PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — Cherelle Parker will be Philadelphia’s 100th mayor and the first woman to lead the city. Parker won the city’s mayoral general election, CBS News projects Tuesday night.
Parker ran against Republican David Oh, her former colleague on Philadelphia City Council.
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The mayor-elect emerged from a deep Democratic primary field in May to secure her spot as her party’s nominee.
In an interview with CBS News Philadelphia’s Ukee Washington last week, Parker said she aims to make Philly the “safest, cleanest, greenest” big city in the nation. She also said she wants to implement a “comprehensive neighborhood safety community policing plan” she championed on city council.
Parker said the plan calls for more police officers on the streets of Philadelphia with a focus on community policing. She stressed the plan would call for zero tolerance for misuse and abuse of authority, and that body cameras will be an essential part of the plan.
Hiring a new police commissioner will be atop Parker’s to-do list as mayor after Danielle Outlaw resigned in September to take a job with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. John Stanford, Jr. is currently acting as interim police commissioner.
Parker told CBS Philadelphia that she’s looking both nationally and locally for a new top cop for the city. She said she wants someone who has experience with the Philadelphia Police Department — either current or past.
“Whomever that future commissioner will be, he or she will share my vision and we have to have chemistry and trust,” Parker said last week, “and I have to know that they will not be afraid, Ukee, of leading in the area of public safety.”
Parker opposes proposed safe injection sites as a strategy to fight the opioid epidemic and open-air drug market of Kensington. She said her plan would call for an intergovernmental approach with aggressive tactics and mentioned the National Guard being called in to assist as one possibility.
As for the proposed Sixers arena, 76 Place, in Center City, Parker is undecided. She said she needs to first see the results of independent studies on economic and community impact, which have been commissioned by the city, before making a decision.
Parker has spent 17 years in government, serving as a Pennsylvania state representative and a Philadelphia city council member. She resigned from city council in September 2022 to run for mayor.
She went to Philadelphia public schools and was raised by her grandparents, and she became the first person in her family to go to college.
Parker will take office in January 2024, when Mayor Jim Kenney’s second term expires.
