Green Team coming to a park near you…
19 Jun 2009
This in via e-mail:
Green Team Efforts Continue
The City of Toledo Green Team will continue to cut grass and clean-up city parks and boulevards this Saturday, June 20th at Burnett Park (Starr & Spring Grove in East Toledo) from 9:00 a.m – 11:00 a.m.
Citizens interested in helping should come to Burnett Park with their own equipment. We are also interested in receiving commitments from individuals who would like to “Adopt-A-Park”. Please call Parks and Forestry (419) 936-3003 for this information. Citizen aide will be deeply appreciated.
This is just great! Citizens steping up and taking “ownership” which is a wonderful thing.
June 20th, 2009 at 12:29 amFantastic. Thank you for posting this, Lisa!
June 20th, 2009 at 7:30 amOn the subject of the mowing needs of this community, the blighted/empty house, vacant lots etc…
You can spend all day or several days calling City Hall and complaining about it and simply agitate yourselves and the phone bank or spend $2 on gas and mow the area. I mow 2 lots near my home and sometimes do the vacant house across the street. It’s not the weight of civic responsibility, it’s for my personal happiness. By doing it myself, it gets done to my satisfaction, improves my view and gives me a small sense of doing my share to help.
If you take it a step further, talk over the neighborhood with some of your neighbors and devise a plan to help eachother take care of your small area, there will be far fewer lots and vacant homes that go unattended.
There are good reasons for citizens to step up and in to take care of individual neighborhoods:
Mowing empty lots and vacant home/business lawns supports a clean, safe, area that doesn’t “look” blighted.
This also helps keep crime down as the criminal set won’t always know a place is vacant if the lawn is kept up and houses appear occupied, maintained.
It shows potential investors that the neighborhood cares and is willing to do what they have to so that their area of the city is clean and maintained. This will in turn create interest in the area.
It gives a sense of community and accomplishment.
It improves everyone’s view and outlook.
It inspires others to do the same.
It provides parents with an opportunity to punish ornry kids
It provides exercise.
It’s a fairly low cost way to maintain your property value by keeping an entire area looking nice.
It gives this generation a “story” to tell about the lean, hard times of the era and what we all did to keep life going in the absence of prosperous times.
Life is not a free ride and while we can bitch and complain about it..that will have no positive result. Better to simply take on the task when you can and know that everything is temporary, this too shall pass.
June 21st, 2009 at 7:42 am@ Chad, I agree with you. I have shoveld the snow at two vacant houses next to mine. Make it look lived in and the crimminals will stay away.
June 21st, 2009 at 8:25 am