Who Is LitterCo.?

by Lisa D. Poe

I live at 36th Street and Lancaster Avenue, near Drexel University campus, and while a pair of red sweatpants stuck in a tree about ten feet off the ground is certainly eye-catching, I continued east on Powelton Avenue looking for more. I had a hunch that much worse litter and weirdness could be had around the corner. Where Powelton Avenue dead-ends into 31st Street behind Amtrak’s 30th Street Station has always been the plastic-bags-and-broken-glass kind of dirty. There are no houses on the left-hand side, just a big fenced in lot with dumpsters in it. On the right, there is occasionally a bit of sidewalk, then a chain-link fence, and a slope leading down to the railroad tracks.

There isn’t much to be seen at the intersection of Powelton and 31st, because the tracks come too close to the road. As you go north on 31st, though, you can see that as the tracks veer away from the fence and the incline becomes steeper and fills with undergrowth there are signs of dumping. It’s little things at first: a muffler, unidentifiable metal objects, possibly part of a car grill, a decomposing Styrofoam cooler. A few steps more and you notice a shoe, five tires, three plastic milk crates from Lehigh Valley Dairy Farms, and a bathroom sink. Yes, there is an entire sink sitting there among the trees, near the single sneaker and shattered plastic milk jug.

Then I see a sign on the fence that says No Trespassing, Property of Amtrak. The fence and all of the land on the dumping side, the non-public side, belong to Amtrak. Sure, there are things on the public side of the fence, too, like four floorboard mats lying in a pile next to an empty vodka bottle. But that’s nothing compared to the rusting 50-gallon drum I can barely see through the chain-link, lurking in the shadows, overgrown with an odd natural/industrial camouflage. The rust makes it blend with the fall leaves all around it, and ivy has started to grow over one end, making it hard to see unless you’re looking for it.

A few feet further along, just as the first houses appear across the street, there is a couch, upside down, very close to the fence, as though it was all the dumper could do to get it over the top. Then another tire, a car battery, a mop suspended from a vine, a smaller metal drum, a volleyball, a large, plastic, outdoor garbage can, another tire, and a traffic barrier – one of those orange and white striped ones. As you see the sign for Hamilton Street, the trash begins to taper off; the fence is overgrown with vines, the plants on the other side are much taller, there are more buildings nearby, and it seems to be a less convenient place to dump.

Satisfied that I had a real litter disaster on my hands, I walked home and called the University City District. They have recently created an anti-litter coalition called LitterCo. (perhaps not the best choice of name). I spoke with John Fenton, Senior Director of Operations, Clean and Safe Programs. He first clarified which side of the fence the dumping was on, and informed me that Drexel students had just been part of a cleanup in the area a few weeks ago. When he discovered that the dumping was happening on Amtrak property, he seemed much less concerned. He told me, “Amtrak has their own cleaning people.” When I asked if Amtrak is one of LitterCo.’s community sponsors, he then told me that “someone from Amtrak” is on the Board of Directors. This person is Sally J. Bellet, Esq., Secretary of the Board, and Vice President for Real Estate Development and Counsel to the President of Amtrak. John suggested that Amtrak probably didn’t know about the dumping, and promised me that if I sent him an email, he would forward it on to Ms. Bellet.

I then called Amtrak’s Corporate Communications office in Washington, D.C. I was informed that another company, U.S. Equities, owns the land on which the station sits and “we’re technically just a tenant.” Before I could ask this person her name, she said she would transfer me to the Philadelphia office and put me on hold. Almost immediately, another woman named Nashay picked up, and asked if I was being helped. When I told her I was holding for the Philadelphia office with a local issue, she asked me what it was and made me go through the whole description again. She then told me all the lines were busy to the Philadelphia office and that if I gave her my phone number, she would have “someone from the Real Estate Department” get back to me. Nashay took my name but would not give me the local number or a contact name at Amtrak.

I am still waiting for that call, but I am glad to see that the great American tradition of passing the buck is alive and well. If I do hear from LitterCo. - uh, I mean Amtrak - I’ll be sure to give you an update.