James Francis "Jim" Kenney (born August 7, 1958) is an American Democratic politician, former member of the City Council of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and the Mayor of the City of Philadelphia. He was the Democratic nominee for Mayor of Philadelphia in the 2015 election, having won the crowded primary election by a landslide on May 19, 2015. On November 3, 2015 he was elected Mayor of Philadelphia, defeating his Republican rival Melissa Murray Bailey.
Kenney, who was first elected to the Philadelphia City Council in 1991, held his At-Large Council seat for 23 years from January 1992 until January 29, 2015, when he resigned from the City Council to launch his candidacy for Mayor of Philadelphia.
Jim Kenney was the heavy favorite in a largely Democratic city so it comes as no surprise his election as the city's new mayor turned out to be a cakewalk.
Throughout his campaign, mayor-elect Kenney emphasized some of his priorities for the city: education, community policing and building the city's economy.
The at-large city councilman has long prided himself in building a consensus to getting things done, and he is hoping to continue that philosophy as the city's mayor.
After delivering his victory speech on Tuesday night, Kenney spoke with Action News about the type of administration he wants to build.
"In the end, I'm confident that the people of the city will like the way our government looks from a diversity standpoint, from a gender standpoint, an ethnicity standpoint and an ability standpoint," said Kenney.
When asked what his top priority is, Kenney answered, "Poverty, it's no doubt about it, and everything hinges on it. Pre-K, jobs that pay living wages, people returning from prison - all those issues are tied up in our poverty problem.
"And, again, the largest poverty number in the country as far as big cities are concerned, and we should be embarrassed about that and work every day as best we can to fix it," he added.
Kenney's challenger, Melissa Murray Bailey, was very upbeat and smiling during her concession speech.
Bailey said she's proud she put a new face on Philadelphia's Republican Party talking about real issues to build a better city.
Incumbent Democratic party Mayor Michael Nutter could not run for re-election to a third consecutive term due to term limits in the city's home rule charter. Registered Democrats hold a formidable 7-to-1 ratio over registered Republicans in Philadelphia, giving Democratic candidates a distinct advantage in citywide elections. The mayoral primary elections were held on May 19, 2015. Democrats nominated Jim Kenney as their party's nominee. Kenney won the primary in a landslide with 55.83% of the vote, defeating a crowded field of five other Democratic candidates, including Anthony H. Williams and former District Attorney Lynn Abraham. Republican Melissa Murray Bailey, a business executive, ran unopposed for the Republican nomination. Kenney won a whopping 85.1% of the vote. Kenney was inaugurated as the 99th Mayor of Philadelphia on January 4th, 2016.
Kenney proposed the a city-wide soda tax that would raise the price of soda at three cents per ounce.At the time, it was the biggest soda tax proposal in the United States. Kenney promoted using tax revenue to fund universal pre-K, jobs, and development projects, which he expected would raise $400 million over five years, all the while reducing sugar intake by decreasing the demand for sugary beverages Kenney's soda tax proposal was brought to the national spotlight and divided key members of the Democratic Party. The idea of a soda tax quickly became a national issue. Candidates in the 2016 United States presidential election gave their take. Senator Bernie Sanders said that the tax would hurt the poor. Hillary Clinton, on the other hand, said that she was "very supportive" of the idea.The lobbying organization American Beverage Association took a stand against Kenney's proposal. The trade organization, funded by soda companies and distributers, ran local television, radio, and newspaper advertisements against the idea, claiming that the tax would disproportionately hurt the poor. The American Heart Association, on the other hand, has supported Kenney's efforts. On June 16, 2016, the soda tax passed with a 13-4 vote from City Council. The initial proposal of three cents per ounce was lowered to 1.5 cents per ounce. The tax will be implemented at the start of the 2017 calendar year.
Philadelphia
Philadelphia, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the fifth-most populous in the United States, with an estimated population in 2014 of 1,560,297. In the Northeastern United States, at the confluence of the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers, Philadelphia is the economic and cultural anchor of the Delaware Valley, a metropolitan area home to 7.2 million people and the eighth-largest combined statistical area in the United States.
