Philadelphia’s next leaders will inherit a divided city at an inflection point in its history

Gayle Keys walked into her Germantown polling place last week still unsure about her pick for the next mayor of Philadelphia.

The longtime resident said gun violence is so persistent that she constantly fears that one of her grandsons could be caught in the crossfire. And she wasn’t convinced that any of the nine Democrats running for mayor could turn the city around.

“This is the worst I’ve ever seen it,” she said.

This is the mood of a city that feels as if it’s at an inflection point in its long history — residents across the cradle of American democracy are concerned about crime, education, and their families’ futures, and they don’t have a lot of confidence City Hall can make a meaningful difference.

And it’s the city the next elected leaders will inherit in January. The next mayor is expected to be Democrat Cherelle Parker, the former City Council member nominated Tuesday, who is heavily favored to win the general election, given that Democrats outnumber Republicans more than 7-1.

She’d replace Mayor Jim Kenney — who many see as checked out and who has said he’s eager for his second term to end — and would be joined by a new City Council president and a slate of new Council members.

Their challenge will be to restore some morale to Philadelphia, a city awash in guns that has seen more than 1,000 people killed over two years. It’s a city where a half-dozen schools closed due to toxic hazards this spring, a city with one of the largest uncontrolled drug markets on the East Coast, a city that lost 25,000 residents coming out of a pandemic that disproportionately affected communities of color.

And myriad issues remain.

Although the city’s finances are in a strong position, an economic downturn could come just as federal recovery dollars dry up. Poverty is persistently high, and nearly half of residents are burdened by the cost of housing.

» READ MORE: ‘Dismal’: Philadelphians are down on their city, a new poll shows

The new leaders will also be expected to unify in a deeply divided environment. In a city of 1.6 million, Parker won the hotly contested primary with fewer than 85,000 votes. The only Black candidate among the top five contenders, she won with a plurality of Black and Latino voters while whiter precincts generally voted for other candidates.

And although Parker ran with a message of hiring more officers and embracing tougher policing, the city is still in many ways split on how to best tackle public safety. She’ll have to work with progressive District Attorney Larry Krasner, whom Harrisburg Republicans recently impeached and whose politics are generally more aligned with some of Parker’s defeated opponents.

Parker acknowledged in an interview Wednesday that she has work to do.

“Philadelphia is yearning to be unified,” she said, “and I’m proud to be the person who has an opportunity to do such.”

Councilmember Isaiah Thomas, a first-term Democrat running for reelection who was the top vote-getter in the at-large primary this week, said one of Parker’s greatest strengths is that she can “make people feel like everything is going to be OK.”

“Her oratorical skills and ability to move people emotionally is underrated, but very important when you look at the morale in the city right now,” Thomas said. “She’s the coach that has the ability to inspire.”

Public safety is by far the No. 1 issue Philadelphians want the next mayor to tackle, and many say that controlling crime will have a ripple effect on morale, job growth, and business expansion.

Senzwa Ntshepe, president and CEO of The Connect, a network that aims to attract and retain Black and brown professionals, said even Philadelphians like him who spent most of their lives in the city see safer, more economically viable environments elsewhere and flee for other cities.

He said new leadership could represent a turning point.

“The national brand is ‘the poorest large city in America,’” he said, “but we do have a strategic opportunity to really change the narrative.”

Parker — who dominated in neighborhoods most affected by shootings — centered her public safety plan on hiring 300 new police officers to patrol neighborhoods on bike and foot, a proposal that comes as the department is already understaffed by hundreds of officers, has for two years struggled to recruit, and is still in the midst of an exodus of retiring cops.

» READ MORE: The voters who propelled Cherelle Parker to victory

It also hinges on a handful of quality-of-life improvements, including bolstering the city’s network of security cameras, fixing thousands of broken streetlights, and increased funding for cleaning commercial corridors.

On the campaign trail, she said city dollars alone would not be enough to accomplish her public safety agenda and said she’d leverage her relationships in Harrisburg, where she served for a decade as a state representative. Parker was endorsed by a handful of top Democrats in the state capitol, and she may find more receptive partners than her predecessor, given Democrats for the first time in more than a decade control the state House.

But a partnership with Harrisburg takes work, said former Mayor Ed Rendell, who navigated the city through fiscal crisis and went on to become Pennsylvania governor.

Rendell recalled that he said in his inaugural address that he would not look to Harrisburg to bail out city officials until they cut as much waste as they could from the budget.

“She’s not going to come crying to Harrisburg for everything the city needs,” said Rendell, who endorsed one of Parker’s rivals for mayor. “She’ll come to Harrisburg when we’ve done everything we can. That’ll build a solid relationship.”

Parker spent the better part of a decade in City Council and was the Democratic majority leader last year when she resigned to run for mayor. She’ll need the legislative branch if she wants to usher through her agenda.

But a working relationship is not a given. The last three mayors were also former City Council members, and each clashed with the legislative branch at times. Former Mayor Michael A. Nutter’s relationship with Council deteriorated to the point where he couldn’t get a single member to introduce a signature piece of legislation that would have privatized the city gas utility.

While Parker has preexisting relationships with most members of Council, she’ll be dealing with a body that looks very different from when she left it. Six members resigned to run for mayor, and City Council President Darrell L. Clarke is retiring at the end of the year.

The biggest open question is who will replace him. At least three members — Curtis Jones Jr., Mark Squilla, and Kenyatta Johnson — are angling for the job. Thomas is also expected to seek a leadership role.

It’s still unclear how at least three seats will shake out in the November general election. Longtime incumbent Councilmember Brian O’Neill, a Republican, is in a tough reelection fight in Northeast Philadelphia against Democrat Gary Masino. And Republicans will battle the liberal Working Families Party for the two at-large Council seats reserved for minor-party members.

» READ MORE: The Working Families Party is gearing up to try to oust the few Republicans left in Philadelphia government

Nina Ahmad, a Democratic nominee for one of five at-large seats on Council, said she looks forward to working with Parker to improve economic stability and build the city’s middle class.

But she said while Parker campaigned with a tough-on-crime message, she hopes the next mayor focuses on the intersection of mental health and gun violence, and works to improve accountability in targeted crime-fighting programs.

”We can’t put our neighborhoods at risk while we are making our city better,” Ahmad said.

City Councilmember Anthony Phillips, who last year succeeded Parker to represent the city’s 9th District, said he understands why residents think that the city is heading in the wrong direction, saying, “They haven’t seen a level of collectivity around what exactly is our plan to address violence and education and quality of life.”

He said that will change.

“What we’re bringing on City Council this year is not only this newfound energy,” he said, “but this idea that we’re going to be in neighborhoods and work collectively to solve these issues.”

Staff writers Sean Collins Walsh, Max Marin, Gillian McGoldrick, and Ximena Conde contributed to this article.