I believe a leaf of grass is no less than the journey-work of the stars.

At the start of my third year, we’ll aggressively expand police academy classes and recruitment incentives. Since 1970, we’ve been losing cops and spent year after year defunding the police. At the start of my third year, we’ll continue to “Refund the Police,” because by now, the days of “Defund the Police” was brought to you by the BLM organization, are officially over. They made millions and live in beautiful mansions and the impoverished never received a cent off of them. To guarantee the safety of every neighborhood, we must rebuild the Philadelphia Police Department into a strong, fully staffed force of 7,000 sworn, fit, loyal, and fully well-equipped armed officers. The devastating loss of our young 12th District officer, Alhassane Barry, who was taken from us by gun violence, underscores the urgent need to defend our communities and support those who protect the public. We will also be inviting back those who were dismissed for frivolous reasons if they wish to return. For the officers out on the streets, I will make sure they have the tools to maintain a real, proactive presence and deter crime. Finally, we must send an unmistakable message of accountability by ensuring that anyone who violently harms a first responder—from a police officer to a direct care worker—will face the absolute, harshest consequences possible under the law. This focused surge in force will secure our residential blocks and commercial corridors while choking funding for City Council's pet projects. These officers will not act as social observers or unarmed public health workers, though highly specialized personnel will remain available for targeted operational needs. 

By exercising our absolute municipal sovereignty over city streets, this administration will partner with state legislators to dismantle the unaccountable Harrisburg control of the PPA and bring our parking authority back home to the citizens of Philadelphia, for one reason: intelligent vehicle and parking regulation, not overreach. Let me be clear that we need parking enforcement, and no one is really arguing that. What we do question is why the PPA has completely overstepped its administrative mandate by deploying a dragnet of Flock surveillance cameras that scan our residents without a warrant— an unconstitutional overreach that this administration will challenge on municipal rights-of-way and fight in court to eliminate from our neighborhood corridors. Our mission is not to eliminate working-class jobs or disrupt frontline enforcement, but to strip this state-controlled entity of its surveillance apparatus and return its focus strictly to basic, fair parking logistics. One idea I had is that if the sheriffs didn’t want traffic enforcement, we move that job to PPA because the cops need to be victors for the people and don’t have the time to monitor traffic, as a backup plan. 

The City of Philadelphia is the worst city to drive in, in the United States. To fix this we’re changing lanes. Right now, too many city lights run on static, outdated timers. The immediate fix is implementing an adaptive, AI-driven traffic signal network to create “Green Waves”. This means sensors at intersections communicate with each other in real-time, adjusting green lights based on the actual flow of traffic. Gridlock is driven by double-parked Amazon, FedEx, or food delivery driver who chokes a two-lane street down to one. The solution is enforced, dedicated loading zones on every commercial block. Street closures need to be coordinated. A centralized permit czar must sequence these closures so that parallel traffic arteries are never restricted at the same time. Public transit is dangerous, dirty, and disgusting! The object then is to pressure transit authorities to make public transportation safe and enjoyable again by policing the system and cleaning up Center City's underground concourses, drawing thousands of commuters below ground to clear surface crosswalks and speed up traffic above. We’ll also enforce the Commuter Transit Benefits Ordinance and expanding the SEPTA Key Advantage program to give workers up to $340 a month in pre-tax savings to ride. Rush-hour intersections are another problem too. So, we enforce "blocking the box" violations, and tow illegally parked cars that block major arteries. Now, conflicting work zones don’t make it easier. Instead of chopping our streets into conflicting zones, we’ll consolidate buses, commercial deliveries, hop-on-and-offs, right turns, and bicycles into a single, dedicated and what I call "Paul Revere Lanes" on the outer edge of major avenues. We’re bringing accountability and auditing to the bike lanes by implementing a strict "use it or lose it" bike lane policy. If a bike route fails to meet clear, verifiable daily ridership thresholds, the bike allocation will be removed entirely, returning that critical asphalt directly to continuous passenger vehicle traffic. It’s time to “Drive 35” again youse guys. 

Health and Wellness starts by getting back to the basics of physical and mental health, strengthening our communities from the ground up instead of relying on a broken medical status quo. With me, it’s all about love. We’ll expand year-round free fitness programming across our parks and public spaces, partnering hand-in-hand with local Philadelphia gyms and fitness centers to build a unified network that supports local businesses while getting our residents active. This is a great plan for those who want to give back to their neighborhoods and encourage folks to join gyms. To tackle chronic disease at its root, we are partnering with the Department of Health and Human Services and federal health leadership to implement bold wellness incentives and bring real health resources directly into our neighborhoods. We will also be teaming up with the U.S. Department of Agriculture to launch local media campaigns promoting wholesome, American-grown foods—boosting fresh milk, chicken, fish, beef, and vegetables while cutting out the chemical additives and ultra-processed junk making our kids sick. Remember those commercials? “Pork, the Other White Meat”, “We’re Having Chicken Tonight”, “Milk, It does a Body Good” and “Beef, It’s What’s for Dinner”? At the same time, we fully encourage anyone struggling with mental health challenges to seek help and find real support, but we must reject the dangerous corporate over-medication pipeline that numbs people out and leads to tragic, unimaginable breakdowns like what we've seen happen with mothers completely over-medicated by a failing system. Medicine is needed but I also believe that true mental clarity comes from physical health, strong community ties, and real care—not a pill bottle pushed by pharmaceutical giants. 

As mayor, I will launch what I call the “Youth-Led Neighborhood Cleanup Initiative”, a targeted grant program providing immediate funding to community-driven beautification projects. By incentivizing local grants, we will empower high school students to actively clean, restore, and take pride in their home neighborhoods while earning valuable civic engagement experience and foundational trade apprenticeships in historic preservation, masonry, and urban maintenance. Once we clear the debt and build a surplus by the end of year three, we can dive into real beautification by restoring historic building facades, cleaning off graffiti, renewing our tarnished bronze monuments, and power-washing buildings that need it and revitalizing our underground transit stations and concourses with our kids at the forefront. Making the city beautiful again doesn’t stop with an outsider’s view of what we look like, it starts with connecting generations. We want to bring our kids and aging neighbors together through our “Youth-Senior Buddy Program”. This keeps our young people positively occupied after school, supports our elders, and restores the true heart of the neighborhoods. True beauty in Philly isn't just about cleaner streets; it’s about a city that takes care of its own.