New Chester mayor has upbeat vision

Touring the worn gymnasium at the New Beginnings Academy, Chester Mayor John Linder caught a basketball tossed to him by one of the children there for Martin Luther King's Birthday cleanup activities. He took a shot.

The ball bounced off the rim as a long "awww"; came from the crowd. Undeterred, the city's newest chief executive signaled for another pass.

"I'm feeling it," he said. "I'm feeling it."

This time, Linder stepped back, brought his arms up, and flicked his wrist on the release. The ball sailed toward the hoop and hit - nothing but air.

It wasn't even close.

"I was on the floor, that's what counts," said Linder, who was sworn in as mayor Jan. 3. "You have to keep shooting, you can't get discouraged."

Being on the floor of the former St. James High School brought back memories for the 64-year-old Linder, who, though not a St. James student, played there as a youth.

Looking past the crumbling ceiling, faded paint, and worn floors, Linder recalled better days. It reminded him of "the mammoth job" he faces in a once-thriving city where more than one-third of the 34,000 residents now live in poverty.

The challenges are easy to list: an imploding school district; gun violence and murders; lack of jobs; and no grocery store.

Linder says he can see past the problems. He describes his hometown's future as a thriving city on the waterfront with a major-league soccer stadium and Harrah's Casino & Racetrack.

"Chester is an international city," he said. "We are on the map now."

A former city councilman, Linder defeated incumbent Republican Wendell Butler in November and gave Democrats control of the city for only the second time in more than a century.

Born in Chester, Linder attended Kutztown University and Widener University. He worked at Crozer-Chester Medical Center as a counselor before taking a job at Northern Virginia Community College in Alexandria. He worked there nine years before returning to the area in 1989. When he was elected mayor, Linder retired from Delaware County Community College, where he was a professor of social sciences.

Linder's short time in office has been a blur of events - meetings coupled with staff cuts and appointments, including that of Police Commissioner Joseph M. Bail. Top on his list for his staff is training to upgrade skills, he said.

Sitting at a table in his office last week, Linder pushed aside the rows of papers and readings set there by his aides. The change from councilman to mayor was a matter of settling into an adjoining office, but with "much more responsibility," he said.

Just a few weeks into office, Linder still sounds like a candidate making promises.

He hopes to make doing business in Chester easier and attract small businesses and, with them, jobs. He hopes to restore the crumbling DeShong Park and renovate the museum building there.

He wants a greater police presence on the streets to help deter crime. He plans on approaching developers Buccini/Pollin Group to ask about the status of a promised development near the stadium.

And he wants to see quality public education return to the city.

On Friday, legislators asked Gov. Corbett to declare the Chester Upland School District financially distressed. That decision would trigger a state takeover.

Linder's solution for the district's problems?

"Give it to me," the former educator said, leaning forward for emphasis.

Linder, one of the founders of the defunct Village Charter School in Chester, says he would like a meeting with the state's secretary of education to see what role the city can play in the struggling district.

"We can do education in this city," he said.

Linder is aware of the fear associated with the changing political landscape in the city. He says he is not just a Democrat but is "accountable to all the city."

Linder's main hope is to spend part of each day out of his corner office and out in the streets talking to residents.

"I have to do it," Linder said, as if making a promise to himself.