April 17, 2021

Dear Constituent: 

Please join me and community leaders for my latest Peace Not Guns Call-To-Action meeting this Monday, April 19  starting at 4 p.m. at the D. Finnegan Playground, 30th and Wharton Streets, in South Philadelphia.   

This will be the fourth in a series of community conversations that I am holding at recreation centers throughout the Second District from now until September. These conversations will allow residents to share their suggestions on ways to stop the violence and increase the peace in Philadelphia. This series of conversations helps me form my public safety requests for the upcoming Fiscal Year 2022 (FY 2022) operating budget, which starts on July 1.

Thank you to the more than 200 people who have come out to my first three events so far. 

We can reduce the murder rate in Philadelphia, but we all must work together. So please join me at the D. Finnegan Playground on April 19 so that we can begin the work together.  

As of April 15, 146 people have been murdered in Philadelphia, a 33 percent increase compared to this same time last year. A total of 499 people were killed in Philadelphia in 2020, one of the highest numbers of homicides in decades. Shootings involving children have skyrocketed in Philadelphia in 2020 and that pace continues this year.   


If you have a suggestion about how to reduce the number of murders in Philadelphia, please go to https://phlcouncil.com/kenyattajohnson/ and share them with me.

My office remains in operation during the pandemic to deal with calls from the public. Call my office at 215-686-3412/3413 between 8:30 a.m. and 5 p.m. Monday-Friday. Leave a message in our voicemail and someone from my staff will get back to you as soon as possible. Also, send emails to our office via my City Council website at https://phlcouncil.com/kenyattajohnson/


The Philadelphia Health Department has announced that the city is now in Phase 2 of our COVID19 vaccination plan, meaning everyone age 16 and older are now eligible to receive the COVID19 vaccine. Please get your COVID19 vaccine as soon as possible, wear a mask, please practice social distancing, and limit social contact as much as possible. 

We will get through 2021 together. 

Sincerely,
Kenyatta Johnson
Councilmember--Second District
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South Philadelphia community leader Gwen Toler (right) told the crowd at the Peace Not Guns Call-to-Action event on April 7 at Hawthorne Recreation Center in South Philadelphia about how her then 18-year-old grandson was shot in November 2020 on the same recreation center basketball court that Councilman Johnson held his rally. 

Ms. Toler's grandson and another then 14-year-old boy were shot at the Hawthorne Recreation Center basketball court that same day. Both survived, but as Ms. Toler says, enough is enough with gun violence in Philadelphia.


(Photo credit: Vincent Thompson, Councilmember Kenyatta Johnson office)
Room 580
Philadelphia City Hall