In 1682, William Penn founded the city to serve as capital of the Pennsylvania Colony.Philadelphia played an instrumental role in the American Revolution as a meeting place for the Founding Fathers of the United States, who signed the Declaration of Independence in 1776 and the Constitution in 1787. Philadelphia was one of the nation's capitals in the Revolutionary War, and served as temporary U.S. capital while Washington, D.C., was under construction. In the 19th century, Philadelphia became a major industrial center and railroad hub that grew from an influx of European immigrants. It became a prime destination for African-Americans in the Great Migration and surpassed two million occupants by 1950.
Based on the similar shifts underway the nation's economy in the late 1960s Philadelphia experienced a loss of manufacturing companies and jobs to lower taxed regions of the USA and often overseas. As a result, the economic base of Philadelphia, which had historically been manufacturing, declined significantly. In addition, consolidation in several American industries (retailing, financial services and health care in particular) reduced the number of companies headquartered in Philadelphia. The economic impact of these changes would reduce Philadelphia's tax base and the resources of local government. Philadelphia struggled through a long period of adjustment to these economic changes, coupled with significant demographic change as wealthier residents moved into the nearby suburbs and more immigrants moved into the city. The city in fact approached bankruptcy in the late 1980s. Revitalization began in the late 1990s, with gentrification turning around many neighborhoods and reversing its decades-long trend of population loss.
The area's many universities and colleges make Philadelphia a top international study destination, as the city has evolved into an educational and economic hub. With a gross domestic product of $388 billion, Philadelphia ranks ninth among world cities and fourth in the nation. Philadelphia is the center of economic activity in Pennsylvania and is home to seven Fortune 1000 companies. The Philadelphia skyline is growing, with several nationally prominent skyscrapers. The city is known for its arts, culture, and history, attracting over 39 million domestic tourists in 2013. Philadelphia has more outdoor sculptures and murals than any other American city, and Fairmount Park is the largest landscaped urban park in the world. The 67 National Historic Landmarks in the city helped account for the $10 billion generated by tourism. Philadelphia is the birthplace of the United States Marine Corps, and is also the home of many U.S. firsts, including the first library (1731), first hospital and medical school (1765), first Capitol (1777), first stock exchange (1790), first zoo (1874), and first business school (1881). Philadelphia is the only World Heritage City in the United States.
Gregory John "Greg" Stanton (born March 8, 1970) is an American politician who serves as Mayor of Phoenix. He won the November 8, 2011 runoff election to succeed term-limited mayor Phil Gordon. Stanton, a Democrat and former Phoenix City Council member who represented areas of north Phoenix, defeated Republican political consultant/lobbyist Wes Gullett after a contentious campaign that resulted in large election turnout. Stanton was sworn in as 59th Mayor of Phoenix in January 2012. Under his leadership, Phoenix became the first community in the country to end homelessness among military veterans.
Since taking office in 2012, Mayor Greg Stanton has worked tirelessly to build a modern economy that works for every Phoenix family. By boosting trade with Mexico, investing in the biosciences, and lifting up local small business, Stanton is leading the way to create an innovation-based, export economy built to last.
Stanton is committed to making our community a more welcoming and open place. Under his leadership, Phoenix became the first U.S. city to end chronic homelessness among veterans. Phoenix also earned national recognition as a leader on LGBT issues, and became the first Arizona city to earn a perfect score on the Human Rights Campaign's municipal equality index.
Stanton attended Marquette University on the Harry S. Truman Scholarship, and earned a law degree from the University of Michigan. Before he was elected to his first term mayor in 2011, Stanton served nine years on the City Council and as Arizona's Deputy Attorney General.
In 2015, Stanton won reelection and also successfully led one of the most ambitious transportation initiatives in the country – a plan that will triple Phoenix's light rail system over the next 35 years. In his second term, Stanton will
During his 2011 campaign for mayor, questions arose of the legality of near $70,000 in contributions from Stanton's former treasurer Mindy Shields. Stanton opposed the embezzlement prosecution of Shields and fired her in October 2010.
