Cherelle Parker: 'It’s my responsibility to use government to fix things and to help people.'

Who's Running for Philly Mayor? — Episode 3
Cherelle Parker says she came from humble beginnings.
Cherelle Parker says her humble beginnings are what drive her now to seek the mayor’s office Photo credit John McDevitt/KYW Newsradio

Several people are running in next month’s Democratic primary for Philadelphia mayor. That’s a lot of candidates to choose from. KYW Newsradio’s podcast, Who’s Running for Philly Mayor?, is designed to help you get to know the candidates before you cast your vote.

Episode 3 features former City Councilmember Cherelle Parker. City Hall bureau chief Pat Loeb has this preview.

LISTEN TO EPISODE 3

PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — “I come from very humble beginnings.”

Cherelle Parker jokes that she did not have a “Ward and June Cleaver” childhood, the iconic nuclear, comfortably middle-class family of ’50s TV. The child of a single, teenage mother, Parker was raised by grandparents in a struggling household. She says she depended on a village.

“Teachers, coaches — and ultimately there was another layer to that that consisted of [former Philadelphia City Councilmembers] Marian Tasco, Gussie Clark and ultimately [Congressman] Dwight Evans,” she said.

Parker came to the attention of those political power brokers when she won an essay contest in high school.

“I remember Tasco saying, ‘You have a very powerful voice.’”

Parker was the first person in her family to graduate from college. She became a teacher, but with Tasco as a mentor, she ended up in politics — five terms in the Pennsylvania House, one and a half in City Council. And she says it’s her humble beginnings that drive her now to seek the mayor’s office.

“It’s almost like it’s my responsibility to use government to fix things and to help people.”

Parker sees her challenging childhood as a strength, not a weakness, in her quest to be the city’s first female mayor.

She used much of her career as a legislator to pass bills to help people on the margins: low-income homeowners needing help to preserve their nest egg, contract workers retiring without secure income. She even legislated better pay for parking attendants.

But she wasn’t part of the “progressive” bloc on City Council.

She says that was not by omission but by choice.

“Because I have, my entire life, had to operate at the intersection of both race and gender, as a Black woman, I have been very intentional about never allowing anyone to put me in a box,” she said.

Parker says her positions would not always win the progressive label. She favors legally conducted police stops, for instance.

“Some people are not going to like the strategies we may employ, but rest assured, it won’t be like it is now with people saying, ‘We’ve been living like this for years in their community and nothing has changed.’ We are going to address it.”

LISTEN TO 'WHO'S RUNNING FOR PHILLY MAYOR?' EPISODE 3: CHERELLE PARKER

Listen to the full interview on the KYW Newsradio original podcast Who's Running for Philly Mayor, in the Audacy app and wherever you get your podcasts.

Featured Image Photo Credit: John McDevitt/KYW Newsradio