Heard in the Hall

Why rely on volunteers to do what every other major city in the US does with machines? We have street sweeper machines, we just don't use them regularly.

Any area using regular street cleaning machines pays for them with separate public private community groups, such as Center City's Resident Association.

My question is, since we already pay taxes, since those taxes come from residents and business, why do we need to have a supra-government to get streets cleaned?

Visit Chicago. It's -3 F below. How many street machines and street cleaners won't work today? How many won't work this week?

How many won't work for the month?

How many won't work for the duration of WINTER?

Come on Nutter. I expected so much more from you.

We have a Streets Dept. We have other city agencies that own mechanical street sweepers.

Put one of you new MBAs in charge of organizing regular, permanent street sweeping. This is your single most critical trial.

If Street, mind you, John "the Bug" Street, can TOW cars the first month in office, and you, Nutter, to whom no task of government "it too small," can't sweep streets, than there's no hope for this city.

I've volunteered to clean my own streets I pay taxes to upkeep pretty much biannually, and then on my own, unofficially, without formal organization, of the neighbors.

NEWSFLASH: I'm FUCKING SICK AND TIRED OF CLEANING THE STREETS I ALREADY PAY PROPERTY TAXES TO HAVE THE CITY CLEAN.

I need to see a street sweeper that is not privately owned or funded and I need to see PPA towing cars to get to the curb to clean the streets like they do in Center City and South Philly. Citizen Alliance had to shake down businesses seeking considerations to fund street cleaning because the city won't do it.

If Nutter wants the city to be have clean government, and not a tolerance of pay to play, than stop making the neighborhoods who have pols engaged in pay to play stop having to clean street some other way besides the city since the city won't do it.

If Nutter is for clean government, he better clean the streets using the city agencies set up to do it.

If he wants to clean the streets, he has to clean the streets using government.

Is everybody who claims a job solves all social ills too good to hire someone to clean the streets?

Clean the streets using government, not volunteers, not one day ad hoc one timers, not pols who shake down businesses to pay for Citizen Alliance and non profits that don't play by the rules.

WHY CAN'T PHILLY DO WHAT NYC DOES? WE CAN AFFORD IT. COLLECT THE MUTHAH FUCKIN' OVERDUE PROPERTY TAXES DIZZBOATS!

Property taxes = street cleaning.

Let's be NORMAL.

$527 MILLION IN OVERDUE PROPERTY TAXES could pay for A LOT OF STREET SWEEPING MACHINES ONCE A WEEK. MAYBE LESS EVEN. COME ON. Basic city governance 101 -- clean the streets in an organized, regular fashion.

Whole city, one time per week mechanical street sweeping is what $50 million?

Philly has $500 to $700 million in overdue taxes just SITTING there. FORECLOSE ALREADY. Most of this is vacant property.

www.hallwatch.org/proptax/about/redelinq/stats/summary

Is an easy to use website using city data in the most recent period available, this month, based on a court order to fulfill a FOIA request.

It is obvious to me now that it is out of the ken of local urban democrats to run a small town much less a city. Pardon me while I go change my affiliation to republican and write a HUGE CHECK FOR MCCAIN.

Democrats are useless. Hopeless.

You can't run complex social service programs that work if you can't manage the simplest task of city government that caused there to be city government in the first place.

Useless. Hopeless.

You can't run housing complexes that provide cradle to grave social services well and effectively if you can't manage having no park days so street sweeping machines can roll through.

I'm done with this idiot town of lead paint babies and refinery prenatal fume ingesting morons who can't figure out how to be a city in the simplest definition.

I'm done! I'm just done! I don't have to live like this anymore.

bring back NYC / Timmoneys Comstats to track crime..... so you stop all this Nonsense the Democrats and their Liberal Judges Avoid solving the Problem!

You also better look after the Pension and Healthcare debacle in Philly soon or all your Money in Taxes will be going to city Pensioners and Philly will be All managed by the State or Feds Like Camden!

This is very disappointing news which suggests a possible perpetuation of the mentality that is seriously undermining this city on many fronts. Regular street cleaning is a basic municipal service. A city this size is never going to have clean streets with a hodge-podge of biannual community volunteer clean-up days and uncoordinated efforts by well-meaning service districts and civic associations. Street cleaning is not something you pay for with one-time grants, flea markets and raffles. Moreover, if the city took possession of the streets for the purpose of cleaning them and keeping them clean, it might also find that it has taken back the streets from criminals as well. Many studies have found that regular street cleaning, graffiti removal and generally well-maintained streets are accompanied by reductions in crime of all types, which seems like common sense to me. If Mayor Nutter wants to get tough on crime, a good way to start, and a strategy which doesn't carry with it the potential negative community backlash of his proposed "stop and frisk" policy, would be to start clearing the city's streets of trash, litter and graffiti.