From a major thoroughfare being closed due to fire to a mayor’s race that seemed to have started last year, to our sports teams disappointing us, Philadelphians had to exercise a lot of patience in 2023.
By Denise Clay-Murray
Philadelphians are known for a lot of things.
We’re known for food that you probably shouldn’t eat every day. We’re known for being more than a little hard on anyone crazy enough to put on a uniform for one of our sports teams.
We’re known for throwing fastballs made of ice and snow at Bad Santas.
But Philadelphians are not known for being a patient lot. In fact, if they were honest with you, Philadelphia Phillies ace Aaron Nola and Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts could probably deliver dissertations on the lack of patience Philadelphians have.
(Philadelphia 76ers center Joel Embiid could have probably put in a word or two on the topic before the Mother’s Day playoff game against the Boston Celtics. But the performance he and former Sixer James Harden delivered precludes them from this conversation. But guard Tyrese Maxey and power forward Tobias Harris can weigh in.)
But unlike most years, where our frustrations are mostly about things like gun violence, potholes, and other things that we believe could be corrected with better leadership, 2023 required a different kind of patience from Philadelphians.
It required the kind of patience needed to figure out how to get to and from work when a large chunk of a major highway ends up consumed by fire.
It required the kind of patience needed to endure a mayoral primary best described with the phrase “sound and fury, signifying nothing” without throwing your own fastball made of ice and snow.
It required the kind of patience needed to drive in a fog brought here by climate change from a fire in another country.
And, as always, it required the kind of patience needed to try and make sense of a government in Harrisburg that has no problem taking from Philadelphia, but still hasn’t figured out how to give money to Philadelphia’s schools, despite a court order demanding this.
Because Philadelphians didn’t take to the streets with pitchforks and torches in 2023, city residents showed themselves to be a lot more patient than they’re given credit for. They used that patience to elect a history-making mayor and City Council, to fix their flaming road, and to stay glued to their television sets while the Eagles, Sixers and Phillies took turns beating the odds and breaking their hearts.
We also lost some important people in 2023 including two history makers, a history chronicler, and The Geater With The Heater.
Let’s take a look back at a year that was interesting, to say the least.
The next mayor
To say that Mayor Jim Kenney was happy to see 2023 would be an understatement.
The outgoing Mayor of Philadelphia had had enough of occupying the city’s highest office and didn’t care who knew it after a while. From the city’s gun violence problems to police shootings and other issues he’s had to deal with on the job, Kenney was anxiously awaiting the May primary, even if he didn’t say so publicly.
So, it was no surprise to anyone that Kenney was in the Sheetmetal Workers Union Hall in South Philadelphia when Cherelle Parker made her victory speech as the winner of the Philadelphia Mayor’s race in November. He probably wanted to make sure that he could start counting the days.
Eleven people were vying for the office, including six — Parker, Controller Rebecca Rhynhart, Councilmembers Derek Green, Maria Quinones Sanchez, Helen Gym and David Oh — that had to leave their city offices to take their shot at the title.
In the end, Parker, who was backed by the powerful Philadelphia Building Trades and most of the Philadelphia delegation in Harrisburg, bested Oh to become the city’s 100th mayor and the first woman to hold that office. She promises to make the city the “safest, cleanest and greenest cities with equal opportunity for everybody…”
But whether or not Parker will be able to deliver, will depend on her ability to work with a City Council that’s going to be a little different than the one everyone’s been used to.
For starters, District Councilman Brian O’Neill will be the only Republican on Council when the body is sworn in in January.
The Working Families Party accomplished a mission it had started four years ago and won both minority party seats mandated by the City Charter. Traditionally, those seats have belonged to Democrats when Republicans are in charge and vice versa. But using the premise that “minority” doesn’t have to mean “Republican,” incumbent Councilmember Kendra Brooks will now be joined by her running mate from four years ago, the Rev. Nicolas O’Rourke, on Council. Brooks will become the body’s minority leader and O’Rourke minority whip.
Nina Ahmad and Rue Landau will be sworn in as the first South Asian and the first openly LGBTQ councilmembers in the city’s history. And while it looked a little dicey for them for a while, Councilmembers Jimmy Harrity and Cindy Bass managed to retain their seats.
