Mayor Cherelle Parker's initiative to clean every neighborhood a welcome sight for Philadelphians
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- In her budget address earlier in 2024, Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker put cleaning and greening the city right up there with public safety as one of her 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 descended on the intersection of O and Luzerne streets Wednesday – clearing out trash, weeds, and all sorts of garbage. It's all part of the city's new initiative to clean 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, who is the director of the Office of Clean and Green Initiatives.
The city launched the initiative Monday – with plans to clean streets across the city through the end of August. It involves more than a dozen city agencies – tackling everything from trash to potholes to graffiti – in one swoop.
"Water department's doing inlets. [License and Inspections] is doing nuisance properties. [Community Life Improvement Program] is doing vacant lots and removing graffiti, and of course, PPA and PPD is removing abandoned cars," Williams said.
Williams says there will be at least 130 sanitation workers on the streets cleaning every day – and it could be more depending on the scale of the problems in a neighborhood.
"Cleaning and greening" Philadelphia has been a major push for Parker, and officials believe this effort can help with another big push from the mayor: crime reduction.
"We know there's a strong relationship between a clean city and a safe city," Williams said. "There's a strong relationship between crime and grime."
But while the city plans to hit every street at least once during this initiative – how will they keep the neighborhoods clean? Parker said it's something her office is working on.
"We have proposed one of these specific cleaning programs for every neighborhood in the city, so no one thinks this is a one-off," Parker said.
But that still has to get through City Council. Until then – leaders say they'll need help and buy-in from residents to take charge of their blocks. And that's just what they got in 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 get it right."
"I'd even volunteer if you need me," Claudio said.
Crews will be out cleaning up city streets over the next 13 weeks.
