Rebecca Rhynhart: Unanswered questions

Well, this is not how I wanted my interview with Rebecca Rhynhart to go.

Along with other candidates, I contacted her more than a month ago to sit down for an interview.

Rebecca Rhynhart: Missing in action (Photo: NBC10)

She agreed and turned it over to staff to arrange.

Many weeks passed, I pushed a little and they agreed to an interview on Monday, May 1, but canceled the night before, promising to reschedule.

I told her communications person the interview kind of had to be done before the primary. It didn’t happen. Snub? Sloppy staff work?

I don’t know and I’m out of time.

Since I can’t ask Rebecca the questions face to face, I’ll do it here. You can listen in to the Qs without the As.

For openers, if you weren’t running for mayor, who would you vote for?

Yes, yes, I know it is a hypothetical, but so are all of your plans for governing, for fiscal sanity, for public safety, and so on.

Leaders must be brave. Please answer the question.

On more than one occasion, you have mentioned “‘built-in racism’ in the city system.”

Where is the “built-in racism” in the system and how do we get rid of it?

You have been endorsed by mayors Michael Nutter, John Street, and Ed Rendell. Do you hold them accountable for not getting rid of the “built-in racism?”

You said stop and frisk is unnecessary and racist. Michael Nutter employed it. Is he racist?

You said sending Philly’s trash to Chester is environmental racism. Where would you send Philly’s trash? 

Chester’s City Council authorized the trash plant. Is Chester’s City Council racist?

Do you have pets? If so, what kind?

Where does your daughter, Julia, go to school?

Do you support charter schools? Why? 

You are thought to split the reformer/progressive vote with Helen Gym, while Allan Domb and Jeff Brown split the moderate white man vote. What is your path to victory?

While several candidates are bunched at the top, according to polls, most put you in first place. How does that make you feel? Confident? Nervous?

Your 2022 study of the police department found serious deficiencies. Why would you not replace Commissioner Danielle Outlaw?

Does D.A. Larry Krasner hurt public safety?

What is your gun plan, in 25 words or less?

Leaders have to make decisions, but you have dodged taking a position on so-called safe injection sites and the proposal by the Sixers to relocate to Chinatown. The election is less than a week away. Yes or no?

What do you do to relax, when you are not running for mayor?

Given what has happened in New York, Washington, and Chicago, would you retain Philadelphia’s status as a Sanctuary City, and, if yes, if Texas sent 5,000 migrants here, where would you find the money to  support them?

Have you had a life-changing experience, not counting this interview?

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This is the last in a series. Cherelle Parker did not respond to invitations to be interviewed; Amen Brown agreed but never chose a date. Interviews with other candidates can be found on Stubykofsky.com