Editing Jim Kenney (section)

== Crisis Management ==

Kenney's administration was defined by multiple overlapping crises. The [[Opioid Crisis]] had been building for years before he took office but reached devastating proportions during his tenure. Kensington, the North Philadelphia neighborhood at the epidemic's epicenter, became national news for its open-air drug markets and visibly suffering population. Kenney's administration pursued harm reduction approaches including a controversial proposal for supervised injection sites, which was blocked by federal courts. The opioid crisis continued to claim hundreds of lives annually despite intervention efforts.<ref name="inquirer"/>

The [[COVID-19 Pandemic in Philadelphia]] presented unprecedented challenges. Kenney's administration imposed restrictions on businesses and gatherings, distributed vaccines, and managed public health response under constantly changing conditions. The pandemic exposed and exacerbated existing inequalities; Black and Latino communities suffered disproportionately from both illness and economic disruption. The administration's pandemic response drew criticism from multiple directions—some thought restrictions too severe, others thought them inadequate—reflecting the impossible balancing acts that pandemic governance required.<ref name="bloomberg"/>