Philly Clearing

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March 18, 2022
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March 18, 2022

Bag Count - 2. Cleanup MC - Lisa. Running Bag Count - 46.

Nick Russo
Mar 18
1
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March 18, 2022
phillyclearing.substack.com

Experimenting. I’m trying to find new ways to follow Charles Ellison’s advice to Ya Fav Trashman — that is, to coordinate my efforts with those of the city institutions that are supposed to be responsible for keeping our streets clean. So, for today’s cleanup, I mined through the archives of a new automated Twitter account, Philly 311 Photos, that posts images of people’s 311 submissions. I found an image not too far from my friend Aaron’s apartment, picked him up, and we went to investigate:

Twitter avatar for @philly311photosPhilly 311 Photos @philly311photos
Illegal Dumping at 3560 GRAYS FERRY AVE Reported on: Mar 4, 2022 Assigned to: Streets Department
Image

March 17th 2022

Note that this mess was reported on March 4, a full two weeks ago. When Aaron and I arrived this afternoon, the scene looked almost unchanged from the image above. I don’t know how long it normally takes the Streets Department to respond to illegal dumping reports, but two weeks seems a bit excessive, so we cleaned up the mess and let them know about it:

Twitter avatar for @NickAndrewRussoNick Russo @NickAndrewRusso
@PhilaStreets What’s the normal timeline for illegal dumping reports? This was submitted two weeks ago and was never taken care of (1/2)

Philly 311 Photos @philly311photos

Illegal Dumping at 3560 GRAYS FERRY AVE Reported on: Mar 4, 2022 Assigned to: Streets Department https://t.co/gLyItKZJ7b

March 18th 2022

Twitter avatar for @NickAndrewRussoNick Russo @NickAndrewRusso
But as of this afternoon, it’s been taken care of for you (2/2)
Image

March 18th 2022

1 Like

Forgive the poor quality of that GIF — if you want to see a clearer video (with music courtesy of Lisa, today’s cleanup MC!), here’s the link. On my way home, I drove by the site of another illegal dumping report that was submitted to 311 on March 4, and again, the mess from the submitted image was sitting there almost perfectly preserved:

Twitter avatar for @philly311photosPhilly 311 Photos @philly311photos
Rubbish/Recyclable Material Collection at 600 N 11TH ST Reported on: Mar 4, 2022 Assigned to: Streets Department
Image

March 17th 2022

1 Like
Twitter avatar for @NickAndrewRussoNick Russo @NickAndrewRusso
@PhilaStreets another report from two weeks ago that has yet to be taken care of, this one still in need of your attention (1/2)

Philly 311 Photos @philly311photos

Rubbish/Recyclable Material Collection at 600 N 11TH ST Reported on: Mar 4, 2022 Assigned to: Streets Department https://t.co/mHZkzMA0Js

March 18th 2022

Twitter avatar for @NickAndrewRussoNick Russo @NickAndrewRusso
As you can see, as of 4 this afternoon, the same mess is still here (2/2)
Image

March 18th 2022

Giving the city the full benefit of the doubt here, neither of these two reports were technically instances of illegal dumping, though it seems fair for citizens to expect their Streets Department to clean up large accumulations of litter, illegally dumped or not. Even so, Street Department labor is scarce, and there are tons of garbage heaps in Philly that are in greater need of the city’s attention than these two. So maybe there’s nothing wrong with how the Streets Department operated here, and they’re just outmatched by the scale of the city’s litter problem.

In any case, I’m grateful that Philly 311 Photos exists, and I’m hopeful that the account can be leveraged to increase the transparency and responsiveness of the city’s waste management services. Philadelphia is desperate for a change — a woman screamed “THANK YOU!!!” at us from a passing car during today’s cleanup — and we’ll need to use everything to our advantage, Twitter bots included, to deliver that change.


