Mayor Kenney’s lament | Editorial

Frustrated and beaten down, Mayor Jim Kenney quit on the city of Philadelphia late Monday night.

After yet another shooting — this time involving two police officers shot during the July Fourth celebration on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway — Kenney, in a moment of candor, said: “I’ll be happy when I’m not here — when I’m not mayor, and I can enjoy some stuff.”

A reporter followed up, asking: “You’re looking forward to not being mayor?”

Kenney added: “Yeah, as a matter of fact.”

After much blowback from taxpayers and other elected officials calling for Kenney to resign, the mayor walked back his comments in a lengthy statement (likely crafted by his communications team) that read, in part: “In a late-night, overwhelming moment of frustration, I said I was looking forward to no longer being mayor. Let me be clear, I’m incredibly grateful to be mayor of this great city and for the people who elected me to lead.”

Kenney’s clarification echoed a line from “Too Long in the Wasteland” by singer James McMurtry: “So I didn’t mean to say it, but I meant what I said.”

» READ MORE: After police are shot, Philly mayor says he’ll ‘be happy’ when he’s not mayor anymore

Indeed, Kenney’s initial comments confirmed what others have been speculating about for some time: The mayor appears to have checked out.

Last month, after a deadly mass shooting on a Saturday night on South Street, Kenney didn’t appear in public until Tuesday. He was in Reno, Nev., at the time of the shooting, attending a mayor’s conference, and did not rush home. Once back in Philly, Kenney defended the city’s response to the explosion in daily shootings and a record rise in murders by saying the city is “doing everything it can.”

That’s not what residents — contending with the pandemic, an opioid epidemic, gun violence, civil unrest, rising inequality, a dearth of affordable housing, soaring property taxes, and the ongoing struggles of public schools — want to hear from a mayor making $218,000 a year.

To be sure, other cities and towns face similar challenges. But the lack of urgency or fresh ideas from the Kenney administration threatens to leave Philadelphia further behind in a world that is rapidly changing, innovating, and competing.

Consider Kenney’s recent budget. Flush with $1.4 billion in federal pandemic aid, Kenney skipped big reforms and instead mostly stuck with the status quo. After a successful first term that saw the passage of a soda tax and expansion of pre-K, the Kenney administration has mainly been about more of the same — except for a rapid increase in spending.

“Rather than map a vision and lead, Kenney has largely withdrawn.”

Rather than map a vision and lead, Kenney has largely withdrawn. When asked during his lackluster reelection campaign what he would do differently in a second term, Kenney said, “Not much.”

Kenney has never fully embraced the public part of being a public official. He rarely smiles and is often snippy and surly. He reads speeches straight from the script and does not try to hide his often grumpy and detached look. A former staffer even created a chart several years ago with 30 different facial expressions of Kenney under the headline: “How are you feeling today?”

Philadelphia is a tough city, and being mayor is a demanding job. No doubt the past couple of years have been cataclysmic. That’s all the more reason why the city needs a mayor who is fully engaged and embraces the challenges ahead.

Editor’s note: This article has been updated to clarify the location of the June conference that Kenney attended.