What's with all the trash on street? (Franklin: crime, house)

[hiwhatisup]

Before replying, please note that this thread is from 2010

Ok, maybe I was spoiled growing up in Los Angeles were street sweepers would come by once a week to every single street and roadway to clean up the trash. Aside from the major streets in Center City nothing ever gets swept. A few prideful residents and business take the initiative to clean things up but those are few and far between. Plus it doesn't address all the trash on the streets and roadways.

You would think with a city wage tax of almost 4% (Another thing I'm still getting use too) the city would have the funds to do this.

Don't get me wrong I love living in South Philly but I'm surprised that this isn't more of an issue with locals. A simple thing as keeping the city clean goes a long way to improving quality of life, the overall perception of Philly, attracting new business and top wage earners, and retaining local residences/businesses from the suburbs or other metro areas.

[orrmobl]

They don't call it Filthadelphia for nothing! I lived in LA for a while but was not struck by its cleanliness (USC in Watts). However when I went to Vancouver I would have just about eaten a meal off the sidewalk...it was ridiculously clean, like Disney World/Land clean!

Philly is old and a very large city with lots of people who have lived here forever and are used to their ways...the streets are their dumpster unfortunately. I just recently found out spitting is also a local thing - and here I thought everyone hocked loogies everywhere they went!

[hiwhatisup]

I didn't mean to come off like LA was model of cleanliness (LA has it's dingy area's too. USC, South Central, Watts area where you use to live being one of them).

I think what strikes me the most is the level of misrepresentation that the trash problem creates. Philly is a vibrant city with a lot to offer but no one gets to see that.

[nespera]

I feel the same way. It is the way it is and nobody wants to change it. Unfortunately.

[deadhead948]

A lot of the people are pigs. It's common to see people roll their windows down while driving and throw a fast food bag, empty cigarette box or anything else they're done with out the window while driving. Go to a wawa and watch how people walk outside, open what they bought and just drop the trash as they're walking. It's a perfectly normal thing to just drop your trash to the ground wherever you are. I drove an 18 wheeler at one time and we refered to the west coast as the shakey side and the northeast as the dirty side. It's a pretty upsetting thing and i'm sure i'll never live in the city for that and many other reasons.

[Young Herman]

It's ironic to read about this topic after what I witnessed today concerning the trash problem in South Philly. I was walking back to my house from the corner store this morning, and when I was passing the yard of a corner house I see a woman's hand come over the top of the fence and she drops a wrapper on the pavement. Now, that is just being absurdly lazy. There are parts of South Philly where the level of filth resembles a third world country, I was walking down what I think was Franklin street this past weekend and it was filthy, and the smell was so bad I had to put my shirt over my nose like a surgical mask. There have to be areas of South Philly absolutely infested with roaches, mice, and rats.

[Marius Pontmercy]

Again, this entirely depends upon the block you're on. The tradition of keeping the block up is something you do find on stable blocks. On unstable blocks with a lot of dysfunction: transient populations, poverty, lack of leadership and positive role models within the block, you end up with lots of trash on the street since the people simply regress and this kind of behavior becomes the norm. However, on a stable block with a core population of long-term residents who have formed an interest in the appearance and upkeep of their street you will find that the sidewalks are swept, trash is kept to a minimum on the street, and maybe even some potted plants out in front of sidewalks, benches, etc. I guess the simplest way to put it is that in some parts of the city the people simply do not want to be there and since they don't want to be there they really don't care what happens to that part of the city. I think that goes for a lot more than just trash too.

[FindingZen]

Originally Posted by Marius Pontmercy

Again, this entirely depends upon the block you're on. The tradition of keeping the block up is something you do find on stable blocks. On unstable blocks with a lot of dysfunction: transient populations, poverty, lack of leadership and positive role models within the block, you end up with lots of trash on the street since the people simply regress and this kind of behavior becomes the norm. However, on a stable block with a core population of long-term residents who have formed an interest in the appearance and upkeep of their street you will find that the sidewalks are swept, trash is kept to a minimum on the street, and maybe even some potted plants out in front of sidewalks, benches, etc. I guess the simplest way to put it is that in some parts of the city the people simply do not want to be there and since they don't want to be there they really don't care what happens to that part of the city. I think that goes for a lot more than just trash too.

I would agree with this, particularly what I bolded. I knew people that lived on a block in West Oak Lane, an area that might not come on many people's radar but is perhaps above-average among predominantly black sections of town. The residents were very organized with keeping the street clean and maybe even a informal crime watch as well. Go a few blocks over and it wasn't exactly night and day but one could tell that there was a difference for the worse.

[lititzman2003]

I think this is like this everywhere. I've seen people in every part of the city and suburbs throw trash out the window of a moving vehicle, recklessly place their trash out the night before trash pickup day and not secure the lids, etc. It's the same way here in Smalltown, USA. Some people sweep their sidewalks and ACTUALLY pick up the pile and place it in a trash can, others don't bother at all. They assume the wind will take it to a landfill nearby. It all depends on if you're taught to respect the environment.

If cleanliness is suppose to be next to Godliness then alot of people are in BIG trouble.

[hiwhatisup]

Thanks for all the responses. I'm glad I'm not the only one who feels this way. Unfortunately, from what I can tell from your responses the problem is cultural thing that's not isolated to Philly but the entire metro area if not most of the Northeast cities.