A back and forth. I’ve been exchanging tweets with local political strategist Melissa Robbins the past two days concerning my recent piece “The Street Cleaning Gods of Filthadelphia.” I’m always looking to learn something valuable from exchanges like these, so I’m going to embed the whole thing here for anyone who’s curious, and I’d love to hear peoples’ thoughts in the comments:

Twitter avatar for @NickAndrewRussoNick Russo @NickAndrewRusso
In which I bring some of ⁦@micsolana⁩’s ideas to bear on Philadelphia’s trash crisis
The Street Cleaning Gods of FilthadelphiaPhilly’s waste management failures have left its citizens waist-deep in trash, with little hope for top-down help. Can they shovel their own way out?phillyclearing.substack.com

March 15th 2022

3 Retweets17 Likes
Twitter avatar for @NickAndrewRussoNick Russo @NickAndrewRusso
Featuring a discussion of @YaFavTrashman and @morganberman, plus some quotes/tweets from @platt_larry, @ellisonreport, @melissa4philly, @jongeeting, and @Naim__Ali

March 15th 2022

1 Retweet2 Likes
Twitter avatar for @melissa4phillyMelissa Robbins @melissa4philly
@NickAndrewRusso @YaFavTrashman @morganberman @platt_larry @ellisonreport @jongeeting @Naim__Ali Hi Nick, what is Melissa missing? 🤔

March 17th 2022

Twitter avatar for @NickAndrewRussoNick Russo @NickAndrewRusso
@melissa4philly Hey! I tagged you because I referenced some of your tweets in the article:
Image

March 17th 2022

Twitter avatar for @melissa4phillyMelissa Robbins @melissa4philly
@NickAndrewRusso Sounds like Berman and her Associates would stand to make a whole lot of money off of the city. I see that all five people in leadership look the same. There are many people of color, Black people n the city who've been doing the work. #equitymatters

March 17th 2022

Twitter avatar for @NickAndrewRussoNick Russo @NickAndrewRusso
@melissa4philly The business model is: prioritize hiring marginalized people and pay them good money to clean streets in under-resourced neighborhoods that are currently buried in trash
Image

March 17th 2022

Twitter avatar for @melissa4phillyMelissa Robbins @melissa4philly
@NickAndrewRusso I was thinking more along the lines of ownership.

March 17th 2022

Twitter avatar for @NickAndrewRussoNick Russo @NickAndrewRusso
@melissa4philly If Glitter was funded, it would promote environmental justice in disadvantaged neighborhoods and bring decent paying jobs to them in the process. Would it be nice if the executive team was more diverse? Sure. But in terms of equity, I think the pros outweigh the cons here.

March 17th 2022

Twitter avatar for @melissa4phillyMelissa Robbins @melissa4philly
@NickAndrewRusso Neighborhoods are disadvantaged because of lack of access to ownership opportunities & City contracts. Creating the next generation of young White bosses & owners is not what Philly needs. Black & Brown ppl need ownership in our community. We been doing the work with no funding.
Image

March 18th 2022

1 Like
Twitter avatar for @NickAndrewRussoNick Russo @NickAndrewRusso
@melissa4philly Your point is well taken. But do you think these two things are mutually exclusive? I’d support the funding of Glitter. I’d also support the funding of similar minority-owned efforts. It’s not a zero-sum game

March 18th 2022


Local artist spotlight. Today’s cleanup MC is a 3-piece Philly-based band called Lisa. Their Instagram bio is, simply, “3 angels in Philadelphia” plus a link to their Bandcamp, which consists only of their single “Mad Men,” released just three days ago. The song’s lyrics are fantastic in their own right, but especially for Mad Men superfans like myself:

He said, "If I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die in Manhattan
"With a good view of the city and a rooftop to jump from
"And when I jump from the rooftop, I want an angel to catch me
"And the beauty of his fingertips will burn away my skin."

And when the guy from Manhattan hands me a thick manilla envelope
I wanna take it home and lock it in my desk
So one day when I'm day drunk and chain-smoking at the office
You can break the lock open and discover who I am.

Three men go to war, what do you do with the fallout?
All these pictures I've been sending are gonna tear us both apart.

Dim halo in the kitchen, empty bottles on the counter
Two figures in the stairwell and a glass for the realtor
When you move across the country, you know this'll be the last time
And when you pull me closer towards you, you know this'll be the last time

And when the guy from Mad Men says, "I thought about what you told me."
And the guy from Manhattan says, "I'm happy to hear it."
I could've swore you said to me,
"Then I thought about you."
"And your deep, deep lack of character."
"Yeah, your deep, deep lack of character."

Three men go to war, what do you do when it's over?
Send another one to the moon before you orchestrate surrender
Cuz when I die in Manhattan, they're gonna pull me from the office
Mets pennant in the background, and the camera in focus

Lisa is playing a live show this Saturday — originally slotted for Tabernacle in North Philly — that’s now being hosted by Cecil Records, which is “a record label founded by students of Temple University,” at an undisclosed location. If you want the address, you’ll have to DM Lisa on Instagram. Doors at 8, music at 9.

Have a great weekend, y’all.

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