PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — In her budget speech earlier in 2024, she said Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker has introduced cleaning and greening the city there, with public safety as one of its top priorities.
And this week, the city launched its initiative to clean up Philadelphia.
“This is the first time I’ve seen this,” said Grisel Claudio, who has lived in Juniata Park for 22 years.
Dozens of city workers came to the intersection of O and Luzerne streets on Wednesday to clean up trash, weeds and trash of all kinds. It’s all part of the new initiative from the city to clean up the streets of Philadelphia – block by block.
“I’m doubling down on the fact that we’re going to clean every block in the city of Philadelphia,” said Carlton Williams, director of the Office of Clean and Green Initiatives.
The city launched the initiative on Monday – with plans to clean city streets until the end of August. More than a dozen municipal agencies are involved – tackling everything from waste to potholes and graffiti in one fell swoop.
“The water department does intakes. [License and Inspections] deals with nuisance property. [Community Life Improvement Program] does vacant lots and graffiti removal, and of course PPA and PPD remove abandoned cars,” Williams said.
Williams says there will be at least 130 sanitation workers on the streets every day cleaning — and there could be more depending on the extent of the problems in a neighborhood.
“Cleaning and Greening” Philadelphia has been a big boost for Parkerand officials believe this effort could help with another big push from the mayor: fighting crime.
“We know there is a strong relationship between a clean city and a safe city,” Williams said. “There is a strong relationship between crime and grime.”
But while the city plans to visit every street at least once during this initiative, how will they keep the neighborhoods clean? Parker said her office is working on it.
“We’ve proposed one of these specific cleaning programs for every neighborhood in the city, so no one thinks this is a one-time thing,” Parker said.
But that still has to be approved by the city council. Until then, leaders say they need help and support from residents to take control of their blocks. And that’s exactly what they got at Juniata Park.
“More people will come because it’s neighbor to neighbor and friend to friend,” said Marvin Richardson, who has lived in Juniata Park for nine years. “And let’s do this and do it well.”
“I’d even volunteer if you need me,” Claudio said.
Crews will be cleaning the city’s streets for the next thirteen weeks.
