Jim Kenney: Keep Your Campaign Promise. Bring Back Street-Sweeping in Your First Term.

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Sign our petition to tell Mayor Kenney to keep his campaign promise, and bring back street-sweeping services before the end of his first term.

Philadelphia is known nationwide as an exceptionally dirty city, and this dirt problem even has a name: Filthadelphia.

Mayor Kenney campaigned on changing this during the 2015 campaign, and restoring the street-sweeping program was a regular part of his stump speech. He even said that cleaner streets are worth the occasional hassle of alternate-side parking.

The red flags started going up right after the May primary, when Kenney started backtracking, saying he'd only bring the program back for neighborhoods willing to move their cars, and there would be some kind of opt-in or opt-out provision. 

This week we found out it's been cast aside even further, as a "Long-Term Priority" in the Zero Waste Action Plan released this week, described in the most non-committal possible language. At some undefined point in time, the administration will maybe "consider restoration of street sweeping."

That's unacceptable. Mayor Kenney needs to make restoring street-sweeping a priority in his first term.

As we've argued previously, street-sweeping should be one of Philadelphia's bedrock municipal services. Philly was actually the first city to have a street-sweeping program (thanks, Benjamin Franklin!), and now we're the only major city that doesn't have one. It's relatively cheap, costing the capital budget just $18 million in to buy the sweepers, and about $3 million in annual salaries to clean the whole city every other week. The problem isn't money—it's people who don't want to move their cars, even occasionally. 

The Mayor is already on the record saying that he wants to take the cleaner streets side of that trade-off, and now it's time for him to make good on that promise. 

Sign and share the petition, and help us send a message to Mayor Kenney that he needs to put clean streets first, and be accountable for what he promised the voters.

333 signatures

Will you sign?

Showing 284 reactions

  • Marianne Schilling-McCabe
    signed 2018-02-22 22:28:26 -0500
  • Daniel Martino
    signed via 2018-02-22 21:58:09 -0500
  • Gregory Phillips
    signed 2018-02-22 21:55:24 -0500
    Gregory A Phillips
  • Shannon Small
    signed 2018-02-22 20:42:56 -0500
  • Amy Haavik-MacKinnon
    signed via 2018-02-22 20:33:30 -0500
  • Lynne Brosch
    posted about this on Facebook 2018-02-22 20:14:29 -0500
    Sign and share to tell Jim Kenney to keep his promise to clean Philly's streets
  • Lynne Brosch
    signed 2018-02-22 20:13:54 -0500
    We are drowning in trash in Southwark! Keep your promise to do something about the trash strewn streets. I clean my block but I cannot clean everyone else’s too.
  • Liam Campion
    signed 2018-02-22 19:58:40 -0500
  • Sara Hirschler
    signed via 2018-02-22 19:17:36 -0500
    Sara Hirschler
  • Ariel Kirkwood
    signed 2018-02-22 15:23:31 -0500
  • Eric O'Hara
    signed 2018-02-22 14:59:20 -0500
  • Gina Giaccardo
    signed 2018-02-22 13:45:19 -0500
    Strawberry Street in Old City is very dirty and in terrible shape due to years of dirty mop water dumping, dumpster debris and truck traffic, and grease stains. It badly needs repaving and regular power washing. It is embarrassing for us residents living on the filthiest street in our historic neighborhood.
  • Daniel Paschall
    signed 2018-02-22 12:35:41 -0500
  • Sharp Hall
    signed 2018-02-22 12:10:46 -0500
    This is a bare minimum basic requirement for a city.
  • Aaron Bauman
    signed via 2018-02-22 12:05:26 -0500
  • Ann O'Rourke
    signed 2018-02-22 10:47:07 -0500
  • Kenny Whitebloom
    signed 2018-02-22 10:45:33 -0500
  • Sarah Anton
    signed 2018-02-22 10:37:32 -0500
  • Katrina Johnston-Zimmerman
    signed 2018-02-22 10:32:21 -0500
  • Marshall Schurtz
    signed 2018-02-22 10:28:11 -0500
  • Travis Southard
    posted about this on Facebook 2018-02-22 10:09:50 -0500
    Sign and share to tell Jim Kenney to keep his promise to clean Philly's streets
  • Travis Southard
    @tsouth tweeted link to this page. 2018-02-22 10:09:48 -0500
    Sign and share to tell Jim Kenney to keep his promise to clean Philly's streets http://www.phila3-0.org/street_sweeping?recruiter_id=3304
  • Travis Southard
    signed via 2018-02-22 10:09:32 -0500
    Friends visiting from other cities always comment on the insane volume of trash on our streets outside Center City and always ask what’s up. I always tell them the same thing: In Center City they have trashcans and CCD picks up what gets left on the street. In the neighborhoods, we don’t have public trashcans or streetsweeping. The city has refused year after year to put any effort in towards that. Please keep your promise and help keep our streets clean.
  • Jay Wright
    signed via 2018-02-22 09:52:20 -0500
    There is TOO MUCH LITTER.
  • Joe Celentano
    signed via 2018-02-22 09:37:08 -0500
  • Brian Kall
    signed via 2018-02-22 09:35:07 -0500
    Street sweeping is important to clear both trash and fallen leaves from clogging up our sewers. Clean streets also motivate people to take better care of their neighborhood. Should be scheduled to pass the day after trash collection to sweep up all the trash and broken glass that is left behind
  • Olivia Ortiz
    signed via 2018-02-22 09:29:20 -0500
  • Jacqueline Slaby
    signed 2018-02-22 09:23:50 -0500
  • Justin Brooks
    signed 2018-02-22 09:23:44 -0500
    How about we at least try it in Center City? South Philly residents seem, cough, uniquely attached to their cars. Just because there was blowback there doesn’t mean it will be the same volume in the rest of the city. Why should we all suffer because they would rather be dirty?
  • Dena Driscoll
    posted about this on Facebook 2018-02-22 09:18:07 -0500
    Sign and share to tell Jim Kenney to keep his promise to clean Philly's streets