Under Friday morning clouds, Fred Brooks sat on his stoop, located on the 2500 block of Cumberland Avenue, engaged in a heated conversation with his landlord, Nate McNair.
“You see that sky rise down there?” Brooks asked, pointing toward Center City then to his front door step. “You know what’s coming behind there? A straight line.”
McNair shook his head, laughing and slapping his knees.
“He’s crazy,” McNair said. “But he’s right.”
McNair, 45, lived in Philadelphia for 25 years before relocating to Altoona, Pa., where he moved to provide a better lifestyle for his two children. McNair now rents seven houses in North Philadelphia. Several of his tenants are Temple students. Growing up in area Temple occupies – at one point, McNair lived at 16th and Berks streets – McNair said switching to biweekly trash collection under Plan C would be a mistake, adding that he has witnessed the affects of trash on the city.
“In the ‘80s, the people threw all the trash in the streets because they wouldn’t come pick it up,” he said, eyes locked on the overflowing bags on the corner of the block. “It got so high, they blocked the streets.”
Ashley Nguyen can be reached at ashley.nguyen@temple.edu.
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