SOLVE Richmond’s Graffiti and Litter Clean Up Day

By Allen Field

The Richmond Neighborhood Association holds its 1st Richmond Graffiti & Litter CleanUp Day, Saturday, June 16, from 9 am to 1 pm.

From a staging area at Central Christian Church, 1844 SE Cesar E. Chavez Blvd, teams of volunteers will go out to pick up litter (plus cigarette butts and sharps) on SE Hawthorne Blvd and SE Division St. in the Richmond neighborhood (between SE 29th and 50th/52nd Aves.) and at the SE Clinton St. and 26th intersection.

They will clean up graffiti at residential intersections people have “adopted”, and at locations along Hawthorne and Division in Richmond.  This is a SOLVE event.

The RNA is partnering with SOLVE, KINK Radio’s “Paint the Town Green” event, the City’s Graffiti Abatement Program and Keep It Pretty Rose City anti-litter campaign. It also includes other partners: Metro, SE Uplift District Coalition, the Division-Clinton Business Association (DCBA), Hawthorne Blvd Business Association (HBBA), the Sunnyside and Hosford-Abernethy Neighborhood Associations, OHSU Richmond Clinic, and with Hawthorne and Division businesses.

The event is coordinated with Metro and KINK Radio sponsored cleanups in the Lents, Mt. Scott-Arleta, Brentwood-Darlington, and Foster-Powell neighborhoods.

Depending on the success of the June 16 event, we are already looking to next year to enlarge this annual event to encompass Division, Hawthorne, Belmont and Clinton.

To sign up for the event, either to pick up litter or clean up graffiti, go to: solveoregon.org/opportunity and enter “Richmond” in the search bar.

Want to focus on cleaning or painting over graffiti? There is a link on the SOLVE signup page to a separate graffiti-cleaning registration form.

The event is modeled after the successful Friends of Trees and Spring Clean Up events the RNA sponsors every year:

9 am:  registration with coffee and snacks at Central Christian Church, with a short training and safety talk.

9:30 or 10 am to noon: litter and graffiti cleanup

Litter Teams:

Hawthorne: Four litter teams will walk to Hawthorne via Cesar Chavez, where 2 teams will walk east to 50th (one on the north side, one on the south side), and two teams will walk west to 29th,

Division: Four litter teams will walk to Division via Cesar Chavez, where two teams will walk east and two teams will walk west, with a team on the north and south sides of Division.

Graffiti Teams:

Teams will either go to the intersections they have “adopted” (see below) or go to predesignated areas on Hawthorne and Division to clean off or paint over graffiti.

12 noon – 1 pm:  We will provide lunch and free raffle w/ prizes.

Adopt an Intersection

Sign up to clean graffiti off the intersection near you. Would you like to remove the graffiti and stickers on the street signs near where you live? The RNA and the City’s Graffiti Abatement Office can help you by providing a graffiti cleaning kit, a quick training at this June event, and you can get assistance with cleaning the graffiti.

By “adopting” an intersection, the goal is for people 1) to see how easy it is to clean off most graffiti and stickers from signs, and 2) to take pride and a sense of care and ownership over keeping the street signs clean near where they live.

After having cleaned graffiti off of a street sign, people are more likely to notice when graffiti returns and can quickly clean it off. Quickly removing graffiti is the best deterrent and diminishes the likelihood “taggers” will hit that spot again.

(Graffiti on the front of street signs must be removed by city-contracted graffiti-removal contractors. The front of signs have a special, reflective coating that requires special cleaning.) Graffiti on the front of signs can be reported to the city via pdxreporter.org.

Metro is supplying paint for painting over graffiti on Division and Hawthorne.

Volunteer to be a Team Leader:  We hope to have a large turnout to pick up litter on Division and Hawthorne. We will need at least eight to ten Team Leaders to help lead the litter pickup crews and at least five Graffiti Team Leaders.

Email allen_field@yahoo.com if you are interested in being a Team Leader.

SOLVE Richmond’s Graffiti and Litter Clean Up Day

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