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WHEREAS, Pittsburgh's Home Rule Charter states that “a responsible city is one which expects aggressive action from its officials towards the achievement of [...] excellent health, safety, and conditions conducive to human growth”; and,
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WHEREAS, the Pennsylvania Constitution outlines the right "to the preservation of the natural, scenic, historic and esthetic values of the environment"; and,
WHEREAS, this spring, melting snow has once again revealed filthy hillsides, trails, alleys, rights-of-way, catch basins, and vacant land to be covered in trash, on the magnitude warranting a state of emergency and action by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania; and,
WHEREAS, unaccumulated refuse is described as “slow violence” and damages community health and perceptions, contributes to disorder, and curbs economic development leading to disinvestment especially in low-income communities; and,
WHEREAS, previous monitoring and litter assessment efforts by the City have highlighted concentrations of litter in our most impoverished neighborhoods, often home to minority and immigrant neighbors; and,
WHEREAS, more than 1,110 illegal dumpsites have been identified in Pittsburgh since 2005, with more than 850 sites cleaned up; and,
WHEREAS, not all dumpsites have been recorded much less cleaned, and recurring dumping at these known locations suggest the true scale of the problem is much larger than reported; and,
WHEREAS, while the work of non-profit and community organizations, volunteers, and the City's Department of Public Works to clean our neighborhoods deserve acknowledgement, these efforts are clearly not sustainable in fulfilling our responsibility to residents to maintain acceptable levels of cleanliness; and,
WHEREAS, in recognition of the City’s limitations, we ask the Governor and the Commonwealth to lend all available equipment, contracts, and funding, and move with urgency to clean up and resolve these conditions harming public health and ruining the esthetics of the environment; and,
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that the Council of the City of Pittsburgh calls on the Governor to enact Article IV, Section 20, declaring the state of litter and trash on the ground in Pittsburgh of such magnitude to constitute an emergency and render essential the Commonwealth's supplementation of municipal resources to remove trash debris from publicly- and privately-owned land and to restore public health in our most livable city.