{"id":105997,"date":"2026-02-05T14:42:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-05T14:42:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/105997\/"},"modified":"2026-02-05T14:42:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-05T14:42:08","slug":"how-phillys-snow-response-could-harm-mayor-parkers-political-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/105997\/","title":{"rendered":"How Philly’s snow response could harm Mayor Parker’s political future"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mayor Cherelle L. Parker<\/a> often says she isn\u2019t a fan of \u201cMonday-morning quarterbacks\u201d and \u201cexpert AOPs\u201d \u2014 her shorthand for so-called articulators of problems who don\u2019t offer solutions. <\/p>\n

Now she has a city full of them. <\/p>\n

After a heavy snowfall followed by a week of below-freezing temperatures<\/a>, Philadelphia\u2019s streets are still laden with snow, slush, and ice; SEPTA buses are packed<\/a>; and numerous cars are still stuck in the spots residents left them in 11 days ago. <\/p>\n

The mayor acknowledged residents\u2019 exasperation<\/a> at a news conference at the Pelbano Recreation Center in Northeast Philadelphia<\/a> on Wednesday, her first appearance dedicated to the city\u2019s snow response since Jan. 26, the day after the storm walloped the region<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor anyone who is frustrated right now about the ice, about the ability for all of the streets to be fully cleared, I want you to know that I understand,\u201d she said. \u201cEverybody can Monday-morning quarterback. \u2026 That\u2019s cool. We can\u2019t stop people from feeling the way they feel. But let me tell you something: We were prepared.” <\/p>\n

Parker said the city deployed 1,000 workers and 800 pieces of snow-removal equipment to deal with the emergency. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t promise to be perfect, Philadelphia,\u201d she said. \u201cWe promise to go to war with the status quo and to fix things, to be doers. \u2026 We\u2019re going to continue doing everything that we can to make sure all of this work is done.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00bb READ MORE: Philly\u2019s unplowed snow has slowed SEPTA and frustrated residents and businesses<\/a><\/p>\n

Snowstorms are infamous for their ability to undermine constituents\u2019 faith in their mayors. Over the years, they have been credited with ending political careers<\/a> in Denver, New York, Chicago, and Seattle. <\/p>\n

The risk of political fallout could be heightened for Parker, who campaigned on a promise to upgrade city services<\/a>. When Parker ceremonially dropped the puck at Tuesday night\u2019s Flyers game, she was greeted with boos from many fans at Xfinity Mobile Arena.<\/p>\n

\u201cParker has pitched herself as the can-do mayor. \u2018I\u2019m not gonna deal with ideology. I\u2019ve got principles, but I\u2019m here to get the job done,\u2019\u201d said Randall M. Miller, a political historian and professor emeritus at St. Joseph\u2019s University. \u201cThere\u2019s that expectation you\u2019re going to get this thing done.\u201d<\/p>\n

Parker also faced questions about her administration\u2019s commitment<\/a> to delivering core services during the eight-day city workers strike last July, when \u201cParker piles\u201d of trash mounted around Philadelphia in the hot summer sun. She escaped that ordeal relatively unscathed<\/a> after winning what she called a \u201cfiscally responsible\u201d contract largely in line with her goals.<\/p>\n

\u00bb READ MORE: \u2018They are my people\u2019: Mayor Cherelle Parker on why she stood firm in the DC 33 city worker strike<\/a><\/p>\n

But Miller said the mobility issues associated with snow removal have unique psychological effects for constituents. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re cold, you\u2019re miserable, and you\u2019re trapped. You\u2019re looking around like, \u2018Who is confining me?\u2019\u201d Miller said. \u201cYou get angry at the mayor because the mayor said, \u2018I\u2019m here to provide public services,\u2019 and public service isn\u2019t being provided.\u201d <\/p>\n

The circumstances of this year\u2019s winter weather emergency could also give Parker some breathing room. Municipal leaders in Pittsburgh, New York, Washington, D.C., and Providence, R.I., are all feeling the heat amid the polar temperatures, thanks to an unusually persistent cold snap that has hampered snow-removal operations<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u00bb READ MORE: It\u2019s \u2018Groundhog Day\u2019 in Philly this week as snow and ice persist<\/a><\/p>\n

A slight reprieve in the weather this week, with highs peaking above freezing Tuesday and Wednesday<\/a>, could help the city\u2019s cleanup efforts. But officials warned Wednesday that temperatures are forecast to fall again by the end of the week. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not hyperbole to consider that we\u2019re still under emergency conditions,\u201d Dominick Mireles, who leads the Philadelphia Office of Emergency Management, said Wednesday. <\/p>\n

Lessons from past Philly storms<\/p>\n

By some measures, the city threw more resources at the latest storm than in the past, but got fewer returns. <\/p>\n

After the legendary blizzard of Jan. 7, 1996, then-Mayor Ed Rendell deployed more than 540 snowplows, dump trucks, and other vehicles to clear away the record 30.7 inches of snow that fell over two days, according to an Inquirer report from that year. Officials bragged at the time that the fleet eclipsed the 300 vehicles marshaled by former Mayor W. Wilson Goode Sr. for the last major blizzard, in 1987.<\/p>\n

