Residents: City Must Shovel Its Load

PHILADELPHIA - Imagine waking up Saturday, then Sunday, then Monday and finding your street covered in 2 feet of snow.

Add to that the fact that the sidewalks in front of some homes on your block are still not cleared.

As you can imagine the folks on Harper Street are having a hard time moving around.

Fox 29's Dave Schratwieser visits one of those neighborhoods that got a double whammy with streets not plowed and sidewalks not cleared.

And residents said they shouldn't be responsible for snow removal from properties other than their own.

On Harper's 3000 block in Brewerytown, the frustration is boiling over.

First, the street never got plowed after Saturday's big storm, leaving cars stranded. Then the sidewalks became an issue .there are seven boarded up homes here where the walkways never got shoveled

"We could never get anyone down her to do it," block captain Joyce Hill said.

"I find it very amazing that the city wants to do a fine on homes that don't shovel their block for $50 up to $300, yet they don't take care of their own city properties," said Vaughan Mitchell, of Brewerytown.

So neighbors dug and pushed each other out. Finally, they shoveled the walks in front of most of the boarded up homes.

Many are asking, where's the city?

"It's their responsibility to come do it, then they need to come do it and not just forget about neighborhoods like this," said Rebecca Perkins, of Brewerytown.

Residents are annoyed at threats from the city about fines if they don't shovel their walks. But no one holds the city, the Philadelphia Housing Authority or the absentee owners of the homes on their block accountable.

"You can't fine someone if you're not doing everything that you can on your own," Mitchell said.

"We have to do it, and that's as far as it gets," Hill said.

At the Penrose Playground in North Philly, a crew plowed the front walk but not the block-long side or rear walks at the city facility, forcing people out into the street.

On 11th Street between Diamond and Susquehanna, Temple University's sidewalk was shoveled. Across the street, a sidewalk around a housing complex was not.

"That makes us really angry because why won't you get a fine for not shoveling off your property?" Hill said.

Some residents claimed that when they called the city's 311 center to complain and ask for help, they got less than a warm response.

The PHA said it has dozens of sites that needed shoveling and plowing and is making every effort to get that done. But with another storm headed this way at mid week, this snow storm headache could return.

When Fox 29 called the PHA, within the hour a work crew with a front-end loader showed up on Harper and Cambridge streets to cleared them and the sidewalks.