On August 30, 2011, Stanton and Republican candidate Wes Gullett were the top two candidates in the Phoenix mayoral primary, with Stanton getting about 38% of the vote and Gullett 20%.
Greg Stanton briefs reporters at a press conference at City Hall.
Stanton advocated against the 2013 federal budget sequestration by meeting with members of Congress multiple times.
Mayor Stanton was re-elected on August 25, 2015.
In an interview a few weeks after the November 2011 election, Stanton stated his support for repealing the city food tax. Stanton also supported public pension reforms including more employee contributions to their own retirement funds and longer work experience before retirement benefits.However, in March 2013, Stanton decided against repealing the food tax due to projections that ending the tax would cause layoffs of nearly 99 police officers and 300 other city employees.
Phoenix
Phoenix,is the capital, and largest city, of the U.S. state of Arizona. With 1,563,025 people (as of 2015), Phoenix is the sixth most populous city nationwide, the most populous state capital in the United States, and the only state capital with a population of more than 1 million residents.
Phoenix is the anchor of the Phoenix metropolitan area, also known as the Valley of the Sun, which in turn is a part of the Salt River Valley. The metropolitan area is the 12th largest by population in the United States, with approximately 4.3 million people as of 2010. In addition, Phoenix is the county seat of Maricopa County and is one of the largest cities in the United States by land area.
Settled in 1867 as an agricultural community near the confluence of the Salt and Gila Rivers, Phoenix incorporated as a city in 1881. Located in the northeastern reaches of the Sonoran Desert, Phoenix has a subtropical desert climate. Despite this, its canal system led to a thriving farming community, many of the original crops remaining important parts of the Phoenix economy for decades, such as alfalfa, cotton, citrus, and hay (which was important for the cattle industry). In fact, the "Five C's" (Cotton, Cattle, Citrus, Climate, and Copper), remained the driving forces of Phoenix's economy until after World War II, when high-tech industries began to move into the valley and air conditioning made residences much more comfortable in the very hot summers.
The city averaged a 4 percent annual population growth rate over a 40-year period from the mid-1960s to the mid-2000s. This growth rate slowed during the Great Recession of 2007–09, and has rebounded slowly. Phoenix is the cultural center of the Valley of the Sun, as well as the entire state.
Ivy Ruth Taylor (born June 17, 1970) is the mayor of San Antonio, Texas. She is a nonpartisan officeholder, although she is registered as a Democrat. She is also the first African American to be elected mayor of San Antonio and only the second woman in the position. In addition, Taylor is the first female African American mayor of a city with a population of over 1 million, making San Antonio the largest city in the U.S. to have a female African American mayor.
Ivy R. Taylor was elected Mayor of San Antonio on June 13, 2015, and prior to that, she was appointed to the office of Mayor in July, 2014. Mayor Taylor had served as the District 2 City Council Representative for a total of five years beginning with her election in June, 2009.
Mayor Taylor led the community through a series of “Eastside Summit” activities that paved the way for the current Eastside Promise Neighborhood and Wheatley Choice Neighborhood grants as well as the Federal Promise Zone designation for the Eastside. Through her leadership, the Eastside has been awarded close to $100 million in grants for its revitalization efforts.
During her time representing District 2, Mayor Taylor earned the respect of both her colleagues and the business community. When then-Mayor Julian Castro resigned in the summer of 2014, her stature among her colleagues led to her appointment as Mayor of San Antonio, per the charter’s requirements following a vacancy of the mayor’s office.
That appointment singled her out as the first African American woman to serve as Mayor of San Antonio. It also made San Antonio the largest city in the United States to have an African American woman serving as mayor.
candidacy for re-election on February 16, 2015. In the San Antonio mayoral election held on May 9, 2015, no candidate received a majority of the vote. A runoff election was held on June 13 between Taylor and her remaining rival, Leticia Van de Putte, a liberal Democratic former member of the Texas Senate and the Texas House of Representatives. Though Van de Putte narrowly led the field in the first round of balloting, Taylor went on to win, 51.7%–48.3%, and hence retain her position as mayor for a full two-year term.
