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Note from The Kids Campaign: Mr. DeLeon submitted his response to our questionaire late and did not directly respond to each and every question.  Click Here to Download the document he has submitted.

The COVID-19 pandemic made clear that the most desirable city of the future is the most livable city of the future. When the pandemic hit and shutdown orders were issued, much of the country and our city relocated toward the places that most felt like home – places that were safe, and affordable and where families felt assured that those from the very young to the very senior were cared for. As Mayor, I am focused on livability and affordability as one of the key drivers of growth and our economy.

This means focusing on quality of life services throughout the city – from safe and clean streets to on-time public transit, improved sanitation and public trash cans throughout the city as well as increased fines for illegal dumping particularly in and around construction sites and schools. As a Councilmember, I invested in a Just Services campaign to direct more funds and attention to clean up streets and improve street lighting in dangerous neighborhoods, as well as address blight.

Livability means making sure our public assets are funded, staffed, and open. It’s why I am focused on weekend and evening hours at our libraries and recreation centers, and accelerating the timeline and finishing the job on ReBuild to deliver world-class parks in every neighborhood of the city.

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As the first mother to serve as the Mayor of Philadelphia, I will listen, learn, and lead. My daughter is in seventh grade in Philadelphia public schools. I share many of your coalition’s worries about our kids’ well-being. We need a safer, cleaner Philadelphia and a city government that works for all families in every neighborhood. That’s my vision for this city. As Mayor of Philadelphia, I will use my experiences to make our city’s services run more efficiently and cost-effectively to achieve this vision. On gun violence, I would declare a citywide emergency activating the city’s emergency operation center to coordinate our operating departments’ response to focus on the neighborhoods most impacted by the violence urgently. I will make sure that we get more officers on the street meanwhile taking steps to make sure policing is fair, efficient and effective based on the needs of the communities and neighborhoods our officers serve. My administration will clean up the city within the first 100 days of my term, including removing thousands of abandoned cars. The Rhynhart Administration will develop a citywide housing plan that prioritizes creating new and affordable housing in every neighborhood, working with City Council to leverage the 8,500 city-owned vacant lots and properties to develop this much-needed housing supply for our residents. Finally, I will establish workforce development pathways to help mothers, fathers and caregivers access the skills they need to excel and thrive in family-sustaining jobs.

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Note from The Kids Campaign: Mr. DeLeon submitted his response to our questionaire late and did not directly respond to each and every question.  Click Here to Download the document he has submitted.

I am running for Mayor because I am a proven fighter who has taken on healing systemic racism and the flawed policies that keep it in place – our under-resourced public schools, an eviction crisis, inhumane conditions for young people in the juvenile welfare and justice system, persistent poverty and violence – and delivered solutions that improve people’s lives and are national models of success.

I ran for public office after two decades of community organizing work changing the political landscape for issues long neglected and overlooked. I wasn’t going to accept a status quo of broken politics; I needed to change the limits of what was possible to win. In less than two terms, I helped end a state takeover of our public schools and started a $500 million infrastructure campaign that gave clean water, air conditioning, and lead, asbestos and mold removal to thousands of children. I built the most successful eviction prevention program in the nation that slashed evictions by almost two-thirds in one of the highest evicting cities in the nation. I wrote the country’s most expansive Fair Workweek law for advance schedules, built a new Department of Labor to enforce labor laws, and supported unionization efforts at museums and non-profits as well as Starbucks. I led the charge to reform the city’s 10-year tax abatement, and I will continue to lead the city toward common-sense taxation policies that grow our city and make sure corporate entities and wealthy individuals pay their fair share.

I am running to finish the job I started in communities more than two decades ago: to build a city where prosperity is shared among all of us, not just a privileged few; a city where lifelong residents can afford to stay, and where others will want to come. I am meeting the violence crisis head-on. America needs its justice leaders to be both visible and successful in bringing forward real solutions – including mental health mobile crisis units, safe routes for children to and from school, fully opening up public spaces like libraries and recreation centers to be safe havens for youth, and targeted interventions towards those most likely to be harmed or to harm others.

I am the only mayoral candidate who will prioritize our public schools and has a plan to deliver the stable and quality school that every child in every neighborhood needs. I will focus government resources to expand Black and Brown businesses, and ensure our city is in service to small and local businesses, emerging industries, our labor force, and diverse entrepreneurs — not lobbyists. I will rebuild the infrastructure of our city with good union jobs and tackle the climate crisis.

