Trash Me

What else can Mayor Nutter do indeed when the real problem is that many of Philadelphia's citizens do not hold themselves accountable for keeping the city clean day in and day out? The mess is not all being made by businesses. Each person should commit themselves to 10 minutes per day in the front of their homes. Sweep the sidewalk. Bag the litter. Every spring and every fall wash your windows. Mow the grass and weed the flower beds. Certainly many homes need paint and structural work, and yes, that takes money. But it doesn't cost a fortune to be clean. My immigrant grandparents had nine children to feed and clothe during the depression. They all wore old clothes and their home was modest. But their clothes were clean, their windows sparkled and there was not a speck of trash infront of their home. Each person has a responsibility to the community as a whole to maintain a clean and neat home. A tv ad should be run showing people leaving Philly at the airport posed the question "What is your impression of Philadelphia?" I guarantee the answer over and over will be "It's got a lot to offer but it's a really dirty city." I hear it all the time.

There's no way Philly is going to get clean unless we start having regular, weekly street sweepings. If local businesses can pool resources and get that in Center City, the city can do it for all of us.

This is the only city I've ever lived in that doesn't have regular street sweeping. People move their cars, and the street sweeper comes through. I've seen them here. The city certainly has them.

They just don't use them.

There is NO WAY volunteers once a year can possibly substitute for mechanical street sweeping used in other cities (and counties) of equivalent size.

Towing revenue alone will help to cover the cost of paying for it. Towing people out of curb cuts is also killing two birds with one stone -- creating handicapped access while raising funds. Raising fines to meaningful levels for sanitation violations will end this policy of people driving here to dump their trash. Ditto for trashy residents -- If they are trashy fine the landlord, even if that landlord is PHA or a HCV provider.

When will Philly act like a real city? If I wanted to clean my own streets as a hobby, I'd live in a trailer park down by the river.

Plus, don't forget that the city is not using two major sources of revenue that could fund regular mechanical street sweeping in the whole city:

1. Up-to-date BRT property tax assessments.

2. Long overdue property tax collection on liens that have to go to foreclosure.

In the first, there are formerly vacant lots with mansions on them now, that the city still taxes as vacant lots. (This is everywhere in zip code 19146, for example. I can make a list of a dozen formerly vacant lots with brand new houses on them).

The BRT is dragging its feet on implementing the ready to go FMV system. That's an up dated computer database that uses objective, fair market value sales averages in neighborhoods. The city is long behind in coming even close to using what they call "market value" as a real market value.

Finally, foreclosure. Why cry about it when the property is vacant, or empty? If the owner owes property taxes they have to pay, because we need the money for real time sanitation.

Volunteers are great. They can't substitute for a real Streets Dept. that performs to industry standard.

I'm very disappointed that Nutter can't see that all most voters want is for the city to get the basics right -- regular street cleaning is Good Government 101.

If we need to hire private contractors like the CCRA does to drive the sweepers, let's do it.

Just get it done.