Four days after the 1996 storm, the city said it hauled away 50,000 tons of snow, including truckloads famously dumped directly into the Delaware River and the Schuylkill<\/a>. Officials also said that day that about 71% of roadways were passable, including around half of all side streets.<\/p>\n

In February 2003, the city got walloped with 19 inches of snow, followed by days of subfreezing temperatures. Four days after that storm, the city said it had cleared 75% to 80% of city streets. <\/p>\n

In 2016, Mayor Jim Kenney<\/a> used 10,000 tons of salt and 1,600 city workers to clear away 22.5 inches of snow, clearing 92% of residential streets by day four \u2014 with a major assist from warmer temperatures a few days after the storm.<\/p>\n

The 800 pieces of snow-removal equipment Parker cited that were used in the most recent storm are far more than even in the blizzard of 1996. She also said the city brought in a snow-melting machine from Chicago, saying workers had melted about 4.7 million pounds of snow, while scattering 30,000 tons of salt. <\/p>\n

The result: More than a week after the end of the snowfall, about 85% of city streets had been \u201ctreated,\u201d which includes salting, plowing, or both, according to the city. <\/p>\n

But mobility nonetheless remains limited in much of the city, and officials pointed to the lingering icy conditions. <\/p>\n

The prolonged freeze is \u201cnot unheard of, but it is unusual, and that stresses and makes the potential for a lot of not-great things to happen,\u201d Mireles said. \u201cIt\u2019s affecting the snow-fighting operation.\u201d <\/p>\n

An analysis of city plowing data shows that after the conclusion of the storm on Jan. 25, vehicles reached about 70% of city streets by the end of Monday. As the snow hardened, activity slowed by about a third on Jan. 27. Some parts of the city \u2014 including neighborhood-size chunks of South Philly \u2014 saw little plowing until five days after the storm or longer.<\/p>\n

The psychology of snow<\/p>\n

One reason voters punish mayors more harshly for failing to remove snow than for other problems is because of its omnipresence, from getting around the city to small talk about the weather, Miller said. <\/p>\n

Even trash-collection problems tend not to get under residents\u2019 skin to the same degree because they don\u2019t shut the city down, he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou are furious, and it\u2019s day in, day out,\u201d Miller said. \u201cYou\u2019re constantly reminded.\u201d <\/p>\n

Parker has turned to private contractors to help with the snow-removal operation. And at Wednesday\u2019s news conference, she touted the city\u2019s efforts to deploy 300 \u201csame-day pay and work\u201d laborers<\/a> earning $25 per hour to help manually clear streets and sidewalks. <\/p>\n

\u00bb READ MORE: 300 \u2018ambassadors\u2019 to chip away at ice on Philly\u2019s crosswalks<\/a><\/p>\n

Those moves drew criticism Wednesday from the city\u2019s largest union for municipal workers, District Council 33 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Workers, which went on strike for higher wages last summer. <\/p>\n

\u201cDistrict Council 33 is deeply concerned by the City\u2019s decision to bring in outside laborers for snow\u2010removal operations without any consultation or collaboration with our union,” DC 33 president Greg Boulware said in a statement. \u201cOur members deserve better, and the residents of Philadelphia deserve a snow\u2010removal strategy rooted in safety, foresight, and respect for the workforce that keeps this city running.”<\/p>\n

Miller said those efforts show the city is doing everything it can to clear the city\u2019s streets and sidewalks. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s been a great effort to try to deal with it, but Philadelphia is a very difficult place to manage in terms of snow because it\u2019s got so many older streets,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

But, he said, hearing about the city\u2019s efforts is cold comfort to residents struggling to navigate their neighborhoods. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe major thoroughfares, they\u2019ve done a pretty good job. But folks are concerned with their neighborhoods. They\u2019re not concerned with if they go down to Fourth and Market,\u201d he said. \u201cOnce you start to hear those kinds of complaints, it\u2019s hard to contain it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Parker said complaints will not deter her team. \u201cWhenever we\u2019ve been dealing with something challenging in government \u2026 there are some people who are expert articulators for problems,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Her staff, she said, \u201cis not a team of expert AOPs.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a team of subject-matter experts who are doers and they are fixers, and we don\u2019t cry,\u201d she said. \u201cOur job won\u2019t be done until every street in the city of Philadelphia is walkable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Staff writers Ximena Conde and Anna Orso contributed to this article.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mayor Cherelle L. Parker often says she isn\u2019t a fan of \u201cMonday-morning quarterbacks\u201d and \u201cexpert AOPs\u201d \u2014 her…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":105998,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[51152,69,71,70],"class_list":{"0":"post-105997","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia","8":"tag-cherelle-parker-snow-storm-plowing-shoveling","9":"tag-philadelphia","10":"tag-philadelphia-headlines","11":"tag-philadelphia-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105997","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=105997"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105997\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/105998"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105997"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=105997"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105997"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}