Mayor Jim Kenney says scheduled street cleaning will be back in every neighborhood in the city by the time his second term, which began yesterday, ends in 2023. If he follows through, Philadelphia will no longer be the only major U.S. city not to have regular street sweeping.
Budget cuts that began in the 1970s spelled the end of street sweeping across the city by the late 90s. Since then, vocal concerns over neighborhood residents having to move their cars on possible cleaning days have, in part, prevented a sweeping program from coming back.
No more, says Kenney.
“It’ll be in every neighborhood and you are going to have to move your car,” Kenney told reporters after his inauguration on Monday.
The city piloted a street cleaning program in six neighborhoods last spring and summer. The strategy included using leaf blowers to move trash into the street that would be sucked up by sweeper trucks. The process seemed weird and drew criticism focused on the dust the blowers kicked up.
But now that Kenney will never run for mayor of Philadelphia again, he has taken a square aim at what’s become a third rail of city issues – parking. He also has the support of most members of the City Council. So, it looks like Philadelphia will do what residents of New York, Boston, Baltimore and Washington D.C. do – move their cars on cleaning days.
“If you don’t want to move your car – tough,” said Kenny.
Details of the program are still scarce, though it will likely include a mix of the leaf blowers, big sweeping machines (these don’t fit down every street in the city) and other devices.
January 7th, 2020 at 3:36 pm
Philly certainly deserved the moniker “Filthadelphia.” It’ll be interesting to see how much changes. In the meantime more residents might get off their stoops or from in front of their TVs and pick up the trash on their streets. I no longer am amazed to see people milling around on the block or sitting on porches while the filth sits there undisturbed.
January 7th, 2020 at 5:41 pm
Will Philadelphia really be clean now? Will trash be moved from one place to another? Will City Hall get more money due to ticketing more vehicles?
We shall see…
January 7th, 2020 at 6:16 pm
No thanks. Im going to organize my surrounding blocks to refuse to move our cars. Beyond the obvious global warming wastefulness of forcing everyone to move cars (and sit in them, idling, while the cleaner goes by) this is a ridiculous useless move. People empty their trashbags out of car windows. Street cleaning is just enabling them. No thanks mayor. I’ll take my dirty streets, keep your nyc ideas down by city hall.
I love not ever needing to move my car if I dont want to. Refuse to move.
January 7th, 2020 at 10:02 pm
I will move my car. It could also get the abandoned vehicles off of the street I live on. And the boats. And the Box trucks. Im all about it. Sweep that street boss.
January 8th, 2020 at 3:37 am
So- I lived with this in California. While a weekly schedule is a pain, but clean streets are a quality of life matter (albeit, small compared to the challenges the city faces re violence, poverty, affordable housing and bad air) Maybe a monthly schedule would suffice.
January 8th, 2020 at 7:05 am
This is great news. I would be happy to move my car. YES BRENDA B. I am also from California and it is a “quality of life” matter. The filth is depressing and shameful.
January 8th, 2020 at 7:59 am
Looking forward to all the lazy slobs getting ticketed and towed.
And for the record, the PPA’s fines don’t go to city hall.
January 8th, 2020 at 9:18 am
Got any evidence to support your claim, goldenmonkey?
January 8th, 2020 at 5:31 pm
A cursory internet search will provide all the information you need. The PPA is run out of Harrisburg.
January 8th, 2020 at 5:49 pm
What are you smoking, goldenmonkey?
January 8th, 2020 at 6:08 pm
Hey, listen, I understand that you’re not exactly a sharp tack. It’s pretty evident when you’re challenged to substantiate your reckless claims and therefore you consistently fail. But this one is pretty easy: The PPA is run by the the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and is pure patronage by the Republican party of PA. The funding that is returned to the city is literally pennies on the dollar.
https://www.inquirer.com/philly/news/politics/20161002_How_the_Parking_Authority_became_a_Republican_patronage_haven.html
Maybe someday you’ll get a clue.
