Park away. No more residential street cleaning in Philly.

There’s not a whole lot to get excited about over Philly’s budget cuts, except that the city will be saving money. Over the past month, Mayor Michael Nutter’s administration has been swinging the dollar ax and chopping funding away from libraries, pools, fire companies, vacant land management programs and other services crucial to the fabric of our city. But there’s one budget cut that’s got city drivers honking the horn: the death of residential street cleaning.

That’s right. The Mayor’s office has scrapped the program, which only covered 16.5% of the city’s road network, to save $425,000. And so herein lies the perks: drivers no longer need to keep track of which days on which streets they have to move their cars, and they won’t receive a $31 parking ticket anymore because they forgot to move their car on street cleaning day. Finally, drivers who can’t afford to garage their cars are enjoying a small piece of the pie.

But not everyone is tickled. The Queen Village Neighbors Association (QVNA) is mourning the loss of street cleaning in their neighborhood.

Heart of Philly's Queen Village Section

Since 1996, the city has provided the neighborhood with regular street cleaning to deal with litter and trash generated by visitors walking through the area to and from South Street.  Some of you out there may be thinking, ‘The rest of us never had street cleaning. Come on Queen Village, join the club.’ And it is. In a recent newsletter, QVNA has summoned all Queen Villagers to pick up the broom and start sweeping.

Any advice out there for how to get people mobilized in cleaning up their communities? Also, know of any neighborhoods where residents do a good job in keeping the streets clean? Or for that matter, a bad job?