Philly mayoral candidates support street sweeping. Here’s what to know about their stances and current sweeping efforts

Philadelphia’s Democratic mayoral candidates agree that the city should expand street sweeping in residential neighborhoods.

That means it’s likely sweeping efforts will continue into the next mayoral administration come 2024. But the issue has long been contentious in Philadelphia — which is known for its litter problem, and where politicians have hesitated to make residents move their cars for mechanical sweepers.

Mayor Jim Kenney promised to roll out citywide sweeping when he ran for office in 2015, and launched a pilot program in 2019 as he ran for a second term.

Sweeping has since expanded to 14 residential neighborhoods, and the Streets Department plans to add other areas this year.

Here’s what to know about the mayoral candidates’ stances on street sweeping and the current state of Kenney’s program.

The Inquirer asked the Democratic mayoral contenders if they are in favor of expanding street sweeping. They all said yes, but offered few details about how they’d expand or improve the program. Instead, they shared why they think it’s important.

Amen Brown, for example, said in his response that clean streets were essential to attracting new businesses and tourism, while Helen Gym pointed to the fact that excess litter can clog the city’s drainage system, and said she’d support biweekly cleaning.

Rebecca Rhynhart, meanwhile, underscored Philadelphia’s pariah status when it came to street cleanliness, and Jeff Brown said that restoring city services to their full potential was a top priority and that sweeping should be done in a manner that minimizes inconvenience to neighbors.

Allan Domb said he’d expand the pilot to every neighborhood in the city. Cherelle Parker touted an initiative she championed in City Council that funded commercial corridor sweeping and employed formerly incarcerated individuals.

“We all suffer whenever anyone calls the city we love ‘Filthadelphia’ because the streets and sidewalks aren’t clean,” Parker said.

Street sweeping resumed in 14 high-litter neighborhoods last month, marking the fourth year of Kenney’s program.

Those neighborhoods include Kensington, Strawberry Mansion, and Germantown, Nicetown, Frankford and Southwest Philadelphia, among others.

Sweeping runs through November. Streets Department Commissioner Carlton Williams said the city cleans streets primarily using mechanical sweepers, while handheld blowers are used for bulk trash pileup on some sidewalks.

Residents are required to move their vehicles once a week during their designated two-hour cleaning window, or face a ticket. Residents received windshield notifications earlier this spring warning them that ticketing would resume, according to Williams.

“We try to make it as easy and convenient as possible for residents to comply,” Williams said.

This week, residents in Point Breeze awoke to a flurry of $31 tickets on their windshields for blocking the path of the city’s trucks, according to 6abc.

The Streets Department plans to add six more neighborhoods to the sweeping schedule before Kenney leaves office, bringing the total to 20. But the continuation of those plans will depend on the next mayoral administration.

Philadelphia has been the only large U.S. city without a citywide sweeping program since the early 2000s, when budget restraints and complaints about moving parked cars for the cleaning trucks brought an end to the effort, save for high-traffic business corridors.

When Kenney ran in 2015, he promised to bring back citywide sweeping, including in Black and brown neighborhoods that he said were often hit hardest by illegal dumping.

In 2019, his pilot program launched in select neighborhoods.

The launch didn’t come without growing pains, including complaints over leaf blowers that sanitation workers used to remove trash from under cars, alleviating the need to move them but stirring up dust in the process.

A 2019 survey conducted by the city found the program popular among residents in neighborhoods where the pilot launched. About 96% of residents in each of the six neighborhoods said they’d support expanding the program citywide, while 91% said they’d move their vehicles to allow for mechanical sweeping.

Then the pandemic hit.

As COVID raged and the city departments faced financial shortfall and staffing shortages, the future of street sweeping looked uncertain. A glimmer of hope came in 2021 when sweeping returned to several residential areas, and by 2022, the department began its 14 neighborhood expansion.

Now, the future of street cleaning will depend on the next mayor.