City Council President Darrell Clarke announced he was stepping down from Council in 2023 and Jeffery “Jay” Young, a former member of Clarke’s staff, will now represent the Fifth Councilmanic District.
Councilmember Kenyatta Johnson will take over as the new Council president, which means that he will join Parker in finding out that the state legislature that they both served in is nothing like the current iteration…but when it comes to Philadelphia, the results aren’t all that different.
Good Josh/Bad Josh
A lot of what happens to Philadelphia depends on who is in charge in Harrisburg.
Part of the reason why Philadelphians overwhelmingly vote Democratic in statewide elections is the perception that Democrats will do better by them in the Commonwealth’s capital.
Thanks to those votes, Joanna McClinton became the first woman to be Speaker of the House this year and Josh Shapiro became the Commonwealth’s governor.
But the jury is still out on how Philadelphia benefit from this duo. Will the School District of Philadelphia finally get the money that the Commonwealth Court says it should? Will the Commonwealth stop creating laws aimed at Philadelphia and Philadelphia alone?
If the last few months of 2023 is any indication, Philadelphians might end up disappointed.
As part of his budget as governor, Shapiro attempted to include a state funded school voucher program. While it wound up going to defeat, as House Democrats let him know it was a non-starter, the fact that he was willing to try such a thing wasn’t lost on anyone.
In December, as part of a compromise on a budget that had been held up all summer, Shapiro signed Act 40 into law. This piece of legislation allows the state attorney general to appoint a special prosecutor to adjudicate any crime in Philadelphia that occurs within 500 yards of a SEPTA property. This rule doesn’t apply to any crime that occurs near a SEPTA property outside of Philadelphia, so the district attorneys in Delaware, Bucks and Montgomery Counties, all of whom are presumed to be “tougher” on crime than Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner, will be able to handle those crimes.
This dispute is part of a longstanding feud between Republican legislators and Krasner, the two-term district attorney who was also the subject of an impeachment attempt this year.
For many observers, this is seen as a bunch of hot air between a former attorney general and a district attorney that don’t like each other.Hot air seemed to be a big part of 2023 in Philadelphia this year.
Philadelphia contributes to climate change
Environmental activists in Philadelphia have been calling for more hybrid buses and bicycle lanes in the city for years because the city’s air quality, which isn’t helped by fossil fuel burning automobiles, continues to worsen.
Because of this, the asthma rate among Philadelphia’s children is three times the national average, according to the Philadelphia Regional Center For Children’s Environmental Health.
June 2023 didn’t help with this issue. Smoke seemed to be everywhere in the city, causing people to have to shelter in place and impacting how Philadelphians traveled temporarily.
President Joe Biden and Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttgieg visited Philadelphia’s I-95 to check out the damage caused when an oil tanker crashed into a section of I-95 near Cottman Avenue. The driver, Nathan Moody, was killed when the truck flipped over, and caught fire under the highway.
The hole caused by the crash was supposed to take months to fix. But thanks to the 24-7 efforts of a highway crew led by members of the Philadelphia Building Trades, not only did the construction take two weeks to fix, but residents could watch it online if they wanted to.
Also in June, wildfires in Canada led to hazy orange skies here in the Delaware Valley and air quality levels that led some to don masks they hadn’t worn since the early days of COVID. A Code Maroon (!) was triggered by extremely high air pollution rates.
That smog led to the cancellation of a postponement of a Phillies game.
As you’ll see next, that might not have been a bad thing.
Why the Sixers owe every mother In the Delaware Valley an apology
In a “glass is half full” kind of way, 2023 was actually pretty good for Philadelphia’s sports fans.
The Philadelphia Eagles, led by quarterback Jalen Hurts, made it to the Super Bowl after a regular season that excited everyone
Philadelphia 76ers fans were optimistic that the squad led by Joel Embiid and James Harden would get the team out of the second round and possibly into the NBA’s Eastern Conference finals, if not the NBA Finals.
And the Philadelphia Phillies, fresh from a trip to the World Series, made their way to the post season.
But the Eagles, despite a performance for the ages from Hurts, lost to the Kansas City Chiefs, thanks to a penalty on James Bradberry that still has many of us scratching out heads.
The Phillies were knocked out of the post season by the Arizona Diamondbacks in a series of games that showed that the only thing Craig Kimbrel should be closing is the door.
