Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker presents her 2025 budget to City Council
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker's $6.3 billion budget, her first as mayor, includes funding for more police officers, improvements to the Streets department, more funding for SEPTA, neighborhood cleanings and much more.
Parker presented her budget priorities and five-year plan to City Council on Thursday, and much of what she said was in line with her campaign goal to make Philly the "safest, cleanest, greenest big city in the nation."
400 new police officers, 100 officers doing community patrol
Parker said her five-year plan includes $600 million in new investments in public safety.
As part of that, the city will hire at least 400 new police officers each year, Parker said. That will coincide with an increase in recruiting.
"Actually we're on pace to do 400 officers this year. And so we are really ramping up our pace now," Philadelphia Police Commissioner Kevin Bethel said.
Parker said she also wants more officers doing community policing. Her budget funds over 100 officers doing community policing, which she described as walking a beat or riding a bike around a neighborhood and getting to know the residents.
The police department is also slated to get 150 new radio patrol cars and 75 new unmarked cars.
Parker also said investigative work will improve and that detectives have been trying to solve crimes using "dinosaur equipment."
$117 million in operating funds for SEPTA, $250 million for street paving
SEPTA just received a massive federal grant to fund new cars on the Market-Frankford Line, but that doesn't address the looming "fiscal cliff" when money allocated during the COVID-19 pandemic runs out.
Parker said while councilmembers consider that funding, she wants SEPTA to come up with a plan to increase safety - elsewhere in the speech she acknowledged recent violence including the March 6 shooting of eight Northeast High School students near a SEPTA bus station.
That was two days after another shooting at Godfrey and Ogontz avenues where three Imhotep students were shot, one of whom was killed.
"The events of last week, they underscored that urgency that I feel to restore a sense of order," Parker said.
Parker is also pledging to double the miles of Philadelphia streets paved to 130 miles, starting with $250 million in funding for street paving.
"Driving through Philly streets should not feel like riding a bumpy roller coaster," Parker said.
Neighborhood cleanings, roving illegal dumping patrols to pick up trash
Parker said her budget includes $36 million in "clean and green" funds that will amount to over $246 million during her five-year plan.
There will be $18 million allocated for a residential cleaning program, and each council district will have a dedicated cleaning crew with trash trucks, equipment and a team leader. She said they'll team up with the PHL Taking Care of Business program and expand to more streets.
Parker compared the initiative to what the Center City District does, adding the city's neighborhoods deserve the same level of care.
There's also going to be a crew focused on responding to illegal dumping calls, to shorten the response time and she wants to increase surveillance on spots where illegal dumping activity is highest.
The city will hire 100 new sanitation workers and buy 60 more trash compactors as part of this work, Parker said.
There's also going to be a pilot program testing out twice-a-week trash collection in the neighborhoods most in need of it.
"If public safety is priority number one for Philadelphians, guess what? Quality of life issues is 1-a," Parker said.
Cherelle Parker's campaign goals as Mayor of Philadelphia
Parker was inaugurated on Jan. 2, 2024, at The Met Philadelphia, taking the oath of office from U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Marcia Fudge.
In her inaugural address, Parker laid out the challenges the city faces including a quarter of residents living in poverty, too many incidents of gun violence and illegal guns on the streets, and quality of life issues like blight, illegal dumping and nuisance noise.
She's also stated her goals to increase the number of Philadelphia police officers on the streets, Clean and Green Initiatives to address the neighborhood quality of life issues and promised to preserve and build more affordable housing units.