Will Philadelphia residents ever keep streets clean? When will the pollution stop?

[MarketStEl]

Originally Posted by bursitis

For an area with a lot of overpriced properties, South Philly is a trash pit.


I blame the residents.




It only takes one or two people to keep a street clean.




Most streets in Philly don't even have that one person.

Those individuals are working against long odds.

When I see people roll down their car windows to toss some trash out in the street as they drive down it;

when I see a rider try to force an empty soda bottle through the flaps of a closed subway car door;

when I see people toss trash on the ground within a few steps of a non-overflowing trash can;

I suspect that it would actually take a village to keep a Philadelphia block clean.

It wasn't always like this either. It seems to me this city's reputation for filth developed after the city cut back on street sweeping. The streets of the city center are clean because a special services district financed by property-tax surcharges hires a small army of sweepers (armed with mechanical and manual brooms) to go over its sidewalks and gutters.

The city is restarting regular street sweeping on a pilot basis in several neighborhoods, but in order to avoid a hue and cry over people having to move their parked cars, the crews are using leaf blowers to push trash in the gutters under the cars and into the travel lanes. I'm not sure this will be as effective as actually sweeping along the curbs.

[lpranger467]

I think you, And KY are still under the impression that mankind is good and wants to do the right thing; mankind is inherently lazy and selfish. When I met my wife she had just moved from L.A. and would never dream of jay walking as that during the 80’s LAPD would stop and write swift tickets for this, hence consequences for their actions.

Here in Philly there are no consequences, hence the juvenile flash mobs beating people and looting stores. The police have a very hands off stance on juveniles, they (juveniles) know this and react accordingly. It’s the same way with littering and such. The broken window theory of NYPD worked, yes routine stop and frisk did get sketchy but otherwise having consequences for your actions (whether police or parents) is really the only solution. Sadly most parents in the troubled neighborhoods don’t really want to parent hence the out of control crime we’re seeing.





QUOTE=MarketStEl;56973282]Those individuals are working against long odds.

When I see people roll down their car windows to toss some trash out in the street as they drive down it;

when I see a rider try to force an empty soda bottle through the flaps of a closed subway car door;

when I see people toss trash on the ground within a few steps of a non-overflowing trash can;

I suspect that it would actually take a village to keep a Philadelphia block clean.

It wasn't always like this either. It seems to me this city's reputation for filth developed after the city cut back on street sweeping. The streets of the city center are clean because a special services district financed by property-tax surcharges hires a small army of sweepers (armed with mechanical and manual brooms) to go over its sidewalks and gutters.

The city is restarting regular street sweeping on a pilot basis in several neighborhoods, but in order to avoid a hue and cry over people having to move their parked cars, the crews are using leaf blowers to push trash in the gutters under the cars and into the travel lanes. I'm not sure this will be as effective as actually sweeping along the curbs.[/quote]

[bursitis]

Originally Posted by MarketStEl

Those individuals are working against long odds.

Get yourself one of those rectangle-shaped, hard plastic things that a janitor uses to sweep trash into and a little broom and see how much of a difference you can make on your street and intersection.




Of course, most people (especially males) won't do this because they're lazy and too worried about what others will think of them.


They'd rather ***** about the city not doing it for them.


You could also take a picture of dumped trash, graffiti and whatever else is out of order in your neighborhood and report it to 311.


Again, this takes effort and most people are just too lazy and/or apathetic to take a few minutes out of their week to help improve their neighborhood.