The 5pm Post – Neighborhood Cleanups this Weekend

Photo by PoPville flickr user C. Michael Poole

From emails:

“Join your neighbors for a Petworth neighborhood street cleanup as part of National Public Lands Day, this Saturday, Sept. 24, 9 am – Noon.

Meet up at the Georgia Avenue/Rock Creek East Collaborative at 1104 Allison Street NW–corner Georgia Avenue. Trash bags & gloves provided. Free coffee & donuts to get you started!

Street litter washes into storm drains which empty into Piney Branch, a tributary of Rock Creek. Let’s beautify the neighborhood and help protect our local waters and parklands!

Sign up online here.

Please spread the word to your friends and neighbors – thanks!”

and

“Dear friends, residents of Columbia Heights, and residents of the greater PoPville Area,

You are invited to the first no-obligation Columbia Heights Community Litter Clean Up Day! This will be a day to meet your neighbors, make friends, make our neighborhood prettier for at least a day, raise awareness about the litter problem in Columbia Heights, and maybe even alert area businesses of the extreme need and desire for a Columbia Heights BID.

When: Sunday September 25th at Noon
(Should last no more than an hour, so you’re all free to attend the National Book Festival activities beginning at 1pm! Clean up as much or as little as you want. I’m a happy camper if you come to say hi and pick up just one candy wrapper.)

Where: Meet at the Civic Plaza right in front of the Columbia Heights Metro Station, at the corner of 14th and Irving.

What: Picking up trash. My goal is to clean up the entire Irving civic plaza and the block south to the 7-11, where the litter is worst, with particular emphasis on the poor rosebeds-turned-trash-dumps. I have no idea how many people will show up, so if it’s more than I think, the area can be expanded however much people want.

What You Should Bring: A pair of gloves and your own large trash bag. I will try to provide a box of surgical gloves for those who don’t already have some, but I personally prefer to wear kitchen dish gloves because I find them more comfortable. I will also bring a box of trash bags, but I can’t guarantee to supply everyone with a bag. (Just grab one from your kitchen!)

Disposal: I have had no problem in the past picking up trash and then putting the entire collected trash bag of litter into one of the emptier sidewalk trash cans up and down the street for city pickup later. (This is where the trash should have been in the first place, right?) We’ll make an effort to spread out where we place our trashbags, while leaving room for people who are actually using the sidewalk trashcans to put their trash in too. We don’t want to cause an overflow which results in more litter. Worst case scenario I can take a couple bags back to the dumpster at my place. I don’t anticipate having a completely unmanageable amount collected.

Fun: For people who feel social, lunch at Potbelly/Five Guys/etc. afterward isn’t out of the question!

Rain Notice: Currently, there is a 30% chance of isolated showers on Sunday. Look out your window at 11:30 am. If it’s raining, it’s cancelled!”