New Philly Mayor: Politicos Can No Longer Park on the City Hall Sidewalk

The Jim Kenney administration is off to a promising start in Philadelphia. One of the mayor’s first acts in office was to end the thoroughly obnoxious practice of letting government honchos park on the sidewalk “apron” around City Hall — a public space.

There was a Tumblr dedicated to chronicling this highly visible abuse of government privilege. And ending the practice was on the wish list of urbanist political action group the Fifth Square. During his campaign, Kenney, a former council member, promised to get the cars off the sidewalk.

On Monday — his first day in office — Kenney said his administration would begin enforcing the long-ignored rule against parking on the apron.

“It’s public space, and should be used as public space,” a spokesperson for the Mayor told Philly Magazine.

Jon Geeting of Plan Philly told Streetsblog that while the value of this change is mostly symbolic, it’s still very encouraging.

“There’s a lot of politician entitlement around being able to park directly next to City Hall,” he said. “I think it’s sort of refreshing that Kenney’s setting the tone early that that’s not going to be the way he operates.”