{"id":12414,"date":"2024-08-13T16:37:07","date_gmt":"2024-08-13T16:37:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nnpa.org\/chevydtu\/?p=12414"},"modified":"2025-07-28T17:19:30","modified_gmt":"2025-07-28T17:19:30","slug":"expansion-of-business-initiative-to-boost-philly-mayors-clean-and-green-effort-city-officials-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nnpa.org\/chevydtu\/expansion-of-business-initiative-to-boost-philly-mayors-clean-and-green-effort-city-officials-say\/","title":{"rendered":"Expansion of Business Initiative to Boost Philly Mayor’s Clean and Green Effort, City Officials Say"},"content":{"rendered":"

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By Mattie Moore, and Imani Waters | Philadelphia Tribune Staff Writer<\/p>\n

City officials and non-profit leaders gathered at Temple University as Mayor Cherelle Parker\u2019s office announced the expansion of the Philadelphia Taking Care of Business Program, also referred to as PHL TCB.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Chief Deputy Mayor Aren Platt spoke in place of Parker who was unable to attend the event.<\/p>\n

\"Alba

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\u2019s Student Center Friday.<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cThrough the mayor\u2019s 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,\u201d Platt said.<\/p>\n

The meeting room on the second floor of Temple\u2019s student center was filled Friday with stakeholders from interfaith leaders to sanitation workers dressed in their neon gear.<\/p>\n

Casey Kuklick, who works alongside the mayor\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cAccording to our tracker, as of this morning, we are at almost 7,000 blocks [cleaned], we\u2019ve repaired over 3,000 potholes and cleaned 2,000 vacant lots,\u201d Kuklick announced. \u201cWe\u2019ve removed over 1,000 instances of graffiti, taken over 800 abandoned cars off the streets and ticketed and remediated nuisance businesses and properties.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe first used to do [the cleaning] voluntarily and with God\u2019s grace we were able to get contracts for doing it but we used to just clean up wherever anyway,\u201d said Latasha Wells, community outreach coordinator of One Day At A Time. \u201cWe do clean ups in the Central Philadelphia and North Philadelphia area.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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 \u201csafer, cleaner, greener city\u201d with the creation of 200 new job opportunities for residents.<\/p>\n

\u201cTCB is opening a career ladder opportunity into incredibly rewarding and important municipal jobs,\u201d Martinez said. \u201cA large percentage of the people working within TCB are returning citizens.\u201d<\/p>\n

Martinez announced a request for business proposals will be launched in September inviting cleaning companies and other organizations to join the mayor\u2019s initiatives. Interfaith members of Parker\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

The Allegheny West Foundation is another organization assisting in the cleaning of business corridors throughout Philly.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s excitement to be a part of the cleaning.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s 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,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_divider show_divider=”off” disabled_on=”on|on|off” admin_label=”Divider” _builder_version=”3.2″ hide_on_mobile=”on”] [\/et_pb_divider][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.9.4″ _module_preset=”default”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.9.4″ _module_preset=”default”][et_pb_team_member name=”Mattie Moore” position=”Fellow, The Philadelphia Tribune” image_url=”https:\/\/www.nnpa.org\/chevydtu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/mattie-moore-headerpsd.jpg” admin_label=”Person” _builder_version=”4.9.4″ header_text_color=”#1c4693″ body_text_color=”#1c4693″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat” animation=”left” hover_enabled=”0″ use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid” sticky_enabled=”0″]<\/p>\n

Mattie Moore is a senior journalism and mass communication student with a marketing minor at NC A&T State University. She is managing editor of A&T\u2019s newspaper and community service director of the A&T chapter of a prominent Black journalism organization. She plans to continue to tell stories that matter through writing for news publications.<\/p>\n

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THE PHILADELPHIA TRIBUNE \u2014 City officials and non-profit leaders gathered at Temple University as Mayor Cherelle Parker\u2019s office announced the expansion of the Philadelphia Taking Care of Business Program, also referred to as PHL TCB.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12418,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[517,521],"tags":[631,632,645,641,666,660,639,651,629,625,619,653,643,657,663,654,626,659,667,640,655,633,648,628,658,636,665,649,523,622,664,630,668,638,620,673,652,650,646,623,624,644,642,662,661,656,637,670,635,627,669,621,634,671,672,647],"class_list":["post-12414","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-2024-mattie-moore","category-the-philadelphia-tribune","tag-13-5-million","tag-23-9-million","tag-000-instances-of-graffiti","tag-almost-7000-blocks-cleaned","tag-business-services-unit","tag-career-ladder-opportunity","tag-casey-kuklick","tag-central-philadelphia","tag-chief-deputy-mayor-aren-platt","tag-city-councilwoman","tag-city-officials","tag-clean-environment-in-philly","tag-cleaned-2000-vacant-lots","tag-cleaner","tag-cleaning-companies","tag-commerce-director-alba-martinez","tag-continued-cleaning","tag-creation-of-200-new-job-opportunities","tag-department-of-commerce","tag-director-of-the-office-of-clean-and-green-initiatives","tag-economic-effects","tag-expand-and-grow-phl-tcb","tag-gods-grace","tag-government-agencies","tag-greener-city","tag-interfaith-leaders","tag-interfaith-members-of-parkers-cabinet","tag-latasha-wells","tag-mattie-moore","tag-mayor-cherelle-parkers-office","tag-mayors-initiatives","tag-mayors-one-philly-budget","tag-media-toolkit","tag-neon-gear","tag-non-profit-leaders","tag-north-22nd-street-business-corridor","tag-north-philadelphia-area","tag-one-day-at-a-time","tag-over-800-abandoned-cars-off-the-streets","tag-philadelphia-taking-care-of-business-program","tag-phl-tcb","tag-removed-over-1","tag-repaired-over-3000-potholes","tag-request-for-business-proposals","tag-returning-citizens","tag-safer","tag-sanitation-workers","tag-showcase-the-success","tag-stakeholders","tag-streets-of-philadelphia","tag-tcb-program","tag-temple-university","tag-temples-student-center","tag-the-allegheny-west-foundation","tag-thera-martin","tag-ticketed-and-remediated-nuisance-businesses-and-properties"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nnpa.org\/chevydtu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12414","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nnpa.org\/chevydtu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nnpa.org\/chevydtu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nnpa.org\/chevydtu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nnpa.org\/chevydtu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12414"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.nnpa.org\/chevydtu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12414\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12837,"href":"https:\/\/www.nnpa.org\/chevydtu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12414\/revisions\/12837"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nnpa.org\/chevydtu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12418"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nnpa.org\/chevydtu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12414"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nnpa.org\/chevydtu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12414"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nnpa.org\/chevydtu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12414"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}