In 2013, while on the city council, Taylor voted against a nondiscrimination ordinance approved by the council that would expand the city’s then current nondiscrimination policy to prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity and veteran status. Upon taking office as mayor in 2014, Taylor developed and created the city's Office of Diversity and Inclusion to handle complaints under the city's non-discrimination regulations and to facilitate resolution of these disputes. She also helped to kill a streetcar system for downtown San Antonio, which many fiscal conservatives had opposed.
On January 14, 2016, the city council voted to enact an ordinance which gives Taylor immunity from any of her actions that may have been in violation of the city ethics code. The council majority said that Taylor had technical violations but did not intend to break the code. She and her husband, Rodney, accepted Section 8 vouchers through the San Antonio Housing Authority (SAHA), even though she is forbidden from receiving the vouchers because the mayor has direct control over SAHA.
In April 2016, Taylor voiced backing for a proposed downtown baseball stadium to house a Triple-A team, now the Colorado Springs Sky Sox of Colorado Springs, Colorado. Team owner David G. Elmore plans to relocate in 2019. The proposed stadium would be financed in part with public funds. No cost amount has been finalized.
On June 16, 2016, Taylor was booed in San Antonio as she attempted to lead a prayer for families of the forty-nine victims of the 2016 Orlando nightclub shooting, which occurred the preceding weekend. A sign held by an LGBT activist, read, “You can’t use your religion to oppress us and then use your prayers to console us."
Taylor received the San Antonio Business Journal's "40 under 40" Rising Star award in 2004.
Taylor's husband, Rodney Taylor, operates a bail bonds business in San Antonio and has one daughter, Morgan.The Taylors live in the Dignowity Hill neighborhood on the east side of the city.
Since 2009, Taylor has served as a guest lecturer at the University of Texas at San Antonio College of Public Policy.
San Antonio
San Antonio, officially the City of San Antonio, is the seventh most populated city in the United States of America and the second most populated city in the state of Texas, with a population of 1,409,019. It was the fastest growing of the top 10 largest cities in the United States from 2000 to 2010, and the second from 1990 to 2000. The city straddles Central Texas and South Texas and is on the southwestern corner of an urban megaregion known as the Texas Triangle.
San Antonio serves as the seat of Bexar County. Recent annexations have extended the city's boundaries into Medina County and, though for only a very tiny area near the city of Garden Ridge, into Comal County.The city has characteristics of other western urban centers in which there are sparsely populated areas and a low density rate outside of the city limits. San Antonio is the center of the San Antonio–New Braunfels Metropolitan Statistical Area. Commonly referred to as Greater San Antonio, the metropolitan area has a population of nearly 2.4 million based on the 2015 US Census estimate, making it the 25th-largest metropolitan area in the United States and third-largest in the state of Texas. Growth along the Interstate 35 and Interstate 10 corridors to the north, west and east make it likely that the metropolitan area will continue to expand.
San Antonio was named for Saint Anthony of Padua, whose feast day is on June 13, by a 1691 Spanish expedition in the area. It is notable for Spanish colonial missions, the Alamo, the River Walk, the Tower of the Americas, the Alamo Bowl, and Marriage Island. Commercial entertainment includes SeaWorld and Six Flags Fiesta Texas theme parks, and according to the San Antonio Convention and Visitors Bureau, the city is visited by about 32 million tourists a year. The city is home to the five-time NBA champion San Antonio Spurs and hosts the annual San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo, one of the largest such events in the country.
The US armed forces have numerous facilities in San Antonio: Fort Sam Houston, Lackland Air Force Base, Randolph Air Force Base (which constitute Joint Base San Antonio), and Lackland AFB/Kelly Field Annex, with Camp Bullis and Camp Stanley located outside the city. Kelly Air Force Base operated out of San Antonio until 2001, when the airfield was transferred to Lackland AFB. The remaining portions of the base were developed as Port San Antonio, an industrial/business park. San Antonio is home to six Fortune 500 companies and the South Texas Medical Center, the only medical research and care provider in the South Texas region.
