By JAMES MITCHELL
Sunday Times Newspapers
LINCOLN PARK — Mayor Patricia Diaz Krause wants residents and businesses — along with city hall — to inspire each other while making a better-looking community.”
“A beautiful Lincoln Park starts with you and me,” Diaz Krause said is the mantra, a philosophy adopted when she discussed plans during Monday’s city council meeting for Clean-up/Fix-up weeks beginning next month.
From May 21 through June 1, Diaz Kruase said a multi-pronged effort will be made to help beautify the city’s residential neighborhoods.
The Community Improvement Commission will begin touring local streets and award properties that are the most clean and attractive.
To help facilitate a seasonal overhaul of the garage and basement, May 19 the Community Center, 3525 Dix, will host a tire and recycling event. Residents are invited to bring, free of charge, old tires, computers, TVs, electronics and other items difficult to dispose.
While beautification ambitions are voluntary, Diaz Krause said that heading into the spring cleaning drive, the city’s ordinance enforcement offers will be busy.
“They will step up their game in terms of ticketing properties that are in violation,” Diaz Krause said. Houses with inoperable vehicles, damaged gutters or other debris bordering on blight will be cited during the campaign.
Plans remain to be confirmed, but it is hoped that the Department of Public Works will have available during that period a recycling center for plastic, bottles and cans. Currently there is no curb-side recycling in the city, something Diaz Krause said is often mentioned on resident wish-lists.
During the campaign, Diaz Krause said that the grounds of city hall and other municipal properties will be brought up to speed.
“We as the city are going to do our part in cleaning up our own properties,” Diaz Krause said. “I want people to have pride in the city.”
(James Mitchell can be reached at [email protected])