And the Sixers? Embiid and Harden put on the kind of performances in Game 7 of their series against the Boston Celtics that probably ruined Mother’s Day for all of the mothers who were also Sixers fans.
As a result, coach Glenn “Doc” Rivers was fired. And after the having the kind of temper tantrum that he’s best known for, Harden was traded to the Los Angeles Clippers.
Right now, the Sixers, led by Embiid and Tyrese Maxey, are third in the Eastern Conference. The Eagles are the second seed in the NFC and still have a shot at a first-round bye despite playing the kind of football that causes heart palpitations. The Phillies re-signed pitcher Aaron Nola and are expected to do well this year.
Heck, even the Philadelphia Flyers, a team that’s been the odd man out during the city’s run of sport success, is third in the National Hockey League’s Metropolitan Division.
The year in law enforcement
As 2023 comes to an end, Philadelphia Police Officer Mark Dial is facing reinstituted murder charges in connection with the death of Eddie Irizarry. Dial is charged with shooting and killing Irizarry shortly after pulling him over on a street in Kensington in August.
At first, police said that the shooting was justified because Irizarry had charged the police officers with a knife. That report was later refuted by body camera footage that showed Irizarry sitting in the driver’s seat when Dial fired at the car.
Charges against Dial had been dropped by a Philadelphia judge. They were then refiled in October, and he remains in custody.
We also found out in 2023 just how secure our prisons aren’t.
In November, Ameen Hurst and Nasir Grant escaped from the Philadelphia Industrial Correctional Center in Northeast Philadelphia. The two escaped through a hole in the prison’s fence and no one noticed that the two were missing for 19 hours. They were recaptured 10 days later.
Meanwhile in Chester County, convicted murderer Danilo Cavalcante led police on a two-week manhunt after escaping from the Chester County prison in Pocopson Township. He was later captured and returned to jail.
Those we’ve lost…
In a year where Philadelphia made history by electing a woman as the city’s 100th mayor, two history-making women also left us.
New Jersey Lt. Gov. Sheila Oliver died in August following a brief illness. Oliver, an alumnus of Lincoln University, became the first Black woman and the second person overall to serve in that office when she was elected in 2017.
The Newark, New Jersey native was also the first Black woman in the state’s history to serve as speaker of the state’s legislature before becoming Lieutenant Governor. She was 71.
Temple University’s Joanne Epps served as the school’s provost and Dean of the Beasley School of Law before becoming its president earlier this year.
She is credited with beginning to right the ship at Temple following President Jason Wingard’s resignation.
She died while presiding over the memorial service for Charles Blockson at the Liacouras Center. Epps was 72.
Charles Blockson was the curator of the Charles Blockson Collection at Temple. After being told as a child in Norristown that Black people have no history, Blockson began obtaining proof that not only did African Americans have a history, but an extensive one.
His collection includes rare items, books, manuscripts, and sculptures and has been used for research projects all over the world. He was 89.
Before becoming a City Councilman in 2004, former Councilman Juan Ramos worked to bring equity as a Latino civil rights activist and co-founder of the Philadelphia chapter of the Young Lords, a Puerto Rican self-determination group. He was also president of the Puerto Rican Alliance and a champion for union workers as a member of Laborers Local 332. During his tenure in Council, Ramos introduced the legislation that eventually led to the creation of what is now the Rivers Casino in Port Richmond. He was 71.
Before becoming one of Philadelphia’s most ubiquitous disc jockeys, Jerry Blavat was a dancer on the television program “American Bandstand”.
He fell in love with the music of such artists as Fats Domino and Little Richard and played a prominent role in promoting iconic Black R&B artists like Dionne Warwick and Aretha Franklin until his death. Blavat was a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s Museum of Radio and Records and the Broadcast Pioneers Hall of Fame. He was 82.
As 2024 approaches, President Joe Biden will be visiting Philadelphia for as yet undisclosed reasons on Jan. 6.
For those of you who don’t know why that date is significant, it’s the anniversary of the Capital insurrection designed to keep Congress from certifying President Biden’s election.
In response to the procedural confusion that led to that melee, Congress has since updated the Electoral College Act of 1887 to tighten up the certification process and amend some of the loopholes that could lead to a repeat performance on January 6, 2025 and in subsequent years. Still…
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