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The next mayor needs to pursue a long-term transformation of our school system to create the high-quality education that all of Philadelphia’s students deserve, focusing on correcting the racial injustices and disinvestment of the past and present so that Philadelphia’s Black and brown children can grow and thrive here. The places where kids go to learn, play, and create need to be accessible and safe. The School District of Philadelphia is responsible for ensuring that every school is one where students are supported and can learn. Schools need to be clean, healthy spaces. I will appoint school board members who are in lockstep with my vision for this long-term transformation, who put children first, and who will listen to school-based staff. I will ensure that students and families have all the support staff they need – social workers, counselors, school nurses, ESL teachers, reading specialists and special ed teachers. Parks, playgrounds, recreation centers, and libraries must expand hours and programs. We will need to work hard to ensure the city fills all its open positions with competent and caring adults. In short, our goal should be for SDP schools to look like the best suburban schools in the collar counties around Philadelphia. As mayor, I will fight to ensure that Harrisburg follows through on its responsibility to provide the funds necessary to make this happen. I will also ensure that our city’s resources are spent on their highest purpose to support these efforts.

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Note from The Kids Campaign: Mr. DeLeon submitted his response to our questionaire late and did not directly respond to each and every question.  Click Here to Download the document he has submitted.

I’m running for Mayor because our kids aren’t alright, and some of the biggest problems we are facing as a city stem from this disinvestment in whole generations of children and their neighborhoods. Philadelphia needs a proven fighter who has a real track record of improving people’s lives with a visionfor lifting up our residents. Going forward, we have to build a real anti-poverty mission where our government leans in.

It starts with the City budget. Our city and its residents need well-funded public schools, better sanitation services, and every resource at our disposal to keep communities healthy and safe. We need full-service libraries, parks, and recreation centers. We need to deliver city services that do more than just meet needs — the lighting up and cleaning up of our streets, sealing of vacant lots, and beautification of parks and green spaces is a proven antidote to violence.

The Biden agenda showed how the Child Tax Credit nearly cut child poverty in half. We should be exercising tax breaks to go to families in need. We can clear civil debt, provide care packages for new moms with guaranteed diaper banks and formula access, and better support food banks – because we have to end hunger.

It’s also about ensuring those in low-wage work have access to things that have traditionally lifted people up, like unionization and stable schedules. We can build on my anti-poverty initiatives that we passed into law on City Council, such as my nationally recognized Eviction Diversion Program and Fair Workweek. As Mayor, I’ll deliver a real anti-poverty agenda and a promise for economic opportunity and livability for all Philadelphians.

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The root cause of poverty is a lack of opportunity. So, when I’m mayor, I’ll be laser-focused on creating pathways to family-sustaining jobs and fixing our schools so that we’re making that opportunity available and breaking cycles of poverty for this new generation. That means job training to upskill our residents to help parents find and excel in family-sustaining jobs, making sure that every kid in Philadelphia has access to a high-quality neighborhood school and expanding hours and programming at library and rec centers throughout our city so those same kids have a safe place to be outside of the classroom that enriches their learning and wellbeing. Our goal will be to build a level of opportunity where our residents and their children can go beyond surviving to thriving. I’ve also released a plan for affordable housing to lessen housing insecurity for families struggling to make ends meet because every one of us, especially our kids, deserves the dignity of a roof over our heads.

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Note from The Kids Campaign: Mr. DeLeon submitted his response to our questionaire late and did not directly respond to each and every question.  Click Here to Download the document he has submitted.

I am the only mayoral candidate who will not only prioritize our public schools but has a plan to deliver the quality school that every child in every neighborhood needs. The City cannot reach its potential if it leaves its children further behind in our school system. Because Philadelphia is the only municipality in the Commonwealth without an elected and taxing empowered school district, it is the Mayor’s responsibility to bring the School District under the wing of the city government and for the city government to be accountable to the public schools.

As Mayor, my top priorities are improving literacy K-12, ensuring quality pre-K and broadening access to affordable child care, and addressing mental health and restorative supports in schools to help children and families address the trauma of the last several years. I intend to expand on the school safety zones I advocated for as a Councilmember, and focus on safety on public transit and safe routes to and from school. And finally, I am going to focus on at-risk youth and truancy to re-engage young people year round in order to see them through graduation.

