Quote:
Originally Posted by PHLtoNYC
Not Philadelphia, and it may not make you feel better lol, but since Mamdani took office in NYC, I've noticed daily QOL and safety improvements in Manhattan (and I'm sure in other boroughs).
Why not simply adapt and replicate what has already worked in New York, Chicago, DC, and Boston?
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1. I'm aware. I still work there and am in the office 2X a week.
2. That would be too easy and then they couldn't take credit for it?
What's most frustrating is that there are parts of the city that looks amazing. And those are the parts of the city that most tourists see (Center City, University City, Passyunk Square). All of these areas benefit from quasi-public private partnerships that do what the city can't or refuses to do.
I've given Cherelle the benefit of the doubt. I do not think she is particularly smart and has zero creative thought, but I do think she understands the mechanization of the machine and can navigate it. And she does have good relationships in Harrisburg. All of that is a skill in and of itself.
I also think she does genuinely care about the people of this city. And thankfully, she has best in class administrators at the top of some of the city's most important agencies. Kevin Bethel (Police), Tony Wattlington (Schools), and Kelvin Jeremiah (PHA) are truly the best in their class and we're lucky to have them.
But moving Carlton Williams from Sanitation (the most laughable of Philly's city agencies given the city's reputation) to Clean and Green I thought was an April Fool's joke. For most city residents, this is the department that we interact with more than any other. Most of us don't have school aged children, most of us aren't criminals, and most of us aren't in PHA housing. All of us deal with city trash and streets. It's deplorable.
I get why the city initially rolled out street sweeping to the "most underserved" communities in the city that have been "historically overlooked". And many of them look better than they ever have (Strawberry Mansion, Sharswood, in particular). But it's frustrating to know there is nearly daily street sweeping in the core of Kensington and much of it still looks like a war zone. It's frustrating to drive through neighborhoods that get street cleaning and the default for many residents in those same neighborhoods is to just throw the trash on the ground. Twice a month street cleaning in every stable neighborhood in this city like Fishtown would be a game changer. Would take it from current state to near meticulous.
When people see the city providing the framework to keep neighborhoods clean they go the extra mile. Why should I wander around with a trash bag picking up random trash IN THE STREET when the city can't do it? By the time I do that, I don't have time to do anything else. You clean my street and I have the time to clean up that empty lot instead, etc etc. It's all backwards and it's infuriating.
And don't get me started on the curbweed. It's back with a vengence.
The other day, I was behind a city street sweeper driving on Richmond Street (ie. Delaware Avenue in Port Richmond/Old Richmond). Of course it's brushes weren't down (why would they be), but I watched this street sweeper turn onto Girard from Richmond (with a great amount of joy, as this stretch of Girard that runs under 95 is always a mess...the city says it's the state's job and the state says it's the city's job...anyway, it's full of litter all the time and I have to open tickets with PennDot to get it cleaned, because why would PennDot do anything pro-actively). Anyways, my joy quickly turned to anger as I watched this street sweeper drive by literal mounds of trash on the shoulder of Girard cause why would a city worker in a santiation truck with street sweeping brooms not think to drop them when he saw this much trash on a city street even if it wasn't his "job" or his "zone" or whatever. The incompetence is infuriating.
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