Quote:
Originally Posted by 3rd&Brown
Let me ask you a question?
How many middle and upper middle class families do you think leave this city a year because of the "little things"?
I know. You're gonna say they leave for the schools. I'm gonna tell you 50% of them leave because their neighborhood looks like sh*t and they're tired of looking at it. And that's my point, you address both of them because it's a virtuous cycle.
Their tax dollars will pay for your schools and your homeless programs.
And I've never contemplated selling my (multiple) properties in Philadelphia because of a virus. The city still has so much potential and I just want it to be its best.
Also. Not for nothing, but there is real science out there on how the appearance of a built environment can affect the perceptions and morale of people. If you walk to school passed trash strewn lots with litter everywhere and weeds growing from every crevice on the streets and in the sidewalks, how would you feel? Would you feel like the world was full of opportunity? Would you feel like your neighbors and city (your home) cared about you? Even more, why would you make any attempt to do better if everything was just falling down and apart around you. It's demoralizing. It also decreases public safety. This is not an opinion. It's fact.
I don't know why there is an argument about it. It's a both AND discussion, not either or.
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This not China and in this country private property is the responsibility of private property owners. What you are saying is that the City should be taking care of private property to keep all 600k or so up to standards. That is NEVER going tot happen and having the government clean up after each citizen for "free" is a slap in the fact to those that actually take care of their properties. This is a poor city with an increasing number of renters. The sad reality is that in poorer areas (which often have some of the lowest % of homeowners) many properties are not well maintained and there is a cavalier attitude towards littering. This is not the case citywide (my area is generally clean) but it is the case in much of the city. The CCD and UCD provide the level of cleaning you speak off but that is only because they separately charge large property owners to fund their services. There have been failed attempts to establish similar service organizations in other areas north of Center City but they can't get the votes.
The only way to get long lasting change in terms of cleanliness in an area is for neighbors to ban together and hold others accountable by calling in violations, doing neighborhood cleanups and keeping their own properties clean. Waiting for the city to clean up after all of us isn't a plan. And please don't tell me that this is what they do in the suburbs or other places because its not. In cleaner areas there is a higher level of responsibility for property care and litter disposal. The suburbs aren't cleaner because the townships send cleaning crews around to tidy up private property, they are cleaner because they have more uniform levels of owner property care, lower density and higher incomes.