Community Sidewalk Cleanup Map

Desmond is one of several neighbors in inner-city Philadelphia who think there is too much trash on the sidewalk. 

Enough people felt the same way that a grassroots group, Pick Up Philly, formed. Neighbors donated trash bags and tools, and some became block captains, walking their blocks and cleaning up the community together, street by street. 

The group works alongside the Center City Residents' Association, which had been paying the city for extra cleaning services. But by 2026, the cost had climbed so high the association could no longer afford it, and blocks that counted on that help were about to lose it.

Desmond, who's data-minded, wanted something concrete: a map of every affected block, sorted by traffic, to see the real size of the problem and start pricing out a fix. He'd tried a different outdoor-focused mapping app before, but forcing it to work for a civic project felt like trying to fit a square peg in a round hole. 

Land id, however, was built for exactly this: precise enough for the data, readable to any neighbor.

With his own time stretched thin, Desmond turned to Land id's Mapping Services to build the map, freeing him up to build the numbers: a spreadsheet showing that a weekly cleaning schedule for every high-priority block would run close to $400,000 a year—more than the group could realistically raise.

Desmond plans to use the map at a townhall meeting to pitch his plan: partner with the Sanitation Department, track on the map which blocks are covered by paid cleaning versus block captains, and rally support ahead of the nation’s 250th anniversary.

Learn How to Create a Project Like This

• Land id Mapping Services
• Quick start: Create and share a map in Land id
• Create detailed maps by adding items
• Manage and visualize data with attributes