• •
Councilwoman Krajewski aims to secure more funding for CLIP during the 2007 city budget hearings. She also wants more residents to step up to prevent property decay.
"Looking forward, I would hope that more of our residents would become involved in policing their streets for quality-of-life issues," the councilwoman said. "One bad property has the potential to ruin a good block."
Conway said the compliance rate for homeowners who are instructed to remedy property violations has jumped from 35 percent in 2003 to as high as 90 percent during the last year.
By now, many Northeast folks know how CLIP works. Typical violations — including weeds 10 inches or taller, trash and dog nuisances — are recorded in writing and entered into a computer. Letters explaining the specific violation are sent to homeowners at the offending property. They must rectify the problem within 10 days of receiving the letter. If they don’t, a CLIP crew undertakes the job and the program sends the homeowner a bill that reflects the amount of work.
The resident has 30 days to pay the bill. If it remains unpaid beyond 90 days, the city will undertake steps to put a lien on the property.
Conway, the CLIP director, said the program isn’t eager to wield a heavy hand when the bill comes due.
"We want to help people," Conway said. "We don’t want to be the long arm of the law."
Some of the property problems are easily remedied. Others require heavy equipment and a strong stomach. Last week, during a day of following CLIP supervisor Henry Turrentine and his crew, the Times saw firsthand how blight affects properties and neighborhoods in the Northeast.
The first stop on the schedule was a house on the 4900 block of Pearson Ave. in Torresdale. The front yard was filled with weeds so tall that the porch of the house was not visible.
"You can see what it does to the property," Turrentine said.
The four-man crew of city employees worked quickly, divvying up tasks to get the job done. One maneuvered a mower through the thick growth while another whacked weeds. A third crew member swept up the mess. The other one dumped the debris into a compactor.
The result was powerful — the yard looked clean and healthy. Sub crew chief Algie Cuffee snapped a picture of the property. He had taken another photo before the work started.
But the crew can do better. They’ve just about seen it all.
"I’ve seen twenty times this," said worker Will Roldan, pointing to the dozen trash bags on the curb in front of the house.
His gaze fell on an 8-foot-tall tree next door.
"We’ve seen grass as high as that," he said.
Call it on-the-job experience.
"These guys really know what they’re doing," Turrentine said.
• •
By noon, the CLIP crew had completed seven jobs. Next was a house on the 4200 block of Hellerman St. in Mayfair. An overgrown hedge and wild weeds threatened to spill into a neighbor’s yard.
"That’s a no-no," Turrentine said.
Again, the crew worked speedily under the August sun, trimming the hedge and uprooting weeds and ultimately making the yard look as manicured as the ones flanking it.
Neighbor Anna Marks suspects the homeowners are out-of-state landlords. She has seen them only a few times this year. She has helped tend the yard, and she was quite happy to see the CLIP truck pull up to the curb.
"This is fantastic," she said. "I have to clean all their trash up. This would be a nice house if someone took care of it. I take pride in my home."
Turrentine is glad Marks is a fan of CLIP. Not everyone is.
"Some people love us, some hate us," he said.
There are three CLIP inspectors — one male, two females — who typically respond to a complaint about a property within 24 to 48 hours. Sometimes, they detect blighted properties in violation of codes during their travels while on the job.
Residents who receive a visit from CLIP inspectors offer varied greetings. Some cooperate. Some deny there’s even a problem. Others threaten violence.
"We’ve had people say, ‘You come back here and I’ll shoot you,’" Conway said.
In those situations, police officers accompany inspectors during the second visit.
Some balky or protesting homeowners are taken to court. CLIP administrators initially try to mediate issues in their office, but cases do lead to municipal hearings. There have been more than 400 prosecutions during CLIP’s four-year existence, though Conway didn’t have immediate access to statistics on how many cases were decided in CLIP’s favor.
Inspectors do make it a point to check the validity of a property complaint. "We don’t have the luxury of chasing down foolish complaints," Conway said.
The number of founded charges speaks volumes. Since the program’s start in April 2002, CLIP has removed high weeds in more than 14,000 yards and erased graffiti from almost 90,000 properties and street fixtures. The creation of a second computer database system has helped the group organize and cross-reference case information.
"Once in a while we hear, ‘CLIP doesn’t do anything,’" Conway said. "I think we’re doing a pretty good job."
• •
Some unhappy property owners on the receiving end of a summons have accused CLIP of raking in more than just weeds. With average violation fines ranging from $25 to $300, in addition to the cost of CLIP labor for the property maintenance, the program obviously generates funds for the city.
Conway could not immediately detail the revenue CLIP has brought in during its existence. The significance increase in compliance over the last three years, however, has greatly neutralized the amount of fines collected from residents who receive summonses and the payments from bills sent for CLIP’s cleanup work, program employees said.
More important, Conway said, CLIP has the money to continue its blight-fighting effort.
"We have enough funding to continue what we’re doing right now," he said.
CLIP doesn’t just do the dirty work. The program has contributed to beautification efforts at Pennypack on the Delaware, including planting flowers and building a gazebo.
After a lunch break, the crew visited a house on the 1200 block of Friendship St. in Oxford Circle to tackle their biggest job yet.
One side of the otherwise handsome home was obscured by a tangle of vines and weeds. The growth was so profuse that it had grown through a vehicle parked in the driveway. The back yard, though, was home to the worst blight.
The overgrowth had turned the residential yard into a virtual jungle, probably infested, worker Lamont Williams said, with critters most residents wouldn’t want to see.
"There’s probably field mice," said Williams, an equipment operator.
In fact, the mosquitoes started nipping not five minutes after the CLIP workers entered the yard. But they were a minor aggravation for the crew members, who were still dealing with poison ivy from a previous job.
• •
The CLIP crew can never be sure when they’ll encounter animals or vermin. The worst cases have included a house filled with a hundred cats and another coated with roaches. Two children lived in the roach-infested place. In situations that severe, officials from the city’s health department visit the homes.
Turrentine suspects that other properties cleared by CLIP look as unsightly inside.
"Nobody’s going to know what you did inside, but you can at least maintain the outside," he said.
After cutting down a 15-foot-high weed from the side of the house, the crew would return to devote a whole day to cleaning the rest of the mess, Turrentine said. He estimated that the bill sent to the homeowners would be a few thousand dollars.
He also believes they won’t be paying it. They’ve already said that, according to Turrentine.
No one answered several knocks on the door, though Turrentine suspected someone was in the house.
The neighbors were supportive.
"I’m happy they’re doing it," said an unidentified man. "Most people here keep their property up."
And, according to employees, they are the ones CLIP wants to help.
"We’ve made a major improvement in regard to how people keep their property up," Conway said. "I think we’ve improved the nature of the neighborhoods. Now taxpayers have somewhere to turn." ••
To contact CLIP, call 215-683-CLIP.
Reporter Lauren Fritsky can be reached at 215-354-3038 or lfritsky@phillynews.com
CLIP, by the numbers
Properties and street fixtures cleaned: 88,985
Vehicles towed: 30,312
Sanitation violations written: 10,950
Traffic engineering activities (includes removal and/or replacement of new signs): 10,127
Properties cleared of high weeds: 14,229
L&I violations written: 36,199
Curb-your-dog signs placed: 374
Properties cleared of trash: 7,463