Survey: Philadelphia Ranked 2nd Dirtiest City In America
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- The City of Brotherly Love has been ranked the second dirtiest city in the U.S., according to a recently released survey by Travel and Leisure magazine.
The magazine included 35 cities ranked on cleanliness, culture, shopping, nightlife, restaurants, pizza, historical sites, museums and more.
The Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corporation isn't taking this lying down. The agency decided to pull it ads from the publication that is talking trash.
"When you're getting out an image of the city on one page and you are saying we love you, we love you back, and on the next page they're saying it's dirty, that is not a good context for an ad," said Meryl Levitz, CEO of the GPTMC, which has been advertising in Travel and Leisure for years. "It felt kind of good to pull it."
Levitz pointed out, a record 37 million people visited Philadelphia and the surrounding area last year, including Marjana Martic, a tourist from Canada who says, "It's not dirty. It's nice and neat."
Last year, the city ranked fourth in the cleanliness category, but this year it moved up to second. The dirtiest city was found to be New Orleans.
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One gripe Levitz says she hears from tourists is the high price of parking. However, cleanliness is not a major concern.
Center City, where many tourists spend their time, certainly isn't spotless, and that does not go unnoticed by visitors.
"It is a little bit more dirty than other cities I have seen, but I would say the bigger the city is, the more dirty it tends to be," Ashesh Belapure, a tourist from India said.
"I see a big effort just to make it nicer," said Jasmina Landekic, from Toronto.
Los Angels, Memphis and New York City rounded out the "dirtiest" five, according to the survey.
Although Philly ranked among the dirtiest, our pizza, historical sites and museums ranked among the best. Philadelphia ranked number four for pizza, behind Chicago, New York and Providence.
Levitz also points out a new poll coming out in U.S. News and World Report which ranks Philadelphia in the top 10 of family friendly summer destinations.
VIEW: Philadelphia Survey Results
Reported by Todd Quinones, CBS 3; Jessica McWilliams, CBSPhilly.com
