Expansion of Business Initiative to Boost Philly Mayor’s Clean and Green Effort, City Officials Say

By Mattie Moore, and Imani Waters | Philadelphia Tribune Staff Writer

City officials and non-profit leaders gathered at Temple University as Mayor Cherelle Parker’s office announced the expansion of the Philadelphia Taking Care of Business Program, also referred to as PHL TCB.

The program was initially proposed by Parker when she still served as city councilwoman. The expansion of the initiative will allow for continued cleaning on the streets of Philadelphia with the help of non-profit organizations and government agencies.

Chief Deputy Mayor Aren Platt spoke in place of Parker who was unable to attend the event.

Alba Martinez, Director of Commerce for the City of Philadelphia, enthusiastically wraps up the introduction of the PHL Taking Care of Business program expansion, engaging the audience at Temple University’s Student Center Friday.

“Through the mayor’s one Philly budget, we have more than doubled from $13.5 million to a total of $23.9 million to expand and grow PHL TCB,” Platt said.

The meeting room on the second floor of Temple’s student center was filled Friday with stakeholders from interfaith leaders to sanitation workers dressed in their neon gear.

Casey Kuklick, who works alongside the mayor’s office as the director of the Office of Clean and Green Initiatives, provided an update on the progress of the citywide cleaning that began on June 3.

“According to our tracker, as of this morning, we are at almost 7,000 blocks [cleaned], we’ve repaired over 3,000 potholes and cleaned 2,000 vacant lots,” Kuklick announced. “We’ve removed over 1,000 instances of graffiti, taken over 800 abandoned cars off the streets and ticketed and remediated nuisance businesses and properties.”

The budget allocations in the expansion of the program will provide resources for maintenance of the cleaned areas throughout the city. The city has contracted partners to assist in the cleaning of streets and removal of items.

“We first used to do [the cleaning] voluntarily and with God’s grace we were able to get contracts for doing it but we used to just clean up wherever anyway,” said Latasha Wells, community outreach coordinator of One Day At A Time. “We do clean ups in the Central Philadelphia and North Philadelphia area.”

One Day At A Time is just one of the partners making the improvements happen. The organization has been open since 1983 and has held a contract with PHL TCB for five years.

In addition to the visual impact of a clean environment in Philly, Commerce Director Alba Martinez passionately spoke on the economic effects of creating a “safer, cleaner, greener city” with the creation of 200 new job opportunities for residents.

“TCB is opening a career ladder opportunity into incredibly rewarding and important municipal jobs,” Martinez said. “A large percentage of the people working within TCB are returning citizens.”

Martinez announced a request for business proposals will be launched in September inviting cleaning companies and other organizations to join the mayor’s initiatives. Interfaith members of Parker’s cabinet and the business services unit within the Department of Commerce will join forces to inform business corridors across the city on how to apply.

She also announced a media toolkit being rolled out to promote the TCB program and showcase the success of it. It will be accessible via the TCB page of the Commerce website.

The Allegheny West Foundation is another organization assisting in the cleaning of business corridors throughout Philly.

Thera Martin is the special assistant to the president of the foundation and the North 22nd Street business corridor manager. She spoke about the foundation’s excitement to be a part of the cleaning.

“It’s a challenge every day to do the cleaning but we are just so glad that Cherelle Parker had that vision back when she was a council member that a plan like this could work,” she said.