The Best Thing That Happened This Week: Kenney and the Subway

Mayor-elect Jim Kenney. | Photo by Holly Otterbein

The morning after Election Day, mayor-elect Jim Kenney took the subway to Andrew Jackson Elementary School in South Philly and then took questions from reporters. Among those posed to Kenney, who served for 23 years on City Council before resigning to run for the mayor’s job, was how he planned to stay in touch with the common folk now that he’s a BFD. Kenney pulled a subway token out of his pocket and noted that he’s already told his pick for police commish that he’ll need a security detail that doesn’t mind turnstiles. (More than a decade ago, Kenney was pushing to extend the Broad Street Line south to the Navy Yard — and he’s still pushing for it. The last three mayors have all used city-provided cars and drivers to get around town.) Then he promised free pre-K to every kid in the city, stole the chair of a little girl named Celeste Dwyer, and took the subway back up to Center City for lunch. It was an auspicious start for the guy charged with steering a steady course between rowhouse Philly and the craft-beer crowd. Who doesn’t love the Broad Street Line?

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