Mayor Cherelle Parker’s leadership after recent shootings is a hopeful glimmer of what the city needs. Now, do more.

The bar had been set so low by Mayor Cherelle L. Parker’s predecessor that it wasn’t much taller than a kickstand by the time she took office some 70 days ago.

But even if former Mayor Jim Kenney hadn’t infamously given up on the city that fateful July Fourth — 18 months before the end of his second term — I’d still have temporarily set aside my misgivings about city leadership to give credit where credit is due.

And there is some — let’s not go overboard — credit to give for how the current administration has responded to the mass shooting of eight Northeast High School students between the ages of 15 and 17 at a SEPTA bus stop last week.

Stand down, I haven’t been hacked or gone soft. Stick with me.

For starters, there was the palpable outrage — albeit briefly misdirected at a journalist last week by Police Commissioner Kevin Bethel when the reporter dared to ask about stop-and-frisk while he and Parker answered questions in the pouring rain after the shooting. Maybe the timing wasn’t quite right, commissioner, but it remains a valid line of questioning.

And yet, I can forgive an outburst when emotions are running high over children under siege because, as Parker put it, “Enough is enough.”

If only — as I’ve said — this time that turns out to be true.

If only the all-hands-on-deck approach that was on display during a news conference Monday, when Parker was joined by local and federal law enforcement partners, really did become the city’s standard operating procedure. Officials who gathered announced the arrest of two 18-year-olds so far, who have been charged with attempted murder and related crimes for shooting eight teenagers who were waiting for a bus after school. A third person, a 19-year-old, was arrested Tuesday night, and police have urged a fourth suspect to turn himself in.

If only we weren’t still waiting on an action plan on gun violence, which was promised within the first 100 days of Parker’s administration — expected sometime in April — when we already know what needs to be done right now.

If only we weren’t still reacting more to gun violence than we are preventing it, because as impressed as I was with the tone and message from leadership these last couple of weeks, we continue to spend millions on anti-violence programs with very little oversight.

When discussing her first budget, scheduled to be unveiled on Thursday, Parker has said that the programs her administration funds will “have accountability,” and that it’s essential the money goes to “people who are actually doing the work.”

» READ MORE: Mayor Cherelle Parker delivers her first budget address, promising to ‘enforce the law’ and clean up the city

“There are some people who think that [city funding] is a vehicle to get rich,” she said. “They will not do that on the Parker dime.”

I’ve been hearing a version of that for years, as promises of a full audit of all programs have mostly gone nowhere.

If that sounds like this column has taken a critical turn, you’re half right. Two things can simultaneously be true. Clear-eyed residents can appreciate the response to this crisis and have genuine concerns about the other ways in which the administration handles its business — which too often lacks some basic transparency.

But, for now, let’s get back to the glimmers of hope in leadership I’ve seen these last few weeks.

The most striking moments for me were when Parker seemed to be talking directly to the public during Monday’s news conference.

So many of us needed that after last week. Loved ones of gunshot victims who have taken to social media lately say they couldn’t bear to watch the news after 11 students were shot, one fatally, in separate incidents near bus stops at their schools. They said it was too painful a reminder of their own losses. There are also those who pray every day and night that they won’t join that unenviable fellowship of families — and every Philadelphian who has for years begged their city’s leadership to, well, lead.

“I need you to know that I hear you,” Parker said.

I also couldn’t help but take note when Bethel singled out Police Officer Cristian Rodriguez-Hecht at that same gathering for using lifesaving tourniquets to help two of the teenagers who were shot.

The police department often pushes stories on reporters of cops playing pickup basketball with neighborhood kids or police districts hosting cookouts, but I’ve long said that our communities need to see and hear more about people like Rodriguez-Hecht, examples of police officers protecting and serving in ways that can truly build trust and respect.

Anytime you have as many public officials around a lectern as we did last week, you can almost bet it’s a dog and pony show, where every person and agency is trying their best to take the most amount of credit and the least amount of blame.

But this felt different. If Philadelphia truly gets the leadership it deserves this time around, you can’t blame me for having some hope.