As state teaching certifications plummet, I am Philadelphia’s loudest cheerleader for recruiting and retaining teachers and educational professionals. I have long supported grow your own programs for hiring and retention, and I want to put the full force of the city’s college, Community College of Philadelphia, to use on this front.

And finally, I am on a mission to modernize our public schools. I am proud to have led a clean water campaign that kickstarted a massive $500 million infrastructure investment in upgrading schools, but that must only be the start. Philadelphia’s population growth has been driven by new birth rates and immigration, both of which make public schooling a necessary and essential part of the City’s growthstrategy. A major investment in school modernization is a promise to Philadelphia families and a new generation that we are looking to our future.

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As a public school parent with a daughter in seventh grade, this issue is personal to me and is one I would take ownership of as Mayor. We need a school board that puts kids first. I’ll appoint school board members who are in lockstep with my vision for a long-term transformation of our school system and the high-quality education that all of Philadelphia’s students deserve, especially focusing on correcting the racial injustices and disinvestment of the past and present. Of course, I’ll fight for Philadelphia’s fair share of funding in Harrisburg. Still, I believe the city can best provide opportunities for our students and our teachers with investments and support from city agencies in our school building and our neighborhoods. I’ll ensure that our city agencies provide services in the schools to ensure safety within the building and classrooms and mental health and other wraparound services. I’ll also make sure that we’re dedicating the resources necessary to expand operating hours and programming at our libraries, parks and recreation centers so that our kids have a safe place to be outside of school hours that supports their academic success. On staffing, the school board needs to improve its systems to hire talented staff in a timely manner. Currently, schools in impoverished neighborhoods are struggling to find and retain staff. Our team is looking into ways to train current support staff at these schools to fill the teaching openings. Extra attention must be given to schools in our most impoverished zip codes.

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Note from The Kids Campaign: Mr. DeLeon submitted his response to our questionaire late and did not directly respond to each and every question.  Click Here to Download the document he has submitted.

Teachers deserve to be treated as experts in creating safe, healthy school environments — whether it’s modernizing schools district-wide to make every classroom a safe place to learn or guaranteeing safe passage to and from school. I will ensure that my administration works with teachers to fix hard problems,
treating them as assets — not adversaries. My long history of working with teacher and dedication to ensuring that they have a voice at the table in the next mayoral administration is why she earned the endorsement of the city’s teachers’ union.

I am the only mayoral candidate with a real plan to fully remediate, renovate, and modernize our school buildings so that teachers have a safe place to work. I will ensure the District dedicates $4 billion for a Green New Deal to transform Philadelphia schools over her first term. It will be a transformative start to bringing Philadelphia’s school facilities into the 21st Century. For far too long, the School District’s facilities planning process has been developed behind closed doors, with little oversight and input. Rather than allowing leaders to work in silos, I will bring together leaders who will forge a path through open communication, and joint planning and leadership. This coalition will include the Mayor, City Council, Superintendent of Schools, School District Chief Operating Officer, City Department of Planning and
Development, the Department of Public Health, the Department of Public Property, building trades leaders, environmental leaders, teachers, principals, maintenance workers, parents, caregivers, and community leaders.

I will ensure that working with communities and having authentic dialogues with families about their needs is essential to the project of leading a healthy, vibrant, and thriving Philadelphia. I believe that engaging teachers and communities is not just about more than just soliciting one-time feedback on already-crafted plans. It’s about who we are as a city and whether we shut the doors on families that bear the brunt of broken systems—or whether we bring everyone to the table to lift our young people up and make Philly the city that it can and should be.

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Teachers want good benefits, fair wages, and sustainable working conditions. I will appoint a school board that respects teachers, will ensure their contract is honored and will negotiate the most rewarding contract that is affordable to the School District of Philadelphia. I hear complaints from teachers and school-based staff of waste, especially in purchasing ineffective “programs” and consultants. They also complain that excessive paperwork leaves them frustrated and exhausted but does not foster learning for their students or make them more effective teachers. I will direct my school board to make sure teachers can focus on planning and executing lessons. That will attract the best candidates – either homegrown or from other states. Also, I will expand opportunities for Paraprofessionals to become teachers. In the SDP, most Paras are Black and brown women from Philadelphia neighborhoods. These women will make some of the best teachers for our kids. Research shows that all students benefit from having a Black teacher, and kids deserve to see someone who looks like them leading classrooms. Hard-working Paras who choose to become teachers have earned our respect and deserve assistance in quickly getting their degrees and certifications. The solution to the teacher crisis is right here in Philly.

