Thirty neighbors got up early Saturday morning to roll up their
collective sleeves and clean.
Residents of Bridgevale, a sweat equity neighborhood off Bridge
Road, used to spend every Saturday working on their homes together.
But since the last fence posts was put in over a year ago, the
effort at teamwork has died down. But after seeing trash pile up
along Bridge Road Melissa Escobar decided it was time for the
neighborhood to band together again.
Thirty neighbors got up early Saturday morning to roll up their collective sleeves and clean.
Residents of Bridgevale, a sweat equity neighborhood off Bridge Road, used to spend every Saturday working on their homes together. But since the last fence posts was put in over a year ago, the effort at teamwork has died down. But after seeing trash pile up along Bridge Road Melissa Escobar decided it was time for the neighborhood to band together again.
“I feel that our homes are going to lose value,” said Escobar as she picked up trash on a San Juan-Hollister Road hillside a few blocks from her home. “I just decided it’s time to clean up and get all this garbage out of here.”
To that end she organized about 30 residents to start at the west end of Bridge Road and work their way east, picking up trash and raking weeds. Whole families got together on the hillside, laughing and talking through their handkerchief dust masks as they used rakes to pull trash to the bottom of the hill. Escobar convinced the city to help by hauling away the piles of trash.
“It feels good to come out and clean, it’s well worth it,” says Escobar, who says that neighbors are already discussing other projects. They’re looking at ways to slow down speeders, lessen drug dealing, cover graffiti, and keep trash out of the area.
“I think it’s great,” said Mandy Rose, Director of Integrated Waste Management, who sees benefits of the cleanup extending beyond the neighborhood. “What they’re doing there is certainly going to help with the [San Benito] River because if you start keeping something up, people don’t go and trash it anymore.”