January 8th, 2020 at 6:12 pm
You should read- and think- a little more carefully:
http://www.philapark.org/2017/05/ppa-funding-to-the-school-district-how-does-it-work/
January 9th, 2020 at 5:37 am
This quote should make it easy to understand:
How much of the PPA’s On-Street Revenue is given to the City’s General Fund and Philadelphia School District?
By law, each fiscal year the PPA is responsible to provide all net-revenue from on-street operations to the City’s General Fund and Philadelphia School District. In fiscal year 2017, we provided over forty-five million dollars ($45 million) to the City’s General Fund and Philadelphia School District.
January 9th, 2020 at 8:03 am
Oh you sweet summer child…
https://whyy.org/segments/ppa-fenerty-blasted-state-audit-accusing-agency-cheating-philly-schools/
January 9th, 2020 at 8:06 am
I’m excited for street cleaning! It’s a good step forward.
People also need to not throw trash on the ground. Not sure how we curb that behavior.
January 9th, 2020 at 8:09 am
What ARE you smoking, goldenmonkey?
That non-sequitur just makes your style of argument even more clearly fallacious. It’s as if you just don’t get it at all…
January 9th, 2020 at 12:21 pm
I am against street sweeping. Maybe all you California transplants want to gentrify our city but some of us like it the way it is. Oh boy oh boy I cant wait until this whole neighborhood is spotless and safe and rents go up even further.
think about what you are wishing for. clean streets, more rich people moving in, less real philly. F this street sweeping sh1t, keep philly philly, go home newbies
January 9th, 2020 at 12:36 pm
I am for street sweeping, but once a month than once a week seems appropriate in my neck of the woods. A $31 fine for not moving your car is excessive.
January 9th, 2020 at 12:36 pm
street sweeping is a huge waste of money. aren’t our public school buildings falling apart and laden with asbestos?
street sweeping wont solve for those windy days when trash seemingly blows from every direction. also i see people throw trash on the ground constantly so why bother chasing our tail?
January 9th, 2020 at 12:46 pm
>>>> clean streets, more rich people moving in, less real philly
hmmmmmm
January 9th, 2020 at 1:42 pm
Street cleaning won’t keep drunk people from peeing on other people’s property; it won’t keep nasty dog walkers from throwing their bag of sh*t in other people’s trash cans and sidewalk container gardens; and, it won’t keep kids with no home training from throwing their afterschool-snack wrappers on people’s lawns!
January 9th, 2020 at 5:04 pm
Some way negative comments goin’ on here. Not all of them are negative but the ones that are, just wow is all.
I am a third generation Philadelphian. Growing up my grandmother and mother weren’t all “keep Philly dirty”. They weren’t yuppies neither. They’d kick all of our butts and still make so much dinner we’d have to have all of our friends over every night. Cept Sunday. Philly was a dump in the 80’s. From Old City to City Ave. I mean a refuse depository. The streets were dirty and not in a romantic cyberpunk post apocalyptic way. The sidewalks, ditto. It’s not that way now. Don’t get it twisted, sanitizing our streets is not the same thing as the yuppie takeover or whatever (yeah I’m way nauseated by yuppies too). Clean streets=good. Offended by everything under sun=bad. Doing the “equal sign” thing to prove a point=lame and 1990’s. Sorry.
January 9th, 2020 at 5:14 pm
There seem to be one Trumpish troll here who also has a pro-Gentrification agenda. What he lacks in charm and thoughtfulness, he makes up for in sheer volume…
January 10th, 2020 at 1:47 am
My first voting election was Slick Willie, ’92. Dems ever since. Ever to be. First spot in West phil was a squat off Haverford. Saw Nausea with Al (Misery) that year.
January 10th, 2020 at 10:57 pm
I’ll move my car.
Having said that, I have come to believe that the Streets Department is one of the biggest sources of litter in the city. Every trash day, I have to clean up the trash that I put out in a receptacle on trash day, but somehow got left in the street or sidewalk by the sanitation workers. I wonder how much cleaner this city would be if the sanitation workers simply cleaned up after themselves.