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Note from The Kids Campaign: Mr. DeLeon submitted his response to our questionaire late and did not directly respond to each and every question.  Click Here to Download the document he has submitted.

On Council, I sponsored the Emergency Housing Protections Act, which kept Philadelphians housed during the COVID-19 pandemic by enacting a local eviction moratorium; an eviction diversion program; a temporary ban on late fees; and requiring tenants be provided the option of repayment plans to get back on track with rent. This legislation helped reduce evictions by 75 percent over two consecutive years and prevented tens of thousands of cases of COVID-19. (Co-sponsored with Councilmembers Gauthier and Brooks). We also developed and implemented Philadelphia’s renowned Eviction Diversion Program, the first mandatory pre-filing diversion program in the nation requiring landlords and renters to resolve disputes with the aid of housing counseling before an eviction can be filed. The program has a 93% success rate in avoiding evictions and has been replicated by cities and states around the nation. In 2021,
Philadelphia’s diversion program was lauded and recommended as a national model by the White House, U.S. Department of Justice, and the Treasury Department.

While this work was critical for protecting renters struggling to stay in their homes, we also need to recommit to housing as a human right, and look at how the city can evolve in its land use to build more affordable housing – and permanent affordable housing rather than short term fixes for people in crisis that don’t upend the cycle of displacement. As Mayor, I would prioritize use of public land for permanent affordable housing, a dedicated preservation fund to keep current homeowners in safe and modern housing and assist landlords to improve properties and protect renters from displacement, greater outreach on government programs, and assisting new homeowners with down payment assistance, credit support and clearing of consumer and student debt.

Additionally, I want to ensure that every child has access to quality healthcare options in their neighborhood by piloting programs that place healthcare professionals, particularly mental and behavioral health professionals, for sessions in recreation centers. I will also use my power as Mayor to work with Governor Shpairo and House Leader McClinton to get healthcare expansion, particularly expansion in CHIP, passed in the Commonwealth’s General Assembly.

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Families need more access to support – Social Workers, counselors, and doctors. The Rhynhart Administration would ensure that our city’s health centers have the hours, capacity and services necessary to meet the needs of the communities where they exist. In addition, we must ensure parents have access to excellent and affordable daycare and that working parents have access to and training for family-sustaining jobs. 

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Note from The Kids Campaign: Mr. DeLeon submitted his response to our questionaire late and did not directly respond to each and every question.  Click Here to Download the document he has submitted.

Research shows that investing in neighborhoods experiencing disproportionate amounts of violence has a direct impact on gun violence reduction. My plan for investing in communities across Philadelphia includes the much-needed delivery of services and physical improvements to city facilities, particularly the 57 blocks where the majority of violent incidents occur.

My vision for creating safe havens for Philadelphians, particularly youth living in neighborhoods with high rates of violence includes the following:

• Fully fund our libraries and recreation centers.
• Fill all vacancies across the Free Library of Philadelphia and the Parks and Recreation Department.
• Ensure that recreation centers and libraries are open on all nights and weekends, especially during the summer—no excuses.
• Station clinical social workers, housing counselors, and job counselors at recreation centers in the zip codes most impacted by gun violence after hours to help youth and families with family case management, connections to therapeutic interventions, general emotional support, and access to resources.
• Provide universal and ongoing training on strategies for gun violence interruption, conflict resolution, de-escalation and trauma-informed care approaches to all adults stationed in recreation centers.

Finally, as important as increased and stable funding, my administration will work with the Civil Service Board and unions to modernize our hiring process to ensure we can appropriately meet the public’s need for services.

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As Mayor, I will fully fund our parks, recreation centers and libraries. This investment is a crucial component of my administration’s long-term strategies to reduce gun violence, increase opportunity in our neighborhoods and improve the quality of education. Philadelphia has a great system of amenities that serves our citizens. As Mayor, I will ensure that we hire a full complement of staff, ramp up the days and hours those amenities are open and ensure that they are safe places for kids to learn, play and create beyond the classroom. I will also expand opportunities for teenage seasonal workers so that all elementary-age kids have safe places to have fun in the summer.

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Note from The Kids Campaign: Mr. DeLeon submitted his response to our questionaire late and did not directly respond to each and every question.  Click Here to Download the document he has submitted.

