PHILADELPHIA -- They endanger children, fill with trash and rats, provide a haven for vice and crime and are the most visible symbol of urban decay and despair -- and the city is cracking down on them.
Tens of thousands of junked cars haunt Philadelphia's streets, sometimes sitting for years before they are towed away. Some are left by car thieves or unlicensed mechanics after being stripped for parts. Others are just abandoned by owners who cannot afford to fix them.On Monday, Mayor John F. Street, who won a close election on a pledge to clean up Philadelphia's blighted neighborhoods, launched a major effort to tow 1,000 abandoned cars a day for the next 40 working days.
The city has readied a fleet of 100 tow trucks, set up a hotline for residents to report cars, raised the amount paid to salvage companies, and set aside land under a bridge over the Schuylkill River to store wrecks.
After the biblical-sounding 40-day effort, authorities hope a centralized police unit and stiff fines for abandoning vehicles will help them keep ahead of the 4,000 to 5,000 abandoned car reports each month.
"Once these cars are gone, we are going to make sure that they never ever accumulate in our neighborhoods ever again. We will have a zero-tolerance program for all abandoned cars," Street said.
The mayor -- whose city will receive intense national media attention when the Republican National Convention is held here in July -- said he hopes that removing the stripped and burned-out hulks will change people's attitudes about their city.
One example was the gutted black Oldsmobile occupying a lane and a half of a side street just off one of Philadelphia's main thoroughfares.
All four tires were gone. The ripped-up seat cushion was jammed up against the steering wheel. The hood was propped open, revealing the nest of pipes and hoses left after nearly every part had been pulled out.
It had been sitting there for two months -- not that long by Philly standards.
"People dump them and just forget about them," said John Jones, 52. "Neighbors complain, but nothing happens. You call and you call and you call, and nothing gets done. It happens every day in North Philadelphia."
"Sometimes it's been hard to get a parking space, there's so many of them," said Lucy Leon, 32, washing her own Buick near Temple.
Drug dealers and prostitutes use the abandoned cars for their business. Last spring, a 7-year-old boy was killed by a gun he found under an abandoned car.
The problem is so serious that the Philadelphia Daily News has for months run as a regular feature a photo of the "Abandoned Car of the Day."
The city towed more than 35,000 cars last year, almost twice the number two years earlier, but says there is still a backlog of about 40,000 vehicles. Police and towing companies have blamed red tape for slowing paperwork and clogging impoundment lots.
In theory, police could tow a car after ticketing it and waiting for 48 hours, or even less if it poses a safety problem -- "for example, if it's blocking traffic, if they've spotted children climbing in and out, if there's broken glass or twisted metal," said Laura Templeton, a state Transportation Department spokeswoman.
Once the car was in a storage lot, officials in Harrisburg were required to notify the last registered owner, giving him 30 days to respond.
But about one-third of the city's abandoned wrecks lacked identification numbers, leaving no way to notify anyone.
Under the new policy, a vehicle that has no vehicle identification number and is worth less than $500 may be towed and crushed without delay. Cars that have VINs and are worth more than $500 will be towed after 11 days, then can be crushed about 30 days later after the owners are notified.