It shall and may be lawful for the select and common councils of the city of Philadelphia, from time to time, by ordinance, to make and establish such and so many rules and regulations as to them may seem expedient, for the better regulation of porches, porticoes, benches, doorsteps, railings, bulk or jut windows, areas, cellar-doors and cellar windows, signs, sign-posts, boards, poles or frames, awnings, awning-posts, or other device or thing projecting over, under into or otherwise occupying the sidewalks or other portion of any of the streets, lanes and alleys; and in relation to boxes, bales, barrels, hogsheads, crates or other articles of merchandise, lumber, coal, wood, ashes, building materials, or any other article or thing whatsoever placed in or upon any of the said footways, sidewalk or other portion of the said streets or alleys, and for the better protection and regulation of markets, market-stands and market-houses, and the said ordinances, rules and regulations to execute, under the direction or superintendence of such person or persons as they may authorize or appoint, and the same to enforce by suitable penalties, which penalties as aforesaid, shall be recoverable before any alderman of said city, or before any court having jurisdiction, in the same manner that debts of like amount are by law recoverable.
53 P.S. § 16436