John Franklin Street is an American politician and lawyer who served as the 97th Mayor of the City of Philadelphia. He was first elected to a term beginning on January 3, 2000, and was re-elected to a second term beginning in 2004. He is a Democrat and became mayor after having served 19 years in the Philadelphia City Council, including seven years as its president, before resigning as required under the Philadelphia City Charter in order to run for mayor. He followed Ed Rendell as mayor, assuming the post on January 3, 2000. Street was Philadelphia's second black mayor.

Street was born in Norristown, Pennsylvania, and grew up as a member of a farming household. He graduated from Conshohocken High School, received a B.A. degree in English from Oakwood College in Huntsville, Alabama, and his J.D. degree from Temple University, which he had to apply to several times before he was accepted. Following his graduation from law school, Street served clerkships with Common Pleas Court Judge Mathew W. Bullock, Jr. and with the United States Department of Justice from which he was quickly terminated for poor performance. In his first professional job, Street taught English at an elementary school and, later, at the Philadelphia Opportunities Industrialization Center. He also practiced law privately prior to entering into public service. He is married and has four children. He is also a practicing Seventh-day Adventist. His brother, Milton, is a former member of the state legislature, and two-time mayoral candidate.

Inspired by his brother's successful election in 1978, Street made his initial foray into elected politics in 1979, when he challenged incumbent Fifth District Councilman Cecil B. Moore. Moore was a popular and respected civil rights leader in the city who was active within the NAACP, and Street's decision to challenge him drew the ire of some. Moore was, however, in failing health. He initially sought to see-off the challenge from Street, but died before the May primary. Street won the election, and quelled some of the tensions over his original challenge to Moore by sponsoring a bill to rename the former Columbia Avenue in Moore's honor.

Street was chosen unanimously by members of the Council to serve as President in 1992, after incumbent Joe Coleman retired, and was re-elected in 1996. Street, working closely with former Mayor Ed Rendell, was instrumental in crafting and implementing a financial plan that passed Council unanimously, and turned a $250 million deficit into the largest surplus in city history. Despite decreasing the business and wage tax four years in a row, Philadelphia still has the 10th largest tax burden in the United States. This is due to the financial burden to run the city's prisons, pay debt service, and employee pensions and health benefits.

Street was elected in one of the closest elections in Philadelphia history, defeating Republican Sam Katz by a margin of fewer than 7,500.

John Street's mayoral tenure ended on January 7, 2008. Upon leaving office, Street accepted an adjunct faculty position in the Temple University Department of Political Science. That spring, he taught two sections of a class on urban politics. Asked about his transition from public life to academia, the former mayor was quoted as saying, "You know what? I think I'm really going to like it here!"

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