Mayor Cherelle Parker marks the end of her first year in office with Philly’s first ‘State of the City’ speech at Temple

Mayor Cherelle L. Parker on Friday took the Broad Street Line from City Hall to Temple University’s Performing Arts Center to cap off her first year in office by delivering Philadelphia’s first “State of the City” address.

It’s easy to see why the mayor is taking a victory lap. Crime is down. The city has launched new, highly visible programs aimed at improving public cleanliness. And on Thursday, Parker secured a major legislative victory when City Council approved the 76ers’ proposal to build a new arena in Center City.

“My message here on today is one about the progress that we’ve made in the Parker administration during year one,” the mayor said to a crowd of several hundred, most of whom were city officials. “We are literally starting to show results for the people of Philadelphia.”

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Still, some of the most challenging issues Parker has promised to tackle, especially ending the open-air drug market in Kensington, remain unresolved. In her speech, Parker announced that the first phase of the Riverview Wellness Village drug treatment center — a high-profile part of the administration’s plan for housing people using drugs in Kensington — would open early in the new year. Parker said she plans to hold her first cabinet meeting of 2025 at the facility, which sits next to the city’s State Road jail complex.

During the address, Parker paused several times to recognize people working on initiatives she was highlighting: two correctional officers who were part of a recent cadet class the mayor hopes will help stabilize the scandal-plagued and understaffed jails; two students at City College of Municipal Employment, a training program Parker launched with Community College of Philadelphia to train prospective city employees; and two people involved in Taking Care of Business, a commercial corridor cleaning program championed by the mayor.

Here are three takeaways from Parker’s speech and her trip to North Philly.

Parker said she took SEPTA to the event “so we get a chance to do what Philadelphians do every day, not forget about what it’s like to traverse the city just like the average citizen.”

On the subway, Parker sat next to a retired teacher who Parker said took the opportunity to lobby the mayor on more arts and culture funding.

“She said, ‘Don’t forget that the arts are a way to teach [creative thinking]. People in the arts and culture and the creative economy — they don’t mind taking risk,’” Parker recounted.

Parker asked the woman if she noticed any changes since the mayor took office in January.

“She said, ‘Yeah, we’ve see some positive improvements.’ I said, ‘OK, like what?’” Parker said. “And she says, ‘The city is definitely cleaner.’”

During her historic mayoral campaign, Parker assumed a tough-on-crime message. As it happened, gun violence started falling before she took office, as the pandemic crime wave began to abate.

On Friday, Parker noted that while gun violence has fallen in big cities across the country, one study found that it has fallen most quickly in Philadelphia.

Still, she said, public safety remains the administration’s top priority.

“Homicides are down 37% compared with one year ago, and shootings are down 36%,” Parker said. “But let me be clear. ... It is not enough. The numbers don’t mean a damn thing if you are a friend or a relative of someone who has been immediately impacted by violence.”

Parker credited her administration’s “PIE” strategy — prevention, intervention, enforcement — and Council’s community-based antiviolence organizations with Philly’s success in fighting crime.

Parker’s campaign slogan — that she will make Philadelphia “the safest, cleanest, greenest big city with access to economic opportunity for all” — has become her administration’s mission statement, and the mayor repeats it in nearly every public appearance.

» READ MORE: Mayor Cherelle L. Parker launches a new website to show the city’s progress on her campaign promises

So it was fitting that the phrase was projected onto a large screen behind the mayor as she began a speech in which she provided status updates on many of her campaign promises, some of which include:

Staff writer Anna Orso contributed to this article.