I am the owner of 418 N. 41st Street. Upon recently clearing away some brush from behind the building, I learned that the lot immediately behind mine is an open dump.
The dump is hidden behind two garage doors that have no roof. Their address is 427-425 N. Holly Street. Holly Street is between 41st Street and 42nd Street, four blocks north of Market Street, in University City.
I have asked neighbors nearby if they know who owns the site but nobody seems to know. There are cats and rats there at all hours. It’s not particularly large, but it is particularly nasty.
Repeated calls to my city council representative have produced no results, yet I have been issued four citations from the city for trash on my property that has blown there from the open dump.
Since the dump is not visible from Holly Street due to the white barn doors facing in that direction, the photo (see below) was taken from the back yard of my property, which is on 41st Street between Baring and Spring Garden.
Note the ironically placed stack of recycling bins atop the mound... This lovely mess is less than four blocks from Market Street and three blocks from Presbyterian Hospital. Much of the dump is in an old, open stable to the left of this photo. But, since it is dark under that roof, I couldn't get it to show up on my camera. That part of it is filled with discarded white durables, like washers and dryers.
It's so amusing to me that "academics" claim that Philly is no less dirty than other cities. Though I make my home in Rittenhouse Square, I work primarily in New York and travel domestically 400K miles a year to NYC, Chicago, LA, SF, Orlando, Seattle - all these other cities. No place is anywhere near as dirty as Philly is. It's not even close.
What always surprises me is how clean New York is - there really is no litter problem there. It has nothing to do with deposits on containers.
Most of the litter I see in Philly is paper.
Mark Naples
