Cleanslate: cleaning streets while fostering positive partnerships in West Haven

By Mike Quinlan

 

Cleanslate: cleaning streets while fostering positive partnerships in West Haven 

Along with Near West’s retail initiative, Cleanslate is coming upon its 1st year anniversary in the West Haven community. For those less familiar with these smiling interns in the bright yellow shirts, they can be seen cleaning our commercial corridors three times a week. Near West could not be prouder of their fine work.

The connection between Cleanslate and cleaning is obvious enough, however it’s the partnership building opportunities surrounding this group which should be brought to the attention of commercial corridor managers throughout the City of Chicago. When you employ Cleanslate, you’re not simply hiring a group to pickup litter. For the savvy Main Street manager, you have an additional means of communication with storefront owners, and something to leverage in a positive fashion. You have tangible numbers to scream from mountain tops, such as removing 54,850 pounds of trash from West Haven this year! You have a group so motivated to have a positive impact in your community, that they will even volunteer to attend special weekend community activities. Most importantly, you have a direct means to nurture long term partnerships with businesses and active community members.

Proper cleaning and safety are the two base fundamentals to making West Haven attractive to retail opportunities. An environment once filled with graffiti and litter, has turned a corner with fresh paint and garbage cans. The well revered book Fixing Broken Windows spells out the significance of the order-maintenance theory. Order-maintenance is paramount to restoring order and reducing crime in our communities. Cleanslate is a contributing member to order-maintenance in West Haven.

In other words, you have additional sets of eyes and ears in the community. People you can rely on to keep an eye on trends detrimental to the community, and keep you informed.

West Haven has been experiencing unprecedented growth and development in recent years. For an intersection which has not had any small businesses since the late ‘60’s, West Haven has seven in the process of moving in. While it may be subtle, it is significant enough to point out that managing a group like Cleanslate raises the awareness of collaborative opportunities among business owners. For a community without an official Chamber of Commerce, this is an important step towards collaborative marketing and branding opportunities.

If there’s a secret to successfully managing Cleanslate in your community it’s the following: become best friends with your crew chief. Look at it as an opportunity to practice your walking tour. If you describe to the crew chief all of the exciting opportunities happening in your neighborhood and the significance of cleaning X or Y, these are the types of things which trickle down to the rest of the group. Engage your crew chief and encourage innovation by creating a template which makes it possible. In West Haven's case, Near West created a varied timetable to help create a successful dialogue between management and Cleanslate. It’s an intentionally flexible schedule which has helped tremendously in encouraging positive communications.

Cleanslate has made for an excellent conversation starter when new businesses arrive to West Haven. Without a Chamber of Commerce, Cleanslate makes for an excellent conversation starter with existing businesses as well. As a Main Street manager, you immediately have something tangible and valuable to bring to the table. Cleanslate has also opened doors with the Department of Streets and Sanitation. Just last week Cleanslate was able to assist in the removal of overgrowth and Hoyne and Warren, to the delight of nearby residents. Examples like these help the wheels go round in West Haven, as well as foster positive partnerships.

Cleanslate, as well as Near West’s retail initiative, is made possible through a generous grant from the Partnership for New Communities. The desire for this retail initiative derived from the West Haven community’s recently completed quality-of-life plan, Rising Like the Phoenix. In this plan, seeking local retail opportunities is considered a priority. Near West oversaw this planning process as a member of the New Communities Program and its continued partnership with the Local Initiatives Support Corporation.

Tangible numbers to be proud of:
Bags of trash picked up and removed: 2,194 bags (or 54,850 pounds)
Bags of recyclables: 1,085 bags (or 27,125 pounds)
Recepticals emptied: 215
Signs removed: 85
Community events attended and volunteered: 4

For further information please contact:
Cleanslate
John Rush, Managing Director
(312) 446-3674
jrush@cleanslatechicago.org