Paper short abstract:

This article discusses the messy entanglements, both evil and necessary, posed by scrapyards operating in a late industrial neighborhood; it explores how civic engagement technologies have been taken up to highlight the complexity of the issue as well as limitations in municipal governance.

Paper long abstract:

This article discusses how Philadelphia's scrapyards get articulated as environmental health issues (or not) within the context of urban redevelopment. The article describes how community members living near three scrapyards are trained on a civic reporting platform, which connects them to municipal departments; the reporting platform enables citizens to help police the scrapyards through the existing enforcement system. The reporting platform, however, maintains what has been described as a "necessary evil" (the scrapyards) by enforcement agents: rather than facilitating discussion on the place of scrapyards in the neighborhood, and Philadelphia's late industrial economy writ large, the civic reporting platform reframes the scrapyard issue as a maintenance problem to be solved with neoliberal tactics.

Somerset's scrapyards are a sign and effect of disinvestment; dumping, deconstruction, and degradation dominate the landscape in a space where scrapping and recycling are one of the most accessible means of making a living. Within the context of district's economic landscape, the scrapyards hold an important place - for licensed scrappers, local businesses and residents who rely on their service, and industries dependent on scrap metal. The scrapyards may be bad neighbors, but they are also one of the only neighbors; they provide a service, albeit a messy one. Thus, this article discusses the messy entanglements, both evil and necessary, posed by scrapyards operating in a late industrial neighborhood; it explores how civic engagement technologies have been taken up to highlight the complexity of the issue as well as limitations in municipal governance.