Boston Shines 2007

by Cathy Slade

Throughout the City, thousands of volunteers set out on Saturday, April 28, armed with brooms, rakes, and shovels to spruce up their neighborhoods in a massive spring cleaning called “Boston Shines.” Started four years ago after an unusually severe winter left mounds of sand on streets screeching to be taken away, the effort combines a multitude of neighborhood community group clean-ups with which the City has partnered. On this one day, small groups of neighbors join with larger community groups in a massive operation that is organized and overseen by the City of Boston.

Here in Roslindale, David McNulty, the Neighborhood Coordinator of the Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Services, reaches out to residents, crime watch groups, neighborhood associations and community centers to seek their participation. He contacts construction and waste management companies to ask them to provide equipment and dumpsters to supplement the City’s supply. He urges property owners of debris-filled vacant lots to join in the neighborhood beautification program. David is the point-person who estimates the number of tools, gloves, t-shirts, and trash bags that are given to every group, and he delivers some supplies the day before.

In addition, David is joined by Frank O’Brien of the same office. On a city-wide basis, Frank liaisons with the Public Works Department to coordinate the City’s responsibilities for the day. Frank responds to requests from the community for cleaning city-owned areas that are heavy with debris and city crews and private companies assist during the week of the big event.

Once again Roslindale Village Main Street (“RVMS”) spearheaded the effort to clean the revitalized central business district. Residents spread out up and down Washington Street, as the Litter Posse cleaned the center, and Carter Wilke of the Longfellow Neighborhood Association led a legion of cleaners to the MBTA parking lot and neighboring streets.

Tom Donahue, who must have been missed in Roslindale Village, since he is active at every event in Adams Park, gathered his neighbors to clear brush and debris along the MBTA commuter rail on Cliffmont Street.

Across Hyde Park Avenue, two community groups tackled the litter problem in their immediate neighborhoods. First-timers for Boston Shines, the Curley/Paine Street group, cleaned the area behind the American Legion Shopping Mall which suffers from an incredible amount of litter from fast-food shoppers at the mall. Neighboring Mount Hope/

Canterbury Neighborhood Association members, organized by Lisa Beatman for the fourth year, also cleaned behind the mall and side-streets heading toward Cummins Highway.

The largest group of people to participate in the Roslindale Boston Shines Program was the Healthy Roslindale/Neighbors Together group. Over 75 people, young and old, residents and worshippers, community leaders and agency heads, set out in groups to clean the neighborhood between Healy Field and Puritan Ice Cream, from Washington Street to the Commuter Rail line. The Clean-up is more about community-building than merely the task of cleaning, according to member groups of Neighbors Together: Archdale Housing; Roslindale Community Centers Cluster; Casserly House; the Buddhist Association of Massachusetts at Temple Vietnam; and Healthy Roslindale.

All agree that the event provides an opportunity to get to know each other. As a result, a luncheon of delicious, homemade ethnic dishes is served alongside the good old American summer standby, grilled hot dogs.

Games of basketball and a chance to share religious traditions through educational tours of the Buddhist temple are always standard fare at this neighborhood clean-up. Other community groups are invited to join and, this time, youth from the Sacred Heart Confirmation Program participated.

No doubt, tons and tons of trash were hauled away as a result of this extensive spruce-up. City officials hope that residents and visitors will appreciate the efforts of so many, and vow to do their share to keep the City clean and beautiful for all to enjoy.