Marty: Do you own a gun?
Bob Brady: Yes. Do you know why I have a gun? I have children and grandchildren.
JONATHAN VALANIA REPORTS: Bob Brady would be the perfect mayor for this city — if it were 1945. Big, beefy, with 
hands the size of Easter hams, grandfatherly in a Sopranos-esque kind of way, he is the prototypical loveable ‘Big Lug’ and as Philly as an old soft pretzel. Marty just asked him his prime motivation for wanting to be mayor: “We have to be safe as a city.” Solution: bring back beat cops. A return to the days when Officer Krupke could keep the peace with just his night stick and his loveable brogue. Again, perfect for 1945. Anybody who is not addressing the conditions that precipitate crime is not serious about reducing it. Fighting crime after it has already happened is too late. He also seems to have no real understanding of Stop Snitchin’ culture and minus that — in a city that is half black and half white — nothing he says about reducing crime sounds credible. Brady is the ultimate political fixer and smoky backroom deal-maker who just happens to be running for mayor at a time when the electorate is in the market for a smoke-free front room deal-maker.
His vision for Philadelphia: a mother safely walking her child to school where that child gets a good education, and the father works a family-sustaining job, and they all live in a nice, affordable house on a safe block. That goes without saying, of course, but I want a mayor with bigger dreams. Admittedly, my own plan to move the city to the Internet where we will all live happily ever after in a giant shoe still has a few kinks in it — so who am I to judge? Say ‘Cheese,’ Mr. Brady. Thanks for playin’. And good luck to you, Sir.