Friday reports on City Council

• Philadelphia voters may get the chance to speak their minds on the relative value that they place on safety versus privacy, if Councilman Darrell Clarke succeeds in putting the question of surveillance cameras to a referendum.

  "This is something, given the sensitive nature, that I know personally I would want the citizens to ask for it ... as opposed to us imposing this 'Big Brother' atmosphere," Clarke said.

  Can Big Brother really cut down on murder rates, when so much of it is already happening indoors and/or between acquaintances? Will cameras do more than shift crime from one area to another? Will desperate neighborhoods grasp at any straw?
  
  
• A short Inquirer piece notes that while Harrisburg is considering restrictions on lobbying (see here), similar requirements for Philadelphia have been left at a standstill after David Cohen's death.
  
  
• Apparently discussions of Mayor Street's budget led to a flurry of votes in City Council yesterday, including provisions to add more police officers (which the DN dubbed an "alternate Safer Streets"), provide better funding to Community College of Phila, and hold hearings on the city pension fund. Three other bills had to do with traffic issues mentioned here previously (right-turns on Chestnut, ticketing for expired registration stickers, and statistics from red-light cameras).
  
  
• Mayoral hopeful Tom Knox criticized Councilman Michael Nutter for claiming the high ground on fundraising while side-stepping the requirement that he quit his current job in order to run for mayor. [This link also includes smaller stories about Lynn Swann, Betty Friedan, and an assortment of other notables.]