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Vacant Lot Clean Up Projects
Vacant lot clean ups on a regular basis are one of the best exercises in keeping a neighborhood looking spiffy. Some neighborhoods are fortunate, we suppose, in having no such thing as an empty property. However, most neighborhoods that are either quite new or more than about 40 years old have an empty lot problem.
Here our visitors and editors put their heads together to describe in a short paragraph or so a clean up project that they know about. What made it successful or a failure? How do you keep up the momentum for the clean ups when the need for a project every few months goes on for years? Before we get to the form, though, let's list four ingredients that go into making a great vacant lot clean up project: 1. Organize a fairly sizeable team unless you have a highly motivated family or two, who perhaps might be next door to the lot in question. Most vacant property situations can't sustain the effort over more than one day, so get the personpower together to start and finish the job. 2. Assess well ahead of time what tools will be needed, whether that is demolition equipment, shovels, tree cutting or pruning equipment, or maybe a truck or two. Know where you're going to borrow that equipment before you even begin to invite workers. 3. Prepare your volunteers for the day ahead. Do they need gloves, boots, poison ivy protection, sun screen? Do you need a robust first aid kit and snakebite remedy at hand? Well, do you? I'm not one to say that anything that can go wrong will, but it might. 4. Have enough water and food available, and maybe some lawn chairs, to take care of physical needs. Know where people will visit a bathroom. Figure out who's in charge and make it someone both likeable and organized. Below you can describe how you successfully brought the neighborhood together to address the issue, whether you did the physical work yourselves or whether you pressured the property owner into addressing his or her duties. What are the secrets? And what are the rewards to the neighborhood? Did one clean-up lead to another? Is good property maintenance catching? We certainly hope so; we've said that several places on this site. But now through inviting you our visitors into the process, we'll see whether we, the old community development pros, know what we're talking about. Join us for photos and blog-lets below. Happy viewing! But next time, make it a participatory sport too!
Can You Share Wisdom about Vacant Lot Clean Up?How do you go about organizing the vacant lot clean up? Or are you the strong silent type who just does it yourself? Probably not, if you're on a community development page. Return from Vacant Lot Clean Up to Community Development Ideas
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