In Issue 8 a few weeks ago, I talked about the historic nature of Pa.’s statewide judicial elections taking place on Nov. 7. I failed to mention that one of the most important elections in the history of Pennsylvania was taking place in the City of Brotherly Love: the election of Philadelphia’s 100^th Mayor. The mayoral race saw Republican David Oh take on Democrat Cherelle Parker. There was no question who would win the election on Tuesday night, with Parker winning 73% of the votes cast in the heavily Democratic county. 

Philadelphia hasn’t elected a Republican Mayor since the 1947 election of Mayor Samuel. Parker is not only the first Black woman but also the first woman to hold the office and has promised a significant shift away from the current administration under Democratic Mayor Jim Kenney. Parker grew up under her grandparents’ care in Philadelphia and attended public school before becoming a first-generation college student at Lincoln University. She earned a degree in education at Lincoln and went on to teach English as a Second Language to immigrants while pursuing a master’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania. In 2005, Parker was the youngest Black woman elected to the Pa. House of Representatives. During her tenure, she chaired the city’s state delegation and encouraged public policy focusing on quality of life for the working class, seniors, women, children and families. Since 2015, Parker has served on the Philadelphia City Council and earlier this year won a deeply divided primary with 32% of the vote. Parker has promised to tackle the city’s gun violence issue and speed up the city’s transition towards clean and green energy.

Since the city’s founding in the 1630s by Swedish colonists, Philadelphia has been an East Coast beacon of trade and opportunity for working-class immigrants. By 1950, there were over two million people living in Philadelphia County. In the latter half of the 20^th century, deindustrialization and white flight to the suburbs saw the population of the city decline by 26 percent. Similar to other cities in the north during the 1960s and 1970s, inner-city Philadelphia became an increasingly impoverished Black and Brown community. Mayors throughout this period made empty promises to reduce crime, violence, drug use and other ills continuing to plague the city. By the 1980s, things had started to change as Mayor Wilson Goode and subsequent Mayor (and future governor) Ed Rendell encouraged the gentrification of inner-city Philadelphia. 

Eventually, the traditionally Black and Brown neighborhoods in the western sections of the city were bulldozed into new properties designed to attract an upscale crowd of younger white people. Mayor Street continued the work of former mayors Goode and Rendell into the 21^st century. Violent crime has been on the rise since the 2000s. What began as warring mafia factions in the 1970s and ‘80s has morphed into gang clashes today. Former mayors Nutter and Kenney continued to fight against a rise in the city’s murder rate and the spread of drugs. Both failed to see significant results as Mayor Kenney’s reforms targeting obesity and drug use were not supported by state politicians. 

Since the year began, there have been 1,164 non-fatal shootings and 361 murders in the city. Philadelphia is once again ready for change under new leadership. Cherelle Parker’s election as Philadelphia’s 100^th Mayor is truly groundbreaking and her administration may bring a breath of fresh air and deliver equitable change to a city that desperately seeks it.