I helped champion legislation that created a specific and dedicated revenue stream for expanding free Pre-K education across the city. As Mayor, I will continue to advocate for increased resources for Philadelphia’s early childhood education system to ensure that every child has access to quality options. This includes fighting for increased wages for early childcare professionals because research shows that one of the most important factors in the future academic success of a child is the quality of their teacher.

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The City of Philadelphia should expand access to pre-K opportunities. High-quality pre-K will prepare students with the fundamentals that will help them learn in the early elementary school years. Investing in kids today is an investment in the future of Philadelphia for decades to come. Pre-K also gives parents a nurturing and supportive environment to care for their children while at work. One way we can ensure that pre-K gets the resources it needs is to ensure the revenue from the soda tax is kept in an account separate from the general fund so that every dollar of revenue goes to its intended purpose, which includes pre-K.

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Note from The Kids Campaign: Mr. DeLeon submitted his response to our questionaire late and did not directly respond to each and every question.  Click Here to Download the document he has submitted.

I know that in order for our residents to qualify for careers with opportunities for growth that provide family-sustaining wages, Philadelphia must do a better job of workforce development and job training. There is currently a large gap between the skills that city businesses need to grow and thrive, and the workforce development pipeline that empowers Philadelphians to build their skills to meet modern employment opportunities.

As Mayor, I will expand the number and increase the quality of career and technical training programs that set students up for good union jobs and bright futures. Programs like the District’s new CTE program at Strawberry Mansion have started the process of placing children into the pipeline for the building trades. As the District transforms its buildings, it must accelerate and expand programs like this, developing a growing cohort of Philadelphia graduates with practical, hands-on learning experiences in Philadelphia schools, dedicated to servicing Philadelphia school building issues. I also plan to utilize the city’s numerous post-secondary educational institutions like the Community College of Philadelphia to provide workforce development opportunities for high schoolers looking to grow their skills and be prepared for post-secondary opportunities.

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The city should expand training for recreation center lifeguards and summer camp assistant counselors throughout the year. This training is a win-win because it gives kids fun, safe places to play in the summer while teens can earn money, learn new skills, and keep busy. The SDP has a system that tracks teens to ensure they are college bound or entering a trade. We must redouble our efforts to make sure that every young person who chooses higher education graduates from college. For those who choose not to be college-bound, we must have strong pathways for them to acquire the training they need to excel in the trades or emerging technical industries. My administration will engage with unions, private companies, Eds and Meds, and the city government to connect students with job opportunities throughout the Philadelphia area.

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Note from The Kids Campaign: Mr. DeLeon submitted his response to our questionaire late and did not directly respond to each and every question.  Click Here to Download the document he has submitted.

As a City Councilmember, I wrote a youth anti-violence strategy, and as Mayor I intend to finish that work. With more than 4,000 young people moving through the Juvenile Justice Services Center each and every year, I am focused on targeted interventions for youth and their families who are in the path of
violence. This means new discharge programs that involve parents and guardians as well as different agencies from the city and School District to have a restorative home-school-employment plan that meets young people’s needs when they are returning from juvenile facilities. Additionally, my goal on day one is to increase the number of youth in high-crime neighborhoods who have jobs and opportunities that keep them off the streets and help them build leadership skills and a resume. I am prioritizing a city-led effort with community partnerships to ensure visible safe routes to and from schools twice a day so no parent has to fear that their child could be harmed while getting an education.

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We need to provide a safe environment for our students, faculty, and staff while simultaneously offering a compassionate response to students who are struggling. Therefore, I support efforts to reduce suspensions and the Philadelphia Police School Diversion Program. This program diverts students who commit low-level offenses on school property into programs that provide wraparound services offering these students genuine support with the goal of behavior change. The mayor appoints the school board and the police commissioner. Thus, I would select appointees who share my priority to have a robust diversion program that keeps our youth in school and out of prison. Our goal as a city should be to help young people and their families get back on track so they can grow up to be productive members of society. Teenagers belong in school and need a high school diploma to have the options that will lead them to successful livelihoods. The Community College of Philadelphia has programs for students close to graduation but haven’t yet crossed the finish line. The Rhynhart Administration will work with CCP to enhance its efforts to help these young adults get on track.

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Note from The Kids Campaign: Mr. DeLeon submitted his response to our questionaire late and did not directly respond to each and every question.  Click Here to Download the document he has submitted.

