Philly’s next mayor shouldn’t take the summer off

Under normal circumstances, I’d applaud Cherelle Parker for not prematurely inserting herself into mayoral matters as the Democratic nominee in a mostly Democratic city that all but guarantees the job is hers.

“The city has one mayor at a time,” Parker, who has mostly stayed out of the spotlight since winning the Democratic primary for mayor two months ago, said in written responses to questions from The Inquirer.

It sounds like an appropriate and — let’s be honest — politically safe move, right? Let the current guy finish out his time, sage the bad juju out of the office, and start fresh.

But things haven’t been normal in Philadelphia for a while now, and they only got worse after Mayor Jim Kenney effectively quit on the city after a shooting 13 months ago.

As convenient of a punching bag as Kenney’s made himself, this isn’t about him. Despite sometimes coming down hard on Kenney, I truly hope he finds the peace he yearned for while being mayor in these unprecedented times. Godspeed, God bless, and all that.

Now’s the time for us to talk about Philadelphia’s future. What the city needs in its next leader is someone who understands that old rules of political politesse don’t apply, not in a city where many residents feel like they’ve long been left to fend for themselves.

Parker has reportedly taken meetings with stakeholders and lawmakers, including the governor.

She’s also said she’s getting her own house in order before campaigning starts up again in the fall for the November general election. I get that; I can barely write a column if my house is a mess. Parker deserves to have some quality summer time with her 10-year-old son, Langston, before taking on a job that should be 24/7.

“I remind people daily, I am not the mayor-elect,” she told The Inquirer. “I am the Democratic nominee for the mayor of Philadelphia and still have to win a general election in November.”

Fair enough. But I’ll remind her and Republican candidate David Oh that no one vying to lead Philadelphia should be standing on the sidelines waiting for their official start date. It’s bad enough that most of the candidates fighting for the Democratic nomination all but disappeared after they lost.

Remember how ride-or-die they were for Philly during the campaign? How they purported to care about nothing more than this city and its residents? They were not, they insisted, just in it to win it.

It’s a bad look for everyone because it reeks of performative allegiance. And because there are plenty of opportunities for our city’s so-called leaders to show residents — who also happen to be voters — that they aren’t just in it for the juice.

Like when, for instance, the city experienced a mass shooting in Kingsessing that claimed the lives of five people — yet another in the litany of shootings that occur all over the city — 1,070 so far this year, as of Tuesday — each and every day.

Or when a 2-year-old was fatally shot by her 14-year-old cousin with an unsecured firearm, and her grandmother was charged in her death.

Instead, our city continues to be affected by endless examples of reckless disregard by city officials — from the Sheriff’s Office to the Department of Licenses and Inspections to every single department responsible for the Greyhound bus station disaster playing out on the 600 block of Market Street every day.

Philadelphians deserve to hear clearly and consistently from the people who claim that they are willing to put in the hard work to lead this city — anything less and it sounds and feels like they’re only interested in caring when election time rolls around again.

Jamal Johnson, a neighborhood activist from Germantown, can best be described as an equal opportunity thorn in the sides of both politicians and those fellow Philadelphians who he thinks aren’t stepping up the way they should for their city.

Lately, Johnson’s been asking just where Parker and Oh have been since the primary. And mostly, he’s been met with silence, from the mayoral candidates and from those who voted for them.

“No one is asking them to make policy right now,” Johnson said. “What I’m asking them is to show they care, whether they’re mayor or not.”

Johnson’s not impressed with Parker’s hands-off approach, given she’s likely to be Philadelphia’s next mayor.

And he shouldn’t be. None of us should. Because if we continue to accept silence from those who claim to want to lead our city, we also shouldn’t expect anything to change come January except maybe the name on the door of the Mayor’s Office.