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Neighborhood
Transformation Initiative
Eva Gladstein
Director
One Parkway
1515 Arch St.
12th Floor
Philadelphia
PA 19102
215-683-2154
Fax 215-683-2162

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City of Philadelphia

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Vacant buildings, debris-filled lots, abandoned cars and graffiti can attract criminal activity, dissuade investors and impede development. By cleaning up neighborhoods and closing down open-air drug markets, we improve the perception and reality of Philadelphia's neighborhoods. These changes are setting the stage for neighborhood transformation.

Abandoned Car Removal
Anti-Graffiti Efforts
Code Enforcement Programs
NTI Green City Strategy
Vacant Lot Cleaning and Greening
GreenPlan Philadelphia
Operation Safer Streets
Tree Maintenance and Planting

Abandoned Car Removal:
We launched our first attack on blight by removing 33,000 abandoned cars from the streets in just 40 days. Junk cars diminish a neighborhood's appearance, pose safety hazards for children and are often used to hide illegal drugs and weapons. Since January 2000, the city has towed away abandoned cars at record rates - more than 275,000 have been removed as of July 2006. Removing abandoned cars results in cleaner and safer neighborhoods in Philadelphia.

To report an abandoned car click here.

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Anti-Graffiti Efforts:
Between January 2000 and June 2006, the City cleaned graffiti from 189,394 properties. The purchase of new power-washers and hiring additional workers significantly sped up graffiti removal. The City's Anti-graffiti Network removed graffiti from every billboard, terminal and other structure visible from the Market-Frankford El. The Mural Arts Program, which has completed more murals than any other public art program in the country with 2,740, added three new murals along the train line. Structures that are clean or decorated with murals restore pride to communities and encourage investment

To report graffiti click here.
For more information on the Mural Arts Program click here

Code Enforcement Programs:
Under this program, City agencies are working collaboratively to provide comprehensive enforcement of health and safety codes. The problem is abated and liens ordered to recoup costs from property owners. As of 2006, CLIP has issued 10,950 sanitation violations and 36,199 property maintenance code violations. These include early trash set outs, high weeds, animal droppings and trash on properties. Generally, property violations are addressed within 10 business days.

NTI Green City Strategy:
NTI works with the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society on the implementation of the Green City Strategy. Since FY04 more than $11 million have been spent to support citywide vacant lot stabilization, greening projects and ongoing lot maintenance by community-based organizations. Working in key neighborhoods, with community groups, the City has cleaned and greened more than 3.7 million square feet of vacant land with another 2.5 million square feet under management. As of 2006, City crews have removed 5,278 tons of debris from 10,014 vacant lots. The City has invested in enhanced treatment of vacant land by planting grass, trees, and installing wood rail fencing on 3,600 parcels; contracting with 10 community groups to clean, cut, and maintain another 2,200 vacant parcels; and completing dozens of improvement projects in 55 neighborhood parks, 21 community gardens, 12 commercial corridors, as well as beautification projects, such as flowering planters on 67 residential blocks. More than 1,900 trees have been planted on vacant lots and another 400 tress will be planted on commercial corridors by June 2007.

"Greened" neighborhoods, with plenty of parks and open space, provide a greater quality of life for neighborhood residents. They also provide clean, safe places for communities to come together.

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Vacant Lot Cleaning and Greening:
In June 2001, the City launched an unprecedented campaign to clean more than 31,000 vacant lots. The City mobilized 19 work crews, eight front-end loaders and seven dump trucks to clean and maintain vacant lots. As of 2006, the city has completed more than 80,189 lot cleanings, cleaning every vacant lot at least once, totaling more than 53,671 tons of debris.

To encourage citizen stewardship of these lots, the city asked the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society (PHS) to develop a community-based maintenance program to hire local organizations to mow the lots and remove trash. Through the Community Land Care Program, PHS selected 10 organizations that are responsible for performing basic housekeeping of these parcels.

Completed as of 2006: 10 organizations hired; 2,200 lots being maintained
To report illegal dumping click here
or for a police sanitation form click here.

For more information on PHS's Green City Strategy click here.

GreenPlan Philadelphia
Philadelphia is home to some of the most treasured natural resources in the region. From neighborhood parks and gardens to the Fairmount Park system and expansive waterfront, they are places of great fun and recreation, of quiet contemplation and hidden beauty and a treasure trove of history, culture and environmental learning.

GreenPlan Philadelphia is the City’s first comprehensive open space plan for the effective management of all existing and future open space in the city. It will provide a long-term guide for using, acquiring, developing, funding, and managing open space in Philadelphia’s neighborhoods to ensure that green spaces continue to enhance the environmental, social and economic well-being of the city.

Open space includes:

• neighborhood and regional parks and gardens
• playgrounds and play areas, ball fields and recreation centers
• riverfronts and other areas near water that offer opportunities for sport and recreation
• abandoned land that can be utilized as new green spaces
• woodlands, walking, and riding trails

Once completed, GreenPlan Philadelphia will help the City of Philadelphia to:

• increase collaboration with community leaders to champin open space assets
• meet environmental regulations
• implement open space projects
• support programs that promote the health and quality-of-life benefits of open space
• foster adoption of the plan’s recommendations into the mission of city agencies

For more information on GreenPlan Philadelphia click here

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Operation Safer Streets:
During the course of the Street Administration, Philadelphia had a decrease in crime and an increase in quality of life. Serious crime has declined approximately 16 percent during the past seven years due to a host of neighborhood revitalization and public safety efforts. Through the NTI and Operation Safe Streets(www.ppdonline.org/ops/ops_safestreets.php), the City helped its citizens reclaim and restore abandoned property and take back their neighborhoods by closing more than 300 open-air drug markets.

Building upon this success, the City of Philadelphia expanded the program and launched Operation Safer Streets, a comprehensive, multi-agency, data-driven, citywide crime prevention and reduction strategy with short- and long-term tactics that are designed to suppress violence. Operation Safer Streets is a four-pronged approach to preventing and reducing violent crime:

I: Targeted policing of “hot spots”
II. Violence prevention through increased social and city services
III. Increased community engagement
IV. Gun reduction efforts

For more information click here

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Tree Maintenance and Planting:
NTI, working with the Fairmount Park Commission and the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society has addressed a major blighting influence - dangerous trees. From 2000-2003 the City removed 15,081 dangerous trees and pruned more than 41,281 healthy ones.

In 2003 the City started planting young trees to beautify the neighborhoods: 7,000 (the goal was 4,000) were planted, in six months, along city streets, at recreation centers, in new housing developments, in formerly vacant lots and in parks.