Philadelphia's 100th mayor marks her first 100 days in office with much fanfare

PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Mayor Cherelle Parker marked her 100th day in office, leading a large entourage of top officials out of City Hall in the early afternoon Thursday to the Market-Frankford Line to make a trip to Kensington for a two-hour press conference outlining her accomplishments so far.

Ever since Franklin Roosevelt passed record legislation in his first 100 days as president of the United States, elected officials have used that benchmark to measure their own performance. And perhaps no one has embraced the 100-day milestone more enthusiastically than Philadelphia’s 100th mayor.

Parker seemed in her element, en route to Conwell Middle Magnet School for her 100-day address, chatting up riders.

“You have a great team that seems to work,” said rider DeeDee Halliger

“Yeah, they work hard,” the mayor said.

“Teamwork is important,” said Hallinger.

The mayor agreed, and then she walked her team the six blocks from a spruced-up Kensington-Allegheny Station to the school — the site where she swore in Police Commissioner Kevin Bethel on the day of her inauguration.

“I look at things — and this is where Philly should know they have a mayor that’s pretty weird — I look at big problems and I see the fix. I see the end first. In my mind, I saw the commercial corridor that I want to see back there. Now that I’ve been able to see it, you walk backwards and you figure out every step you have to take to make it happen.”

That seems to be the process she used to come up with her 100-day plan . She and key cabinet members reviewed what they’ve been doing since Jan. 5 — and they all reported progress on each item.

Some items have been checked off completely, such as her emergency declaration on gun violence and splitting of the Department of Licenses and Inspections. Others are still in progress, such as getting more police officers on the street and making it easier to open a business in the city.

“None of it becomes a reality just because the mayor says so,” Parker said — but she pledged to keep the momentum going.

On the key issue of public safety, Bethel talked about new technology to build trust while decreasing crime.

“We will have cameras, both in our cars and our body-worn cameras,” he said. “We will have sensors on our handguns, so when our officers pull their guns, their body-worn cameras will automatically go on.”

Other officials covered clean and green initiatives, economic opportunity, education and housing.

Mayor Parker announced the news that sheriff sales will resume. And she said it was just the beginning.

“We are going to make good on our promise to give you a reason to hope and believe in government again.”