Trash Me

Hello,

A dirty part of the city that really, desperately needs cleaning is "snake road" right off of Adams ave. by Tookany Creek. People dump their trash there on a regular basis, the train tracks that ride above and along side the road people use as a place to dump their trash. The city really needs to clean this section up.

I applaud you for speaking up about this BIG quality of life issue. I sent e-mails to both Mike Nutter & Tom Knox’s campaigns last month on this topic. I’ve also contacted Penndot. I really think your paper should pursue this topic further. I myself, am a little tired of hearing about drug-dealers being gunned down. I know that’s a little more of “hot” topic but frankly that’s all we ever read about. The cleanliness of this city is something that we CAN do something about. (Unlike the murder rate) I challenge your paper to go drive down the Boulevard in the N.E. .. It’s atrocious!! (& that’s in one of the nicer parts of Philly) Then go check Broad & Girard …disgusting. You guys should send a camera crew to those spots, take a few pictures & you write the story . That’s what I want to see on the front page next week. Maybe then Penndot (who’s in charge of cleaning the BLVD.) and the Philly dept. of streets will get off their rumps & clean up our city. (But forgive me if I don’t hold my breathe J)

Steve Kennedy

NE Philadelphia

I grew up in the 60s in California, and a huge, *huge* ad campaign was underway during that era. The whole "Keep America Beautiful". There was a memorable commercial featuring an old Native American man, with a wrinkled, wise face gazing at the beautiful stretches of this country strewn with garbage. The last shot shows his face, still stern and calm, but with a tear running down it. What happened to that? Maybe that would be too corny these days.
As I go through Center City, I constantly see people throw trash around cars in front of me, dropping everything from cigarette butts to a whole fast-food bag full of trash onto the street and then driving away. (I honk at them.)
It seems to me that Once Upon A Time, we assumed that only ignorant, rude, degenerate or disadvantaged people dropped litter. I have a perception from somewhere that nice people kept their environments pleasant. They kept their voices and faces neutral, and didn't leave a mess around them, at least in public places. They respected a difference between private and public space.

Maybe that was never true. Certainly these days I can testify that people from every walk of life walk away from their own garbage. And then they complain about the trashy sidewalks.

(I'm married to someone who usually picks it up, rather than walk past it, even though it isn't his).

I wanted to point out the poor job Penndot does removing trash along 76 East and West. I have noticed the same trash on the side of the road for months on end. I called to complain to Penndot of Montgomery County and spoke with a supervisor who told me, "the trash is not PennDot's concern. It’s removing items such as furniture and mattresses on 76." Unless an IKEA tractor trailer overturns on 76, it looks like PennDot is going to have a carefree summer.

Here is an example: Drive 76 West and get of the Gulph Mills Exit; look at the trash which has been there since the fall of 2006. Also, heading west on 76 just after the Girard Street exit, the trash is everywhere. Why can't PennDot do something? Delaware County brings out prisoners on weekends to clean up 476 N and S. Why can't we get drunk drivers or inmates from the Philly prison system to pick up trash?

John C.

Almost all of the so-called landscapers will mow people's grass and blow the cuttings all over everyone else's property and into the streets. I actually saw one push a heaping pile of grass down the sewer at the corner of the street. We are fed-up with these lawnmower slobs. They are everywhere and should be held accountable. Even the city lawnmower people do crappy work - just look around. Roosevelt Boulevard is a very good example. Thank you, Rhawnhurst

One of the curiouser trouble spots that is chronically trashed is a newspaper honor box (not the Inquirer) outside of the Coach store on Walnut Street. The front glass is missing and for some strange reason, passersby have mistaken this little hole for a waste basket and continuously stuff it with garbage.
It is not entirely neglected. I find it emptied from time to time. But you have to wonder, if the cleaning crews take the trouble to empty it - why don't they just adios the whole thing?
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Meanwhile - please keep those nominations coming. With photos, if possible!
M.D.