Speaking at the Wyndham Franklin Plaza Hotel at a candidates forum before about 200 representatives of the hotel, restaurant, bar and retail industries, Katz said the city could not sit passively while the Phillies and residents of the affected neighborhood fight.

The Phillies want to build a ballpark near Broad and Spring Garden Streets, but neighborhood groups stand in the way.

Katz told the tourism leaders that while he favored a downtown site, he wouldn't commit to building "a ballpark in a neighborhood that doesn't want it." However, Katz suggested that with himself as mayor, the city might be able to work out a solution to the neighborhood's objections.

He also said that possible sites at 30th Street and other downtown locations were worth considering.

John F. Street, the Democratic mayoral candidate, did not appear at the forum because of other commitments. He sent City Controller Jonathan Saidel to make his apologies.

Katz told the tourism leaders that he wanted Philadelphia to become "the world-class European-style city on the East Coast."

He lavished praise on Mayor Rendell, who has made tourism the centerpiece of his economic-development plans. Katz said it was essential for the next administration to capitalize on the tremendous progress made by the Rendell administration in developing the city's tourism industry.

Katz said that his tourism plans included speeding up work on the planned regional arts center and expanding the Convention Center to make it more competitive with convention facilities in Chicago, Atlanta and similar cities.

"We need to make sure we have the meeting space," he said.

Responding to a question from the audience about parking, Katz said that efforts had to be made to expand availability and control prices. He said that the city needed to clean up the patronage haven that the Philadelphia Parking Authority has become under successive mayors.

Katz also said that an effort had to be made to curb meter feeding, which prevents turnover in retail districts, and that the city should look at creating satellite lots served by shuttles that would carry people from distant parking lots into the downtown area.

Katz said that the status of the city-owned lots must also be looked into in order to keep down the costs of private parking lots in the downtown area.

The Republican candidate reminded the bar owners in the audience that Street, while City Council president in 1994, pushed through the city's 10 percent bar tax.

Responding to a bar owner's question, Katz said that the bar tax had been collected in an unfair and inconsistent way. He said that he couldn't promise to repeal it because the school district needs the $20 million in annual revenue that it generates, but said he would try to make its enforcement uniform and fair. Katz said that such measures might permit a reduction in the tax rate while leaving the school district with the same amount of revenue.

Katz's stand on the bar tax did not win over all the bar owners. Sometimes party loyalty is thicker than beer.

One bar owner, who identified himself as a Democrat, asked Katz to do something about the "killer tax." However, the man also told Katz that regardless of what Katz might promise to do about the bar tax he would still vote for Street.

"Let me understand this," said a bemused Katz. "You're a Democrat and you're complaining about a tax that my opponent put in place, and you're going to vote for him anyway?"

"That's exactly right," the bar owner said.

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