Mayor Parker’s administration has cleaned 5,000 blocks and 1,500 lots this summer, city says

For more than a decade, Gregory Allen has organized a spring cleanup day in Overbrook, the leafy West Philadelphia neighborhood where he was proudly born and raised.

But those efforts were always community-led. So Allen was elated Tuesday when he felt like the city government pitched in. Workers from a dozen agencies deep cleaned the streets and sidewalks, filled potholes, and picked up litter from abandoned lots.

“It feels like Christmas in July,” said Allen, who leads the Overbrook West Neighbors Community Development Corporation. “This is what I’ve wanted for 15 years.”

» READ MORE: Here’s when the city plans to clean your neighborhood as part of Mayor Parker’s ‘clean and green’ initiative

He stood Tuesday on the 1900 block of North 60th Street, one of 5,000 blocks the city has cleaned as part of Mayor Cherelle L. Parker’s 13-week summer cleaning program. Officials said the city is on track to clean every city block this summer, amounting to about 18,000 blocks in total.

Carlton Williams, the director of clean and green initiatives and the former streets commissioner, said that one month into the summertime initiative, the city has also cleaned more than 1,500 vacant lots, filled 1,800 potholes, cleared graffiti from 850 blocks, and towed more than 600 abandoned cars.

“I don’t think people really understand the magnitude of this program,” Sanitation Commissioner Crystal Jacobs Shipman said. “Never in the 40-plus years I’ve lived in the city of Philadelphia, all my life, have I seen all of our agencies come together like this for a program like this.”

The program is a pillar of Parker’s first-year agenda. She has said cleaning the city will ultimately improve public safety, and has vowed to end the “Filthadelphia” moniker that has long marred the city’s reputation.

Some residents, who stood outside and watched as workers cleared debris from their streets and sidewalks, said they were thrilled.

“She’s putting forth an effort to have the city work for the people,” said Barbara Saxon, 72, who has lived on her West Philly block for more than 40 years.

» READ MORE: Mayor Cherelle Parker has promised to make Philly ‘cleaner and greener.’ Here’s what she’s doing on the ‘green’ part.

Longer-term questions about maintenance and sustainability remain. Williams attended a roundtable discussion with community leaders in the neighborhood, several of whom expressed that people will continue to dump trash and abandon cars unless it costs them.

Parker has pledged to bolster enforcement of quality-of-life offenses, and Jacobs Shipman said Tuesday that the city has issued 1,400 code violation notices over the past month.

Mary Stitt, the deputy director for clean and green initiatives, said the administration will also send quality-of-life crews to each of the city’s 10 councilmanic districts, which are geographically based. Those roving groups of workers — funded in the recently approved city budget — will be responsible for maintenance and responding to reports of litter, dumping sites, and the like.

Over the last month, crews cleaned parts of North Philadelphia, Kensington, and the Riverwards, and they shifted this week to West Philadelphia. A full schedule can be found here.