Amtrak hires Phila. deputy mayor as station planner

[CHamilton]

Amtrak taps Philadelphia Deputy Mayor Cutler for high-ranking role

Philadelphia's Deputy Mayor for Transportation and Utilities Rina Cutler plans to leave her post with the city to become senior director for major station planning and development at Amtrak, Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter announced late last week.

In her new role, Cutler will advance master plans for Amtrak's largest stations across the United States, according to a statement issued by Nutter's office.

 

[Ryan]

How'd she do in Philly?

 

[Bob Dylan]

At least they didn't hire the Deputy Mayor of Washington or someone from WAMTA!!!

Hopefully she's competent and not another political hack that is using politicalconnections to move up to WAS!

Edited to reflect Bills post: sounds like she's competent which is good for Amtrak, and as he said, all political appointees need new jobs when the office holder they work for is leaving office!

 

[wolfspirit]

How'd she do in Philly?

Don't remember any major hullabaloo about her, so probably not horribly corrupt.

SEPTA is one of the biggest jokes in public transit, but I'm pretty sure they are their own special snowflake,and city transit division at least tries to keep it limited to one layer of graffiti at a time.

 

[Bus Nut]

Yeah, don't confuse a city transportation department with a regional transit authority like SEPTA. "Authority" is in the name, identifying it as a separate political entity. However, where Washington is concerned it's possible that Ddot (DC Dept of Transportation) is more incompetent on transit matters than WMATA, and that is saying something. The USDOT just mothballed Ddot's streetcars until further notice.

I don't know how you go from vice mayor to station design guru. I'm jealous!

ps: it's kind of rough to throw out a term like "affirmative action hire" when women and people of color disproportionately rely on public transit in the United States ... people with disabilities do as well ... and people of color are disproportionately represented among first line transit workers--so why shouldn't women and people of color be in transit management as well? Kind of callous to only draw managers from a pool of people--white able-bodied males--who are the least likely in the country not to drive a personal car. JMHO.

 

[PRR 60]

She was kind of an intermediary between the mayor and several departments - streets, water, airport, among others. At one time the head of each of those departments reported directly to the mayor, but at some point they decided to cut down the number of direct reports and established several deputy mayor positions with each overseeing several departments.

By all accounts, she did a nice job. The streets side of the Streets Department (as opposed to the trash collection side), the Water Department, and (lately) the airport seem well run and professional. The airport in particular has improved tremendously over the last 10-15 years from what prior to that was an embarrassment. She was involved during that period, so all she has to get some of the props.

Mayor Nutter is in his last few months in office. It's time for competent people in his administration to find another job. A planning exec at Amtrak is not a bad landing spot.