David Oh and Cherelle Parker: Two underdogs battle to win city’s top spot

This year’s race to be the 100th mayor of Philadelphia is between two former council members who have lived much of their lives as underdogs with a front row seat to the impact of government neglect and policy failures.

Whoever wins this race — a woman or a child of immigrants — will make Philadelphia history as a first.

David Oh is a Republican in a Democratic town, a Korean American, and a lawyer in a working-class community. He grew up and still lives in Kingsessing, a largely African American neighborhood in southwest Philly.

Cherelle Parker lives in Mt. Airy and was raised by her grandparents in West Oak Lane, as well as a large circle of aunts, uncles, and cousins, many of whom still live in Strawberry Mansion.

“I’m always thinking about the Cherelle Parkers of the world, the underdogs of the world, the people who don’t start the race of life, you know, with the advantage that so many others have,” Parker said.

So when asked if there was one thing she would give every child in the city to help improve their life chances, she quickly answered.

“Connectedness,” she said, something she also found at her neighborhood recreation center. “Every child needs to feel a connectedness to some sense of village…And a village is not simply where you are born. It is not, you know, sort of the race, class, or socioeconomic status where God choose you to enter into the world. But the village is also created by systems, right?”

For Oh, the son of a pastor, there is no doubt that education is critical — although he admits to having been a troubled child and a disengaged student.

“There was no doubt in my mind or anyone that I was even associated with in the Korean-American community that education was critically important. It wasn’t about money, it wasn’t about success. It was about who you were without an education, what kind of person would you be?” said Oh.

Now, they are going head-to-head on Election Day, Nov. 7, to convince voters that they have the right stuff, born not from privilege but of their disadvantages, to transform Philadelphia into a city of opportunities.

Going into this race, Parker, a Democrat, has a seven to one registration edge. But Oh is unwilling to concede the race before the first votes are even counted. He believes that he brings a sense of concern that comes from a life lived as an outsider and that it will help his campaign overcome the lopsided registration numbers.

And he believes that the starting point for helping others overcome any disparity is a good and caring education system.

“Many kids don’t have parents at home. Many kids have a parent who’s incarcerated for 20 years, and that eats at the soul. And so we have to repair the human being. We have to enrich them, we have to reconnect them. And you can’t do that with a school that is poorly run,” Oh said.

» READ MORE: Watch all candidate videos from the series here.