The missions of the San Antonio Missions National Historical Park along with the Alamo, became part of UNESCO's World Heritage Sites on July 5, 2015. The San Antonio Missions became the 23rd U.S. site on the World Heritage List, which includes the Grand Canyon and the Statue of Liberty.
Kevin Faulconer (born January 24, 1967) is the mayor of San Diego, California. He was elected in a special election in February 2014 and is serving the balance of his predecessor's term, through the end of 2016. He was sworn in as mayor on March 3, 2014. On June 7, 2016, he won re-election to a second term.
Prior to his election as mayor, Faulconer served as a San Diego City Council member representing City Council District 2. He served on the council from January 2006 to March 2014, including two years as the council president pro tem, the number two leadership position on the council.He is a Republican, although local government positions are officially nonpartisan per California state law.
Faulconer was born and raised in Oxnard, California, where he learned to speak Spanish in grade school. Graduating from San Diego State University in 1990, he was a member of the Kappa Sigma fraternity, and served one year as Student Body President of Associated Students. He and his wife Katherine, a small business owner, live in Point Loma with their two children. Before running for office he was an executive with the public relations firm NCG Porter Novelli and volunteered on the Mission Bay Park Committee.
In September 2013 Faulconer entered the race to succeed mayor Bob Filner in the special election. He was endorsed by the local Republican Party and by former Mayor Jerry Sanders, now president of the San Diego Chamber of Commerce. Faulconer was also endorsed by former San Diego city attorney and mayoral candidate Mike Aguirre, a Democrat. He campaigned both in English and Spanish.
In the election held November 19, 2013 he received 43.58 percent of the vote and advanced to a runoff election against fellow city councilmember David Alvarez in February 2014. He was elected mayor on February 11 with 54.5% of the vote. He was sworn in on March 3, 2014.
In August 2014 he vetoed a measure passed by the City Council which would increase the minimum wage in San Diego. The Council overrode his veto by a vote of 6 to 2. However, implementation of the measure was delayed by a successful signature drive led by business groups, forcing a public referendum on the issue in June 2016.
A major issue during his first term has been a bid by the San Diego Chargers to move to the Los Angeles area. Faulconer has campaigned strongly to keep the Chargers in San Diego and has proposed that the city build a new stadium, financed in part by the city and county governments.
In 2015 he declared his intention to run for a second term in 2016. There will be a primary election in June 2016; if no one receives a majority of the votes, a runoff will be held in November. In January 2016, former state assemblywoman Lori Saldaña announced she would run against Faulconer.
San Diego
San Diego, is a major city in California, on the coast of the Pacific Ocean in Southern California, approximately 120 miles (190 km) south of Los Angeles and immediately adjacent to the border with Mexico.
With an estimated population of 1,394,928 as of July 1, 2015, San Diego is the eighth-largest city in the United States and second-largest in California. It is part of the San Diego–Tijuana conurbation, the second-largest transborder agglomeration between the US and a bordering country after Detroit–Windsor, with a population of 4,922,723 people. San Diego is the birthplace of California and is known for its mild year-round climate, natural deep-water harbor, extensive beaches, long association with the United States Navy and recent emergence as a healthcare and biotechnology development center.
Historically home to the Kumeyaay people, San Diego was the first site visited by Europeans on what is now the West Coast of the United States. Upon landing in San Diego Bay in 1542, Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo claimed the entire area for Spain, forming the basis for the settlement of Alta California 200 years later. The Presidio and Mission San Diego de Alcalá, founded in 1769, formed the first European settlement in what is now California. In 1821, San Diego became part of the newly-independent Mexico, which reformed as the First Mexican Republic two years later. In 1850, it became part of the United States following the Mexican–American War and the admission of California to the union.
The city is the seat of San Diego County and is the economic center of the region as well as the San Diego–Tijuana metropolitan area. San Diego's main economic engines are military and defense-related activities, tourism, international trade, and manufacturing. The presence of the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), with the affiliated UCSD Medical Center, has helped make the area a center of research in biotechnology.
