Yo, bozo! Take your big ugly truck
back to the 'burbs!

This anonymous blue truck showed up on this corner on Friday, June 21, about two thirds full of discarded household goods and construction debris. And there it sits, holding down a piece of discarded carpet that can't be carried away, a target for everyone with a smelly trashbag, illegally parked on what passes for a sidewalk here.

I see the bus drivers giving it dirty looks as they try to ease their buses through the narrow opening that remains if anyone parks on the other side of the street.

The pile of bags on top of the truck just keeps getting bigger. There's a big bag of smelly crab parts sitting next to the truck and I imagine someone will heave it up and over very soon.

Some of the garbage on top of the truck is getting to smell pretty ripe.

Why is this guy parking his truck (which we happen to know is registered to a Bucks County address) in South Philly for weeks?

Because he can.

As long as there are no "No Truck Parking" signs, this guy can use our streets as his own personal parking lot for as long as he wants. It's a pretty unpleasant contrast to the neatly-maintained lots on three corners of this intersection.

This is a stupid, ugly waste of a capital resource. Trucks aren't cheap, and this truck isn't making anybody any money just sitting there. In fact, this kind of underutilization is part of what drives up construction costs. And this callous disregard for the community is what drives residents out.

So to the bozo who owns this truck, I say, "Take it home to Bucks County. Park it in front of your house for awhile and see what your neighbors have to say."

--Laura Blanchard
July 15, 2002

Epilogue:

The truck after its close encounter with a front-end loader

Rubble originally on the truck is now the neighborhood's problem.

More than a month after the truck first appeared, Sanitation sent a front-end loader and a large hauling truck to remove the garbage. When they were finished, they left the deconstructed truck shown at left. The mess at the right -- construction rubble, dirt, an old tire, and a heavy sheet of plywood that formed the truck's side -- was left behind. Because it's now an unbagged mess, Sanitation won't take it. Never mind that the mess was of their making. I've since cleaned up about two thirds of the mess, so the "sidewalk" looks merely untidy instead of godawful.