Residents in Philadelphia’s Kensington neighborhood say they are frustrated by ongoing illegal dumping near Gurney Street, where piles of trash, furniture and abandoned items continue to grow along nearby train tracks.
Neighbors say the dumping has become nonstop, despite fencing, warning signs and surveillance cameras installed in the area.
Just blocks away, one Kensington resident spends part of every day sweeping and cleaning along Third Street. The man, who did not want to share his name, told NBC10 he hopes more people will take pride in keeping neighborhoods clean.
“Clean is beautiful, I don’t know, makes people happy I guess,” he said.
Along the train tracks near Gurney Street, piles of tires, mattresses and garbage bags stretch for blocks.
“When you go towards the train tracks where all the homeless are at, it’s a disaster, there’s couches, abandoned vehicles,” neighbor Natasha Perez said. “We feel like the city just doesn’t care.”
Perez said the longer illegal dumping sites remain, the more they encourage others to dump trash there as well.
“People just come and they open their doors, and they just throw Chick-fil-A or McDonald’s bags, and I’m like what the hell,” Perez said.
The city says it has more than 400 security cameras monitoring known illegal dumping sites across Philadelphia. Officials say the cameras have helped collect nearly $1 million in judgments against people accused of dumping illegally.
Still, some neighbors say they are focused on doing what they can to keep their blocks clean.
“Does it anger you that folks are doing this?” NBC10’s Aaron Baskerville asked the man cleaning Third Street.
“You can be angry all you want, but it’s going to be there,” he replied. “So I try and do the best I can for myself.”
This story was originally reported for broadcast by NBC Philadelphia. AI tools helped convert the story to a digital article, and an NBC Philadelphia journalist edited the article for publication.