CITY LIMITS: A Fine Mess - Student trash in Spruce Hill

It's piling higher and deeper in University City. From Chestnut Street to Baltimore Avenue, students are back to trashing area sidewalks -- raising the ire of Spruce Hill residents as well as eyebrows at the Philadelphia Streets Department. Residents and city officials said this month's move-in period was an exaggerated beginning to a year during which students living off campus are again setting waste on their sidewalks at wrong times and in inadequate containers. "It is appalling to see mountains of trash loosely strung across the sidewalks with total disregard for what it takes to pick it up," said Philadelphia Streets Commissioner Pete Hoskins. When students place their trash on the curb before proper pick-up times, homeless people as well as animals pick through garbage, leaving behind a smelly mess, according to area residents. That, combined with wind, often strews the trash all over the street, which in turn often clogs gutters. "It is a few students [who] make a lot of mess and leave bags and boxes in front of their apartments," said area resident Janet Golden, who is a visiting scholar in the History and Sociology of Science Department. According to Spruce Hill Community Association President David Hochman, the mess arrives along with students in late August when new residents clean out the remnants of previous tenants. "[Move-in week] is an exaggeration to wild extremes the situation we face year-round," Hochman said. And when trash collection time comes, sanitation workers do not pick up the loose trash, and often even refuse to take trash in broken bags. But area residents say the city is not the party at fault. They place the blame on landlords and students. "Landlords are not providing the means for good trash removal and residents are not doing it," Hochman said. Not only are students unaware when trash is picked up, residents complain, but they also say many students violate a city ordinance by setting out trash before 7 p.m. the night before pickup and fail to place the trash in cans. Melanie Lamond, a longtime resident and real estate salesperson at Urban and Bye Real Estate, said since students will not take the responsibility for the trash, landlords should do it themselves and "assess the costs on to the tenants." But local landlords and students said that it is not always their fault, and many noted that they already obey city regulations. Wharton sophomore Derek Jokelson, who lives on the 4100 block of Pine Street, said Friday that upon the signing of his lease, he and his housemates were told the trash days and instructions for bulk trash removal. Jokelson added that even though his block is "pretty well-kept . . . 39th and Pine Street, I think, is a shithole." College and Wharton junior Eric Palace, who lives on the 4000 block of Spruce Street, said that not only are he and his housemates aware of when their trash is picked up, but he said the problem has subsided since move-in. "The past two weeks, it's been under control," Palace said. "[There are] no huge piles of trash outside the house." As for landlords, when asked who he believes to be the sloppiest landlord in Spruce Hill, Hochman said unequivocally, "University City Housing." But Bill Grebs, co-manager of University City Housing, said his company "spends a lot of time and effort to keep outsides cleaned up." In addition, he said UCH provides private haulers and dumpsters for their "larger complexes." Cheryl Feinberg, manager of Campus Apartments, said her company provides cans for their tenants in houses, who keep the cans in their yards. In Campus Apartments buildings, Feinberg said, there are dumpsters which are handled by a private hauler. Feinberg added that landlords lose control over the trash once it is put out. "Trashmen only take the bags, and if it is not bagged, then they leave it in the street," Feinberg said. Streets Commissioner Hoskins, who toured Spruce Hill when students moved into their off-campus houses and apartments, said the city is not at fault for the area's smelly problem. "It's obvious that the property owners and students have a lot to learn to be responsible about their trash," he said last week. Hoskins said that city sanitation workers can not be expected to pick up trash which spills out onto the street in University City. "In this case, the set-up is so bad it is totally overwhelming to clean up so much loose debris," he said. Adding to the problem is the department's "weak" ability to enforce sanitation codes, Hoskins said. Currently, there is a small sanitation enforcement unit with the Philadelphia Police Department. Hoskins said that the Streets and Walkways Enforcement and Education Program, which is currently being implemented in Center City, allows for the Streets Department to enforce the codes with their own officers. SWEEP could be extended to Spruce Hill in "probably a year," Hoskins said. Hochman said the University can benefit from a cleaner Spruce Hill, and he wants the University help to solve the problem. "Landlords have enormous benefit from being near the University," Hochman said. "[We] need to see the University exercise its influence." But Ellen Zatz, University director of off-campus living, said her office already informs landlords and realtors of the dates of trash pick-up as well as Spruce Hill community clean-ups. She added that in the past, the University had a system of monitoring off-campus properties. But due to a lack of resources to monitor over 10,000 off-campus units, the University is no longer able to run it, she said. Zatz said the Off-Campus Living office, as a "consumer organization," does not guarantee compliance with city sanitation codes. Area residents say the trash problem is not only an aesthetic one. They also are feeling the effect of trash in their pocketbooks because a dirty neighborhood keeps potential buyers away from Spruce Hill. "The worse year-round trash gets, the less likely [we are] to get non-student residents," Hochman said.

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