I have long been an advocate for climate justice, particularly as it pertains to children and our schools. When I joined Council in 2016, I held town halls with students as young as middle school who spoke about the terrible quality of water in their schools – or limited access to it. I swiftly passed legislation to require annual testing of water in our public schools, and the School District invested $1 million to install at least three modern filtered water hydration stations in every public school. This was not only one of the first citywide school modernization efforts in the District in years – it was one of the most popular as well. Before resigning from City Council to run for Mayor, I made sure that the legacy of my work alongside environmental and health justice advocates to ensure clean water for our young people lived on, passing
legislation requiring the School District to replace all of its old drinking fountains with lead-filtering hydration stations by 2025, and mandating that each school have one of those lead-filtering fountains for every 100 students.

I want to continue this work as your next Mayor and one of my top priorities will be building a municipal Green New Deal for the City. Re-envisioning the future of our public gas utility, modernizing public transit, stabilizing and retrofitting aging homes, modernizing our public schools, and greening and cooling neighborhoods are central to my vision.

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The mayor of Philadelphia plays a crucial role in preparing our residents for the impact of climate change and moving us toward a more sustainable future. The mayor should be the city’s chief advocate for moving the city towards achieving our sustainability goals. 

Firstly, the Rhynhart Administration will take steps to aggressively reduce our carbon footprint to achieve our citywide goal of carbon neutrality by 2050. As mayor, I will direct city agencies to lead by example on this issue by coordinating our city departments and investing in sustainability strategies such as green infrastructure to address flooding problems in Southwest Philadelphia. In addition, my administration will leverage the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act funds to complete the much-needed levee in the Eastwick neighborhood to mitigate future flooding.

We will also continue to fund basic systems repair programs to help families weatherize their homes and transition to more efficient appliances. The mayor can also encourage residents to pursue existing federal tax incentives that enable individuals to install clean energy systems in their homes.

My administration will work with SEPTA to improve our transit systems, transition our city’s fleet of municipal vehicles to all-electric powered, expand our electric charging infrastructure, and enforce laws against illegal idling to reduce emissions. In addition, I will coordinate a citywide initiative between departments such as Water, Parks and Recreation, and Streets to expand and preserve our tree canopy. I would also establish a public dashboard to transparently track progress toward achieving our tree canopy benchmarks. 

We must also manage energy use in the city-owned buildings, including our prisons, by installing energy-efficient insulation, making necessary building repairs, fixing windows, investing in energy-efficient appliances and lighting, and overall making improvements to lower our carbon footprint.

Lastly, we should explore our capacity as a city to install solar panels and utilize green roofs on city-owned buildings to decrease our carbon footprint further.

These are only some examples of ways the mayor can use her authority to lead in preparing our residents for climate change, ensuring that our city is resilient in the face of these impacts and moving us closer to sustainability. In addition, the Rhynhart Administration will have a renewed focus on energy efficiency in every city department.

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Note from The Kids Campaign: Mr. DeLeon submitted his response to our questionaire late and did not directly respond to each and every question.  Click Here to Download the document he has submitted.

When I was first elected to the City Council nearly eight years ago, one of the very first steps that my office took was planning and facilitating community listening sessions with School District of Philadelphia students. During these sessions, I heard from students who felt unheard and wanted a city government that worked with and for them – not against them. They spoke about experiencing dirty, crumbling school buildings with bugs and asbestos and no access to clean water and healthy foods. It was out of these listening sessions that some of my most critical legislation was born – getting clean water hydration stations with filters on every floor of every school in the district.

As Mayor, I will continue to engage youth in legislative decisions and build out a governing structure that includes regular listening sessions with children and students from across the city of Philadelphia. Young Philadelphians deserve to be heard and we must engage them to build a city where they want to work and
live for not just the next 5 years, but for the next 50 years. That is how we will build a stronger and better
Philadelphia.

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As the former Controller of Philadelphia,  I led by collecting input from stakeholders and community members to get a clear picture of the problems we face, build consensus on a vision for moving forward and make recommendations to the mayor’s office for improvements. Kids and teens must have a say in what happens in the public spaces that serve them, including schools, recreation centers and libraries. Every city agency solicits feedback from those they serve, and feedback must be analyzed so it may inform decision-making. Under a Rhynhart Administration, we will be hands-on with each department in the city – I expect departments to report to me about how they can efficiently and effectively serve the needs of all Philadelphians.