Keep Springfield Beautiful has been ramping up its month-long campaign. Some days into April, I learned that there is a week-by-week strategy for the month, each week with its own theme, and there are associated activities.
The week of April 9 focused on graffiti removal in all city neighborhoods (photos below courtesy Mike Cass), including an anti-graffiti public service announcement broadcast on the government channel. Seen it yet?
This past week focused on continuing anti-graffiti efforts as well as ramping up an anti-litter campaign and public service announcement. The week culminates tomorrow with a certification ceremony at American International College, starting at 9:30 am, during which Citizens for a Clean Springfield becomes Keep Springfield Beautiful and is officially an affiliate of the national organization Keep America Beautiful. The ceremony is expected to be filmed and perhaps broadcast live on the city government channel.
Next week, automobile use will be the highlight. A free workshop on April 26, 10:00 am to noon at 70 Tapley Street, is intended to help city residents understand how to handle hazardous waste, among other best practices when it comes to auto care and the environment. From a Republican article about the workshop:
"It seems there really is a need for auto repair facilities to become aware of the environmental regulations, particularly in terms of managing, storing and disposing of oil and other hazardous waste," [Eva] Tor [of the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection] said.
Tor and Code Enforcement Commissioner Steven T. Desilets said that incidents, such as the illegal disposal of oil and other automotive fluids in storm drains and soil, have serious environmental consequences.
"This will be an instrumental week to remove unregistered vehicles and metal items," KSB director Ivette Cruz told me, in addition to sharing news about the workshop. "Joseph Freedman Co. will give the city a percentage of the money collected on tonnage of metal."
A site on Union Street targeted for cleanup by Keep Springfield Beautiful. Photo by Mike Cass
Another effort this month, which will culminate on Friday, April 27, is the city’s Operation Clean Sweep. Tina Quagliato, program manager at the Office of Housing and Neighborhood Services, said the city did this once in 2005 and three times in 2006. This year, the city hopes to do three again, she said, starting with a Housing Court (pictured) blitz of "clean-and-lien" efforts on Friday, April 27, one day before the citywide cleanup planned in all neighborhoods at various sites.
"We bring in at approximately 100 to 150 cases to Housing Court for court orders to ‘clean and lien’ the property," Quagliato said. "We then use both a private crew and the city’s ‘Clean Cities’ crew to clean up these properties and lien them for the costs."
"Recently, we’ve been getting what we call ‘repeat entry orders,’" she continued, "which basically allow the city to continue going in and cleaning a neglected or abandoned property that we can prove has a code enforcement history through a certain amount of time. We try to have it extend through the summer/fall season when litter and overgrowth are at their worst."
The effort this year, synchronous with KSB’s citywide cleanup event, is aimed at some of the worst offenders. More than that, it puts lawyers to work in more ways than one.
"For this round of OCS," Quagliato said, "the city attorneys, who bring all the cases to court, and their families are also volunteering with KSB to do a ‘full service’ on properties, doing both litigation and cleaning."
The citywide cleanup event will take place Saturday, April 28, from 8:30 am to 3:00 pm. Of the event, Cruz said, "This day, all participating organizations and citizens will take to the streets to send the biggest, strongest message this city has ever experienced since Shay’s Rebellion."
The week of April 30 will continue a focus on exterior housing violations, with dozens upon dozens of cases going to Housing Court.
Various sites are targeted for cleanup on April 28 (several pictured here, thanks again to Charlie Contant and Mike Cass), including 170 specific streets selected. Groups are still presumably joining in the effort and collecting more volunteers. Individuals not yet associated with a volunteer group can still sign up. With questions about how to get involved, feel free to post here. Below is a sampling of what volunteers may face at the beginning of the day—but by the end, it should look a whole lot different.
Volunteers are asked to send photographs of their cleanup work to me so I can publish them and share the results of your hard-won efforts to make the city clean.
On a different note, Tuesday’s letter to the editor in the Republican, by Springfield resident Raushaun James, addresses remediation efforts. James wrote:
I am writing in response to the article printed earlier this week about the removal of graffiti in Springfield, as part of the Keep Springfield Beautiful movement.
I understand that many residents see the tags and designs as filth; however, I suggest supplying a legal medium for the artists to express themselves. As tennis courts are provided for tennis players, baseball diamonds supplied for ball players etc. I believe the walls should be erected for the artists to express themselves in a legal way.
These "art walls" could be set up in certain parts of the city, and would dramatically reduce the levels of graffiti on private and public property. It is a reality that graffiti will never just go away, so the government should try to find a more practical solution to solving the issue of vandalism in Springfield.
It would be great to hear more from graffiti artists who are working to make their craft a legitimate part of the local arts landscape rather than part of the vandalism plaguing the city.
In the meantime, folks have a lot of cleaning to do.
