Cleanland: My Town

I don’t need to tell you again how pleased I am with the location where I live. It gives you breathtaking views of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame city even though I can’t see the building itself.

You can see the Terminal Tower, Key Tower, the building formerly known as the BP Building, along with the rest of the Cleveland skyline. From a different side, I can see the Main Avenue bridge, the river and the lake. From yet another view, I can see the Veterans Memorial Bridge. I do have one problem, complaint, concern. It’s what you don’t see in the picture from my balcony. It’s somewhat of an eyesore. Under the Superior Viaduct, there’s a bunch of brush and trash.

Today, I called Flats Oxbow. One of the things the organization does is to work to promote the Flats by a number of different ways including promoting continued “mixed use” of the Flats. That mixed use includes business and residents. Since I’m now a resident, I contacted them about my “concern”. They gave me the number of Jacobs Investments who owns the Nautica complex. I’m hoping they can clean up all of this brush and trash. If areas look beautiful, people tend to respect them more. You can see a lot of trash right now along Elm Street.

There is a lot of beautification that could go on right now. I want to be part of that effort. I’m going to take a little initiative and clean up some of the trash myself. A green St. Patrick’s Day jacket has been sitting out next to a tree out my window since mid-March. Several pieces of construction material also has lined Elm Street since before the snow hit. It’s not on Nautica property so it’s fair game for a little clean-up.

So what’s part of the solution? Coming up in May, Flats Oxbow is participating in RiverSweep. I’m in the process of getting more information and the people at Flats Oxbow are working to get a group of people together to canvas this area. I’m going to spend three hours of my day that morning to help make Cleveland, Cleanland.

Anyone else got three hours they can donate? There is live music and food served after the clean-up!