Reported on July 17, 2009

PHILADELPHIA — The sweat was just beginning to seep through the black bandana wrapped around Patrice Murphy’s head as the late-morning sun heated up for midday.

Tarik Duncan weeds the area around a pruned tree on Ridge Avenue. Photo: Ben Watanabe

This, she said, was the good part of the day.

Murphy, 20, was the oldest member of a four-person crew cleaning lots and pruning trees July 13 on the 1600 block of Brown Street. When she applied for the job, she was just looking for employment.

“I didn’t know what kind of job I would be getting until I had the interview,” she said. “They told me what I would be doing. I said, ‘You’ve got me.’ Getting paid and getting dirty, why not?”

From June 26 to July 31, Murphy work 20 hours a week for minimum wage maintaining green spaces as part of the Francisville Youth Community Caretakers Employment and Training Program. The program is designed to beautify the neighborhood by landscaping and cleaning areas that are not regularly maintained by residents or the city.

In August, the program will enroll five boys, ages 13-17, to pull weeds, plant flowers and paint. Murphy’s group of 16- to 20-year-olds handles tasks that require sharp objects, like pruning or sawing.

Land designated as “urban” increased 18.8 percent in the Northeast between 1990 and 2000, and addition of greater than 2 million acres, according to data kept by the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service. With open space becoming more rare, preserving small enclaves of greenery within Francisville can make the community more marketable to redevelopment, said Penelope Giles, president of the Francisville Neighborhood Development Corporation and the beautification program’s supervisor.

The Greater Philadelphia Urban Affairs Coalition started the Youth Education Initiative in 2007 to provide internships to college students and community employment for youth, said Kimberly Everett, director of communications for Sen. Vincent Hughes, D-Pa. The state budget crisis allowed the initiative to hire six interns and 50 students statewide this year, down from 10 interns and 80 students last year.

An adult phase was discontinued in Francisville this year. That phase aimed to help ex-offenders rebuild their lives after release from jail, but the workers proved too troublesome to supervise, Giles said.

“Quite a few times, some of them wanted to continue to sell drugs on the side but just use the employment as cover,” said Giles, 49. “So we decided to step away from that.”

Murphy, the only female among four older students, has held other jobs before. This is the first job for Rasheed Jones, Dontae Edwards and Tarik Duncan, all 16.

Jones, who said he is a B student at School of the Future at 40th Street and Parkside Avenue and wants to study business in college, expected the job to require far less intense work than it does.

“It’s a lot of work, not just sweeping and cleaning up trash,” Jones said. “I didn’t know we were going to be cutting down trees.”

James Smith walked by as the group cleaned the lot on his block.

“I’m glad to see young adults around to help out the community,” said Smith, 67, a retired personnel analyst for the city. “By working, it develops character, and that character will sustain them throughout their lives.”

Murphy, who lives near 16th and Francis streets, recalled seeing city workers come through the neighborhood to clean up lots and trim trees when she was very young.

She hasn’t seen any come down the block in at least 10 years.

“It’s a shame how they just stopped caring,” Murphy said, her bandana a little damper as the group moved down the street to trim branches and aerate the soil around five trees lining Ridge Avenue.