Snow can be a ‘no-win’ situation for a mayor. But Cherelle Parker’s been front and center.

Mayor Cherelle Parker with Managing Director, Adam Thiel and behind them Carlton Williams, Director, Clean & Green Initiatives touring a salt warehouse. City officials gathered at City Sanitation Facility – Northeast, State Road & Ashburner Street, Philadelphia on Friday, Jan. 19, 2023 to share city’s response to snow storm.

There’s nothing quite like a snowstorm to make people feel like their government isn’t working all that well.

Two years ago, Cleveland residents blasted their new mayor for being seemingly unprepared for wintry weather. In 2015, New Yorkers slammed Mayor Bill de Blasio for slow plowing. In Seattle, the city’s poor response to a 2008 snowstorm may have cost the former mayor his job.

Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle L. Parker, who’s been in office for all of three weeks, is clearly trying to avoid a similar fate.

The mayor cut short a trip to Washington, D.C., Thursday to return to the city hours before a significant winter storm blanketed the region in snow. On Friday morning, she donned snow boots and toured a dome where the city stores salt reserves. And she led a briefing with reporters in the afternoon at the city’s Emergency Operations Center, where she gathered alongside city officials to update residents on the snow response.

Mayor Cherelle Parker (center) with Managing Director, Adam Thiel (left) and at right Carlton Williams, Director, Clean & Green Initiatives after a presser with city officials at Sanitation Facility – Northeast, State Road & Ashburner Street, Philadelphia on Friday, Jan. 19, 2023 to share city’s response to snow storm.

“Our purpose here is to demonstrate to you that every agency, intergovernmental and external, that we are working together and we are not working in silos,” Parker said from a Northeast Philadelphia parking lot as snow fell. “That’s our messaging here.”

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Parker’s multiple public appearances through the storm, expected to drop about six inches of snow on the region, stood in contrast to how her nascent administration handled a snow event — albeit a much smaller one — earlier this week. Amid some questions about preparedness and anecdotal reports of icy conditions, the mayor largely worked behind the scenes and did not appear publicly.

Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker with other city officials at City Sanitation Facility – Northeast, State Road & Ashburner Street, Philadelphia on Friday, Jan. 19, 2023. She held a press conference on the cities handling of snow storm.

But during Parker’s events Friday, she cheered city workers, pledged the city was working to ensure safe streets, and said her administration would prioritize residential roads.

“This is me being very direct with the people of the city of Philadelphia so you never have to question whether or not… smaller, residential, tertiary streets were a part of the initial planing,” Parker said Friday morning. “They were, they are, and they are not an afterthought. And that’s what my messaging is meant to do.”

Her publicly hands-on approach and promise that the city was working in sync was also a different tone than that of former Mayor Jim Kenney, who, particularly in his second term, often deferred public statements to his top deputies, agency heads, and the managing director.

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Parker also made a special point of acknowledging that her administration invited labor leaders to stand alongside her. While organized labor was a key part of the coalition that lifted her to the Mayor’s Office, the officials who stood with her Friday were from AFSCME District Council 33 — which endorsed one of Parker’s rivals last year.

“I don’t remember a gathering like this in the middle of the storm,” she said Friday morning, “where the leadership of the workforce was included to be a part of this. We’re intentional about asking them to be here, because none of this process works if they don’t.”

Phil Goldsmith, who was managing director under former Mayor John F. Street, said it’s clear Parker “wants to show she’s out there and she cares.”

“It’s also a good learning experience for her to see firsthand what’s going on,” he said.

But he added a word of caution: Weather emergencies can be something of a Catch-22. If an administration does a good job plowing the streets, residents will say that’s what they’re paid to do. If they do a poor job, they’ll be excoriated.

“Snow storms can be a no-win situation,” he said.

Parker had not intended to be in Philadelphia Thursday night when the city hosted its first briefing on the storm. She traveled to Washington to attend meetings with the U.S. Conference of Mayors, which was scheduled to host President Joe Biden Friday.

But, shortly after arriving, Managing Director Adam K. Thiel indicated that the storm could be a significant emergency. Parker returned to the city.

On Friday morning as heavy snow fell, she toured the sanitation center along State Road in Northeast Philadelphia where the city stores salt reserves and snow removal machinery.

She walked into a dome that held mountains of salt and asked if the city has additional reserves elsewhere. (Answer: Yes, in North Philly, Germantown, Roxborough, and more.)

“Hey, listen,” she said to workers inside. “You all are doing a fantastic job. Thank you all so very much. And listen, we’re monitoring, we’re ready, and what’s most important to me is that we’re doing it together.”

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