PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Philadelphia is planning a multi-million-dollar effort to clean graffiti and beautify key highway areas to prepare for visitors in 2026.
"We're going to get rid of that ugly moniker 'Filthadelphia,’" Mayor Cherelle Parker said Friday at a City Hall news conference. "They're going to see something different when they come to our great city."
City officials announced an $11.5 million initiative to clean graffiti and litter from seven high-traffic highway junctions, including the "Honeycomb Wall" near 30th Street Station and the CSX wall along the Schuylkill Expressway on Spring Garden Street.
It's an effort to put the city's best foot forward for visitors arriving for events, including World Cup matches and the nation's 250th birthday.
"You never get a second chance to make a first impression," said Carlton Williams, the city's director of Clean and Green Initiatives. "This is our moment to make Philadelphia shine on the world's biggest stage."
In addition to cleaning graffiti at the seven Gateways to Philadelphia locations, there will be gardens, landscaping and public art installations.
The cleanup effort is more than just creating blank slates for people with cans of spray paint.
Mural Arts Executive Director Jane Golden said her nonprofit will oversee the installation of a semiquincentennial-themed mural at the CSX wall. Graffiti writers, in her experience, tend to avoid tagging murals — "It is somewhat of a deterrent," Golden told KYW Newsradio.
"The graffiti writers would tell me that they actually had a code where they wouldn't write on a church or on a mural or sometimes even a private home, and that carried for many years," she said. "Then COVID came, and graffiti writers started writing everywhere."
"Social media has really changed the game as far as graffiti goes because their reputations can carry far and wide. But I would say the city is really smart. So it's a several-pronged approach," Golden continued.
The city's Community Life Improvement Program (CLIP) aims to remove graffiti within 24 to 48 hours. "Because we feel like the city deserves to have beautiful works of public art and we're determined and we're tenacious and we won't let graffiti sit there," Golden said.
The Pennsylvania Horticultural Society is also planting shrubs and 95,000 bulbs at the seven junctions.
The $11.5 million project is funded with $6.5 million in city money, with the rest coming from the state and philanthropic groups.
Where are the seven gateways located?
– 26th Street Gateway at Penrose Avenue
– South Street Bridge, walls, medians and on/off-ramps
– 30th Street Station walls, medians and ramps
– I-76 and I-676 interchange at 15th and 16th streets and Vine Street
– I-76 and I-676 interchange at 6th and 8th streets and Callowhill/Vine streets
– I-76 and I-95 interchange at 2nd and 3rd streets and Callowhill/Vine streets
– CSX/Amtrak wall at Spring Garden Street
The city said the seven gateways represent the first phase of the project, with more expected.