River(side) Cleanup

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Keep Jacksonville Beautiful has partnered with St Johns Riverkeeper and Riverside Avondale Preservation to expand the annual city-wide river cleanup beyond the river shore and into the Riverside and Avondale neighborhoods.  All the trash and litter on our streets end up in the river.  That means, all of those toxic cigarette butts and the like get washed into the storm drains... which in an old neighborhood like Riverside/Avondale drains directly to the river (it is not diverted to a treatment facility as many believe).

There will be four designated sites in which to meet to conduct cleanups (noted in poster below). 

I will be the site captain on King Street and I HIGHLY encourage you to come to that location.  We are meeting at Kickbacks at 9AM.  We'll be picking up trash along King Street (from Roselle down to Herschel), marking storm drains with 'drains to river' signage AND planting some river-friendly native plants along the commercial area.  So not only are we picking up trash, we'll be doing a little guerilla gardening to make King Street look good.

All of the materials are provided, you just show up and lend some elbow grease.

The best part, there will be free beer for participants afterwards at Kickbacks starting at noon.

Please consider lending a few hours of your time NEXT Saturday March 16th.

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Here are the additional offers for participants:

Riverside Arts Market: KEEP JACKSONVILLE BEAUTIFUL booth, near the Riverwalk entrance by the stage, will be giving free t-shirts and meal vochures to volunteers of the RiverSide clean-up, while supplies last.

Five Points: Derby on Park is offering a coupon book full of deals and specials for 5 Points area businesses, including Tapa That, Black Sheep and Grassroots Market.

Stockton Corridor: Bold Bean has a coffee special for those who clean up that day and Tres Leche is offering a 3-course lunch for $15.

Avondale: Florida Creamery is giving each volunteer a free junior cone and Daniel James Salon Avondale is offering 20% off all services to participants, with that portion or proceeds going to the Riverkeeper.
(Do you have kids, they can get free ice cream by participating!)

Park & King: Kickbacks is giving all participants a free beer.
Free beer!

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If you have a group that wants to participate... or perhaps you want to organize a block cleanup with your neighbors on your own street (I can get you supplies-trash bags, gloves, etc)... or just have any questions, then please email me at mikefieldjax@gmail.com

The weather should be nice and this will cost you nothing.  Take a look at King Street today, it's in need of some beautification! 

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Bumping this up for Saturday!

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A few people have contacted me about cleaning up their block.  If you are interested in doing the same (ask your neighbor and their kids for help), please contact me so I can get you supplies.

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I will have my frontage tended to before Saturday a.m. so I can come out with a neighbor or two as well and be a part of the group effort.
This is (for me) an exciting event to get my hands dirty.

I heard Parts Garage wants to help with the areas along King st. from I-10/Phyllis to Gilmore (On each side of CoRK).

Ricker mentioned to me that he plans to take care of the Gilmore St. fence line(s?) before Saturday morning.
I am guessing he means the triangle diagonally across from Intuition,
- and the back side of the industrial property adjacent to the west play yard of Central Riverside elem.?
Those few blocks of Gilmore between Stockton and King are rather heavily traveled at times.


Fieldafm,
It is encouraging to see such a go-it-alone spirit turn into a mass effect all hands in project success.

In so many words...
Thanks for pulling this together and pooling resources.

I hear you have procured plantings to beautify a couple of blocks along King!  What exactly are we planting?
Cant' hardly wait to help!
Come ON Saturday already!!
This WILL have lasting impact!

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Definately not going it alone b/c a lot of people are involved, and this is an extension of the annual river cleanup.  I'm just excited that it will go beyond just the river shorelines and into a great neighborhood.  Some areas are definately in need of sprucing up.

Plantings will be native (river-friendly) plants.  Mainly muholly grass and shillings. 

Appreciate everyone's response so far!

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Wanted to thank all of the businesses, neighbors and volunteer groups who turned out en masse Saturday.  We had over 200 in R/A alone!!