Litter

The Pick It Up! campaign is a Daily News initiative aimed at helping Philly become a cleaner city. Through stories, photos, videos, reader submissions and social media, we will highlight some of the city's most intractable trash problems - and find ways to make Philadelphia a cleaner, more livable place. Go to philly.com/pickitup for all your anti-litter crusading needs. On that page you'll find: * A map on which you can report litter problems to the city * A link to get your own "Circular-Free Property" sticker to stop those menus and circulars from piling up on your door * Previous Pick It Up!

KAREN KANE thought that a"Circular Free Property" sticker from the city meant that the days of returning from work to find take-out menus and unwanted coupons scattered near her Port Richmond home were over. She was wrong. The ads and menus kept coming after she happily slapped the sticker on her screen door about two years ago, even though disobeying the sticker's order carries a $100 fine for the business distributing the unsolicited junk. "Not only do they deliver to our doors, but they throw the menus all over the street," she said.

By Seymour I. "Spence" Toll Back in the late 1950s I used to begin my suburban Philadelphia days with a two-mile jog. As the decades passed it slowed to a walk, and now it's a lurch. Since 1978 when our family began using our beloved vacation house on Maine's mid-coast I have doubled that distance there during the summer. The embracing land and sea irresistibly invite me to spend more time on the road. Whether it's an osprey hovering under a brilliant sky, the air's fragrance, a skin-scrubbing sea breeze, or the thumping surf, along the way nature enraptures all my senses.

AFTER READING a Daily News cover story urging Philadelphians to join the fight against litter and illegal dumping, longtime 102.9 WMGK morning radio host John DeBella will remove trash from the Montgomery Drive exit off I-76 this morning. Q: What about the story made you want to pick up trash from the side of the road? A: I saw it on the front cover . . . within the week, I'm driving out of the city - back out to Bala - so I said I'll just get off at Montgomery Drive.

ARE YOU FED UP with filth in Philly? Email me at trash@phillynews . com, or find my page on Facebook. NO HOUSE, NO SERVICE: Last week I met Joe Moran, who lives in Grays Ferry and was ticked that trash collectors who rumble down Newkirk Street aren't required to pick up garbage that is illegally dumped on Reed Street near 28th. Streets Department officials said that since no homes are on that block, there should be no trash to collect. If only it were that simple.

IF YOU HAVE a bone to pick with litterbugs in your neighborhood and want to talk trash, email the Marquis at trash@phillynews. com. You can also catch me on Facebook if you go to philly.com/MarquisFB. BEYOND THE GRAVE: This week, I took a stroll down Cheltenham Avenue, near Wissinoming Park. This stretch - between Frankford Avenue and Charles Street - is a grassy patch used by walkers and joggers. A trail of garbage lines the impossibly narrow sidewalk on one side of the street and the grassy area on the other.

LAST WEEK, I stopped by the Somerset El stop, in Kensington, where a neighbor complained about a laissez faire attitude toward trash being dumped there. Greg Bucceroni, coordinator of the Youth Violence and Crime Reduction Partnership, said that his organization regularly does neighborhood cleanups, and that the next one is in the planning stages and will likely happen next month. Stay tuned. If your neighborhood needs help dealing with litter and you want to talk trash, email the Marquis at trash@phillynews.com and find my page on Facebook.

LAST WEEK the Marquis asked the Philadelphia More Beautiful Committee whether leaving fliers in doorjambs to recruit block captains was really a step in the right direction toward sprucing up the city. STREETS COMMISSION RESPONDS: Officials said the recruiting method might create a little more litter, but pays dividends at the end of the day. "PMBC Officers often are contacted for assistance as a result of someone giving their flier to another neighbor," said Keisha McCarty-Skelton, spokeswoman for the Streets Commission.

THE PHILADELPHIA More Beautiful Committee works to rid city streets of litter and beautify areas in need of a little - or a lot of - attention. That's why the Marquis was surprised, and disheartened, to hear that the PMBC distributed fliers looking for block captains in South Philadelphia and left them tucked in doorways and railings. Of course, there are good intentions behind this grass-roots recruiting method. But it causes litter in the same way as politicians' leaving campaign literature on your doorstep or as restaurants' looking for new customers by distributing their ubiquitous takeout menus.