Since Mayor Cherelle Parker took office in 2024, Philadelphians have watched her walking the streets of Kensington ahead of a push to clean the neighborhood of opioid addiction; join cycling activists for a ride around the city; introduce twice weekly trash pickup in some neighborhoods; propose and pass two budgets; navigate the Center City Sixers arena debacle; convene housing experts, create a housing plan, and secure an $800 million bond to achieve it; show up at events around the city, often with joy — sometimes with sadness — and elicit fingers pointing in the air to indicate we are “One City.”

How do you feel about all that, and the myriad other things Parker has done (or not done) over the last 18 months? We’d like to know — and not for the first time.

       Listen to the audio edition here:

You might remember earlier this year when we reached out asking you to review Mayor Parker. Our goal then, as now, was to seek feedback on her first year in office ahead of a live, public performance review as part of our Ultimate Job Interview series. The series, launched during the Democratic mayoral primary in 2023, asked voters to treat politicians like they were job applicants, vying to be CEO of the city of Philadelphia.

We invited people with experience in hiring — HR leaders, company executives — to publicly interview all seven of the Democratic mayoral candidates based on a job description we sourced from Philadelphians. In the spirit of treating this like a hiring process — and in keeping citizens civically engaged beyond election day — we also asked each candidate to commit to participating in a one year performance review to help Philadelphians evaluate how well they’re doing at their job. All of the candidates, including now Mayor Cherelle Parker, agreed.

At the beginning of 2025, one year after her inauguration, we reached out and asked her to make good on that promise. We also asked you, the voters: how’s she doing?

More than 377 Philadelphians wrote in, sharing feedback on how she’s made progress towards her goals of keeping the city cleaner, how she’s managed the budget and giving their feedback on her leadership during negotiations surrounding the Sixers arena.

Unfortunately, when we approached her about an event in the spring, Mayor Parker declined, citing the busyness of budget season. Now that the budget is out — and Mayor Parker has spent another six months on the job — we’re reopening our request for her to appear in a public performance review.

A recent Pew poll found that Parker has a historic 63 percent approval rating. Now, we’re seeking some more detailed feedback from you about how Mayor Parker did in the following areas:

• Managing the City’s 25,000 employees
• Overseeing our $6 billion budget
• Addressing quality of life issues, like trash collection, pothole repair, etc.
• Transitioning the City to clean energy and managing our sustainability plans
• Public safety
• Schools and education
• Arena negotiations
• Developing a plan to build or renovate 30,000 affordable homes
• Growing economic opportunity
• Championing the City of Philadelphia

We’ve drawn these from the job description we crowdsourced ahead of the mayoral primary Ultimate Job Interview events, her campaign promises, and major projects she navigated during her first year.

We’re asking that you rate her performance on a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being poor and 10 being excellent. Then we’re asking for short responses to three questions:

• What has Mayor Parker done well in her first 18 months?
• What could she have done better?
• What major projects would you like her to focus on over the next three years?

You know, the questions anyone might be asked during an actual job performance review.

Fill out the survey, we’ll tabulate the results and publish a series of report cards on Mayor Parker’s progress. Once we have a date for her live performance review, you’ll be the first to know!

Every Voice, Every Vote funds Philadelphia media and community organizations to expand access to civic news and information. The coalition is led by The Lenfest Institute for Journalism. Lead support for Every Voice, Every Vote in 2024 and 2025 is provided by the William Penn Foundation with additional funding from The Lenfest Institute for Journalism, Comcast NBC Universal, The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, Henry L. Kimelman Family Foundation, Judy and Peter Leone, Arctos Foundation, Wyncote Foundation, 25th Century Foundation, and Dolfinger-McMahon Foundation. CITIZEN COVERAGE OF MAYOR PARKER