Can you believe it? The year 2023 is now just a memory, and oh, what a memory it is. So much happened in 2023 that it’s hard to recall all of it. However, here are the highlights from where I sit.
To me, one of the biggest news stories out of Philadelphia in 2023 is that a poor little Black girl who was raised by her grandparents in Northwest Philadelphia has gone on to become the 100th Mayor of the city of Philadelphia and its first woman Mayor. That’s big news. It was big news when Cherelle Parker won the primary back in May of 2023 and even bigger news when she won the general election on November 7, 2023–beating out at least 4 millionaires. It was like David against Goliath and we all know how that story ended. Parker bested people with way more funds on hand than she had; however, as the story goes, this is Cherelle Parker’s time.
Another big story out of Philly in 2023 was the crime; once again, while Philly Police stats show that overall crime is down, it’s still up enough that more than 405 people were murdered in Philadelphia in 2023.
In February 2023, Temple Police Officer Christopher Fitzgerald, 31, was murdered while trying to stop youth from the suburbs who allegedly came into Philadelphia looking for trouble. A month later, Temple University’s still new president, Jason Wingard, resigned from his job because of pressure from some of the powers that be (connected to Temple) who deemed Wingard wasn’t doing a good job.
In March, in Philadelphia, city residents were faced with a tap water scare. Due to a latex chemical leak in Bucks County that had Philadelphia officials warned folk who live in the city to drink bottled water over concerns the substance could taint the city’s drinking water supply.
During the month of May, two men, Ameen Hurst and Nasir Grant, broke out of the Philadelphia Industrial Prison on Street Road in the Northeast section of Philadelphia. Both men were recaptured within two weeks.
Remember the smoky haze hovering over the tri-state area in June? That relates to wildfires all the way in Canada. The smoke clouds in Philadelphia during this time were thick at times. If you went outside in the air, you could feel a heaviness over your chest. Philadelphians were barely able to catch their breath from dealing with the smoke and haze over our city when another critical situation unfolded and that was a collapse of a portion of I-95.
An oil tanker flipped and caught fire under the highway, which is what adversely impacted I-95. The driver of the eighteen-wheeler, Nathaniel Moody, lost his life in the crash. Movers and shakers at all levels of government rushed to the site to help get that important piece of roadway back up and operating as soon as possible. President Joe Biden made a visit because of the I-95 emergency, as did U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg. Governor Josh Shapiro was front and center, charging union crews to work around the clock in a live stream situation so that anyone who wanted to watch the repairs being made could. The crews cleared the debris, backfilled the empty portion of the highway with glass aggregate bricks, and miracle of miracles, were able to reopen I-95 less than two weeks after the collapse.
July 3rd, all hell broke loose in Southwest Philadelphia, bringing national attention to our city because of a mass shooting. Police say there was a barrage of gunfire that started around 8:30 p.m. when officers were flagged down at the intersection of 56th and Chester streets in Kingsessing. The person arrested after being identified as the suspect was Kimbrady Carriker. Investigators say he was wearing a bulletproof vest equipped with multiple magazines and armed with an AR-style rifle and a handgun. He also allegedly had a police scanner with him when he was arrested. After searching his home, other weapons were found. The rampage claimed the lives of five people, including a man who was found dead inside a home near the scene in the hours following the shooting. Police believe the victim was the first one who was shot to death by the suspect.
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