Race disparity is black and white at Philly's polls

The voting pattern has been around for decades.
PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- It was as if two Philadelphias went to the polls Tuesday, one black and one white.
Just as he did four years ago, Mayor John Street, a black Democrat, romped in black neighborhoods, while white Republican businessman Sam Katz put up commanding leads in the city's white sections.
The numbers followed a pattern that has existed for decades in the City of Brotherly Love.
"This is a polarized city, maybe more so than anywhere else," said David Bositis, an analyst with the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies in Washington. "You have an even division of blacks and whites in Philadelphia, and a history of divisive campaigns."
Breakdowns
In 24 predominantly black wards, Street took between 92 and 98 percent of the vote. He collected at least 75 percent in another 10 predominantly black wards. In those 34 wards he collected 170,000 votes to Katz's 17,000.
Katz won at least 80 percent of the vote in nine predominantly white wards, and at least 65 percent in 10 others. The candidates came within 30 percentage points of each other in only 10 of the city's 66 wards.
And yet, Street may have come the closest yet to persuading white Philadelphians to pick a black man for mayor.
Chunk of white votes
He won with 58 percent of the vote -- the biggest chunk a black mayor has had here yet -- and in many white wards he got as much as a third of the vote.
Street nearly squeezed out a victory in Chestnut Hill, one of the city's wealthiest, and whitest, neighborhoods. There, he got 44 percent, compared with 34 percent in 1999. Some neighborhoods known for having white Democrats defect to the Republican side when their party put a black candidate on the ballot seemed to see fewer switches this time.
The tallies prompted Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell, the city's former mayor, to declare that Philadelphia was "making progress" toward closing its racial gap.
Much has changed, he said, since the racially charged showdowns between two-term Mayor Frank Rizzo and the city's first black mayor, Wilson Goode.
Bositis agreed.
Some progress
"For Philadelphia, a black mayor getting 30 percent of the white vote is a big deal," he said. "This would be considered a step toward less racial polarization in Philadelphia."
Street said he was heartened by his performance in white neighborhoods.