Staff Blog
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| Councilman Frank Rizzo |
Today, at-large Councilman Frank Rizzo introduced a resolution calling for the city to restore mechanical leaf collection, a service which Mayor Nutter cut last November, during the fiscal budget crisis.
The resolution was co-sponsored by Councilmembers Anna Verna, Jannie Blackwell, Curtis Jones, Joan Krajewski, Donna Reed Miller, Marian Tasco and Brian O’Neill.
It passed 14-2, with Councilmembers DiCicco and Green dissenting and Councilman Greenlee absent. (*corrected from an earlier draft, which gave the vote incorrectly as 15-2).
The Mayor’s office has said that it opposes re-instituting the service, choosing to spend the money elsewhere: “We’re asking citizens to work with us on this issue so we can meet our spending priorities such as police, fire, and libraries,” said spokeswoman Maura Kennedy yesterday.
Rizzo, however, saw it a different way:
“There are certain things that the city has an obligation to do,” he told the Inquirer.
“There are certain things you can’t put a price tag on,” he told the Daily News.
Actually, putting a price tag on the service is pretty easy: it cost the city $400,000 annually.
And, it turns out, only about 10% of the city was ever getting the service. And, it turns out, that 10% includes the richest neighborhoods in Philadelphia.
Streets Department maps obtained by the CP show that only tiny pockets of the city were receiving mechanical leaf collection services in the first place.
I apologize for the poor image quality, and we’re working on getting better maps. A Streets spokesperson confirmed that the different shadings (solid vs. striped) simply refer to different scheduled weeks of collection.
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| Shaded portions (only) received mechanical leaf collection in 2008 |
Among the pockets of Philly that did get the service, Chestnut Hill and West Mt. Airy seem to dominate in the northwest. Elsewhere: Somerton, Bustleton, and a few other pockets of the northeast; the small gentrified triangle of West Philly that extends west from the University bounded by Chestnut, Baltimore, and 52nd Street; and the swath of Overbrook that hugs City Ave; and a teeny, tiny little pocket of South Philly.
The rest of West Philadelphia, North Philadelphia, the River Districts, and South Philadelphia — had to rake their leaves themselves.
Asked why these areas - and not others - received service, Streets spokeswoman June Canton pointed out that they have more leaves. And we don’t doubt she’s right: but they’re also wealthier – a lot wealthier, in some cases – than the rest of the city.
There may be “certain things the city has an obligation to do,” as Councilman Rizzo put it: but is this really one of them?
