughly evaluate public opinion on the subject, as it is questionable that anything near a majority of Philadelphians support stadium construction. He ought to put public pressure on the Phillies and Eagles to pay more, and reduce the City's contribution accordingly. This would improve Street's image, portraying him as putting pressure on moneyed interests rather than squeezing unions representing "the little guy."

He must demonstrate a willingness not to build the stadiums for the teams but to make them realize he means business, and recognize that any threat by the teams to go elsewhere can be viewed as lacking credibility or potency. Philadelphia is such a large market that it will continue to have profitable sports franchises, be they the Phillies and Eagles, or some others, as long as the city remains the heart of a large metropolitan area. Street would be wise, also, to reevaluate his choice of a site for the Phillies stadium -- there seem infinitely fewer reasons not to build in South Philly than in Chinatown. Hopefully, the money saved by either contributing less or not buying the stadiums will be present to either sweeten unsettled contracts or to shore up the school system. To do these things will require something like an admission from the Mayor that his plans thus far haven't been good, but would only show that he possesses the necessary flexibility to hold high office.

Issues with the police handling of the Jones arrest must be resolved somehow before the convention. The Mayor must either support the police publicly, or see that a few of those involved are fired. It's a lose-lose situation, because a costly lawsuit can be expected, and the Mayor will be criticized no matter how he acts. Although the propriety of the police action seems debatable, the safest course for Street seems to be to fire a few officers, showing that the Police Department is held accountable for its actions and also demonstrating support for his backers among the black community.

Furthermore, it will lend credibility to a department that is about to perform the difficult task of handling Convention demonstrations.

Problems such as migration from the city and an indebted school system are larger than the Mayor can be expected to effectively combat without help from outside entities. But the more immediate problems he faces can be handled. They must be if Street is ever to prove to Philadelphians that he is worthy of their votes, and if Philadelphia is to show the world that it can at least smell nice.

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