After tidying up 335 blocks in Northwest Philadelphia for over a year, a collaborative cleaning program is heading across the Schuylkill.
Glitter is launching its Safe Steps initiative in West Philly, the cleaning service announced Monday. The program identifies neighborhoods where gun violence has occurred and sends out crews to clear litter each week, with the aim of deterring future incidents. It’ll clean 275 blocks in Cobbs Creek, Carroll Park, Haddington, Overbrook Park, Overbrook Farms and Morris Park through January. Per a company representative, a “ramp-up phase” has been underway since July.
The expansion follows a recent 15-month stint in Mount Airy and Germantown, which wrapped in June. The Safe Steps Northwest program included 335 blocks and produced promising data. According to Glitter, the area it cleaned saw a 63% drop in gun violence incidents compared with a 38% decline in an area of similar size during the same time period. (The comparative area included parts of Ogontz, Nicetown-Tioa, Hunting Park and Olney.) The efforts were seen in the wider neighborhood, not just the targeted blocks, “suggesting network effect due to our efforts,” Glitter Program Manager Tim LaRosee said in an email…