Citi Group cleans up Springfield

[downtownparks]

Special thanks to a group of 40-50 volunteers that spent their Saturday Morning cleaning up areas all over Springfield, including under the Hogans Creek Bridges, and a number of abandoned and vacant property's.

The group was led by two employees of Citi who live in Springfields, as well as the SPAR block captains, SRG, and the Ark Lawn Care Service. Using the CCTC program, local hardware Store Pascos, SRG, and other company's have donated trash picker-upers (to be picked up at Pascos), and trash bags (as SPAR) for anyone in the community.

A great big thanks also to Shantytown for opening almost 4 hours early to allow the group to have a post cleanup cookout.

[zoo]

Some pics from the event:

Pre-cleanup


Neglected residential lots







(5th & Silver, a multi-family project by Chris Hionedes)

Commercial lots on the SE corner of 7th & Main (owned by K. Gay)






Post cleanup

(The Ark Lawn Service helped haul away more than 200 bags of trash and small yard waste, and more than 8 dump truck loads of large yard waste and construction debris collected - yeah neighbors and Citigroup!)

Shantytown afterparty

[Joe]

That's really awesome that so many people participated in a clean-up.

Has the city not been responsive about enforcing code violations? Or have residents given up on reporting them? In theory, the city will fine absentee landlords for overgrown weeds. But it might require lots of complaining before they'll make the time to go out and issue a citation.

[RiversideGator]

Code Enforcement is a joke, especially in the older sections of town. 

[downtownparks]

Plus, code enforcement is a double edged sword. You can complain, and get the house sites pretty easily, but its very unlikely the city will take any action, and eventually it can lead to a houses demolition.

[tufsu1]

Code Enforcement is a joke, especially in the older sections of town. 

its even harder given the City's budget crisis...maybe tax cuts aren't always such a good thing 

[uptowngirl]

Code Enforcement is a joke, especially in the older sections of town. 

its even harder given the City's budget crisis...maybe tax cuts aren't always such a good thing 

I've seen no change in the level of service since the "supposed" tax cuts.  ("Supposed" since hey have been sending one off bills to make up for any tax cuts) 

[Coolyfett]

Man thats pretty cool...So why was it cleaned up again? Just curious.

[jbm32206]

Code Enforcement is a joke, especially in the older sections of town. 

its even harder given the City's budget crisis...maybe tax cuts aren't always such a good thing 

The city does fine these owners, but they make absolutely NO effort to collect them. If they did, the city would have plenty of money.

I feel that the city should fine the owners, if they fail to pay within a certain amount of time, then the property should be seized and sold for what's owed. A sheriffs sale, like they have in other states.

[uptowngirl]

The ARK Rocks!!!!

[alta]

The Citi group volunteers were awesome.  Many kudos to them.  The areas that were designated for clean up had accumulated trash or lots that needed some maintenance.  There was a dramatic difference in several areas targeted.  Great food at Shantytown also.

[RiversideGator]

Code Enforcement is a joke, especially in the older sections of town. 

its even harder given the City's budget crisis...maybe tax cuts aren't always such a good thing 

Code Enforcement was just as terrible when the City coffers were overflowing.   

[michelle]

How many times a year do Springfield residents get together and clean up like they did here?  It looks so great to have a community come together to make their neighborhood more beautiful.

[downtownparks]

We used to do it more often, but its still several times a year. The Block Captains used to do monthly ally clean ups. A few years ago, it shifted to park clean up, and bridge painting, and then more to reporting day to day issues like light outages, eviction trash cleanup, ect.

I get the feeling with the new leader of the block captains, that he might be more likely to start organizing clean ups again. I know he would love suggestions from interested partys.

[Keith-N-Jax]

Does the city take care of its own property thats not being utilize?