Mayor Cherelle Parker delivers first budget address with focus on safety, city facelift
PHILADELPHIA - Philadelphia is three months into its next chapter and Mayor Cherelle Parker rolled out her first budget for the city Wednesday. It hits hard at two key campaign initiatives – keeping Philadelphians safe and going green.
The first budget message for Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker had the feel of a welcome home party for an old friend. Parker arriving in council chambers just before 11 Thursday morning, said, "It sure feels good to be back home."
Parker, a former City Council member, offered a $6.2 billion budget focusing on the issues she campaigned on: a safer city that’s clean and green. Parker told the body her budget has no new taxes.
But it does have $33 million for law enforcement for new police radios, cell phones, drones, and a push toward a modern forensics lab, with last week’s gun violence in mind. Parker said, "The events of last week underscore the urgency that I feel to restore a sense of order and public safety in our city."
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Parker pledged once again to clean up Kensington as she awaits her police commissioner’s plan to do just that, but without handing out clean needles to drug users.
Parker will pour $36 million into her clean and green plan to tidy up business corridors, seal vacant properties and clear rotting vehicles. The mayor said, "With the Parking Authority on our side, we’re going to tow more than 10,000 abandoned vehicles in the coming year."
She’ll spend $250 million to pave streets, build 30,000 new units of affordable housing and develop full-year schooling.
But crime comes first. Police Commissioner Kevin Bethel was asked if the budget would help deter the gun violence seen over the last week in Philadelphia. He said, "It does in the sense of new technology being able to increase the technology our detectives can use."
City Council will now pick through Parker’s plan with an eye toward its priorities. For now, the new mayor says they’re all one as she held up her finger and asked City Council to repeat her refrain, "Let me hear you say one Philly, a united city."