Cherelle Parker celebrates city-wide cleanup initiatives with city workers, as more work is promised
PHILADELPHIA - Mayor Cherelle Parker claims she’s moving closer to her goal of a clean and green Philadelphia with the completion of a 13-week clean sweep of the city this summer.
City workers line up for burgers and hot dogs as a reward for what the mayor says is a job well done, working to rid the city of it’s ugly, lasting nickname: Filthadelphia.
Mayor Cherelle Parker told a gathering in Northeast Philadelphia Wednesday, "This is the largest - listen to this - the largest quality of life undertaking in this city’s history."
Sanitation officials say over the 13-weeks, a dozen city agencies, arriving with street sweepers and trash trucks, have cleaned some 18,000 city blocks. They say abandoned cars have been towed, weeds pulled, commercial corridors swept, all in an effort to meet Mayor Parker’s often-stated governing slogan of a "cleaner, greener Philadelphia."
Mayor Cherelle Parker starts 'Clean and Green' initiative in walking tour of Strawberry Mansion
From trash to parking to troubled businesses, new leadership in Philly has their work cut out for them. Mayor Cherelle Parker says she's eager to get it done and shows what her clean and green initiative means.
Carlton Williams is the Director of Clean and Green Initiatives. He said, "This is not a one-off. This is not a one-time and we’re done. We are going to make this standard operating procedure."
There was a grand unveiling of new, big belly trash cans complete with a place for nasty cigarette butts. Trash trucks now carry the message of "One City" and urge residents to "join the fight."
Mayor Cherelle Parker sets citywide cleaning program in motion: 'We can get this done together'
A months-long cleaning program is now underway across Philadelphia. Over the next several weeks, crews will tackle quality-of-life issues block by block, including litter, illegal dumping and graffiti.
Philly has long struggled with trash-strewn streets. The city’s Clean and Green czar says teams will sweep the city a couple times a year to hold the line on trash and Philly’s long-running battle against it.
Parker is urging residents to do their part. She said, "Now that they’ve come down the block, has the block established a strategy to sustain what they did? Because it’s a partnership."